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User: gtall

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  1. Re:Absolutely fair.. on Apple Agrees To Chinese Security Audits of Its Products · · Score: 1

    That, and I wonder how intrusive are the security audits. I wouldn't put it past the Chinese government to think of the security audits as a legal way to steal technology ideas.

  2. Re:Not so difficult on Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration · · Score: 1

    And as soon as you raise trade barriers, other countries will do the same. The total economic pressure, thought of as something like air pressure, goes down and you can expect the American economy to slow since we won't be exporting as much which will cost jobs as well. America and China are about equivalent as exporters now. That's a lot of economic activity you casually throw overboard with your simple solution.

    It is not a simple problem and your simple solution will not work.

  3. Re:No way! on Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration · · Score: 1

    Not really, Sessions could do a lot of damage to the immigration debate because he's essentially stupid, and he has no qualms about packing committee hearing witness lists with ringers. He's more likely to draw attention to himself and Congress than on the debate. I've seen him on EPA hearings, I forget the committee name. He's not the dullest knife in the drawer being almost but not quite entirely as dumb as Ron Johnson, Republican senator from Wisconsin.

  4. Well, they do play kinky dragon games (Find-the-Tail, etc.) The white smocks and headgear are a dead giveaway.

  5. Re:Police State! on Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut · · Score: 1

    It was probably the neighbor who got pissed at the guy's dog doing his dooty in the neighbors yard. It is entirely speculation as to why, but my theory is plausible...unless it was the IRS on another vendetta against those who hate the government yadda-yadda ding-dong....

  6. Re:Yep it is a scam on US Senate Set To Vote On Whether Climate Change Is a Hoax · · Score: 1

    Ever watch CSpan when they are televising hearings? The hearing opens, the chair honks on for several minutes..."burble...furble...whacka, whacka, ding-dong!" Then he passes off to the minority leader of the committee...more boom-chicka-wow-wow for several minutes. If it is a big hearing, we'll be hearing from every doofus committee person with a point no matter how minor to honk on about their minor point. Then we get to the witnesses, they get to make statements. More delay. All the above just cannot get out all their valuable words and put other comments in the written record.

    Now that we've wasted 1/4 of the time, it is time for questions. A good committee person will be able to question by thinking on his feet. Most committee persons (e.g., Richard Shelby from Alabama) will read questions their staff has prepared. And if it is a critical hearing, some of the "witnesses" are ringers. Jeff Sessions from Alabama (must be something in the water down there) does this for any EPA hearings. He's got a safe ringer who comes in and mouths bullshit about global warming (the usual Republican talking points, I hope they pay him well).

    If I were to run hearings, we'd have tasers wired into committee members chairs. Time is up when the taser shocks. No beginning statements, no witness statements. All questions must at least be memorized, no reading prepared sheets. Fail to do that, Mr. Taser gets a bit more work. Any ringers get to sit in the corner with a dunce hat and cannot speak...well, they can but only if Mr. Taser gets to pay them back for it.

  7. Re: Wow... Just "no". on Healthcare.gov Sends Personal Data To Over a Dozen Tracking Websites · · Score: -1, Troll

    Not really, most of the ACA was recycled Republican ideas, complete with bending over for the insurance companies and using private contractors to build the web site. Democrats are not absolved of blame, they were so giddy to get a chance to pass a national health insurance that they didn't really care about what was in it. Instead, they thought they'd heralded by Americans and show a Progressive success.

    The idea of covering the uninsured is still a good one. In the U.S., you should not have to court bankruptcy due to common medical conditions. That said, I don't think the U.S. can afford all the health care Americans want. The current system is now a franken-system where a health problem is looked at as an economic opportunity for the health care industry. Look at your bill sometime for procedures. Even if your insurance company covered, it is still enough to make you wince.

  8. Re:Sounds about reasonable for once... on Paris Terror Spurs Plan For Military Zones Around Nuclear Plants · · Score: 2

    You have no understanding of the modern U.S. military. They spend a lot of effort just on understanding the social dynamics of any conflict zone. If they thought killing everything in sight was a wise idea, Afghanistan and Iraq would be barren wastelands where nothing would life. The inhabitants seem to have every intention of turning them into wastelands. Maybe you got the two groups confused.

  9. Re:You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone on NSA Prepares For Future Techno-Battles By Plotting Network Takedowns · · Score: 1

    You forgot it is too expensive to duplicate the internet for your factory or plant.

  10. Re:a better question on Why Run Linux On Macs? · · Score: 1

    Build. I never used a PC that didn't strike me as a piece of crap.

  11. Re:This is tragic! on Lies, Damn Lies, and Tech Diversity Statistics · · Score: 1

    My theory for why we lack women in science (not sure about engineering) is that science is structured to reward individual prowess. You get a PhD by doing your own work.

    I was an assistant director of a lab. The men in the lab all pretty much stayed in their swimming lane. The women were busy socializing with one another. Since we had a lab, they had a place to socialize and myself and the director had no problems with them socializing over their research or anything else. The research produced by the men and women were more or less comparable.

    Most science is not so welcoming to socialized problem solving, women need to socialize and hence feel that science is either not for them or is structured by males for males. I expect a similar dynamic happens in engineering.

    The subject material of science is also not encouraging of social interaction. It has an abstract, unidirectional air that men find appealing and women do not, generally speaking. I don't find it odd there are so few women in science. Unless the process of how science is pursued is changed, and more cross-disciplinary science is encouraged, I don't see most efforts at encouraging women in science being successful.

  12. Re:Solar, solar, solar. Also, solar. on NASA, NOAA: 2014 Was the Warmest Year In the Modern Record · · Score: 1

    re the sea levels used to be much higher...yes...but not in the recent past with all the coastal cities. What to see how upsetting that can be? Take a look at current day Bangladesh. Let's take a poll of Bangladeshis on how they feel about global warming causing sea level rise.

  13. Re:Do you really buy your own BS? on NASA, NOAA: 2014 Was the Warmest Year In the Modern Record · · Score: 1

    Not only that, the GP assumes because that average rate was true in the past, it must remain at that rate in the future. If all the extra CO2 and methane cause the earth to jump into a new normal, then we might find that very unpleasant. There's just no assuming the earth responds linearly to what we do to it.

  14. Re:Pope Francis - fuck your mother on Pope Francis: There Are Limits To Freedom of Expression · · Score: 2

    You are in luck, I have developed an Insult-O-Meter. It is parametric over which ideology/religion you prefer to be gauged. You plug in the rules and regs of your ideology and it will dynamically program itself to detect any sort of slurs or insults about that ideology. At the low cost of $19.95 in 18 easy monthly payments, you can automatically detect when you have been insulted and commence High Dudgeon Umbrage Behavior.

    Have you or your loved ones been insulted or killed dead by insults? Here at Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe, we might be entitled to some of your compensation for these insults. Please contact our attorneys immediately if you feel insulted in the slightest degree. Our operators are standing by now with the fabulous offer of countering two insults for the price of one...that's TWO insults for the price of ONE. This offer is only good for the next 6 billion inhabitants of the planet so please do not delay and call us immediately. Your umbrage is our paycheck!!

  15. Re:Pope Francis - fuck your mother on Pope Francis: There Are Limits To Freedom of Expression · · Score: 2

    I agree, how else will we find out what's crawling around underneath.

  16. Re:History on Adobe Patches Nine Vulnerabilities In Flash · · Score: 1

    I think the reason Apple refused Flash was a bit more mundane; it sucked energy and would have made the iThings unviable in a consumer market addicted to Flash. The fact that it was a security nightmare was just icing for whacking the entire cake.

  17. Re:Given the track record of Flash on Adobe Patches Nine Vulnerabilities In Flash · · Score: 1

    It is a bit worse than that. It is a curious fact that Flash contains more bugs than can actually exist in the code...it is considered among philosophers to be akin to Russell's Paradox. The latest scientific explanation involves higher order quantum mechanics and several new and very odd dimensions. The best theory I've seen so far is that Flash is bit like quantum soup with a black hole in hiding in the extremely odd extra dimensions. Virtual bugs and fixes appear in pairs, but curiously, only the fixes are attracted to the black hole and disappear from our time-space continuum forever. The consequence is that Flash seems to us as though it is a net emitter of bugs.

    When questioned about this, Adobe refused to discuss the matter or its implications...firm evidence of a coverup in my book.

  18. Re:Thank you. Enjoy France, Greece, or Canada on IEEE: New H-1B Bill Will "Help Destroy" US Tech Workforce · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that isn't home grown success that you have in Texas. Your idiot former governor went around the country enticing businesses from other states to come to Texas. And this while he was gutting education. You also have a decrepit welfare system which kicks you if you are poor because being poor in Texas is strictly your own fault. And you over built, the recent water shortage is evidence of that. To make it worse, most of Texas doesn't believe in climate change and hence doesn't realize the lack of water is the new normal. You'd need a hole in your head to head to Texas with any idea of starting a family.

  19. Re:Who's in charge, again? on Obama Planning New Rules For Oil and Gas Industry's Methane Emissions · · Score: 1

    How about the coal slurry ponds that recently erupted? Those of use who grew up in the 60's and 70's are ashamed this is still allowed to happen.

  20. Re:Who's in charge, again? on Obama Planning New Rules For Oil and Gas Industry's Methane Emissions · · Score: 1

    Hmm...how many species do you reckon we should wipe out before the EPA should step in? C'mon, don't hold back, put a number on it.

  21. Re:Who's in charge, again? on Obama Planning New Rules For Oil and Gas Industry's Methane Emissions · · Score: 2

    More importantly, the market doesn't do very good job of predicting what solution will be needed. Rather, it must wait until a problem has occurred and then there are clear directions for market-based solutions. So, things like the interstate system never get built except as a labyrinth of disconnected routes with no rhyme or reason and they'll all be toll roads.

    Clean air is similar. It would never have been cleaned up because just about all industries were involved in screwing up the air quality, so there was no market solution. Similarly, there is no market solution to clean water.

    I would posit there is no market solution to security. There might be litigious "solution" which means you get to sue after your credentials have be spewed to the interwebs...strangely, that's what we have now. There are no federal laws saying you need to protect your customers' data. There are companies who will sell you "security"...which is mostly snake oil in a can. That's the sum total of the market solution for security.

    Food and Drug safety is another area. How many people need to die before the market respond to a bad manufacturer? 10? 100? Surely, a good market actuary could figure this out, but the result will not be pleasing to just about every one except Rand Paul types.

  22. Re:Infrastructure on China's Engineering Mega-Projects Dwarf the Great Wall · · Score: 1

    Mt. Rushmore wasn't built by the U.S. government. It wouldn't be allowed in China unless it depicted one of their dickless leaders.

  23. Re:Infrastructure on China's Engineering Mega-Projects Dwarf the Great Wall · · Score: 1

    No, this is just the effort of the Commies in China to make their dicks look bigger. It is the sole reason they want Taiwan back, the thought of an independent country of Chinese makes their dicks look smaller. It is the reason they are shoving Han Chinese into Tibet and into Xinjiang province. It is also the reason they go apeshit at the thought of Hong Kong freely electing their leaders. Penis envy is also behind the problems they had with the Falun Gong doing calisthenics on their front lawn.

    It is all about the lack of dick of the Chinese leaders because they have no legitimacy. Hell, they didn't even fight the Japanese very well, that was the Nationalists who got beaten up so Mao could prance in a declare victory. And on the Long March, which was a retreat by the way, Mao was carried along by the proles he so valued.

  24. Re:Why the &%#$@ does CENTCOM on US Central Command's Twitter Account Hacked, Filled With Pro-ISIS Messages · · Score: 2

    Because social media is the new battleground. Where have you been the last 5 years?

  25. Re:islam on Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 7 At French Magazine HQ · · Score: 1

    You forgot enslaved. Islam has no problems with slaves...or women for that matter, they are merely the possession of the Muslim man. It isn't clear Judism or Christianity did either, but they were reformed. Islam is unreformable lest the ones using it for subjugation have no salve for their conscience.