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User: Cajun+Hell

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Comments · 2,231

  1. Re:There might be hope for a decent adaptation on 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress' Coming To the Big Screen · · Score: 1

    Obviously there are few things better than a good old friend's wife puking, but what would you have thought of the movie, had she not been there?

  2. Re:No wonder congress wants to defune DHS on Drones Cost $28,000 Per Arrest, On Average · · Score: 1

    I think I understand your point that it's a bad thing, but I missed your argument as to why Congress would be against funding a bad thing.

  3. Re:Transparency on Obama Says He's 'A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption' · · Score: 1

    Transparency is how you reduce government's murder rate. It's how you reduce a lot of their other evils too.

  4. No need to wait on Obama Says He's 'A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption' · · Score: 1

    The first time that an attack takes place in which it turns out that we had a lead and we couldn't follow up on it, the public's going to demand answers.

    Public, I already have your answer. You problem is that back around 1789 you moved to America. If you wanted the needs of a police state to come before your freedom, you could have lived pretty much anywhere else. And you still have a lot of options, if you're simply convinced that America is a bad idea.

  5. Re:Yay on BBC Radio Drops WMA For MPEG-DASH · · Score: 1

    Why not good old fashioned MP3 which is playable anywhere on anything?

    I was going to say, "because not everyone has permission to use MP3," but then I realized I first played an MP3 about 19 years ago. The patents just can't have too much longer to go, assuming they haven't already expired.

  6. You think YOU are fast? on Another Star Passed Through Our Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wikipedia says that star is 17-23 light years away. If it passed nearby only 70000 years ago, then that means it must be moving at nearly at about 1/3000 to 1/4000 the speed of light. So, like, about ten times faster than the Space Shuttle or five times faster than V'ger.

    Forget ion drives; let's build star-hooks.

  7. Re:Before you get started with your Maths on The Mathematical Case For Buying a Powerball Ticket · · Score: 1

    In my country there are zero bears (outside a zoo) and zero bear incidents.

    Do the people in your country always stay in your country, or do they sometimes travel abroad? (BTW, you made me google "how often do zoo escapes happen?" and while I didn't really get a useful number, it happens often enough that the event type already has a "ten weirdest.")

    I think you have nonzero bear risk. In fact, I just happen to know that you, personally, are going to be killed and eaten by one within the next seven minutes.

    (Oh wait, or is that seven iceage cycles? Excuse me, I need to go double-check my units. BRB.)

  8. Re:I'll take the wine instead on The Mathematical Case For Buying a Powerball Ticket · · Score: 1

    the lottery ticket often has net value for its worth as entertainment. It's fun thinking about what you'd do if you suddenly had $200M.

    Have you ever thought about stealing the lottery's entertainment? I can get your $2 entertainment for $0.

    It's not like the daydream police have the resources to check everyone's tickets. The chances they'll pull you over, are a one in 175 million!

  9. Re:I'll take the wine instead on The Mathematical Case For Buying a Powerball Ticket · · Score: 1

    People don't gamble for a guaranteed payout of the expected return. If that were the case, casinos would consist only of a teller window where you'd hand in a $100 bill and get $70 in return.

    You just described exactly how I see casinos. And perceiving it as just a $70-for-$100 offer is what causes it not be fun, which means that I really do get only $70 for my $100. Other people are getting $70 plus .. something else, but not me.

  10. Re:Common sense on The Gap Between What The Public Thinks And What Scientists Know · · Score: 1

    Scientists tend to have tunnel vision and have made mistakes with global impact in the past.

    People have tunnel vision and have made mistakes with global impact in the past.

    If you think you can make a case for how this is a thing specific to scientists, or that scientists have an even slightly-above-average tendency to be like that, please make your case. We're listening.

    I think scientists have a below average tendency to be like that, so they're less likely than most people, to have tunnel vision and make mistakes with global impact. The reason I think this, is that scientists have a system, however imperfect, for finding and correcting mistakes. And scientists love doing just that, even to their closest peers. Most non-scientists don't have such a system. And then when someone does find a mistake, there are social pressures for hiding the truth. Outside of science, those social pressures are called "being a pal" and are generally encouraged. In science, those social pressures are considered the one and only unforgiveable sin, and are always spoken of as being totally repugnant. (Thus: scientists are more likely to find a mistake, and then are also more likely to try to correct the mistake.)

    That's my argument, at least. Perhaps you have a better argument for your counter-intuitive (but perhaps correct!) assertion. Let's hear it.

  11. Re:It's just moving your trust to someone else on Data Encryption On the Rise In the Cloud and Mobile · · Score: 1

    My understanding is that what you're talking about, is how these services are claiming to work. Trust is still happening, but it's moved from trusting a data service to not provide keys to adversaries, to trusting a code repository (i.e. the user trusts Apple/Google/Microsoft to have not included (or include in an automatic update) a backdoor in the user's OS, which causes your computer to give up keys upon request).

    That's a step in the right direction.

    And I think people can see the obvious next step from there, which is that it's undesirable to be getting any locally-run code from any of the service providers that you use. (e.g. if you use Apple's storage services then you shouldn't be running Apple code to access it. And same for Google, Microsoft, etc.)

  12. Re:What an idiot on Silk Road Journal Found On Ulbricht's Laptop: "Everyone Knows Too Much" · · Score: 1

    If that worked, then it would work for every "criminal mastermind" ever prosecuted.

    "You say I hatched this ingenious plan! But if I were that clever, you never would have caught me!"

  13. Re:That's WordPress in a nutshell on Ask Slashdot: Has the Time Passed For Coding Website from Scratch? · · Score: 1

    The nice thing about WordPress is the EAV antipattern. I hope you love shitloads of joins and aliases to the same table over and over and over and over and over again. There's nothing like taking what ought to be a tiny query and having to write an unreadable 3000 character monstrosity, to make non-techies think you are a Database God when they see the resulting strings.

    I tell people, "I can teach you SQL" and then they look at my repetitious ".. join foo_metakeys as alias234523 on .." and nope, you ain't teachin' me nothin'.

    I swear, all because of one fucking wordpress site I inherited, everyone in my company thinks thinks I can built a working 747 out of paperclips and rubber bands.

    Wordpress is one of the most expensive things I have ever seen. I struggle to think of a better believable way to multiply the cost of a project.

  14. Re:More proof on US Senate Set To Vote On Whether Climate Change Is a Hoax · · Score: 1

    Yep. Global warming might be confirmed through repeated observations, but just like the existence of electrons or the existence of gravity, there's always the chance it might some day be falsified.

    Alas, the hypothesis has no competition. Things like global-warming-denial and creationism will never, and can never, be falsified. Spread thermometers across every square meter of Earth and taking reading every second for the next hundred years, and in 2115 no matter what the observations are, global-warming-denial will still be just as viable, and the reasons for choosing it will be just as compelling, as today.

    Faith manages. Those who underestimate the power of the blue pill, will never understand this.

  15. The peasants are revolting. Yes, they really are. on Microsoft Reveals Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade · · Score: 1

    Either way, I predict a massive revolt about 365 days after the upgrade is released.

    Let me guess: this "revolt" will consist of a bunch of people saying slightly unpleasant things on web forums, while also continuing to use and install applications that keep them locked into Windows APIs. That way, they get to play the victim card again in the future, the next time they get angry at Microsoft.

  16. Re:More proof on US Senate Set To Vote On Whether Climate Change Is a Hoax · · Score: 0

    I think it's kind of un-American to imply that the sex of chicken shouldn't be subject to democracy. Would you prefer the sex of the chicken by determined by an unaccountable, autocratic out-of-touch socialist-in-a-bubble dictator?!

  17. Where does it say that? on Illinois Students Suspected of Cyberbullying Must Provide Social Media Passwords · · Score: 1

    I read the PDF and the law doesn't seem to say anything about suspected bullies being required to do certain things (other than abstain from bullying, of course).

    My best guess is that someone read the part about how the government requires the school to have a process for investigating what happened (d), and misread that as meaning that other parties (e.g. students) are required to have a process for assisting such investigations.

    If it weren't so stupid, it would be clever. Imagine if the First Amendment could be overturned, not by a law that prohibits printing presses, but by having a law that cops are required to have processes for destroying printing presses. The cops would say to the people, "our problem is your problem" and I guess the people would say "aw, poor cops, I guess we have no choice to help you out, so we'll voluntarily destroy our own printing presses to keep you guys from having orders you're unable to obey."

  18. It's not so bad on The Tech Industry's Legacy: Creating Disposable Employees · · Score: 2

    You're supposed to be able to simply employee-start and employee-stop for whatever instances you currently need. People who complain that employee-create takes too long to run, just need to read up on how the snapshotting system works. This is way better than trying to guess the right values of StartEmployees, MinSpareEmployees and MaxSpareEmployees and trying to mitigate burnout by tuning MaxRequestsPerEmployee (as though each one needs the same setting!).

  19. Re:Pope Francis - fuck your mother on Pope Francis: There Are Limits To Freedom of Expression · · Score: 1

    At least he didn't make things worse. The funny thing about this one, is the the "debate" about paranormal beliefs starts off at absolute maximum conceivable stupidity. It has nowhere to go, but up.

  20. Re:Yeah, I remember when VMWare first came out... on The Legacy of CPU Features Since 1980s · · Score: 2

    when VMWare first came out, and there was all this amazement about all the cool things you could do with Virtual Machines. Very little mention anywhere that these were things you could do for decades already on mainframes.

    This is probably due to the fact that for most values of "you," you don't have a mainframe. So the cool things switched from "things a-few-people-who-aren't-me can do" to "things I can do." That increases relevance.

  21. Re:We deserve this guy on Ted Cruz To Oversee NASA and US Science Programs · · Score: 1

    Yes, blame the voters for refusing to vote

    Ok, I do.

    Get some candidates that are to the left of Reagan's corpse and we'll talk, mmmkay?

    There are approximately-but-literally around a hundred million people in this country who fit that description and are just as qualified as the Republicans whom the voters gave the election to. I bet you can find one. I bet you are one. So stop bitching about lack of candidates (it's just totally absurd) and either accept ridiculous leadership, or do something about it.

    This is democracy, and democracy is participatory. If you're going to sit around waiting for some party to give you a candidate, you might as well advocate monarchy or anything else, because democracy isn't a good fit for your personality.

  22. Re:What's next? on Ted Cruz To Oversee NASA and US Science Programs · · Score: 1

    You know why it tweaks people? Because the only reason you use it is because you consider it an insult.

    But he has to call him "Hussein," because when he tried to drive people into a rage by calling the president "nigger," it actually made someone angry and the coward doesn't ever want to face a situation like that again.

  23. Science: Lies Straight from the Pit of Hell on Ted Cruz To Oversee NASA and US Science Programs · · Score: 1

    Your comment has evidencist bias. Their (stated) point of view is that they're right and science will not back them up, because the very essence of science is deception.

    You can't trust your senses; they will lie to you. Listen to the voice in your head.

    While you're probably right that they're liars, they claim to be merely batshit insane.

  24. Re:Christians: Easily Butthurt on Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains His Christmas Tweet · · Score: 1

    But what percentage of the nuclear warheads do they have? What fraction of aircraft carriers and army divisions do they have? There's more than one way to measure who has the "most powerful political force." ;-)

  25. Re:View angles on The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait · · Score: 1

    It's about biology. Our eyes are by nature more accustomed to view wide scenes instead of tall ones.

    If you evolved on a planet that has Predators then you're alive because your ancestors paid attention to the trees.