Slashdot Mirror


User: gtall

gtall's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
5,112
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 5,112

  1. Re:A very sad day on UN Intervention Begins In Libya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, yer right, the nerve of the West to attempt knock over a ruthless dictator who has supported the worst sort of despots throughout Africa and who decided his people should have no right to self-determination. What were they thinking? What were you thinking?

  2. Re:yes but... on Texas Bill Outlaws Discrimination Against Creationists In Academia · · Score: 2

    And you feel that by calling Republicans "Retardican" will somehow help you convince those Republicans that they should rethink their views? Does it simply feel good?

  3. Re:Similar Revolts on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 1

    Yes, well that's easy for you to say since you wouldn't have a job that allows you to pay it.

  4. Re:News For Nerds on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 1

    The U.S. isn't supporting repression in Bahrain. Both Obama and Clinton have told them publicly to back off. What else would you have the U.S. do? Pull out the Fleet and put them where exactly? Send in the Marines and learn'em a lesson? Whack Saudi Arabia for sending in their troops? Hmmm....no, it sounds too delicious, and they do control the oil price.

  5. Re:Circlejerk on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 1

    To some extent it was Iraq but for odd reasons. Pushing over the Baath party in Iraq, even though it took the U.S. military to do it, showed it was possible. But I think that was minor except for what it made possible, i.e., an Arab government more or less democratically elected.

    It also showed that one of the top psychopaths, Hussein, could get his neck stretched by other Arabs. And even that dirty little dog, Moktada al Sadr can run his own private army...I think he's back skulking among his masters in Iran...studying...hehehe. Yeah, that's what he's doing...

    Anyhow, those events in themselves were no where near enough for any Arab Spring. The major influence was sheer disgust at Arab's everyday lives. They could see using modern media that others had it better. That doesn't mean they are smart enough not to trade one form of dictatorship for another, i.e., theocracy. However, it does mean there might be hope.

    The acid test is what happens to women's and minority rights. When we see those respected and those groups allowed equal status as Muslim men economically and politically, then we'll know they've turned the corner.

  6. Re:Does Florian Mueller.... on Does Android Have a Linux Copyright Problem? · · Score: 1

    I have this mental image of Florian as a rooster attempting to pass an unspeakably large egg.

  7. Re:Kiler feature: on Microsoft Reportedly Ends Zune Hardware Development · · Score: 1

    MS's marketing department currently strikes me as the 57 year old fellow who hosts a party while wearing a synthetic leisure suit cracking synthetic jokes and trying act like he's part of the 20 year old crowd. It's embarrassing but no one has the guts to tell him the truth since he's providing the food and drinks.

  8. Re:Make it stop on Researchers Find Possible Atlantis Location · · Score: 1

    It is easy to support. In general, most myths have a basis in fact....take for instance, the Easter Bunny.

    Let's thank T'ealc from Stargate for that one, absolutely priceless.

  9. Re:Yawn on Researchers Find Possible Atlantis Location · · Score: 0

    Yep, there is a story about Balaam in Bible, Numbers chapter 22. Apparently, Balaam was upset with the Israelites so he cursed them but that didn't work. So he plied them with Moab woman (mmmmm...Moab women!), but G-d put and end to that. He had a talking donkey who in one passage says (paraphrasing) "but I've always done what you asked of me" to Balaam. So to your basic fundamentalist literal Christian, he had a talking donkey. However, rabbinical scholars will tell you that the talking was mere a rhetorical device or euphemistic device to get across the delicate notion that Balaam was asking his donkey to do several things one wouldn't normally ask of donkey and they used it so as not to offend the readership.

  10. Re:What about in-house service? on IPad 2 Teardown Shows Tablet's Guts · · Score: 1

    That depends on several other factors, cost for a new fondle slab, utility of the Xoom vs iPad, fit into corporate IT systems, etc. Corporate users probably don't have other priorities, but corporate IT might. I do not have a good feel for what corporate IT feels is their job. At a cost of less than $1000, time spent screwing around with hardware efficiently is fairly short.

  11. Re:Considering ..... on Japan Battles Partial Nuclear Meltdown · · Score: 0, Troll

    Wow, 27 Kilowatt you say, we'll all be electrically rich. I have a small postage stamp house, relatively efficient, oil heat. I used 344 Kilowatts last month. You don't say how long it will take those 27 Kilowatts to be generated. And notice the oil heat, make that electric and I could expect to use about twice that amount.

    The problem with you "alternative" energy types is that you have no sense of proportion. You could entirely cover the Sahara (according to a British study) in photovoltaic cells and still not cover Europe's energy needs.

    That isn't to say we shouldn't move to more alternative fuels (we should), but to naively think that will be sufficient is just blind.

  12. Re:Do you want a university or a trade school? on CS Profs Debate Role of Math In CS Education · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With a slightly different spin, it used to be the case that a liberal arts education prepared you for many things precisely because it taught you how to think for yourself in several different areas. Find a job in an area you are not an expert in? You will have the skills necessary to learn it. This is completely beyond the ken of most HR departments in companies. Brain-dead companies who think schools are cookie cutters, you must have the right bumps and curves to fit into their industrial machine. And the result is stagnant companies whose Business School Product running them figure their best way to retire early is to ship the company to China and pad out that retirement package.

    In concert with this are several social trends. Schools of Education which focus on making Johnny/Sally feel "empowered" with ill-deserved self-esteem rather than taught. Parents who think Johnny/Sally go to school to free them for their two-career lifestyle. Parents who cannot turn off the damn TV and mind-numbing video games since it keeps the little bastards occupied rather than taking an active interest in their education while they are at home. A Hollywood which glorifies the dumb-ass but lovable schmuck who can get a laugh, rap his/her way via a hip-hop philosophy that says get yer ya-yas NOW, forget about actually working for an intellectual attainment that will make you a step above your peers. There's a commercial for a furniture company in my area which uses a rock song with the refrain "I want it all, I want it now, usw". That's the anthem we've taught our kids, you deserve to have it all, right now, no hard work, no paying your dues, you can get it just by demanding it.

    It is amazing any kid makes it through the hurdles adults put in their place to actually learn to think for themselves. Science competitions are petering out because parents are too stupid to demand achievement because, G-d forbid, Johnny/Sally might fail. Johnny thinks his ticket to success is the NBA and NFL because he's never been taught statistics and what that says about his odds for coming out on top...presuming he gets no career-ending injury.

    So when I hear comments to the effect of computer science "students" do not need math, I'm horrified we are bringing up a generation of intellectually sclerotic brats who will never be competent to go up against the kids China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, usw, are generating.

  13. Re:Do you want computer science, or engineering? on CS Profs Debate Role of Math In CS Education · · Score: 1

    I wish I had mod points.

  14. Re:Do you want computer science, or engineering? on CS Profs Debate Role of Math In CS Education · · Score: 2

    Logic is not mathematics, and legions of mathematicians will tell you this. Mathematical reasoning uses logical reasoning. Models of logics use mathematics. However, logic systems are not mathematics systems. Any part of mathematics is what we'd call a theory in logic.

    And implementation does not require only first-order logic. At its core, at least if we are talking computer programs, the reasoning required is a variant of modal logic. If we are talking hardware, there are all sorts of logic that could be used: fuzzy logic, modal logic, intuitionistic logic, usw.

  15. Re:Dying out... on Should Public Libraries Become Hacker Spaces? · · Score: 1

    Yes, and added to that, libraries contain dictionaries with the meanings of words such as "refuse".

  16. Re:These are people who still believe Joseph Smith on Utah To Teach USA is a Republic, Not a Democracy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Spoken like a true post-modern mush head. Most Congress Critters are fine upstanding citizens. The problem isn't so much them, the problem is us. The first candidate that comes along and says he/she will raise taxes and cut benefits to fix the deficits will get voted down because Americans still think they can get something for nothing.

  17. Re:30 pieces of silver... on Nokia Has a Billion Reasons To Love WP7 · · Score: 1

    Wow, a Flower Child, "All you need is love!!"

  18. Re:So much for plan B... on Nokia Sells Qt · · Score: 1

    Gee, hire MS drone, big surprise when he decides to "standardize" on MS software. Who could have predicted that?

  19. Re:Too Late! on Is Apple Turning Into the Next "Evil Empire"? · · Score: 1

    even if they did all that, you'd find some new reason not to buy Apple.

  20. Re:But, but, but... on Is Apple Turning Into the Next "Evil Empire"? · · Score: 1

    More accurately, Uncle Larry is Dr. Evil and Mark Hurd is Mini-Me.

  21. Re:Competition on Bradley Manning Charged With Aiding the Enemy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "in the process exposed their corrupt objectives", Oh, to date, the leaks have pretty much underscored that what the U.S. government says in private is pretty much what the U.S. government says in public. Care to spill the beans on what corrupt objectives the U.S. government is pursuing which is contained in the wikileaks docs?

  22. Re:Good. He's a fucking traitor and a disgrace on Bradley Manning Charged With Aiding the Enemy · · Score: 1

    Very arguably, tension in those countries has been building for years along with their population. Social media, or more to the point, the free flow of information has the tendency to reduce friction in systems it infects. By friction, I don't mean social friction, I mean the stickiness of resistance to change of those systems. Wikileaks was a very small piece of the information flows that unstuck those medieval societies. And what example are the rebels pointing to: Democracy.

    Having said that, not all information should be free, say, your personal habits for marketdroids, your bank records, your medical records, reporters' sources, diplomatic cables, etc.

  23. Re:Iran is not a democracy on Iran To 'Remove Fuel' From Bushehr Nuclear Plant · · Score: 1

    You ignore the nascent civil war between the Shia and the Sunnis. In my opinion, Iran's leaders believe if they are the ones to knock off Israel, they will get a leg up on determining which is true Islam. Your opinion may differ.

  24. Re:Help me out here on Scientists Cleared of Misusing Global Warming Data · · Score: 1

    "Senator James M. Inhofe is corrupt" Do you have evidence? I tend to think of him as being blinkered, that doesn't make him corrupt.

  25. Re:What next? on Libya SIGINT Jamming Satellites, Towers · · Score: 1

    The Palestinians had an election...and elected Hamas, only one of the most radical theocracies around. Hezbollah has just about taken over Lebanon, and Algeria was about to elect a theocracy. The thing is about theocracies, they are terribly difficult to get rid of once elected because they bring out the G-d/Allah card. And I think we need to wait on the Muslim Brotherhood. How would you know which their true colors are? If we go by past example, they have every intention of making Egypt a theocracy, they simply are willing to play a long game to get it.