Slashdot Mirror


User: PatrickThomson

PatrickThomson's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
736
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 736

  1. Re:In other news ... on Privacy Threat in New RFID Travel Cards? · · Score: 1

    Buying an RFID reader won't currently put you on a watchlist. LSD precursors will, if my memory of american drug policy serves me well.

    The argument "someone who wanted this information would get it anyway" is a flawed one, I just can't see the flaw.

  2. In other news ... on Privacy Threat in New RFID Travel Cards? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In other news, walking around with a bizzare skin disorder that makes microscopic copies of your passport flake off and fall on the ground may be a risk to your identity.

    (I choose such an odd analogy because rfid readers are about as hard to obtain as microscopes. Not everyone will have one on them but it's not exactly mil-spec hardware)

  3. In other news ... on Tech Firms, Don't Fence Us In · · Score: 2
    An alliance of companies ... warned that a European Commission proposal to impose rules for traditional broadcasters on new media providers could ... hurt investments.

    In other news, Hannibal Lector complains that anti-cannibalism laws unfairly restrict his choice of dishes.

  4. Re:Terminology on Voice Recognition for a Techie? · · Score: 1

    I'm looking for something like this actually. Dead simple to set up, requires "training". Prerecorded samples which, if detected, run certain shell scripts. Gimmicky, like "computer, pause music".

  5. Re:I don't get it on Penny Arcade's CGW Interview · · Score: 1

    ranting (excessively) about penny arcade's god-awful archive search system aside, got a link to that strip? I tried every word in the quote seperately, nada.

  6. Re:what to do with 48T/yr of nuclear waste per pla on Environmentalists Coming Around to Nuclear Power? · · Score: 1

    "What happens when, what could happen, what might happen if."

    I will grant you one thing, people who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. It's only through the continual references to the one "victory" for anti-nuclear protestors that the rest of the world realises that safety is always a top priority.

  7. Re:what to do with 48T/yr of nuclear waste per pla on Environmentalists Coming Around to Nuclear Power? · · Score: 1
    Nothing is perfectly safe--crossing the street is a greater hazard to you than Yucca mountain will be to anyone.

    LOL. So, are you speaking facetiously, or do you take yourself seriously?

    Ok, I'll bite. Has anyone in your community been killed by Yucca mountain? How many people a year worldwide are killed by Yucca mountain?

  8. Re:Ramanujan on Wiki to Help Solve Millennium Problems? · · Score: 1

    I will agree that not everyone with a degree deserved it, but there are a lot more of those people than there are undiscovered geniuses. And anyone arrogant enough to claim to be an undiscovered genius probably isn't.

  9. Re:Bionic prosthetics on Bionic Man May Soon be a Reality · · Score: 1

    HELLLLOOOOO!!!! neural net? what do you call the human brain then? Just wire it up any old way and in a few weeks the person will have learned how to work it. There are bionic hands around that are controlled by signals from muscles in the stump being flexed, that work in the same way.

  10. Re:who really started this disturbing trend? on In-Game Adverts Could Reach $2 Billion? · · Score: 2, Informative

    They also put a discrete NIN logo on all the ammo crates that had nails in them.

  11. Re:None conformist on Global Warming Dissenters Suppressed? · · Score: 1

    We* suffer the arrogance of humanity. The climate is enormous. Actual physical discrepancies appearing on the surface of the planet is nothing new (trees and mountains, anyone?). Only by modifying linchpins such as the ozone layer or the composition of air itself can we directly alter the climate.

    *You

  12. Re:fantastic new weapons on Sci-Fi Weapons to Join US Arsenal? · · Score: 1

    Hitler lost because he was crazy. If he'd left the russians and americans alone they wouldn't have intervened until later. Russia was an ally until he decided to attack them and thus fight a war on 2 (or maybe 3, I forget) fronts, in the middle of russian winter. As for america, just leave them scrapping with the japanese and don't blow up any of the america->england ships.

    Of course, anyone crazy enough to actually start a war wouldn't listen to little old me.

  13. Re:Metric vs SAE on ESA to Send Spacecraft to Venus · · Score: 2, Funny

    How many groats per chain is that, when you factor in the cost of lox and propellant?

  14. Re:Whilst working in Abbotsford... on Next-gen Robot Toys to Fetch Beer · · Score: 1

    Nice try, but methyl alcohol is poisonous.

  15. Re:the free will hole on DRM and the Myth of the Analog Hole · · Score: 1

    11:15. Restate my assumptions.

  16. Re:7600GS Performance on NVIDIA Releases new Budget GPUs · · Score: 1

    I have one of these passively-cooled 6600GT's as well, and it's been good to me. Silent, obviously, and lost coast will run fluidly at max everything.

  17. Re:Oh, great...{more names} on Microsoft to 'Support and Usurp' Unix · · Score: 1

    don't forget PO$IX

  18. Re:Even if you could do Quad SLI... on Quad PCIe Motherboard · · Score: 1

    SLI used to be like that; now, each card renders the top half/bottom half iirc.

  19. Re:My experience on Financial Responsibility == Terrorism? · · Score: 1

    So, what this means is that people are stupid ($15k at once???) and lazy (can't be bothered filling in a form.) Consider:

    Taking off your shoes at an airport scanner is optional, but if you don't, they'll probably flag you over and search you. I can't be bothered taking my shoes off if I don't have to!

  20. Re:The worst part about OSS election software... on OSS Election Systems Desired, but Not Ready · · Score: 1

    He was making a subtle political allergory, dumbass.

  21. Re:Good luck with that. on Senate Passes Patriot Act Renewal · · Score: 1

    Yes, but sealand has a total area of about 30 square meters and relies entirely on cargo from england, 6 miles away. That's not the same as a self-sustaining ecosystem island.

  22. Re:Sensationalist, but effectively correct on Was Thomas Edison Right about DC Power? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Power supplies that only draw current for a tiny part of the mains wave, to top up the capacitor, are banned in the EU because too many of them can and did affect upstream power equipment.

  23. I agree. on Invasion of the Body Snatchers · · Score: 1

    It's like elephant ivory. I happen to come across a corpose of an elephant that unfortunately died of natural causes (lead poisoning), scouts honour, guv'nor, and I harvested these 4 suspiciously fresh tusks from it. As I said, the animal was already dead when I got there, so can I have my cash now?

    Can't imagine why they wanted to completely ban it.

  24. Re:Top ten worst controllers? on Top 10 Worst Game Controllers · · Score: 1

    X3 is worth it. People rant and snarl about the copy protection, works fine for me. If it's a big deal, buy it and crack it, or keep it on a seperate partition. Or there's always X2, but no factory complexes! Also, balanced economy, you wouldn't believe what an SPP costs nowadays.

  25. Re:FreeBSD on DRM Based on Trusted Computing Chips · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It is easy to have a virus-spyware free windows computer, just be competent. Bitching about these as a personal problem only makes you look like a moron.