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User: kassemi

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Comments · 46

  1. Why not on Congress to Fight Piracy with Education Funds · · Score: 3, Interesting
    use this money to start classes covering how to fight back against multi-billion dollar corporations who instead of update their business legitimately, find a way to exploit, burden and profit from our legal system and government (be it through lobbying or mass no-name lawsuits).

    Heck, just start a class that teaches "musical awareness," where you learn more about bands who distribute their music without the aid of said corporations.

  2. Re:The site in question? on Archive.org Sued By Colorado Woman · · Score: 1

    Hell, it even has a keywords meta tag... No internal search engine that I can see, so she must have been expecting something.

  3. Re:Hmmmm on Chess Grandmaster Kasparov Versus President Putin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Strategic games like Go and Chess are great exercises for the mind, but outside the benefits in reason and patience you receive from practice, I don't see them helping calculate the odds of a political statement reaching an audience. In terms I know we'll understand: programming skills != social skills, just as chess skills != political foresight.

  4. Re:Common sense for a change on California Supreme Court OKs Web Libel Immunity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The rules shouldn't be changed, but rather people should understand that the definition of "publish" has in fact changed. Google, MS, Slashdot, etc. are not making an active, reviewed, and personal decision to make public whatever information they receive, but are acting as worlds in which such information is indexed and searched. We should make a distinction between active publication and passive publication. This would definitely solve a few problems.

  5. Awesome on The 13 Enemies of the Internet · · Score: 1

    FTA: Iran today boasts of filtering 10 million immoral websites.

    Seems like a great place to raise a child! /sarcasm

  6. Professionals... on Could You Be Addicted to the Internet? · · Score: 1

    A need for an ever increasing amount of time on the internet to achieve satisfaction or a dissatisfaction with the continued use of the same amount of time on the internet.

    As my work gets more and more complicated, and my programs longer and longer, I end up only achieving satisfaction when I've spent more than the usual amount of time in front of the computer.

    Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days, weeks, or up to a month after a reduction or cessation of internet use. These include distress or impairment of social, personal, or occupational functioning such that there is psychological or psychomotor agitation such as anxiety, restlessness, irritability, trembling, tremors, voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers, obsessive thinking, fantasies, or dreams about the internet.

    Holy heck I'm not going to make my deadline! + Coffee, + 0 Sleep + Stress => Symptoms of addiction to the internet?

    Internet engagement to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms

    Covered above.

    Internet often accessed more often or for longer periods of time than was intended.

    I've misjudged the amount of time it would take me to do even non-tech related stuff... Especially non-tech related stuff... For some of those out there who may rely on the internet as a tool for work, and not as the foundation of their work, they might end up doing the same thing.

    * A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to internet use (for example, internet surfing).
    * Important social, occupational, or recreational activities eliminated or reduced due to internet use.

    One word: work

    Now, I'm not going to be going to my shrink complaining about my addiction to the internet, and I'll look down on those who do. If you're wasting your time chatting online, instant messaging, etc., then you've got only your own lack of motivation to blame, not some clinical problem. Give it a break. Your life is the way it is because you made it the way it is, not because something beyond your control led you to where you are now...

    ** end rant

  7. Re:This is a big deal on SHA-1 Collisions for Meaningful Messages · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Whirlpool is a good choice these days. It's longer than most of the hashes out there, but I don't believe there have been any attacks yet demonstrated against it.

    For those pythoners out there I wrote a quick wrapper for it that should get you started. Excuse any site errors and just hit refresh

  8. Re:It wouldn't be so bad **iff** on US Intelligence Chiefs Urge Easing Of Spy Rules · · Score: 2, Insightful
    This is not an ethnic thing as I'd have just as much problem allowing a white Australian who admitted to being a Muslim come here as I would a Saudi.

    No, maybe not an ethnic thing, but certainly a religious thing. The moment you've banned a religious group from immigrating to this country you've just announced and made clear your objections to that religion. Islam is not the problem, it's the way the world politic has been handling the issues. How you got modded insightful with that bullshit is beyond me, unless even the slashdot crowd is now caving in to political propaganda...

  9. Re:Fights Terrorists, Not Terrorism on Blue Crab Nanosensor to Fight Terrorism · · Score: 1

    I think the issue here is that we're dumping our money into researching a threat that's simply placed into the mind of the public. Frankly, I'd rather see my money going somewhere useful, be it stem cell research or better schooling.

  10. Re:ORly? on Microsoft Locking Out Anti-Virus Makers? · · Score: 1

    To keep bots from utilizing forms on my web pages I use a captcha. Similarly, to prevent mindless clicking of the "Yes" button, maybe there should be a captcha. For more dangerous tasks, force the user to demonstrate knowledge of what they're about to do by asking them a question about it. " You're about to run a script you downloaded from the internet as root. What is the root account? a) A plant that grows in southern brazil. b) An account at the IB where my taxes are calculated. c) A user profile that allows viruses and trojans and shit to do anything they fucking want. Please enter the answer: ______ " Heh. I could have fun writing that. People would figure it out without knowing anything about it, but at least they'd learn something.

  11. Glad to hear this: on Re-Inventing Hotwheels · · Score: 5, Insightful
    FTA: [On video games] They aren't the imaginative play that toys are. That's a sad thing for us.

    Thank god someone making these toys sees that. Shoving loads of useless, yet focus-grabbing information in front of a kids face is going to destroy that child's ability to actually create. Imagination should be nurtured, and the only way to do that is to force these kids to find a way to pre-occupy their own minds. My hat's off to you, Mattel.

  12. Re:the real story is .. on Software Turns Google into a Virus Scanner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Simply stated, because the existence of this issue is highly profitable.

  13. Re:Pointless on Geographic Mapping of Emotions · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ultimately, this is more a research tool than a useful application of technology.

    I can see quite a few useful applications for this. Perhaps not for police dispatch, but I'm sure the two companies that you just mentioned (Six Flags, Disney World) would love to figure out where their entertainment was lagging behind... Tour guides could figure out what spots they should put on their tours, etc... Heck, a few UI programmers I know wouldn't mind determining what parts of certain applications were a little more stressful to use than others...

    Although I can see wives using it to see if their husbands are having affairs...

    There you go! Maury, ummm... well, and lot of other morning 'talk-shows' would love it, too! Eh, come to think of it, maybe it will prove more useless than useful...

  14. Re:Blockbusted on Sony 'Anti-Used Game' Patent Explored · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure it won't be that easy... It simply won't play if the appropriate data hasn't been written to the disk.

  15. Re:More Data on Firefox Usage Climbing · · Score: 1
  16. Re:Bought and paid for on Broadcast Flag Sneaking in the Back Door · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Simple solution - Pay congressmen the federally mandated minimum wage.

  17. Re:Accept what? on Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality · · Score: 1

    "At night we stab our tender parts 100 times with those cheap ballpoint pens given out at every Linuxworld, and chant 'Down with the evil money-grubbing Microserf infidels!'"

    I don't think I'm alone when I say I do that in the morning. I (and most other /.'ers) do other things to our tender parts at night during my coding breaks :)

  18. Eh? on Should You Pre-Compile Binaries or Roll Your Own? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Was I the only one who found that this article didn't really shed too much light on whether or not you should compile your software from source?

    By the way, I know the benefits of compiling from source, but how this made slashdot, I don't know.

  19. suck on A Sysadmin for Sysadmins? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    if you, as a system administrator, were forced to have a system administrator, what would you expect of that role

    You said it... If I were forced to have a system administrator... You should maintain your distance, be amiable. You should offer all the help you can to those who are either not doing things properly (in which case you can be somewhat forceful, but be sure you know they're doing it wrong), and to those who actually ask for it. If you start bossing them around, you're not going to last long (psychologically) in your position.

    Hell, depending on how many of them there are, just buy them all a beer Friday after work... That ought to make thing easier

  20. Heh. Right.... on Evolving Humans on the Menu · · Score: 5, Funny

    we humans are highly sociable animals, according to anthropologists.

    Anthropologists don't hang out with the /. crowd, I guess...

  21. Re:nearly unlimited funding on When Bugs Aren't Allowed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If there was demand for programmers of the caliber you mention and companies willing to pay salaries deserving of such abilities there would be more people studying towards such a position.

    Although you can teach a body all the skills necessary to program, you still need a certain level of competence that doesn't come from education. I could easily (with time) teach plenty of people I know how to program, but only a relative few will ever be able to actually invent on their own... Invention and innovation both being qualities I require the presence of when dubbing someone a guru.

    On top of that, most of the people who have such intuition and innovative qualities are generally located in a field that doesn't offer them much pay. Mathematics, physics and logic - to name a few - historically don't offer too much in the way of funds. These people love their jobs. It's not about the new car and the trophy wife, it's about discovering a new flag protein or integrating a difficult formula... It would be bad business for a company to pay more... They just don't have too.

  22. Re:The Most Dangerous Idea of All on Share Your Most Dangerous Idea · · Score: 1

    Not so far from the truth. Mod parent insightful, and RTFA. Many of the ideas published focus on science overcoming religion, or visa versa. You have to admit, when a person's individual belief's and values are threatened, many bad things happen, and the idea that discredits any type of religion is a very dangerous one.

  23. Keep up on vitamins, keep busy on How Do You Deal with Depression Around Christmas? · · Score: 1

    During the winter, I find it important to take some good vitamins. B12 is extremely important, as during the winter season we don't get enough sunlight to get what we need. Although such nutrients are added to many of our food products, poor diet during the holidays only does more to add to the problem.

    On top of that, if you're a reclusive geek programmer like me, you don't get out enough into the sun anyway. Start your morning with a quick walk, and spend some an hour or so outside during the afternoon. Where I'm living the temperature doesn't get too bad, and I can easily sit outside with my laptop for a little bit.

    Depression is an illness, but it's also led to some great discoveries. I've found the best thing to do is focus. Sit down and focus on your work. Drown yourself in it. Of course, if those suicidal thoughts are strong and frequent, get to your doctor and figure something out. Remember it takes about two weeks for most antidepressants to start working, so don't risk waiting until you feel your worst to get some medication.

    I'm not a doctor, so don't take my advice as if I am. Get some professional help before you listen to a thing I say.

  24. Re:Harder to revolt on Set PHASRs On Stun · · Score: 1

    I went on a tour of the local AFRL center (ABQ Kirtland) here about seven years ago and they demonstrated this technology. It's been in development long before everybody started complaining (rightfully, in my opinion), about the government's national security expenditure. Come to think of it, during the demonstration, they mentioned that the technology had already been in use during the Bosnia conflict (before Bush). Anybody have any further information on that one?

    Aside from that, I'd like to see a revolution when the government possesses the technology that changed the world nearly 50 years ago. Scratch that as something I'd like to see.

    Personally, I'll take a shot from this less than lethal device long before I willingly sit myself down on the outskirts of a nuclear detonation :)

  25. Re:A fun and safe experiment.... on Singing Mice and Brain Chemistry · · Score: 2, Informative

    My roommate's yorkshire terriers are going nuts when I play it, and my St Bernard hasn't moved a muscle... It can't be something that they truly recognize, but they're running around my computer trying to find the source.