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User: smooth+wombat

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  1. Re:Oh this is easy .... on Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? · · Score: 2

    I really wish I could leave mine behind more often and not be labelled as antisocial.

    It's not antisocial to not be on your phone. In fact, it's the antithesis of not being antisocial.

    Imagine what would happen if people weren't on their phones every waking moment. They'd have to TALK to someone they met on the street. How weird is that?

  2. Re:Very simple answer on Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? · · Score: 1

    How did you get a sense of superiority out of what I said?

    If people are so addicted to social media that they can't conceive of someone not having an interest to use any of them, the problem doesn't lie with those who have made the choice not to put their private lives on display.

    Would you have the same opinion of someone who said they don't have a computer at home because they don't need one? Would you consider them to be superior to you?

    Just because someone gives a statement about not having an interest in something doesn't make them smug. If that were the case, everyone on the planet would be smug.

  3. Very simple answer on Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whenever someone asks why you don't have a social media account, all you need to tell them is:

    I'm not a narcissist.

    You don't believe your life is anyone else's business, no need to show them pictures of your latest adventure, no need for gratification from the unwashed masses. You are who you are.

  4. Re:What an Embarrassingly Vapid Article on Focusing On Tech Alone, You Miss How Autonomous Driving Will Change Society · · Score: 1

    Imagine not needing to buy a car (Uber driverless anyone?)

    So I have to wait for someone (something?) to pick me up? I can't just get in my own car and drive when I want to?

    and only the truly well off will own their own, primarily to have a known nice clean vehicle.

    Meaning more societal layering. "You don't have your own car? How quaint."

    For some, that ride in to work would be work time,

    Meaning working more for the same pay. Employers would be all for this.

    Trucks could be scheduled to drive in non-rush hours.

    You mean like many are already scheduled to run in non-rush hour times such as 4 AM?

    Methinks you haven't thought through your ideas. Where may I subscribe to your newsletter?

  5. One step closer . . . on Amazon Moves "Buy Now" Into the Physical World, With the Dash Button · · Score: 1

    to WallE as people become fatter and fatter from less physical activity. Why bother going outside when one can lie on their floaty chair and press a button?

  6. Re:STEM *is* Humanities on Why America's Obsession With STEM Education Is Dangerous · · Score: 2

    Math can't be that logical if you can use imaginary and irrational numbers to solve a problem.

  7. Re:A Corollary for Code on Why You Should Choose Boring Technology · · Score: 1

    which often makes for horribly unintuitive or unnecessarily complex systems.

    Indeed. Witness the unmitigated mess which are today's web pages, filled with mountains of complex code creating unintuitive navigation and unnecessarily complex layouts.

    KISS has officially been abandoned in favor of crazy language tricks just because the programmer could.

  8. Re:Hopefully this gows on At the Track With Formula E, the First e-Racing Series · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But do you drive at +240 kph, make rapid acceleration to get you to 96 kph in two seconds, all while trying to stay ahead of the guy who's trying to pass you?

    Yeah, thought not.

  9. The inside threat is more potent on Modern Cockpits: Harder To Invade But Easier To Lock Up · · Score: 3, Interesting

    airlines have fewer options if the threat comes from within.

    This shouldn't be a surprise. It's the same thing with networked systems. It's not outside threats which pose the problem, it's the people on the inside who either inadvertently or deliberately cause the problems.

    Once you've granted someone access to your data, no amount of firewalls, air gaps or anything else can prevent that person from doing damage in some form, even if only taking that data and giving it someone else on the outside.

    In this case, since the co-pilot was on the inside and had the ability to override the security code to open the door, the damage was done long before he crashed the plane.

  10. Simple solution to the problem on GAO Denied Access To Webb Telescope Workers By Northrop Grumman · · Score: 1

    As this is government (i.e. taxpayer) money, you stop paying Nothrop Grumman until they grant access to the employees.

    Since, as people like to say, the government doesn't create jobs, cutting off funding won't have any effect so there can't be any complaints. In fact, stopping payments on a project which is this far over budget would be good PR: a private company unable to do what they've been paid to do so the government is cutting them off.

  11. Re:it could have been an accident on Germanwings Plane Crash Was No Accident · · Score: 1

    Any any stray shot by some trigger-happy gun nut would likely pierce the fuselage and start decompressurization, ala Goldfinger.

    No, it wouldn't. Repeated tests have shown this will not happen. If you think a hole the width of a pencil will cause a plane to lose pressure that quickly, you might want to check your physics book again.

    Also, terrorist holds lady with knife to neck and tells you put down your weapon (while unseen terrorist sneaks up behind you with box-cutter).

    So on a crowded plane, there would be no one behind you to see this second terrorist sneak up behind you? Even if they hold a knife to someone's neck, you're still defeating their purpose of taking over the plane. The pilot now has time to radio an emergency and make a rapid descent or throw the plane into violent maneuvers to upset their balance.

    I like this, too, but what's to stop the bad guys from faking the secret frequency and crashing the plane from the safety of their hideout?

    And people say I have an active imagination. How do you propose the bad guys fake this signal from a cave in Pakistan to a plane flying over the Alps? Or over the Indian Ocean? You do realize the power required to send this signal, the technology to continually track the plane in flight and the equipment needed to do all this isn't something you can go to your local Radio. . . er, Best Buy and pick up on a whim.

    Stop over thinking this. Today, if someone tries to hijack a plane from within the passenger compartment, they will fail. They might be able to kill a few people on board, but they will most likely die in the process and so will not accomplish their mission.

  12. Sneakers keeps becoming more and more real on NY Times: "All the News That Mark Zuckerberg Sees Fit To Print"? · · Score: 2

    There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!

  13. Re:Let me fix that for you... on Jeremy Clarkson Dismissed From Top Gear · · Score: 2

    Thank you. I was hoping someone was going to mention this.

    It wasn't as if Jeremy hadn't previously been warned and had been put on notice that another serious incident would be the end.

    Being a prima donna and ranting and raving is one thing. Punching someone is quite another. While Jeremy may have unconsciously done this to not have to renew his contract, it's not something one wants to be known for.

  14. Re:Leave then on Gen Con Threatens To Leave Indianapolis Over Religious Freedom Bill · · Score: 2

    So you have no problem with a smelting company opening next door to your house? A garbage dump? Fat rendering?

    Zoning is done for a common sense reason, one you obviously fail to grasp.

  15. Re:Pump and dump? on Steve Wozniak Now Afraid of AI Too, Just Like Elon Musk · · Score: 1

    Spooky action at a distance will make couch potatoes of us all.

    I thought Amazon was doing that?

  16. Re:It's simple. Eat less and eat less crap on Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds · · Score: 1

    The problem isn't so much "too many calories" consumed, but that the sedimentary lifestyle people are accustomed

    Yeah, sediment doesn't digest too well. No wonder people are fat.

  17. Re: No tipping required on Bring On the Boring Robots · · Score: 2

    Yes, leeching off the rest of us by not claiming you're operating a business on your taxes and not telling your insurance company you're operating as a taxi service.

    Thanks for making my life more expensive.

  18. So like the banks and Wall Street on FTC's Internal Memo On Google Teaches Companies a Terrible Lesson · · Score: 1

    "We know they committed fraud and lied to investors, but really, they're just too big to do anything about so here, here's $700 billion of taxpayer money so you can pay your bonuses."

    One step closer to fascism.

  19. Wall E takes another step closer on Amazon Launches One-Hour Delivery Service In Baltimore and Miami · · Score: -1, Troll

    People scoffed at the move Wall E, and the fat people on floaty chairs who needed to be coddled for everything they did because they had grown too lazy to do or think for themselves.

    Now with this service, as several on here have already commented, they too can do nothing for themselves, claiming it's more convenient than going outside where that bright shiny thing exists.

    You're planning a party and realize you're out of something. Then you're a poor host and shouldn't have the party.

    You run out of paper. If you're too stupid to notice you don't have an extra ream lying around, you have bigger problems.

    You're a business and a part breaks. That's why you have maintenance contracts.

    While not everyone lives in an area where stores are plentiful and readily accessible, the amount of comments which feed the notion that IT folks are fat fucks sitting in their chairs in their parent's basement is truly amazing. Stereotypes exist for a reason, so thank you for contributing in your own way.

  20. You can have my steering wheel. . . on Musk Says Drivers May Become Obsolete, Announces Juice-Saving Upgrades · · Score: 1

    when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

    Which may very well occur when autonomous vehicles can't decide what they should do and come to a stop, causing others to plow into them.

  21. Re:Great... on New Compound Quickly Disables Chemical Weapons · · Score: 1

    Someone slips on a clear liquid, whangs their head on the store shelf on the way down, then has their head impact the nice hard floor. Person dies.

    Or, a parent slips on the unseen liquid and falls on their three year old walking next to them, snapping the kids neck and crushing them under the falling weight.

    Yes, clean up in aisle two can be potentially life saving.

  22. Re:Are they still on the job? on Fraud Rampant In Apple Pay · · Score: 1

    No, that 's not it. You see, these people get paid the big bucks to make the tough decisions. They are our best and brightest, just like the folks on Wall Street, so whatever they do, you cannot question them. After all, they know what they're doing.

  23. Re:Income is not constant on $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based On Income · · Score: 1

    Which means all those drug user don't get to suck at the teet of the taxpayer when they want to break their habit.

    If you can afford to buy drugs, you can afford to pay for your own treatment.

  24. Re:Income is not constant on $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based On Income · · Score: 1

    Stop bringing up personal responsibility in situations like this. Everyone knows one should be free to do what they want, whenever they want, without having to suffer any consequences for their actions.

  25. Just like in Men In Black on Scientists Insert a Synthetic Memory Into the Brain of a Sleeping Mouse · · Score: 2

    (At least they gave the mice a nice memory.)

    First when K flashes Beatrice after she saw her "husband" inhale the sugar water, and later at the morgue, when K instructs the clean up crew to give the coroner a happy memory.