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User: hercubus

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  1. Re:Time for the tinfoil hat, eh? on Pirate Bay Down; Police Raids Across Europe · · Score: 1
    you are naive if you think there isn't a "them" - though you have a point there's not really an "us" and certainly not righteous even if it existed

    "they" did create a war, magicked WMD right out of thin air, or, put less delicately, pulled straight out of "their" ass

    also naive in the extreme to imagine that there is _anything_ you can do politically. you have no power, you mean exactly nothing

  2. Re:Past Due! on Pirate Bay Down; Police Raids Across Europe · · Score: 1

    if the NGOs were effective you might have a point. i see NGOs more as a marketing opportunity, building goodwill, that sort of thing. effective, not so much

  3. Re:The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good on Scott Adams On the Difficulty of Building a 'Green' Home · · Score: 0

    ... drinking tap water and shopping with resuable backs...

    I wish my back was re-usable, re-suable, or what have you. I use my back once and it's out for a week, and it makes me want to re-sue somebody.

    But tap water? Really? Dude, they put fluoride and chlorine in that - drinking the stuff is just crazy.

  4. Re:Please don't do this....it won't end well for y on Employees Would Steal Data When Leaving a Job · · Score: 4, Funny
    You think that's bad? I witnessed a meeting where the boss pressed a little button and Mr. Mustafa from Customer Relations was flipped _backwards_ into a fire pit.

    Talk about not ending well. But then I said "That was well-done sir!" and he was so amused that he put his pinky up to his lips and gave me an evil laugh.

    Believe me! I was there! That guy has like a Doctorate in Evil! Don't mess with any employers ever!

  5. Klaatu Barada Nikto on Abandon Earth Or Die, Warns Hawking · · Score: 1

    When Keanu hears we want to take our little horrorshow on the road, he'll be coming back to finish what he started.

  6. Re:Advert. on 400 Turns of Civilization V · · Score: 0, Troll

    Tag op 'advert', plz.

    Oh hacker, please! A review of a new version of CIV? That's definitely "news" and that definitely "matters" you, you, script kiddie.

    I rewired my brain for CIV. I need CIV like I need oxygen and Cheetos. Go back to your Halo 3.1 or your Mario GoKarts or WTF, the grownups here are trying to <reverb> Build an Empire to Stand the Test of Time!!!</reverb>

    Sorry if you don't get it, kid...

  7. Re:This research is FALSE! on Global Warming 'Undeniable,' Report Says · · Score: 1

    Take a pot of water. Put it on a hot stove. Given that you know the temperature of the stove, the water, the air, the material of the pan, the humidity, and the altitude, you can predict exactly when the pan will boil (climate) but you will not be able to predict the location of the first bubble to break the surface (weather).

    That is a first-rate analogy - serious. But unfortunately the Earth is not a pot of water, it's a little more complicated. We don't really know what's going to happen.

    I think all that one can say at this point is that we (humans) are obviously altering the climate, it will probably not be to our benefit as a species, and until we know what the hell we're doing we should throttle back on the fossil fuels.

    What I get pissed about is some wonk with a model saying, in effect, at exactly 12:38 on Jan. 4th 2035 the seas will have risen 2.79836201 centimeters.

    Really Spunkmeyer? You've got that all figured out do you? You know what every sea and lake and glacier and permafrost and forest and prairie and species are going to do _exactly_ as things change? Got all of those dynamically interacting variables all figured out, do ya?

    I'd say the US is right about at the "Holy shit! Build more humanesque stone statues to appease the Gods!" phase of societal collapse. Calmly pointing out what we should _really_ be doing is going to be drowned out or get the speaker killed.

    Build a bunker. Hitch a ride on a passing Vogon construction fleet. Know where the fuck your towel is at all times. And most importantly, Don't Panic!

  8. Re:Why all the Perl-bashing? on Perl 6, Early, With Rakudo Star · · Score: 1

    It seems like the current way to be hip in developer circles is to make fun of Perl.

    You have to remember that most developers are, on the inside, insecure teenage girlie-men living in someone's basement.

    The Java kiddies (circa 1999) would say things like -- "What, like C++? That is so five minutes ago. God, you are so, like, old!" And I believed them at the time.

    And before the Java kiddies there were the UNIX kiddies knocking Fortran and COBOL, and before that assembler programmers made fun of the old guys that didn't code algorithms, they _built_ algorithms out of tubes and wires.

    Every new generation makes fun of the previous. It's not unique to development, we just have really short generations. Today's cutting edge will be out of date in five years, laughable in ten years. Or cut those numbers in half - whatever.

    So it goes. Carry on you young whipper-snappers, have fun with your VMs and GCs and DSLs. Get all XP and Agile and whatever-the-hell with your not-so-bad-selves, just remember to use SOAP and don't play with your WSDLs (I'm looking at you, Kumar).

    I'm going back to my PL/SQL, coding transactions the way real men should, tightly coupled to the database. try{catch} this you punks, you ASP-holes! Hah!

  9. Re:Final report on Heat Ray Gun Fails Final Test; Nixed From War · · Score: 2, Funny
    You have got to be trolling...

    In case you aren't, you've just tried to critique a concise, insightful summary of what's wrong with Israeli policy (and US) with a bunch of meaningless fluff.

    Please, allow me to give you some _real_ anti-Zionist sentiment. Fuck Israel! Fuck those shit-for-brains hardcore fundamentalist asswipes who are still stealing land, shooting protesters, starving children, and crying in public "poor us, poor us." I'm gonna Godwin-by-proxy, but you-know-who with the armbands and the 'stache was a long fucking time ago - there's a lotta dead Palestinians on the roadside leading from now to way back when - that old check has been cashed, spent, shredded, and long forgotten.

    So fuck you. Fuck Israel. Fuck sending them money. Fuck sending them military hardware. Fuck backing them at all. Any Arabs wanna invade? Fucking go for it! Not our problem, any more than whenever any random shithole country Alpha invades another random shithole country Zeta. Who gives a fuck? Really?

    You know who does deserve our backing? Canada! Heck of a place. Damn decent country. Hardly ever invades anyone. If they do, you know they're gonna say sorry. Not perfect, but who is? We could learn something from them. Like manners.

    But Israel? Not so much. Israel, not so friendly. Awfully self-righteous. Smug. Sanctimonious. They don't deserve to be wiped off the map, but still, helping them beat up their snot-nosed neighbors isn't really doing anything for our own interests. Let's bring back Realpolitik, at least it made sense of a sort...

  10. Re:Failure rate? on US Deploys 'Heat-Ray' In Afghanistan · · Score: 1

    ... And they know that they're here to help and protect the people.

    Police in the USA are mainly supposed to protect property, and mainly the property of the most wealthy at that. Golden rules indeed.

    Police in the USA have no obligation to protect citizens. None.

    Looters, even people just looking for water, after Hurricane Katrina hit were shot at, a few murdered by police.

    Contrast Goldman-Sachs shysters steal millions from a bunch of not-so-big investors and they just have to say sorry. They can keep the money.

    Fucked up way to run a country... Not that I'm bitter...

  11. Re:'Bout time on Apple Offers Free Cases To Solve iPhone 4 Antenna Problems · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This thing's only been out for a month!! at least give them some time to do their own testing, which they did!

    They don't need a month for testing. I'm sure engineers replicated the issue fifteen minutes after they first heard about it, then figured out why it didn't show up in pre-launch testing about 15 seconds after that.

    What took a month was meetings, consultations, coordination, marketing spin, legal input and legal review...

    Anyone here not seen that drunken dance of the pointy-haired, parasitic elite at their own place of work?

    Anyone work someplace where engineers are allowed to decide how to rectify high-profile issues? No?

  12. Re:Immigration needs to do round ups and not movie on Feds and Hollywood Seize Domains of Movie Pirates · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The government, hence immigration, does what corporate interests want, which is not roundups.

    If you're a Hollywood exec, illegals mow the lawn, clean the house, clean the pool, service the wife - all good things. Those illegals are not going home, brother, not going home.

    Meat processing plants use immigration as part of the HR process. They feed names of activists, malcontents, injured workers to the immigration office and then the roundups begin. Immigration gets to pretend publicly that they're doing something and the meat plants maintain a well-behaved slave-labor force.

    And because slave labor helps keep prices low, you can afford meat sometimes on your Wal-Mart salary.

    Everybody wins!

  13. Re:Intel is a "useful idiot" for the government. on Why Intel Wants To Network Your Clothes Dryer · · Score: 1

    ...

    The Green Police will monitor your power usage and fine you for "excess"...

    As in the more you use the more you pay? Sounds like an acceptable way to ration a limited resource.

    Please don't imagine supply is being artificially limited by greenies - there are real economic forces at work.

    Or did you think that electrical power was infinite? The demand is close to inifinite, the supply not so much. What would you propose for allocating this or any other resource?

    Coming sooner or later to your local power grid, you can expect higher prices overall, tiered prices, peak time prices and rolling blackouts - all means of lowering demand for a fixed supply of power.

    I believe most utilities operating where demand has outstripped supply will do blackouts because that's dead simple. If we had an option to do something more intelligent, would we choose that?

    A community may choose blacked-out TVs versus blacked-out neighborhoods, if shutting off TVs was technically possible and economically viable.

    Personally I'd rather lose TV for a day or a week versus lose aircon for an hour on a hot day.

  14. Re:Around 2013 on NASA Warns of Potential "Huge Space Storm" In 2013 · · Score: 1

    [I just realized I quoted Latin, French and Yiddish in this post, which while not my record, is pretty good for 8 o'clock on a tuesday morning.]

    Exempli gratia, mon Dieu, what a shmendrik Schweinehund

    Or, I see your four languages and raise one, with allotta alliteration thrown in. Top that, ya polyglot.

  15. Re:It's called the metric system. Use it. on New Google Search Index 50% Fresher With Caffeine · · Score: 1

    A million gigabytes is what we call a petabyte.

    They're a family-friendly business, they wouldn't want to use a word like "petabyte" - that sounds kind of dirty.

    As in: at the furry parties Ms. Petabyte was always the most popular; no one could keep their paws off of her.

  16. Re:Great. :( on Steve Jobs To Keynote WWDC iPhone Announcement · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Have fun overpaying for your products! I'm glad you like getting reamed and boasting about it.

    When I buy Apple, I buy an experience. I feel like I'm getting good value for money. They charge a premium for that Apple experience, which translates into higher per-unit profits.

    I look at it as a win-win.

    Clearly, it doesn't work for you. There are still plenty of commodity configs and components for you to choose from, so have at it.

    But please, spare us "you are getting reamed" as if we don't know better. We do know better, that's why we buy Apple.

    I could say "enjoy being a bottom-feeder and boasting about it" but I'm just too super-cool for that sort of condescension (that big word means talking down to you).

  17. Re:Thanks for the insight, Ballmer on Ballmer Says Microsoft Wasted Time On Vista · · Score: 1
    It's a mad world.

    Windows 7 is a solid product - Microsoft did something right?

    Bill Gates is saving lives - uberdork turns out to be human?

    Steve Ballmer sort of admits a mistake - the total tool drops the toolishness for 5 seconds?

    Good lord, what's next? Will Apple drop the "magical" bullshit and admit they're only super-cool, and not supernatural?

  18. Re:Fight them on California Moves To Block Texas' Textbook Changes · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... There was a Republic of Texas before there was a State of Texas.

    A favorite Charles Francis Harper quote:

    Wow! Texas used to be a separate country.

    Why'd we change that that?

  19. Sick of the whining about the whining on iPad UK Pricing Confirmed; Apple UK Tax Applied · · Score: 1
    Much of the fun of being the usual, smugly-satisified Apple customer is enjoying the bitter grumblings of those who aren't part of the in-crowd.

    So let them whine and let it be louder, sweet music to my ears. I say, iTunes DJ, put that music on heavy rotation! I'm feeling Magical!

    As you were.

  20. Re:True to a point on Most File Sharers Would Pay For Legal Downloads · · Score: 1

    ... I don't have to get my fat ass out of the car whilst in line at the McDonald's drive thru...

    Dude! T.M.I!

  21. Re:Skirting the issue on Flash Is Not a Right · · Score: 1

    More and more physical things come with embedded computing devices.

    I turned on my wife's laptop and Windows wanted to do updates. I slid over to my Mac and OS X wanted to updates. I got disgusted, fired up the Blu Ray to watch a movie and it wanted to do updates. Beaten down by the world, I went to snag a beer and the fridge needed to reboot. And then do updates.

    If the old Sun dream for Java ever came true, that there'd be small chunks of code running on every device big or small, then suicide would be the only option of escape for the many.

  22. Re:Confusion Over Source of Ire on Flash Is Not a Right · · Score: 1

    ... they are deliberately crippling a product ... and for what reason?

    Recall Apple's marketing. They've built up from a cornerstone concept of "PC stuff gets viruses, Apple stuff doesn't." Big part of their spiel, no?

    Sure it's about money, just perhaps not the way you think. If I spent megabucks chucking rocks at Windows, I'd be a little leary about making a nice, comfy home on my shiny, new platform for that well-known Windows virus vector.

    I guess I'm more willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, that they're trying to back up the claim of more safety by making their platform, uh, safer. For certain values of safety.

  23. Re:You laugh, but we'll see who's laughing when... on Economy Tanked While Government Surfed Porn · · Score: 1

    the SEC is the host of our Strategic Porn Reserves ... to reduce our vulnerability to the whims of foreign porn suppliers.

    amen brother

    US General Maxwell Taylor in 2009: "We are now threatened with a jizzle gap that leaves us in a position of potentially grave danger."

    and once again, the threat is from the Russians. anyone browsing the Web can tell from all the Slavic models named Katya, Tanya and Svyeta that the gap is widening dangerously. i'm talking Goatse here

  24. Re:Tax money on WhiteHouse.gov Releases Open Source Code · · Score: 1

    ... some developer ... recommended the use of Drupal and suggested open sourcing the modules ...

    and _someone_ in the government said "yes we can" [tm] release the source

    i'm thinking no code even remotely related to the White House would have been released from the previous administration's sealed bunker

  25. Re:The Real Counterfitters are The Fed on Treasury Goes High-Tech With Redesigned $100 Bills · · Score: 1

    how'll US pay 12.000.000.000.000+ debt without devalue?
    US plan to stiff chingchong with worthless dollars -- ROR
    hedge Canuck real oily property, silver, gold