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User: bmo

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Comments · 5,130

  1. Re:No, it shouldn't on Should the Start of Chinese New Year Be a Federal Holiday? · · Score: 1

    >All holidays should be abolished.

    You first.

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    BMO

  2. Re:freedom and respect on GNU Hurd To Develop SATA, USB, Audio Support · · Score: 2
    there's a little-known story that the linux kernel was first conceived by a small group of individuals in a military environment.
    ...
    one of the individuals, a norweigan major, was then tasked to go off and "groom" any individual that he could find who had the potential to create a full "Free" operating system. the person he found: Linus Torvalds. you should be able to work out the rest of the picture.

    Wut.

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    BMO

  3. Re:I'm still wondering... on Linux Foundation's Secure Boot Pre-Bootloader Released · · Score: 1

    You softies are fucking ridiculous.

    Honestly.

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    BMO

  4. Re:I'm still wondering... on Linux Foundation's Secure Boot Pre-Bootloader Released · · Score: 1

    In order to get a motherboard certified it is required that the user be able to enter their own keys.

    Except on ARM devices certified for Win8. At which time they are the single gatekeeper.

    Fuck Microsoft.

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    BMO

  5. Re:Most programmer can on Ask Slashdot: Do Most Programmers Understand the English Language? · · Score: 1

    I think that every Quebecois should be subject to the ridicule of a Parisian over the "purity" of their French.

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    BMO

  6. It's not just programming. on Ask Slashdot: Do Most Programmers Understand the English Language? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    English is the current lingua franca of international business, education, science, technology, diplomacy, entertainment, radio, seafaring, and aviation. It has replaced French as the lingua franca of diplomacy since World War II. The rise of English in diplomacy began in 1919, in the aftermath of World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as in French, the dominant language used in diplomacy until that time. The widespread use of English was further advanced by the prominent international role played by English-speaking nations (the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations) in the aftermath of World War II, particularly in the establishment and organization of the United Nations. English is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (the other five being French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish). The seating and roll-call order in sessions of the United Nations and its subsidiary and affiliated organizations is determined by alphabetical order of the English names of the countries.

    When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others. The British Empire established the use of English in regions around the world such as North America, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, so that by the late 19th century its reach was truly global,[21] and in the latter half of the 20th century, widespread international use of English was much reinforced by the global economic, financial, scientific, military, and cultural pre-eminence of the English-speaking countries and especially the U.S. Today, more than half of all scientific journals are published in English, while in France, almost one third of all natural science research appears in English,[22] lending some support to English being the lingua franca of science and technology. English is also the lingua franca of international Air Traffic Control and seafaring communications.

    Basically, if you want to get anything done, you do it in English.

    Some day another language may replace English as the lingua franca like French replaced German and Latin. When you have multiple cultures trying to do things, you need to have a common language to do it in.

    None of this should surprise anyone.

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    BMO

  7. Re:No kiddin' on MS Targets Google With Another Smear Campaign · · Score: 2

    Between this PC and Google's servers, there sit 11 other 'computers'. The first 6 belong to my ISP. The last 5 Google.

    And from there, to other destinations, there may be 20 more hops, all of which you don't control, in other countries where the laws aren't the same as the one you're in.

    An email is a postcard. Unless you encrypt the contents, anyone along the way can read it. It used to be impressed upon users that this was the case, and my copy of "Navigating the Internet" from 1994 went through great lengths to get this accross (it also described how to do FTP through email. heh.)

    Either encrypt or use a service that encrypts or stop bitching. Lyons is right. (gawd, did i actually say that?)

    BTW, did the cheques from Microsoft stop clearing? Why is Dan Lyons critical of Microsoft all of a sudden?

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    BMO

  8. Re:And they are cheap... on Handheld Black Hornet Nano Drones Issued To UK Soldiers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This just in: short production runs of 160 pieces have an expensive per-piece cost.

    Tooling and R&D aren't free, buddy.

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    BMO

  9. Too Generic To Deserve A Trademark on Games Workshop Bullies Author Over Use of the Words 'Space Marine' · · Score: 1

    A "Space Marine" term is self descriptive and generic. It's so generic that I believe that if it was challenged, they'd lose the trademark "Space Marine" to "space marine" type games. Now if there was "Space Marine" facial tissue (if it was registered that way), then there might be a defense of the trademark, because it would be unique in relation to facial tissue. But not to video games with space marine characters and themes?. Nope. Public Domain.

    Microsoft almost lost their trademark to Windows because it was challenged as too generic. Before a decision was given, Microsoft handed over a pile of money to get Linspire to shut up about it.

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    BMO

  10. Re:Wrong on New Largest Known Prime Number: 2^57,885,161-1 · · Score: 1

    >What has it added to study if prime numbers? And if it's added to the study of primes... then what use is that?

    You could have really big gear boxes that have a low harmonic vibration.

    (for the clueless, once you get into gearing and transmissions, prime numbers are effin' everywhere).

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    BMO

  11. Re:Take matters into your own hand on Ask Slashdot: What To Do About Patent Trolls Seeking Wi-fi License Fees? · · Score: 1

    > use the courts to commit wrongs against people.

    Yes, that's what I said.

    We have a word for it and I used it. Barratry.

    There is a related practice and word, called champerty, but that's not applicable here.

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    BMO

  12. Re:Obvious. on Why Microsoft Office For iOS Will Likely Never See the Light of Day · · Score: 1

    >Look at the direction office is going now. Cloudy.

    Yeah, sure, and do you trust a third party with all your data? Consider your GP, who might keep documents in the cloud. Do you think that your GP would like to be on the end of a federal prosecution and eventual civil lawsuits because of the release of medical records he/she could no longer control?

    Seriously, we see private data companies lose their clients' data far too often.

    HIPAA is a bitch and the "cloud" is not an option.

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    BMO

  13. Re:Take matters into your own hand on Ask Slashdot: What To Do About Patent Trolls Seeking Wi-fi License Fees? · · Score: 1

    The whole point of a court system is so that we don't have to resort to violence to settle issues such as this.

    It seems like there are an increasing number of plaintiffs who want to push the adversarial process in an unreasonably vicious manner - persuing barratry instead of using the system correctly. These people should be aware that there is only so far victims of barratry can be pushed before they fight back in non-standard, and more affordable ways.

    Unfortunately, barratry is rarely punished, if ever. If it was, we'd see far less of this, and a more sane court system.

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    BMO

  14. Re:also why other pro apps will not be in other ap on Why Microsoft Office For iOS Will Likely Never See the Light of Day · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The mark-up for selling a bicycle and bike parts is 40 percent.
    Clothing is 100 percent.

    A 30% cut of the retail price is probably lower than brick-and-mortar. Do you honestly think that Microsoft gets the full $300 you pay for Windows 7 Pro from Fry's?

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    BMO

  15. So? on Mars Rover Curiosity: Less Brainpower Than Apple's iPhone 5 · · Score: 1

    The iPod isn't expected to survive the same environment.

    Sometimes ruggedness beats clock cycles.

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    BMO

  16. Re:Is it 1984, or am I a conspiracy theorist? on Facebook Re-enables Tag Suggestions Face-Recognition Feature In the US · · Score: 1

    It's like you didn't read the second paragraph or anything after that.

    What Suckerberg might do is probably irrelevant in the larger picture.

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    BMO

  17. Re:Is it 1984, or am I a conspiracy theorist? on Facebook Re-enables Tag Suggestions Face-Recognition Feature In the US · · Score: 1

    You are pining away for the time before search engines.

    That time has passed and gone, forever.

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    BMO

  18. Re:You have to start somewhere. on Why Ray Kurzweil's Google Project May Be Doomed To Fail · · Score: 1

    >So why are you characterising their position in such a way?

    You failed to read who I replied to. Please read him.

    Thanks.

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    BMO

  19. Re:Is it 1984, or am I a conspiracy theorist? on Facebook Re-enables Tag Suggestions Face-Recognition Feature In the US · · Score: 2

    Anytime my name is tagged, i get a email that asked me if i want the info published to my friends or not. BEFORE my name is added.

    This. It's in your Facebook Privacy Settings, the ones that everyone who complains ignores.

    How much of a false sense of security that is, is debatable. People have been posting pictures of themselves and friends publicly on the web since the days of Geocities and Angelfire (and before that, on small private and .edu hosts) with nary a .htaccess in sight. The lack of good search engines at the time provided a sort-of-quasi-obscurity in that stuff wasn't searchable but technology marches on.

    Everything is crawlable now. Everything is indexable. If it's public, without .htaccess or even a robots.txt, then it's going to get crawled and indexed. Facebook is just a small corner of the "problem." If you don't want people seeing your stuff, don't post it. Tell your friends to not post pictures of you. That's the only real solution. If your friends have any sense of decency, they'll be polite and at least ask first (mine do).

    But lastly, don't use your real name. This war on anonymity by Facebook, Google+ and other providers should be fought tooth and nail. Yes, it's in the TOS, but the TOS isn't there to protect you - it's there to protect the provider and the flow of money to the provider. Ignore the real name requirement. It's unenforceable - it's not like FB requires a photocopy of a valid ID.

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    BMO

  20. I never said it wasn't.

    It's the "elephant in the room" conflict of interest.

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    BMO

  21. Re:Good on Time Warner Boosts Broadband Customer Speed — But Only Near Google Fiber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >This is an unsustainable race to the bottom.

    Bullshit. It's been established that caps and rate limiting are just a cash grab. And the customer has been raped enough through billing ever since we threw billions of taxpayers' money at the network providers in the 90s only to watch it go out as dividends to shareholders and board bonuses.

    Competition is *always* good.

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    BMO

  22. Re:Favors? Surely You Jest! on Chinese Hack New York Times · · Score: 3, Funny

    He's obviously serious. Obviously.

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    BMO

  23. Re:Favors? Surely You Jest! on Chinese Hack New York Times · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you're missing his sarcasm with the word "obviously."

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    BMO

  24. Re:Provoking on Machine Gun Fire From Military Helicopters Flying Over Downtown Miami · · Score: 1

    >And what do you think when you think Brown? Ivy League brains, Skid Row levels of drug use.

    This is supposed to be funny?

    Fuck off, cunt.

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    BMO

  25. Re:Provoking on Machine Gun Fire From Military Helicopters Flying Over Downtown Miami · · Score: 1

    You're a moron. Full on idiot.

    Bye.

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    BMO