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  1. Re:Things Mature on Firefox Is Lagging Behind, Its Co-Founder Says · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If your concept of code reuse makes the code bigger, you're doing it wrong.

    If your concept of code reuse makes the code less legible, you're doing it wrong.

  2. Re:Typical Customer Service Department attitude on Woz Cites "Scary" Prius Acceleration Software Problem · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes but as someone who reads Slashdot regularly, the problem is that the ratio of users who know how to use ratios vs those who THINK they know how to use ratios is approx. 1,000,000 to 1.

    Which wouldn't actually be a problem, except that you're the 1.

  3. Re:I read this as on Angry AT&T Customers May Disrupt Service · · Score: 1

    1. Customers paying $100/mo think they are entitled to $100 worth of network services and reliability

    Fixed that for you.

  4. Re:Student effect on economy on Pittsburgh To Tax Students · · Score: 1

    And frankly, without the large educational sector in Boston, the city would be a run-down industrial dinosaur like Pittsburgh or Detroit. There would be no thriving biotech or IT sector in Boston without all the educational spin-offs and a large pool of skilled labor.

    Yeah, seriously. Kendall Square is a hugely important part of the Boston economy.

  5. Re:dumb idea on Pittsburgh To Tax Students · · Score: 2, Informative

    Carnegie Mellon is not a state school. Their tuition is $40,300 per year. http://www.cmu.edu/hub/sa/sa_tuition.html

    It's often best to know what you're talking about before opening your mouth.

  6. Re:I don't mind so much on Chicago's Camera Network Is Everywhere · · Score: 1

    Whoops. I'm a dumb***

  7. I don't mind so much on Chicago's Camera Network Is Everywhere · · Score: 1

    as long as Alfred is the only one who can use it

  8. Re:WOLF! on Apple Not Disabling OS X Atom Support After All · · Score: 1

    It does when numerous other courts since then have held opposite conclusions. If NO court had used Miranda for 20 years, and every court that had heard a Miranda case said that Miranda didn't apply, then Miranda would be probably no longer be considered good law.

  9. Re:WOLF! on Apple Not Disabling OS X Atom Support After All · · Score: 1

    No. It doesn't.

  10. Sociopath on Why Doesn't Exercise Lead To Weight Loss? · · Score: 2, Informative

    This post is extremely misleading and dangerous. Why anyone would want to propagate this lie is beyond me.

    Exercise does lead to weight loss. The article cited clearly says it does. It's just that a small amount of exercise -- aerobic exercise for short periods over a mere three months, without strength training or diet changes -- is less effective than you'd want it to be. Well duh. But even in those circumstances, with all those factors stacked against weight loss, the participants still lost some weight.

    A counterexample: A mildly overweight or average person, who has no heart problems and is otherwise healthy, can engage in much more vigorous exercise. An hour on the elliptical can burn approximately 700 calories. An hour in an intense gym routine can burn more (ever see those ads for LA Boxing touting the one-hour 1000 calorie workout?). Lets say you do an hour of 700-calorie cardio every morning and dont change your diet. That's an additional 3500 calories you're burning per workweek. If you give yourself weekends off and don't change your diet and don't strength train, you're still losing a pound a week, mostly of fat. If you add in proper diet -- not calorie restriction per se but just switching from soda to water or cutting out one or two greasy meals a week -- you're doing better. Add in strength training and you're be doing amazingly.

    But it's not enough to just diet. The health benefits of good cardiovascular health and muscle strength are important in their own right. Things like the Hacker's Diet work to lose weight, but they are very unhealthy, even possibly dangerous. It condones a quantitative instead qualitative approach; the Hacker's Diet seems to take the position that you can eat microwave pizzas for every meal as long as you keep it under about 2000 calories. What it doesn't tell you is that in the process you'll be failing to provide muscular support for an aging skeletal system, adding cholesterol to your body, hardening your arteries, and atrophying major muscles.

  11. Re:Why can't I own Canadians? on What Does Google Suggest Suggest About Humanity? · · Score: 1

    Canada is America's hat? America is Canada's couch?

    I think you mean that Canada is America's toque, and America is Canada's chesterfield...

  12. Re:WOLF! on Apple Not Disabling OS X Atom Support After All · · Score: 1

    It's well established that EULAs are not legally binding.

    EULAs have been repeatedly upheld in U.S. courts. Do you have a case citation from a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the past decade that supports your position?

  13. Re:My Bet on Chrome OS Designed To Start Microsoft Death Spiral · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, the repeal of Glass-Steagal is a figment of your imagination. The 2004 relaxing of the SEC's net capital rule never happened. CFMA 2000 isn't what allowed credit default swaps setting up a domino effect of capital and credit. Yeah man. Keep dreaming.

    Oh, and stop trolling message boards with your misinformation.

  14. Re:This is really freakin' cool on Student Suing Amazon For Book Deletions · · Score: 1

    I'm not quite sure what you were objecting to, but GGP is incorrect, and GP's criticism is almost correct. Judges will emphatically not void a contract for insufficient consideration in most cases. Even with illusory promises, judges trip all over themselves to find a way to construe them as non-illusory -- plea bargained sentence recommendations are, in some jurisdictions, a good example.

    A contract of adhesion isn't automatically void. On the other hand, perhaps one of the strongest consumer protections is that ambiguity in a contract is, by default, construed against the drafter.

    Where did you get your law degree?

  15. Re:faux inefficiency on Why OpenBSD's Release Process Works · · Score: 1

    "If BSD hadn't forked, it would likely be the most predominate x86 *nix, rather than an almost irrelevant footnote in IT history."

    BSD is the most predominant x86 *nix.

  16. Re:Legal Basis? on NY Court Says Police Can't Track Suspect With GPS · · Score: 1

    State courts tend not to rule on federal questions of first impression if they can help it. Nobody likes being overturned.

    "Under our State Constitution, in the absence of exigent circumstances, the installation and use of a GPS device to monitor an individual's whereabouts requires a warrant supported by probable cause."

    http://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/decisions/2009/may09/53opn09.pdf

    You may petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari from the highest state court, so if there is a federal issue involved they may address it. But even so, certiorari is unlikely, and overruling even moreso, especially when there's an independent basis in state law.

  17. Re:These guys are no heroes on MN Supreme Court Backs Reasoned Requests For Breathalyzer Source Code · · Score: 1

    "officer observations of your behavior and smell... [is] sufficient to convict beyond a reasonable doubt." (emphasis added)

    I never said odor was sufficient in and of itself. To clear up the confusion that may exist, lemme rewrite in lawyerese ;-) :

    Any of the following may be sufficient for a reasonable jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt: (a) blood tests showing a Blood Alcohol Content above statutory limits; (b) failing a properly-administered battery of Field Sobriety Tests; or (c) officer observations of (i) behavior; and (ii) smell.

    The chances of conviction drop, yes, but the evidence is nevertheless (as a matter of law) sufficient. Since the discussion was about what "beyond a reasonable doubt" means, and not about prosecutor/defense tactics, I think it's safe to say that my portrayal was not in fact how you read it. Also, while some FSTs really suck, I believe some jurisdictions have legislative findings concerning others. In such states, for example, a horizontal gaze nystagmus test, administered by an officer with a brief training course in optical observation, is admissible and - combined with other FST behavior - sufficient for conviction. Now, if I were a defense attorney I would of course try to discredit the officer -- have him act out in the well how he administered the test, point out if he holds the light too close or too far away, and so on -- but that doesn't change the fact that a properly-administered one is good evidence as a matter of law, and a jury verdict based on that and not much else is unlikely to be overturned.

    Also, a minor point I'd like to address just to preempt it from becoming an issue: most jurisdictions now have different kinds of drunk-driving crimes. For example, in my state, OWI (operating while intoxicated) means you were operating with a BAC above 0.08, while DWI (driving while impaired) means you were drunk enough to have noticeably worse driving skill. For purposes of this discussion, I'm referring to the whole drunk-driving statutory regime as "DUI" -- what code number the prosecutor charges under is mostly irrelevant to the standard of proof.

    Regardless of the AC's tone in the EFF article, his(/her?) position was mine, and you suggested that only a paralegal without a college education could agree with that position. Besides, even abuse shouldn't beget abuse.

  18. Re:These guys are no heroes on MN Supreme Court Backs Reasoned Requests For Breathalyzer Source Code · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    you're not quite right about what it takes to convict in a DUI case...

    I strongly disagree. If you honestly think differently, give me citations to cases from each of the 50 state supreme courts, or a citation to a U.S. Supreme Court case, stating either (a) that no reasonable jury could convict based on blood tests; or (b) that no reasonable jury could convict based on any combination of field sobriety tests and observed behavior.

    Try to do it without an ad hominem this time (you've been belligerent and abusive in prior exchanges, notably the EFF article).

  19. Re:These guys are no heroes on MN Supreme Court Backs Reasoned Requests For Breathalyzer Source Code · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If the machine is faulty, they are not "drunks."

    Um. Wrong. Are you saying there were no drunk drivers before breath machines? Whether or not someone was drunk driving doesn't depend on the machine. Blood tests, failing FSTs, officer observations of your behavior and smell... any of these things are sufficient to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

    "Beyond a reasonable doubt" doesn't mean "beyond a shadow of a doubt." A possible or hypothetical doubt you have because you don't have a machine reading, or fingerprints, or a DNA sample isn't reasonable doubt. A reasonable doubt is one based on reason and the facts in evidence.

    If the prosecution has addressed each element of the crime, and for each element you have no reason to doubt it, then conviction is proper.

  20. Just. Plain. Wrong. on College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thanks EFF for being a liar. The police have probably cause to seize the computers, not because they are black with white font (zOMG!) but because a reliable named witness told them the student was engaged in changing grades for other students.

    From the warrant application: "[The witness] advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte has changed grades for other students by accessing the Boston College computer system.... It should be noted that [the witness] is not only a named witness to these allegations but also a reliable witness in another investigation which he brought to our attention.... [The witness] reported to me that he has observed Mr. Calixte hack into the B.C. grading system that is used by professors to change grades for students...."

    Also, emails were sent out from an anonymous Yahoo! account claiming that the witness (who is roommates with the suspect) was gay. The IP address of the client sending the Yahoo! message corresponded to a computer whose MAC address was registered to a computer whose computer name had only been used on the computer of one student at B.C. -- the suspect.

    Clearly, there's probable cause enough here for a search warrant.

    Nothing to see here folks, move along.

  21. Re:Oklahoma? on Oklahoma, Vatican Take Opposite Tacks On Evolution · · Score: 1

    (by which i mean, textually. it only says that congress cant establish a single religion, or prohibit the exercise of a religion. that's not to say that such a right hasn't been read into the first amendment, just that as an academic textual matter freedom to be atheist would seem to more appropriately be a generalized liberty).

  22. Re:Oklahoma? on Oklahoma, Vatican Take Opposite Tacks On Evolution · · Score: 1

    This also includes the right to practice no religion at all.

    No, actually it doesn't. The substantive components of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments' due process clauses, however...

  23. Re:Oral contract on Don't Like EULAs? Get Your Cat To Agree To Them · · Score: 1

    That's logically impossible. Your own testimony is evidence, so "no evidence" can only happen in your bizarre little fantasy world. And since breach-of-contract claims are civil in nature, the standard of proof is a mere preponderance of the evidence. In short, a judge or jury would only have to find you marginally more trustworthy than the other guy.

  24. Re:Hi on Bruce Perens On Combining GPL and Proprietary Software · · Score: 1

    Hi Bruce. A point of clarification: by "BSD-licensed command shell" I mean one that is only BSD-licensed. Rereading my earlier post, I see that I didn't convey this clearly, and for my miscommunication I apologize.

    The GPL provides that a person "may convey a work based on the Program ... provided that you ... license the entire work, as a whole, under this [GPL] License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This [GPL] License will therefore apply ... to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are packaged." GPL v. 3 Sec. 5.

    It seems therefore impossible for the author of a command shell using the readline library to license the work exclusively under a BSD-type license. They are, according to the GPL, required to distribute the entire command shell under the GPL. It is true that if the author of the command shell is the sole author, he or she may dual-license the work under both a BSD-style license and the GPL. However, the GPL does impose some additional requirements on authors that cannot be ignored. Particularly, I'm thinking of the costs in media distribution or bandwidth or hosting to make source available under GPL v. 3 Sec. 6. The total effect is to make it harder than necessary for people to write Free software that uses GPL code.

    And please don't swear. It lowers the level of discourse. Thank you.

  25. Re:Pfft, lawyers on You Are Not a Lawyer · · Score: 1

    You're right. Ignorance of the law is no defense. But the laws are accessible to the average person. And your point about amendment is irrelevant. I don't know where you got your information from, but it's very, very wrong. You never need to turn to unofficial sources for the current law.

    "An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another. An assault is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by both the fine and imprisonment." Cal. Pen. Code. 240-241 available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=240-248

    Tell me exactly how you figure you have to spend "hours per line" figuring out what that says?