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User: mincognito

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Comments · 132

  1. Re:Achievements on Warner Bros. Acquires The Pirate Bay · · Score: 1

    It's interesting that simply calling something of no intrinsic merit an "achievement" will cause people to expend time in order for it to be bestowed upon them. The particular achievement I'm about to earn is aptly named.

  2. Re:Hey now. on Yeast-Powered Fuel Cell Feeds On Human Blood · · Score: 1

    But that's the fun of April Fools day on /. -- figuring out what is legitimate and what's not. There wouldn't be a possibility for fooling at all if everyone knew at the outset that every article had to be a joke.

  3. not free if you can't jailbreak on id Releases Open Source Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone · · Score: 1

    note that the game costs $4.99 at the app store

  4. possible Zune theory? on Is the Yellowstone Supervolcano About To Blow? · · Score: 1

    Interesting. I wonder if that also explains Z2K9? Of course it's also possible that God's hatred for Zunes has nothing to do with his hate for America.

  5. Re:Time Article on Jobs Not Giving This Year's Macworld Keynote · · Score: 1

    I live in Omaha, and trust me..

    I live in Obama too, and trust *him* as my personal saviour, not you and your hogwash about Buffet.

  6. First Post! on Minefield Shows the (Really) Fast Future of Firefox · · Score: 4, Funny

    thanks to minefield :)

  7. change your behavior on Cubicle Security For Laptops, Electronics? · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If you don't trust a Kensington cable lock to deter your own colleagues from stealing your computer I suspect you have trust issues.

    Not wanting to throw a USB stick into a locked drawer suggests you prefer addressing trivial problems with complicated technical solutions.

  8. the difference on Mac OS X Secretly Cripples Non-Apple Software · · Score: 2, Informative

    You really have to wonder what Apple is thinking, considering the kind of retaliation Microsoft has gotten for similar practices.
    That they're not a monopoly.
  9. The Geek Defense Argument on Hans Reiser and the "Geek Defense" Strategy · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. killing ones wife requires having a wife to kill
    2. the accused is a geek
    3. geeks cannot have wives
    4. the defense rests

  10. Can I upgrade? on WGA Under Vista SP1 Is Kinder and Nags More · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does anyone know if you can upgrade to SP1 if your Vista doesn't pass WGA? This one hour automatic logout is really starting to an

  11. Misleading summary on NPD Group Says "Wait! HD-DVD Isn't Dead Yet" · · Score: 1

    The NPD group are not the owners of the HD-DVD format, they are a market research company. Toshiba is a major client so statements from NPD in regard to HD-DVD should be taken with a grain of salt.

  12. cause on Bobby Fischer Is Dead At 64 · · Score: 1

    No cause of death was given.
    Bf1
  13. Re:Diminishing returns on US Policy Would Allow Government Access to Any Email · · Score: 1

    You are naive. Google indexes over four billion Web pages (~40 TB), searches this data a thousand times every second of every day, and with response rates measured in milliseconds.

    Only instead of providing links to Web sites, the government's in-house search engine would provide links to users.

  14. Re:What they are going after... on Microsoft Buys Search Engine, Going After Google? · · Score: 1

    Coffee literally came out of my nose. Thanks for that.

  15. The predictions on The Magic 8-Ball's Take on Tech in 2008 · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. The Internet Will Melt Down
    Very doubtful

    2. Social Networks Face Security, Financial Woes
    It is decidedly so

    3. DRM Is Dead, Jim
    Don't count on it

    4. Open Software and Open Networks Will Dominate
    Ask again later

    5. Everything's Going Mobile
    You may rely on it

    6. Green Is the New Black
    Outlook good

    7. Hackers Get Political
    Without a doubt

    8. Google Stumbles
    Outlook not so good

    9. Microsoft Will Buy Yahoo
    Signs point to yes

    10. Your Next Pet Will Require Batteries
    Cannot predict now

  16. Re:We have the prefixes, why not use them? on 27 Billion Gigabytes to be Archived by 2010 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Note to science and tech journalists: please stop stringing together "millions" and "billions" in an attempt to make the numbers seem large, impressive, and incomprehensible. Scientific notation and SI exist for a reason.
    Exactly! For the thousandth time, let's cut out the exaggerated and sensational writing Slashdot! If I had a dollar for every sensational headline I've read here, not to mention the gazillion overstated comments I read here per day, I'd be a billionaire by now!
  17. ominous on Toshiba Builds Ultra-Small Nuclear Reactor · · Score: 4, Funny

    The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors
    I think that's the worry.
  18. Re:too clever for its own good. on The Advantages of Upgrading From Vista To XP · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Really? I thought the writer presented a number of compelling reasons to "upgrade" to XP including:
    • No crazy graphic bugs
    • It's faster and more responsive
    • No system lock on login
    • Better multitasking
    • File copying and deleting are quicker
    • Automatic update is less resource hungry
    • Drivers are stable
    • Drivers are easy to find
    • Drivers are reliable
    • Requires less hardware
    • Much more reliable generally
    • Internet Explorer 7 doesn't crash
    • Less need to reboot
    • Ctrl-Alt-Del actually works and can prevent a hard-reset
    • Games are more responsive, have higher frame rates and are more reliable
    • Better multimedia support
    • No DRM
  19. Re:Common sense? on Record Labels Change Minds About Sharing MP3s · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who would use this service? It's like going to a news site where all they do is provide a brief, degraded version of an actual news story..
    I'm not sure about imeem, but what if -- get this -- you had a site with degraded news stories *about* degraded services? The news stories could be degraded in just such a way that made the degraded services appear *non-degraded* and really cool. Then, you provide a forum for people to bitch about the service and about how it shouldn't have been covered in first place. What do you think?
  20. wow on Record Labels Change Minds About Sharing MP3s · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow. How amazing that the record companies agreed to this. Low quality streaming with loads of ads and a "download" button that sends you to the iTunes store or amazon. The annoying registration box that pops up after listening to 30 seconds of a song (you must register to hear the rest) is a nice touch.

  21. there's still time to on More Evidence That XP is Vista's Main Competitor · · Score: 3, Funny

    integrate Microsoft Bob into SP3. problem solved.

  22. their list on IT's Love-Hate Relationship With Laptops · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. Battery life still bombs.
    2. Laptops get banged up and broken.
    3. They're tough to fix, and they die young.
    4. They get lost.
    5. They're difficult to secure, digitally and physically ...
    6. ... and security precautions make users nuts.
    7. Wi-Fi is still the Wild, Wild West.
    8. Laptops spawn a new breed of uber-entitled user.
    9. They're too big or too small.
    10. Software performance just ain't the same.

  23. "predicts"? on IBM Predicts Massive Shifts In Advertising · · Score: 1

    IBM is "forecasting" what has already happened and what everyone in the industry already knows. Their study is simply an assessment of the present moment. They are "predicting" -- or rather, strongly encouraging by way of statistical evidence -- that the big corporate laggards in their customer base will/should get with the program, preferably IBM's, as soon as possible.

  24. Here is how to write science for the public on Is Good Scientific Journalism Possible? · · Score: 1

    Now, can someone unfamiliar with a particular field, nay, a sub-discipline of that field, recognize these assumptions for what they are?"
    Why should they have too? The general public doesn't care about the truth probability of your research. You must hide from them the debate and uncertainties scientists are concerned with.

    Ultimately the public wants to: a) marvel at the discoveries of science; b) be shown how new science might be applied to their life or understanding of the world. They are a different audience and have different expectations than that your colleagues.

    Here's the formula for converting scientific writing into popular science: 1) delete any hedges or qualifications, words like "may," "seems," "suggests," "appears to be"; 2) when explaining the science use textbook writing (factual definitions); 3) use language that glamorizes or sensationalizes your findings (e.g. 60% becomes "well over half"); 4) speculate how your research could impact the life or world of your reader.
  25. Einstein's take on the writer of popular science on Is Good Scientific Journalism Possible? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Either he succeeds in being intelligible by concealing the core of the problem and by offering to the reader only superficial aspects or vague allusions, thus deceiving the reader by arousing in him the deceptive illusion of comprehension; or else he gives an expert account of the problem, but in such a fashion that the untrained reader is unable to follow the exposition and becomes discouraged from reading any further. If these two categories are omitted from today's popular scientific literature, surprisingly little remains."

    This was written by Einstein in a forward for Linconln Barnett's popularization of the theory of relativity in 1948.