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User: ronabop

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  1. You own your computer, in the case of Windows, what you *don't* own is the operating system, that's licensed.

  2. You are assuming the data is indexed, ahead of time, and the indexes can staisfy the request.

    If a FOIA request is something that isn't indexed, for example, "all video taken with minority and at risk populations", or "all footage that shows handcuffs being placed on an individual", or any number of other, non-indexed, criteria, the existing indexes are useless.

    Compare an indexed SQL lookup to a SQL full table scan... only vith video, and manual indexing.

  3. From the conclusion: on Is Wikipedia's Popularity Causing Its Decline? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Wikipedia has changed from “the encyclopedia that anyone can edit” to “the encyclopedia that anyone who understands the norms, socializes him or herself, dodges the impersonal wall of semi-automated rejection and still wants to voluntarily contribute his or her time and energy can edit”

    The former turned out to be a monumentally bad idea, creating a space filled with weird conspiracy editors, tendentious axe-grinding, automated submission systems, random drive-by vandalism, massive amount of astroturfing, and general trolling. Hence, the latter.

  4. It's a bit like children... on Open Source Roles: Starters vs. Maintainers (jlongster.com) · · Score: 1

    Some folks have a lot of fun making children.
    Other folks have a lot of fun raising children.

    There are a lot of software deadbeat dads. Good luck getting them to take care of what they've created.

  5. Re:How about hatespeech from muslims? on Facebook, Google and Twitter Agree To Delete Hate Speech In Germany (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Your straw men have some interesting, but entirely irrelevant, points.

  6. Re:Defense systems? on Largest Destroyer Built For Navy Headed To Sea For Testing (ap.org) · · Score: 1

    What's the cost per attack, with likely success per attack, and advantage gained or lost as a result? Warfare is about accounting, not making things "impossible to attack". Nothing withstands a direct hit from a thermonuclear weapon, but they are rediculously expensive if all you do is knock out one ship with them.

  7. Re:Salmon's now on my "foods to avoid" list on FDA Signs Off On Genetically Modified Salmon Without Labeling (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    "The fact that the cross-pollination takes hold, means that this could have occurred naturally, so we are just mimicking the natural process. On the other splicing the gene from one species of plant (or animal) to another, that could not otherwise occur in nature"....

    Wrong. Please go back to school. GMO's are built by mimicking existing "natural" gene splicing processes, usually by mimicking the virus carrier method we observed in nature.

  8. Re:Bah. on How Intuit Manages 10 Million Lines of Code · · Score: 1

    MSDOS was a lousy product... MS didn't start raking in cash until they made Word, and Excel, on the only desktop GUI that existed at the time... MacOS.
    In short, MS owes it's existence to Apple.

  9. Re:Esperanto! on A Million-Year Hard Disk · · Score: 1

    Have you seen the Incan images? Terrifying stuff, and yet, we have turned their sites into tourist destinations.

  10. Re:The power of privacy on Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist · · Score: 1

    "Otherwise, spammers would rule the first SERPS"

    Nope, and that's what frustrates the hell out of the spammers... all the major parts of their formulas (Pagerank, Hilltop, etc.) *are* published, what isn't published (because they change daily) are some of the constants used in the calculations, but all the algo pieces are out there. It's standard reading in IR (which is what SEO would be if it wasn't a bunch of scammers). It's just that for a given page there are two over hundred measurements per page, and spammers are in search of something "quick and easy", rather than take the effort to make pages, and sites, that would wind up at the top of the SERPS.

  11. Re:Spelled Out For The Compassionless Morons... on Programming Prodigy Arfa Karim Passes Away At 16 · · Score: 1

    What projects did she contribute to, then? Yeah. thought as much.

  12. Re:Not military on Predator Drone Helps Nab Cattle Rustlers · · Score: 1

    He didn't promise that you could evade taxes, or launder money, or run a "non-profit" as a for-profit operation, if you were a marijuana grower or distributor. Hence, raids continue on businesses that are committing such crimes, and their choice of product does not mean they are free from prosecution. They went after fairly visible operations, ones that were making a lot of money and growing rapidly, because California MMJ law does not allow such business practices.

  13. Re:Nature of the install on Researchers Say Carrier IQ Isn't Logging Data, Texts · · Score: 1

    Let's take, oh, car monitoring systems.
    (1) we've installed this logging software on your device;
    Like a car error monitoring system.
    (2) it is not possible through normal means to deactivate it;
    Like a car error monitoring system.
    (3) this software runs without any disclosure or agreement in your contract;
    Like a car error monitoring system.
    (4) this software runs on your device even if you are no longer under contract or even subscribed as our customer;
    Like a car error monitoring system.
    and (5) this software is not an integrated component of the device's operating system.
    Like a car error monitoring system.
    Do you, perchance, use a horse for travelling?

  14. Re:As I understand it... on AFL-CIO and Big Content Advocate For SOPA · · Score: 1

    If you file a false claim, you not only get to pay for all financial damages to their site, you also have to pay for all legal costs. For IP lawyers, it's win/win.

  15. the? on Copyright Troll Righthaven Ordered To Pay $119,000 · · Score: 0

    "the" Democratic Underground? No, it's just Democratic Underground, or DU.

  16. Re:Perfect example of BS generic patients on Apple Granted Patent For Slide To Unlock · · Score: 1

    I'm imagining you trying to turn on a car by swiping your fingers on the dashboard.
    Repeatedly.
    It's hilarious.

  17. Re:Doesn't it have to be non-trivial/non-obvious?! on Apple Granted Patent For Slide To Unlock · · Score: 1

    It's not "a swipe to start using a touch interface". It's deliberately moving an image, with a gesture, across a touch interface, to verify that a "swipe" isn't accidental.

  18. Re:Trademark on Apple Granted Patent For Slide To Unlock · · Score: 1

    Exclusive rite? You mean, like a Masonic order?

  19. Re:That long? Optimistic, aren't we? on Your Tech Skills Have a Two Year Half-Life · · Score: 0

    "Frankly, if the world standardized on C tomorrow, and we just used extensions thereof for different platforms and purposes, we could all concentrate on getting useful work done and quit dicking around with learning the latest obscure and allegedly more elegant syntax."

    FTFY

  20. Asimov dreamed this. on US Intelligence Mining Your Social Network Data · · Score: 1

    It's about time we started subjecting the complexities of society to science and computing on a massive scale. For the younger geeks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series

  21. Re:Atleast teach them touch on British Schoolkids To Be Taught Computer Coding · · Score: 1

    I work internationally. This means that I don't get to pick where keys are on a given keyboard. This also means that touch typing is worse than useless, because it teaches something that is *WRONG*, but habitual.

  22. Re:Why not high school? on Too Many College Graduates? · · Score: 1

    Bullshit. I got competent in PHP not because I had a job, but because I was willing to volunteer for the project. I got competent in PostgreSQL not because I had a job, but because I was willing to volunteer for the project. I got competent in OpenLDAP not because I had a job, but because I was willing to volunteer for the project. (etc)

  23. Re:wagging the dog on Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency · · Score: 1

    FWIW: Timur Dykes (the perp in the news for the 18.5 million dollar penalty) was Mormon, and the Troop was a ward (church area, for you non-LDS-jargon-speakers) Troop. He confessed the abuse to his bishop.. The mormon church settled quietly out of court, the Boy Scouts decided to roll the dice.

  24. Re:Assumes a centralized DNS system on .ORG Zone Signed With DNSSEC · · Score: 1

    China, is that you?

  25. Re:Yes, I'm old on Old-School Coding Techniques You May Not Miss · · Score: 1

    * Making code run faster
    Every fucking day. If you don't do this then you're a dweeb who might as well be coding in php.

    Your php comparison is broken. I specialize in writing (or, more often, re-writing) PHP, Perl, Python, Java, and Ruby web-application 'code' for scalability. The language used isn't the problem, people who don't care to write fast code is the problem. They will write shit code, regardless of the language.
    In short, your comparison is also true for the following statements: "you're a dweeb who might as well be coding in C++", or "you're a dweeb who might as well be coding in Java", as both are equally true, but equally meaningless.