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User: Jah-Wren+Ryel

Jah-Wren+Ryel's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 11,071

  1. Re:Online Advertising Response on Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies · · Score: 2

    I have a phobia about spending money. So no matter how low it is, I don't like to pay anything...

    Well, if that's the case, you clearly aren't worth a tenth of a penny to an advertiser anyway so why should your opinion count?

  2. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 1

    1. Not "overborrowing" but "borrowing". In general. Chinese SAVE money.

    Still not applicable to the topic at hand.

    2. These laws are not seen as important even when they are enacted. Locals simply do not care for them.

    Ah, now at least you have a relevant point. I disagree though. I'd say that sort of problem goes away as the general population becomes more educated. When everybody is a starving, illiterate peasant then there isn't much ability to take a larger view. Fortunately, most of the people affected are no longer starving and education has become exceptionally important in China over the last decade+. Even if it is more of a technical nature than most western educations it is still a huge step forward in the average citizen's ability to comprehend cause and effect and their place in the larger world. I don't expect change to happen over night (it didn't happen overnight in the west either), at a minimum the majority of the last generation still has to die off or otherwise get out of the way.

  3. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 1

    And take it from somebody living in Shanghai at the moment. A woman was run over by a taxi driver because nobody respects the traffic lights for people on foot. Do you think the cars stopped when they saw her motionless body on the street? They just started to drive around it.

    Do you understand that that sort of callusness was not uncommon in the US during the industrial revolution? Don't make the mistake of assuming that being on different places on a developmental timeline means that they are headed in a different direction.

  4. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 1

    1. Chinese value saving money for future and living frugally. US residents value borrowing money to reach higher level of life.

    You seem ignorant to the fact that this over-borrowing in US culture is new in the last 35 years or so. Certainly was not the case during tthe industrial revolution. And I still don't see what that has to do with legislative fixes to problems brought on by the industrial revolution.

    2. Chinese do not value individual life but they value groups, clans and family ties. US residents value individuality to a far greater degree.

    So what does that have to do with laws like cleaning up the environment, food quality laws, and labor laws like safe working conditions?

    Let me give you a few more then, at which point you will perhaps stop being obtuse.

    No, I am afraid it is you who is being obtuse. You are so convinced of the correctness of your argument, that you can't make your argument in a convincing fashion.

  5. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 1

    They are relevant in the simple point that their very basic values, such as "who is more valuable, daughter or mother" are vastly different.

    So what? Really, you are claiming something is self-evident and I don't see it. I see a minor difference in the valuation of family members, but it is still the valuing of family.

  6. Re:Good News on Copyright Alert System To Launch Monday · · Score: 1

    Yes, six-strikes is basically the MAFIAA's gift to the VPN industry and the "web locker" industry.

    I've been looking at VPNs for a while, but I haven't found one that hits all of my requirements. Maybe people here can make some recommendations.

    1) At least 3 devices - my home router and the smartphones of me and the wife. I'd really like to see 5 devices just so I've got enough of slop that I don't have to worry about keeping track of what is VPNed and what is not.

    2) High throughput

    3) Multiple egress points in multiple countries

    4) Unlimited switching between egress points

    5) Good pricing

    6) Reliable - not some fly-by-night looking to cash in on the MAFIAA's indulgence

  7. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 1

    Let me give you a couple of examples of cultural difference between China and Western Europe.

    So what? Look, I don't even know how much of what you wrote is pure stereotyping or something more accurate. But it does not matter in the context of this discussion. None of those 'examples' are relevant to the discussion, at best they show a slightly different balancing of basic human needs from one culture to another. But in no way do they even suggest that any of those needs are negated in certain cultures.

  8. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure on Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then again, other than freaks like Thoreau, most Americans weren't out hugging trees at the beginning of our Industrial Revolution either.

    Bingo. This idea that "asian culture" is so different from "western culture" is just intellectually lazy. Sure there are differences, but fundamentally people are people, they all want the same stuff - food, air, water, sex, sleep, security, health, family, respect, creativity, etc.

    The sort of reforms we saw that came in on the western industrial revolution aren't culturally specific, they are human-specific. The implementations will surely vary along with the timelines, but the end result will be the same because if it does not get to a similar point of satisifying universal human needs, it will collapse because the humans won't tolerate it indefinitely.

  9. Re:Obscure+ignorant, public+informed. Pick. on Ask Slashdot: Will Cars Eventually Need a Do-Not-Track Option? · · Score: 3

    You should be able to know where I am at all times, and I should be able to know where you are at all times, and people who take steps to create obscurity around themselves should be treated as untrustworthy.

    Yeah, not going to happen. The people with power will be able to game the system - they will figure out (or more likely hire) people to create false trails. Thinking that a panopticon society could ever be a level playing field is to ignore basically all of recorded history.

  10. Re:Most electricity used when people aren't home? on New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It · · Score: 1

    Yes, because most electricity is used by business. Just look at any power company that has time of use billing schedules, peak rates are generally from 10am to 5pm.

  11. Re:Scaling is the Key! on New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It · · Score: 1

    I take it you've had your new solar power system for less them three years, then? So haven't quite hint the point where you have to spend thousands of dollars replacing those lead acid batteries that provide power after sunset, on cloudy days, etc.? That's cool. I'm glad you feel good about replacing carbon dioxide with lead and acid.

    Apparently you have not heard of grid-tied solar, where the homeowner does not have any batteries to worry about because the electric grid itself takes the place of the battery. This sort of set up is very common nowadays, I'm no expert but I wouldn't be surprised to find that ~90% of all residential solar installations are now grid-tied since not only does it eliminate the cost of batteries, it also eliminates the concern of not properly sizing the solar power system.

    Grid-tie solar won't completely scale up to the point of totally eliminating power plants because you need some source of power when the sun goes down. But the majority of electricity usage occurs at exactly the same point in the day when solar power is the most abundant so it can go a long, long way to reducing the need for power plants without the environmental cost of hundreds of millions of lead-acid batteries.

  12. Re:Death of Slashdot? on Illinois Politician Wants a Kill Switch For Anonymous Speech Online · · Score: 3, Informative

    Are there specific limitations on how much companies can accept by cash, by law?

    No, there are not. However, there are PATRIOT act rules that require them to verify your identity to prove they aren't doing business with a "terrorist." Those rules are not technically cash-only, but cash is basically the only way to make a purchase that does not also involve officially identifying yourself - so you will get that bit of hassle.

  13. Re:This is big on Troll Complaint Dismissed; Subscriber Not Necessarily Infringer · · Score: 1

    This ruling is huge.

    I agree. It is so important that we should fully expect that MAFIAA lobbyists to now focus their efforts on getting a bill passed to make the owner of the account legally culpable. They even have a case to point at and say, "this is a loophole in the currebnt law, just look how this court ruled."

  14. Re:it always baffles me on Utilities Racing To Secure Electric Grid · · Score: 1

    That's fine, until the device that you need to monitor is 27 miles away. Even RS-485 is only good for 4000 feet.

    There are optical data-diodes (yes that is basically the industry term for a hardware unidirectional network connection).

    the whole mess is located at a power dam that's an hour's drive away and has been snowbound for the last three months (real world example, BTW).

    Most plants are going to manned. Which makes a manually-enabled 2-way network an option. Only pjhysically power it on for maintenance with a VPN and you've narrowed the vulnerability window down to practically nothing.

  15. Re:Power & antenna placement on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With an Advanced Wi-Fi Leech? · · Score: 2

    overkill is the perfect tool to show someone that they are hopelessly outclassed and they should seriously reconsider their actions.

    Shock and awwhhhhh?

  16. Best Nerdcore Band Name Ever on Utilities Racing To Secure Electric Grid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Theoretical Air Gap!

  17. Re:In version 20 Firefox will have built-in Emacs! on Firefox 19 Launches With Built-In PDF Viewer · · Score: 1

    external binary plugins are much more susceptible to security problems than simply using the already existing JavaScript engine, which has been time tested to be secure.

    How does noscript affect this? Am I going to have enable javascript for every site that has a PDF that I want to view?

  18. Re:Reversed in America? on Is "Left" Vs. "Right" Hard-coded Into Your Brain? · · Score: 1

    The republicans say they are the party of small government and getting government out of peoples lives but they don't act like it.

    I'll just leave this here: Republicans, Get In My Vagina!

  19. Re:But I've been told the opposite. on Is "Left" Vs. "Right" Hard-coded Into Your Brain? · · Score: 1

    Only the government remains as being able to come to where I live or work, tell me what to do, and use force to back it up.

    How did that happen? What organization is responsible for chasing out all of those other groups from having the power to abuse you like that?

  20. Re:Structural? on Is "Left" Vs. "Right" Hard-coded Into Your Brain? · · Score: 1

    It's not hardwired: If it were, we'd be able to do these scans at birth or an early age and find similar patterns. But we don't.

    On what basis do you say "we don't?" If these differences are only now being identified then it isn't necessarily a case of "do not" just "have not yet."

    It's disengenuous to suggest these things are hard-wired because they imply they cannot be changed.

    Structural != "hard-wired" it just means that there are different brain structures associated with specific traits. It isn't saying that the traits are immutable, just that if you have those traits you probably have a certain brain structure to back them up.

  21. Re:Intercepted by Russian air defence forces? on Huge Meteor Blazes Across Sky Over Russia; Hundreds Injured · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some not so credible newspapers report unconfirmed military sources stating that Russian air defence shot down this bad boy.

    No, it was Putin who busted it into smithereens with one blow from his mighty fist.

  22. Re:come on... on NY Times' Broder Responds To Tesla's Elon Musk · · Score: 1

    Ugh. Math. Puke. Easy method.

    Gee thanks for not answering the question. The problem with your analysis ain't the math, its the premise. The reporter also said that he didn't keep constant speed, sometimes varying with prevailing traffic.

  23. Re:The reporter does not like electric vehicles on NY Times' Broder Responds To Tesla's Elon Musk · · Score: 1, Insightful

    He said "as much" not "can not."

    I understand publishing charts and whatnot for the averate NYT reader. But throwing the actual log files up on the webserver is only marginally more effort and yet would give Musk tons more cred with the technical crowd. Expecting us to "reverse engineer" it from the charts is antithetical to the silicon valley mindset that Musk claims to be bringing to the car business.

  24. Re:come on... on NY Times' Broder Responds To Tesla's Elon Musk · · Score: 1

    The difference in the final tire diameter is extremely little. As in less then 1%.

    Do you know this to be specificlly the case with the wheel options on the tesla S? Or are you making a generalization?

  25. Re:Pathetic. on Elon Musk Lays Out His Evidence That NYT Tesla Test Drive Was Staged · · Score: 1

    Are the "standard" political categories a little too simplistic?

    Why do you think I called it a simplified theory?