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User: XxtraLarGe

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Comments · 3,134

  1. Re:13 deaths? on Department of Transportation Makes Rear View Cameras Mandatory · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These busy bodies are just thinking too small.

    A lot of the world's problems could be solved by banning busybodies. ;-)

  2. Re:Wales full response on Jimmy Wales To 'Holistic Healers': Prove Your Claims the Old-Fashioned Way · · Score: 2

    Personally, my father is a professor researching the effectiveness of 'alternative medicine', specifically massage & chiropractic techniques for back pain versus pain killers. His research has shown it's effective for back pain, but it's still called alternative medicine right now. What it won't do is cure cancer.

    I go to a chiropractor for neck & back issues. I typically go once or twice a month, though I haven't been for a couple of months due to working extra jobs. It does wonders for getting kinks out & un-pinching nerves. I have some trouble spots that feel much better after an adjustment. I think where chiropractic gets into trouble is with some of their other claims, like helping allergies, etc. I have allergies too, and as far as I can tell, chiropractic has never done anything to help them. I think they should stick to the neck & back claims, because really that should be enough.

  3. Wouldn't it be smarter... on How 3D Printer Maker Aleph Objects Pushes the Open Source Envelope · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To patent and then just openly license? It would prevent others from trying to sue then if their patents were already established, rather than having to go through the process of fighting off a patent troll and attempting to establish prior art.

  4. Re:Model Worship on Mathematician Gives Tips On How To Win $1 Billion On NCAA Basketball · · Score: 2

    I have missed the two #12 over #5 upsets. I should have went ahead and picked the 12 seeds based on historical performance of that seed, but that was not part of my algorithm. Looking back it should have been. Maybe next year I get the Billion!

    I have an office pool, and I'm currently 15/16 (though soon to be 15/17 if Mercer pulls the upset). Unfortunately, I decided to get a little cute in the Billion Dollar Brackets and pick WMU to take Syracuse, and Ohio State to beat Dayton. :-/

  5. Re:Thieves on MtGox Finds 200,000 Bitcoins In Old Wallet · · Score: 2

    Thieves often place stolen goods nearby so they can retrieve them later

    But is it really theft if they didn't actually "take" it? If you're at the store, and you take a jar of peanut butter and later place it on the shelf of the produce aisle, did you shoplift?

  6. Re:Model Worship on Mathematician Gives Tips On How To Win $1 Billion On NCAA Basketball · · Score: 4, Informative

    Tell that to Nate Silver.

    Nate Silver is already out of the running. He picked Ohio State and has them going to the Sweet 16.

  7. Re:Model Worship on Mathematician Gives Tips On How To Win $1 Billion On NCAA Basketball · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm a methematician

    Is that what they're calling cooks these days?

  8. Very timely... on Mathematician Gives Tips On How To Win $1 Billion On NCAA Basketball · · Score: 1

    Great to post this now, since the deadline for entering was 3/20/2014 @ 1 AM. :-/

  9. Re:Science, I think not on More Troubles For Authors of Controversial Acid-Bath Stem Cell Articles · · Score: 1

    Give me the publicantions (sic) and research where Pro-AGW factions engaged in scientific fraud.

    Well, this comes to mind. Why cover up the data? Maybe he was cleared of all wrong-doing, but this was one of the first hits when I searched for "Global Warming Fraud".

  10. Why I didn't upgrade to iOS 7 for a long time. on A Call For Rollbacks To Previous Versions of Software · · Score: 1

    This is exactly why I didn't upgrade to iOS 7 when it came out. I had heard that Apple invalidated the checksum for iOS 6 so you couldn't install it from a backup in case you needed to restore your phone after upgrading. My iPhone 4 worked rock-solid with iOS 6, but I had heard iOS 7 had extremely bad performance on it.

    Since iOS 7.2 was recently released and supposedly offered better performance on the iPhone 4, I decided to roll the dice and install it. No problems so far over the past week (fingers crossed). The only issue I had was Numbers got updated automatically, now making that version incompatible with the version on my iMac running Mountain Lion, so I was basically forced to upgrade that to Mavericks just so I could open spreadsheets on both. Thankfully, the upgrade to Mavericks was pretty smooth too, and my computer actually seems to be running better. That used to be the case with OS X up until the change from Snow Leopard to Lion.

  11. Re:If you need to ask, then for you the answer is on Ask Slashdot: Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? · · Score: 1

    I must agree with this. It's possible for some, but you need to have an explorative mind, that apparently you don't have if you have to ask here.

    Or maybe the guy is just experiencing some self-doubt, and needs some encouragement from others who have faced similar challenges and prevailed.

  12. Re:Very constitutional on Second Federal 'Kill-switch' Bill Introduced Targeting Smartphone Theft · · Score: 1

    Basically, what it comes down to is that, you don't seem to respect the Court's authority to define words in the Constitution that are ambiguous in nature when they don't come to a conclusion that you like. Who exactly does have the right to define "Commerce" and "regulate," then?

    What it comes down to is that if words don't have meaning, then the entire point of having a Constitution to limit the power of government is meaningless. Also, the meaning of those words you ascribe as vague had very clear meanings when written, and were never intended to be used as they are today.

  13. Re:Unconstitutional on Second Federal 'Kill-switch' Bill Introduced Targeting Smartphone Theft · · Score: 1

    The federal government has no constitutional authority to mandate this technology.

    And that has stopped them from doing these things when exactly? Ignoramuses will point to the Interstate Commerce clause, which was specifically put in place to prevent one state from interfering with the commerce of another state (i.e. New York imposing a levy on goods moving from Pennsylvania through New York to Massachusetts, etc.), not the way the SCOTUS has "interpreted" it.

  14. Re:"... as a means to reduce theft." on Second Federal 'Kill-switch' Bill Introduced Targeting Smartphone Theft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, I wondered about that. Wouldn't this be a double-edged sword, for theft? Either discourages theft, or encourages hiding the victim's body so nobody will disable the phone?

    I'm not a robber, but if I was, I'm pretty sure that if I was going to rob someone, I'm going to take their phone regardless of whether it can be bricked or not simply to reduce the likelihood of them calling the cops. In essence, it won't prevent the theft of phones, it will merely prevent the thieves from reselling them. Why not a remote kill switch for Rolexes?

  15. "... as a means to reduce theft." on Second Federal 'Kill-switch' Bill Introduced Targeting Smartphone Theft · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, right. What they want to do is be able to shut down everyone's line of communications just in case the hoi polloi get too uppity.

  16. Re:Why? on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    Is it really so hard to just grind the beans and brew it yourself? I do this every morning.

    Maybe because I like my coffee extra strong, and my wife likes a more mild coffee experience.

    My wife got me an espresso machine several years ago for Christmas. I loved it. I used to buy the whole beans and grind them myself, and make my own espresso, but it -WAS- messy and time consuming. She couldn't do the straight-up espresso, so I had to steam milk for her too. More mess to clean up, and it needs to be done right away. The Keurig allows both of us to have coffee made exactly the way we want it, with minimum mess, all for a decent price.

  17. Re:You just got low expectations on Thief Debuts To Mediocre Reviews · · Score: 1

    There are people who liked Deus Ex: HR but those are exactly the kind of dumbed down console players that would have hated the original Thief and for that matter the original Deus Ex. It is the same people who think Bioshock is a worthy sequel to System Shock.

    Stop generalizing. As a long-time "PC" gamer (I own a Mac), I've played a ton of FPS games dating all the way back to Wolfenstein 3D & Marathon. I loved the original DX, and enjoyed DX: HR quite a bit, though parts of it were disappointing. DX had a lot of replay value that HR didn't, and I hated the fact that you needed to use energy to use your melee attacks.

    I never played System Shock, so I can't say if BioShock series was a worthy sequel, but I thought those were great too. They offered a lot of RPG elements both with the crafting system and the plasmid/vigor upgrades. I BS & DX:HR on the PS3 because they weren't available at launch on the Mac, though I really prefer to play FPS's with keyboard & mouse on the computer.

  18. Re:Vive le Galt! on Mt. Gox Gone? Apparent Theft Shakes Bitcoin World · · Score: 1

    *prominent. Not entirely sure what happened there. Need more coffee.

  19. Re:Vive le Galt! on Mt. Gox Gone? Apparent Theft Shakes Bitcoin World · · Score: 1

    Waiting for the libertarians here to demonstrate why this shows how Bitcoin is such a wonderful idea.

    Actually, there are quite a few prominant libertarians who have argued against it...

  20. Re:I know how to make it go faster... on Speedier Screening May Be Coming To an Airport Near You · · Score: 4, Informative

    How about just going back to a reasonable quick scan on the way to the plane? The whole premise was that anything you could get through such a scan was worthless.

    Yeah, but then how would they be able to justify forcing people to throw away their bottles of water, shampoo, etc.? "That might be a bomb, throw it in that trash can over there!"

    I went to SF for a conference, and bought a snow globe for my in-laws, as is my habit when I travel. They wouldn't let me take it because it could contain "bomb making materials", which is ludicrous. They told me I could either surrender the package, or go to the post office to mail it. If I went to the post office, I'd miss my flight and it was a $4 snow globe, so I told them I'd surrender it. I was highly frustrated and busy putting my stuff together that they had pulled apart, so I was too distracted to notice that they kept not just the snow globe, but the bag that had all of the other souvenirs I had bought, including t-shirts and Ghirardelli chocolates I got for the rest of my family. The TSA is a pack of thieving, security-theater perverts.

  21. Re:More pork? on Speedier Screening May Be Coming To an Airport Near You · · Score: 4, Funny

    The obvious problem is with the existence of the TSA to begin with, but bureaucracy doesn't work to eliminate itself, only to grow and consume ever greater amounts of resources.

    "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy!" - Oscar Wilde

  22. Re:Tomorrow's News on Schneier: Break Up the NSA · · Score: 4, Funny

    Security expert Bruce Schneier was found dead in his home. The cause of death is unknown but police are investigating possible foul play.

    The cause of death has been revealed. Schneier died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Investigators have ruled his death a suicide.

  23. Re:They're atheists... on N. Korea Could Face Prosecution For 'Crimes Against Humanity' · · Score: 1

    Because religious folks would never do anything morally objectionable, like fly planes into buildings, or start wars of choice, or use atomic bombs on cities. Nope... it's only atheists who do awful things.

    Tu quoque!

  24. Re:Pick your favorite amendments! on Rand Paul Files Suit Against Obama Over NSA's Collection of Metadata · · Score: 1

    Rand Paul has open disdain for other amendments of the constitution. He is using the fourth amendment to bring more attention to his presidential aspirations but when his corporate masters tell him later that the fourth amendment gets in the way of profit he will be in a hurry to backpedal.

    Many people have disdain for the certain amendments. So what? Did you like the the 18th amendment? A lot of people didn't, which is why they repealed it. But they followed the Constitutional process for implementing it AND repealing it, which is exactly the way it's supposed to happen. It's sad that some people are more concerned with party affiliation and resort to ad hominem tu quoque than focus on the fact that somebody is trying to stand up for what's right.

  25. Some surprising results on The First Open Ranking of the World Wide Web Is Available · · Score: 1

    Amazon.com is not in the top 10, and MySpace is still in the top 20. Even more baffling, MySpace isn't even in the top 50 of any of the other rankings, so how did they come up with this score?