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User: jackbird

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  1. Re:No more lack of artistic skills for me on Japanese Scientists Claim To Reconstruct Images From Brain Data · · Score: 1

    It would be a different medium of art, most likely. William Gibson did a short story about something like this in Burning Chrome called The Winter Market

  2. Re:BYODW? (Bring your own disinfectant whipes?) on Activision Wants To Bring Guitar Hero To Arcades · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You, my friend, do not live anywhere near a college town.

  3. Re:Like spreadsheets for the MAC? on iPhone App Pricing Limits Developers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not if you adjust for the number of PCs in the wild at the time.

  4. Re:Boo f*cking hoo on Used Game Market Affecting Price, Quality of New Titles · · Score: 1

    $0.10 per game is a noticeable amount?

  5. Re:Zebulon J. Brodie on Maryland Court Weighs Internet Anonymity · · Score: 1

    I figured it was to call attention to the fact that she wasn't South Asian. I don't think I've seen a Dunkin Donuts with non-Desi owners/managers in 15 years.

  6. Re:To be more precise... on Indiana Bans Driver's License Smiles, For Security · · Score: 1
    And, he had wide powers of arrest and harrasment that a US President does not have.

    Except for the 'enemy combatant' nonsense Bush II arrogated for himself.

  7. Re:Actually.... on What the Papers Don't Say About Vaccines · · Score: 1
    the dental industry doesn't want to even consider the possibility that the amalgam in your fillings might be bad for you (but nevertheless the dentist keeps taking his chelates for mercury), and any adverse conclusions about mercury would leave the public health vaccination folks (and vaccine makers) SOL.

    So that's why amalgam fillings are more or less no longer used, and thimerosol was removed from all pediatric vaccines over 5 years ago?

  8. Re:Tax ramifications on Online Billpay Provider Loses Control of Domains · · Score: 1

    Actually, that's the best way to get them mugged.

  9. Re:shouldn't be legal on The Trap Set By the FBI For Half Life 2 Hacker · · Score: 1
    Hell, ever wonder why a bar is forced to buy its product through a distributor instead of the local liquor store?

    Because retailers usually buy products wholesale rather than from other retailers?

  10. Re:Two words on Barack Obama Wins US Presidency · · Score: 1

    Economics lesson:

    When the largest banks and insurance companies in the world start to topple like a house of cards over a matter of days, that is NOT a "starting to enter into a recession."

  11. Re:First thing I thought about... on Barack Obama Wins US Presidency · · Score: 1
    Leave us Jews out of it. The old testament says next to nothing about an afterlife, and our liturgy doesn't really harp on it much. We tend to concentrate more on repairing this world rather than getting to the next one, although different factions have wildly different ideas about what such repair might consist of.

    There's some non-binding talmudic stuff about having to roll on your side to Jerusalem before meeting the messiah if you didn't live a good life, and a set of seven commandments non-jews need to follow to be redeemed ("don't eat the flesh of a live animal" is the only one I can remember), but that's mostly regarded as trivia.

  12. Re:Great! on 10th Year of the International Nethack Tournament · · Score: 3, Informative
    Unlike in other games, Nethack is not multiplayer at all. There's not much incentive to play online. This makes it much easier for lag to drive people to local copies.

    Not true. Bones files (levels containing a dead character's corpse, ghost, (mostly cursed) equipment, pets, and whatever nasties killed them) can be found by any player no the same machine. If it was a powerful character who died of something stupid high up in the dungeon, it can be a really, really good thing; and it's usually a nice-ish stash regardless once you get things uncursed.

  13. Re:What about the net import in technical expertis on Can the US Stop the Illegal Export of Its Technology? · · Score: 1

    It's better than that. We're phasing out the feeding and education of own own citizens as well. Cha-ching!

  14. Re:People are actually missing the entire point on The Rise of the (Financial) Machines · · Score: 1

    The situation needs to be restructured so that only the government can borrow or loan money for the purchasing of anything other than real assets.So the federal reserve originates all leverage loans, interbank lending, venture capital, business lines of credit, business start-up loans, consumer credit, medical/dental loans, student loans, etc., etc., etc.? Where does it get the money, how do interest rates get set, and how does this accomplish anything other than forcing everyone to deal in currencies other than the US Dollar?

  15. Re:dirty tricks on Election Dirty Tricks About To Begin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd venture to guess that on a daily basis the average homeless person has a lot more interaction with laws and law enforcement than you.

  16. Re:please specify on Microsoft Bids To Take Over Open Document Format · · Score: 1

    re: Quickbooks being "the Pointiest of HB wanker programs that aren't even needed" - have fun invoicing for that day of digging ditches with your double-entry ledger. I've worked at small businesses that tracked all their billing and accounts on paper, and I'll stick with (an ancient, internet-independent version of) Quickbooks for my consulting business, thanks.

  17. Re:please specify on Microsoft Bids To Take Over Open Document Format · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not a single niche app that's missing, it's that almost everyone has a niche app they need that is missing or not quite there. Exchange, AutoCAD, and Quickbooks as a set cover a whole lot of users, for example.

  18. Re:Wait, what? on AIDS Virus Now Estimated To Be 100 Years Old · · Score: 1

    I believe the OP meant 2500 different sexual parnters. And his Wikipedia entry agrees.

  19. Re:Tagged "oops" on Hubble Stops Sending Data, Mission On Hold · · Score: 1

    Extreme thermal cycling every few hours, hard radiation all the time, the occasional micrometorite, and extreme difficulty removing heat from your electronics. Not to mention the odd things various materials might do unexpectedly after a decade or two of microgravity.

  20. Re:Its Marketing ... no information required on Seinfeld-Windows TV Ad Anything But 'Delicious' · · Score: 1

    If they could finagle Bill Gates into wiggling his ass in an Ubuntu ad, that would indeed be fucking brilliant.

  21. Re:So realistic you'll feel like you are in a meet on Heavy Rain - Playing a Story · · Score: 1

    Bite your tongue. Heretic had the most finely balanced multiplayer deathmatch of any game I have ever played. Every move had a countermove, and every countermove had a counter-countermove. Besides,it was a Doom TC made by Raven Software with id's blessing, so it wasn't exactly a me-too effort.

  22. Re:Google Earth integration. on Picasa Rolls Out 3.0 — Now With Facial Recognition · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was under the impression that there was precedent such that codecs that don't write every frame (i.e. not MJPEG) weren't admissible. It came up in a discussion about why so many web-enabled security cameras speak MJPEG. Any lawyers/law students able to shed light on the discrepancy?

  23. Re:App first, site afterwards. on Picasa Rolls Out 3.0 — Now With Facial Recognition · · Score: 2, Informative

    Irfanview.

    That is all.

  24. Re:Um, or... on Laboring Longer a Growing Trend For Americans · · Score: 1

    it's quite possible to save enough money to live purely off the interest (not touch the principle... and have a really nice "gift" to leave your children or favorite charity) if you make it a goal. Unfortunately, for most people, their lifestyle choices come first.

    Shenanigans. To make a roughly median $42k/yr off interest (which is not really enough to live on comfortably in most major metropolitan areas), you need to save $840,000 and consistently get a 5% rate of return, year after year (and we're also not even considering the need to grow principal to keep up with inflation). That's 20 years' worth of saving 50% of your pre-tax income if you make $84k/year. If you get lucky in the stock market, sure, it's possible. But certainly not universally possible, especially if you have kids or dependent parents in the meantime.

  25. Re:What's with the TSA apologist BS? on To Boldly Go Where No Mento Has Gone Before · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Actually, McCain has released a detailed rundown of his healthcare plan, and it's totally batshit crazy.