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User: Chas

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  1. Re:huh? on Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket · · Score: 1

    I can handle a static or rotating banner (which is what the suggestions thing always has been).

    As long as they're not stopping content in the middle to hawk crap at me.

  2. Re:huh? on Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket · · Score: 2

    The thing is, I don't give a crap how much it costs to support streaming.
    If you want to give it away, ad-supported, for "free"? Cool!

    But if I'm going to pay a subscription fee, I'll be damned if I'm going to put up with ads on top of that. And if the sub price doesn't cover what it'd cost to go ad-free, then they need to rethink their pricing and delivery scheme.

    In short "I don't want to see ads. PERIOD!"

  3. Re:huh? on Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, what you're seeing is fewer ads, but longer overall.

    Take an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode.

    43 minutes of show.
    Plus 6 (count 'em) 2-3 minute commercial breaks when you see four ads back to back.

    Granted, that's only about 28% (when TV is 36%). Still, for someone paying the monthly fee, that's ridiculous.

  4. Re:huh? on Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One. Nobody "prefers Hulu". Except the people who implemented it but don't actually USE it.

    Look at Hulu. It's a mediocre streaming site with ever larger chunks of intrusive video ads. And paying them doesn't make the damn things go away or space them out further or make them shorter ads. That's how the entertainment industry would LIKE people to consume their media. Paying them directly, then supporting them indirectly through ad revenue as well.

    NO THANK YOU!

    I mostly agree with your sentiments about it being bad that Comcast got paid for content their users REQUESTED and were already paying them to deliver.

    Not entirely sure about lock-out though.

  5. Cue the IRS kicking my door down in 3...2...1... on Slashdot Asks: How Do You Pay Your Taxes? · · Score: 2

    Just filed by TurboTax this year. Basically, this year has been STUPIDLY busy, and I've been working 7 days a week, and pulling an average of 12 hours a day.

    So last night it kinda occurred to me, uh, maybe I should file my taxes?

    Unfortunately I'm booked solid today. Ooops.

    Now I've had my taxes done for me for the last 25 years (basically ever since I started working as a teenager). In all that time, I've only had one tax scare (due to my employer at the time screwing up my witholdings). So, regardless of how "easy" people say it is to file for yourself, I was always terrified of filing myself.

    This time I didn't get a choice.

    Luckily it was mostly pain-free. One small goof around educational witholdings (interest on college loans). But I got it filed.
    And it's become cheaper, by far, to file this way than to have a service do it.

    Now I just have to hope nothing got screwed up.
    (I'll unclench my butt from my chair once the direct deposits go through.)

  6. Okay Saturn! Post a picture! on Saturn May Have Given Birth To a Baby Moon · · Score: 1

    And everyone else post "AW! HOW CUUUUUTE!"

  7. Re:This happened to my wife on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 1

    FYI, they've cancelled the policy and are encouraging people targeted by it to contact them for a refund.

    Where are you seeing that said? I've been searching around for a bit since you posted and I can't find information as to this policy cancellation ANYPLACE.

  8. Sensible nuclear talk? *Faints dead away* on UN: Renewables, Nuclear Must Triple To Save Climate · · Score: 1

    Holy crap. This is one of the first serious pieces I've seen in altogether too long a time.

    Actually acknowledging that nuclear is a vital part of the way forward.

    And it's the UN doing it?

    Did someone slip me a mickey or something?

  9. Re:What "let"? on Obama Says He May Or May Not Let the NSA Exploit the Next Heartbleed · · Score: 1

    Accountable?

    The US Government?

    Pfft!

    I'll believe that shit when I start seeing it.

    I hesitate to label them crooks, because crooks couldn't get away with the shit our government does.

    Not to mention that crooks are more careful with money than the US government EVER was.

  10. Re:Wait...what? on Apple's Spotty Record of Giving Back To the Tech Industry · · Score: 1

    And this simile negates the REST of my point...uhm. HOW?

  11. What "let"? on Obama Says He May Or May Not Let the NSA Exploit the Next Heartbleed · · Score: 1

    Obama isn't in a position to "let" or "prohibit" SHIT (even his own).

    He's a fucking douchebag, Chicago Machine politician.

    He has no opinions or even feelings outside of what his little cabal of "advisors" tell him he does.

    He's also in NO position to dictate to the NSA what they will or will not do with an undiscovered bug in a security device/program.

    The NSA damn well WILL use it, and so long as nobody leaks it to THE PUBLIC, it's "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" from the rest of the government.

    Even if Obama were to, God forbid, try something PROACTIVE, they'd still just ignore it and sacrifice yet another desk jockey stooge once caught.

  12. Wait...what? on Apple's Spotty Record of Giving Back To the Tech Industry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, you're stunned that a company as culturally blinkered and rapacious as APPLE isn't turning over some of their huge cash hoard to fund Open Source projects that are outside of their control and might sabotage their patent warchest?

    Why not just walk up to Smaug, kick him in the eyeball and demand the Arkenstone "OR ELSE" there Bilbo!

    As long as you are witholding something Apple wants, they're either charming as fuck or litigious as hell in an effort to acquire it.

    Once they have what they want out of you, you're a one-night-stand, it's the next morning and they can't be rid of you fast enough.

  13. Online protests work? Nope! Live one? Nope! on Can Web-Based Protests Be a Force for Change? · · Score: 2

    Basically they're only worth the effort it takes to ignore or dismantle.
    In the case of online protests, they can be safely ignored.
    In the case of physical protests, if there's no rioting, they're ignored.
    If there's rioting, they're suppressed.

    And not just in the US.

    Look at the Kirchner kleptocracy in Argentina. They had tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people rioting in the street.
    Kirchner's response? What riot? Ooh! Prada shoes! I'll nationalize something else, and squeeze a bit more money out of my citizens and I can buy all I want!

    We're pretty much at the point where the government has stopped giving a fuck. They have more and bigger guns than we do, and that's the end of it.

    The only way to effect real change nowadays is if lots and lots of people are willing to kill, bleed and die for their principles.

    Unfortunately, things are too damn cushy for most people to want to go that far.

    So, in the gilded cage we sit.

  14. Re:Overclockers have been doing it for ages on Intel and SGI Test Full-Immersion Cooling For Servers · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's still a minimum conductivity in molar water. But it's several orders of magnitude lower than than tap or bottled water.

    Again, primary conductivity of water is via impurities in the water, not the water itself.

  15. Re:Overclockers have been doing it for ages on Intel and SGI Test Full-Immersion Cooling For Servers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yep. Got to fiddle around with Fluorinert cooling years ago.

    Interesting, just not very practical.

    You really DO need a fully sealed system and ostensibly clean-room assembly. Because, while the coolant itself is non-conductive, any detritus that accumulates in the fluid after settling out of the environment ISN'T. That's the main thing about water (straight H2O) isn't conductive. It's all the other things in the water, minerals, dust, etc that's doing the conduction.

    Also, as noted, there's STILL going to be use of fans and water. Because you still need systems that extract the thermal energy from the liquid medium. You simply remove them from the main system chassis.

    It also doesn't change the fact that it's still a TERRIBLY inefficient way to cool the system. Unlike water cooling loops, where you have no more than maybe a pint or so of fluid cooling the major heat sources in the system, you have QUARTS of fluid basically covering everything. And you really have no good flow control, other than extremely high volume fluid exchange, which is energy inefficient in and of itself.

    That's PROBABLY what a lot of the board re-engineering is about. Centralizing all the thermally active devices into a centralized area to limit the volume of immersion coolant required and to simplify flow control.

  16. Self-imposed ghetto culture on How Cochlear Implants Are Being Blamed For Killing Deaf Culture · · Score: 1

    Sorry, when I see "deaf culture", that's impression I get.

    Can you blame a parent for not wanting their child to be socialized in a broader environment?
    Not hemmed in my an arbitrary, self-reinforcing "culture" based on something like a shared, but treatable disability?

    This has the markings of more technophobic histrionics.

  17. Do F2P games get a fair shake? on Do Free-To-Play Games Get a Fair Shake? · · Score: 1

    Yeah. Because F2P is a misnomer in most.

    Basically it's tied to eastern-style grinding unless you shell out big bucks in the cash shops.
    And talking about being nickeled-and-dimed to death?
    Yeah. You WISH! Most transactions are $5, $10, $20 or more. What the fuck is "micro" about those transactions.
    That and the gambling, Things like PWE's lockbox gambling system. The boxes drop free in the game. But you have to pay to open them. And they deliver random crap. And worse, some of the gear in the game is ONLY available this way.

    This is the sort of thing that kept me AWAY from MMOs for so long.
    I was pleasantly surprised by City of Heroes and the fact that they didn't treat their gamers this way. Even when they converted to a cash shop and F2P.
    Unfortunately, nothing good lasts and those idiots at NCSoft killed the game.
    Now all that's left are a bunch of cash shop pushers.

    As such, I'll just avoid them altogether.

  18. Quid pro quo here. on Mozilla CEO Firestorm Likely Violated California Law · · Score: 3, Informative

    Let's take a look at OKCupid's CEO as well.

    http://www.motherjones.com/moj...

    In 2004 Sam Yagan donated $500 to Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Rep. Cannon voted for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, against a ban on sexual-orientation based job discrimination and for a prohibition on gay adoptions.

  19. Re:Must question the "revised" estimates on Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Problems · · Score: 1

    Mainstream distrust of the Nukes is entirely due to the actions of the people in the industry, and unfortunate results.

    Nonsense. "Mainstream" distrust of nuclear power is an engineered phenomenon.

    As for "building trust". How do you build trust with someone who, no matter what you do, say, etc is going to scream "no nukes, no nukes", like you were going to be putting a bomb testing range under their kids' bed?

    On the other topic, yes, I agree that Tepco's (mis)handling of the situation has worsened it. We'd have been better off handing over the reins of the operation to a blind quadriplegic in a permanent vegetative state.

  20. Re:Must question the "revised" estimates on Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Problems · · Score: 1

    Oh good for you.

    "Cites numbers and "facts" to support argument"

    Where do you see that?

    "Look it up yourself."

    Bzzt. It's not on me to do the research to support your position.

    Try again.

  21. Can't stand the taste of beer. on To Reduce the Health Risk of Barbecuing Meat, Just Add Beer · · Score: 1

    If it comes down to eating grilled steak and getting colon cancer or eating beer-flavored steak and maybe not?

    I'll choose colon cancer.

  22. Mister President, can we have privacy PLEASE? on Why No Executive Order To Stop NSA Metadata Collection? · · Score: 1

    Obama: NO! YOU CAN'T!

  23. Re:Must question the "revised" estimates on Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Problems · · Score: 1

    30% of them will die of cancer

    Again, you have exactly zero way to prove that any given death, cancer or otherwise, is a result of reactor accidents. But you're going to try and just pin ALL cancer deaths on reactor accidents?

    Please. Stick to what you can actually prove.

    Fukushima, old, badly managed, hit by a Tsunami several times more powerful than anything the plant was spec'ed for...
    Windscale, you're talking about a 57 year old nuclear accident in an ancient reactor.
    TMI, basically an old design with a textbook case of doing everything you are NOT supposed to do with that sort of reactor (you could do everything they did with a modern IFR and it would have just shut down).
    Chernobyl, again, old, obsolete design (that was never used in the West. And, again, human idiocy in bad maintenance and doing things wrong.

    And you can keep lying to yourself about renewables. It doesn't make it true.
    You're looking at PV LAB efficiencies. Out in the wild, current commercial PV is at least an order of magnitude less efficient. They're also ridiculously expensive, fragile and short-lived.
    You then have the problem of distributing it and storing it.
    And, again, the sun, even in Nevada, doesn't shine 24x7x365. So it cannot be relied on for baseline power. Anyone telling you different is LYING TO YOU. Likely they're either a dupe or a shill for the fossil fuel industry.
    Oh, and did anyone ever tell you that the land use involved in a PV solar farm DOES have a negative impact on the local ecology?

  24. Re:Must question the "revised" estimates on Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Problems · · Score: 1

    Okay, what's worse? The crap we're spewing INTO OPEN AIR today with coal and oil?
    Or barely enough nuclear fuel to fill the gridiron in a football stadium, that could be, repeatednly, reprocessed and broken down to short-lived isotopes given the proper reactor?

    Take a look at France. Some of the lowest in Europe. And their total nuclear storage amounts to ONE ROOM. Because they reprocess.

  25. Re:Must question the "revised" estimates on Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Problems · · Score: 1

    jafac already debunked your "Pripyat is safe" claim

    No he hasn't. Because I never made that claim. But please, keep misrepresenting what I said.

    Most of the new ones being built now are basically the same, with a few modifications to deal with known issues.

    I'd like to see the supporting documentation you have for making this claim.

    Fukushima was "completely contained", it just wasn't indestructible or even meltdown/hydrogen explosion proof. Even if we could build such a thing it wouldn't be affordable.

    You and I have vastly different ideas about what "contained" means.

    Japan actually has enough renewable energy for its entire needs, including baseline power.

    Again, documentation on this unsubstantiated claim please?

    As for Hydro? Basically that's where the environmentalists start running into one another. Because of Hydro's adverse effects on the local ecology. Additionally, the US is more or less tapped out in terms of new Hydro capacity unless you want to go all Three Gorges and flood people out of house and home.

    And geothermal. Great. You're already worried about things like quakes and the like. So what do you want to do? Pump a bunch of water down into the earth and bring it back up and high pressure.

    And you can't simply drop a well for one of these ANYWHERE. You have to have confirmed hot spots. The US is responsible for something between 20-30% of TOTAL geothermal power in the world. Yet it's less than half a percent of our total generating capacity.

    So. Tell me again how it's going to take over as the go-to solution for clean baseline power...