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User: MMC+Monster

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Comments · 2,045

  1. Re:They should switch it to "devuan" on Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 Will Be Rolling-Release · · Score: 2

    It's good for Linux Mint (any edition) to wait on systemD for now. Waiting for stability is always a good thing.

    But... Linux Mint is the type of system where systemD would be best suited for. Desktop/laptop computers with a focus on the end user rather than server maintainers.

  2. Re: Backpedalled? on New Jersey Gov. Christie: Parents Should Have Choice In Vaccinations · · Score: 1

    And I hope you stay so lucky. I am a physician and know how all my local hospitals do things. Perhaps your hospital is different.

    The fact of the matter is: medical records are becoming more and more shared between different institutions. One of the local hospital systems near me is buying a $50million system that will integrate all records from the hospital, ER, physician offices, and pharmacies all into a single database so that mistakes in prescriptions don't happen. The other three hospital systems near me are spending an order of magnitude more for even more complex systems.

    Very soon (5 year horizon) those databases will be shared with whichever ER or office you go into around the country.

    Hopefully the records at your local hospital say that you:
    1 - Are not allergic to PCN, just intollerant.
    2 - Received Amoxicillin without any side effects.

  3. Re: Backpedalled? on New Jersey Gov. Christie: Parents Should Have Choice In Vaccinations · · Score: 2

    In your case, the issue is this: If you have an allergy listed to an antibiotic, the treating physician will put it into the electronic medical record. The next time you get an infection, the computer will cross check your allergies before allowing the physician to prescribe an antibiotic to you. The computer will not just disallow penicillin, but also all penicillin analogues (ie: amoxicillin, ampicillin, etc), and all cephalasporins (there's probably twenty or more of them) since they cross-react with penicillin allergies.

    The one allergy will knock out two entire classes of antibiotics.

    On the other side, when you have a documented infection with a bacterial agent, the laboratory will take the particular strain you are infected with and see which all antibiotics the strain is sensitive to. The physician will then prescribe the antibiotic which the strain is most susceptable to, thereby giving you the best chance of beating the infection.

    Obviously if you cannot take that particular antibiotic due to a documented allergy (or potential cross-reaction), the physician will have to prescribe something not quite as effective.

    There's another problem. People who are intollerant to one medication are generally intollerant to many medications. You have to make sure you don't have a lot of allergies listed or you will end up being treated for an infection with 'big gun' antibiotics with more serious side effects.

    Most of the time the physician will not even tell you how potentially toxic the antibiotic is, as it's generally not a detail physicians talk about. I've had a couple patients with dimished hearing for several months (at least!) as they were prescribed gentamycin for a simple infection because they were allergic to simpler antibiotics.

  4. States' Rights on New Jersey Gov. Christie: Parents Should Have Choice In Vaccinations · · Score: 1

    As was said many times before: States' Rights. Are they ever not embarrasing?

    Sometimes I wish the states had no rights, and everything was controlled centrally. Seems a more efficient way to go. And if you distrust the federal government that much, the state governments won't protect you anyway.

  5. Re:That doesn't sound bad on FCC Officially Approves Change In the Definition of Broadband · · Score: 2

    Yes. I have the option to buy a 25BM/s line. The price is ridiculously high, however.

    Residents in my neighborhood shouldn't be considered as having broadband since just about no one pays that much for internet (except my one neighbor who works in IT from home, and he deducts it as a business expense).

  6. Re:stone tablets on Ask Slashdot: Best Medium For Personal Archive? · · Score: 2

    Hmmm...

    Since /. comments seem to last forever, how about encrypting your data, running it through uuencode, and posting it?

  7. I've been burnt or nearly burnt with new tech over the decades and consider myself a bit of an early adopter.

    4K and UHD are interesting ideas, but I'm really not interested in replacing my entire hardware investment (including the current HDMI cables in the walls) just for a better picture. (Though the improved colorspace is somewhat tantalizing.)

    Also, I've just recently gotten comfortable buying bluray discs in any quantity since I know I can rip them to my home media server. What sort of advanced copyright protection are the newer formats going to have? How many years of having to rely on a dedicated player? (I've just detached my dvd player from my TVs and likely will detach the bluray players as well.)

  8. Re:Not "like Slashdot" on Facebook Will Let You Flag Content As 'False' · · Score: 1

    I'm not a fan of the false moderation because it's so obvious that it will be rampantly misused. (ie: Jennifer changed her status to "In a committed relationship". Flag: FALSE!)

    I like the moderations /. uses. Would be interesting if a similar system could be made for a social site, with moderation points, etc.

  9. A lot of people here are missing the point... on Why Run Linux On Macs? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (I'm not an Apple fanboy, I think. Of the 8 computers in my house, only two are Apple hardware, and one of them is > 5 years old.) The rest are either Acer or System76.

    A lot of people buy Apple hardware because it's a known quality and (relatively) easy to get fixed. You (probably) know you're going to pay a little extra, but you know the build quality is generally consistently good and if there are hardware issues you can take it into an Apple Store and get it fixed fairly quickly.

    It's fine for people that buy PC hardware all the time to say that a particular brand or model is good price and excellent quality. Most people don't want to do that much research for a laptop or desktop. And many have burnt themselves with buying something expensive and had it go bad in a couple years or need to be troubleshooted over the phone or mailed back due to some obscure issue. Better to drag it to the local Apple Store for many.

  10. Re:There are real questions that need to be answer on An Open Letter To Everyone Tricked Into Fearing AI · · Score: 1

    'Capable of' and 'allowed to' are two different things. I agree that it will likely be a decade or more before they're allowed to roam around on their own.

    Capable of roaming on their own may be here now or near future. When Musk announced the driverless mode Model S, he mentioned that on private roads it could theoretically be fetched by the owner using his phone app.

    What if it ran over a dog while on a private road? You know someone will sue. Until liability for that is cleared up, I'm thinking the driverless feature will be purposely be disabled when there's no one in the driver's seat.

  11. There are real questions that need to be answered: on An Open Letter To Everyone Tricked Into Fearing AI · · Score: 1

    There are some issues in AI that need to be addressed in the near future.

    Autonomous vehicles are essentially here. The question is liability when one of them gets involved in an accident.

    You can imagine all the possible people potentially liable in that instance. The question is how liability will be split up amongst the parties.

    Whether an automatous vehicle is programed to minimize passenger mortality vs. minimize pedestrian mortality, it's a no-win situation.

  12. Re:Returning to their roots & getting with the on Radio Shack Reported To Be Ready for Bankruptcy Filing · · Score: 1

    How about being a total 3D printing solution place?

    Go there, use their computers to upload your 3D design, or rent space there to create a 3D design, print on their 3D printer, and come back in an hour for the printer output?

    Is it that hard for them to find a niche?

  13. Article is wrong... on Ask Slashdot: Migrating a Router From Linux To *BSD? · · Score: 3, Funny

    The article should say: I used to write Linux kernel drivers and hate the direction systemd is taking it. Please support me by clicking on my rant and joining me in installing BSD on your router.

    Seriously, I'm barely familiar with Linux as I'm just an end user, and I know well enough that I don't need an ask slashdot to figure out which OS I can put on a router which doesn't include systemd.

  14. Re:Tell me it ain't so, Elon! on Tesla To Produce 'a Few Million' Electric Cars a Year By 2025 · · Score: 1

    Because we Tesla Fanboys (I certainly count myself as one) understand that there's a big difference what Tesla does and what other car dealers do.

    The secrecy in the price is what aggravates most car buyers. If I knew that I paid the same price for my BMW as everyone else who bought one this year, I would happily buy another BMW (if they made a full-electric that ran for 250 miles and had similar features to a Tesla, that is).

    Tesla Fanboys also realize that Tesla is using the profits from their cars to build up the infrastructure for the supercharger network as well as pumping the money into R&D for the next couple Tesla models. After all, that's what Elon Musk said several years ago and the only thing he's wrong about is his slipping timeline.

  15. Re:Very disturbed by tag "writeorexecute" on OpenBSD's Kernel Gets W^X Treatment On Amd64 · · Score: 1

    And that's why we have code, rather than just compiling the comments. ;-)

  16. Re:Competition? on Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show · · Score: 1

    Cool. I had no idea there were that many full electric car models being sold. I was under the assumption most of the models were series hybrids like the Volt.

    What other full-electric cars (no gas or diesel engines) are popular in the US?

  17. Re:I'm done... on Firefox 35 Arrives With MP4 Playback On Mac, Android Download Manager Support · · Score: 1

    Which benchmark is suggested?

  18. Re:Nostalgic for Windows 7? on Microsoft Ends Mainstream Support For Windows 7 · · Score: 1

    Hah!

    My employer just started Windows 7 rollout a couple months ago, and the users are screaming.

    As a user, I'm quite happy with a Citrix virtual Windows XP environment which gets cleared out every 12 hours or so. I'm in the health care industry, so we really shouldn't be keeping personal stuff on work computers anyway.

  19. Re:I'm shocked, SHOCKED! on Tesla vs. Car Dealers: the Lobbyist Went Down To Georgia · · Score: 1

    You found the rare exception which proves the rule. :-)

    I had a nice Saturn dealer when I bought the Saturn SL2. But that was ~17 years ago. Every car purchase since then was basically fights about how much of a "deal" I would get.

  20. Re:Cost? on Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show · · Score: 1

    It's not that Chevy wont make a profit on the Bolt. It's just they wont make an insane profit on each one, like Tesla does.

    I seem to recall that the margin on a Tesla Model S is over 25%. It's just that Tesla uses that money to build up the supercharger network rather than take it as pure profit at the end of the quarter.

    If Chevy decides they don't want to build their own supercharging network they can charge a lot less for the car. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't ask Tesla to piggyback on the Tesla supercharging network.

  21. Re:Competition? on Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show · · Score: 1

    Tesla realized that electric cars cannot be bought through dealers.

    Dealers would never afford to be open if they just sold electric cars unless the markup on them was huge. Otherwise, where would they make the money? Certainly not in service contracts since electric cars don't have expensive parts that go bad after 50K miles.

  22. Re:I'm shocked, SHOCKED! on Tesla vs. Car Dealers: the Lobbyist Went Down To Georgia · · Score: 1

    And you'll see a lot of second sites very near the first.

    Almost anywhere you live, you likely live within a hundred miles of an "auto mile", where you have 7 or 8 dealerships strung right next to each other. Almost always they're owned by just a couple families, rather than all single person shops.

    Dealers are scum. Never liked buying a car from one, and hope to never again buy a car from one.

  23. Re:Vague article on MI5 Chief Seeks New Powers After Paris Magazine Attack · · Score: 2

    Just because someone is known, doesn't mean anything can be done.

    What should have been done with these guys before they killed people? Have them watched indefinitely? Imprison them because they may cause a crime? Limit their freedoms in any other way?

    The world governments know a lot about a lot of individuals. It's just that most of what they know is circumstantial and not actionable information.

  24. Re:No on Is Kitkat Killing Lollipop Uptake? · · Score: 1

    That's because Apple will push a notification to any Apple iDevice that's compatible with the latest version of iOS when it's connected to the internet.

    Google can't do that because the hardware manufacturers all run custom versions of Android.

    Whether the hardware manufacturers add value to the OS is not for me to say.

  25. Re:Where should I hold my Bitcoins? on Bitstamp Bitcoin Exchange Suspended Due To "Compromised Wallet" · · Score: 1

    But is that what we should recommend to people who are not technologically verse?

    People who can expect their computers to get hit with a virus or trojan or phishing scan a couple times a year?