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User: mmell

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  1. Re:No adblock on Hands-On With the Vivaldi Browser · · Score: 2

    Don't say that. He might hear you.

  2. But can it protect users against the Stingray? on Blackphone 2 Caters To the Enterprise, the Security-Minded and the Paranoid · · Score: 1

    Just thought I'd ask, 'cuz right now that's the biggest threat to my personal privacy. Roscoe P. Coletrain and his sidekick Cletus (a.k.a., local police forces) just love toys like this.

  3. So factoring in relativistic considerations . . . on Star Wars-Style "Bionic Hand' Fitted To First Patients · · Score: 1

    Everything that's happening now is happening now?

  4. To take your point one step further... on Researchers Block HIV Infection In Monkeys With Artificial Protein · · Score: 1

    Research into HIV and AIDS has occurred at a time when research on genetics is making discoveries at a breakneck pace. Combining these events has resulted in the discovery or creation of techniques in virology, immunology and epidemiology. Even if I knew nobody with HIV or AIDS, and even if those who had the infection were completely isolated from me I should consider myself the beneficiary of the knowledge and technology we've gained by working on vaccines, treatments and cures for this disease.

  5. Re:Obvious prior art on Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth · · Score: 1

    Yeah . . . the wing goes in a circle, but it's still a wing.

  6. Re:Samsung most certainly on Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth · · Score: 2

    Apple? After all, Samsung didn't invent rounded corners either.

  7. Re:Obvious prior art on Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth · · Score: 0

    Actually, it is. A heavier-than-air machine or device which capable of sustained flight by generating a constant wind over carefully configured flight surfaces. I'll admit, I'd feel better flying in Boeing's product (and the amenities are way better), but if the folks at AIrbus try to actually patent their heavier-than-air flying machine as such, they're likely to run into a lot of prior art, preexisting patent claims, etc.

  8. Plenty of prior art . . . on Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth · · Score: 1
    There was this sergeant when I was in the Army . . . among his nicknames was "greenteeth".

    I'm sure he has cause for suit against Rembrandt IP.

  9. Re:Unintended consequences? on Live Patching Now Available For Linux · · Score: 1

    Al, is that you?

  10. Re:Uh, I've worked for Big Blue . . . repeatedly. on Five Years After the Sun Merger, Oracle Says It's Fully Committed To SPARC · · Score: 1

    Microsoft essentially killed OS/2 by architecting Windows to be incompatible and refusing to share the secret sauce. Trust me, IBM hasn't forgiven M$ for that. Instead of competing with M$ for desktop share (which IBM didn't believe was worth the trouble back then), they picked up their marbles and left the game. Big mistake on their part IMHO - but there it is. IBM decided that they'd always own the desktop terminal market and didn't believe businesses would pay to put a pretty point-'n'-click interface and Solitaire on their workers' desktops.

  11. Re:Unintended consequences? on Live Patching Now Available For Linux · · Score: 1

    You're obviously not "old school" enough - we truly old ones remember working on mainframes and minicomputers - not x86 commodity-grade hardware. "Old ones" such as myself remember platforms which could withstand a disk, memory . . . even a processor failure without any service interruptions. I personally have worked on minis and mainframes with over ten year uptimes despite multiple hardware failures. The x86 stack can't even come close to that kind of reliability. This is a first step (possibly the last step - it may just be impossible to make microcomputers as hardware fault tolerant as real computers).

  12. Uh, I've worked for Big Blue . . . repeatedly. on Five Years After the Sun Merger, Oracle Says It's Fully Committed To SPARC · · Score: 2
    They never had me use a POWER workstation. Always Intel hardware . . . although they did finally manage to lose their addiction to M$-Windoze. Employees now are issued laptops with a rebranded version of RHEL installed.

    I would expect Oracle to follow a similar pathway, sticking with Intel hardware for its employees. I would not expect them to ditch M$-Windoze; unlike IBM, Oracle doesn't have a long acrimonious love-hate history going with M$.

  13. If only gas giants have rings . . . on Astronomers Find Vast Ring System Eclipsing a Distant Star · · Score: 1

    . . . then the only planets with rings will be gas giants!

  14. Earth has only existed for six thousand years. on Deep-Sea Microorganism Hasn't Evolved For Over 2 Billion Years · · Score: 1, Troll

    Ask a WASP.

  15. Look, mommie - a troll! on US Army Releases Code For Internal Forensics Framework · · Score: 1

    Yippee!

  16. Re:Wasn't worth the time to download. on Microsoft Launches Outlook For Android and iOS · · Score: 1

    You're right. That explains why M$'s client sucks so hard.

  17. Wasn't worth the time to download. on Microsoft Launches Outlook For Android and iOS · · Score: 3, Informative
    Seriously, there are way better clients out there. I use Touchdown by Nitrodesk for Exhcange for my work email - a truly robust and mature client, that. When Microsoft bought Touchdown, I thought for sure that would be the basis for their Android Outlook client. Sadly, Microsoft Outlook for Android looks very generic (a good thing I suppose - a consistent look and feel with the stock Android email client); that plain vanilla appearance is exquisitely matched by the client's plain vanilla lack of configurability and functionality. This app looks like a programmer's first effort at an email client.

    On a positive note, the application did install and run correctly, and appeared to offer support for several popular mail servers (Yahoo and Outlook among others, as well as IMAP and Exchange support).

  18. Would this revenue be considered "pork"? on Police Organization Wants Cop-Spotting Dropped From Waze App · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just askin'.

  19. Games with Heisenberg. on Scientists Slow the Speed of Light · · Score: 1
    So 0*K is absolute zero. It's a theoretical quantity. If you ever cooled something to 0*K, you'd discover it's temperature fluctuating subtly between some nonzero positive and negative fraction of a degree. This is where we get the ridiculous concept of "negative energy" (which isn't so ridiculous after all).

    c is ~299,997km/s. It also is a theoretical quantity. If you ever accelerated a mass to c, you'd discover its velocity fluctuates subtly between some miniscule quantity around c. I wonder if we could somehow use this to generate a tachyon?

  20. I've had an account on G+ for years. on Tracking Down How Many (Or How Few) People Actively Use Google+ · · Score: 1
    Never used it except for once or twice to confirm that it's a great place to post content that nobody will ever see . . . until Niantic Labs came along.

    Now I don't use it - but there's an outside chance somebody there may actually try to get in touch with me that way someday.

  21. Gotta disagree strongly . . . on Star Trek Continues Kickstarter 2.0 · · Score: 1
    ST-C absolutely dead-on nails the look and feel of ST-TOS in every way. Even their CGI is immaculate.

    With that said, they're all interesting. Check 'em all out, make your own decision.

  22. Don't underestimate drift. on Carnivorous Pitcher Plant "Out-Thinks" Insects · · Score: 2

    It may not have been a radical mutation or even a series of minor ones, but rather the long-term weeding out of less successful genetic combinations.

  23. Oh, come now . . . on Carnivorous Pitcher Plant "Out-Thinks" Insects · · Score: 1

    I, for one, welcome our new carnivorous pitcher plant overlords.

  24. Only when they volunteer for it. on Authors Alarmed As Oxford Junior Dictionary Drops Nature Words · · Score: 1

    (N/T)

  25. Come and get it! on Rare Recalled NES Game Stadium Events On Ebay For $99,000 · · Score: 1

    It'll be the only ass you've had since ass had you, no doubt.