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User: halivar

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Comments · 2,962

  1. Re:Blinding lasers are already here on US Military Stepping Up Use of Directed Energy Weapons · · Score: 2

    Because blinding lasers are designed to maim and not kill, they are considered to fall under the Geneva Protocol. For the most part, these energy weapons are not for anti-personnel usage, but rather anti-vehicular or anti-missile usage.

  2. Re:Everybody List What You Think Went Wrong on DHI Group Inc. Announces Plans to Sell Slashdot Media · · Score: 1

    Bennett Haselton and Nerval's Lobster.

  3. Uh huh on Computer Science Enrollments Match NASDAQ's Rises and Fall · · Score: 1

    Did the submitter get this off of Spurious Correlations?

  4. Re:And yet 15 years later... on Computer Science Enrollments Match NASDAQ's Rises and Fall · · Score: 2

    He's not an editor.

  5. Excuse me. on Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat · · Score: 1

    My mama was a saint. Take it back.

  6. Re:WSJ is incorrect in title, implication on Criminal Inquiry Sought Over Hillary Clinton's Personal Email Server · · Score: 1

    The change makes it look worse, not better. The changes were solicited Hillary's campaign, themselves. http://www.politico.com/blogs/...

    One of the reporters of the story, Michael Schmidt, explained early Friday that the Clinton campaign had complained about the story to the Times.

    “It was a response to complaints we received from the Clinton camp that we thought were reasonable, and we made them,” Schmidt said.

  7. Re:I know ! I know, on A Programming Language For Self-Organizing Swarms of Drones · · Score: 4, Funny

    It would be pretty hard to debug, would it not?

  8. No nuance allowed. You're for us or against us. on Interviews: Brianna Wu Answers Your Questions · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First of all, if you are “neutral” on the horrific abuse many women have suffered at the hands of Gamergate, you are a part of the problem.

    And this is why we can't have grown-up conversations. Even the mere thought that there might be anything of merit on the GG side is tantamount to a rape threat. It's intolerant and childish.

  9. Re:Simple code on Genetic Access Control Code Uses 23andMe DNA Data For Internet Racism · · Score: 1

    According to this code, no one is too dumb to use the internet, considering that haveOnlineGeneticProvile will likely be undefined. :P

  10. Re:Stallman quote on The Free Software Foundation's Statement On Canonical's Updated Licensing Terms · · Score: 3, Funny

    Correction: It's GNU/Stallman.

  11. Re:400 years away? on Mini Ice Age: Nothing To Worry About · · Score: 1

    The "for the sake of argument" was strongly implied.

  12. 400 years away? on Mini Ice Age: Nothing To Worry About · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If it's been 400 years since the Maunder Minimum, and assuming we peak on temperature right now, wouldn't that mean the new minimum is still a problem for our [great-]+grandchildren?

  13. Re:24/7 access does NOT = "unfettered" access on Iran Has Signed a Nuclear Accord · · Score: 1

    Nothing less than access to a nuke in 10 years, probably.

  14. Re:Theology is better than those on University of Toronto: Anti-vaccine Homeopathy Course Is Fine · · Score: 1

    Theology can't be taught from a neutral viewpoint because it only exists in the context of the religion that the theologian believes. Theology can include philosophy but it is invariably tainted by the specific religion that the theologian embraces.

    All philosophies depend on presuppositions. If the presuppositions are wrong, then everything that comes from those premises cannot be reasonable sustained. But that's the point. Science takes this a step further by adding the deductive property of falsifiability to test the presuppositions for truth.

  15. Re:Theology is better than those on University of Toronto: Anti-vaccine Homeopathy Course Is Fine · · Score: 1

    No, I do not believe I am confused. Charles Sanders Peirce, the father of modern scientific inquiry, believed that the tri-part mathematics of logic (induction, deduction, and abduction) applied equally to philosophy, mathematics, the social and natural sciences, and squishy meta-physics. This is as late as the 1870's. Today science stresses the deductive property of falsifiability as essential to science (and sets it apart from philosophy and mathematics, which are therefore not true sciences), but that is a relatively recent concept, as I said above.

  16. Re:Theology is better than those on University of Toronto: Anti-vaccine Homeopathy Course Is Fine · · Score: 1

    Induction is just one mere tool to be used. Putting everything that uses a specific tool is folly.

    You may think it folly, but the historical fact is that up until about 200 years ago, the Venn diagram between mathematicians and theologians was pretty inclusive. Newton and Pascal wrote more prolifically on theology then they did math. When education was rare, and education in philosophy (and thus inductive logic) was rarer, the same people had to wear many hats, and their output in those disparate fields hewed pretty closely together.

    Theology is certainly not philosophy. Testability is the cornerstone of science. Rational theories are the cornerstone of philosophy. Theology is neither rational or presents theories, but interpretations of dogma.

    This is false. Rational theories are the cornerstone of philosophy; that much is correct. But the whole point of systematic theology is that for the prescribed axioms, the proofs are indeed rational. You do not agree with many or most of those fundamental presuppositions but that does not make the theology, in and of itself, irrational per se. Theology is absolutely a philosophy. Your beef is clearly with religion or spiritual faith (which, while relying on theology, is a belief system and not a philosophy).

  17. Re:Theology is better than those on University of Toronto: Anti-vaccine Homeopathy Course Is Fine · · Score: 1

    Theology, when taught from a neutral viewpoint, is a philosophy. Science and math were also, at one time, considered "philosophies", in that they, all three, relied on inductive proof techniques developed by the classical philosophers. With the development of the scientific method, however, science stands apart on a new basis of testable hypotheses. It is my understanding that math is considered by many to not be a science on this basis.

  18. I don't know... on Adblock Plus Reduces University's Network Traffic By 25 Percent · · Score: 3, Funny

    See, this one guy said I should use his custom HOSTS file to block this stuff...
    /duck
    /run

  19. Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that on Microsoft Thanked For Its "Significant Financial Donation" To OpenBSD Foundation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably because you haven't yet realized that the Halloween Emails were 17 years ago.

    Maybe it's time to move on.

  20. Re:It's a strange thing on Judge Tosses Jury's $533M Patent Verdict Against Apple, Orders New Trial · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have a hard time siding with anyone using software patents offensively. Fuck these guys and their patents. And if Apple asserts software patents in a non-defensive manner, fuck them, too.

  21. Bennett Haselton on Ask Slashdot: Which Expert Bloggers Do You Read? · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's got a lot to say, and a captive community to say it to.

  22. Re:what? on The IT Containers That Went To War · · Score: 1

    Wow, yes I did. That imagery is... interesting.

  23. Re:what? on The IT Containers That Went To War · · Score: 2

    The "Internet of Things" concept may be new to our households, but the military has been using it for as long as they've had wigwams waving their little flags around. For military commanders, access to accurate, comprehensive data is an extreme force multiplier.

  24. Re:Internet without evangelicals = Win on Brazilian Evangelicals Set Up a "Sin Free" Version of Facebook · · Score: 1

    I'm 36. These newfangled gizmos and widgets the kiddos are using these days confuse and bewilder me. I'll be rocking on my porch with a bag of Werthers Original in case anyone needs me.

  25. Re:Internet without evangelicals = Win on Brazilian Evangelicals Set Up a "Sin Free" Version of Facebook · · Score: 1

    These sorts of meta-communities spring up wherever Christians in large enough numbers congregate because they meet a felt need.

    See, on Facebook, I have my friends, my coworkers, my relatives, and a lot of random acquaintances that I happened to hit it off with, but may never see again. I value these relationships, but at the same time, there needs to be significant self-monitoring. Sometimes, I would like to discuss politics or religion with my wider group of friends, but I can't on Facebook, because I have a very diverse audience. Once I disclaimed, "For my Christian friends, what are you views on X?" turned into a flame-fest with a number of my atheist acquaintances dropping by to tell me how illogical my faith was. While I'm not afraid of that conversation, it is a long one, and not the one I was looking for at the time. Ever since then, I have had to self-moderate. No politics, no religion, and god help me if I get drawn into a anti-vaxxer post (it's my kryptonite; I must comment, just like my atheist friends and posts about religion). Pretty much the last month has just been me hiding from Facebook and avoiding my feed like the plague.

    Now, if I had a post privacy option on FB that said "Public/Friends Only/Political Affinity/Religious Affinity/Retard Shots Are teh Devil" I could more freely express my feelings and views, that'd be perfect. So this site has an actual legitimate purpose. Sifting through hundreds of your friends religious and political posts are not really helpful to you, right? If everyone availed themselves of such an option, I think everyone's feeds would be clearer and less irritating; after all, FB is a terrible place to proselytize, for anything.

    That being said, this site looks terrible and I wouldn't use it. But the concept isn't awful, per se.