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User: hackwrench

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Comments · 5,832

  1. Don't let it get out! on Linux Boots on Treo 650 · · Score: 1

    We don't want people to know that porting Linux is just that easy!

  2. Major leap forward? on Linux Boots on Treo 650 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but getting something to display the penguin logo is not a major leap forward for anything. Furthermore the display of the pengin logo is not proof of linux running.

  3. Dadh Ath, of course! on What Makes a Good Web Font · · Score: 1
  4. international competition is also ignored on Apple Holding Back the Music Business? · · Score: 1

    Yes, but ignoring the impact of international sales on domestic product allows them to claim that the decline of demand for domestic product that is actually the result of international sales is the fault of their favorite scapegoats. The RIAA is doing a lot of handwaving by attributing sales not made due to customers legitimately obtaining product from other producers and sources to scapegoats that Congress will be more sympathetic about, thus allowing them to force lockdown mechanisms on the customer that makes it harder for them to fully utilize their legitimate non-sanctioned by the RIAA products.

  5. Re:Experiment Proposal on Chimpanzees Beat out Children in Reasoning Test · · Score: 1

    Demonstrating that someone does badly in a given environment at discovering things, doesn't show anything conclusively, Maybe the environment was bad for that sort of thing, or maybe the instructions were bad. Maybe the environment they had been in up til then left them poorly prepared for this scenario, and thus would take a lot of work to overcome. There was a paper handed out in school that said "Read all the instrictions first", and the last instruction said something like "Don't follow any of the instructions and turn the paper in". I noted that there wasn't an instruction to follow the instructions out of order, so an argument could be made that the correct procedure to follow was to do all the instructions anyways.

  6. Unified shading on HD Era Doesn't Start Till Sony Says So · · Score: 1
  7. Re:Just curious on Working Designs Shuts Its Doors · · Score: 1

    First the thief or thieves came in one night and stole two laptops. I think the thief or thieves may have lived in my apartment before. I hadn't lived in the apartment long, and the landlord said they didn't have the key when I signed the lease, which should have been a warning sign right there. I was moving from a group home, and was directed to that landlord by the mental health group "The Nord Center" which have acted criminally to wards me since then, but I degress.
    The thieves came and went as they pleased after the first time, not that the landlord or "The Nord Center" cared, tearing up stuff. There was one thing I got blamed for, and I think the people doing the blaming were the thieves. The Nord Center sided with them for some unexplained reason.

  8. They should release their back library for the PC on Working Designs Shuts Its Doors · · Score: 1

    Just the other day, I was lamenting my loss of my entire media library to theft, and specifically pointed out the Lunar Playstation titles. As money came available, I'd buy PC emulations of those titles, an emulation of the original Lunar for the Sega CD, and the next Lunar title, plus consider other titles of theirs.

  9. The new internatial competition is also ignored. on Apple Holding Back the Music Business? · · Score: 1

    I listen to more music from other nations, Japan mostly, and the RIAA isn't encouraging me to buy native.

  10. FF Comparison on The Hassles of FFXI on the 360 · · Score: 1
  11. To Shower Re:Drop in the Bucket on DirectTV to Pay $5.4M in Privacy Fines · · Score: 1

    I'm not a lawyer, but it may be possible for DirectTV to then turn around and sue the telemarketers they hired for damages, thus putting the telemarketers out of commission for hiring.

  12. Re:Time for another breakup? on Telcos Propose 2-Tier Internet · · Score: 1

    There are two uses for the phrase "monopolistic practices", practices in use by a entity holding monopoly and practices which tend to make the market more characteristic of that of a monopoly. I was using the latter, and the original post apparently was using that sense.

    I clarify the first definition, by saying that it is usually further refined to refer to those practices by the entity holding the monopoly that specifically utilizes that entity's monopoly position.

  13. Re:Time for another breakup? on Telcos Propose 2-Tier Internet · · Score: 1

    Until contracts based on things being the way they are elapse, the situation proposed by the Telcos would be on new infrastructure only. However, I know of nothing stopping the Telcos from building infrastructure for their use only. There's lots of room for guarenteed minimum bandwith contracts.

    In my book, when those who are trying to get away with what they can to make as much money as possible engage in consolidation practices, that is monopolistic.

  14. Power cables don't really "go" bad. on Top 10 System Administrator Truths · · Score: 5, Insightful

    from bending them around and whatnot, they develop breaks that can get pushed back together. This is what causes the problem to be intermittent. The cable 'is' bad, not going bad. People need to be more careful in wrapping their cords up. There should be a little bit of slack in the loops or else the slightest bit of pressure will cause them to develop a break.

  15. Wrong with selling out on Yahoo Updates Konfabulator · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Consulting my copy of the Encyclopedia of Fantasy yields the following: "pacts with the devil", "read the small print", and quibbles.

    I was looking for the entry that effectively means "too high a price", but gave up

  16. Re:prima facie way of knowing what to believe? on The Register Takes Aim at Wikipedia Again · · Score: 1

    When I pick up a Merriam-Webster dictionary to find the definition or spelling of a word I believe not that the definition or spelling is "correct" but that it is highly likely that it is based on some sort of process to discern common usage. If I hear something frequently but it isn't in the dictionary I'm not going to go around telling people that it isn't a word. This sort of thing always a sliding scale for me. On the other hand, if something meshes with what I already know, I'm going to figure that it is likely to have a high degree of accuracy.

    There is very little that I believe in full, and I know what to believe only with varying degrees of certainty.

  17. prima facie way of knowing what to believe? on The Register Takes Aim at Wikipedia Again · · Score: 1

    This is a new concept to me. Maybe you'd like to write a wikipedia article on it.

    But seriously, while I have heard people talk about such a thing, they haven't had much interest in making a case for such a thing, and the case generally amounts to "Well, it's plain common sense!"

  18. Wikipedia reliability on The Register Takes Aim at Wikipedia Again · · Score: 1

    Some parts of Wikipedia are more reliable than others, and in different ways.

    If you measure reliability by how factual an entry is, there are many entries that cite the sources, but there are also those that don't. Of those that don't, there are some that can be checked against various online and offline sources.

    If you measure reliability by how many perspectives a given topic is addressed, you run into similar issues.

    If you measure reliability by how understandable it is to the common man, again there are issues and differing degrees.

    One can also measure reliability on how well Wikipedia gets you up to speed on a topic, and how well upon arriving on an article you can find the articles containing the prerequisite material to understand the article.

    Then there's the reliability of being able to tell to what degree an aticle is reliable. Some articles it's clear that it is reliable, and some it isn't. Furthermore, some articles have sections that are reliable and can be demonstrated reliable while other sections aren't.

  19. Nah, it'd still be cool. (wikilaw) on The Register Takes Aim at Wikipedia Again · · Score: 1

    There'd still be juries to decide whether the law is reasonable and what the punishment should be. Every infringement is a chance to reevaluate the law. Revert wars and vandalism might get certain people temporarily or permanently banned from being able to edit certain portions of the law.

    Note: the word "vandalism" is abused a lot by various wikipedia editors to refer to edits they dislike.

  20. Wikipedia:What I do on Yahoo Tops Portal Market In Visitors · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I've said this before on Slashdot, but anything I'd go to Yahoo or DMOZ for, I go to Wikipedia instead.

  21. Re:Assumptions... on New Ocean being Formed in Africa · · Score: 1

    I've taken an objective look, and take objective looks from time to time. The very fact that you think I haven't taken an objective look only serves to illustrate my point.

    How can you defend current practitioners as being pure of the practices you accuse me of when it comes so easily to you to believe that such practices are widespread enough that it would be likely that that is what I am doing?

    I don't need to justify to myself my stance on anything. If I am to be judged, let me be judged for what I am. It is more important for me to become right than to be right.

    I am reading the Satanic Bible. My relatives would all tell me that it is a "bad idea". Why then do I read it? I need to what the truth actually is. Some of the statements in the Satanic Bible are true, and some are false. I have to know why the true statements are true and why the false statements are false.

  22. But my point is... on New Ocean being Formed in Africa · · Score: 1

    No data to substatiate the million year claim was presented, not even the secondary category of anecdotal evidence. My anecdote was presented as an abstraction of the much larger problem, not as the clinching evidence to prove my point. I've seen the same behavior with other medical staff, from staff at stores, textbook writers...

    It's part of a much wider epidemic of current society in general.

  23. Re:Trifecta! (moderation) on NASA to Privatize ISS Missions? · · Score: 1

    The system is so broken that I've started meta-modding all moderations unfair, as they can only be that in this unfair system. You can do it too!

  24. Proxy: Google Web Accelerator on Webhost Sues Google · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google Web Accelerator is a proxy, so one would only expect a number of same IP's from AdWords, since the same people that would use Google Web Accelerator are the same people that would click on an AdWords link, especially for an ISP.

  25. Re:Assumptions... on New Ocean being Formed in Africa · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    No, I would not like to propose a more tangible and accurate estimate. That's my point. They are providing an estimate that has no degree of accuracy, which is to say that they are pulling numbers out of thin air. People pull numbers out of thin air all the time. You're just making stuff up as well. You haven't talked to these people, so you don't know.

    The scientific community never waits. If they did, it might be an improvement. When given the choice between waiting and making stuff up, they are perfectly capable of making stuff up. Usually the choices are much more varied, though. On the other hand, when they do make stuff up it is usually for cannon-fodder to feed the common man and not in journals. They do this to impress the common man into thinking how fabulous they are, thus feeding their egos. I take ADD meds and Quetiapine, the latter ostensibly for anxiety disorder. I have increased anxiety or frustration due to difficulties caused by the ADD, but when my therapist tells the Psychologist that I appear more anxious, does he talk to me about it and treat the ADD better? No he goes off in his own make-believe land and decides to up the Quetiapine without input from me.