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User: simtel

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Comments · 45

  1. Re:It's not really a myth anymore on The Sci-Fi Myth of Killer Machines · · Score: 1

    I think a very important note is that it isn't necessarily the absence of a moral code - it's an absence of _their_ moral code.

  2. Re:Not the same, but tangentially related... on How Nest and FitBit Might Spy On You For Cash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If someone has to habitually hard-stop, then there is a very good chance that they're habitually driving too fast for conditions and/or not leaving enough space to stop in. This data is being used to establish the driving habits of the user - and as such the one or two 'avoid accident' stops will become outliers. It's the habits that push people into the higher risk pools, not the outliers.

  3. Re:thanks on Bitcoin Exchange Value Halves After Chinese Ban · · Score: 1

    Amazon hasn't done anything with Bitcoin - the gift cards are sold by a third-party (gyft.com, IIRC). And gyft only takes bitcoin via a third-party payment processor. For merchants, "accepting bitcoin" in this way is almost identical as "accepting credit cards" with Square as the processor.

  4. Re:News to me on FCC Chair: It's Ok For ISPs To Discriminate Traffic · · Score: 1

    I'd love to have the option to choose the cable monopoly - in my area AT&T provides (shitty) internet, TV and phone, with no options for anything else.

  5. Re:A me too case? on Japan's L-Zero Maglev Train Reaches 310 mph In Trials · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't assume that the only profit to be made is via the act itself - NASA's space program ended up giving birth to a lot of technology that is widely used in society these days, but could not have been measured in a pre-estimate of the profitability of the space program.

  6. Re:If you are afraid to be known for your comments on Huffington: Trolls Uglier Than Ever, So We're Cutting Off Anonymous Commenting · · Score: 1

    The sad thing is that many people would.

  7. Re:add it to the list on Bahrain Activists Battered By IP Tracking Attacks · · Score: 1

    There are too few TOR exit nodes for everyone with a brain to use it. Now if they moved all the actual anti-establishment news to an onion address, then they could know that all non-onion links are propaganda or honeypots.

  8. Re: The real problem with Tor on Open Source Tortilla For Tor To Be Released At Black Hat · · Score: 1

    An important note is that the exit node can see all of "the" plaintext traffic - there's no effective way to track it back to you unless the data contains your personal info. That's one of the biggest reasons that many jurisdictions hold the exit node accountable for the traffic that goes through it.

  9. Re:What about the fundementalists. on Italian Team Cures Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome With the Help of HIV · · Score: 1

    That's why the scientists got rid of most of the genome. All that's left should be covered by Fair Use, right?

  10. Re:Not a huge surprise... on Hacker Skips SimCity Full-Time Network Requirement · · Score: 2

    They took it down for about a week, but restored it a few days ago.

  11. Re:burden of proof goes the other way on FAA Device Rules Illustrate the Folly of a Regulated Internet · · Score: 1

    I think that things like this are caused by in-flight food service. We must ban in-flight food, because we have no evidence that these events are NOT caused by the in-flight food.

  12. Re:Interesting theory on How ISPs Collude To Offer Poor Service · · Score: 1

    I used to do that for a 200MB file on on dialup. I think the point is that content sizes are growing rapidly, expecting broadband speeds to keep up. The concern is that people are afraid of the current stagnation, and how it might mean that in a few years, your download of that 50GB patch will take longer than 30-40 minutes.

  13. Re:Mobile ads are a waste of time, space, and mone on The Billions In Mobile Ad Money Nobody Can Grab · · Score: 1

    All the more reason to do the opposite of what marketing tells me to do.

    You realize that if large enough quantities of people began to do this, marketers would catch on and take advantage of that, right?

  14. Re:Attn: LucasArts on Star Wars: 1313, a 'Darker, Grittier' Star Wars Game · · Score: 2

    Have you tried X3 from Egosoft? X3: Terran Conflict (standalone expansion) is a mighty fine game.

  15. Re:Evolution on Did a Genome Copying Mistake Lead To Human Intelligence? · · Score: 1

    Also, less poo and more boom. Explosive poo?

  16. Overheat on Japanese Researchers Create A Crab-Based Computer · · Score: 5, Funny

    And just think: if it overheats, your computer becomes delicious

  17. Re:Good on James Cameron Begins His Deep-Sea Dive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly, I found the name "Unobtainium" no less plausible than a number of the heavier elements in the periodic table. Comparing "Unobtainium" to, say... "Promethium", "Ununoctium", "Berkeluim", "Californium"; not to mention a number of the proposed names for the current temporary ones... How does "Unobtainium" defy logic any more than those do?

    Or are you claiming that because we haven't discovered it yet, it doesn't exist? In a science fiction movie. Really? Really?

    As for orbital bombardment... That's probably the part the Cameron didn't show. Humans go down to the surface and try to strip-mine politely because of politics. Think of the PR win that it would be for the (then current) administration if they can convince these primitive creatures to live/act like humans! But now that we're kicked off planet, time to warm up the nukes.

  18. Re:Duh? on AT&T Threatens To Shut Off Service of Customer Who Won Throttling Case · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think it's more "don't artificially limit it via per-user throttles".

  19. Re:"Evolution is random" on Humans Are Nicer Than We Think · · Score: 2

    Evolution is entirely random. Natural selection is not. You are using the term evolution to describe both processes.

  20. Re:Distress password? on Why Making Facebook Private Won't Protect You · · Score: 1

    This only works when the profile actually has public information. If _everything_ is private (as it is on mine) and nothing is visible on the 'distress' page, then this would be a clear red-flag that you're not showing the right thing.

  21. Re:This is a pointless invention. on Kinect Grocery Cart Follows Shoppers Around the Store · · Score: 1

    I think it's also important to remember that at the moment, customers provide the transport-to-home. This is a non-trivial number of routes that must be serviced, and would take a significant number of drives in order to service in a reasonable timeframe. Perhaps it would be doable if you would accept that you can only receive delivery on specific days (maybe only monday and thursday, for instance, or even just monday in underrepresented markets), but then the brick and mortar stores are needed to provide the incidentals or the last-minute "oh shit, I forgot that" items. Either way, you're going to be paying a delivery charge. The charge could be bundled into the price of the items and averaged out over all the items, sure. But then you start dealing with psychology and "oh, it's cheaper if I drive myself to and buy it. Look, I'll save 10 cents per pound!". Psychology is also in play as people prefer to pick out their own items. Every time they get a banana with a couple brown spots, they'll be wondering if there were better ones that they didn't get. You mentioned a big box to receive deliveries in - I think this is simply not doable in cities when you start considering apartment buildings with 20-400 units in them, simply due to space considerations. Rural areas and suburbs, sure - that could work. tl;dr - I don't see B&M stores going away for a long time.

  22. Re:This is a pointless invention. on Kinect Grocery Cart Follows Shoppers Around the Store · · Score: 1

    You mean like this? http://www.peapod.com/

  23. Re:GAMBLING FUNDS TERRORISM!!!11! on US Shuts Down Canadian Gambling Site With Verisign's Help · · Score: 1

    [Tangent started] There could be a variety of reasons for tolerance in a 'true' religion. 1) if their God had demanded that everyone be allowed to make their own choice; 2) A religion that says simply the act of faith is necessary, wherever that is placed; 3) A religion that holds ALL religions to be false, and thus not matter at all. [/tangent]

    tldr; Truth in a religion has nothing to do with how tolerant it is.

  24. Re:Speeding on TomTom Satnavs To Set Insurance Prices · · Score: 1

    Speed limits should be set at a speed that most drivers would not be comfortable driving at.

    The problem is that many people will feel "comfortable" at speeds that they personally are not safe at. They'll continue to feel "comfortable" right until they look down at their makeup/phone/breakfast/newspaper and crash.

    The more comfortable a person is, the more comfortable they will be with directing their attention elsewhere. And the more someone drives at higher speeds, the easier it becomes to be comfortable at even higher speeds than that.

    I'm sorry, checking your email on your phone while cruising at 85-90 on a busy freeway is not the safest behavior.

  25. Re:Perspective on The iPhone Is a Nightmare For Carriers · · Score: 1

    One way that I did it with AT&T was to sign up for a plan, but _don't_ sign up for a data plan. Since all iphones are required to have a data plan, in a few months they'll notice and just tack one on to your bill.

    No contract required.

    That's how I did it a few years ago when I moved back to the US from Australia with my aussie iphone.