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User: ColdWetDog

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Comments · 14,132

  1. Re:If support calls you an A.., you probably are o on Comcast Employees Change Customer Names To 'Dummy' and Other Insults · · Score: 1

    I've seen people actually resort to physical violence.

    In remote support? Exactly how does that work?

  2. Re:In other news... on The NSA Is Viewed Favorably By Most Young People · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they meant NASA?

  3. Re:Missing the forest for the trees on Cutting Through Data Science Hype · · Score: 1

    Evolution is a cast-iron bitch sometimes. Dino's didn't adapt to the big grenade. Lots of other critters did.

    (And yes, fossil fuels are composed of relatively few actual dinosaurs, it's mostly ex-plant life.)

  4. Re:dishonest so-called scientists on Most Americans Support Government Action On Climate Change · · Score: 0

    Any way to filter these lame idiotic postings?

    Go back to 4chan?

  5. Re:Public goods on US Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $44.9 Billion · · Score: 1

    Connecting all four points?

  6. Re:Why not distribute this as a basic income to al on US Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $44.9 Billion · · Score: 2

    Because the Alaska Permanent Fund takes a small amount of revenue from the oil recovery fees and puts it in a managed fund whose interest is dispersed to the couple of hundred thousand humans left in this mosquito infested swamp. It has a total capitalization of about 45 billion dollars, roughly the same as the spectrum sales.

    However, Alaska's population is roughly 735,000, the US 316,000,000. Assuming the same long term returns, the average US citizen would get about $1.80 per year. On a good year.

    Disbursement of government money to the masses doesn't really do much. It is arguably different in Alaska since outside the 'big' cities, a significant fraction of the population is at a subsistence level and the close to $1000 we get each year makes a big difference. But many people have argued that the fund would do better if it were more intelligently managed. Of course, that term is defined differently by different people,

  7. Re:in an unrelated news event on Wi-Fi Issues Continue For OS X Users Despite Updates · · Score: 0

    Now, this is completely off topic but reminds me of a funny paragraph in a recent Atlantic article about writer Jeff VanderMeer.

    Sometimes, you have to change your coffee shop, too. At the end of one increasingly jittery week of writing, the barista asks me, “Feel any different?” “In what way?” I ask. “I dunno,” she replies, “I’ve been adding more espresso shots to your coffee, gradual, to see what would happen.”

    With a shameless plug for his recent Southern Reach trilogy (as is the whole article).

    But you have to wonder about coffee shop regulars. This might explain some of their behavior.

  8. Re:Shows the immaturity of the political system on Safety Review Finds Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Was Technically Sound · · Score: 1

    You sir, are an idiot. The Aleutian Islands encompass some of the most productive fisheries in the world. You want you King Crab to glow in the dark? Your salmon to grow flippers?

    Sea water causes things to corrode. Unless you vitrify the waste (and the vitrification works), it will leak into the ecosystem. There is a reason water is called the 'Universal Solvent'.

  9. Re:Shows the immaturity of the political system on Safety Review Finds Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Was Technically Sound · · Score: 1

    You don't want to put the waste out in Alaska. You can see Russia from here!

  10. Re:Godzilla v. Mothra on Microsoft To Invest In Rogue Android Startup Cyanogen · · Score: 3, Funny

    Balmer isn't head of Microsoft anymore....

  11. Re:Total disservice to taxpayers on US Air Force Selects Boeing 747-8 To Replace Air Force One · · Score: 2

    The Airbus A-380 is about 20% less costly than the 747-8. They're wasting taxpayer money as usual.

    So you think that flight time costs have much all to do with the total bill for shuttling the president of the United States around?

    You need to get out more often.

  12. Re:Last 2 planes? on US Air Force Selects Boeing 747-8 To Replace Air Force One · · Score: 4, Funny

    Planes last pretty much forever if you want them to. I'm part owner of a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-1 Beaver. It's only three years newer than I am. It's much easier to buy replacement parts for the it than me.

  13. Re:Japanese solution! on Why ATM Bombs May Be Coming Soon To the United States · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At my local bank you need the ATM card to get into the lobby after hours.

    Or, at least, some random card with mag stripe. It doesn't appear to make any difference.

  14. Re:Clear and present danger on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 2

    Not to mention that there must be hundreds of websites detailing construction and programming of said devices. Dozens of forums. Even advertisements. Perhaps more surprising is that there is more than one manufacturer of small, GPS control multirotored devices available from such nefarious outlets as Amazon.com. An interested person could learn themselves some valuable skills just by using the Internet and even better, contribute positively to the economy by spending money.

    I guess I'll go and turn myself in now. That will cause me to spend more money on lawyers, allow the government to expand the incarceration industrial complex, contribute to generation of more laws and in general, help this great country of ours.

    It's the American way.

  15. Re:Can someone explainn on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 2

    You're hired. Or under arrest.

    Things are so confusing these days.

  16. Re:kinda illegal already, by a rule referring to a on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    Oops. TMA (Too Many Acronyms).

    AMA = Academy of Model Aeronautics as well as the American Medical Association.

    You made need additional caffeine to distinguish the two in the last couple of posts.

  17. Re:kinda illegal already, by a rule referring to a on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    Actually, this model is pretty widely used. The FAA and the ARRL (American Radio Relay League - amateur radio) work closely together and the ARRL is even responsible for first line enforcement. I'm not sure the AMA is a good example at all since it really doesn't make any broad rules of conduct other than some weak ethics rules. Remember, AMA enrollment in the US is, and has been, below 50% for a very long time. The FAA works closely with a number of industry and private groups including 'hobbyist' pilots (and then goes on to ignore everyone including themselves, but we are talking about the FAA).

    But various government agencies do often work with outside groups on an effective basis. Sometimes for the benefit of society, sometimes not.

  18. Re:why fly at 3AM? on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 2

    To be fair, when you're drunk at 3am flying a quadrocopter into the white house is one of the more sane choices people can make.

    Partying with you must be lots of fun.

    Mr. Shotgun....

  19. For all of you USA haters out there: on Why ATM Bombs May Be Coming Soon To the United States · · Score: 2

    Along with Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and not many other countries, the U.S. doesn't require its plastic to contain an encryption chip, so stealing cards remains an effective, nonviolent way to get at the cash in an ATM.

    "Can I make a suggestion that doesn't involve violence, or is this the wrong crowd for that?"

  20. Re:Fifth amendment zone of lawlessness on Justice Department: Default Encryption Has Created a 'Zone of Lawlessness' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just like that zone of lawlessness inside of peoples minds that the pesky 5th amendment creates, think of all the criminals going free because we can't force them to incriminate themselves! This is a situation that the DOJ and other alphabet agencies have brought upon themselves by thinking they are above the law in the first place.

    Or the Fourth Amendment. Or the Second. Or the First.

    The situation is clear. We must take care to ban this subversive document now. For the children! For the Feds! For great justice!

  21. Re: This doesn't sound... sound on Valve's Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Greece's Finance Minister · · Score: 1

    What they really need to do is to declare war on the US and / or the EU. It's the only proven way to get their economy going again.

  22. Re:Small drones with deadly payloads on White House Drone Incident Exposes Key Security Gap · · Score: 1

    Running through a crowd with some flour and yelling 'Anthrax' would do roughly the same thing.

    Chill out.

  23. Re:low-tech countermeasures on White House Drone Incident Exposes Key Security Gap · · Score: 1

    High-pressure, wide-spread water canons should take out low-flying drones pretty quickly. The only advanced tech bit would be the targeting system.

    Cool! Let's turn the White House into a giant fountain. That should spruce up the neighborhood nicely.

    Really, the problem isn't the drone. It's the White House. If it wasn't there, then all of this whining and wailing would never see the light of day.

    We just need to move the White House away from everyone who could possibly want to hurt it's inhabitants. Given our new found relationship with Cuba, I'm going to suggest we move the complex down to Guantanamo Bay.

  24. Re:yes, programming, like poetry, is not words, un on Why Coding Is Not the New Literacy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pretty much this. The whole push to have 'everyone' code is because it's trendy and is a definable skill, unlike 'learning how to think' or reason. And it segues quickly into 'jobs' which makes everybody happy. Further, there is this odd belief among many people (including a whole raft of Slashdot posters) that software can do anything and the world should be viewed through the lens of a Von Neumann machine.

    Coding is a subset of human activity, not a superset. Even modeling, as championed by TFA is only a small part of human learning.

    But schools are in a tough place. They are supposed to teach everyone, from the next Albert Einstein to the kid that will be sweeping the floor. They're supposed to push the latter child farther and faster than they could possibly go while not slowing down the new Einstein. All the while acting as in loco parentis, cop, judge and diaper changer.

    For only $29.95 per child.

  25. Re:2nd amendment on Plan C: The Cold War Plan Which Would Have Brought the US Under Martial Law · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    One hundred million unorganized, inebriated, confused, uncoordinated, ill disciplined bozos who haven't slept outside of a building since cub scouts.

    Yeah, I'll take the military any day.