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User: mdielmann

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  1. Re:The real test on Is That "Sexting" Pic Illegal? A Scientific Test · · Score: 1

    And yet, minors can't choose to enter contracts simply because of their age. I wonder if the premise for that is the same as the one applied here?
    Children often do stupid things that they regret when they become adults. Having nekkid pictures of yourself distributed across the internet just might qualify.
    And yes, I do believe in protecting children from themselves. The question of when that should stop is a little more difficult.

  2. Good GUI in MS Office 2007?!?! on Attempting To Reframe "KDE Vs. GNOME" · · Score: 1

    There are almost no complex programs with a good GUI in Linux (programs like photoshop, paint shop pro, 3ds max, ms office 2007, ...), because GTK doesn't support doing floating and dockable toolbars or multiple open files in a good way.

    Leaving aside most of the other applications, but MS Office 2007?!?! Good GUI?!?! Sure, pretty. Also, pretty useless. It reminds me of the MacBook Wheel. "EVERYTHING is just a few hundred clicks away."
    Then there's the other features. I love how Excel has a new extension for spreadsheets with macros. Of course, since the default in Windows is to hide extensions, the only clue you have as a user is the tiny icon with a slight difference.

  3. Re:Only today... on ACLU Sues Penn Prosecutor For Empty Threat of Child Porn · · Score: 1

    Here's a little toy airplane. Please do us all a favor and fly it over your head while making whooshing sounds.

  4. Re:What a good idea on Senator Proposes Nonprofit Status For Newspapers · · Score: 2, Informative

    No thanks, I'd rather my media doesn't treat me like I lack the ability to come up with my own conclusions.

    My favorite is, "What happened (was discovered, almost happened) today, and why you should be scared." At least I know what they're trying to sell.

  5. Re:What a good idea on Senator Proposes Nonprofit Status For Newspapers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I agree entirely. There seems to be a bias on /. that scientists are some kind of creative robot, where it's all about the facts and no bias or preconceptions creep in. People who say as much get flamed for questioning the objectivity of scientists. I suppose they think they're some different kind of creature than what the rest of us humans are.
    Sure, bias can creep in, but objectivity can be applied. You may not achieve perfect balance and have the most correct interpretation of the event in question, but it's a lot better than if you don't even try.

  6. Re:I can live with it - Spoiler alert on Why Fear the End of the R-Rated Superhero Movie? · · Score: 1

    Well, I can't argue that part. As far as fantasy violence is concerned, I'm not worried about it for my kids. Cartoonish violence of any degree falls with the funny/indifferent range in my opinion. I really don't think the coyote vs. roadrunner anvil scenes are damaging at all. But realistic violence is out for my kids, and so is nudity, gratuitous or otherwise. When they're older, and I judge they're able to be exposed to that with little or no negative effects, my restrictions will be relaxed.

  7. Re:200 light years on Huge Supernova Baffles Scientists · · Score: 1

    There are other issues, as well. Some energy/particle bursts are directed by the magnetic field of the star going supernova. This means they may eject more particles in one direction than another. If you happen to be in the high-density "beam" from that supernova, the range can be much farther. Think gun vs. firecracker.

  8. Re:I can live with it - Spoiler alert on Why Fear the End of the R-Rated Superhero Movie? · · Score: 1

    But that has nothing to do with guns. Anyone can throw someone out of a window, or push them off a bridge. Just ask that fine father in the news in Australia a few weeks back. Kids have been known to bite, and so did the guy in Watchmen. Rape also doesn't require a gun, nor does beating women.
    The simple fact is, much of the violence in Watchmen is fairly accessible. It was VERY visceral. As an adult, some of it wasn't pleasant, but I don't think it was gratuitous. Which gets back down to the original issue. Why does it all centre around guns for you?

  9. Re:If Watchmen is the example I'm not impressed on Why Fear the End of the R-Rated Superhero Movie? · · Score: 1

    although the fire jet as apparent orgasm symbol was funny

    No, that was cheesy. I didn't laugh, I groaned. It might have sounded the same to the unobservant.

  10. Re:I can live with it on Why Fear the End of the R-Rated Superhero Movie? · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...most won't even have a chance to gun people down. This makes it easier for violence to be isolated into the pure fantasy realm.

    If only there were means of violence that didn't involve guns. Perhaps like this. The murder in Anola was blunt-force trauma. I have it on good authority that the weapon which caused that, the one the murderer turned to for his crime of passion, was a baseball bat. Do you think his two children were less affected by the violence they witnessed, the murder of their mother by their father, simply because it wasn't a gun?
    Your statement is obtuse and narrow-minded, worthy of this fantasy realm of which you speak.

  11. Re:wow on Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town · · Score: 2, Funny

    Relying on luck is a sure sign of stupidity. I've thought for a while that stupid was a key ingredient in the Mythbusters 'experiments'. Something tells me the luck will run out before the stupid does.
    Yes, this is evolution at work.

  12. Re:Been following this for awhile. on Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment · · Score: 1

    I would insist that she has every right to carry these with her to school, and that the school has no right to confiscate them from her. After all, if she doesn't take them, she dies -- it is that simple!

    Likewise for my son - he carries a prescription with him for his life-threatening condition. I'd get a zero-tolerance policy thrown out PDQ if his school had one. And he's only 6.
    And his mother had severe menstrual cramps on a regular basis during high school, so she had a constant Midol prescription. If we had those stupid laws back then she would have had to decide between skipping school on a monthly basis, being incapacitated to the point of uselessness for that time, or risk being caught breaking 'the rules'.
    I don't see how these stupid ideas even get started.

  13. Re:Colbert trumps Scientology; everyone wins. on Colbert Wins Space Station Name Contest · · Score: 1

    I believe that's "The airport from nowhere."

  14. Re:The body monitors its own status. on Body 2.0 — Continuous Monitoring of the Human Body · · Score: 1

    ...and, for all I know, portable diathermy machines...

    It's called a coat.

  15. Re:They needed a study? on Lower Air Pollution Means Longer Life · · Score: 1

    "I'm not saying we should kill all of the stupid people in the world, but maybe if we just removed all of the unnecessary warning labels the problem would correct itself"

    What if you are not smart enough to realize that you are one of the stupid people?

    Here's a simple test: ask yourself what you would have done if you hadn't seen that warning label. If the answer leads to a massively scalded crotch, looking at the laser with remaining eye, or trying to find a way to hold the guard on the circular saw blade back while trying to stop the blood flowing from your off hand, well...the problem will correct itself.

  16. Re:I don't quite see what this is about on Increase In Xbox 360 E74 Problems · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't have the opportunity to define the users. I've had my kids whack each other a few times (some of them on accident), and dropped a handful of times. Not once have they thrown them across the room, or equally stupid activities.
    It shouldn't be that difficult to teach someone (even a 6-year-old with his head in the clouds) that you stand far enough away from things that swinging the remote won't hit anyone/thing, and don't let go!

  17. Re:Not quite... on Piracy Case Could Change Canadian Web Landscape · · Score: 1

    Wow, it's nice to know that I'm not allowed to buy American movies in Canada. After all, how ever would the money find its way back to the creators of those movies? Likewise for American music.
    Now that I think of it, how would they ever sue you for copyright infringement in the first place? I mean, they're all from America (musicians and actors only work in America, right?) and people are pirating all over the world! Maybe they'll make organizations in various countries to represent their interests and collect royalties from copyright users. That's not a bad idea. In fact, they could get together with other major, non-American labels (if such a thing exists) and make organizations in each major legal jurisdiction to do this for them. I wonder what we could call organizations like this?

  18. Re:No, no, no on Shell Ditches Wind, Solar, and Hydro · · Score: 1

    before we've used the enrichable uranium ore, and then reprocessed and reused all of the nuclear waste in our breeder reactors, the sun will be dead. ...If the only reason for not going for it is an accident 30 years ago when the technology was in its infancy that's great. ...All we need is for the public to get their heads out of their asses and learn to accept compromise.

    That totally ignores waste management costs that are heavily controlled and fixed by government regulation. There is plenty of nuclear fuel if we reprocess and use Thorium fuel cycles. The US does not reprocess and hence on a pure U based cycle you are looking at a few 100s of years IIRC (so a few 1000s with reprocessing). Even with reprocessing 5 billion years of U fuel is not here- but thats long term planing in the extreme.

    Or you could read the post before replying.
    Heavily controlled and regulated? Well, a good part of that is because of regulations and a political lack of desire to reprocess or use breeders, which would make the waste safer and less quantity. When U gets low (if we don't find a better solution first), I'm sure that problem would go away.
    And why do you keep talking about only using uranium and reprocessing it? He clearly mentions breeders, reprocessing, etc.
    I think what it's ultimately going to take for the US to change the rules about nuclear is peak oil to hit and Americans to look north or over the pond, and realize that stupid and outdated legislation is hitting them in the pocketbook. That day is not today.

  19. Re:A focus on function on Dell's Adamo Goes After MacBook Air · · Score: 1

    I think conspicuous consumption went out as a life goal for most people about 6 months ago.

    For now. Don't worry, it will be back as soon as the money is there.

  20. Re:Poor kids... on Computer Science Major Is Cool Again · · Score: 1

    can put together a computer in 15 minutes while getting a blowjob and having a gun pointed at his head...It's all downhill from Discrete Math...

    So long as the blowjobs keep coming...

  21. Re:They do exist on Are Quirky Developers Brilliant Or Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    Were the nurses at the mental hospital hot?

    Maybe there were also nursing students. They gotta learn how to do sponge baths somewhere...

  22. Re:brilliant or dangerous? on Are Quirky Developers Brilliant Or Dangerous? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And another Einstein quote I try to live by in my programming career: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
    IMO, MS Office ribbons fail on the second part.

  23. Re:Personal Responsibility on Suspect Freed After Exposing Cop's Facebook Status · · Score: 1

    Concern for the innocent should be reason enough; but if it isn't, remember that every innocent person convicted for a crime means a guilty person not convicted for that crime.

    Oh, I'm sure we can fabricate enough crimes for everyone. It's not like they're a limited resource.

  24. Portable Safe on What To Do With Old USB Keys, Low-Capacity Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    I have one 512MB USB key that I got as a promo. For the longest time it just sat there. Then I decided that I had too many passwords, and too many places to use it. Now I use it for some of my important documents, documents that I'm taking to client sites, and most importantly, my copy of KeePass. I use the portable Windows version, put all my passwords in there, and now I only need to really remember 1 password when I'm at my computer. I plug it in when I get to work, take it back home with me when I leave, and the database is encrypted, so I should have enough time to redo all my passwords if someone should steal it. Now the data on there is more valuable than the hardware, and so is the convenience. If you want to take it a step further, you could encrypt the drive and have a more effective portable safe for all your documents, but it would be less useful for moving client data.
    P.S. Of course I have a backup of the password database.

  25. Re:Hey, why not just steal GPL code? on Adobe's ADEPT DRM Broken · · Score: 1

    If they want to distribute content to you which you are forbidden to use in months which end in "Y" that is their right.

    Your premise is flawed, at least in the realm of copyright. This doesn't not necessarily apply to software, although whether it should is a different issue. There are some things the content creator/distributor can't require without violating the law. One of those is, for instance, forbidding you from reselling your music media. If I buy a CD, I can sell it to you. They can whine, and they can complain, but they can't stop me. This is the First Sale doctrine, and all those used-CD stores that aren't getting raided imply the content creators are aware of this. Note that reselling the CD is not copying it! If I copy it first, I may be violating the law, depending on where I live.
    Believe it or not, but there are laws that apply to this, and they aren't entirely in the content creators' favor. The more cynical of us might say this is why they hire lobbyists.