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User: Dayze!Confused

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  1. Re:five years for 10 viewings? on Embed a Video, Go To Jail? · · Score: 2

    It is those uncommon uses which gives power to one who wishes to abuse. What may happen is that people get used to nobody doing anything about breaking it, then suddenly they "crack down" on it.
    How about a car analogy. Let's say there is a law outlawing making left turns on Thursday.
            Some people object saying it is ridiculous, that there are justifiable reasons to make left turns on Thursday.
            The lawmakers say they only want this law for a particular case where there are certain intersections where there are a lot of accidents that occurred on Thursday involving people making left turns. The law gets passed.
            In the interim it is hardly enforced, nobody gets arrested for making left turns on Thursday. After a few years there is a political activists wanting to hold a protest on Thursday at a particular destination in which have to make a left turn to get to ( I'm not a civil engineer but let's say for some reason there was no way to make a right turn into it ). In order to stifle this movement the mayor orders the police officers to wait at that intersection and to arrest everyone for making a left turn there, thus getting rid of any protest there may have been.
            There is a large danger in having many laws that are obscure or not largely enforced, they can be forgotten by the masses and then used as a legal weapon by those who know the laws and have an agenda.

  2. Please have a -1 Button on Google Is Introducing the +1 Button · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know everybody just has those times they wish that they could either just "Acknowledge" that they've read the comment and care, such as a friend getting sick or being dumped or getting into a car crash, or wish that they could state that they do not like a comment, maybe they could introduce a "Wrong" button also.

  3. Re:Chinese universities also have more cheating on China To Overtake US In Science In Two Years · · Score: 1

    My test in Taiwan was on a closed course, and during the 45 days of schooling we don't have a driving permit to go out with a licensed driver. I grew up in Washington state and my test there was fairly good.
    1) Parallel parking at the DMV (hard to find a dynamic place to parallel park, so it makes sense)
    2) Right turn out of DMV
    3) Change lanes to the left, go through lighted intersection obeying traffic signals.
    4) Change lanes back to the right, right turn into an (forgive my English, been out of states for too long) uncontrolled neighborhood (no stop signs or other traffic stuff)
    5) Left and right turns, slowing down while approaching uncontrolled intersections
    6) Parking on a hill with/out a curb.
    7) Backing around a corner
    8) Going back to the DMV
    9) Reviewing how you did on the test and where you could improve EVEN if you passed the test

    I guess it really depends on where you live. Comparing my two experiences were like night and day. The Washington test had points where each section was a maximum of four and tested you on various aspects such as proper signaling and looking with your head to lane travel and car control. The Taiwan test, in contrast, had 30 point penalties for rolling backwards while starting on a steep hill, or 15 point penalties for hitting a sensor that is on the inside of the white/yellow line while driving forward/backward.

    Although I did hear from my instructor that Taiwan was going to be switching to a similar method as they do in the states where they drive in traffic for the test. Needless to say the instructors were non too happy because this means that it would be much harder for them to keep up their 100% pass advertisement while not actually teaching much about driving.

  4. Re:Chinese universities also have more cheating on China To Overtake US In Science In Two Years · · Score: 1

    I know that they have a different government and education system, although the education system I would assume is like it is in Taiwan and Japan, going off other peoples experiences that I know in Taiwan who have lived in China, including a professor at one of their universities, and what I've seen through television and what not.

    You may also note that I qualified my statement in the first line by saying

    If it's anything like my experience in Taiwan

    that way you may know this is from my experience in Taiwan.

    But I would say that the culture is still shared between China and Taiwan, and it is this culture that seems to encourage this cookie cutter approach to education and innovation. Reading forums it seems that this is also evidenced in Japan also where they care about where the degree is from and that the person got top of class and not so much as to whether or not they know how to apply the knowledge that they have supposedly obtained during these 16 years of schooling.

    Thanks for trying to tear apart my argument without showing any evidence to the contrary.

  5. Re:Chinese universities also have more cheating on China To Overtake US In Science In Two Years · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If it's anything like my experience in Taiwan then I'm not surprised at all. I went to driving school in Taiwan to get my local license. The school consisted of 5 days a week for 6 weeks we went to school and had a "driving instructor" tell us how to take the test on the course that they have at their school. Their school is also certified to have the test taken there. There are little rocks and other curiously placed items, plus extra large side mirrors and triangular mud flaps, to help aid you along. When taught to back into a parking space I was told to line up a light pole with my passenger door and turn the wheel all the way, when I see the line is parallel with the triangular mudflap then I stop, turn the wheel back to the straight position and back up until the triangular mudflap points at the white line behind me.
    Parallel parking was much the same. Line the triangular mudflap up with a rock that happens to have been painted into the fog line on the road, turn the wheel until it can't turn anymore and backup until the other wheels triangular mudflap hits the fog line and then stop. Turn the wheel all the way back in the other direction and then back up, perfectly parallel parked each time.
    The "driving instructor" only sat with you the first couple days, then he figured you pretty much got it and then could go off and bs with his buddies. If you got bored of driving around the same track for two hours you could go inside where you get to practice taking the exact same test that you will have to take at the DMV for the written portion.
    The real kicker is, although your "driving instructor" may be a "certified tester" he can't test his own students, so another one of the "driving instructors" will probably test you. They'll help you cheat the whole time while taking the driving test. There is a part where you have to stop on a hill and are not allowed to roll backwards. The "certified tester" will actually press the break for you on his side of the car so that you can make it through this part without failing. After the test, even if you did it perfectly, they will at least dock you 4 points on some random line JUST so that the government doesn't get suspicious that everyone is passing with 100%. I have driven a car for 10 years and I did everything right, but he docked me a couple points on the clutch not being steady, or not shifting smoothly, which was complete BS.

    There is a huge business for so called "Cram Schools" here. They are schools made to help students "get ahead" of their peers. But everybody goes to them. For some reason people can't accept that their teachers at school are sufficient to teach their children so they ship them of to cram school for 3-4 hours after school, which starts at 7am and gets out around 4-5pm. You can imagine daycare isn't really needed for those mothers who choose not to stay at home but go out and work, they can just send them off to learn what they should have learned in school. Most people I've talked to have explained that what they do in the "Cram Schools" is just teach them how to pass the test that their teacher will give.

    Granted it's not as bad as it used to be, where teachers would actually purposefully not teach things in their class and then set up a cram school right across from the school where they did the real teaching.

    I can only assume that this goes on in china still. That and their cookie cutter format to school. You literally have the same class through half of elementary, all of middle, and through the last two years of high school. In high school, after one year you decide if you want science and math or social studies and art. You spend your final year pretty much just taking tests and getting ready to take tests.

    Once in college, which is determined by how well you did on your tests, and a University is separated into multiple "Colleges", when just applying for college you already have to have predetermined which major you want, because when you apply for "College" it is a "College" within the

  6. Re:Just took phone out of my pants pocket. on Mobile Phone May Rot Your Bones · · Score: 2

    My friend flooded his house by blowing his nose and trying to flush the toilet paper down the toilet before jumping in the shower. 3.5 years later and he finally got a new toilet in there.

  7. Re:I for one on Surveillance Robot That is Programmed To Hide · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that can sneak up on buildings...

    Those buildings are so dang hard to sneak up on, but they sure let out quit a yelp when you surprise them!

  8. Re:Why is that a crime? on Facebook Wedding Photos Result In Polygamy Arrest In Michigan · · Score: 1

    Ironically here is the quote of the day as it appears for me now:

    Natural laws have no pity.

    The history behind why it is illegal goes back to the Mormon prosecution and was used as leverage against the early settlers of the Salt Lake Valley. I don't know all the specifics about it but it wasn't a crime until the late 1800's.

  9. Re:Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerate on Is the Business Card Dead? · · Score: 2

    I remember beaming my contact info at church about eight years ago. It was always awkward and sort of a hit or miss if it would transfer correctly. We had to point them head to head at each other and ask if the other person was ready, then send it and hope that it sent successfully.
    The great thing about business cards is the speed at which you can transfer the information to many people and the ability to have them in places where you aren't. Plus it's not a hassle, you can easily get someones information when they have to rush somewhere else after having chatted with them for 20 minutes. It's probably happened to everyone where you chat with someone for a while and then they get a phone call and have to get running.
    Maybe NFC will bring back "beaming" your contact info again, but I doubt even that will replace th classing business card.

  10. Re:Final they say on Final Android 3.0 SDK Released · · Score: 1

    Conveniently the API level 11 (in decimal) is also the version number 11 (in binary) :)

  11. Re:Perfect? on Comment Profanity by Language · · Score: 4, Informative

    Really the title of the /. article is misleading, it is Commit Profanity by Language, which is entirely different.

  12. Re:Were the times on 911 and Facebook in sync? on Driver Sued For Updating Facebook In Fatal Crash · · Score: 1

    There is a good chance that she may not have had a data connection, or that sync was taking some time, and that it didn't upload to Facebook until that time. I guess that would depend on if Facebook timestamps it itself or if it takes the timestamp from the phone. I would assume, in order to keep it reliable, that it would timestamp it itself when received, or else anyone could set a timestamp for themselves and call it an alibi.

  13. Re:Increase demand or demand an increase? on Google Hiring Android Devs To Close the 'Apps Gap' · · Score: 1

    It'd be nice if I could reply to everybody who replied to the parent but I think we are still missing the point. It's not just sort by first/last name, I'd rather sort by any piece of information in it, especially, get this, Nickname. There isn't even an option to display the nickname, you have to do your own hack and just use first name for their nicknames and then put their first name in the nickname slot in order to have it work. t's good to know somebody's name is Eugene, but if they like to go by Flynn Ryder then I would hope I could get that to be displayed. I'm running Android Gingerbread right now and it still has that same problem. Seems that with all the other things that they have updated the contact list is the last on their list of things to do.

  14. Re:Horrible. on Slashdot Launches Re-Design · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'd like to see how deep we can get this reply to go.

  15. Re:Expensive cheats on Catching Exam Cheats With a Spectrum Analyzer · · Score: 5, Informative

    I live in Taiwan, and at any exam that I have ever attended there is one simple rule. If your cellphone even as much as vibrates while you are taking a test you are disqualified at that moment. We are told this beforehand and are recommended to turn off our cellphones.

  16. Re:TSA on Which Shipping Company Is Kindest To Your Packages? · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I worked at UPS I remember my foot going through a Dell package, they had pretty sturdy boxes, just not a match for my steeled toed boots...

  17. Re:TSA Security Theater on TSA Saw My Junk, Missed Razor Blades, Says Adam Savage · · Score: 2, Informative

    I flew on an international flight and transfered in LA to go to PDX. When I got home, I opened up my carry on bag and found a box cutter sitting in the front pouch. So much for security.

  18. Re:So Confused on the GPS Data and Logic on Midwest Earthquake Hazard Downplayed · · Score: 1

    I'd think of it like a boiler. When it's not under a lot of pressure there is no movement, but when the pressure gets higher it begins to shake, and when it's about to blow it shakes more violently. Similar to volcanoes I suppose. IANAG

  19. Re:Prop 19 on Predicting Election Results With Google · · Score: 1

    I would guess that the editor probably used spell check and noticed that everything was spelled wrong and corrected the "misspelled words". It was probably just another one of /.'s attempt at pretending to edit articles and failing.

  20. Re:Hmm on Pope Says Technology Causes Confusion Between Reality and Fiction · · Score: 1

    I believe you were probably thinking of his omniscience, being all powerful doesn't really take away the possibility of free will, where being all knowing might. James Talmage, in Jesus the Christ, I believe had a very good explanation of the omniscience of God:

    Respecting the foreknowledge of God, let it not be said that divine omniscience is of itself a determining cause whereby events are inevitably brought to pass. A mortal father, who knows the weaknesses and frailties of his son, may by reason of that knowledge sorrowfully predict the calamities and sufferings awaiting his wayward boy. He may foresee in that son's future a forfeiture of blessings that could have been won, loss of position, self-respect, reputation and honor; even the dark shadows of a felon's cell and the night of a drunkard's grave may appear in the saddening visions of that fond father's soul; yet, convinced by experience of the impossibility of bringing about that son's reform, he foresees the dread developments of the future, and he finds but sorrow and anguish in his knowledge. Can it be said that the father's foreknowledge is a cause of the son's sinful life?

    I once heard an explanation that makes sense. It's like seeing millions of paths, as time goes by some paths fade away and new ones unfold.

  21. Re:Bad GUI and no CLI: way too common on Take This GUI and Shove It · · Score: 1

    Just be careful when messing with iptables, you might have to make a jtag cable if you accidently set all the policies to DROP by default and then decide to clear the table, including the established connections bit, while logged in and brick your router. Good thing as a geek/hacker I wouldn't give up and spent the $5 to make the jtag cable and rescue my router.

  22. Re:20 years? on Oxford Expands Library With 153 Miles of Shelves · · Score: 1

    They might even be able to type up some Shakespeare...

  23. Re:It sounds really useful on Pioneer Preps Laser Heads-Up Display For Cars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    an animated Android robot on the right-hand side that passed on information to drivers

    Am I the only one who thought of Mr. Clippy when I read this?

    P.S.
    If the quote is messed up it's because for some reason /. has disabled my ability to cut and paste.

  24. Re:because it's a distraction and dangerous? on Could Anti-Texting Laws Make Roads More Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    "I'll be there tomorrow, bastard just cut me off, around 6pm, crap learn to drive, at the bookstore, not another old lady driving, don't forget to bring, freakin' a get ahead or drop back, the xbox game you borrowed last, holy crap I can't believe this, week. Send"

  25. Re:Flash drives, tarballs, &c. on Are Desktop Firewalls Overkill? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As was stated earlier, those ports should just be closed to begin with. The only thing it really does is prevent outgoing traffic. As long as the ports are not open there is nothing on the outside that can open the ports. The way things would get infected would be by traveling through a port that is already open on all systems, thus a firewall is useless because that port already allows traffic and there would be a corresponding rule in the firewall to allow this traffic. Unless you are doing packet inspections for viral traffic it's not going to prevent it.