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User: FrankSchwab

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Comments · 495

  1. Re:Is there no governmental limits anymore? on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    Someday, the blatant discrimination of "The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God" will be recognized as the brain-dead bigotry it is. Frankly, I find this statement to be as offensive as anything said of homosexuals - it states clearly and unambiguously that I cannot the "best kind of citizen", that I am somehow lesser than someone who recognizes "an obligation to God". Not being the "best kind of citizen", am I to be regarded suspiciously?

    And I've never understood how they are able to bend their statements to include Buddhists and Hindus. That's an enormous challenge.

    Frankly, I AM the kind of person that the Boy Scouts NEEDS, regardless of my religious predilections. I AM the best kind of citizen, and their blind hatred keeps them from seeing that. So, I will take from the organization what they will give to my son, without being allowed to give back. And they will be the lesser for it.

  2. Re:Is there no governmental limits anymore? on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1

    It doesn't? The gay scouts who were proud members of the organization might feel differently - their work from within brought about the changes that now allow them to be accepted in the organization.

  3. Re:Is there no governmental limits anymore? on US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm not gay, but I'm not welcome in the Boy Scouts for odious discriminatory reasons. So why do I hang around?

    Because I feel that, other than the discrimination they engage in (and that they will be hugely embarassed about 20 years from now), they have an excellent program for my son. Rather than dropping him off at the door, and picking him up later, or sending him on campouts, I participate. I have explained to the scoutmaster why I can never be an adult leader in the BSA program, and he understands. I expect that my honorable service will help change the opinion the organization holds against me and move it in a more inclusive direction.

    I think gay parents have the same desires to participate in their childrens lives as I do. And I will call you out on your question:

    why should we allow gay men to sleep in tents in close proximity to young boys who are not their offspring?

    Gay doesn't equate to pedophile. Say that again: Gay doesn't imply Pedophile.

    The Boy Scouts as a private organization has every right to set rules for membership, as numerous court cases attest to. But, then, the Ku Klux Klan is also a private organization that has every right to set rules for membership. Having the right to do so doesn't imply that it's done using criteria that I consider civilized.

  4. Re: Meanwhile, Slashdot ters Still Unsure How to S on Scientists Discover New Clues To Regeneration: How Flatworms Regrow Heads · · Score: 1

    Not if the intention was to write "..regrow an entire...". A typo that comes out as a real word that makes the grammar wrong is still a typo ( a spelling error).

    If you're going to be a Grammar Nazi on a Spelling Nazi's post, you should at least make sure that you're right.

  5. Re:Summay is incorrect on Gore Site Operator Arrested For Posting Video of Murder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because the GP is referring to "The charge against the operator is quite rare and no-one so far remembers it ever being used before" from TFSummary, and brings us notice of a similar case with the same charge. "Informative" is the correct mod in this case.

  6. Re:Proper units on Volkswagen Concept Car Averages 262 MPG · · Score: 1

    But the Stone is a fundamental unit of Weight, not Mass. Divide the result by 0.04848 furlongs/s^2 to get a meaningful result.

  7. Re:FlashDark? on Google Science Fair Finalist Invents Peltier-Powered Flashlight · · Score: 1

    I wish I knew who started that old wives tale about deserts being cold at night.

    Phoenix forecast for tomorrow: High 111, low 92.

    Sure, it's cold in December, but I don't think that's what you were referring to.

  8. Re:The best way tou reduce our stockpile - USE THE on A Case For Unilateral US Nuclear Warhead Reductions · · Score: 1

    Hey, I resent that. My state is a shining example of decency, respect for all regardless of skin color and/or sexual orientation, and clean politics that both expresses the will of the people and leads us towards improving who we are as human beings.

    Nuke Nevada instead. They're at least used to it. /frank
    Phoenix, Az (and only 44 C at the moment; a relatviely cool day)

  9. Re:Because that worked so well for Apple? on Microsoft To Start Dumping Surface RT To Schools For $199 · · Score: 1

    Show me a graphing calculator with a 10" screen.

    My question is just as nonsensical as yours.

  10. Re:perfect on Microsoft To Start Dumping Surface RT To Schools For $199 · · Score: 2

    Perhaps you can't stop the compilation - but you can sure as hell stop the execution.
    (in Agent Smith voice)
    Mr. Anderson, what good is in-process compiled code when you are unable to call it?

  11. Re:digital take over on Woz Compares the Cloud and PRISM To Communist Russia · · Score: 1

    "fiddle with the engine" - well, not since, what, the '70s? Sure you can paint the airfilter, or put on a cat-back exhaust, but anything more substantial is illegal, and in areas (like mine) with smog checks prior to registration will get found.

    I have a friend with a Miata that he put a turbo on. Every two years, he spends a Saturday afternoon swapping the ECU and re-plumbing the engine, takes it in for the mandatory smog check, then spends another Saturday putting everything back on. A bit too much fiddling for me.

  12. Re:Snowden is fucked on Snowden's Big Truth: We Are All Less Free · · Score: 1

    This precisely.

    We are putting in place all the chains necessary for a psychopathic demagogue to rise to power and control the nation. I'm willing to stipulate that none of the politicians currently in office (elected, appointed, or career) are psychopathic demagogues, but I'm not willing to stipulate that will be the case forever. Once in power, we've created the legal positions, the technical means, and the infrastructure necessary to acquire and maintain nearly complete control of the citizenry, well, forever.

  13. Re:50" 4k costs 1/4 the price of the 32" on 4K Computer Monitors Are Coming (But Still Pricey) · · Score: 2

    Bad review because of a lack of "wifi, Internet connectivity, and 3D", and poor quality upconversion from 1080 content.

    None of which applies to one used as a computer monitor. They did mention motion blur, so it might not be appropriate for the latest FPS games.

  14. Re:The satelite's been broken for a while! on Main US Weather Satellite Fails As Hurricane Season Looms · · Score: 1

    From TOFA:
    "NOAA is reactivating another satellite, GOES-14, just as the agency did last year when GOES-13 experienced a problem,"

    So, yes, GOES-13 had a problem last year, GOES-14 took over for awhile, apparently GOES-13 got fixed and put back on station.

    Really strange that you had time to go research and read an older article, but not the one in the story.

  15. Turn the question around on Congress Demands Answers From Google Over Google Glass Privacy Concerns · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can I ask Congress the same question about the US Governments data collection efforts?
      - How is the US Government going to protect the privacy of Citizens who may not want their every public move (phone call, email, etc ) to be recorded?
      - What about the security of the recordings that are made - Will the US implement some sort of user authentication system to safeguard stored data? If not, why not?

    There's a whole sequence of questions that I'd much rather hear the answer to than similar questions about a dorky headpiece.

  16. Nope. on Larry Page: You Worry Too Much About Medical Privacy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like someone who wasn't around for the beginning of the AIDS epidemic (or even the current state of the AIDS epidemic).

    There are some health issues that society isn't mature enough to handle. Most of them are sexual in nature - do you really want your STD diagnosis to be water-cooler conversation (Hey, Frank, who'd you pick up that case of the clap from?)? If I had a diagnosis that gave me a 25% chance of dying in the next year, I believe that I have the right to decide who knows that. How about as a potential CEO, having your anxiety disorder (handled nicely with drugs, thank you) bandied about the boardroom?

    There are other health issues that are a don't-care. Paralyzed vocal cords? Bummer, dude. Here, I'll tell you one about me - I have vitiligo. Bummer, dude. Exzema? Ingrown toenail? Bummer, dude. Hell, even erectile dysfunction is a prime-time advertising bonanza.

  17. Re:Why is parent modded funny instead of informati on iTunes: Still Slowing Down Windows PCs After All These Years · · Score: 3, Informative

    (3) The Windows APIs for device arrival notification suck and require polling rather than blocking a thread to wait

    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I'll call up our software engineers immediately and let them know that processing a DBT_DEVICEARRIVAL message in the message pump, or using RegisterDeviceNotification() in our service, can't possibly work and we should re-write those sections of code to poll for device change.

    I have mod points, but there's no "-1 - ignorant" mod.

  18. Re:No iTunes for the Windows Store on iTunes: Still Slowing Down Windows PCs After All These Years · · Score: 2

    Well, I had the misfortune of owning a Zune, and an iPod at the same time. I think it's safe to say that the two apps were roughly equivalent in the height of fecal matter that they were equivalent to. Of course, that was a few (!) years ago...

  19. Re:Orbital pickup truck on Helium Depleted, Herschel Space Telescope Mission Ends · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, despite decades of wishful thinking, the laws of physics haven't changed much in the decades since we went to the moon.

  20. Re:This is a toy for geeks having nerdgasms on Not Even Investors Know What Google Glass Is For · · Score: 1

    Yup, that's a neat looking device. But it suffers from a fatal flaw - no niche market can use it.

    There's no obvious way for me as a hang glider pilot to integrate a variometer display in it, or show a moving map of my position relative to the turnpoints I need to hit in a competition. As a sailor, I can't modify it to do what I need it to do. As a motorcyclist, a Tour de France rider, a wake boarder, a golfer, a surgeon, a pest control specialist, an explorer, a Nascar driver, etc., I can't modify it for my needs. I haven't read up on Glass, so perhaps it has the same fatal flaw, but it is also far more flexible - a golfer could wear Glass and not look as out of place as he would wearing the Oakley HUD.

  21. Re:This is a toy for geeks having nerdgasms on Not Even Investors Know What Google Glass Is For · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a previous life, I spent a lot of time hang gliding. Competition and Cross-Country pilots have to hang multiple instruments on their control bars - variometers, GPS's, radios - to maximize their performance. This is a problem area, as the $1000 worth of instruments are in an easily damaged location which also reduces performance due to air drag.

    Google Glass would be a huge advancement here - stick your $200 cell phone where it gets good reception and is protected, use it for GPS, mapping, and communications functions, add a small cheap variometer interfaced to your phone. You'll have far better information, your instruments will be cheaper and your software will be vastly better, and your physical performance will improve by taking all that stuff out of the airstream.

    This, I think, is an example of the niche markets that no marketer in his right mind would build a product to meet, but combined with 1000 other niches could start to make the product ubiquitous. /frank

  22. Re:So? on Nuclear Power Prevents More Deaths Than It Causes · · Score: 1

    In an age of planes used as missiles I really don't want to see what happens when one decides to crash into a working reactor....or the spent fuel storage facilities that aren't hardened and usually sit right next door.

    Well, for the reactor itself, pretty much nothing is expected to happen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_safety_in_the_United_States#The_missile_shield). No one has actually tested such a scenario, though.

    Unprotected parts of the plant (which sometimes include spent-fuel storage areas) may release some radioactivity, but probably nowhere near as much as you might think.

  23. Re:So? on Nuclear Power Prevents More Deaths Than It Causes · · Score: 1

    Well, yes, you can light a lightbulb with a turbine in a stream. No one doubts that.

    But a hydroelectric plant is simply a way to extract the Potential energy of water (mass x height) in a meaningful, efficient way. Putting a turbine into the flow of a river allows you to extract the potential energy represented by the difference in height between the entrance to the turbine and the exit - the "head". You can't extract potential energy without "head". Putting a turbine into a free river such that there's a one foot drop from entrance to exit gets you a certain amount of potential energy that you could extract. Putting in a dam that raises the "head" to, say, 500 feet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Canyon_Dam), and running the same volume of water through it, gives you 500 times as much potential energy that you can try to harvest. Your only option for doing that without a dam is to put in 500 turbines, each of which takes advantage of 1 foot of head. Wouldn't that be a pretty sight?

  24. Re:Just how powerful *IS* faith? on Interviews: James Randi Answers Your Questions · · Score: 1

    Why is it so difficult to believe that a disease that comes on suddenly and without explanation, can cure itself the same way?

    I personally wouldn't put my faith in pancreatic cancer spontaneously disappearing, but I certainly put my faith in a head cold, the flu, the mumps, chicken pox, etc. going away spontaneously. We view diseases as either self-curing, or not - but certainly there is a spectrum ranging from 99.9% of the time self-curing, to 0.0001% of the time self-curing (or worse). If you have a disease in the modern world that's seen as "non-self-curing", you're likely to get professional medical treatment, and a spontaneous self-cure would be attributed to the treatment. We don't see it as ethical (well, at least since the Tuskegee syphilis experiment ended in the 1970s) to actively study hundreds of people with a treatable disease and refuse to treat them to watch the progression of the disease and see if any of them are spontaneously cured. /frank

  25. Re:Goodbye USPS on Wal-Mart To Join Amazon In Providing In-Store Locker Service · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You realize the Amazon has been trialing same-day delivery of orders? This simply provides them with a cheaper (and more secure) way to deliver to you - you don't have to worry about the neighbor kid stealing stuff off your front porch, and they only have to deliver to one location rather than to 50 different houses.