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User: freaq

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Comments · 84

  1. Re:Videos I've seen on Conflict Between Occupy Wall Street Protestors and NYPD Escalating · · Score: 1

    Why? Becasue what's going on for hours and hours beforehand is really dull, and forcing thousands of people to watch that would be a really dick thing to do. If you dig, you'll find that longer clips are available, but they don't actually add anything to the discussion other than "nothing happened to provoke the police".

    If you're going to take a karma hit, it's because you're posting nonsense, and putting quotes around the police's brutal, unprovoked aggression doesn't make it something else or justify it. It does, however, make you look like an apologist, or secretly a member of the NYPD.

    As for intending to provoke a police response, that's wrong on so many levels I'm not sure where to begin, other than to say you sound really paranoid. You could just as easily say, "in the thousands that are there, you can't say there aren't any police agent provocateurs."

  2. Re:Police often violate 4th amendment rights.. on Michigan Police Could Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops · · Score: 1

    I feel like a broken record. I want my peace officers looking into crimes, not chasing after me.
    If you've got nothing to hide, there is no way you should consent to a search, because doing so would validate wasting the time of a peace officer - now they're hooked into chasing something that you know, for a fact, does not exist. Do you want to be known as the asshat who is wasting our tax dollars?
    I totally agree with the unambiguous reply. Cops are masters at removing options from people, and they'll be vague or clear, whatever works. Practice saying this again and again: "I don't consent to a search because there is nothing to (find|hide)."

  3. Re:Hm. on US Police Increasingly Peeping At Email, IMs · · Score: 1

    No, you don't tell them to fuck off. You tell them to come back with the proper paperwork from a judge proving that they are not engaging in a personal vendetta on company time.

    Personally, I don't let cops search without a warrant because having nothing to hide means any reason they offer for inspection is false. If it's even remotely plausible, then they should try to gussy it up for a judge first. I've found that judges are, in general, adept at spotting shenanigans.

    Please, practice saying this: "I object to your search because there is nothing to hide."

  4. Re:Dating site scams on Dating Site Creates Profiles From Public Records · · Score: 1

    cat $PREV_COMM | sed 's/hours/seconds/'

  5. Re:WHY do you have to prove software testing saves on How Do You Prove Software Testing Saves Money? · · Score: 1

    Nobody puts up with bad products anymore. Software is one of the last kind of products where it's still somewhat accepted

    Judging from the evidence (Windows on damn near every PC sold), it's not somewhat expected, it's demanded. Microsoft has made a very successful business by defining 'beta testing' to mean 'ship it and see how many people sue us'.

  6. Crookes is an Idiot on Crookes, RIAA, MPAA, ICE — 'Linking Is Publishing' · · Score: 1

    There's no other explanation for his behaviour.
    In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled last year that a newspaper reporting on slander or libel is not always necessarily guilty of libel itself, even if the defamatory statements themselves are published.
    Since his case is about defamation, he's going to lose, and I expect the opinion (reserved since 7 Dec) to be a scathing chastisement indirectly aimed at his counsel.

    As far as hyperlinking being publishing... what rot. No librarian would ever say the card index is the stacks, no cartographer would ever say the map is the territory.

  7. Re:Goose Gander on Michael Moore Posts Julian Assange's Bail · · Score: 2

    No, we have not heard it all before. In particular, noone has yet provided a reason for supposedly honest and disciplined officers to protect dishonest or dickhead officers.

  8. Re:Iran Opens Its First Nuclear Power Plant on Iran Opens Its First Nuclear Power Plant · · Score: 1

    I feel the need to state this explicitly, rather than mod down your comment down:

    They keep threatening to wipe an entire country off the map.

    LIE

    One deliberately mistranslated quote does not constitute repeated threats.

  9. Re:Flavor/Flavour on Flavor vs. Flavour · · Score: 1

    Funny, that. The results were

    Funny ( +1 ) { this is _weird_}

    Oftopic ( -1 ) { true}

    Troll ( -1 ) { supports your point }

    Flamebait (-1 ) { understandable, given goatse comparison (sorry) }

    More messages in one day than in the past month.

    So some (at least, 25% of those with mod points) would say you are a success. Some days /. just confuses me. Like, I'm still confused about why you would want to even _appear_ to promote the aggrandizement of a brazen war criminal.

  10. Re:Flavor/Flavour on Flavor vs. Flavour · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Your sig link (http://www.georgewbush.com/) is particularly vile, akin to goatse.cx. Was that the intent?

  11. Re:I hate it when things go over people's heads. on Interview with Voting Machine Company Reps · · Score: 2, Interesting

    finally, someone advocating testing! unfortunately, it's a technical solution to a social problem. how do you say "we have a reasonable confidence that noone tampered with the machines (read: voting process) in last night's election"? the last election i voted in (municipal) the people tallying the votes knew that i (or anyone) could walk in and observe the process. if anyone yelled hanky panky, it was possible to completely reconstruct the original data set at a later date and answer the challenge.
    the problem is not testing beforehand, but testing during the voting and after the voting, ie as the votes are being tallied. do you expect that even a small minority of the population could understand a runtime coredump/stack trace printout (a la MacsBug) even if they were available? the idea of counting votes marked on on artifacts and in the open is very hard to improve upon.
    to the challenge of "but hey, storing the data in bits is an artifact!", i answer: look at the hard drive closest to you (may not be visible) and ask, how long is the warranty on it good for?

  12. Re:byte misers on Google Vs. Yahoo: When We Last Met... · · Score: 1

    removed almost every nonessential space and newline

    and the double quotes around 'value' in all <tag attribute="value">. ten out of ten for efficiency, but minus several dozen for style.

    (I am a cho.)

  13. Re:Phone extenders on Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs · · Score: 1

    ?!
    not sure if i understand. telephone communication is 2-way. well, maybe not by definition, but at least by design and custom. doesn't forwarding conceal the responding party's origin?
    so much for plus one, funny.

  14. Unwarranted Assumption on AI in Sci-Fi · · Score: 1

    Lucky for you. Unfortunately, there are more than a few fonts where lowercase "L" (ASCII 0x6c) looks confusingly similar to the numeral "1" (ASCII 0x31). Ask yourself, 'What font is it that I am using that is removing ambiguity?' Then ask this question: 'What font is freaq using to view this page?'

    I'm still looking for a readable monospaced font for windows that makes a clear distinction. Would make my life as a coding student a tiny bit easier.

  15. Re:Phone extenders on Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs · · Score: 1

    Fooled you! I'm actually in Cali. But if you forward your phone to Michigan without telling me, does that make you or me a criminal?

  16. Re:Here's the rub on Prime Numbers Not So Random? · · Score: 1

    No, no, no. It's not a matter of if you want to or not. If you do, there's a world of mathematicians who will tell you that what you are doing might not qualify as mathematics.

    One is not prime. Prime means having exactly two divisors, one of which is one. Please find enclosed a snider definition and commentary.

    (Yes, I took MATH 230, but no, I didn't pass. Sorry I couldn't hold on, Clive.)

  17. Re:Why? on Browser Cookie Patent · · Score: 1
    Quoth the poster:
    Why would anyone want to innovate if not to profit
    Because for a significant number of people, solving new problems is fun. Heck, even solving old problems in new ways is fun. [/me recalls re-creating Conway's Life game in HyperCard, without arrays]
    Step away from the hookah, drink some water, and go to bed.
  18. Re:And today on Strike on Iraq · · Score: 1

    This from your post:
    He's trying to avoid the war, even at this point.

    So, ordering a military strike is part of trying to avoid a war? Back in the day, I could never get drugs so good.
    The correct spelling is 'Warmonger', or, more accurately, 'war criminal'. And no, I'm not going to hang myself.
    ===
    (sorry for feeding the ac troll. it's good practice)

  19. Re:100 cycles? on 6502 Machine Language for Beginners · · Score: 1

    10-4
    I sit corrected and edified. I forgot about the multiple-cycle instructions.

  20. Re:100 cycles? on 6502 Machine Language for Beginners · · Score: 1

    [damn twitchy submit finger sorry]

    Am I missing something about the 6502 set? How could that take so horking long with only 8 bits?

    hopefully this bit from the (16 bit) craps virtual assembly language won't be _too_ obtuse:
    http://www.cs.camosun.bc.ca/courses/comp1 82/barker/
    (this is my code, not my instructors. mens culpa.)

    ;start psuedocode
    ; get binary # A
    ; get binary # b
    ; sum := 0
    ; while b != 0 {
    ; if (right bit of b on)
    ; add A to sum
    ; shift A one bit left
    ; shift b one bit right
    ; }
    ; output sum
    ; ;might want to check flags before trusting result
    ;finish</pre>

    ;start real code

    lod 0, sp, r1 ; Grab operands from stack
    lod -1, sp, r2
    mov r0, r3 ; Initialize result to zero

    or r2, r0, r2 ; check if we're at zero to begin with
    startMultiply
    bz doneMultiplying
    and r2, 1, r0
    bz nextColumn ; if the last bit of multiplier is 1,
    add r1, r3,r3 ; add 'product', (check for overflow too)
    bc overflowed ;
    nextColumn ; move one column over

    shl r1, 1 ; shr moght set zero flag
    shr r2, 1 ; so we don't have to repeat 'or r2, r0, r2'
    br startMultiply ; (saves one step every time through the loop)

    overflowed
    ; set err flags
    doneMultiplying

    worst case for 8 bit: 4 + (8*8) = 68 (except you're gonna have an overflow)
    best case: 4 + 1 = 5
    average: 4 + (4*6) + (4*8) = 60
    --
    compsci finals coming up, why should i moderate?

  21. Re:100 cycles? on 6502 Machine Language for Beginners · · Score: 1

    How could that be?<br>
    <pre>
    ;start psuedocode
    ; get binary # A
    ; get binary # b
    ; sum := 0
    ; while b != 0
    ; if (right bit of b on)
    ; add A to sum
    ; shift A one bit left
    ; shift b one bit right
    ; output sum
    ;might want to check flags before trusting result
    ;finish</pre>

    start real code<pre>
    lod 0, sp, r1 ; Grab operands from stack
    lod -1, sp, r2
    mov r0, r3 ; Initialize result to zero

    or r2, r0, r2 ; check if we're at zero to begin with
    startMultiply
    bz doneMultiplying
    and r2, 1, r0
    bz nextColumn ; if the last bit of multiplier is 1,
    add r1, r3,r3 ; add 'product', (check for overflow too)
    bc overflowed ;
    nextColumn ; move one column over

    shl r1, 1 ; shr moght set zero flag
    shr r2, 1 ; so we don't have to repeat 'or r2, r0, r2'
    br startMultiply ; (saves one step every time through the loop)

  22. Re:Interesting fact... on 6502 Machine Language for Beginners · · Score: 1

    What's so weird about preserving the carry bit for the next instruction?
    example: calculating a hash code

    magicNum=(a1+a2+...+a99+a100) mod r1

    adc seems almost ideally suited, especially if r1 = 256
    (in all fairness, my instructors tell me that hash codes are generally implemented as multiplications, so this _could_ be a bit of a stretch!)

    K:|

  23. re: look up ?!?! on Chemical Haiku: Elements' Qualities in a Few Syllables · · Score: 1

    i had a horrid image of going to school monday and seeing scores of t-shirts....craig wearing '2He4', chris wearing 82Pb208', brett wearing '22Ti48', sarah wearing '80Hg200'. although, it might make cheating on an exam much easier, "I was just stretching my neck, honest!"

  24. Re:Beating a Dead Horse? on Technologies that Have Exceeded Their Expectations? · · Score: 1

    his rhetoric is restrained. it is entirely reasonable to suppose that bush (and staff) had not just a little foreknowledge of 2001september09 events.
    those folks' rhetoric is not restrained, but is, alas, rigorously backed up. the part about andrews air force base standing down is telling.
    if true, it would not be the first time the US military has considered citizens expendable. as far as removing rights - shiva h vishnu, where to begin?off the top of my head (this is slashdot after all!) try to tell me it is impossible for someone to accuse you of a crime. if such a bad fate should befall you, would you like the right to a trial? no? it is being denied to some, and once that started there's no reason to suppose you could not be next.

  25. Re:4'33"? on Digital 4 Track Recorders? · · Score: 1

    HTTP 1.1 415

    3D holographic allusions not suppported. Contact the administrator, or try again later.
    --