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User: rdsmith4

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Comments · 35

  1. from the the-warmest-sweaters-every dept. on Futuristic 'Smart' Yarns from Carbon Nanotubes · · Score: 2, Funny

    from the typing-too-fast dept

  2. Re:A few thoughts on Apple Not Too Harmonious with Real · · Score: 1
    So... why exactly should people who use dumb legislation get a free pass? Are their actions any more moral or justifiable?

    No, but they are good business. Welcome to corporate America - and indeed capitalism in general. If it makes money, do it! (That's no condemnation of capitalism - I'm all in favor of making money.)

  3. Re:Time to call for international monitors? on How To Lose An Election · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You would call on the UN to solve "rampant corruption?" Sounds like a paradox to me.

  4. Re:Airport Police on Fingerprint Scanners Still Easy to Fool · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The war on terror isn't about the terrorists, it's all PR.

    But that's the point! Terror is not about killing people, it's about scaring the public and causing them to act a certain way. The train bombing in Madrid, for example, though didn't kill a whole lot of people, was completely effective because the Spanish public immediately voted in a leader with a soft spot for terrorists, and he immediately pulled all Spanish troops out of Iraq. The terrorists got what they wanted by scaring the people - not killing them.

    How safe we actually are is entirely irrelevant - it's how safe we feel.

  5. <pedantry> on Terraform Humans First, Then Mars? · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's "Sir Arthur," not "Sir Clarke."

  6. Re:My god, can you whine any more? on Linux Today Founder Calls for Boycott of Linux Today · · Score: 1
    stay in your parent's basement.

    I think I speak for most of us Slashdotters when I say... That's exactly where I am right now, you insensitive clod!

  7. Boycott Linux Today? on Linux Today Founder Calls for Boycott of Linux Today · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...Boycott of Linux Today

    Slashdot is the wrong place to advocate a boycott of Linux today, tomorrow, or any other day!

    In any case, michael should look twice at those headlines before posting them - "from the doh department" indeed.

  8. from the i-heard-a-fly-buzz-as-i-died dept. on Spam as Poetry · · Score: 1
    from the i-heard-a-fly-buzz-as-i-died dept.

    Emily Dickinson. Right?

  9. Re:One word: Baseless. on No $50 iPod Clone From Microsoft · · Score: 0, Troll
    You haven't even seen the damn thing yet. How do you know it's mediocre?

    Well, duh. It's Microsoft. Perhaps you hadn't caught on; this is the way you have to think if you're going to do any posting on slashdot:

    1. Microsoft == The Great Satan. Other large companies are too, except Oracle and probably Sun.
    2. Open Source is the only way. It's always better than proprietary.
    3. Linux is the best OS, but *BSD is right up there. Macs are even OK - never mind that Apple is another large company doing its best to make a lot of money; it's fine because it's not Microsoft!
    4. Linus Torvalds is God. Richard M. Stallman (RMS) is an OK guy. Eric S. Raymond (ESR) is a wannabe hacker with nutty political views.
    5. George W is The Great Satan in a different guise. He's really stupid. Conservatives are his little subordinate demons (not daemons, mind you; those are OK).
    6. America, despite being the wealthiest and healthiest nation on the planet and the one with the highest standard of living, is incorrigibly arrogant, bullying, racist, sexist, prejudiced, incompetent, and generally going to hell in a handbasket. Never say this out loud; simply make snide comments to that effect.
    7. It is not necessary to weigh the merits of a Microsoft product logically or rationally. Foregone conclusion: it sucks.
    8. As a matter of fact, nothing has to be done logically or rationally, particularly writing and modding comments.
    Ignore these rules and you will be modded down! (You already have been, I see.)
  10. Re:Google? Best Practices? on Webby Award 2004 Winners Announced · · Score: 1
    I think it's a bit silly and politically correct for them to make policies prohibiting gun advertising, but if they think they're significantly decreasing gun violence in the US, they are deluded. People who want guns for crime (or protection, or sport) are capable of getting them, Google ads or not.

    I, incidentally, own a 12-gauge shotgun and go trapshooting on a regular basis. It's lots of fun. Mace simply doesn't knock those clays down as well as good old lead BBs.

  11. Re:Where's Slashdot? on Webby Award 2004 Winners Announced · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't think that the "best community" award quite fits the bill; I was thinking something more like "best bickering, server-clogging, hopelessly geeky cult." (It would get a ton of votes in the Peoples' Choice section, of course. It would be kinda funny if the Webby Awards website got slashdotted.)

  12. Re:Wikipedia on Webby Award 2004 Winners Announced · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As great as Wikipedia is (I'm an avid user and contributor) I'm afraid that it can never have very good credibility, written as it is by anyone and everyone who wants to write. I'm not talking about the vandalism or obvious nonsense, which is removed in a hurry, but badly-written or simply misleading articles, particularly on obscure topics.

    Also, too many people create too many new pages with too little information (stubs) - the article count is in the hundred thousands but how many of those are exhautive analyses of their topics?

    Of course, it can only get better with age, but I fear it will only ever be good for quick reference or interesting reading - never for research.

  13. Re:Prisoners photos? on Digital Cameras Change War Photo-Journalism · · Score: 1

    Wikipedia seems to have got the lot of them (I count eight). Some are rather graphic of course.

  14. Re:Real Pictures? on Digital Cameras Change War Photo-Journalism · · Score: 2, Informative
    That actually appears to be an issue with Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid - the accusations having been made, however, by another tabloid (the right-wing Sun accusing the left wing Mirror).

    The Guardian has actually published an analysis of the authenticity of several photos published in the Mirror.

  15. Paradox alert! on The Controversy of a Potential Hafnium Bomb · · Score: 1
    This idea is NOT a joke--a recent issue of Popular Mechanics talked about such an idea...

    Logical fallacy: conclusion does not follow.

  16. Re:for the sake of humanity on The Controversy of a Potential Hafnium Bomb · · Score: 1
    a HF bomb

    Thats "a Hf bomb." HF is hydroflouric acid, which I do not think is very explosive. </pedantry>

  17. Re:It sucked on First Java AP Computer Science Exam Complete · · Score: 1
    Indeed. One question had code for two classes, each calling the other, and the question was "What is the output if x=5" or whatever. Took a friggin hour.

    The recursion I don't understand either - all the professional programmers I know say it's useless and is likely to fill up the stack memory and crash the program.

    Marine Biology Simulation Case Study? The code available before the test didn't even compile correctly. I could have written the same program in an evening using just a class or two (not the 15+ classes and countless methods it took the AP people to do it). They seem to do everything they can to make it more difficult without making it more applicable to a first-year college course (which AP is supposed to simulate) or to real life. I really don't understand where they're coming from at all. As for the "I swear on pain of death or score cancellation never ever to discuss the questions," well, I didn't reveal any answers, and it says in the article that everyone had taken it already. I did it yesterday morning like a good boy.

  18. Not a chance. on Software To Stop Song Trading · · Score: 2, Funny
    This will never work - if it does in fact suppress the legal transfer of imformation, it's clearly counterproductive and stands little chance of ever being implemented. Universities are more reasonable than that!

    ...right?

  19. Re:The whole field at risk on Nanotech or Nano-Not? · · Score: 2, Funny
    I "think" you might be "right," but go "easy" on the "shift-apostrophe."

    -"Dan"

  20. from the money-for-nothing dept. on Money That Grows On Trees · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only they'd get working on "chicks for free."

  21. Why people stay on Windows on Review Of Serenity Virtual Station · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was a discussion here recently about why so many haven't given Windows up. There were various reasons presented but the main one seemed to be Adobe Photoshop - I don't know what other OS emulators had been available, but if Serenity Virtual Station does what it says it does, now I can delete my Windows partition completely!

  22. Someone enlighten me.... on Is the Universe Shaped Like a Funnel? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How can the universe, the sum of everything which exists, have shape? What, then, is outside this funnel? Isn't it infinitely large by definition?

  23. Re:Alternative on Pay Attention To .Au/.Us IP Trade Law · · Score: 2

    Pooh. You'd be truly hard pressed to find a news organization which does not push its own politics, and Slashdot certainly does have (somewhat unconventional) politics. True impartiality is not to be found in the news these days, and I for one, since I know where I stand on issues without the help of CNN or FOXNews or NPR or WSJ, don't mind it much.

  24. No can do! on Pay Attention To .Au/.Us IP Trade Law · · Score: 4, Funny
    take the time to *physically* write your MP

    Too assertive for the slashdot crowd! We'd much rather comment about it in the comfort of our big cushy computer chairs.

  25. There's just one problem. on AT&T Wireless Announces Music ID Service · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    The classic rock radio stations play the same ten songs repeatedly and I know all those too well.

    The pop stations tend to choose one mildly catchy tune to overplay every week, which they identify immediately before and after they play it (about 20 times daily). The rest is pure crap.

    I guess the modern rock radio stations play different songs, but they all sound the same... loud guitars, screaming lyrics.

    Country music - I won't go there.

    It's an excellent idea but there's no market for it!