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User: intermodal

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Comments · 2,592

  1. Fantasy more than SF on Computers and Doctor Who · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know people think of Doctor Who as SF, but it's really a fantasy series. The SF elements are only a mechanism for allowing the fantasy.

  2. Re:Yes, They Can on Can Nintendo Survive Gaming's Brave New World? · · Score: 1

    Not after Pokemon Black/White they won't. If it weren't for my experience playing Black, I'd probably have a 3DS and X or Y. Now I'm not sure I care, and I've been playing through their older games when I need my pokemon fix.

  3. Re:Yes, They Can on Can Nintendo Survive Gaming's Brave New World? · · Score: 1

    Sure they do. But the question is whether these sales encourage or discourage purchases of future titles in the franchise, the driving reason behind purchases of their niche consoles. I left the Mario franchise (except Kart, which is still amazing) behind after they went 3D with it. The last Pokemon game I bought was black, and I was thoroughly disappointed. If it weren't for that, I'd have a 3DS and X or Y, but instead I have about $500 after taxes that my wife and myself did not spend on Pokemon games and 3DSXLs, and went back and played FireRed instead of finishing Black.

  4. Re:Hangings on US Executions Threaten Supply of Anaesthetic Used For Surgical Procedures · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, I should have been more clear that my initial agreement was returning to hangings. The part about using arbitrary fluids was simply a suggestion for if we do insist on continuing to use injections. I agree that exsanguination is a much simpler matter from a purely technical standpoint, aside from cleanup and finding someone willing to do it and convincing a court that it doesn't violate the 8th Amendment.

  5. Re:Scientology: on Scientology's Fraud Conviction Upheld In France · · Score: 1

    The USA has a rather terrific record on Freedom of Religion.

        Terrific \Ter*rif"ic\, a. [L. terrificus; fr. terrere to
              frighten + facere to make. See Terror, and Fact.]
              Causing terror; adapted to excite great fear or dread;
              terrible; as, a terrific form; a terrific sight.
              [1913 Webster]

    I would tend to agree. If you disagree, please read up on Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the Mormon Extermination Order.

  6. Re:Hangings on US Executions Threaten Supply of Anaesthetic Used For Surgical Procedures · · Score: 1

    I concur. and if we insist on sticking with lethal injection, I propose we replace the anesthetic with store-brand diet soft drinks or spoiled milk or something. What we put in these people is entirely arbitrary; put enough of something other than blood in a bloodstream and it will kill someone.

  7. Re:HA-ha! on Facebook Faces PRISM Data Investigation In Ireland · · Score: 1

    Setting up a European headquarters was the mistake, not which country it was set up in. Create an actual legal presence somewhere and you have that many more legal systems to contend with.

  8. Re:Don't Go On Vacation Then on Online Retailers Cruising Tor To Hunt For Fraudsters · · Score: 2

    If you don't want an order flagged, then don't look like a frauder! Place your order from your actual IP address.

    You seem to think users of privacy software care whether they get flagged on online orders. Generally speaking, these are users who do not stop and realize that they are reducing rather than increasing their privacy in this case. If they even realize at that moment that they are still using Tor. Most of them have probably not made the connection to the fact that they aren't protecting their privacy by using an anonymizing service to send you their order information that would have been sent via SSL anyway. All they do is make their order stand out more.

    If you really want to increase your privacy by using Tor, use it for stuff you aren't attaching personal information to, and don't use it where you're already completely exposing yourself.

  9. Re:What's the "news"? on 87-Year-Old World War II Veteran Takes On the TSA · · Score: 1

    No. You'd be correct in thinking that her World War II veteran relative recognizes that the country for which he once fought is very different from the one that is feeling him up at the airport today, and refuses to make it easy on them.

  10. Re:Sounds like another case on UK Police Seize 3D-Printed 'Gun Parts,' Which Are Actually Spare Printer Parts · · Score: 1

    It's a good thing they never got them conected in a series!

  11. Re:Nothing of Value on NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders · · Score: 1

    So in that respect, it was just like the same leaders' public speeches.

  12. Re:hire me on The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested · · Score: 1

    You are of course completely correct, but from the sound of it this guy didn't do that either. He just kind of locked himself in his office and avoided everyone.

  13. Re:Now for extra credit on How I Compiled TrueCrypt For Windows and Matched the Official Binaries · · Score: 1

    By using open-source ones, obviously. If you're running Windows, you're telling the world you don't really care whether your operating system is openly auditable.

  14. Re:Spam filtering is not a solution. on To Beat Spam Filters, Look Like A Spammer? · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily, since it would require the botnet to be configured for the proper mail client (if one is used) and to somehow simulate whatever passphrase system that client used. Are you sure you're qualified to discuss this?

  15. Re:Well yeah on The Boss Is Remotely Monitoring Blue-Collar Workers · · Score: 1

    My boss is usually the culprit in errant profanity, but I bet he'd fire someone almost instantly for doing it on a day when he was a in a bad mood. Even though the culture around here doesn't even discourage it.

    Thankfully, I'm not one who uses such language. While in my Volkswagen, though, I have on more than one occasion shouted, "Fahrvergnügen!" in situations that scared me while driving.

  16. Re:hire me on The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested · · Score: 1

    That's been my experience in general. Even more since the economy tanked in 2008. Employers all believe they can get a loyal, sacrificing employee for peanuts. I could easily make $25k doing completely unskilled labour and be much happier than doing the things I love for an employer I hate that snubs me at every chance I get. I'd actually be making more at Trader Joe's than some of the IT jobs I've been offered.

  17. Re:hire me on The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested · · Score: 1

    I'm highly skeptical of any employment scheme that bears such a strong resemblance to indentured servitude. And one can say that even moreso about people in the 18-30 range. Combine that with a perception of questionable ethics concerning the job they would be doing, and they're going to come up short of what they expected in terms of viable candidates.

  18. Re:Time to make internet access into a utility on Top US Lobbyist Wants Broadband Data Caps · · Score: 1

    I hate when it comes down to that, but at this point, it's definitely become a basic utility like home telephone service used to be (in fact, I know very few people who have moved and opted to get a home telephone at their new location these days).

    I'm usually the first to argue that certain things are luxuries, but it's hard to argue that at this point about internet access for someone with a home. It gets harder and harder to function without it in today's society. Is it still a luxury? Sure, but so is electricity, and nobody expects people in our country to go without it.

  19. Re:hire me on The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Creating a "job" doesn't give a company the right to fill that position, especially on the crappy terms a lot of them offer. I'm in a job that I was one of two applicants for, and I'm getting out ASAP. I've been here almost six months and any small amount of confidence I had that I could turn this job into something worth doing is gone.

    I'm underpaid in a toxic environment and meet resistance on everything I try to improve, fix, or address. They constantly complain about the low quantity and quality of applicants we get for the operations my department plays a support role for, and wonder why it's hard to keep people around.

    I constantly hear about how awful the guy who preceded me was at this job, and I believe it. I was shocked to find that basic support requests were often not addressed for weeks, things that take me five minutes to fix. And that guy was let to stay here for over three years, and left of his own accord. When I leave, they're going to have a very hard time finding someone worth hiring to replace me unless they offer a hell of a lot more than I'm getting.

  20. Re:Not so sure about SteamOS on Torvalds: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Desktop · · Score: 1

    Be that as it may, it wouldn't be hard to build a way for other OS styles to install those dependencies. Hell, people have been doing it with WINE for years.

  21. Out of any other country, an act of war... on Germany: We Think NSA May Have Tapped Chancellor Merkel's Cell Phone · · Score: 1

    How is it that no nation is treating all these discoveries this with the gravity they deserve?

  22. Re:Unfriendly Elitists on Wikipedia's Participation Problem · · Score: 2

    What got me when I tried to contribute on numerous occasions was the idea that somehow things weren't "noteworthy" while helping to fill a project's category that was marked for clear expansion and meeting every part of the noteworthiness criteria of that project.

    For example, back in 2008, I created an article for a plane crash the day it happened. I included what information existed at the time, which was scant (speculation is usually avoided when a plane crash is under investigation, which often takes years). Somebody nominated it for deletion less than a year later because most of the information was a brief description of the location, type of flight, and aicraft history but no explanation of the crash itself (not yet officially determined). One user even used a term to describe the article as if it were an intentional excuse to post the aircraft's fairly nondescript service history.

  23. Re:Not so sure about SteamOS on Torvalds: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Desktop · · Score: 1

    With SteamOS, there's no reason to marry these things to Ubuntu. And the great thing about open source is, if you want to run these proprietary things on Gentoo or Fedora or Arch, well, where there's a will, there's a way.

  24. Re:I actually used to work in one. on Nuclear Officers Napped With Blast Door Left Open · · Score: 1

    And one of the more important aspects to remember: This is far from the first line of defence.

  25. Re:Thank Goodnesss some sense.... on Court Rules Probable-Cause Warrant Required For GPS Trackers · · Score: 1

    Who needs GPS when you have license plate tracking cameras?

    I'm an opponent of license plates these days specifically because these devices require no warrants to store, track, and otherwise use that data. It was one thing when they had to manually read a plate, but these systems go too far.