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User: Zot+Quixote

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  1. The windfall from automation is what is paying for the tax. The idea is we don't fight automation but everyone shares in the windfall. The owners still get a bigger piece but everyone wins.

  2. Re:Write your Congresscritters on McConnell Introduces Bill To Extend NSA Surveillance · · Score: 0

    I've heard the most effective tactic is to write to your local newspaper and mention a few congresspeople who are on the wrong side of this by name. That is much more difficult for elected representatives to ignore. And it can work even if you aren't in that person's district.

  3. Re:republicrats on McConnell Introduces Bill To Extend NSA Surveillance · · Score: -1

    First off, I think there is something to be said for not being a single issue voter. Secondly, I do have to wonder what we should attribute the lack of 9/11 scale attacks in the domestic US since 9/11 too. I'm sincerely asking. I've heard the answer 'People abroad simply don't want to do that any more'. I'm not sure I find that entirely plausible. Of course, that isn't to say that the alphabet agencies are the answer either.

  4. Re:Truth, fiction, stranger than on America's Secret Underground Ice Fortresses · · Score: 0

    Actually, the visuals don't just invoke Empire. Really the original 'The Thing' from the 1950s (based on the John Campbell short story from the 40s) has a shot that looks much like the first one. And I suppose Aliens vs. Predators used a setting that wasn't such a far cry from this as well.

  5. Re:Yes on Are Rich People Less Moral? · · Score: 0

    Just because the two don't always overlap, it doesn't mean they never do. Furthermore, there is ample data to suggest what the 'race to the bottom' exists everywhere there is competition. What little social mobility actually rewards a lack of morals.

  6. Re:Good grief. Religious zealots really annoy me. on Is the Earth Gaining Or Losing Mass? · · Score: 0

    It was a legitimate and interesting statistic not a "green hook".

    > So now burning (hint, just a chemical action) some dead dinosaur is releasing the energy equivilent of 160 TONNES?

    You actually upmodded this as insightful slashdotters? I am sad. Global warming happens not because of combustion of fossil fuels but rather because energy (overwhelmingly solar) gets trapped on the earth. Notice how it is cooler at night than in the day? Ever wonder why? There is this big yellow splotch in the sky. Maybe you noticed it.

    So just to recap, greenhouse gasses, created by burning those fossil fuels trap the sun's energy here on earth and raises the temperature/energy level.

  7. Re:The truth slowly comes out on US Sentinel Drone Fooled Into Landing With GPS Spoofing · · Score: 0

    Our relationship with Pakistan is complicated. I don't think anyone calls them "good" friends, but they are friendly, with adequate social lubricant (financial aid) and that has a lot of huge upsides.

    Also your signature is sort of offensive.

  8. Perspective on The $443 Million Smallpox Vaccine That Nobody Needs · · Score: -1

    Gee, too much vaccine. What an awful problem. Let's impeach Obama!

    I hope we never have to find out if this stuff works, but there might be good reasons to stockpile an experimental vaccine that the armchair presidents of slashdot aren't aware of.

  9. Re:News for nerds?? on The $443 Million Smallpox Vaccine That Nobody Needs · · Score: 0

    Slashdot seems fairly right wing anymore...

  10. Re:Amazed at how long they've lasted on Next-Gen Game Consoles Still Years Off · · Score: 0

    I'm not certain I like the idea of putting the problem of dl speed on to the game designers. I'd rather have physical media and have more options early in a game.

    That said, it would be nice if the next gen had either an SSD or a hybrid SSD/spindle system that you can load the game into and then dispense with the disk. The whole hassle of disk swapping actually makes me not want to buy another console.

  11. Re:Weird abstract... on Next-Gen Game Consoles Still Years Off · · Score: 0

    For Sony and Microsoft to refresh their console lines after only 5 years means taking a huge loss on the last generation of consoles. It took them 3-4 years to stop making a loss on every bit of HW sold, they still haven't paid back the R&D yet. The PS3 in particular really does need a 10 year life span to pay itself off. Both MS and Sony subsidise their console divisions from more profitable areas (OS and Office from MS, TV's and computers for Sony). The hardware was designed to be a loss leader, with the profit being made up in game licensing (this is why BF3 for console is $10-20 more expensive then the same game for PC. There are no per-disc licenses for PC's)

    Nintendo does not have this problem. They made a profit from the word go so they've paid off all costs incurred in producing the Wii. This realistically should put the final nail in the coffin for the PC-alike consoles. Console gamers want actual consoles that are fun to play, not weak PC's with limited control schemes. I dont think we'll see another "high powered" console war like we saw between the Xbox360 and PS3 after the low powered Wii ate their lunch. MS will likely copy Nintendo with the next Xbox. Sony may not be so quick to learn and another loss like the PS3 may sink the PS brand.</p></quote>

    I've heard people make this claim before, and I believe I've also seen it debunked before. Can you cite some sources proving that Sony took a loss on PS3s early in the cycle and that Nintendo didn't on Wiis?

  12. Surprised by a lack of mention of Bushido Blade on The Case For Surrealism In Games · · Score: 0

    As long as we're discussing how characters in game generally take unreal amounts of damage, Bushido Blade is one game that was much better about this. One hit would kill or at least seriously maim you so that you would have to find with a limp or one handed.

    Of course, I don't know how connected this sort of realism is to narratice style. I'd say it is a convention, much like when you go to see a play it is accepted that if the lights go down and the props onstage are changed, the actors are now portraying the characters in a new location/time.

  13. Re:Beginning not an option on Ask Slashdot: How/Where To Start Watching Dr. Who? · · Score: 0

    I believe the First Doctor episodes are still intact. Some of the Second Doctor is missing though.

  14. Re:Let's not let broadband history repeat itself.. on Obama's Goal: 98% of US Covered By 4G · · Score: 0

    The kill switch wouldn't need any fine print. The IP infringement stuff is impossible to police, as well as the NSA and FBI stuff. Big brother does watch, but not in the omniscient way you think. Its simply not logistically possible.

  15. Re:Let's not let broadband history repeat itself.. on Obama's Goal: 98% of US Covered By 4G · · Score: 0

    Or we've taught people to paranoid in the absence of evidence.

    Frankly, I've found it strange that people are so much more suspicious of Obama than they were of Bush. I shouldn't be surprised, the country has the attention span of a kitten with a bad coke habit. Still, just on credibility alone, Obama (a real pragmatist) should have it.

    The bottom line is, there is no substitute for actual critical thinking. Slashdot and other communities are, unfortunately, very prone to groupthink.

  16. Re:Great for middle-class employed people. on Obama's Goal: 98% of US Covered By 4G · · Score: 0

    Actually, the percentage of poor and unemployed is on the decline, in the short term at least.

    And more and better infrastructure tends to benefit everyone, even if that infrastructure only directly impacts a particular class. I don't generally buy into trickle down economics, but infrastructure sets the stage for new businesses to grow.

  17. Re:lip service on Congresswoman Writes On Broadband, Net Neutrality · · Score: 0

    Uh, remember how congress are the ones writing and passing legislation? That might be important before you shoot your mouth off about how this is lip service.

    The occupant of the white house is just responding to last November. This country wants more GOP-like policies and its wants more business friends policy. If you didn't want to have to pay extra for your pron you should've voted last fall.

  18. Re:wrong way round on Wikileaks and Democracy In Zimbabwe · · Score: 0

    Look, I understand the ideal you're going for, but the world isn't cookie cutter perfect. Are you really going to adhere to your ideals when real lives are at stake?

    In addition, I'm concerned with the fragile peace in Iraq. It may be inevitable that Iraq will descend into civil war, but the cables probably don't help matters.

  19. The take of someone who is anti-IP law on Court Upholds Blizzard's Anti-Bot DMCA Claim, Denies Copyright Infringement · · Score: 1

    I get that this may be further appealed again, but it does seem like the right decision. I might have ideological problems with bots like Glider, but secondary infringement? Really?

    Then again, there is still part of the decision I'm not a fan of with the violation of:

    The first provision, 17 U.S.C. &#167; 1201(a)(1)(A), is a general
    prohibition against &ldquo;circumventing a technological measure
    that effectively controls access to a work protected under [the
    Copyright Act].&rdquo;

    Though the court is right, it was violated. Its just a bad law.

  20. Re:Premature Celebration on New Molecule Could Lead To Better Rocket Fuel · · Score: 0

    Yeah, I'm not sure I really understand the idea behind purposed research. I mean, I guess you can focus on the problem you're trying to solve, but isn't this more of an engineering issue than a research problem?

  21. Re:eh on Senate Confirms Elena Kagan's Appointment To SCOTUS · · Score: 0

    Probably yeah. Because the context is pretty weak tea. Dems have confirmed some pretty sucko Republican nominees.

    In this world their are those who take advantage (Republicans), those who try to stop them (Democrats), and those who are too stupid to tell the difference (you).

  22. Re:eh on Senate Confirms Elena Kagan's Appointment To SCOTUS · · Score: 0

    Significant body of legal scholarship? She was a Dean at Harvard.

  23. Re:Spoiler Alert on Behind the Special Effects of Inception · · Score: 0

    Wow, that's kind of a fresh and interesting interpretation. Sort of makes me like the film a little more which, at risk of getting flamed/downmodded, I found kind of mediocre. No I don't agree with Armond White or anything, but I do think the reviewer who said, "I can't see what all the excitement is about" summed up my feelings.

    Oh yeah, and for what its worth, I've studied film and literary criticism before.

  24. Re:United States Government Accountability Office? on Top Secret America · · Score: 0

    I have no idea why you are being downvoted. You're absolutely right.

    *sigh* I think the day I realized there were white supremacists on slashdot was the day I realized Prince is right. The internet is dead.

  25. Re:Christmas special? on Matt Smith Leaving Doctor Who Already? · · Score: 0

    Pretty much right on all accounts. To be fair, Moffat has enough interesting things happening that the hand waving is tolerable for me, but its still pretty juvenile. I know, I know, target audience. But...we could aspire to more. It'd be nice if there were some actual hard science fiction shows on television. And it'd be nice if, given that Doctor Who can't possibly be one now, it at least incorporated some of those elements, stopped introducing new techno-elements and gave you a reason to watch.

    Also, exploring history can be that reason. I'm having trouble articulating what I think the right way to do that is, but I would say it was achieved in 'Vincent and the Doctor' but not in 'Vampires of Venice'.

    Anyways, if Smith does leave, an older more serious actor might be interesting. Just a thought.