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User: witherstaff

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  1. Re:Speaking for myself on The Era of Saturday Morning Cartoons Is Dead · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been happy with Phineas and Ferb. Sure it's Disney, still it's just oddball enough to make it worth watching. The main characters are engineers finally something neater than Handy Smurf or the doozers.

  2. Re:illogical captain on Why Atheists Need Captain Kirk · · Score: 1

    Christianity has a logical and consistent framework, despite the fact that people disagree on various things.

    If you're talking about the bible it is not a consistent framework. Even the gospels don't agree with each other on the death of Jesus, a central tenant of the religion. Personally I like the Gospel of Matthew. In that account, and only that account, an unknown number of zombies also rose from the dead along with Jesus and went into the city.

  3. open source big brother on Judge Allows L.A. Cops To Keep License Plate Reader Data Secret · · Score: 1
    I can see some need for an open source big brother. Would either need mounted cams in a yard facing a roadway or a way to mount a cam on the dashboard to read in real time, a smartphone version of the russian drive cam. . There are a few good uses and after that it'd be full of some cyber stalking style info. But if we have already lost our privacy why shouldn't we know what the government knows?
    • Neighborhood watch would be helpful - why is this car creeping around the area?
    • With enough coverage could weed out thieves / crimes
    • Find your elected official and see if they hang around strip clubs
    • Find where the kid dating your daughter is hanging out
    • Employee said they were home sick? Find his plate and see if it isn't out driving around
    • Auto tag police plates and have real time police locations. Like those spot a cop apps to help avoid tickets
    • Road rage allows for revenge. Get cut off? Find where the car is parked and put bird seed all over the car, etc

    The sky is the limit on what would be created with an open source backend DB. I'd put a cam in the yard and in my car. Sounds amusing.

  4. Re:To quote Cyrano Jones... on Microsoft Considered Renaming Internet Explorer To Escape Its Reputation · · Score: 1

    I always thought it was Found On Road Dead. Or : Recent studies show that 95% of all Ford vehicles are still on the road. The other 5% were towed home.

    My mother bought a Ford Explorer with a chrome running board option. Before the 5 year bumper to bumper car warranty expired the chrome was noticeably starting to flake. Except the bumper to bumper excluded that option.. the chome option was only a 3 year warranty. I do have to give it to the Ford engineers to be able to devise a fail date just slightly longer than warranty. Now that's quality work.

  5. Some of their suggestions on US States Edge Toward Cryptocoin Regulation · · Score: 1

    New York is looking at requiring 100% + holding of any deposits made to a company that holds the crypto currency, like an exchange. The wording they used is amusing : "As capital protection, these companies would have to hold the same amount of virtual currency as they owed to their customers. But unlike banks, which are also subject to capital requirements, these companies would be allowed to hold some of it in virtual currency. "

    I like how at first pass it sounds like banks hold 100% also

  6. Re:Crypto! on Ask Slashdot: What Would You Do With Half a Rack of Server Space? · · Score: 1

    Unless you hit one of the alt-coins that doesn't have a GPU miner. A variety of those are around.

  7. Re:Since when was Thor a title? on Marvel's New Thor Will Be a Woman · · Score: 1

    I feel sorry for poor Blake. When thor brought back all the souls of the Asgardians awhile ago from death Blake was left in some limbo. Does the human host show back up when Thor isn't on Earth? The guy just barely exists because he made the mistake of finding a damn stick. How about a storyline of Thor ending the subjugation of a mere mortal?

  8. Re:Cashless can't happen, here is why ... on Predicting a Future Free of Dollar Bills · · Score: 1

    xapo has a credit card backed by bitcoin, exchanged to currency at point of sale, coming out. You can buy anything with bitcoin once you have one of those in hand.

  9. Should have run but didn't on Sifting Mt. Gox's Logs Reveals Suspicious Trading Patterns · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't assume he would have fled someplace under a new name. There are a number of recent cases where people who should have fled did not. Bernie Madoff surprised me that he didn't run, the Silk Road founder still living in the states was also surprising. I guess it's part of the mentality of 'they'll never catch me'

  10. Don't forget BSG on Why Should Game Stories Make Sense? · · Score: 2

    I kept waiting for the reveal of the Plan the Cylons supposedly had.

  11. Re:raised finger to networks on Netflix Pondering Peer-to-Peer Technology For Streaming Video · · Score: 1

    I've been happy with Plex and chromecast for home media streams.

  12. Intrade on Bookies Predict the Future of Tech · · Score: 2

    Nothing new, Intrade would allow you to bet on anything. I know there are a few places doing similar things.

  13. Find the closest nuke plant on Ask Slashdot: Are You Apocalypse-Useful? · · Score: 1

    Food - make a solar cooker. Super easy with some tinfoil and cardboard - or anything shiny you can direct to one spot. Boil water in a pot in minutes and can do crockpot style cooking simply.
    If it's a no electricity apocalypse I'd find a local Amish community to fill any gaps in the skill pool. Sure they don't necessarily trust outsiders but they do trade. Although I have 2 nuke plants within 100 miles of me. Depending on why there is no electricity I may not be around to bother. If it's simply a catastrophe then it could be like lucifer's hammer and a nuke plant would be the place to bootstrap civilization - it has power, weapons, tools.

    Now zombies...that's another matter. Although a nuke plant may be a good idea there also. They've been made very secure since 911 and electrified fences may help.

  14. Re:Ah, Crony-Capitalism! on Why There Are So Few ISP Start-Ups In the U.S. · · Score: 1
    • I am part of a power Co-op. There are a number around the country. Profit is given back to the members at the end of the year... in theory. Our co-op seems to keep rolling out into other industries like propane, water heater programs, alternative energy. However normal power companies have to get permission from the state regulators to raise rates. There has been various talk to deregulate electric and natural gas so you can use anyone for the billing company.
    • Telcos (copper) USED to be required to share their lines with the '96 telco reform act. This forced deregulation and let competition into the industry. Startup telcos sold lines to ISPs who popped up all over. Under Bush Jr. and Colin Powell's son appointed to head the FCC this was all rolled back. No more independent telco companies, no more independent ISPs.
    • Part of the problem are the no competition clauses the cable companies get with each city they serve. This prevents any other cable company from even moving into an area. Even if a startup could have the funds the access isn't there.
    • Going forward I hope the solar powered airships / drones get good enough to have circling in a known path far overhead to give us a faster than satellite route to anywhere.
  15. Already paid for on Why There Are So Few ISP Start-Ups In the U.S. · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We've already paid for high speed internet using the existing infrastructure. The telcos and cable cos have to get the permission of various entities from state and federal agencies, sometimes they got huge tax breaks to improvements. New Jersey was supposed to have fiber to the home of everyone by 2010 if I recall. currently it's up to 300 billion that taxpayers have paid and hasn't been delivered. We want better internet speed start calling your congress critters and ask them where our money has gone.

  16. Re:Exchanges with interest on Mt. Gox Questioned By Employees For At Least 2 Years Before Crisis · · Score: 1

    for mcxnow they take 25% of all fees earned and use that for the interest payments. The payout is every 6 hours. Not sure how all the rest do it, I assume a similar setup.

  17. Exchanges with interest on Mt. Gox Questioned By Employees For At Least 2 Years Before Crisis · · Score: 1

    there are a number of exchanges that pay interest on your holdings on the exchange. They take a percentage of fees the exchange earns and give it to people with coins held there. The rationale is they want your coins sitting on the exchange as it'll encourage you to trade only on that exchange. One exchange, mcxnow, even posts a current interest rate based on the last 6 hour of fees.

  18. So who is liable for our $300 billion refund? on WSJ: Prepare To Hang Up the Phone — Forever · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With carriers having overcharged over 300 billion who is then on the hook if there are no more landline companies? Of course telcom giants want people only on wireless, Verizon has been selling off their landline business for years.

    I haven't kept up with the laws the last decade but the ILECs - incumbent local exchange carrier - were the equivalent of government mandated monopolies. Telco reform act of '96 forced the ILECs to share the publicly paid for infrastructure with startup phone companies. The Internet exploded with thousands of ISPs popping up. This was rolled back under Bush Jr when Powell's son was running the FCC. I wonder if this means other companies can move into these abandoned areas without the ILEC screaming like crazy?

  19. Ex DOJ lawyer agrees on Ask Slashdot: What Does Edward Snowden Deserve? · · Score: 1

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/08... This is from a "former head of the U.S. Justice Department Asset Forfeitures Office and a federal prosecutor."

  20. Re:Not the person, it's the office on Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto · · Score: 1

    I thought the DPR that got busted was also the founder, the whole it was someone else was just trying to cover his tracks. I haven't been keeping up with the story enough to know if there is any evidence other than DPR saying he didn't start the site.

  21. Re:Good on EPA Makes Most Wood Stoves Illegal · · Score: 1

    Many old houses had only the kitchen stove and the kids took a brick heated on the stove to bed with them.

  22. Re:such bs on Obamacare Could Help Fuel a Tech Start-Up Boom · · Score: 1

    you speak common sense and that's why it will go overlooked. Health care is pricey and the way the medical industry wrote the law ("We'll televise the health care meetings on CSPAN" never did happen since it would have looked bad with the insurance and medical companies writing everything) there is no chance it will get cheaper. I've been seeing my local area have lots of people hired under 30 hours for awhile now. I know people who work at places like Walmart, other retail and Casinos who can not get 30 hours.

    The law also doesn't require coverage for employees unless the company has more than 50 employees. The small businesses out there are already stretched and if they haven't been offering health insurance they sure won't start now. Means more out of pocket for the working schmuck,a new tax with the IRS in charge of enforcement.

  23. teabag = rape? on Student Arrested For Using Phone App To 'Shoot' Classmates · · Score: 2

    But this used augmented reality and a cell phone so it's just like the real thing. It's a good thing he didn't virtually teabag anyone he "shot" or he'd be charged with rape also.

  24. Re:bitcoin sounds fun but slow? on Federal Judge Declares Bitcoin a Currency · · Score: 1

    The various online wallets like blockchain.info allow you to bypass the wait and are secure enough for new users to get quickly involved with.

  25. Re:What this means to others... on Federal Judge Declares Bitcoin a Currency · · Score: 1

    That was my first thought in reading the ruling.The ideas behind bitcoins - or any digital currency - have to annoy the established banking industry so the best way to destroy a new disruptive technology is to regulate it with regulators that are from the industry or will become part of the industry once their government stint is over. Corporate banking is working hard to destroy bitcoin or anything that bypasses banks.