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User: rwiedower

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Comments · 127

  1. Re:Libertarians? on The Hidden Swing State? · · Score: 1

    Um, those are Libertarian ideals, not necessarily Naderish ideals. I would assume that most Libertarians would subscribe to the caveat emptor theory of marketplaces, where car companies could say whatever they want to about their product, but would be judged by the market. (E.g. if GM was caught lying about its vehicles, less people would buy them as opposed to having the goverment legislate a solution).

    Not that I agree with either stance, but being pro-consumer is at odds with the Libertarian stance in many instances due to government regulations that (rightly or wrongly) seek to help consumers at the expense of manufacturers.

    Naderites might wish to decriminalize drugs, but they sure as hell would want the government to regulate their quality to ensure they were safe. Which sounds reasonable to me...

  2. Re:Libertarians? on The Hidden Swing State? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is probably why the Kerry folks might take the Naderites more seriously than the Badnarikians. The whole purpose of the Free State Project is to have less government pandering and intervention. The libertarians don't want promises from Bush or Kerry, besides the idea of respecting everyone's rights. The Nader folks, on the other hand, do want the government to step in and legislate solutions to problems over the environment, corporate law, etc.

  3. I'll Tell You Why on Daily Show's Viewers Best O'Reilly's In Political Quiz · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Because when you go to CNN and click on the article there's a link saying "pop quiz". I took it, thinking that it would be the Annenberg quiz and that I could test myself against it.

    Wrong.

    Instead, it was an idiotic CNN poll "quiz" about how many times the people on Leno make fun of Bush or Kerry. 7 Questions. All stupid. Probably someone who watches a lot of Leno/Letterman made up such a silly, unnewsworthy CNN poll...

  4. Re:How do they know? on Vint Cerf and Others Form Advocacy Group · · Score: 1

    That doesn't make sense at all. If that were true, every catholic would be against the Iraq war, anti-choice, against condoms, etc.

    Catholics, like everyone else, can have different opinions on different subjects.

    And as an Episcopalian (like that other, older Bush), I think calling protestant churches "pro-abortion" isn't correct at all. Again, most church leaders (bishops/clergy/etc.) from all the protestant churches in America met with the president on the eve of the war to urge him against it. Yet I am sure that many of those in their congregations were pro-war.

    Catholic or protestant, people are free to make up their own minds about chruch orthodoxy. Or science.

  5. Re:no no no no on Help Select Questions for Bush and Kerry · · Score: 1

    Along with changes to the "system", why not add in a line about why the District of Columbia doesn't have a representative with a vote in Congress?

  6. Re:I can think of another... on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow · · Score: 0, Redundant

    That comment, however, was extremely funny!

  7. Re:GOP'ed words on Republican Senators May 'Go Nuclear' · · Score: 1

    What is the correct was the say it?

    I hope you're joking....

  8. Re:Why the quotes? on New Bush Guard Records Released · · Score: 1

    There's no conspiracy. I watched 60 Minutes II last night and I felt that was what was in the memo. I should've said Killian thought Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" to get approval.

    Sorry for the error. In my mind "over his head" and "talking to someone upstairs" are not that far apart, but I should not have used quotes in that manner.

  9. Re:Virals and sweeps... on Did You VoteOrNot.org? · · Score: 1

    The entire point is that they are trying to get people to register to vote. So the simple way to check would be to check the voter registration rolls for the city in question. They'll have to do this anyway because of the way the contest is setup. So it's no trouble at all.

  10. Slashdot Them? on Daily Electoral Predictions · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, given /. tendencies...we'll probably bring them down shortly, ensuring that no one has access to their information.

  11. Re:As a former teacher, I agree--it's not fixable on The Underground History of American Education · · Score: 1

    Otto Van B. might disagree with you...

  12. Re:For Free Publicity? on MST3K Rightsholders Sue Over Theater Commentary · · Score: 1

    I meant insistence, not instance.

  13. For Free Publicity? on MST3K Rightsholders Sue Over Theater Commentary · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Mallon says Best Brains declined the licensing, but that Alamo and the comedians did not want to stop using the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" likeness. "We just want them to stop using our name," he says.

    They should just call it Austin Theater and leave it at that. It was their instance on keeping the MST3k name that got Best Brains angry. The name "Mister Sinus" is obscure enough to cause confusion to anyone who didn't get the MST3K reference, which would be unnecessary unless they were just trying to drum up publicity. Oh, wait...

  14. Re:Yeah, I better get things patched on Malformed Packet Causes Cisco Router DoS · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...outer. Whew. It's a good thing that man-in-the-middle-attack is working like a charm now.

  15. Re:Minor Point on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    Silicon Image 3512. Still no support yet. But it works fine under Red Hat 9, supposedly. Grr.

  16. Re:Minor Point on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    Bugzilla bug filed right here.

  17. Re:The Gimp on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    Yes. I'd love to just use the Gimp, but Photoshop is in a league of its own. And I'm not sure there even is a comparable package like InDesign.

  18. Minor Point on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 3, Informative

    When you buy a new PC, Windows comes pre-installed on it. You don't have to go through the process that Linux requires. The hardware manufacturer already rejected modem X, figured out that Wi-Fi adapter Y is the one to include with the computer, etc. The OEM did all the hard work for you. Even when you give a user the Windows XP CD to install, he is already ahead of the game in that he knows the OEM already configured the hardware to work with XP.

    Just a minor point, but the last time I ordered a new amd64 shuttle box, I requested it dual-boot XP and the 64 bit version of fedora core 2. XP was no problem, but fedora didn't support the SATA chipset contained within the box, so I either had to go with an older IDE based hard drive or just go with XP until the driver was updated by the manufacturer of the chipset. I chose to keep my snazzy new SATA drive and wait for linux to catch up. That was four months ago.

    Sometimes the problem isn't that "most" people will have a problem with linux distros, but that the cutting edge technology folks aren't able to get linux support for simple things like chipsets. Once I get SATA support, I'll be the first to install a 64 bit version of linux. Until then, it's XP for me...

  19. U.S. Person on Google IPO Open for Registration · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thanks to google, I finally know what a U.S. Person is!

    Who knew a "branch of a foreign entity located in the United States" counted?

  20. Re:can I have some clarification on Google IPO Open for Registration · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's some information on how an IPO works. As for what google means, that's just silly.

  21. Sigh on Google IPO Open for Registration · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Whoa. Is slashdot slashdotted? Did someone at google googlebomb it? Wacky stuff!

  22. Re:Basic precaution on Democratic Convention Computer Security Threat? · · Score: 1

    Principal problem, I mean. If only I had an editor...

  23. Re:Basic precaution on Democratic Convention Computer Security Threat? · · Score: 1

    This is my principle problem with the article in question. The actual people running the convention only get a brief paragraph in the end saying this:


    Lina Garcia, press secretary for the Democratic convention, refused to say whether such a system is in place in the FleetCenter. Indeed, she refused to offer any details about computer security plans, to keep potential intruders in the dark.

    But Garcia insisted the Democrats have the computer security situation well in hand, with the help of security specialists from Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. ''People can rest assured that we are aware of the need for a strong security system for our technology infrastructure," said Garcia, reading from a prepared statement, ''and we are working with our partners, Cisco and Microsoft, to ensure that our systems remain secure."

    I mean, come on. The reporter could have at least included one security "expert" who could've mentioned how incredibly easy it would be to secure this problem...but that would then undermine their entire reason for righting the article. I can't believe the Globe published this tripe.

  24. Work Computers on Doom 3 System Requirements Revealed · · Score: 1

    I personally spec'd out the machines at my office, and all have 512mb of memory. I'm not sure why you'd need a gig of memory unless you were doing a great deal of image/video editing. For my users, 512mb is massive overkill, but it means that they should be able to use these machines for at least 5 years. (All they do is word processing and internet surfing.)

    On the plus side, it means we're already compliant for Doom 3. Yay!

  25. Re:Move on to free sources for the same informatio on Searching for The New York Times · · Score: 1

    And to clarify, if a search engine (like Google) caches the original article url, that url will remain valid ad infinitum. So claiming that the WaPo is like the WSJ or NYT is a blatant misunderstanding of how the Post archive system works.

    Yes, if you want an article published from 1982, you have to pay for it at the Post. But the gains made in the web era more than outweigh that small inconvenience. Unless you're just blinding searching through the WaPo archive, chances are you can find an original url which will be free of the archive wall.