Slashdot Mirror


User: cptdondo

cptdondo's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
837
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 837

  1. Re: Ah yes... on Texas Ebola Patient Dies · · Score: 1

    The military has troops trained and equipped for exactly this. That's who they're sending.

  2. Re: The whole juror system needs to be abandoned on Study Weighs In On the Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony · · Score: 1

    The trial attorneys I know tell me that shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds really skew juries' expectations of testimony. There's an unrealistic expectation of high-tech magic that's simply not there.

  3. Re:"Talented C students" on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    I'm so smart that I am too smart to show anyone how smart I am.

    And how does that differentiate you from an idiot?

  4. Re:"Talented C students" on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    The problem with "bright" and "bored" is that in the real world, you have to do a lot of "bored" to get stuff done. If all you want is "bright" then you're pretty much a primma donna who will sluff off the boring work to the detriment of the team. Better start that company and make millions being "bright" and avoiding the "bored".

  5. Re:College admissions is not a life-value system on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Having worked my entire working life with both white and blue collar workers, I can tell you that after 20 years or so of manual labor, those men (and increasingly women) suffer from carpal tunnel, bad backs, and all sorts of chronic injuries. A not-insignificant percentage are on disability, unable to hold down any job.

    This is not because they're lazy or faking it.

    Manual labor is hard, and after many years their bodies break down. And chronic injuries don't go away when you retire.

    So yes, you can make a lot of money initially, but there's a price to pay.

  6. Re: Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 1

    FBI crimes database and CDC database of child injuries and deaths.

  7. Re:"This isn't a permanent feature" on Test Version Windows 10 Includes Keylogger · · Score: 1

    I'm trying to find the reference where MS did this before. I'm drawing a blank but ISTR that one of the recent OS releases sent back gobs of encoded data. Vista? 7?

  8. Re:"This isn't a permanent feature" on Test Version Windows 10 Includes Keylogger · · Score: -1, Troll

    Any bets that MS will "forget" to turn this off in the RTM?

  9. Re: I call BS on this one.... on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 2

    Nonpartisan investigations have debunked the vast majority of these claims. There simply is no evidence for significant voter fraud in the us, and thus all the voterid laws are unnecessary and politically motivated.

  10. Re:I call BS on this one.... on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In spite of your rant, the actual amount of voter fraud is miniscule, on the order of a few dozen per national election. And no, illegal aliens only vote in the fevered imaginations of the gonzo right, and not in any reality that doesn't involve paranoid flights of fancy.

  11. Re:Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 1

    I should have added "close relatives and friends of the family"

  12. Re:Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except that.... The "think of the children" thing is BS.

    Well over 50% of all child abuse is perpetrated by mothers, another 30% by fathers. The rest is perpetrated by close relatives (brothers, aunts, and such). The actual "stranger danger" stuff is minimal; about 110 cases a year out of what, 30,000,000 minors.

    So for 110 crimes a year we're supposed to "think of the children" and let Big Brother into all of our communication.

  13. Re:Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Right, like the uproar against the Patriot Act. Oh wait.....

    Let's face it, Big Brother Government knows no political boundaries.

  14. Re:Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to on Microsoft Announces Windows 10 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but it's turning out to be true. Who wudda thunk it?

  15. Re:Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to on Microsoft Announces Windows 10 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Translation:

    It's such a screwed up mess that we don't know how to deal with it, so instead we're going to pull some marketing razzle dazzle and hope like hell people forget the mess we made.

    But the real question is this:

    If every other release sucks, and windows 8 sucked, and windows 9 is so good that it can't even be released, does that mean that Windows 10 will suck?

  16. Re:These people are doing it to themselves on Miss a Payment? Your Car Stops Running · · Score: 1

    Yeah, a person who can't afford $200 for a car payment is going to call for an ambulance ride to the tune of $4,000 or more.

    Do you advise them to eat cake too?

  17. Re:Uhhh on Miss a Payment? Your Car Stops Running · · Score: 1

    It's not that far fetched.

    Many of the cases in this article were people borrowing money on very old vehicles. Having a high-interest car loan on a 10+ year old car is very foolish. Lenders need the protection of this device because the asset being secured is worth so little.

    No, lenders need to make responsible loans.

    This falls in the "I want to make high interest loans to people who can't afford them because I'm a greedy prick, but I want thumb screws on those schmucks to make them pay."

    How about jiust turning away those customers who can't afford the loans?

  18. Re:Fine! on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    You missed the point. The US immigration system is broken, badly, and this just demonstrates it. If a company can use a broken system as leverage to get concessions it's time to start over.

    We in the US depend on the 10 million or so illegal immigrants to keep our economy going, yet we refuse to revise our immigration laws to make it possible for that labor pool to be here legally.

    Not sure what Afghanistan has to do with the whole discussion.

  19. Re:Fine! on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seriously? I got a 3 year work visa to Canada just by showing up at the border with a letter from my employer. The whole process took less than an hour. Canada has logical, common sense immigration controls, as opposed to the completely broken and non-sensical immigration laws that we have in the US.

    In the US, if I got an H1B visa, my wife would not be allowed to work. In Canada, with a work visa, my wife is allowed to work, doing anything she wants. I could go on, but don't tell me Canada has "stricter" controls; Canada has controls that work, while the US has no controls at all - a handful of H1B visas, and millions of illegal workers.

  20. Re:Embedded Linux on Outlining Thin Linux · · Score: 1

    Or OpenWRT.

    I can get an entire working distro into 8MB, and it doesn't have any of the stuff he's complaining about.

  21. Re:Repair on Inside Shenzen's Grey-Market iPhone Mall · · Score: 1

    As someone in manufacturing, you're wrong. Repairable things cost far more to manufacture. I have to have accurate drawings and records of manufacturing processes for parts, I have to have specs for all the little bits and pieces, and I have to have manufacturers who hold that standard.

    If I'm not concerned about repairs, I just contract out based on function, bolt the thing together, and run it out the door.

    Fridges are a great example. I can buy a cheap dorm fridge for $100, or I can buy same-sized Isotherm with a Danfoss compressor for around $1000. The danfoss compressor comes with all the diagrams you need, it's rechargeable, everything in that fridge is replaceable at a cost.

    The dorm fridge - you can't even be sure that the compressor is in the same place from one box to the next.

    However, when I'm stuck in port somewhere in Bogata, I can get parts for the Danfoss. I know I can. 10 years from now I know I will be able to get parts.

  22. Re: Do you really think corporations are going to. on 3 Short Walking Breaks Can Reverse Harm From 3 Hours of Sitting · · Score: 1

    Does your boss really micromanage your time that much?

    Look for a different job. Yeesh.

  23. Re:Science creates understanding of a real world. on How Scientific Consensus Has Gotten a Bad Reputation · · Score: 1

    I have to disagree, even with your "kids in chemistry" example. There are many, many aspects of chemistry that fly in the face of common sense.

    You're basically saying that our "common sense" is the equal to hard science, and that by simply applying it to the visible world we can understand the universe and our environment as well as a person who has studied the topic for years.

    Bottom line, we can't. There are parts of what I do that would be completely obtuse to a layperson, but are clearly obvious to me, with 30+ years of experience, and no amount of "common sense" explanations can reduce that knowledge to a "geez, that's obvious".

  24. vi and arduino on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 2

    That's why I work with vi and arduino, or openwrt.... Much more fun, simple, and I can do almost anything I need done.

    But yes, it's a fixie, not a jumbo jet. It's what I like doing, and I happen to make a living at stuff like that. If you are hired to build a jumbo jet, then you need jumbo tools and jumbo overhead. If you don't like it, scale down, hang up a shingle, and get a client. You might be surprised.

  25. Re:There's something touching about that comment on "Intelligent" Avatars Poised To Manage Airline Check-In · · Score: 1

    In other words, except for the douche, good customer service.

    I fly a regular route with American from a small airport; if I get the usual counter staff I don't get charged luggage fee. Giving up $25 to make a guy who drops $2k - $10K on airfare every month moderately happy is probably not a bad idea. (And no, I have not reached the exalted flyer status, as my flying is spread over many airlines.)