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User: jcr

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Comments · 13,517

  1. Re:They told if George W. Bush got elected... on FBI Seizes All Servers In Dallas Data Center · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can hardly wait until we elect a Democrat and all of this will stop

    I never expected it to stop. The most I was hoping for was lefties having to admit that their guy wasn't any better.

    -jcr

  2. Re:Already been reversed on AT&T Changes TOS, Limits Streaming, Tethering · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wow, that was quick. I'm very surprised that AT&T didn't even try to tough it out.

    -jcr

  3. Thinking about other uses of wind power.. on Offshore Windpower To Potentially Exceed US Demand · · Score: 1

    We started using wind power for industry long before electricity was understood. Why not try that again?

    On thing that I've been mulling over for a couple of months is combining a windmill with a sterling cycle engine for heating and cooling. The Stirling cycle is reversible; you can let heat flow from the hot side to the cold side and take mechanical work from it, or you can drive it mechanically and pump heat from the cold side to the hot side.

    Home heating and cooling is a fairly long-hysteresis operation. If I'm living somewhere with gusty winds, a windmill driving a heat pump still might be worth doing.

    -jcr

  4. Re:RTF Amendment on National Security Letters Reform Act Reintroduced · · Score: 1

    However, they have lots of other claims to legitimacy, the most important of which is:

    The consent of the people (evidenced by the lack of support for their overthrow).

    Sorry, that's nonsense. It does not follow that if the people fail to overthrow a tyrant, that the power of the tyrant is legitimate.

    -jcr

  5. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    You forgot 3) you're wrong.

    -jcr

  6. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    You're anger is clearly unconscious

    Guess again, armchair shrink.

    -jcr

  7. What it REALLY needs is... on National Security Letters Reform Act Reintroduced · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but fiddling with the wording of an unconstitutional statute is pointless. What we really need to do is refuse to comply, go to court, and fight it.

    -jcr

  8. RTF Amendment on National Security Letters Reform Act Reintroduced · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    That's not Greek or Chinese. The government has a bad habit of ignoring the constitution, but it is nevertheless the entire legal basis for their power. If they don't want to follow the constitution, then they have no claim to legitimacy.

    -jcr

  9. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    it's pretty obvious that you've got some anger issues towards the GCC guys.

    I already told you I didn't. Why do you insist that I do?

    -jcr

  10. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    So, basically you're angry at GCC for providing a compiler free of charge that Apple could make money from?

    Project much? I'm not angry about the effects of GCC on the compiler business, I just pointed out what it's effects were.

    -jcr

  11. Re:Apple is not Microsoft ... on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    Most recently almost all development was brought to a standstill for over two months when the FSF mulled over changes to a license text

    They do have a bit of a license fetish over there, don't they?

    -jcr

  12. Re:Subsidizing Russia on Simonyi Arrives At the ISS After Shuttle Lands · · Score: 1

    There is no doubt that Russia has made a nice sum of money on tourism. In fact, they have been charging 25M/seat and are raising it to 50M/seat for US to buy them. I think that they are trying to rip us off on that.

    WTF?

    They're charging what the market will bear. The people who fork over $50M to go to space don't get a gun to their head, they give their money willingly for something they want more than the money. This is not a rip-off, it is a business transaction free of coercion.

    -jcr

  13. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    I'd say the one effect GCC has had over the last 20 years is to allow Apple to survive.

    I'd say that's quite a stretch. Apple used GCC because there were few alternatives. GCC sharply reduced the number of alternatives. See how that works?

    -jcr

  14. Re:GCC avoids high level interprocedural optimizat on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    Apple aren't releasing source to the iPhone? That's making a technical decision on a political basis!!!!1!

    You're not clear on the difference between a technical and a political decision.

    -jcr

  15. Re:Apple is not Microsoft ... on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1

    The FSF kicked him to the curb.

    "Kicked him to the curb" isn't quite the right metaphor, since it implies that he needed the FSF in some way.

    As LLVM gets better GCC will lose developers

    I'm not sure it's that the FSF will lose anyone, so much as people entering the field will start with LLVM instead of GCC. It's rather like the way Linux came along and delivered everything that the FSF was going to get around to any decade now...

    -jcr

  16. Re:GCC avoids high level interprocedural optimizat on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1, Troll

    Now go play in your closed source world and leave the grownups alone

    Grownups need to make a living, sunshine. Very few people can get a MacArthur grant and extend their adolescence indefinitely.

    -jcr

  17. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You may not want to believe it, but when GCC came out there was a pretty healthy competition going with plenty of vendors offering C compilers, and driving each other to improve their products. RMS decided to put them out of business, and the upshot was that commercial compiler development came to a screeching halt, with a few exceptions like IBM and Motorola working on their optimizers. There were a few scattered academic projects going on, but GCC wiped out everyone in the compiler business besides microsoft and metrowerks.

    Fortunately, one of those academic projects came to Apple's attention, and it's about to bring the dark ages to an end.

    -jcr

  18. Re:GCC avoids high level interprocedural optimizat on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, GCC is making what should be technical decisions on a political basis?

    Good to know. That's one more reason to be glad when GCC fades away.

    -jcr

  19. Re:Apple's work on LLVM on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Apple should be enormously grateful to the LLVM project.

    So should everyone else who's been living through the dark ages of GCC. The main effect of GCC for the last 20 years has been to suck all of the air out of the room for anyone else who wanted to develop compilers.

    -jcr

  20. LLVM strikes again. on Experimental MacRuby Branch Is 3x Faster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is great news. The work that Apple's doing on LLVM is a renaissance in compilers.

    -jcr

  21. Re:Powerless is not always useless on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    The last thing I want is the UN to have "teeth," I prefer it to remain a form of international family therapy.

    The trouble is that it issues "go to war guilt-free" tickets.

    -jcr

  22. Re:The UN has outlived its usefulness. on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    I'm always surprised how few seem to share my idea that we need the U.N. more than ever.

    Oh, brother..

    Now that we have the tools to spread rational thought and ideas and concepts to the far flung corners of the world, we should easily recognize the need to consolidate into one voice of reason.

    Sounds great. What does that have to do with the UN?

    It seems that you haven't noticed that the whole purpose of the UN for quite some time now has been to employ an army of useless bureaucrats.

    -jcr

  23. Re:hmmm on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    can a country terminate its membership in the UN?

    Sure. Ban-Ki Moon is no Abraham Lincoln.

    -jcr

  24. That's a bit of a trick question. on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    But when is the last time the UN did a thing for the US?

    Do you mean when did they do something for the USA, or for the federal government of the USA? These are not the same thing.

    -jcr

  25. The UN has outlived its usefulness. on UN Attacks Free Speech · · Score: 1

    Time to send them home.

    -jcr