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User: Douglas+Simmons

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  1. What this doesn't take into account... on Software Predicts Music Success · · Score: 1

    A formula of this nature can surely analyze what worked in the past, but basing the future on the past becomes sketchy territory. I think mass media and mass music grossly underestimate the masses thinking that the same ol' same ol' will keep them happy. For example, me, I want another Britney, except I need her more virgin and more slutty at the same time. OTOH I think the computer would have taken care of that wish ;) ...

  2. what it is on New Discovery Disproves Quantum Theory? · · Score: 1

    Despite my badassly low UID, I have no idea what quantum theory is and I'm wagering that a few of you don't either. Here's the Wiki link, but don't bother reading it unless you're a lot smarter than me because I still don't get it.

  3. Lame... on Google Striking Fear into the Corporate Masses · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Competition historically has been a good thing, but here are two companies, public i should add and /not/ that completely disconnected in terms of their respective industries, that could improve each other's customers' satisfaction. But once in a while, as in this instance, things get too adversarial and people stop working and start fighting.

    If this were kindergarten, they'd be given time-out to stare at a wall. I'm not going to suggest that there's any conspiracy with Microsoft pulling some wal-mart puppet strings, so I'll just some other paranoid poster take care of that.

  4. no big whoop on MIT Wireless Campus Tracking Users · · Score: 1
    Before everyone starts a riot about this being dupe-like keep in mind this is an issue that is generating a whirlwind of attention and things could change quickly in one day (the separation of the articles from CNN and the AP). Now that we have some heavyweight sources on board, two organizations that would could argue have varying degrees of biases over privacy matters especially in the context of new technology. Also it is good for business to keep an issue fresh that's just making its way into mainstream media.

    But that's not important. RTA and you'll see that it is opt-in and no I do not think people would be blacklisted as communists for not joining. Then realize that this is a school and I can't think of any sinister motives behind something like this but I could indeed imagine ways this could benefit everyone. Also, this is slashdot, so let's ease back on busting Zonk's balls.

  5. Caveman IT Guy Lawyer on Glide Effortless to Compete in File Sharing Market · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world of p2p programs that allow file sharing without the risk of illegal copying frightens and confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out of my BMW.. and run off into the hills, or wherever.. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder: "Did little demons get inside and type it?" I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - when a man like my client tries to download an innocent Beyonce video and it turns out to be copyrighted bukkake, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages, and two million in punitive damages. Thank you.

  6. explosion? c'mon on Storing Liquid CO2 in the Oceans? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    First of all, the ocean's commonly miles deep. Burry the co2 another few miles and the liquid leaked, a little chaos theory over that distance would dissipate the concentration that when it hits the top and is gas, there just wouldn't be enough gas around your flare gun for it to be an issue. The hard part is getting it that deep.

    OTOH I failed science.

  7. gov't regulation on NHK Working To Make HDTV Obsolete · · Score: 1

    THIS is why you don't want governments stepping in and saying Okay everybody you got five years to broadcast in X format and only in that format. Left in the free market, we would not have bound ourselves so tightly to something inferior to this (possibly).

  8. Bottom line on A Monroe Doctrine for the Internet · · Score: 1, Troll

    Putting aside what's right and wrong, if you can bare with me, anti-hegemonic-US rhetoric will not change the fact that we were here first. We cannot be compelled to give this up unless other countries start arming their nukes. And as an American, I'm gonna go ahead and say, Why should we? Then I'd follow that with a "sticks and stones" line.

  9. Slightly misleading title, FUD style on MIT Mapping Students WiFi Access in 3D · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Mapping students? For this crowd especially, that is most certainly a Bad Thing(TM) when you glance at the title. What the title ought to have read with something more neutral, like Mapping Wi-Fi Concentration. When you decline students as the accusative, it sounds like something is directly doing something to the students. This is alarmistbate.

  10. motherboards on Dual-Core Shoot Out - Intel vs. AMD · · Score: 1
    Plenty of people have bought the top of the line chip while not realizing that their motherboard's performance's limiting reagent could be a number of things like bus speed and salt water. Someone do the elitenessly-challenged a favor and please post the minimum board specs one needs to take full advantage of this chip's juice.

    Oh and no need to mention which kernels and OSs would be ideal; we already know about the answer to that.

  11. Scoreboard, tough guy on Apple - What A Difference Eight Years Can Make · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, they might indeed not be stupid, but from where I'm sitting they could have been doing better relative to Apple over the year. The legal obligation of these public companies is to do everything they can to make their line go up over the X axis, not necessarily to impress Joe Slashdot.

  12. $100 =/= that cheap on Preview Of The $100 Laptop · · Score: 1

    I'm glad we're "doin' it for the shorties" but from the looks of the laptop, $100 seems a little steep.

  13. nload on Top 10 Items in the Linux Admin Toolkit · · Score: 1

    Almost every machine has a telnet client installed, so it's nice to log in to my box and watch my bandwidth get plotted down on a graph in real time without having to VNC and use X for this. Try it.... Try nload, that is, do not try logging into my box please and thank you!

  14. linux and translation on Can Your Mouth Become Multilingual? · · Score: 1
    Don't mean to lay bait, but like advanced sound and video editing, software for just text to text translation just ain't there (yes I searched apt-cache). Put a dent in my linux ego to have to bittorrent this sort warez for win xp.

    Take Debian -- Its users are spread out geographically about as even as something could get. You'd think that would be somehow conducive to developing this. What's the deal? I need something that handles more languages than google and babelfish.

  15. Re:More relevant ads == more clicks? on Google's Smart Advertising Leads to More Clicks · · Score: 1
    Hey I'm quite happy with that trueism the article's about; but damn, Google, my site is not that offensive and you people (I know you're listening) need to relax and hook me up with some well-matched ads.

    Anybody know someone who can pull this string for me? I'll give you root...

  16. Ad brokering is Google's sole direct moneymaker? on Google's Smart Advertising Leads to More Clicks · · Score: 2, Interesting
    To the layman, Google does a zillion things all of which are quite badass, from google earth to gmail, but the layman may not understand (or even be curious) how google pulls in the cash money when all these things are free and there are no apparent ads on google searches. It seems that these toys and secondary operations of Google are just tools to keep them at the top and nicely branded but they get their money from duplex ad brokering. That's all it says on the Business Summary of their stock market public company profile which doesn't even mention anything else but said brokering as being revenue generators.

    Do I have this right that Google's constantly augmenting stack in the Accounts Receivable department is only the vigs from their ad dealing? And from that, Google's worth is > $100b?

    Badass, Google, badass.

  17. probably just psychosis on Is Your Office Haunted? · · Score: 1
    Major mood disorders that may include positive psychotic symptoms (EG manic depression type one, schizoaffective bipolar type, various schizophrenia subtypes) also include insomnia or nocturnal circadium rhythms for those afflicted with one of these diseases. Therefore, crazy people have an edge over everyone else in learning computers over their years as they are awake often when everyone else is asleep and without distraction or anything else to do than mess with the computer. The sleep abnormality may start in early childhood while one is still flying under the radar in that they have not had a major episode (these diseases generally bloom around later adolescence).

    Being psychotic means you are either hallucinating (usually visually but sometimes auditorially and olfactorily) or experiencing delusions, or both. A psychotic mind like this may tailor hallucinations to the storyline of delusion. It does not take a New Orleans's flood of serotonin to start believing you are among ghosts or other supernatural things, or even that you are one of those ghosts; and when you start seeing things, no matter how smart you are to realize this is impossible, it's time to call the ghostbusters because that is what you believe you're experiencing. Even after the episode ends and the flying saucers are gone, the memory of the episode holds it to be as vivid as you thought while experiencing it.

    Wrapping up, all's I'm sayin' is that whereas the belief in the supernatural is something is associated with less intelligence and seeing ghosts in this particular instance is possible if you have one of these diseases, and almost 20% of the population does (many of whom don't comply with being medicated), it is resolved that people who report this stuff are either just goofing or they were nuts. OTOH, if you're alone and you don't know you're crazy, from an existential perspective you might as well write off the ghosts as being ghosts. There's a little Satre for you.

  18. Re:You Don't Download at All? on The Problems with Broadband in America · · Score: 1

    Well, hosting a site of my own (yes, running debian linux), I can feel this guy's pain. But do I deserve less pitty simply because I illegaly upload wonderfully high-res ass, some of which I'm wild-guessing to be copyrighted? I'm the Robin Hood of ass, man. I'm not going to mention the name of my site in this post because I'm trying to make a point and not just plug my site, but I don't force login-signups and there are only three text ads on the site which I lowered from 10 bold to 7 point font? Double standards, bro. Not right.

  19. NIC-NAC patty-whack on Cisco Updates Network Security Technology · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I'm trying to think of a funny line to use the nic-nac thing. There's gotta be something better than pointing out that Cisco is in the business of selling what-nots and nic/nacs as well, but I just got finished getting a large pron from bittorrent and I don't have time to work on this joke but mods give me the benefit of the doubt that this post would have easily otherwise been +5 funny and, well .. might as well just make those mod points happen in the interests of this great p2p protocol thing.

  20. In related news, on Intel Slashes Computer Startup Times · · Score: 1

    Debian has released advanced software technology that has rendered the need to reboot obsolete, threatening the adoption of Intel's recent vapor into the marketplace.

  21. Re:Choice on ABC Affiliates Grapple With TV-Show Downloads · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Choice? Stones? Everywhere I look, I see those white headphones. Everybody has one, and because people get it working when they pop that CD in their machine, they are quite inclined to use the iTunes service as that's laid out seemlessly. They dominate one market, mp3 players, and with that leverage they have dominated the online music market (don't tell me iTunes has 90% because it's just that good). Reminds me a little about how the DoJ was a bit concerned when Microsoft made it a little too seemless to go from their OS functions to web browsing.

    I'm a fan of Apple (just bought some shares too), but am I the only one who thinks that Apple's threat lurking in the far dark future might be antitrust litigation? I only see them grabbing more marketshare of the devices, of the online music business, not to mention that they just created another market with this portable device video clip downloading. It's clear they're only going uphill and accelerating too, but even though Apple's been that underdog company to Microsoft, the engine that could, they're not immune from the government.

  22. Re:god damnit on Big-Iron to Open Up for AMD · · Score: 1
    Wake up and smell the Red Bull. It's time to get out of tech sector, son.

    And turn down that Ska music.

  23. Re:still "synchronizing" with desktops? on Palm and RIM to Collaborate on Treo Software · · Score: 1

    No, I'm unemployed. You insensitive clod.

  24. still "synchronizing" with desktops? on Palm and RIM to Collaborate on Treo Software · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I'm thinking that by now these devices are advanced enough and people are dependent on them to the point that coordination with a "primary" unit at home with the on-the-go device is getting phased out.

    By the way, way back I remember a slashdot article about a thing you hook up to a PDA that projects a laser keyboard onto any flat surface, and with it you can type away and it would somehow detect which non-existing keys you're hitting. Are they any good (if they're still being sold that is)?

  25. god damnit on Big-Iron to Open Up for AMD · · Score: 5, Funny

    You kids, with your ultrasparc risc processing synchronous hypermultithreading vax/vms redbox pbx mumbo jumbo and your Ska music. For Christ's sake, cut the cotton-pickin' bullshit and tell me which stocks to buy and which to short. Oh and that AMD "capturing" the retail market tip the other day? Thanks for costing me six thousand dollars, my wallet was too thick and giving me a bad back. Christ.