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User: anagama

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Comments · 4,152

  1. Re:Lipstick on a pig on ACLU and EFF Endorse Weaker USA Freedom Act Passed By Committee · · Score: 1

    This legislation is a way to legitimize the ongoing illegal activity. It implicitly suggests that what was going on before was legal and now is being scaled back. This is worse than nothing -- it is a victory for the NSA, plus it's such weak tea, it's a double victory for those assholes.

  2. Re:citizenship is irrelevant on Rand Paul Starts New Drone War In Congress · · Score: 1

    No. What is irresponsible and harmful is making it a risk free proposition to kill other people. That just leads to more killing of other people. It also leads to greater animosity toward the US and that leads to more people wanting to harm us.

    Wars should be waged in an arena, one soldier at a time, to the death. Aside from a few psychopaths who would dispense with themselves quickly ... and good riddance ... most would refuse. Secondly, the order of battle should be from high rank to low rank. Put those with the most to lose in the ring first, starting at the presidential level.

  3. Re:citizenship is irrelevant on Rand Paul Starts New Drone War In Congress · · Score: 1

    The armed forces, including those who give the orders and those who follow the orders (I'm not about to grant a "get out of morality free" card just because a person is the trigger puller rather than the general), are despicable. That said, those who commit evil without even risking their own safety are especially despicable. That's all I said and meant.

  4. Re:citizenship is irrelevant on Rand Paul Starts New Drone War In Congress · · Score: 2

    Drone is nothing more then a boogy man to detract from the real issue becasue cowards don't want to be seen as arguing against military personal, especially pilots, so they use drones to scare people.

    I blame those who give the orders and those who carry out the orders. And I especially despise the wimps in our Chair Force for risking nothing more than a fender bender in doing their evil deeds.

    That said, although I didn't vote for Obama either time, if you can't admit that he suckered all the people wanting peace, and co-opted all the candidates who would have actually delivered, you are too deluded to have a rational discussion.

  5. Re:citizenship is irrelevant on Rand Paul Starts New Drone War In Congress · · Score: 1

    'Radical' in this case typically means orchestrated bombings resulting the the deaths of civilians

    Watch this:

    Butchersong fucks his mother every Saturday afternoon.

    Because I'm a random person on the net, this is a troll. Now replace me with any of the self-interested power hungry psychopaths comprising the Federal government. Now it is "truth."

    When you fall for the notion that the attorneys of one side coming to a conclusion is evidence, you have lost touch with what it means to be an American, except in the nationalistic glory to god and the Marines sense. In America, such accusations are supposed to be considered mere accusations until proven at trial. Without such a check on Executive power, it can be as capricious as it wants and SWAT raid you any weekend it wants -- it's important that you you get your dick out of your mother after all.

  6. Re:citizenship is irrelevant on Rand Paul Starts New Drone War In Congress · · Score: 2

    Add to that the fact that the GP is apparently unaware that we are still in Afghanistan. Or that Iraq ending was more about Obama's failure to extend it by getting an extension to the Status of Forces Agreement than anything else.

  7. Re:reasons for anonimity are more than drugs on DarkMarket, the Decentralized Answer To Silk Road, Is About More Than Just Drugs · · Score: 1

    Ah, the famous bullshit comeback used to avoid facing certain facts.

    The fact is that the Federal criminal code base has become so large that the human mind cannot remember it, and because of poorly documented agency rules, or merely weird agency interpretations of laws, it is not actually possible to even list all the laws one would have to memorize. Worse, the element of intent is often not even pertinent, and over time, more and more crimes devoid of the intent element are made.

    But of course, ignorance of the law is no excuse. How convenient, make an unknowable criminal code base, and punish people for not knowing it. Then convince idiots like yourself that the system is fair and justly applied so that your knee jerk reaction is to immediately dismiss all criticism, and smugly feel secure and safe in the system.

  8. Re:I just bet ... on DarkMarket, the Decentralized Answer To Silk Road, Is About More Than Just Drugs · · Score: 1

    Here ya go, complete with helpers and voyeurs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

    Or pick your own:
    http://www.youtube.com/results...

  9. Re:reasons for anonimity are more than drugs on DarkMarket, the Decentralized Answer To Silk Road, Is About More Than Just Drugs · · Score: 1

    Three Felonies A Day, by Harvey Silverglate, Constitutional Lawyer:
    http://www.harveysilverglate.c...

    It is impossible to even count the number of Federal crimes:
    http://online.wsj.com/news/art...

  10. Actually, I often use cash to buy stuff precisely because I do care about my anonymity. Considering how apathetic the public is to the 4th Amendment, and considering how absolutely rabid the government is about finding out information, cash is the only thing left to preserve some level of dignity.

    I won't call it a probability, merely a possibility, but sometime in the future, it could well happen that eating lunch at McDonalds too many times per week could adversely affect health insurance rates. Or maybe you buy some booze at a liquor store and become a target for being pulled over on the off chance you also drank the booze and drove. Or maybe you bought a particular book 5 years ago that becomes illegal and subject to retroactive prosecution.

    I'm not saying I expect these things to happen, just that they are possibilities. Of course in the 90s, if you asked me if I expected the Feds to spy on all Americans, I would thought that a foil hat concept, but look at where we are today. Anyway, using cash is a method to protect against future government abuse and when you look at how the US Federal Government operates in such fundamentally un-American ways, there's certainly no harm in taking steps to protect yourself from it. Minimizing your purchase history is a good place to start. That takes cash.

  11. Re:There is their big mistake. on Japanese and Swiss Watchmakers Scoff At Smartwatches · · Score: 1

    Not just your smartphone -- your car, microwave, stove, radio, computer, and a host of other devices. Clocks are simply everywhere. Except for some specialized jobs or hobbies, a watch of any kind is just unnecessary -- I haven't owned a watch in many years, and my wrists are more comfortable for it.

  12. Re:Scumbags, the lot of them. on DOJ Complains About Getting a Warrant To Search Mobile Phones · · Score: 1

    It's just alphabetical order. Doesn't really matter -- "both" (ha!) parties suck beyond the ability of science to measure.

  13. Re:"like phone" "massive competition". Smoking som on F.C.C., In Net Neutrality Turnaround, Plans To Allow Fast Lane · · Score: 1

    Yes, common carriers do have competition. I don't know how old you are, but I remember when the choice in long distance providers came. Then sometime in the early 90s, more companies sprang up where you would enter a numeric code first, and then they would bill even less for long distance. Back in the 80s and 90s, a long distance call for an hour could easily cost you $6 on top of your monthly fees for basic service and long distance service. So going from 10c a minute to 4c a minute by entering a code or switching providers was a big deal.

    Today, who even thinks of long distance? Back before competition, making a call from the county into town a mere ten miles would cost a dime a minute. How much do you pay for a long distance call now? Do you even think about long distance or instead do you think about the flat monthly rate for unlimited calling? I suspect it is the latter. So instead of paying $30 for basic service, another charge for a long distance plan, and then 10c a minute on top of that, you pay a $20 to $30 flat rate and never even think about how long you talk and how far away the endpoint of your call is.

    That's what happens when there is competition.

  14. Re:Court only pointed to the plain language of th on F.C.C., In Net Neutrality Turnaround, Plans To Allow Fast Lane · · Score: 1

    This is all rooted in the notion that the internet is not like a phone, a decision made in the early 2000s. Of course, the internet actually is a phone, among other things. If the FCC had decided to treat the net like a phone, we would have massive competition, lower prices, and better service. What we have instead, is non-regulated monopoly cable providers.

    This planet money episode gives a neat little history, and a comparison with how much better it is in Britain with respect to internet service:

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/money...

  15. Re:you missed the point on Beer Price Crisis On the Horizon · · Score: 1

    here's the link to that quote:

    http://www.whatcar.com/car-new...

  16. Re:you missed the point on Beer Price Crisis On the Horizon · · Score: 1

    Except that average 2% reduction figure you site comes out of the Government's and Corn Farmer's corn holes.

    In Britain, where E10 is still up and coming, some car mag site did some testing:

    We then put them through rigorous emissions tests using the E0 and E10 petrol to gain a clear picture of the effects of ethanol. E10 proved less efficient than E0 in all our tests. The average fall was -8.4%, equating to more than two extra tanks of petrol every year. Assuming both fuels were priced the same, it would represent an extra cost of £170.

    ***

    In our tests, the 89bhp Dacia Sandero struggled most, returning an 11.5% drop in mpg. That's an extra cost of around £202 every 12,000 miles. The 99bhp Hyundai i30 was nearly as bad, managing 9.8% fewer miles on E10 than E0, an extra £16 a month.

    The 134bhp Toyota Prius+ with its bigger hybrid engine fared better, using 6.4% more E10 than E0, while the 181bhp Mini Paceman was least affected by the ethanol; its fuel consumption increased by 5.9%.

    E10 test conclusions
    This would seem to suggest that more powerful cars cope better with a higher ethanol content, leaving small-engine models -- often bought by drivers on tighter budgets -- worst affected. It could explain why our results differ from the US Environmental Protection Agency's estimate; many US cars still use big V6 and V8 engines.

  17. Re:So - who's in love with the government again? on Beer Price Crisis On the Horizon · · Score: 1

    I lived in Maine for a while in the 80s. During the winter I'd pour in a bottle of "dry gas" ... at least I think that is what it was called. If I recall, an 8 oz bottle treated 10 gallons (or maybe it was more than that). Even on the low end, that would be 1:160 mix (if it was good for a 15 gal fillup, that would 1:240). To get to 10%, even at the low end, I'd have had to pour in a gallon of the stuff per 9 gals of gas.

  18. Re:Isn't parody protected in the US? on Peoria Mayor Sends Police To Track Down Twitter Parodist · · Score: 2

    Add to that, the internet doesn't forget. This mayor has just arrested any potential upward mobility he may have had on the political ladder.

    Also, as of this moment, @NotPeoriaMayor is up to 688 followers.

  19. Re:HP LaserJet 4M+ on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Products Were Built To Last? · · Score: 1

    Well, the Federal reserve disagrees with you. Many banks still use MICR readers to sort and route checks, so not having that on your checks could very well slow down processing of those checks.

    http://www.federalreserve.gov/...

    The extra cost for MICR toner is so negligible anyway, why wouldn't you make your checks as compatible as possible? The only real issue, as I mentioned, is that you can't get MICR toner carts for all printers, so you have to pick a printer with the availability of MICR replacement carts in mind (unless you want to fill your own carts).

  20. Re:do they have a progressive view? on Detroit: America's Next Tech Boomtown · · Score: 2

    The Democrat label means nothing. If Nixon was running in an election today, they'd have to put him on the ticket with the greens or something. Even Obamacare is basically Nixon's health care plan with the liberal parts eliminated. These Democrat and Republican labels have become so meaningless, they should just change their names to Blue Team and Red Team. It's much more accurate to say that GOP ideology, as put in practice by DNC candidates, is the poison in the system.

  21. Re:do they have a progressive view? on Detroit: America's Next Tech Boomtown · · Score: 1

    You aren't giving Texans a good name with the "tropes fed to you by your Democratic overlords" bit. Real liberals recognize that the DNC is nothing but the New GOP, and you falling into the party-labeling thing, suggests you haven't made that connection and still think of the Old GOP (i.e., parody of itself) as a conservative party or something or other. If you are representative of Texans, it demonstrates a kind of political illiteracy.

  22. Re:HP LaserJet 4M+ on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Products Were Built To Last? · · Score: 2

    I have a Laserjet 4L from 1994 or 95. Until about a year ago, I was still using it in my office to print checks -- it's one of the few printers it's easy to find MICR ink carts for. Anyway, it finally started making terrible screeching noises and so I replaced it because it would be a real pain to be without a check printer. Plus, the 4 page per minute print rate was getting sort of old -- but there is no question, that thing was built to last.

  23. Re:Model M Keyboard FTW on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Products Were Built To Last? · · Score: 2, Funny

    November 6, 1989 is the date on the sticker on the back of mine.

    I found it in a thrift shop while killing time walking around in a small downtown area waiting for an appointment. It was in a pile of used crappy bubble keyboards. I paid either $5 or $10 for it -- can't remember which. I should have asked if they had any artwork or old vases too.

  24. Re:I wonder how much damage... on Apache OpenOffice Reaches 100 Million Downloads. Now What? · · Score: 4, Informative

    The users see the mail client, calendering, and the like, as essential.

    Calendaring is one a business task that is critically important to many businesses, but is quite widely ignored in the open source world, at least with respect to easy setup.

    In my small office, we use Apple's open source Darwin Calendar Server: http://trac.calendarserver.org... It'll serve calendar data to the mac calendar client, as well as Mozilla's Sunbird client, probably others too.

    It works great and it has been extremely stable (I have it running on a debian VM), but it isn't totally trivial to set up. Not hard exactly, but certain OS defaults don't work (e.g., requires extended atrributes, which requires editing fstab, and if you don't, it will never ever work): https://wiki.debian.org/HowTo/...

    Anyway, a simple to set up calendar server would be a substantial contribution to the open source business software stable.

  25. Re:Rewarding the bullies... on Student Records Kids Who Bully Him, Then Gets Threatened With Wiretapping Charge · · Score: 1

    That law is stupid. In my state, if one person is threatening another person, it takes only one-party consent, e.g., the person who is being threatened can give consent. Silently of course.

    This situation should spark the PA Legislature to amend the law.