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User: Nutria

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  1. Impossible!!! on Why Digital Medical Records Are No Panacea · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Everyone knows that everything should be computerized, since everyone knows that big, REALLY COMPLICATED data systems always work and always come in under budget.

    Like the redesigned FBI data system that works so perfectly!

  2. Dyslexia??? on Swiss Heartland Voters Ban Nude Hiking In Alps · · Score: 1

    I thought it said "nuke hiding" and wondered why they'd only fine the U.S. 200 sw. francs.

  3. Re:We are a bunch on Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC · · Score: 1

    Sheep panic. Humans think after they panic.

    Fixed that for you.

    I've still got to disagree with you there. Go read Dune. Or join the USMC.

  4. Re:Caldera on What Did You Do First With Linux? · · Score: 1

    All kidding aside, my first HD was 105 Mb. I was the envy of my peers, a 386sx-25

    You young whippersnappers!

  5. Re:We are a bunch on Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC · · Score: 1

    Before today, 747s didn't fly at that altitude, in circles, around lower Manhattan. Ever.

    Are you absolutely 100% gun-to-your-head positive? I don't think you can be.

  6. Re:We are a bunch on Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC · · Score: 1

    For the folks that scream that these people are weak-minded sheep,

    Sheep panic. Humans think.

  7. Re:We are a bunch on Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC · · Score: 1

    any decent architect will tell you that those steel-and-concrete buildings are designed to withstand the impact of several 747s.

    I don't think so...

    Survival from one Big Plane strike, though, has been demonstrated.

    It's the tons of burning kerosene, wood and plastics that brings down the building...

  8. Re:We are a bunch on Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC · · Score: 4, Funny

    747s don't fly at that altitude, in circles, around lower Manhattan. Ever.

    Evidence shows, though, that it does happen.

  9. Re:Caldera on What Did You Do First With Linux? · · Score: 1

    Was that 20MB drive a "Hard Card"?

    Mine wasn't, but we had a few where I worked...

    Oh, the memories....

    40MB was surprisingly large back then.

  10. Re:Caldera on What Did You Do First With Linux? · · Score: 1

    And me, I remember punch cards!

    A friend of mine had an Apple ][ w/ a Hayes Smartmodem; the school gave us permission to write our FORTRAN IV programs instead of waiting in line for the 3 punch card machines.

    It was a Burroughs mainframe (old even in 1984), though, which natively interacted with block-oriented smart terminals, and async serial mode was... underdeveloped. Painful.

    But after the suffering we could play Zork and ride his dirtbike.

  11. Re:Caldera on What Did You Do First With Linux? · · Score: 1

    I remember having a 4GB hard disk.

    I remember having a 20MB drive, and before that using dual floppies. And I remember seeing full-height 5.25" 5MB drives.

    Plus, of course, 13" removable platter drives for CDC external drives and DEC minicomputers.

  12. Re:Wait, what?! on Nintendo and the Decline of Hardcore Gaming · · Score: 0, Troll

    when the mood strikes but gaming ain't no important part of your life ...
    play it at leisure and still make progress

    But aren't those the same thing?

  13. Re:Different challenges. on Contrasting User-Driven Play With Developer Vision · · Score: 1

    Eventually, one group beats it, and then there's a cascade. The second group finishes it, maybe faster. Then the third. Then 60 people. Then 40. Eventually you have three hotshots essentially solo'ing something that used to be nearly incomprehensible.

    In a lot of cases, it's just a progression of knowledge and skill. Once you know exactly what needs doing, you can refine it further and further, hone the edge sharper and sharper

    But isn't that what humans have been doing for millennia? Climbing Mt. Everest, flying supersonic, transcontinental journeys, effectively killing people in war, etc, etc.

  14. Re:one action, two problems solved on DARPA's Map-Based Wiki Keeps Platoons Alive · · Score: 1

    You're right - we should have just let Hitler have all of Europe and Tojo all of Asia.

    Tojo and Hitler started the wars. The Allies just finished them.

  15. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    The printing press DESTROYED the book publishing industry of the time.

    I don't believe you that there was such an industry at that time.

    Lots of people with lots of money providing many jobs to skilled intelligent scribes fought very hard against Gutenberg.

    Again, I don't believe you. Find citations (not from a libertarian web site!!!) and then I might change my mind.

    Transcribing manuscripts was tedious in the extreme and VERY ERROR-PRONE. Those monks were jumping for joy that they could stop the mind-numbing scritching and go make beer...

  16. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    I could make digital copies of CDs 15 years ago.

    In 1994, most people only had CD-ROM drives.

    For that matter, I could make digital copies of CDs 20 years ago. And I could do it without a computer, only with consumer audio equipment.

    The CD-R was only released in 1988, so burners would have been really expensive in 1989, thus not in low- to medium-end equipment, nor even in most high-end equipment. Blank disks, too, would have been enormously expensive.

  17. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    Tv shows could be distributed via bittorrent as normal avi files with comercials embedded, you know, a bit like tv but without the tv.

    Within an hour, 85 people would post .torrent files of "stripped" versions of the shows.

  18. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    If everyone had the "why pay when I can take it for free?" philosophy, the record labels would have gone bankrupt years ago.

    Because N years ago (where N = 15) taking it for free meant copying a friend's CD or album onto a blank cassette tape, and those degrade a little every time you play them.

    IOW, it was far from the ease at which you can do it nowadays, so it didn't happen nearly as often as it does today.

  19. Re:Are UWV's replace the sub? on Robotic Penguins · · Score: 1

    So like the way the UAV will probably replace (or mostly replace) the manned plane. Will these 'UWV'replaced manned subs?

    Probably not, since water readily absorbs radio waves.

  20. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    Your understanding of human nature is myopic to say the least.

    It's pessimistic, and serves me quite well, being accurate most of the time.

    Thus, I refuse to pay $20 for an album I'm going to listen to a few times and then discard. On the other hand, I listen to an album several times, and still like it, I'm going to buy a copy,

    Way Back When, that purpose was served by Progressive and AOR radio, or going to a friend's house and listening to his records.

    Now get off my lawn!!!!!

  21. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the solution is to not criminalize personal filesharing for no commercial gain, ... Allow the remixing of such things for non-profit use. Then we will see progress.

    I think that's a pipe dream which doesn't take human nature ("why pay when I can take it for free?") into account.

    decrease copyright to a sane 20 or less years, repeal things such as the DMCA

    That I agree with.

  22. Re:Why do we persist with the ridiculous term Czar on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    Why?

    Because most people don't mind being told what to do. (Republican democracy has only taken up 2% of the 10,000 years since humans invented agriculture, and still most of the people in the world are ruled by unelected or sham-elected governments. Heck, even the US is sliding into totalitarianism.)

  23. Re:corporations are no artists, except con artists on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 0, Troll

    I think this is neither necessary nor a proper way to do business.

    What's your experience in running a large (or even medium or small) business?

  24. Re:I nominate... on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, we do need to reward creativity, but no, corporate-controlled copyright focused on profit-maximization ... is NOT the solution.

    So the solution is??????

  25. Re:corporations are no artists, except con artists on Biden Promises 'Right Person' As Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    Apparently the artists they hire have no intelligence, because they sell their creativity rights for the access to the medium.

    Are you an idiot, or just willfully stupid?

    Lots of creative people do not prefer to be free actors, having to be businessmen in addition to creating their art.