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User: Manfre

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  1. Re:Limited use on New SimCity To Require Constant Internet Connection · · Score: 1

    It's cheaper and not that difficult for them to just ignore the judgement, especially if they do not have an office in your state. Crossing state lines is a bit out of the local sheriff's jurisdiction.

  2. Re:Does that include cost of training and transiti on Munich Has Saved €4M So Far After Switch To Linux · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    They rarely ever account for that cost or the lost productivity as everyone needs to learn the new system. The article also doesn't state any change in staff costs to manage the purely linux environment compared to the windows environment.

  3. Re:Limited use on New SimCity To Require Constant Internet Connection · · Score: 1

    Having a judgement against a person/company and collecting on that judgement are completely different battles.

  4. Passengers are more distracting on NHTSA Suggestion Would Cripple In-Car GPS Displays · · Score: 1

    If the goal is to remove distractions, all vehicles should have the driver in an isolated compartment. No fussing kids or conversations with the passengers to take their focus off the road.

    While a GPS can be distracting, it also has that great benefit of allowing people to pay more attention to the road and other vehicles, instead of scanning for street signs and building numbers.

  5. Re:My answer is "I don't use facebook" on Facebook: Legal Action Against Employers Asking For Your Password · · Score: 1

    Declining to provide information is the only real way to go. Lying to an employer is a good way to get fired (assuming you get hired). For certain government jobs, it's also a crime.

    Employer: May I access your facebook account?
    You: I'd really like to, but the Facebook terms of service say "You will not solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else.". *as sarcastically as possible* Sorry!

  6. Re:Water utilization? on Brewing Beer With Free Software · · Score: 1

    Shameless plug for http://brewedbyus.com./ We do not have this feature yet, but we are in the process of adding more all-grain features since the other developer and myself have just started to move from extract to all-grain.

  7. Re:Gingers? on Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us · · Score: 5, Funny
  8. Re:linked lists still common on Are Brain Teasers Good Hiring Criteria? · · Score: 1

    Knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and when to use them is a difference between a software engineer and a person who knows a programming language. Your answer of "Why would I ever use a linked list? ..." tells the interviewer, in a snarky, condescending way, that you are the latter.

    FYI, when dealing with lists of information, it's not always efficient or possible to use an array. Many languages and libraries implement their functionality using linked lists, so you use them often without even realizing it.

  9. Re:Pointless in most cases on Is Overclocking Over? · · Score: 2

    For some family of chips, they are literally the same chip fused to disable cores or drop the clock speed. This means that the chips are designed to do more, but are intentionally crippled. It's cheaper for them to have a single manufacturing line than one for each chip in the family.

  10. Re:Brilliant! on Satellite Spots China's First Aircraft Carrier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We'll just continue to spend China's money. They can't win the cold war if they're paying for both sides of it!

  11. Re:Materials on How 3D Printing Could Help Keep the ISS In Orbit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There can be a lot of waste, depending on the part that is being printed. Fill material and the chemicals required to dissolve it would account for a majority of the waste.

  12. Re:How would a GPS not qualify as prior art? on Apple's New Patent Weapon — Location Services · · Score: 1

    A GPS will show you what you can do based on where you are. Turn Left at...! Recalculating! Turn Left a ...! Recalculating! ...

  13. Nice Things on Apple's New Patent Weapon — Location Services · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is why we can't have nice things.

    The patent office and laws are at best dysfunctional.

  14. Welcome to the digital age on Helping the FBI Track You · · Score: 1

    This guy is pretty ignorant about what is possible with computers. If everyone made every detail of their lives available in a digital format, the FBI would be thrilled and could probably cut jobs instead of needing to hire more employees.

    The only way this would be an idea even worth entertaining would be if you treat it like you're writing a book based upon your life. Include the least amount of verifiable information as possible to make it seem accurate and then fill the rest with the most outlandish things you thing some one would believe.

  15. Automated job killing on US Military Moving Closer To Automated Killing · · Score: 1

    When these are combat ready, there will be many unemployed soldiers.

  16. Re:Wishful thinking on Kernel.org Compromised · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the attackers were worth their salt, after gaining access they would drop in their own custom replacements for patch, make and gcc. For such a large code base, it is not easy to tell if the code going in is yielding the expected instructions.

  17. Re:Constant failures? on IBM Building 120PB Cluster Out of 200,000 Hard Disks · · Score: 1

    http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/

    Backblaze provides some metrics about their drive failure rates. It's surprisingly low (1-5% per year). If they had 200k drives, they would need to replace 39-192 per week. I'm sure the cluster is built with lots of redundancy that doesn't require a person to immediately replace a failed drive. They'll probably need a full time staff of at least 3 to maintain it.

  18. Reduce time in half on The Mathematics of Lawn Mowing · · Score: 1

    Lawns do not need to be mowed weekly. Dropping to every other week will save 3 hours weekly. The optimal solution will not be able to gain that much.

  19. Re:Good for the kids on Chinese Couple Sells Kids To Fund Online Gaming · · Score: 1

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but children are property until they reach a "legal age". If a 13 year old runs away from home, they will be brought back to the parents (property owners) the same as a dog, car or other item that can be identified as belonging to parents. Children also cannot enter in to binding contracts without parent consent.

    Many caring people adopt (a.k.a. purchase) children from other countries, which would certainly lead to a better life for the purchased child. The story doesn't mention if the sellers had any sort of selection criteria or if they just passed them off to other human traffickers.

    Which is worse?
    1. Child is sold and lives a life of being exploited (sweatshop labor, sexually abused, etc.)
    2. Child dies from neglect because parents were too busy playing video games? Wouldn't be the first time.
        http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news200605wowbaby
        http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game

  20. Good for the kids on Chinese Couple Sells Kids To Fund Online Gaming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The couple clearly should not have any kids. It's good that other, hopefully more capable, people will properly care and provide for them.

  21. Grandparents follow the pictures on Google+ Already At 10 Million Users · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Easy way to get grandparents to switch is to only post pictures of the grandchildren on Google+. They will switch over.

    Also, WTH does "gate twitter and Facebook" mean?

  22. Re:The EFF's argument makes sense. on DOJ: We Can Force You To Decrypt That Laptop · · Score: 1

    The warrant gives the police the authority to open the cabinet. The defendant is not required to provide the police with the key. It's not the defendant's fault that the police lack the knowledge/resources to bypass the lock.

  23. Re:Pedestrian problems? on Roundabout Revolution Sweeping US · · Score: 1

    Pedestrians use the side walks that follow around a rotary and use the crosswalks at the connected streets. You should look out for pedestrians anywhere that has pedestrian traffic, regardless of the type of road or intersection.

  24. Re:Higher Taxes? on Roundabout Revolution Sweeping US · · Score: 1

    I think the higher taxes claim is based upon the capital expenses needed to convert existing intersections.

  25. Re:Say again? on Skype Crashes and Burns In Worldwide Outage · · Score: 1

    Your rephrase doesn't properly convey the overly anti-Microsoft sentiment that is immune to facts!