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User: zappepcs

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  1. Re:Childish on Obama's Proposed Space Weapon Ban · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree. I've been trying to figure out how to tell people that Obama is a man who happens to be black, and because of this hysteria, he has arguably been given far more trust than any president should be given.

    There are plenty of arguments for why we should have space based weapons. If you read the right books, we need them to be prepared to repel alien visitations. Other opinions are equal to the notions of what would have happened if the US had decided that we don't need automatic weapons.

    In the end, you will have them. The only question is how much damage are you willing to sustain before deciding to build them.

    There is another angle. Space based weapons can be built using civilian space travel/exploration technology and the other way around. I don't think it's a case of having to pay twice as both programs can share development costs in various ways.

    Obama has made several statements that lead many of us to believe that he's not quite sure WTF he's doing. Nobody is perfect, but this 180 degree shift doesn't make sense unless he is just pushing the program underground or plying for political favor somewhere. Neither of those options speak well of him, and neither explanation bodes well for the security and safety of the citizens of the USA.

    Those who criticize him for it are quite right to do so, not to mention they are within their constitutional rights to do so. We need to think critically and criticize where it is appropriate. Letting the executive branch run around wildly is what happened over the last 8 years. Time for that to stop. If that means Obama has to explain himself in detail and quite often, so be it. We need transparency and wisdom in the Whitehouse.

    Saying that any criticism of Obama is racism is exactly the kind of thinking that Bush used: Any criticism of the Executive branch is unamerican. This, my friends, is what fascism looks like.

  2. Re:Abuse on Google Maps To Add 'Friend' GPS Tracking · · Score: 1

    Yes!! This is my plan to artificially create scarcity of the service I provide. :) The free market does work. My hope is that soon the service will be worth $300/week. I won't have to buy a bigger briefcase, and my profits will go up. I expect there will be a cell phone babysitting bubble and that it will burst. My plan is to make my money as quick as possible and move into manufacturing wearable RFID falsification systems, IR LED bombs, and finally a stylish line of unbugable clothing, including tin foil hats, shoes, belts, and a full line of privacy wardrobe accessories. I'm thinking that Priv-Threads will be the name of the company. Or just PThreads for short. It's sure to be a hit with geeks.

  3. Re:Abuse on Google Maps To Add 'Friend' GPS Tracking · · Score: 1

    In this era of economic bizarreness, I'm trying to offer value for money - sound money. I'm not trying to pay for a 65 foot yacht, just few other nice-to-have things, like the electric bill.

    Despite my views of financial planning, if you feel so inclined to pay me more; to pay an amount which you feel appropriate for your privacy. Please do so. Gratuity is always appreciated.

  4. Re:Abuse on Google Maps To Add 'Friend' GPS Tracking · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not sure about the irony, but for $15/week, I'll feed and care for your phone, take it everywhere with me. I even promise not to take it to any meetings of subversive groups, or atheist meetups.

    The government will be happy that you are an active social part of society, and you can rest assured that your privacy is perfectly secure.

    In fact, your tracking data will look exactly like that of 17 other lucky folks who have signed up before all the openings are gone. I just have one space left, so hurry. If you call in the next 10 minutes, you'll also receive photo frame skin for your other phone that holds a picture of the tracked phone so that you'll never miss it, normally a $29.99 value, but you'll get it absolutely free.

    Sign up now, hurry, available spots are going fast.

  5. Re:A virus I'd actually fall for on Malware Spreading Via ... Windshield Fliers? · · Score: 5, Funny

    welcome to the world of personal computing! Now that you've made the decision to dedicate at least some part of your life to staring at a screen and tapping on a keyboard, you should know that we (The Internets) have been working hard to make your computing experience as exciting as possible.

    Everyday you will have to learn more and more about computing just to keep up with trends, and if that isn't enough, we have some software coders that want to play a game with you. It's called "Show me your password and finance details" and is such an exciting game you will soon forget all about Zelda. Never mind looking for the hidden doors or avoiding poisonous frogs. In this game, every key you touch could be the one that causes you to lose.

    We also have many other options to fill your time. We're glad you are here, enjoy computing in the Internets.

    Sincerely,

    I.M. Rogue

  6. Re:Sorry, I don't speak Vague on Behind the Scenes In Apple Vs. the Record Labels · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It wouldn't stop piracy^H^H^H^H^H^H copyright infringement, but it would encourage end users to listen to more music as well as encourage them to purchase music and create a reliable 'up front' revenue stream that is not based on having to produce strings of top ten artists singing the same old crap all the time. As business models go, it's good for the distributor, bad for the end users. It's like that extended warranty stuff. The worst possible model for the RIAA et al was the $0.99/song model; which happens to be the best model for the end user.

    There are few other services or products that suffer from using the 'up front' revenue stream model. Look at how your ISP, insurer, cable company, music clubs, just about everybody tries to use this model. Grocery stores attempt to get you to purchase only at their store using the discount cards, and soon they will also be using the 'up front' revenue model in some business plans. Wait till they offer you an averaged food bill where you pay a set fee every month like you do with electric service etc. It's all about getting your money on a regular recurring basis, or get you to pay for something that you might never actually use.

  7. Re:iMusic industry news on Behind the Scenes In Apple Vs. the Record Labels · · Score: 1

    holy shit... you thought I was serious? I guess I better use the [sarcastic yet annoyingly droll humor] tags

  8. iMusic industry news on Behind the Scenes In Apple Vs. the Record Labels · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can we get a special section for iMusic news? Apple did what the music industry should have done and failed to do. Perhaps Apple should start the iMusic label and start signing artists, sort of an effort to put the music industry into perspective with it's current situation. It would be an eye opener for the RIAA.

  9. Re:Why is this in "Entertainment?" on Man Robs Convenience Stores With Klingon "Batleth" · · Score: 1

    I was about to be shocked that a red shirt lived through an original episode, but then I saw this on the site you linked to:

    Not to be worn as a store uniform

  10. Re:Why is this in "Entertainment?" on Man Robs Convenience Stores With Klingon "Batleth" · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, it's just a shame neither of the clerks were in red shirts!

  11. Re:They are selling six versions..... on MS Confirms Six Different Versions of Windows 7 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that a lot of people will wait till XP support dies before wanting to switch.

    I was just thinking about the Ubuntu family of versions Desktop, server, AMD64 desktop, AMD64 server, Kubuntu and how many more? Yes, I know some are based on Ubuntu like Ubuntu is based on Debian. I wonder how much confusion there is over Linux distros for end users, and can they see any difference between the Linux distros and the Win7 and Vista family trees.

    I look forward to Ubuntu desktop, home premium media center edition. NOT! But wait, there's more!

    All this bitching about MS and then see that page of Ubuntu versions, hmmm... they must have a large supply of chairs 'handy' in Redmond.

  12. Re:I feel deja vu.. from monday on Hackers Clone Passports In Driveby RFID Heist · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's how good these hackers are. Not only did they dupe a passport RFID, but they duped the news of their hack too!! Soon they will duplicate themselves and all kinds of deja vu is going to happen.

  13. Re:But the real question is... on NASA and Google To Back New "Singularity University" · · Score: 1

    Wow, I was just thinking along those lines. This is like iEducation or something. I was in boot camp for 9 weeks, and I witnessed people that couldn't learn to tie their shoes in that length of time. If you are graduate level, and very skilled at learning, 25K might be okay for a summer of learning. The target market for this has to be pretty small.. I would think anyway.

    I want to see it blend, or at least produce something.

    I'd not mind spending 9 weeks with very smart people filling in the gaps in what I know. It never seems to work that way, but of course I don't have 25k in the kitchen change jar.

  14. Re:Software patents are *not* useless - just harmf on Bilski Patent Case Appealed To Supreme Court · · Score: 1

    Actually, you might be slightly wrong - AT&T had all the patents and used them to be huge infrastructure in a monopolistic way. The break up of AT&T helped, but you still needed a lot of infrastructure to compete with them. It was patents that built the infrastructure barrier to entry that you speak of.

  15. Re:Just a thought on Human-Animal Hybrids Fail · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If it was simply patents that were in the way, you can bet that some legislators would get new summer homes and vacations etc. and the laws would change. The problem is cost associated with being ecologically and work force ethical.

    My other post hints that the only way to bring about ethics is to force it by wielding the money stick via stockholders. That works, but is not effective if businesses can ship their production facilities to a country that doesn't care about the ecology or retirement plans etc. So, if we want to create ethical business decisions regarding the human genome or any genome, we have to ensure that people with ethics are the ones deciding how the money is spent. Failing that, those people have to be afraid of people with ethics.

    Lets not kid ourselves. If there is money to be made, and there is, big business will be all over it. Genetic research is already controlled by big business so until we effectively get the government of 'we the people' to enforce ethical business practices for 'we the people', 'we the people' will suffer the consequences of decisions in favor of the biggest buck over best ethical choice.

    Basically, we're fucked. The only way out is action in the true spirit of 'fuck Mr Boycott' unless we can raise enough money to legislate big pharma and big business out of control of the government. In either case, control of the money is paramount.

  16. Re:Just a thought on Human-Animal Hybrids Fail · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Want to hear something unethical? Jobs are being lost in the US, manufacturing has moved to countries where it's ethical to treat workers and the ecology in ways that would be illegal in North America. I hate to tell you this, but good men did do something and they called it outsourcing, and saw that it was good, so they did it some more. Now there are few of those good men left, corrupted by their own success they forgot about ethics. Sadly, stockholders rarely, if ever, give a shit about ethics.

    Who can do something about it? Stockholders! When it becomes financially prudent to be ethical, those good men will come back to life. Government legislators can't even police their own behavior, never mind the behavior of people that buy stuff for them. The love of money is not the root of all evil, but you typically find both attributes in the same persons.

    So, anyone have any idea how to motivate stockholders?

  17. Re:Just a thought on Human-Animal Hybrids Fail · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yeah, that's how it works. The governments of the world got together to decide if burning fossil fuels would be ethical treatment of our environment. Yes, there was a UN decision last week about whether or not we should allow basic slave laborers to do ship-breaking on beaches where caustic and dangerous materials can leech into the oceans.

    Damned good thing we make ethical decisions before acting on anything...

  18. Re:no kidding on Students Call Space Station With Home-Built Radio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, I read that part too and I'm trying to figure out what kind of radio they had to build that was 'way over their heads' kind of technology? Freq-hopping with 1024 bit encryption digital radio? If ham operators normally talk with the ISS and their story sounded like it was HAM radio they used, why was it such a feat? Is there something special we need to know about students in Canada? Did anyone find a link to technical details of the radio system they built?

  19. Re:I could be sarcastic on A Gates Foundation Education Initiative Fizzles · · Score: 1

    I do understand that problem. The other side of that coin is what we have in the USA; all students get to university knowing nearly nothing, just bare essentials because curriculum is federally mandated, and never do any states strive to better this, or achieve more than this. The free market approach combined with federal minimum standards is needed. When you graduate high school you should know enough to get through life as an average person, including skills with language, math, money, cooking, etc. Preparatory schooling before university should be done also, and then in university, if you don't know certain things, you just fail. A chemistry professor at uni should not be forced to teach second year students that H2O == water etc.

    Federal standards should be bare minimums. States should take the responsibility to turn out the best students, the responsibility to make that state the best to live in, the responsibility to be the best place all around rather than follow the crowd and live off of federal funds.

    At university, it is the student's responsibility to learn, not the state's responsibility to teach. If they fail.. meh, they fail. That's life. sorry. not! If you can't do your job, you get fired. If you can't learn, you fail. Fail is fail. Every doctor that graduates at the bottom of their class is still called simply Doctor, not Doctor-Bottomoftheclass. If pass is pass without qualification, fail must be fail without qualification.

    Federal governments are good at one-size-fits-all answers. That is not what students or even our society needs. Custom fits have to be done in person, at a local level. You can't get a custom tailored suit mail ordered from some sweat shop in China. You can get the basic suit, then have it tailored locally. Education should be that way.

  20. Re:Safety on Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone · · Score: 1

    Some sick, some not so sick. Remember the reputation that vacation pictures used to have? Never hear your aunt ask if you want to see her vacation pictures from Arizona? Well, video phones would update that horror:

    Yes, this is me pumping gas at the corner store. No, I don't know what that fat girl in the Ford is doing. No, I don't want to look.

    Waiting to pay for your 9000lbs of bacon in the checkout line and the genius in front of you is trying to pay, accidentally the speaker phone button, you get to hear his friend talking about how he'd nail the hot chick at the register. In your head you are thinking "this guy is a stoner, she's not hot...ewww" and the girl sees you shaking your head and thinks you are shaking your head at the guy with the phone and smiles at you.

    Bonus points for the first person to get arrested while on the phone.

    Some women take hours to get ready to leave the house to pick up a loaf of bread and some milk at the grocery store 1/2 mile down the road. Would they take that long to get ready to answer the phone?

    It gets sick when you can see the social inconveniences it can bring.

  21. Re:What paper? on New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now THAT is funny!

  22. What paper? on New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox · · Score: 3, Informative

    No link to anything but Wikipedia and a blog?

  23. Re:Safety on Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone · · Score: 1

    Huh, I don't get it? It's not American Idol! You don't have to look at the screen just because it's there. Next you'll want to call it face-free calling while you are on the road. No need for more legislation, even if you are not on the phone, you can be ticketed for reckless or dangerous driving, lack of due care and attention, and probably a couple of other things. Seems to cover talking on the phone, putting on make-up, eating, arguing with the spouse, smacking your kids (I won't smack mine, but yours I would), and any number of things that would distract your attention from the road etc. Police forces across the country do not need a law against talking on the phone while driving, they simply announce that it will be treated as dangerous driving, and then start writing tickets.

    I'm sure that video phones will give us at least one runner up for the Darwin Awards; most likely someone walking in front of a bus etc. rather than driving.

    Worse than all that, IMO, is the fact that people use phones in places that are absolutely sickening: public toilets, grocery store check out line, while pumping gas, just about everywhere... I don't think I want a video phone, thank you very much.

  24. Re:I'm with ya brother on Could Fake Phishing Emails Help Fight Spam? · · Score: 1

    My post was sarcasm, often another guy's trash. In reality the HR here likes to send out emails to "TheEntireFuckingCompanyIncludingContractors" group list with a 1.2MB Powerpoint presentation containing dramatically important information that could have been presented with.. oh, about 400 bytes of text, including the signiature: a piece of work in and of itself.

    Soon, the IT department is going to have to re-organize company file systems because they are running out of room. I wonder why?

    Imagine an HTML email with a background image that is tagged with a link to a porn site? oooops!

  25. I'm with ya brother on Could Fake Phishing Emails Help Fight Spam? · · Score: 1

    The last damn thing I want is to click a link out of curiosity and within five minutes be standing there having to listen to the IT guy say "here's your sign" or end up in the HR office explaining my seeming poor hand-eye coordination because I accidentally clicked on a link in an email from the fscking HR department. Don't these people have enough work to do?