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User: Sockatume

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Comments · 5,843

  1. Re:Win8 as a UI vs. an OS on Windows 8.1 Rolls Out Today · · Score: 1

    Why treat "the UI" as seperate? The human-computer interface is as much a part of the OS as anything else. To be frank, if I can't talk to the computer efficiently, it doesn't matter how well the software and hardware can talk between each other.

  2. Re:Thank goodness on US Government Shutdown Ends · · Score: 1

    Doesn't that show that adopting aspects of the private healthcare model - in this case by making NHS regions competing, pseudo-autonomous units - is a bad idea?

  3. Re:Too bad on Fossilized Mosquito Has Blood-filled Abdomen · · Score: 1

    Given that mosquitos drink whole blood, and not just red blood cells, you'd expect to find DNA-carrying cells in with any red blood cells. Of course it's moot because the traces they found were not cells.

  4. Re:Chebarkul was an inside job on 1.5 Meter Long Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Lake · · Score: 1

    I think you're giving Truthers a bit too much credit when you compare their models of the world to Looney Tunes cartoons. Looney Tunes physics were at least consistent.

  5. Re:Thank goodness on US Government Shutdown Ends · · Score: 2

    For the amount the US spends on medical care I'd expect hospitals to look like the sickbay from Star Trek.

  6. Re:As the saying goes... on US Government Shutdown Ends · · Score: 1

    Maybe we should bill them.

  7. Re:Remember this in the 2014 elections on US Government Shutdown Ends · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given the research demonstrating that people make better decisions when they need to go to the bathroom, maybe we should reconsider that.

  8. Re:Was mars once like earth? on Curiosity Confirms Origins of Martian Meteorites · · Score: 1

    It's a popular idea in SF. The "Earth-like Mars" part, at least, not sure about the bureaucracy part. I'm playing through a lovely iPhone game called Waking Mars right now which has its own take.

  9. Re:No no no on Curiosity Confirms Origins of Martian Meteorites · · Score: 1

    Of course we "confirm" things in science, we just don't use the word to mean that something is unambiguously stated to be true. When we use that word (and it's used ubiquitously) we mean that we're providing new evidence for a previously-accepted hypothesis.

  10. Re:Yep. One Mars on Curiosity Confirms Origins of Martian Meteorites · · Score: 1

    The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one*, but the chances of anything coming from another solar system are mind-crushingly miniscule.

    *see Wayne et al

  11. Re:Presumably... on For Playstation 4 Owners, Bad News On USB, Bluetooth Headsets · · Score: 1

    You'd want it to be a bluetooth receiver that understood bluetooth audio, interpreted it, and then in turn emulated an ordinary USB stereo headset where it connects to the PS4.

  12. Re:Whew! on Buried In the Healthcare.gov Source: "No Expectation of Privacy" · · Score: 2

    Inasmuch as it implicitly limits those terms' scope to the informational parts of the web site, and not its functional as a healthcare data repository, yes, it is reassuring.

  13. Re:Clapper... on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 2

    Under his programming it was the most truthful response available:

    The First Law of Polticians: A politician must obey the will of the the agencies under his oversight.
    The Second Law: A politician must obey the will of his lobbyists, except where this conflicts with the first law.
    The Third Law: A politican must obey the will of the people he represents, except where this conflicts with the first and second laws.

  14. Re:RANT: it's not internet access on Google Fiber Partially Reverses Server Ban · · Score: 2

    Believe it or not there are shades of grey between "completely unfettered use of the connection" and "I am ter conumar", and properly discussing this issue would probably benefit from understanding the kinds of distinctions involved.

  15. Re:Cloud Service Security = Oxymoron on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    If recent revelations are any indication, it's not like the people who didn't have lobbyists had much choice in the matter either.

  16. Re:Foreigners on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The US government doesn't have any special obligations with regards to not stabbing every non-American in the world with a pencil, but that doesn't mean that it's acceptable for them to do so.

  17. Re:Foreigners on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    Email and chat protocols, per the article.

  18. Re:Raspberry Pi to the rescue! on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I can't brain today.

  19. Re:This makes perfect sense on Aussie Company Planning To Use Drones For Textbook Delivery · · Score: 1

    That's what America needs. More reasons to sit still.

  20. Re:Raspberry Pi to the rescue! on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    Why would that help when they're intercepting the email traffic itself?

  21. Re:Cloud Service Security = Oxymoron on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    Who said anything about cloud services?

  22. Re:On the contrary on Aussie Company Planning To Use Drones For Textbook Delivery · · Score: 1

    Shh. The US isn't allowed to perform assassinations. International law forbids it. They're surgical strikes against groups of combatants that just happen to include a specific figure of military or political significance.

  23. Re:Foreigners on NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They're not snooping on one, specific service at a point in the US. They're looking at any appropriate traffic that happens to pass through the US. Any information that passes through the US must be considered compromised by the NSA.

  24. Re:I get what he's saying here on Gravity: Can Film Ever Get the Science Right? · · Score: 1

    Tyson agrees that it's a great movie. His tweets aren't a manifesto against it: he does that nitpicking with practically every movie he sees. I'm sure I saw him tweet about incorrect constellations in the background of a Rom-Com once.

  25. Re:Moo on Gravity: Can Film Ever Get the Science Right? · · Score: 1

    Four hours of footage. I don't think there's many scenes in space that weren't shot in freefall.