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User: macraig

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  1. Reasonable something-or-other on Smart Phone Gets Driver Out of a Speeding Ticket · · Score: 1

    There's this concept called reasonable doubt. You might have heard of it? You introduced it. As the defendant, that is ALL you have to do. That's why you skated on the ticket.

  2. What's up with all the IBTimes references? on Study Calls Craigslist 'a Cesspool of Crime' · · Score: 1

    I've been a daily reader of Slashdot for many years, but I don't recall seeing IBTimes cited as the source of posted stories until very recently, in the last few months. Was I just not paying attention, or is there something deliberate going on here? I'm suspicious that there are one or more IBTimes shills using Slashdot as a promotional medium for their employer.

  3. So-called blind justice on PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So now Bradley Manning's ability to mount a strong defense is directly affected by corporate behavior having nothing to do with the judicial system. Gee, who knew that "business" could affect "justice" so directly? Does anybody really still think that simple campaign finance reforms are reformation enough?

    Corporate behavior can be as dangerous to democracy and ethics as any military campaign.

  4. IOW, Echelon for Android? on Mobile Spyware Conferences Into Your Calls · · Score: 1

    Homeland Security is at it again, eh? Now they wanna conference in on every mobile call as it happens, so they can listen in real-time for those Seven Words (or something)?

  5. Unintended consequences again.... on Iceland Eyes Liquid Magma As Energy Source · · Score: 1

    What happens if every nation, all over the planet, eventually follows Iceland's lead and taps magma below the crust for heat to convert to energy? Will drawing off so much heat accelerate the eventual cooling of the Earth's core and thus the senescence of the magnetosphere, thus accelerating the end of all life on Earth? How much heat can we manage to draw off if we "go geo"? Is the consequence so far off in the future that it is inconsequential? Humans once thought that tapping aquifers and petroleum was like having liquid VISA gift cards with no obligation to repay, but we now know the piper expects to be paid for those. The price for this little stunt, however far off the maturity of the loan, might be greater than anything else we've done.

  6. Time to pack, then? on Milky Way Stuffed With an Estimated 50 Billion Alien Worlds · · Score: 1

    I'm dusting off my suitcases right now.

    NOT.

    I really didn't need to know this. It's way too big an always-out-of-reach carrot for a guy who's always thought the pasture he couldn't see must surely be greener.

  7. And sharks everywhere... on Scientists Invent World's First Anti-Laser · · Score: 1

    ... just heaved a huge sigh of relief.

  8. I predict... on Sysbrain Lets Satellites Think For Themselves · · Score: 1

    ... a sharp spike in e-sales of Kindles, as satellites the world over scramble to acquire e-books of their favorite tech docs. The shipping will be a bitch, though.

  9. fantasy != sexual fantasy on How Watchmen Killed 'R'-rated Fantasy Movies · · Score: 1

    It's easy to create fantasy that doesn't require an R rating, if the screenwriter just keeps BOTH hands on the keyboard.

  10. Oh what's da point? on Clinton Calls For "Ground Rules" Protecting Internet · · Score: 1

    Even if we make it so the megalomaniacs and powermongers can't touch the Internet, they'll just find a way around it like cutting all power to the grid....

  11. Not a dime on How Do Seeders Profit From BitTorrent? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I never profited a dime from my seeding activities, but then that was never even a secondary goal of doing it in the first place... quite the opposite. It was anti-greed or anti-capitalism.

  12. Re:In a word: proprietary on TiVo To Brick All Remaining UK PVRs On June 1 · · Score: 1

    Didn't the original promise have to do with predictive recording and some other software features, mostly?

  13. In a word: proprietary on TiVo To Brick All Remaining UK PVRs On June 1 · · Score: 1

    I'm having a hard time drumming up an excess of sympathy for people who bought TIVOs. They are and have always been a highly proprietary device... AND subscription service to boot. There is nothing open, standardized, modular, or off-the-shelf about them, and that was quite intentional. It is a closed device precisely because that was intended to maximize corporate profits. As such they are open to whatever manner of megalomaniacal mischief [say that fast seven times] that corporation feels it can manage to inflict on its vict... err, customers... without inciting a full riot/boycott.

    Sounds like they're certainly inviting that riot with this tactic, but the victims of it were most certainly amply warned, and chose the convenience-store solution anyway. They got exactly what they paid for.

  14. Hits Earth?! on Sun Produces First Cycle 24 X-Class Solar Flare · · Score: 1

    You mean the magnetosphere is GONE?! Time to break out the tinfoil body suit and air out the bomb shelter....

  15. Legacy code on Cancer Resembles Life 1 Billion Years Ago · · Score: 1

    This is certainly adds a new definition for the old term 'legacy code'.

  16. Try Cheese on NASA Invents New Technique For Finding Alien Life · · Score: 1

    It often helps finding mice. Everything loves cheese! I have no idea what the trap will look like, though....

  17. When decent people do bad things on Fox News Brings Video Game Violence Debate To a New Low · · Score: 1

    This is perhaps just another example of otherwise decent-minded little cogs caught in a malevolent machine built and serviced by engineers of evil who care nothing for the Common Good or ethics beyond how those can be exploited to benefit them. Perhaps John Brandon is really a nice thoughtful guy who really wouldn't have chosen such a slant to the article; just as likely or moreso is that he was being an obedient cog and protecting his career by writing the article with the bias his bosses wanted him to inject. Perhaps he was "just following orders'? Of course that makes it all the more sickening, because "just following orders" as an ethical defense means that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

    Hierarchies pervert potentially decent people into doing bad things, because the not-so-decent people are the ones at the top of the hierarchy giving the orders and "making the tough decisions"... you know, the ones that are unethical. In the case of governments it's we the ignorant little cogs who often put them there, but in business and the military it's OTHER not-so-decent people grooming their successors and colleagues. /rant

  18. Whassa big deal? Just take 'em away. on Putting Up With Consolitis · · Score: 2

    It's not big deal, really... I had my consils removed from me when I was a kid and I turned out (mostly) fine. Now I game on PCs and I'm better for it.

  19. Re:How about killing off the original bloatware? on An Open Letter To PC Makers: Ditch Bloatware, Now! · · Score: 1

    WTF?

  20. How about killing off the original bloatware? on An Open Letter To PC Makers: Ditch Bloatware, Now! · · Score: 1

    I'd rather see them put an end to the original bloatware: the Windows Registry. Howzabout we unregister the Registry? That would certainly make my "experience" vastly more pleasant.

  21. That's all fine and good... on Mozilla Aims To Release Four Firefox Versions In 2011 · · Score: 1

    ... but where's the love for Thunderbird? If they gave it even half this degree of attention perhaps they could finally fix the years-old showstopping bugs. It's frustrating to see software with such potential left to rot.

  22. Re:Opt-ed?? on Congresswoman Writes On Broadband, Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Perfectly good, you say? Ummm, I'll take a swig if you take one first and survive for 10 minutes without retching... how's that?

  23. Re:StreetView? on RoboEarth Teaches Robots to Learn From Peers · · Score: 1

    And will it spawn litigation from angry robots who didn't like being caught with their service panels open?

  24. StreetView? on RoboEarth Teaches Robots to Learn From Peers · · Score: 1

    So I wonder what StreetView looks like in Robo Earth?

  25. FTFY Redux on Congresswoman Writes On Broadband, Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Is there an aptitude for that?

    (Of course there's not.)