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User: zippthorne

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  1. Re:Ten Ways To Destroy a Hard Disk on Ten Ways To Destroy a Hard Disk · · Score: 1

    The camera you require isn't going to be electronic. Also, and this is often neglected for some reason, you're going to need some *powerful* lighting in addition to the camera.

  2. Re:The Actual List ... on Ten Ways To Destroy a Hard Disk · · Score: 1

    How is thermite not number one? The quantity of thermite required to destroy a hard drive will easily fit in a 3.5" drive bay (above the drive in question), and can be made from materials purchased exclusively at Toys 'R' Us, including the ignition device. The only downside is that you have to build your case out of refractory bricks, so no over-clocking.

  3. Re:Spot Welder? on Ten Ways To Destroy a Hard Disk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't do this with a ceramic drive...

  4. Re:How about: Write zeros to the disk? on Ten Ways To Destroy a Hard Disk · · Score: 1

    How can it be less than 50% chance of recovering a bit? If I saw that in my results, I'd just add an "invert" step in the process and bam! 64% chance of recovery!

    Ok, actually, i'd check my assumptions, but the first thing I'd do if I needed a paper published in a hurry is the invert thing.

  5. Re:Cost? on A Video Ad, In a Paper Magazine · · Score: 1

    So.. We should live like ascetics until everyone can eat, and not care about destroying "lesser" economies to accomplish the goal?

    Here's a thought: before deriding American's charitable giving, why don't you look it up. On a per-capita basis. And factor in non-charitable giving (i.e. giving at the point of a gun), too, since a lot of people's favorite charity these days is the government, it seems.

  6. Re:How can NO ONE have mentioned this yet? on Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe · · Score: 1

    It can't have been ray shielded, it was a thermal exhaust port, radiation is the only way to reject heat in a vacuum (unless you enjoy losing mass), ergo it wasn't ray shielded. The technician who stated that must have been mistaken.

  7. Re:Let's not forget...... on Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe · · Score: 1

    Nothing matters as much as destroying the original, quite good, film to make way for one in which a bloodthirsty bounty hunter shoots his target from across a table after taking a minute to aim and misses by quite a bit.

    Changed the whole character of a pivotal character, and made Ol' Ben's description of Mos Eisley Spaceport seem hyperbolic. In the remade film, MES is, at best, the fifth or sixth most wretched hive of scum and villainy Luke will see over the next six months.

  8. Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist on Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe · · Score: 1

    Today we've got special microphones and radar that can tell the secret service exactly where a gunshot came from

    That seems like a waste of money. What is the Secret Service going to do if the bullets that created the report weren't counterfeit?

  9. Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist on Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind, though.. in episode IV, they wanted the princess to escape, to lead them to the rebel base. It wouldn't do for her driver to get deaded before she even left.

  10. Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist on Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe · · Score: 1

    Hmm. I think the opposite giveaway is from the same movie: a bunch of storm troopers are going through a doorway, but one is too tall and mashes his face on the door baffle.

  11. Yeah, Real hard to tell the difference. on New York MTA Asserts Copyright Over Schedule · · Score: 1

    <search terms> +site:gov

    Done.

  12. Re:Model on How the Pirate Bay Will Be Legalized · · Score: 1

    Why not, it worked so well for Napster...

  13. Re:Agree with the artist and then some on Flickr Yanks Image of Obama As Joker · · Score: 1

    Good point. What's the word for the economic system when the state owns all the infrastructure and controls the means of production?

  14. Re:The robots didn't learn... on Neural Networks-Equipped Robots Evolve the Ability To Deceive · · Score: 2, Informative

    Or, if the robots could reproduce based on their success on finding food, we could talk about evolution.

    That's exactly what happened. There is a whole field of optimization strategies known as "Genetic Algorithms" which are designed to mimic evolution to achieve results. In fact, their successes are one of the best arguments for evolution, given that they are, by definition, controlled laboratory experiments in the field.

  15. Re:It's still breaking and entering on Australian Police Database Lacked Root Password · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I should hope that the law is literal. "Don't be so literal" is not the kind of argument you want to hear from the prosecution at any phase of a trial. Especially sentencing. Assault and Battery are sure as damn different things, and separably chargeable.

  16. Re:False assumptions? on Why the BSA Is Less Reviled Than the RIAA · · Score: 1

    What's Jury Nullification, then?

  17. Re:i don't know about that ... on Why the BSA Is Less Reviled Than the RIAA · · Score: 1

    This is marked as flamebait, but it's a pretty neutral statement about the "gay movement" (whatever that is. Homosexual advocates, at any rate)'s feelings about the Boy Scouts of America, which have held the acronym of BSA for like five times as long as the Business Software Alliance, and are, to this day, still far more recognized by said acronym.

  18. Re:.006 micrograms? on Up To 90 Percent of US Money Has Traces of Cocaine · · Score: 4, Funny

    It could just be that the Japanese are just more meticulous than Americans when laundering their money.

  19. Re:In all fairness on Up To 90 Percent of US Money Has Traces of Cocaine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except, the average lifespan of a paper note is about 18 months depending on the denomination. Very few 1985 bills remain in circulation today.

    (which, btw, is the argument for using coinage instead. Coins last *much* longer than paper money, and usually have a fraction of their face value in metals content (which provides some pressure against inflation, for obvious reasons) but that's an argument for another day, dollar coin refusers.)

  20. Re:Let's Not Get Ahead of Ourselves Here on "District 9" Best Sci-fi Movie of 09? · · Score: 1

    Further, if it goes as the ads appear, it takes the pretty shallow interpretation of "apartheid is wrong whenever white people do it."

    The existence of extra terrestrials, with the technology to travel through the vastness of space, and capable of reaching earth, changes the dynamic considerably. It means that earth needs to build up that capability and defenses fast. The ends don't necessarily justify the means, but when you're facing planetary extinction as a concrete possibility, a lot of rules can bend really far and still be squarely on the "moral" side of things.

    But I'll hold no hope that they'll attempt to address such heady issues (condemning apartheid while painting it in a good light would be a pretty tricky thing to film. Honest, but tricky.) and just stick to the tried and true, "we're against things that are bad, especially when white people do it." method of getting lauded for their brave stance.

  21. Re:7x7 is the only big jet to fly on Production of Boeing 787 Dreamliner Delayed Again · · Score: 1

    Weather, I'd assume. The weather was sufficiently nice for undocumented geese (invaders from our shifty-eyed neighbors to the north, I believe) to take to be in the air at the same time as people felt like stuffing themselves in a mailing tube and shipping across the country.

  22. Re:A few words... on Production of Boeing 787 Dreamliner Delayed Again · · Score: 1

    Um.. you could go right to the source on that one. It's not like fisher went out of business or something. It's right there on their web site.

    Further, You tell me a better way to eliminate graphite dust, wood shavings, and eraser muck in zero gravity (or would you prefer to breathe that crap and let it get into everything causing shorts and sparks?) than to just use a pen in the first place.

    2005 - Sadly, Paul Fisher passed away at the age of 93. The company continues under the leadership of his son, Cary Fisher and almost 100 seasoned employees, many who have been with the company for many decades.

    Now that turned out to be an unfortunate name....

  23. Re:And somewhere across the pond... on Production of Boeing 787 Dreamliner Delayed Again · · Score: 1

    Ah, but the downside of the 380 is that you have to redesign the airports to take advantage of it. Otherwise it takes literally an hour to get everybody on and off.

    Boeing made the right call here, time will tell. In the post 9/11 world, it's better to have smaller, more numerous planes from more convenient markets than to have to never build an impressive building again for fear some jackass do what jackasses do when they see nice things.

    There's a reason that the 737 and A320 are the most popular airliners in the world.

  24. Re:Bad timing on Comcast Seeking Control of Both Pipes and Content? · · Score: 1

    A systemic problem requires a systemic solution.

    A good solution is 5% molarity sodium hypochlorite.

  25. Re:Lasting effect. on BetOnSports Founder Pleads Guilty To Racketeering · · Score: 1

    I think the issue there is that, if we did what Bill Maher thinks a smart country would do, we'd be an even stupider country. So, it's kind of a dick thing for him to say.

    It's like the early days of global warming "studies." Where one after another was provably shoddy science, but they kept beating the drum: our methods may be wrong, but our conclusions are correct. It doesn't matter if a statement you make is correct if you arrive at it by pure chance.