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User: MrKevvy

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  1. Yet "mula" is "mule" in both Spanish and Portuguese. I think claiming this is merely coincidental stretches credulity.

  2. Re:slur? on IBM Apologizes For Racial Slurs On Its Recruitment Webpages (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Mulatto" may have its roots in "mula"... "mule" in English. Being the sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey and used as an often-overworked pack animal, it's not a complimentary term.

  3. Re:Not gas, not cost on Even More Americans Have Stopped Biking To Work (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    "Anonymous Coward" sums you up very well.

  4. Re:Not gas, not cost on Even More Americans Have Stopped Biking To Work (usatoday.com) · · Score: 2

    Cost was initially a major factor for me. With gas/oil, mandatory insurance, parking, maintenance, tickets and the vehicle itself, I estimated I saved $10-12K a year not having a vehicle. Add to that $800 a year in health club membership I didn't need anymore, as I get enough exercise biking 9.5km to work (10x as far away) and back five times a week. Since I was strapped for cash at the time, I switched to biking and now would not go back even though I could.

    It's not only cheaper but faster than transit to get to work (25 mins. vs. 45 mins. on the subway even living right by a subway station) or getting anywhere in the core, never get stuck in traffic or in one of the endless subway outages due to suicides or signal issues, never have to worry about finding parking, if I get a flat or worse I can take it on any transit anytime (it's a folder), I can ride in any weather condition better than -12C or heavy snow (have ridden in gale-force rain and was fine,) and do almost all of my shopping with it with a carrier and backpack. Once you're used to it, it's an ideal transportation for cities.

  5. Re:Not 100% accurate on Remove.bg is a Website That Removes Backgrounds from Portraits in Seconds (petapixel.com) · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, just a lump.

  6. I don't know any people that do. Enterprises, aka business and governments, do, mostly for liability and accountability so they don't get sued for using an unwarranted free product when things go wrong, or for interoperability issues, etc. Basically, they are paying for someone to blame.

  7. The universe is an gigantic virtual particle pair on Physicists Investigate Why Matter and Antimatter Are Not Mirror Images (economist.com) · · Score: 1

    Well, perhaps not, but this would explain why this universe is "normal" matter with no "anti"-matter. In the gigantic virtual particle event that created this universe, there would of course need to be a paired "anti" universe where "normal" matter is scarce. Someday in the distant future the two will recombine and balance the books to zero sum... and then our universe will cease to be "The Ultimate free Lunch".

  8. Possibly just a coincidence... on US Government Seeks Facebook Help To Wiretap Messenger, Report Says (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    ... but about ten times until a few months ago, every single time that my Facebook Messenger app. updated, Telegram updated at the same time. Could they be the same or at least based on the same code? There is certainly no shortage of apps. that Facebook has bought and integrated.

    If Messenger is actually a rebranded Telegram, then unless Facebook has the source code, Telegram has already refused to co-operate with these requests, and has been banned in a few countries (ie Russia and Pakistan) for this. And if Messenger is compromised, then Telegram would become suspect as well.

  9. Dr. Hawking's final joke... on Stephen Hawking Service: Possibility of Time Travellers 'Can't Be Excluded' (bbc.com) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He had quite a sense of humor, and use it to cope with his condition. In 2009 when the threw a Time Traveller's Party and no one attended, he indicated that this was confirmation that time travel was not possible.

    And as far as we can tell, it isn't, to the point of ridiculousness, and our physics is validated and complete enough on this to be almost certain. Time travel introduces unresolvable paradoxes (ie sending a single particle backwards far enough in time would completely change future atmospheric patterns, weather events and thus affect who was born, including those doing the sending) and and would require unfathomable physics to carry out (on the order of constraining the energy of a hydrogen bomb in the volume occupied by a human such that no damage or radiation occurred.)

    Not going to happen. If it ever did, being time travel, it already would have.

  10. TRNGs are common... on Researchers Devise a Way To Generate Provably Random Numbers Using Quantum Mechanics (newatlas.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has already been established that thermal/shot component noise (most commonly from reversed diodes) is demonstrably statistically random and is based on quantum electrodynamic events.

    TRNGs (True Random Number Generators) using this principle have been around for a while embedded in some hardware such as the Intel 82802 firmware hub found on some Intel mainboards

  11. Slow internet in Australia... on Australia Cockatoos Chew Billion-Dollar Broadband (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    "According to a recent report it ranks 50th in the world for internet speed..."

    Of course... most of the internet traffic is going outside Australia, and then gets bottlenecked at the inverters that flip the bits upside down so that the rest of the internet can understand them. This is why digital goods ie movies, music and apps. cost so much more for Australians.

    Well, that's what the industry told me, at least.

  12. Four eyes better than two, but Five Eyes worse... on Distrustful US Allies Force Spy Agency To Back Down In Encryption Fight (reuters.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The U.S. is spearheading Five Eyes which will propose mandatory backdoors in all strong encryption. I don't think that this is a coincidence.

  13. Best Buy... on Best Buy Stops Selling Kaspersky Security Software (startribune.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... is this the same Best Buy who is best buds with the FBI and whose "Geek Squad" warrantlessly scans every hard drive they touch looking for kiddie porn, warez, etc. and gets paid commission for what they find?

    I strongly doubt they have their customer's security interests in mind.

  14. "Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb."

    If they are not careful, they will indeed diffuse the bomb. I hope that they defuse it instead.

  15. It's available on GOG... on Can 'No Man's Sky' Redeem Itself With Its Third Free Update? (engadget.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Direct link

    DRM-free as always. Just downloaded from there and looking forward to trying it.

  16. Re:Wrong conversion to International System of Uni on Tesla Says Its Model 3 Car Will Go On Sale On Friday (apnews.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    The units appear to have been reversed as 215 kilometres is 133.6 miles.

  17. Re:To the Rich on Vertu, Phone-Maker To the Rich, Says It's Broke (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1
  18. "companies give up their patent rights..." on US Supreme Court Protects Consumers' Right To Refill Ink Cartridges In Precedent-Setting Lexmark vs Impression Case (hothardware.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "... when they sell an item..."

    This may be a precedent-setter in the cases of the farmers who save seed and are then sued for by "patent infringement" by Monsanto.

  19. Re:Only the Bible? on Pennsylvania To Apply 6% 'Netflix Tax' (allflicks.net) · · Score: 1

    I guess you failed to notice that as I hadn't seen the text of the original bill, I omitted mentioning whether it was the lawmakers or the reporters who were doing the trolling.

  20. Only the Bible? on Pennsylvania To Apply 6% 'Netflix Tax' (allflicks.net) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From TFA: "Magazine and newspaper subscriptions, as well as digital versions of the Bible, will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."

    What... the Torah, Quran, and Bhagavad Gita and hundreds of others need not apply? Nice lawsuit trolling there.

  21. Re:In other words... on Mother Blames Wi-Fi Allergy For Daughter's Suicide (telegraph.co.uk) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since this therapy is building up a resistance to electromagnetism, you can call it Ohmeopathy.

    My agent should be contacting you shortly to discuss my royalty fee structure. Thank you.

  22. A non-mandatory census is an absurdity.

    It's non-cens!

  23. Oblig. on Vivaldi Hits Its First Beta (vivaldi.com) · · Score: 2

    "Following almost a year of work on alpha..."

    So... Four Seasons of Vivaldi then?

  24. Re:Saw it last night in 3D on Review: The Martian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mars' atmosphere has about 0.6% of the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at STP. So that part works with this part of the movie, but strongly against a Martian windstorm being able to blow over spaceships, etc. It's enough to move dust around, and that's all.

  25. Teredo leaks on UK Researchers Find IPv6-Related Data Leaks In 11 of 14 VPN Providers · · Score: 1

    Teredo is one cause of the leaks in Windows. Disable it with:

    netsh interface teredo set state disabled

    in the command prompt.