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User: smooth+wombat

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  1. Re:Better way on Extra Leap Second To Be Added To Clocks On June 30 · · Score: 2

    AM and PM mean "anti-meridian" and "post-meridian", and at noon on the day of the summer solstice, the sun should sit on the celestial meridian.

    I'm glad you phrased it that way. Countless times I have seen people, signs and web sites refer to times such as 12 PM or 12 AM.

    There are no such times. It's either 12 noon or 12 midnight.

  2. Unpossible! on Seismological Society of America Claims Fracking Reactivated Ohio Fault · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows fracking is perfectly safe.

    It's on the internet so it must be true.

  3. Re:It's the "you can't sue us" escape clause. on The Downside of Connected Healthcare: Cyberchondria · · Score: 1

    What a colossal waste of time and money.

    And had the treatment you thought you needed not worked, you'd be complaining the doctor was incompetent because they listened to you rather than doing their own research.

    Quite obviously you're a programmer because you know everything and your work is never wrong.

  4. Sounds familiar on Ancient Planes and Other Claims Spark Controversy at Indian Science Congress · · Score: -1, Troll

    Did the people of India elect their version of the Republican party?

  5. Analog, still better than digital on Vinyl's Revival Is Now a Phenomenon On Both Sides of the Atlantic · · Score: 0

    Don't have to worry about a company telling you you can't listen to the music you already purchased.

    Knobs and buttons are far superior to crappy touchscreens when trying to change stations.

    No ridiculous black bars down the side of a picture when the camera is held vertically.

    When the power goes out, an analog phone line doesn't die or need a charger.

    No reading a manual to figure out how to set your a/c or heating controls.

    Typewriters never lose your documents.

    As a general rule, you can fix a broken analog device for less than the cost of a new digital one.

    A compass never needs a satellite to tell you which way is North.

    You'll never see a 0x00000008 error on a piece of paper.

  6. Re:if it doesnt work on Ask Slashdot: Are Progressive Glasses a Mistake For Computer Users? · · Score: 2

    More generally, if your glasses are not helpful when using a computer, then, while using a computer, TAKE THEM OFF.

    You said that wrong . It should be:

    More generally, if your glasses are not helpful when using a computer, then, while using a computer, . . .

    TAKE THEM OFF.

    YEEEEAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!

  7. Re:Kind of disappointed in him. on Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains His Christmas Tweet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a calculated and unwarranted troll towards Christians on their numero uno holiday.

    A holiday which was forced on people at knife and spear point to co-opt an already existing holiday (nice Christians ya got there), which celebrates the birth of someone who was born sometime in the spring/summer and who has inadvertently led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people (a billion perhaps?) and which, for the most part, has turned into feeding frenzy of mass marketing Chinese-made cruft to the masses.

    Now compare that to Newton who helped get us to the Moon, developed mathematical models to help explore our universe, and who contributed in numerous ways to our understanding of what goes on around us every day such as reflecting telescopes. See for example:

    This link and this one for what Newton gave us.

    So what did Jesus give us other than death and intolerance, as evidenced by your post?

  8. Re:Why would I buy it when... on The Interview Bombs In US, Kills In China, Threatens N. Korea · · Score: 0, Troll

    Pirates don't buy.

    Of course they don't. They're too cheap to pay for something someone has produced and believe they are entitled to take what they want.

    They're never a missed sale, they're simply a no-sale.

    Hardly. They obviously believe the product has some value or they wouldn't have stolen it. Whether every single pirate would have paid for the product is another story.

    If one doesn't believe something have value, why steal it in the first place?

  9. The more interesting part on Study: Police Body-Cams Reduce Unacceptable Use of Force · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and reports against officers dropped by 87%

    While most people on here are focusing on the police portion, the civilian portion is more damning. It shows the amount of crap police have to put up with by people who think they'll file a brutality report so they can not be held responsible for their actions.

    I don't have the link, but some on here will remember the video of the woman who was in the back of a police car yelling and screaming for the police to stop hitting her without realizing a camera was recording the whole thing. When she claimed police brutality, the video was shown and the charges were thrown out.

    While there is certainly some police abuse going on, there are much more claims by people of police abuse where none exists. Just like dashboard cameras, it works both ways so when people claim they weren't doing anything when they were shot, the camera will show them reaching for their gun (see the most recent shooting in Missouri though we don't have video of the incident).

  10. Don't forget Sulo leaning back in his chair as he uses one hand to hit the control buttons.

  11. Re:Can this be disabled? on Apple Pushes First Automated OS X Security Update · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you do manual updates you can wait to see if anything is broken before installing them. There is never a need to be the first one to get an update. Let some other poor sucker suffer the slings and arrows of breakage.

  12. Re:Duck & Cover? on ESA Carries Out Asteroid Impact Drill · · Score: 2

    Because cowering under your desk will protect you from a nuclear blast!

    It wasn't so much protection from the blast but from falling debris. If we assume one was far enough away from the blast to not be fried, getting under a desk would offer some protection from ceiling tiles and such which might fall, similar to how standing in a doorway during an earthquake offers some protection if you can't immediately get out.

    This idea is still orders of magnitude better than former head of Homeland Security (and former Governor of my state who got the pension crisis rolling) Tom Ridge telling people to use duct tape to seal their windows and doors to protect them from chemical or biological attacks.

  13. Can this be disabled? on Apple Pushes First Automated OS X Security Update · · Score: 1

    How many times have we seen people who set their updates to Automatic in a Windows environment get in trouble when an update mangles their system? I know people who say, "I always get every update as soon as they come out" then bitch when an update did something to their system.

    Can this auto-update be turned off or changed to manual?

  14. Re:sigh on An Automated Cat Litter Box With DRM · · Score: 1

    Before I had to put my best bud to sleep, I had bought a small piece of carpeting (2' x 1'?) with a moderate pile and put it in front of the litter box. When he walked over it after taking care of business the litter would fall on to this and every so often I would take this carpet outside and give it a good shake and a few smacks.

    Took care of 95% of litter trackage.

    As to covered litter boxes, I have never had an issue with any cat using a covered box. I just made sure there was plenty of light shining into the front.

  15. Re:Public land closures on Hot Springs At Yellowstone Changed Their Color Due To Tourist Activity · · Score: 1

    As someone who goes to caves, you should be aware more than most of the cross-contamination you are unwittingly causing. One of the leading thoughts on white nose disease in bats is it is caused by the transportation of bacteria and such from one cave to another.

    A family member works for the Bureau of Land Management and has seen firsthand what happens when people randomly go in and out of caves. Once a single bat has a white nose, the entire colony is on a death march, not to mention the general trash spelunkers leave behind or the damage they can cause.

  16. Re:Public land closures on Hot Springs At Yellowstone Changed Their Color Due To Tourist Activity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but things like this are used more and more to justify land closures.

    If people wouldn't screw things up, or destroy parts of a park, or just not think, then this wouldn't be an issue, would it?

    To use a phrase, this is why we can't have nice things.

  17. Re:And how many were terrorists? Oh, right, zero. on TSA Has Record-Breaking Haul In 2014: Guns, Cannons, and Swords · · Score: 1

    You put the cannons at the windows, and shoot at the wings of the other planes. Once they are hit, you throw hooks to hijack and loot!

    Similar to how Peter used cannons to loot this poor mans sugar cane, tobacco and spices.

  18. What a horrible first world problem on Amazon "Suppresses" Book With Too Many Hyphens · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Your book, that I downloaded in digital format rather than the bulky dead wood format, is unreadable as I sit on the subway/bus on my way to work. This is an outrage!"

    Apparently the person(s) who complained have such perfect lives and no other issues to worry about, they had to find something to complain about.

  19. Re:Perspective on NASA Video Shows What It's Like To Reenter the Earth's Atmosphere · · Score: 1

    Since asshats like to take vertical movies with their phones,

    Or maybe phone makers shouldn't make shitty products which create the sidebars in the first place. You never had this problem when shooting analog movies, it has only occurred when we "upgraded" to digital.

    The world doesn't exist only left to right. It also goes up.

  20. Re:Case insensitive file systems were a bug on Critical Git Security Vulnerability Announced · · Score: 1

    the case-sensitve file system was one of the major risk factors.

    Don't worry, as XKCD shows, this is not an issue.

  21. Re:Enforcing pot laws is big business on Colorado Sued By Neighboring States Over Legal Pot · · Score: 1, Troll

    Colorado already proved that with the tax revenue they brought in from legalized marijuana,

    False. Colorado brought in 20% of the promised revenue from legalization and the prospects of them meeting their initial projections are about as likely as Steve Ballmer running Linux.

    Before you then say, "Well, they at least got something," I would like to remind you of this article wherein people on here were claiming Chicago's use of red light cameras a failure when they only got 44% of the initial projected income. Apparently getting 44% of of something is much worse than getting 20% of something.

    Still further, Colorado is seeing the general effects of people being stoned, such as deaths, robberies and murder, and of course the general loss of productivity from people unable to perform their jobs such as two nurses who quit their good paying jobs at a hospital where a family member works because they would have failed the mandatory drug tests.

    Just like Kansas' failed experiment of lowering taxes and cutting services didn't magically produce more revenue, whatever amount of money Colorado brings in will be eaten up by the side effects of legalization and, as this article clearly indicates, bordering states will also suffer financial losses and deaths.

  22. Re:Presidential Oath of Office - how quaint on Federal Court Nixes Weeks of Warrantless Video Surveillance · · Score: 1

    It's not? Funny, I live in this country just as much as I live in my home.

    The only ones who are insane are those who believe a country doesn't have a right to know who is coming and going across their borders.

  23. Re:Presidential Oath of Office - how quaint on Federal Court Nixes Weeks of Warrantless Video Surveillance · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Which has nothing to do with the question I asked.

    No one is saying people from other countries shouldn't be allowed to work in the U.S. (I'm not), what is being asked is they do it legally and with proper documentation.

    So again, I ask the question, do you let random people walk in and out of your place without knowing who they are?

  24. Re:Presidential Oath of Office - how quaint on Federal Court Nixes Weeks of Warrantless Video Surveillance · · Score: 2

    Do you let random people walk into your home any time of the day or night without knowing who they are?

    If not, why should the United States?

  25. *facepalm* on Sony Demands Press Destroy Leaked Documents · · Score: 1

    That is all.