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User: groman

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  1. Re:We need standards, good ones too. For Linux, to on The Mystery of the Mega-Selling Floppy Disk · · Score: 1

    As much as I like open source, I think that's a pretty bullshit argument. Most applications are not "following of basic standards that have been around forever (like POSIX)", and practically you will have much better luck if you find statically compiled binaries than some obscure source and spend a week just tracking down all the bug-for-bug compatible compiler versions, libraries, etc.

    It's much easier to run a DOS 3 binary today then it is even to compile a simple C program something that includes

  2. Re:No Idea what the techspecs are on this but on First Look At Windows 7 Beta 1 · · Score: 1

    This is not a reasonable argument. Nobody who has such an old CPU it doesn't support 64-bit has any business running Vista -- it will slower than a legless turtle stuck in a shoe(metric) and while Microsoft might stop selling Windows XP shortly, they certainly won't stop supporting it for quite a while. Microsoft should have not released 32-bit version of Vista.

  3. Re:Population Density on Magnetic Levitating Trains Get Go-Ahead In Japan · · Score: 1

    Two thoughts on this. First, yeah, why do you guys do that? What is it about Americans that they want their towns to be so mindbogglingly inconvenient? I don't know about you, but I like to be able to, I don't know, pop out for some milk and fresh tomatoes, stroll down to the fountain where the pretty girls walk by, go for a coffee or a beer or an ice cream, perhaps even walk to work! This is supposed to be a democracy—why build such misery for yourselves?

    It's not misery and it's not inconvenient. I don't want to live near businesses or other people, but I also don't want to give up the benefits of proximity -- so it becomes a balancing act. I live as far away from others while maintaining the basic required connection to the infrastructure (roads, sewers, electricity, broadband, stores, jobs, etc.) as I can afford.

    It's not about being better than somebody, or even knowing that you are better. It's grasping at straws to maintain any semblance of autonomy and individualism (but not necessarily individuality). Why would I choose to deal with random strangers any more than I already have to?

  4. Re:Disparaging members of other races? Hardly on Hacking the Governator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Disparaging or not, and Arnold may or may not be racist, it still attributes personality traits based on racial ethnicity. That's racism by definition. It doesn't matter whether or not said traits are good or bad - its still racism.


    Umm, no it's not, at least about as much as targetting Cosmo towards women is sexism. Racism requires either preferential treatment, prejudice or implicit or explicit claim of superiority. Simply attributing a neutral personality trait to a broad ethnic or cultural group and using historical ethnic or cultural heritage as supporting evidence is NOT racist. It's a broad generalization, maybe, but it implies no claim to superiority nor attempt to disparage.

  5. Re:suprise? on Google Releases Picasa for Linux · · Score: 1

    PTP gives the camera manufacturer much greater control over what they do and don't support, as well as simplifying USB development since the camera needs only one set of internal drivers for both PC and DPS(printing).

  6. Re:Natural Organic Save Our Animals Power on Biggest Obstacle of Nuclear Fusion Overcome? · · Score: 1

    NOSOAP? Radio!

  7. Re:Is fatalism in again? on Cleaner Air Adds To Global Warming · · Score: 1

    We are self-aware. We have no evidence that anything else is not self-aware. It is irrelevant to ask if a rock is self aware because we don't interact with a rock on any interesting level. We do interact with dogs and cats, they act pretty much like we do. Ergo, they're probably self aware but we will never know.

  8. Re:Isn't it more cruel or inhumane.. on Designer Mice Made to Order · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'd rather we experiment on humans than on mice. Less chance for a mistake that way.

  9. Well this goes along with... on 34 Design Flaws in 20 Days of Intel Core Duo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well this goes along with the new Apple announcement for a compatibility layer that recreates a genuine Mac OS 9 experience on an Intel-powered Mac. ... I'll shut up now.

  10. Re:Happened Then...Happens Now on Ancestors of Homo Sapiens Hunted by Birds · · Score: 1

    A doberman can rip out your throat in less time than you can even think "loud noises". The reason you can fight off dogs is because dogs are socially confrontational, and will back down rather than risk it. Plus, domestic dogs not trained to fight are not comparable to wolves. There's no part of your anatomy that a sole wolf will go for other than the throat. It won't bite your sleeve and pull like in those dog training videos. There'll be a growl, a stare down, and the wolf will either back down (probably) or you will be dead (unlikely). Honestly, I don't think there is a wild animal over 50lbs that I would mess with and expect not to get severely hurt.

  11. Re:I think you nailed it. on Why Have PDAs Failed In The iPod Era? · · Score: 1

    I have to ask... What is it with the Japanese and these ugly ass flip phones that look like they've been designed in the 80's? I was in Japan a couple of months ago and EVERYBODY has one. My company furnished one for me, and it was absolute crap. Bad reception in the middle of tokyo, very slow internet and on top of that it barely fit in my pocket. It's not a tech issue because the same japanese companies make reasonably sized phones for the US market. What's the issue?

  12. Sick of Hybrids on When Hybrids Do (And Don't) Make Sense · · Score: 1

    Ok, the best hybrids on the market get what, like, 60MPG?

    A late 80's Honda CRX got close to 50MPG.

    Everybody is touting how Hybrids are somehow better than regular cars, when in fact, the gas mileage improvement is marginal (2x at most, wake me up when it's 50x). Hybrids are not new technology, trains have been using hybrid diesels for half a century now. They're more expensive. What's the point either than beating your chest as a pseudo-environmentalist.

    If you really want to do your part, take a bike, walk, etc. Is it going to make a difference? Damn straight, you'll have a much healthier life. Is it going to make a global difference? No, don't even get your hopes up.

    Our long term answer so far seems to be nuclear fission. So far the supply seems to be ample, and the electricity generation really safe. How do we turn that electricity into something you can put in a car? Probably fuel cells.

    I seriously doubt hydrogen or battery will ever get to the level we want it at - to be able to output 100 KW sustained and 200KW peak and still be able to drive 300-400 miles non-stop is a tall order to fill for batteries or hydrogen.

  13. Bah on How Much Money do Programmers Really Make? · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, let's separate developers from code monkeys. Now, code monkeys average about $45K. Developers average about $75K. Sure, I pulled that out of my ass, but it's a big ass, what else do you want me to do with it?

  14. Oh dear... on 'Design Patterns' Receives ACM SIGPLAN Award · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh my

    The quite possibly most useless book in the history of computer science gets an award. Somehow I am not that surprised, considering that everybody hails it as the end all of object oriented design and everything.

    To be honest, modern computer science curriculum seems to be wasting a lot of bright young potential on buzzwords. Patterns, paradigms, bleh. People somehow manage to get masters degrees in CS from Berkeley without even knowing what "turing complete", "Karnaugh map", "Rice's theorem", "Goedel's completeness theorem", "planar graph", "functional language", "church-turing thesis" are. But you ask them about a singleton, model-view controller or Java's security model in reflection and they're the fucking expert.

    Well that's barely computer science, that's just OO banging. Just because it uses paradigms and object oriented terms doesn't make it anything other than advanced code banging.

  15. Re:Of course it can be abused on Tor - The Yin or the Yang? · · Score: 1

    They shouldn't have had the power to arrest him, no. The very thought that 99.9% of the population of the world thinks that "intending to commit a crime" should be a crime is chilling. They can still prevent him from doing so by killing him and then going to jail for it. As long as no government resources are involved, what's the problem?

  16. Re:Peltiers on Utah Teens Invent Better Air Conditioner · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've never seen one with efficiencies greater than 100%.


    Oh, you haven't!? It's right here, next to my Orgone generator and universal translator.

  17. Re:$500 billion? on Space Ring Could Combat Global Warming · · Score: 1

    Honestly, how much would it cost to require an SUV to get 30+ MPG instead of 15? How is that even logical? That only puts off the inevitable by a few years. What, you want our kids to solve the problem instead of ourselves? Typical modern mentality - let somebody else worry about it. A much better solution would be to drastically reduce the population of the earth to a more manageable number. Something like 100 million.

  18. Re:Lowest bidder indeed - about your own morals on Indian Call Centre Worker Sells Customer Details · · Score: 1

    How is the cashier supposed to evaluate if killing the guys family is moral or not? Does he have the all-seeing orb?

  19. Re:Do they or do they not have the source legally? on Zeta Goes Gold · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    But then again, it's not really free until it's public domain/new BSD. If I buy a copy of Zeta or MS Windows, or something at least I can resell it for a profit or something. With viral GNU crap I can't even resell modifications *I* make under the license without including source. Don't tell me that's freedom. You know nothing of freedom.

  20. Re:Not Surprised on DVD Decrypter Author Served With Take-Down Order · · Score: 1

    oh wait, I'd be breathing perfectly normally because it doesn't surprise me in the least that companies - which exist in a capitalist system for the sole purpose of taking money from people - are stomping all over people's rights for the purpose of fattening their wallets. Well, the companies aren't to blame. It's the people who enable these companies to change the rules of the game. The only necessary legislation is strong antitrust, everything else can be thrown out.

  21. Maybe... on Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe... they aren't all that smart. Now, to answer the question why does society recognize absolute cretins as people of respectable intelligence?

  22. Re:Dvorak on Apple to Use Intel Chips? · · Score: 1

    I think it's against Alumni policy to admit you went to SJSU in a public forum.

  23. Re:First, on Real ID: You Can Still Fight It · · Score: 1

    Well you had to use it 5 times didn't you? I don't want to, and you have absolutely no right to question me. I have my reasons.

  24. I see... on A First Look At The GIMP 2.0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I see they didn't go with an MDI-style interface. Having independently floating windows makes GIMP practically unuseable, unless it's the only program running... [grumble]

  25. Re:Count me among new file sharers on P2P File Swapping on the Rise Again? · · Score: 1

    How did you find enough enjoyable music to buy 3-4 albums a week? I'm sorry, but I have trouble imagining buying more than 1-2 albums a month and being able to listen to them and enjoy them for what they are. Consumption for the sake of consumption might be RIAA's goal, but I've never personally met anybody who would do that.