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User: Chagatai

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Comments · 208

  1. 1-Up? on Old Apple 1 Up For Auction, Expected To Go For $160,000+ · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Am I the only one who parsed the title of this post as Apple selling an extra life a la Scott Pilgrim? Because some Applephiles do need to get a life, y'know.

  2. Let's Count Them... on Hawking: No 'Theory of Everything' · · Score: 1, Troll
    Here's his most recent statements that seem just off:

    -Don't contact ET. On the one hand, what are the odds that we will do so? On the other hand, oops, you're about 100 years too late if we count radio signals alone, ignoring the big thrust that took place in the 70s and 80s.

    -No need for God, gravity made everything. Creation versus evolution aside, doesn't gravity describe the attraction between particles based on their mass? So, if you have no particles, how could gravity make something ex nihilo?

    -No Grand Unified Theory. Seems like a bit of hubris taking its course here. "If I can't find it, no one will!"

  3. Obligatory on Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic? · · Score: 1

    This one time, at band camp, I took a flute and Suzy took a flute, and we blew two notes where the difference was 15Hz and we got high.

  4. Re:Yes on The Search For the Mount Everest of Caves · · Score: 1

    Somebody just watched an episode of Dr. Who from the sounds of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hungry_Earth

  5. Break It Down on Unique ID In India Causes 'Fear of the Beast' · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hold on. You're doing two things wrong here. First, you're changing the definition of, "tolerant," to, "acceptance," or, "agreement." Second, you're lumping together totally different groups of people.

    The gays aren't knocking at my door, telling my children that they are going to burn in hell forever.

    Okay, define how this is intolerant. Are they killing your kids if they do not convert? You always have the option of shutting the door if you don't like it.

    They aren't shooting abortion doctors.

    How many abortion doctors have been shot by self-described Christians? Less than a dozen (which I would say is still too much). And true Christians condemn these acts (that whole Sixth Commandment and all).

    They aren't launching suicide attacks on my neighborhood.

    Ah, now you're talking about Muslims, which is a totally different religious group. Fundamentalist Muslims will try to blow you up. Fundamentalist Christians just pray for your soul and witness to you.

    They aren't polluting science with their fictional delusions.

    To turn this around, aren't you being a little intolerant in the way you're presenting their beliefs?

    When the theists abandon their irrational bigotry, grow up and stop trying to control their neighbors, they'll be worthy of tolerance.

    That also doesn't sound very tolerant.

  6. If Someone Wanted To Go Religious on Steve Jobs Recommends Android For Fans of Porn · · Score: 1

    God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth...

    If someone wanted to go religious, Matthew 5:28 would probably be a better one:

    "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

  7. Re:Dirty is Relative on Dirty Duty On the Front Lines of IT · · Score: 1

    I had it worse as an IT guy for slaughterhouses. You can read about some of the, "fun," here.

  8. Totally Inaccurate on RPG Heroes Are Jerks · · Score: 4, Funny
    This video was totally inaccurate. The NPC actors didn't repeat the same thing over and over when the knight approached them.

    "Where are you taking grandma?"
    "Where are you taking grandma?"
    "Where are you taking grandma?"

  9. Re:Great! on Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day · · Score: 1

    Irresistible bait for spelling Nazi's.

    I salute you, sir. Now you're baiting more grammar fiends for the errant apostrophe and those who will throw the penalty flag for improper use of Godwin's Law.

  10. Ollie Williams Space Weather Forecast on Scientists Get $2M To Predict Space Weather · · Score: 1

    "And now time for Ollie Williams with the Space Weather Forecast. Ollie?"

    "IT'S REALLY DARK!"

    "Turn around, Ollie. How's the sun today?"

    "BIG BALL O' FIRE! IT'S HOT!"

  11. Truly Dirty IT Job on Even Dirtier IT Jobs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sorry, but most of these jobs are not that, "dirty," compared to my last job. I did systems administration work for a meatpacker. This meant that several times a year I would go to feedlots and slaughterhouses to help out with the systems. There is nothing like working in a place where you can be walking on guts and dung as you go up and down to the computer rooms. (And by, "rooms," I mean, "modified coat closet with an air conditioner sticking in a hole cut in the wall.") Some of my favorites:

    -One abattoir had the intake for the server room on the roof... directly under the exhaust tower for rendering. Even when we moved the equipment into the new offices, I turned on the disk array and got a face full of rendered pork from the fans.

    -One place in Texas was a nightmare. Imagine extension cords stapled to the wall for systems, where they were wired so the pronged end was the, "hot," side. Yep, it could double as a cattle prod if needed.

    -Communicating with the people at these places was impossible. One night crew person sounded exactly like Boomhauer. It was always fun trying to understand her.

    -Other people didn't like the fact that we in IT were generally smarter than them. I got one woman who liked making up big words to sound more intelligent than she was. On one occasion, she said that her screen was, "tricating." I had to ask her a few times to repeat the word to understand it. After I found out that she meant that the column size for her green screen console was wrong, causing the lines to wrap improperly, I told her I had never heard of that word before. "Oh, you're young," she said, "that's why you don't know it." Yeah, neither did Merriam and Webster, and they're pretty old, too.

    -Another plant in the south had an adjacent, "smoking room," in someone's office, so the fans were sucking in both slaughterhouse smell and nicotine. Lovely.

    -And it was always fun walking on the floors when we had to check out the equipment, since we in IT stuck out like sore thumbs. I remember going to check an electronic scale once and watching these workers with sharp knives cutting things and staring at me. I was thinking, "Why don't you look down at what you're doing with that sharp blade instead of me? You know, that piece of meat that has... an... eyeball looking back at me... oh, boy...."

  12. The Science Teacher Who Cleaned The Chem Closet... on Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A new science teacher came to my high school during the 1980s. During the first week of his job, he decided to help clean out the chemical closet. As he was going through things, he came across a large jar of picric acid, which is an ingredient to some explosives. As he took a more detailed look, he noticed that the acid had crystallized.

    He called up the local police department to talk to someone who does hazmat / dangerous chemicals work. The moment he said, "crystallized picric acid," the man on the other end of the phone shouted, "Evacuate the building now!"

    The full bomb squad arrived and took the beaker carefully up the hill to the 50-yard line of the football stadium and detonated the beaker. The shockwave went clear across the town.

  13. One Upped on (Useful) Stupid Unix Tricks? · · Score: 3, Informative
    While the 'write' command is full of possible hijinks, the better option is to redirect output directly to the port on which someone is sitting. Unless that user has turned messages off with an 'mesg n' command, you can flush whatever you want to their screen with nothing to show the source of the transmission aside from shell history files.

    For example, I did these to some of my favorite people:

    banner "PORN HERE" > /dev/pts/4

    echo "All files deleted." > /dev/pts/3

    cat dictionary.list > /dev/pts2

  14. Re: Is prolife was really what's about "right?" on Discuss the US Presidential Election · · Score: 1
    True story:

    Two medical doctors, husband and wife, went to have an abortion when they discovered that blood samples from the mother indicated that their baby had anecephaly. Ultrasounds also showed a malformation around the baby's head. So, somewhere in the 20th week of pregnancy, the ob/gyn administered a, "forced birth," abortion, where the child is delivered prematurely. The baby's body was carried to a soiled linen room by a nurse.

    The birth father went to examine the baby to find, to his horror, that his son was perfectly formed and was healthy. The abnormality was caused by an incomplete twin whose sack was near his son's head, both explaining the high protein levels in the blood and the ultrasound. And his son died in that soiled linen room.

    I can relate to this story, because the same thing happened with my daughter. We knew that abortion was morally wrong, so we kept going, even knowing the risk for anecephaly in my daughter. Except, in her case, her twin brother died in the 20th month of pregnancy, which is why we saw the same thing in my wife's bloodwork.

    And now, she will be turning 6 in January, and is the top student in her class.

    I can not bring myself to vote for someone who has sworn to continue and further the genocide of 4000 babies per day. And that is why I did not vote for Obama.

  15. Re:Speaking... on First Official Photos From New Star Trek Movie · · Score: 1

    Admit it: you watched it just last week. Although I'd be curious where you got a 9" B&W TV in this day and age.

  16. Mythbusters on Google, Circa 2001 · · Score: 1
    Alas, no Mythbusters in 2001. I knew I liked some parts of the future for a reason. However, it looks like M5 was alive and kicking with Jamie in the height of the Battlebots days. Grant has a page out there, too.

    http://web.archive.org/web/20011130003737/www.m5industries.com/
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010803003310/www.deadblow.net/Pages/360.html

  17. One Thing Missing on Google, Circa 2001 · · Score: -1, Redundant

    You know you've hit the good ol' days when you can type in "September 11" or "9-11" and have absolutely nothing pop up related to that day.

  18. Purpose-Driven Nonsense on Internet Group Declares War on Scientology · · Score: 1

    There are still new religions/cults forging ahead, even in the 21st century. How about the deviation from Christianity called "The Purpose Driven Life"? Rick Warren, the lead pastor, has presented his philosophy to companies, professional sports teams, and over 20 million copies of his book have been sold worldwide. There are even reports of it being distributed with aid packages to third-world countries instead of the Bible. Would Christianity be let in the front door of many of these places? Doubtful.

  19. What's Even Worse... on Canadian Bureaucrats Don't "Think Different" · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Even if Apple were to go out there and put change in the meters for when customers pull up, chances that even that would be violating some law, much like it does here for most meters in the States. "I'm sorry, sir, but you can't spend your own money as you see fit in assisting these people because you were not the one parked here."

  20. Old Joke on Police Busted When Tracking Device Found On Car · · Score: 1

    You may be familiar with Australia, as it is a small island located off of the coast of New Zealand.

  21. It's Adultery, Plain and Simple on Don't Dismiss Online Relationships As Fantasy · · Score: 1
    When people have "relationships" online, most of the time it is not seen as adulterous behavior, even when it bridges into cybersex, Second Life, etc. Today's modern version of adultery is defined as when one of two married people who are having good sex and relationships decides to cheat and have full intercourse with someone else. As silly as it sounds, many people now do not even consider "open relationships," threesomes, oral sex, an unmarried person sleeping with someone "separated," and having affairs with others if their own sex lives are lacking, as a part of adultery.

    Simply put, adulterous behavior is not limited to pure physical action, but is having online relationships, wandering eyes, or even lustful thoughts for people to whom you are not married. It is not a matter of what the body is doing, but the intents of the heart.

  22. Re:This is a first for Hollywood! on Wachowski Brothers and the Speed Racer Movie · · Score: 1

    I think that Lucas already got a patent on this "super-xylem vision." It was called Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

  23. T-Shirt Party on Harry Potter Leaked Via Handheld Camera · · Score: 1
    I know it is wrong, but the miscreant in me is looking forward to seeing events where people show up with t-shirts that have spoilers on them to the midnight release parties. The "Snape Kills Dumbledore" meme from when the last book was released could only be heightened by taking any number of the spoilers from these leaked pics. I think it would be especially hysterical to have a gang of eight people or so show up to one of these parties, and each raises their sweatshirt or overshirt to reveal one spoiler underneath each. Then again, my sense of humor can be quite wrong at times.

  24. What About Tall People? on Ceiling Height May Affect Problem-Solving Skills · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I'm nearly 7 feet tall, so how does this affect my ideas? Can I call in a "ceiling bias" at work when a short coworker comes up with a great, broad idea and I tend to develop something more constrained and compact? How about when I run into a doorjamb? How does that affect my ideas?

  25. Quake I Reboot on What is the Best Bug-as-a-Feature? · · Score: 1
    I recall playing someone in QW back in the late 90s who rebooted my system remotely. As I was winning in this deathmatch with 12 poeple or so, he said something akin to, "See you later," as he shot at me, and my box rebooted spontaneously. Thinking it was a power glitch or I stepped on my surge protector, I waited for it to boot, went back online, and he said he would reboot it again. Sure enough, ZAP! Box crashed once more.

    Now if anyone remembers how this could have happened, that would be a bug I would love hearing explained.