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User: Anguirel

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Comments · 496

  1. Re:Interesting technology on Microsoft-Funded Startup Aims To Kill BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 1

    And the next version, Windows 8, won't even play your media files unless you pay extra.

    This is a actually good thing -- you get to decide if you want to pay the license fee, instead of having it bundled in. You should be supporting this ala-carte style opt-in feature set, as you get to vote with your wallet against the closed-source DRM of DVDs by not even paying for the underlying tech every time you get an OS (and in particular, even when you get the OS for a computer incapable of even playing DVDs as it has no optical drive as would be the case otherwise).

  2. Re:So on Connecticut Resident Stopped By State Police For Radioactivity · · Score: 1

    Absolutely not. There should be minimal numbers of police, just enough to handle serious (actual) crimes. They can butt out of the rest. I do not want the police involved in my life, period. This leads to tyranny every single time.

    Yep, it's horrible when a traffic light goes out and police step in to direct traffic until repairs are completed. Tyrants!

  3. Re:Better than the last place I worked at on Ask Slashdot: Open Source Multi-User Password Management? · · Score: 1

    There is not now, nor will there ever be, a language in which it is difficult to write bad programs.

    Don't be silly... there are plenty of languages where it's difficult to write any program.

  4. Re:Will it work? on Inexpensive Nanosheet Catalyst Splits Hydrogen From Water · · Score: 1

    No other power source has the potential for disaster that nuclear does. They were seriously considering evacuating Tokyo until they got Fukushima under some semblance of control. Name anything else that you can't plan for (hydro) that has the potential to force the evacuation of a city 100 miles away.

    No problem: Coal.
    Previously: Also coal. Oil.
    Future: [insert image of SimCity 2000 Microwave Plant mis-fire here]

    IIRC, Fukushima is an old design that was already running beyond its originally estimated life span. Modern reactor designs are set up such that an emergency situation would cause reactor shut down -- they need a constant controlled feed to maintain the reaction, rather than a needing a constant controlled feed to limit the reaction. Shut down the entire control system in some catastrophic fashion and it'll quietly shut itself down. Can the containment be breached? Sure, a significant enough event could do that... Of course, a significant enough event could shatter a major dam and cause destruction all downriver.

    I'm a big fan of Solar and Wind power, and I don't see any particular way those are likely to cause any sort of failure-disaster on the scale of anything else (at least until we're beaming it in from space), which is nice... However, I see modern Nuclear Fission reactors being relatively reasonable as a middle-point and as something that can help easily absorb loads when wind or solar have poor generating conditions -- of course, if you aren't running it at full capacity, it becomes rather expensive to maintain just as a back-up generation method, which could be problematic without government funding (or at least regulation for the general power grid architecture to require enough funding get to the back-up systems).

    Nuclear is radioactive, it is lethal even through walls and miles of distance. We build massive amounts of redundancy in because of this. Yet you claim it isn't more dangerous than other sources?

    Nuclear is not lethal through walls or miles of distance any more than anything else that can contaminate ground water -- it's the contamination that's a problem, and you see that with any chemical-consuming power plant. A hydro-fracking-related accident could potentially generate an earthquake to level a city (unlikely), or seriously contaminate an aquifer causing the entire region, and possibly all areas down-stream, to be unlivable (quite possible). Or an under-water drilling operation could impact, say, a gulf in the ocean, contaminating all of the fish caught there to the point where people starve. And I already pointed out the coal fire. So yeah, I'm quite willing to say Nuclear isn't necessarily more dangerous than all other sources. Just differently dangerous.

  5. Re:National Science Tests on Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test · · Score: 1

    Until private schools are required to accept and retain any student a public school would be required to take on (including those requiring special education or otherwise having additional needs, but allowing for extreme discipline problems to be removed), there's no way to compare them effectively, especially on a per-pupil cost basis. If you only have model students that require a bare minimum of effort to teach, your numbers will always look better. If you have students that require an aide on a regular basis on top of normal class time, and that take teacher attention away from the class to ensure they don't fall behind... you're spending disproportionate funds for some students, so the per-pupil costs go up... and if they don't go up, then you're not spending as much on the model students as the private school is.

    Bottom line: If private schools that accepted vouchers were required to take any student from their area... they'd be public schools, and they'd very likely do even worse than public schools do, since with all of their current cherry-picking advantages they still can't really beat the best public schools.

  6. Re:National Science Tests on Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bad private schools get better, or die.

    Or reject or expel students that make them look bad.

  7. Re:Beware of dynamic languages for large projects. on Ask Slashdot: What Language Should a Former Coder Dig Into? · · Score: 1

    Having worked QA for lots of different types of programmers, the guys who write 10x the tests to catch every code path may spend more time on the first write of the code... but they spend less time on the project in total. They seemed to find the weird design issues immediately because they had to consider all of those tests and what their implications were, so they did fewer refactors later. They spent a hell of a lot less time on bug fixes (at least from my reports), because their automated tests caught all the basic stuff long before I got a crack at it. While I initially saw it as a mindset (100% unit test code coverage) in a team of Ruby programmers, the Ruby guys infected the C++ team with it, and that team's bug counts and development time dropped significantly (after an initial spike) from implementing those tests. In my opinion, writing those extra tests isn't a waste of time for a long-term project - it's a time-saver on all sides, and assuming the compiler will "catch those problems automatically" is a bad habit some programmers get into, and it usually causes problems down the line.

  8. Re:P2P had no effect on music sales? on What Various Studies Really Reveal About File-Sharing · · Score: 1
  9. Re:Toddler Groping is Better than Rand Paul on Rand Paul Has a Quick Fix For TSA: Pull the Plug · · Score: 1

    Well, that may just be because they open-carry instead...

  10. Re:More importantly on How Good Are Robo-Graders? · · Score: 1

    Tell them that half the population is below any average and they will tell you that you are below average.

    They might also be right, since you are wrong. For example, the vast majority of the population has an above average (mean) number of limbs. You'd need to have a Bell Curve or something similar to get half above and half below the average. I'm inclined to think more examples exist where things don't fall into place nicely, and therefore on average (hah!) it won't be exactly half the population that is below the average.

  11. Re:Check the party breakdowns ... on House Passes CISPA · · Score: 1

    Obama has issued a veto threat.

    Might as well spent a minute or two letting him know that you think he should indeed veto the bill.

    Or at least go sign the petition.

  12. Re:"Not voting" on House Passes CISPA · · Score: 1

    Or worse, did they vote "N" because they didn't think this bill was sufficient and wanted additional measures added?

  13. Re:Good luck on Phoronix Confirms GNU/Linux Steam and Source Engine Clients · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget the mandatory client that wastes resources, bombards you with ads and adds minutes to the start-up time of games unless you always keep it running; and who wouldn't want to have an app running that logs what software you have installed and what/when/how long you play.

    Optional, optional, and necessary. Unless a game has additional DRM that requires a Steam connection, you can launch it directly, skipping the steam process entirely. Not all games are set up for that, but it isn't inherent with Steam. I haven't used them in a while, but I believe the installed shortcuts are usually of this type. Ads that you might be "bombarded" (where "bombard" means one box that shows up only once after you have played a game and has multiple ads in it which are not shown again after being viewed) are in the Settings menu under "Interface" - bottom check box for "Notify me".

    I'm guessing your "adds minutes to start time" is for required run-once updates that actually do matter, mostly with how various Side-by-Side libraries work. If you have DirectX 9.0c August 2011 edition (for example), you might still be unable to run a game that requires DirectX 9.0c July 2011 edition. Visual C++, .Net, and similar shared libraries that need to be installed also tend to have the same system -- a given version doesn't necessarily include all of the variants prior, and the differences between versions can be enough to cause games to break, so they only allow the specific version they were built with to run. Skipping that "minutes added" is like skipping any installer. Your game won't work at all. Occasionally the scripting on them breaks and it will run these multiple times instead of only on the first launch. That's a bug, and there are partial remedies for when it happens (like changing the config file appropriately to say "already did that").

    If you mean something else, you'll have to describe it. I've never had any problem launching a game which was downloaded from Steam where it caused the game to take much longer than a non-Steam install to launch.

  14. Re:Chronic Depression, type 1 diabetes, on Computer Game Designed To Treat Depression As Effective As Traditional Treatment · · Score: 1

    The Sickle-Cell mutation is a genetic benefit in areas with high rates of Malaria. When you contract Malaria, the blood cells that are infected change shape and are removed from your blood stream. Sickle-Cell Anemia is what happens when you have too much of that trait (in this case, it's pretty simple -- just get it from both parents) -- your blood cells change shape even when not infected, leaving you too weak.

    Without Trait: Die of Malaria
    With 1 copy of trait: Survive
    With 2 copies: Die of Sickle-Cell Anemia

    With no autism: No chance for single-focus obsessive capabilities with some aspects of math and science enhanced
    With some of the autism-causing trait: Incredible obsessive focus coupled with some re-wiring in the brain which has been known to sometimes enhance mathematical cognitive capabilities
    With more of the autism-causing trait: High-functioning Autism like Temple Grandin
    Even more: People who are entirely shut off from the world

    So yes, some level of "Autism" is a useful trait.

  15. Re:Seems partly justified on Judge Grudgingly Awards $3.6 Million In DRM Circumvention Case · · Score: 1

    But that part is not unconstitutional in and of itself, unless you'd like to call a $200 award "cruel and unusual punishment". Stupid laws, sadly, can still be allowed under the constitution as long as they fall under the appropriate powers granted to the Congress.

  16. Re:Baloney on Magical Thinking Is Good For You · · Score: 1
  17. Re:Was he really naive enough to expect otherwise? on Whistleblower In Limbo After Reporting H-1B Visa Fraud At Infosys · · Score: 1

    That would make more sense. Lex makes all of his gadgets out of Kryptonite to stop Superman, so he'd be completely unprepared to fight Jesus. Brilliant strategy.

  18. Re:Portion size is only part of the problem on Book Review: The Information Diet · · Score: 1

    Probably something more like the Alamo Drafthouse. The theater/bar/restaurant combo is actually pretty awesome.

  19. Re:Yoda says.... on EA Defends Itself Against Thousands of Anti-Gay Letters · · Score: 1

    No one forces people to see heterosexual relationships

    Except every single game, movie, book, show or play that has a relationship in it.

    oh look, guys having sex!

    Oh look, guy and girl having sex!

    Funny, previews didn't mention this, box/poster didn't say a word, and yet.... it's there.... and your justification is that since a man and woman are having a relationship in the movie/game that i should have to watch two guys going at it?

    Did they advertise that there would be relationships and/or sexual content? It's your own fault for assuming that meant purely straight relationships and sexual content. If not, you might have a reasonable argument... but not against the presence of homosexual relationships, but of relationships in general being part of the game.

    If there's a man and a woman in a relationship and that's expected in whatever media you are consuming, and a gay person has to watch that, then yeah, sure, you get to watch the homosexual one in that same whatever. I don't see a problem with that.

  20. Re:Just wait... on Egypt Banned Porn, But How Much of the Internet Is That? · · Score: 1

    There is no genuine meaningful support for any theocratic movement in the United States except in the fever swamps of the imagination on the left and among some deluded atheists.

    I respectfully disagree. A plurality of the voting populace wanted a man who literally said he spoke to God and believed he was divinely inspired or on a mission from God in the office of President, and to lead the country in a fashion after that ideal. Theocracy is a form of government in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. We elected such a person... twice... into the role of President. Therefore, there is meaningful support for a theocracy in the United States. Q.E.D.

  21. Re:Just wait... on Egypt Banned Porn, But How Much of the Internet Is That? · · Score: 1

    This is why I have little sympathy for the Iranians. They're protesting now, but you have to ask "What did you think you were getting when you demanded rule by Ayatollah?"

    Probably they were hoping for something better than when they'd tried to install something much closer to a democratic parliamentary system and the U.S. and British special forces executed a coup because they didn't like the nationalization of the oil fields that happened.

  22. Re:Why Ask Them To Vote On What To Archive? on Tensions Between Archivists and 'Occupy' Protesters Over Preserving the Movement · · Score: 1

    I don't know what you mean by "bringing the war to American soil." The last time there was war on American soil was the Civil War, discounting Pearl harbor and 911.

    Well, I suppose there's the "War" on Drugs and "War" on Terrorism. Both are against our own citizens, and are waged on American soil.

  23. Re:Excellent on Teacher's Aide Fired For Refusing To Hand Over Facebook Password · · Score: 1

    If I ask you for the password to your work e-mail, and you give it to me, I am still not authorized by your employer (the owner of the system) to access your e-mail. As you were complicit in the arrangement, we could both be found guilty of computer fraud. If I asked and you refused, I could still be found guilty of conspiracy to commit computer fraud.

  24. Re:Was anyone suprised? on House Kills Effort To Stop Workplace Requests For Facebook Passwords · · Score: 1

    It would be soliciting, so yes, it would probably fall under Conspiracy laws.

  25. Re:What kind of congress is that? on Congress Capitulates To TSA; Refuses To Let Bruce Schneier Testify · · Score: 1

    Well, we can't seem to get TSA installed in airports outside our country to check people before they arrive, so we have a quid-pro-quo sort of thing. They check for people entering our country, and we check for people entering theirs.