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User: bennomatic

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Comments · 2,576

  1. Re:Governor Appointed on Nebraska Scientists Refuse To Carry Out Climate Change-Denying Study · · Score: 1

    "The free university." Hm. I wonder how that magical beast ever existed. Did it really run without funds?

    (Hint: No. the historical fountainheads of free ideas and scientific discovery have, for the most part, survived on significant amounts of government--i.e. taxpayer--funding in most civilized societies.)

  2. What people have to realize is that... on Torvalds: Free OS X Is No Threat To Linux · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...Apple does not have to fail for Linux to succeed, nor visa versa.

    The comments on this thread remind me of heated conversations I had as a 13 year old, when my friends and I couldn't agree on which was better, the Commodore 64, the Apple IIe or the Atari 800. Anyone who's read my previous comments probably knows that I was firmly in the Commodore 64 camp.

  3. Wow. on New Standard For Website Authentication Proposed: SQRL (Secure QR Login) · · Score: 3, Funny

    You had me at "QR code".

  4. Re:This takes the prize. on A Peek At Apple's Planned $5B HQ · · Score: 1

    Or possibly, it's ironic, posted by a non-Apple-hater who wants to troll Apple haters. Either way, this is stupid.

  5. This takes the prize. on A Peek At Apple's Planned $5B HQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stupidest Apple-trolling article on /. ever. And considering the number of Apple trolling articles on /., that's saying something.

    Uh, gotta be funny. In Soviet Russia, Apple trolls /.!

  6. Re:News For Nerds on China Arrests Anti-Corruption Blogger · · Score: 1

    I assume you religiously refer to Rhode Island by its official name, 'Rhode Island and Providence Plantations'.

  7. Re:idiots on Shuttleworth: Apple Will Merge Mac and iPhone · · Score: 1

    I heard that mobile devices can only handle ones and zeroes.

  8. Re:Of course on Bennett Haselton's Response To That "Don't Talk to Cops" Video · · Score: 1

    LOL, you seem to think you know a lot about me. No reason to get personal. But just for your info, I'm neither immensely wealthy, nor starvingly poor.

    We're a nation of laws, and while you can certainly argue the rightness or wrongness of any of them if you care to do so, trading against insider information is illegal. It would have been illegal if she lost money, illegal if she made it.

    But in the end, you're defined by how you treat other people. She's an asshole, by all accounts, and while I was joking about this particular item, it's a joke founded in some level of truth. If you disagree, fine. However, the law disagrees with your interpretation of what's "none of anyone's fucking business".

  9. Re:If this was Apple... on Samsung Fudging Benchmarks Again On Galaxy Note 3 · · Score: 1

    LOL, there's the Apple Hate I was looking for.

  10. I grew up on the edge of those neighborhoods on Sick of Your Local Police Force? Crowdfund Your Own · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I threw a rock hard enough, I would have hit the Uplands. That neighborhood is CRAZY. Trick or treating there as a kid was a good way to work off the calories from all the candy, as you had to go up so many steps the sugar was a wash. Many of the homes there have coats of arms over the doors. They are wealthy, wealthy, wealthy. I've seen houses in my old neighborhood which is a ghetto in comparison selling for well over $1M, so these places are easily in the tens of millions.

    Of course they're getting private security. The Oakland police are so busy that if you're reporting a crime that is not CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS, they'll mail you a report form. You never even see an officer if your car or house is broken into.

    Meanwhile, half a mile away, on Telegraph Ave, Berkeley has about the highest concentration of mentally ill homeless people in the nation, perhaps outside of Manhattan. But heaven forbid someone gets their big screen TV stolen.

  11. Re:Martha Stewart on Bennett Haselton's Response To That "Don't Talk to Cops" Video · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd put a different spin on it. I'd say she went to jail for being criminally assholish. When she said she didn't make any money, it was because she looks at $30,000 (IIRC, the amount she profited) like most of us look at pennies on the floor of our cars. For the cop in question, that was half his annual income, so he took her in.

    At least that's how I like to look at it :)

  12. Re:If this was Apple... on Samsung Fudging Benchmarks Again On Galaxy Note 3 · · Score: 1

    Actually, I think I've noticed a significant drop-off in the Apple hate. It used to annoy me that anything bad--even if it was incorrectly reported to look bad--that Apple was accused of would get a thousand or more vitriolic comments here on /., but recently, it seems like those numbers are waning. Even the cracking of TouchID seemed to get a pretty rational, "Ho hum, nobody expected it to be perfect, but it's still better than no security" reaction.

  13. ARGH! on The Next Big Fiber Showdown: Austin · · Score: 1

    Why does Austin get everything before Portland? By the time I get my fiber, all those f'ing hipsters will be saying, "I had fiber before it was cool."

    We do have Verizon FIOS out here in the metro area, but it's way the heck out west by Beavertron, presumably because of Intel. East of the Willy, the choices are Qwest (CenturyLink?) DSL which is slow as F, or Comcast, which is fast and reliable, but with a little more competition, I'm sure they could afford to drop the price by a few bucks.

    Oh, and speaking of Qwest/CL's DSL, they keep sending me mailers suggesting that I could get up to 20 Mbps on their enhanced DSL. Once a year, I take the bait and call them, and every single time, the max they can offer me is a virtually trogloditic 1.5 Mbps. You'd think that, if their mailing system is database-driven, and their bandwidth availability lookup is database driven, they could do some cross-referencing and only bother sending out mailers to people who either can get great bandwidth or who don't have any other options...

    OK, end rant.

  14. Re:Because it's worth it so have it now on Apple Offers Refund To Stiffed Breaking Bad Season Pass Customers · · Score: 1

    And Darth Vader is Luke's father.

  15. This never would have happened... on Microsoft Takes Another Stab At Tablets, Unveils Surface 2, Surface 2 Pro · · Score: 1

    ...if Steve Ballmer were still alive.

  16. Re:Only 3.11? on Linux 3.11 Released · · Score: 2

    Remember the browser-version wars? I think that IE jumped from 2.1 to 4 in a matter of weeks. Eventually, Google and Firefox took it to the logical extreme, changing major revision numbers ever 12 minutes. I guess it's still going on...

  17. Only 3.11? on Linux 3.11 Released · · Score: -1

    I'm mad as hell that they didn't release version 4!!!1!

    Wait. What day is it? Apple's release isn't for 8 days. Sorry... wrong product.

  18. So.... on New Radioactive Water Leak At Fukushima: 300 Tons and Growing · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ....this is how it ends.

    Should I apologize to my kid before or after he's old enough to understand that humanity has no future?

  19. Re:No, it's a franchisee getting sued. on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 1

    "Dude, I'm going down to Mickey D's to pick up a burger. Want me to pick one up for you? Yeah, you can pay me later."

    People buy McD's from third parties all the time. "Analogy fail" fail.

  20. Re:No, it's a franchisee getting sued. on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 1

    Yes, but regardless of what you say to your wife, you're stopping at a particular restaurant that's run by a particular franchisee. I wouldn't be surprised if the bigger corporation were forced into setting some policies following this lawsuit, but for the time being, it is indeed that franchisee who is being sued. Think of it this way: if the owner of your local Nissan dealership was up on murder charges, would you say, "Nissan is being accused of murder!!"?

    Sorry, just had to get a car analogy in there.

  21. Re:simple on What Features Does iOS 7 Need? · · Score: 0

    I'd settle for "open".

  22. This is great! A real problem with iDevices... on Researchers Infect iOS Devices With Malware Via Malicious Charger · · Score: 0

    ...and the story has less than 200 comments hours later.

    Meanwhile, any normal story about Apple doing some perceived, intangibly wrong thing usually gets 500 or more.

  23. Re:depends on what you're going into on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 2

    I'm somewhat of the mindset that deep understanding helps developers apply the tools more intelligently. Without understanding the underlying math, some of the work would be trial and error, and while that might lead to a working system, it might have very difficult to debug problems based on poor logic. To use a metaphor, you can certainly build a bridge, given the right tools and equipment, but without math, it might fail suddenly and catastrophically at an unpredictable moment. I'm thinking of that famous wind-wave bridge collapse you've probably seen on YouTube.

    Some may call that mindset pedantic, but I think deep understanding separates the experts and artisans from the low end technicians. Some of that deep understanding can be gotten on the job, but there is something to be said for a formal mathematics training if you're going to be using advanced mathematics tools.

  24. Re:Rev. 1 hardware, people on Google Glass Is the Future — and the Future Has Awful Battery Life · · Score: 2

    It's entirely possible that the only way to "sort it out" with today's technology would be to make something too heavy or clumsy to wear for any length of time. All design is about compromise; in six months or a year, battery technology will be better, but for the mean time, perhaps Google is trying to optimize the wearability and useability of the thing, and battery life is something they're simply not concerned about. Don't like it? Don't buy it; it's not for you yet.

    Maybe if people really do want to wear it for all their waking hours, Google will offer a battery pack. I'm sure someone will want to have an electrical cord going behind their ear into their inside jacket pocket.

  25. Re:Propeller head on Google Glass Is the Future — and the Future Has Awful Battery Life · · Score: 1

    I was thinking of some sort of a piston attachment which would generate power every time you took a bouncing step. You could even have four or five of them on your head to ensure that you get optimal power throughput regardless of your angle of attack. Now that would be awesome.