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  1. Re:Too bad. on AT&T: Don't Want a Data Plan for That Smartphone? Too Bad. · · Score: 2

    Verizon is like being in an abusive relationship with someone that is a BDSM freak that does not understand safe words...

    Oh they understand safe words; they just want you to say them often and loudly.

    • Verizon: Bring out the testicle clamps!
    • Customer: Oh Crap! Flugan..basja..sbiner holzeen?
    • Verizon: Do you mean Fluggaenkoecchicebolsen?

    So many people misunderstand those "Can you hear me NOW?" ads ...

  2. Re:Java sucks. on Oracle Responds To Java Security Critics With Massive 50 Flaw Patch Update · · Score: 2

    Ask IBM.

    Substantial portions (>80%) of Watson are written in Java.

    The remainder is C++ and, of all things, Prolog.

    I did LISP and Prolog programming as a college research assistant in automatic and fault-tolerant programming techniques, back in the mid '80s. Both languages are awesome. A/C responder is correct, Prolog is appropriate for Watson.

  3. Re:The "NO PLATE" story on DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak · · Score: 1

    It depends on how you look at it.

    A standard plate will typically follow a mask of XXX####

    It will not be unique from the perspective of the character pattern, while a personalized plate (assuming you can pick any combo) gives you the option of literally anything. No mask.

    True, the standard plate follows a mask/template, but each plate is uniquely numbered and, therefore, distinct - even plates with the same sequence from different states/countries, if you consider the plate as a whole. But I see your point.

    I was just venting a bit about the Snopes article. Though I'm not an expert in English and sometimes fall victim myself, sloppy speech/writing annoys me. Like TV commercials for upcoming shows that say "All New" when referring to a single episode - grrrr ....

  4. Call them all "Marklar". The individual will be clear by the context.

  5. Re:Just hold software patents to the same standard on Micron Lands Broad "Slide To Unlock" Patent · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually yes, it does. You can patent the *specific* hardware implementation of a task. Someone else could then do the exact same task with a different implementation and bypass your patent.

    For example, Setuid was patented by Dennis Ritchie in 1972/1979 (applied/granted) based on the hardware implementation, as shown in the patent abstract.

  6. Re:The "NO PLATE" story on DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak · · Score: 1

    Every license plate is, by definition, "distinctively unique". Just sayin' ...

    Time to go back to the dictionary: you have confused distinctively with distinguishably.

    Those words were from the Snopes article not me. Furthermore, having gone back to the dictionary, I would argue that those words are redundant used together and unnecessary to the description of a vehicle license plate - which are each unique and, therefore, distinct.

    Sure, it's a bit pedantic, but it's been a slow week...

  7. Re:Stuff that matters? on DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak · · Score: 1

    *sigh*

    I wonder if I can get a license plate that says that.

  8. Re:The "NO PLATE" story on DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/noplate.asp

    Just to pick a nit with that Snopes article. The first paragraph says:

    Allowing motorists to obtain personalized plates provides them with an opportunity to obtain something distinctively unique, something that commands far more attention than the usual humdrum string of letters and digits.

    Every license plate is, by definition, "distinctively unique". Just sayin' ...

  9. Re:Giving? on Does US Owe the World an Education At Its Expense? · · Score: 1

    Sure, we could provide them access to our educational system, but who's going to pay the schools then?

    [ Damn it! ] Or, we could deny them access.
    [ Sorry, I learned to type at US school... :-)

  10. Giving? on Does US Owe the World an Education At Its Expense? · · Score: 1

    They are earning degrees in the fields of the future, like engineering and computer science...We are giving them the skills to figure that out, ...

    Mayor Bloomberg advanced in 2011 ('we are investing millions of dollars [actually billions] to educate these students at our leading universities, ...

    Giving? Seems like they're paying us, investing in our universities, to study and earn their education. They pay for a service/product US universities are providing. Isn't that how Capitalism works? Sure, we could provide them access to our educational system, but who's going to pay the schools then?

  11. "Things" that do "stuff". on Excessive Modularity Hindered Development of the 787 · · Score: 1

    I think part of the problem is that Boeing defined what components they needed, but not necessarily completely how they were to be built or function internally (for things that have internals). For example, they may have specified an electronic component by its inputs/outputs and working/environmental tolerances, but not anything about the internals. In theory, this "black box" approach should work pretty well, but - as we programmers know - side effects, edge conditions and unknowns are a bitch.

    In the case of the Li-Ion battery and its external monitoring/charging equipment, different assumptions may have been made on either side. As for other components, sometimes one needs to know how they're to be assembled to make them correctly.

  12. Re:Why study the human brain then? on The Human Brain Project Receives Up To $1.34 Billion · · Score: 1

    My slide rule back in 1965 was intelligent, but it wasn't sentient.

    Technically, the person/people who created your slide rule were intelligent *and* sentient.
    The slide rule itself is just a stick with lines and numbers on it. The credit goes to its creator not the object.

  13. Re:Why study the human brain then? on The Human Brain Project Receives Up To $1.34 Billion · · Score: 3, Funny

    It seems unclear to me that human brains produce "intelligent behavior." It seems to depend on the brain. Only a few per hundred seem to work really well, but up to half of them can file TPS reports.

    The popularity of TV shows like "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" and "The Housewives of _______", not to mention the people actually *on* those shows, would seem to support your thesis.

  14. Re:Wait, what? on Perl's Glory Days Are Behind It, But It Isn't Going Anywhere · · Score: 1

    No, I read your entire post; I just thought it was weak and naive.
    But to each their own youngster.

  15. Re:Wait, what? on Perl's Glory Days Are Behind It, But It Isn't Going Anywhere · · Score: 1

    It'll be nice if there could be a JIT or some other accelerator for Perl.

    If Perl isn't fast enough for you already, you need to cut back on the caffeine / amphetamines.
    I'm not sure Perl can be any faster for most uses.

    For example, I wrote a Perl script to display installed Solaris package information that runs faster than the native (compiled) utility. This script opens/reads/parses/displays 1500 files (each in a different folder) in 0.25s (1/4) where the native Solaris utility takes 7s (seven).

  16. Re:Wait, what? on Perl's Glory Days Are Behind It, But It Isn't Going Anywhere · · Score: 1

    And for me, writing code for corporate use... Reliability trumps shiny any day of the week.

    Though, for us Firefly fans, reliability is shiny.

  17. Re:Wait, what? on Perl's Glory Days Are Behind It, But It Isn't Going Anywhere · · Score: 1

    One of Perl's biggest uses was web development.

    And (way) before that, its biggest use was - and is - for sysadmin administration tasks. From Wikipedia:

    Practical Extraction and Reporting Language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier.

    Perl gained widespread popularity in the late 1990s as a CGI scripting language, in part due to its parsing abilities.

    I used Perl in the '80s (yes, I'm old) for sysadmin tasks way before I used it for CGI and web-server tasks. I still use it everyday for commercial production sysadmin and programming projects on both Unix and Windows. (P.S. I've used Emacs since the '80s too.)

    I'll stack my productivity and code usefulness with these tools against any one/thing else, anyday...

  18. Sum of the parts? on Dreamliner: Boeing 787 Aircraft Battery "Not Faulty" · · Score: 1

    we have found no major quality or technical problem' with the lithium-ion batteries

    How about several (many?) minor issues that, when taken together, add up to "the problem"? Also, since at least, one of the batteries was fried almost beyond recognition (from a photo I saw), how do you know there was no problem?

  19. Re:the only thing Microsoft and others can do is.. on Hacker Bypasses Windows 7/8 Address Space Layout Randomization · · Score: 2

    So are only safe if we run an OS on an isolated partition which has nothing but a web browser and the other partitions are automatically unmounted while the web browser OS is working?

    Actually, we are only safe while the system is powered off, disconnected from all cabling and still in the box it came in. Trust me. After dealing with security weenies and various system lock-down methodologies for many, many years, a truly "secure" system (to their satisfaction, anyway) is unusable and you might as well not even bother to unpack it.

  20. The short answer? on 'Bankrupt' Australian Surgeon Sues Google For Auto-Complete · · Score: 1

    Are auto-complete results even useful?

    No and it's fucking annoying. I have it disabled and my proxy filter set to ensure it stays that way. I'll submit my search query when I'm damn good and ready.

  21. Re:OK, 35 years, then... on MIT Warned of a JSTOR Death Sentence Due To Swartz · · Score: 1

    Then he physically trespassed on MIT property, went into a wiring closet, and plugged into the MIT network. That is hacking.

    That's *not* hacking, that's trespassing and/or breaking and entering.

  22. Re:OK, 35 years, then... on MIT Warned of a JSTOR Death Sentence Due To Swartz · · Score: 1

    Even in your adversarial system, there is neither a reason nor an expectation that the prosecutor should initially be making what were basically frivolous claims that go beyond all sane reason.

    The reason the prosecutor can make those charges is because that's the law. I agree that the law is too strict, but you can't blame the prosecutor for that.

    As someone who was at one time in serious trouble with the law, let me state that the prosecutor is only interested in a conviction, not justice - results, not right or wrong. The bigger the conviction/results, the better.

  23. Re:What is this crap? on MIT Warned of a JSTOR Death Sentence Due To Swartz · · Score: 2

    I am technically committing wire fraud by using an alias to (falsely) represent myself.

    So, you're not actually "Creepy"? Damn.

  24. Re:Pretty Simple on Islamist Hackers Shut Down Egyptology Research Journal · · Score: 1

    It's happened before. We already have had terroristic attacks by radical Christians.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence

    I'm not an expert, but I think things like that happened even before that:

    Few groups (in general) are completely void of extremest nut-jobs.

  25. Not a bug. on You've Got 25 Years Until UNIX Time Overflows · · Score: 1

    Okay, I'm late to this thread, but it's not a bug, it's a design limitation.