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User: TWX

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Comments · 7,648

  1. Re:Superman on DC Entertainment Won't Allow Superman Logo On Murdered Child's Memorial Statue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or the Make-a-Wish Foundation felt that what they were doing was fair-use. Remember, while they dressed the kid in an off-the-shelf costume, they called him "Batkid", not "Batman", and had DC tried to kibosh the whole thing they'd have looked like monsters.

    Media companies struggle with this. There have been fanclubs that have received glowing endorsements from marketing departments while simultaneously receiving cease-and-desist letters from those same companies' legal departments. On the one hand letting the fans run wild with sanctioned merchandise and games and other enthusiasm brings value, but they have to be careful with derivative works and other uses, but if they step too hard then they'll be seen as douchebags and will alienate the very people that make them all their money. The best thing that they can do is to offer enough things with their IP on them for legal sale (look at Thinkgeek as an example of what's available) and the fans will probably be sated without resorting to IP violations en-masse.

  2. I suspect that some read it as,

    "In their defense, if they don't work to protect their trademark, then everyone will be getting their murdered children DC's logos on their headstones..."

    instead how I wrote it. Dropping two short words and swapping two others takes the black humor completely out of it...

  3. Re:Call me on Android Wear Is Here · · Score: 1

    Can we have a tech-person-rejecting-tech pissing contest?

    I tell the time with a stick.

    In all seriousness though, if you're salaried (so no punching a time clock), don't watch much television, and don't need to take scheduled mass-transit, then you probably don't need to know the time better than quarters of an hour, which can be guesstimated with decent precision based on the position of the sun.

    You know what I'd want a smart-watch to do? Be a waterproof cell phone transceiver with basic 'dumb phone' functionality (SMS/MMS, contacts list, dialer) and with rudimentary notification capability, such as the ability to notify of calendar events, and to be a bluetooth hub for the headset, tablet, car connection, etc. That way I can still do basic communication when I don't feel like carrying around a two and a half inch by five inch block. I don't need it to be an e-reader, a map viewer, a shopping list editor (though it might be cool to view a list like a dumb phone can), or any of a whole host of functions that people expect their phone to do. Let the small tablet (or large tablet even) handle that, if I want.

  4. No wonder it went extinct on Ancient Bird With Largest Wingspan Yet Discovered · · Score: 5, Funny

    With that kind of size and that slow of flight, it's no wonder it fell to ancient flak guns. Too easy to hit!

  5. What is this...I don't even!

  6. Re:Superman on DC Entertainment Won't Allow Superman Logo On Murdered Child's Memorial Statue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In their defense, if they don't work to protect their trademark, then everyone will be getting their children murdered to put DC's logos on their headstones...

  7. Re:Won't work on Tractor Beam Created Using Water Waves · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...that's a space heater!

  8. Re:nice work on Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View · · Score: 1

    This... this resonated with me a little. I took me back to last week when my Internet was down for 24 hours and I felt so helpless. All my devices useless. My iPad, my smartphone, my smart TV, my laptop... expensive decorations. All I had to occupy my time with was whatever was on OTA TV. It was like me and my brain were separated, since all my knowledge is on the other side of the router...

    No non-Internet games or things to do on any of the devices? No non-computer hobbies? No going out to do something, even if it's something so mundane as going to a coffee shop to use their Internet connection?

    I have things that I can do even if I'm without power, let alone without Internet connectivity.

  9. Re:nice work on Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View · · Score: 1

    Yeah. I use GPS, but mostly to determine what the route is, not to go turn-by-turn to follow it. I read the electronic thing as a map to memorize the route then just drive. Beats fumbling with the phone or even a paper map while driving.

    It's even easier if there's a passenger- my wife is well versed in reading maps and tends to use the phone's GPS/maps in a similar fashion. She can give me multiple-steps-ahead directions if needed (get right, turn at the next light and then get left, and turn two lights later, then get right, etc) to make navigating tight streets easier than using a GPS.

  10. Re:This is new? on Tractor Beam Created Using Water Waves · · Score: 2

    I doubt those were the same experiment, even to each other...

  11. Re:Won't work on Tractor Beam Created Using Water Waves · · Score: 1

    In space, no one can hear you steam...

  12. Re: Failsafe? on Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So if power dies off, at least with glass windows, the pilots can still see out and glide to a 'dead-stick' landing (even if it's not on a runway) using the backup power to the flight controls.

    Perhaps we should call it the Sullenberger Test.

    I can see one way that such screens could work- make them multilayer LCD. A black layer closest to the window, a white later, then the image layer. The black layer serves to block sunlight, and the white layer helps to white-balance the screen and provide some additional light blocking. In the event that power fails, the screens turn clear.

  13. Re:Consciousness on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 1

    I hear that Costco is having a sale on rolls of tin foil...

  14. Re:Brain ZAP! on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 1

    Typically you either use heavy equipment to dig trenches first, then shoot them at those trenches, or you make them dig their own trenches, then shoot them once they've gone deep enough. Just make sure that they pass the shovel back to you first. After all, shovels are expensive.

  15. Re:Long Distance Flying on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 1

    You can already do that using anesthetics.

    They'll even provide them on the flight. It's called the Beverage Service.

  16. Re:Reviving comatose people on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 1

    It was the highest post on the site without a reply, so he was assured of being seen without having to scroll down, that's what it has to do with an AC making accusations.

  17. Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that? on Police Using Dogs To Sniff Out Computer Memory · · Score: 1

    I'll print it out on paper, to be safe from lazy searches.

    Wait until you hear about this new-fangled invention, where they print the content for you, bind it, and ship it to you, and it's new content every time...

  18. Re:Expert System on The AI Boss That Deploys Hong Kong's Subway Engineers · · Score: 1

    And here I was thinking it sounded like Alpha Complex.

    Maybe a little paranoia once in awhile isn't such a bad thing.

  19. Re:Maybe on Ask Slashdot: How Often Should You Change Jobs? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been with the same employer for the better part of thirteen years, and I was mired in desktop support for far longer than I wanted to be. I stuck through it mainly to be vested with the retirement system (and bearing in mind that the IT market was complicated when the dotcom bubble burst) and by the time I got vested I managed to move up in the organization, so I'm not as unhappy as I once was.

    Now that I've got forward progress again I'm inclined to give myself time to grow into my current role before considering a change. I've got a decade of tech progress to catch up on in Linux administration and Cisco, so I may as well get that experience in a fairly secure environment before considering something more.

  20. Re:same job, 12 years on Ask Slashdot: How Often Should You Change Jobs? · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am a garbageman

    Yeah, I did desktop support too.

  21. Livejournal on New Russian Law To Forbid Storing Russians' Data Outside the Country · · Score: 1

    Maybe Livejournal will just move to Russia...

  22. Re:Were the NTSB to investigate on Train Derailment Dumps Two 737 Fuselages Into Clark Fork River · · Score: 1

    ...yet compliment the pilots on their lack of casualties...

  23. Re:It is safer to fly on Train Derailment Dumps Two 737 Fuselages Into Clark Fork River · · Score: 1

    Wow, that's an expensive way to handle building something...

    This train derailment not withstanding (and covered by insurance), wouldn't it make a lot more sense to freight the large pieces rather than flying them?

  24. Re:Interessting in any case on Can the NSA Really Track You Through Power Lines? · · Score: 1

    Yes, but they do use the OTDR method.

  25. Re:Expect the Republicans... on London Regulator Says Uber Is Operating Legally · · Score: 1

    Uh, I don't think the United Kingdom has any Republicans, or at least none with any particular political power...