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User: Concerned+Onlooker

Concerned+Onlooker's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,755

  1. Re:Obama is but a puppet on Apple's "Warrant Canary" Has Died · · Score: 1

    "The huge machinery behind the NSA / CIA / FBI and all those alphabet agencies wants total control, and it has the enthusiastic support of private companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, amongst others"

    While I admit that we have a de facto oligarchy here in the US I have to wonder that if the above were true then why have a warrant canary at all?

  2. Re:Expensive and complicated? on How Flickr Is Courting the Next Generation of Photographers · · Score: 1

    Well, sort of. There has been a much larger outlay of cash necessary to break into digital photography. You may realize a break even point sooner if you would have shot lot of rolls of film, but the initial barrier to entry is much higher than it was for film cameras, which really only needed to be a light-tight box. Having said that, the price of good digital cameras has come down a lot since the late 90s, so what I observe is more of a trough where film was pretty much phased out yet digital cameras were still really expensive.

  3. Re:SCI-FI used to be inspiring on Sci-Fi Authors and Scientists Predict an Optimistic Future · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The current crop of sci-fi-writer-wannabes just ain't got the imagination to inspire"

    I'm not sure there's even really a market for science fiction. What was that last Star Trek movie? I can't even remember the name of it now. It wasn't science fiction. It was an action flick with more explosions than ideas. It just happened to be set on a spaceship.

    I'm willing to bet not many these days would have the patience to site through 2001: A Space Odyssey, let alone the original Solaris.

  4. Re:Eh... on The Future According To Stanislaw Lem · · Score: 1

    "Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present."

    From http://www.aaanet.org/about/wh....

    Not sure what is redundant here.

  5. Re:Eh... on The Future According To Stanislaw Lem · · Score: 2

    "Why would any intelligent creature want anything to do with us?"

    In the same way that some people here on earth study primitive societies there would surely be some alien anthropologists out there interested in us.

  6. "Yes, space is big, far bigger than you can imagine. "

    You might even say "vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big."

  7. Re:Good on Net Neutrality Comments Surge Past 1.7M, an All-Time Record For the FCC · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yep. That is the gist of America's new oligarchy.

    "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."

    http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-...

  8. Re:Must-have features on Ask Slashdot: What Smartwatch Apps Could You See Yourself Using? · · Score: 1

    Let me help you out by quoting myself:

    "...as beautiful as a really high end watch."

    Now let me help you out further by pointing out that I did not call it a high end watch. I normally wear a high end watch and I still want an Apple watch.

  9. Re:Must-have features on Ask Slashdot: What Smartwatch Apps Could You See Yourself Using? · · Score: 1

    Who says give up? Lots of people are into watches and will trade out from time to time. No pun intended.

    Also, the Apple watch is cheap if you were already thinking about getting a FitBit since it has that functionality built in.

  10. Re:Must-have features on Ask Slashdot: What Smartwatch Apps Could You See Yourself Using? · · Score: 2

    "Apple watch looks too much like a gadget"

    That certainly wasn't my reaction. I thought it was as beautiful as a really high end watch. I'll be getting one.

  11. Nasa? on Newly Discovered 60-foot Asteroid About To Buzz By Earth · · Score: 1

    I know this is a nitpick, but this is a site for nerds after all. It's NASA.

  12. Re:Are protestors all lazy or just hired goons? on Protesters Blockade Microsoft's Seattle Headquarters Over Tax Breaks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Well the moment the cameras outside are gone? So are they."

    Why waste your time parading to an empty street? Why shouldn't protestors play the PR game just as much corporations? It's all about getting your message out. Just ask the Koch brothers and their hired goons.

  13. Re:Responsible Agency Enforcing Law on FAA Scans the Internet For Drone Users; Sends Cease and Desist Letters · · Score: 1

    "Yet that is perfectly legal..."

    Yep. There's no law against being an asshole.

  14. Re:Ruby and string/symbols on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Strangest Features of Various Programming Languages? · · Score: 1

    I can say that I use Ruby because of the way it implements regular expressions. They are really easy to use, no need to import a library or compile your regex. Just put some stuff between a couple of slashes and you're off and running.

    Since most of what I end up using a scripting language for is parsing text I use Ruby instead of Python.

  15. Re:disastrous on Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion · · Score: 2

    "...you might as well put money in Facebook and Apple because apparently you like disastrous Titanic-caliber corporate meltdowns.."

    And you were doing so well for a minute there.

  16. Re:sensationalism, ahoy on Mysterious, Phony Cell Towers Found Throughout US · · Score: 1

    "using the fabric of spacetime as your communications medium, it becomes rather quite difficult to prevent interception"

    I've heard that if you use plaid for your space-time fabric that interception is much more difficult.

  17. Re:There's no "led to" on The Executive Order That Led To Mass Spying, As Told By NSA Alumni · · Score: 2

    That's a pretty provocative few sentences. What job is it that you're quitting?

  18. Re:god said fuck san fran on Magnitude 6.0 Quake Hits Northern California, Causing Injuries and Outages · · Score: 1

    I don't know, I hear that Zeus is a heavy user of Google maps for pinpointing lighting bolt strikes.

    Not sure about all the other gods, however.

  19. Re:Mandatory panic! on South Carolina Student Arrested For "Killing Pet Dinosaur" · · Score: 1

    "We should ban pens and paper so it doesn't happen again."

    Oh, it's YOU. I was there that day. I would have been dead if I hadn't had a pen in my coat pocket to write "emergency exit" on the wall behind me.

    So, no, I disagree. Pens don't kill people, aneurisms do.

  20. Re:What's after? on What's After Big Data? · · Score: 1

    I thought the idea of big data was that looking at ALL the data obviated the need to sample the data and all the attendant issues that come with that. Ferreting out bits and pieces of the big data set is a step backward from the idea of big data. Real numbers people can jump in here and set me straight.

    However, my biggest hope for what is after big data is no one ever again having the title "Data Scientist."

  21. Re:100km on Perlan II Project Aims To Fly a Glider To the Edge of Space · · Score: 2

    Self-penalty: no posting to Slashdot for at least two weeks.

  22. Re:100km on Perlan II Project Aims To Fly a Glider To the Edge of Space · · Score: 1

    If you do actually Google "where does space start" you'll get a popular definition of 100km, so yes, quite a bit short.

    I'm also not sure yet about the claim that they had the previous record. If you visit http://www.fai.org/record-glid... you'll see that in 2006 the late great Steve Fossett has a claim to a little higher than the Perlan claim. The Perlan claim doesn't even show up on the site.

  23. Re:278: 218 Representatives plus 60 Senators on How Many Members of Congress Does It Take To Pass a $400MM CS Bill? · · Score: 1

    Dammit. I got n+1.

  24. Re:Edward Snowden's Plan B? on Law Repressing Social Media, Bloggers Now In Effect In Russia · · Score: 2

    Wow, you really ARE new around here, aren't you? I'd be OK with you calling it Obama's Torture Chamber if I thought you were just as aware that it was also Bush's Torture Chamber.

  25. Re:Ridiculous on The CIA Does Las Vegas · · Score: 1

    Hm?

    Following are just a few sources are located on "the internet." I'm not sure who owns them but I do know they do not toe the part line. Whether you think they are valid or not, they ARE out there.

    http://www.motherjones.com/
    http://www.theguardian.com/us
    http://www.kpfk.org/