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User: Greyfox

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Comments · 9,116

  1. Pfft. I Could Have Told You That! on Massive Study Searching For Genes Behind Intelligence Finds Little · · Score: 1

    "So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth. And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!"

  2. Arrays in C++ start at 0. I'm pretty sure you can set a pointer into the middle of the array in C++ and do this by indexing the pointer. I know you can do it in C -- a couple companies ago I deployed something that did that into production code, mainly to keep the design review board on their toes. They weren't, and it got deployed that way. I thought it made more sense that way anyway, so I never mentioned it. It's entirely possible it's already confused the hell out of a code maintenance guy, but hopefully he'll think it makes more sense that way too.

  3. iFisto on Ask Slashdot: What Smartwatch Apps Could You See Yourself Using? · · Score: 1

    Sends an alert when you're in too deep. Version 1 doesn't do anything due to a developer's misunderstanding of the requirements.

  4. Re:Tell time on Ask Slashdot: What Smartwatch Apps Could You See Yourself Using? · · Score: 1

    Pff. You sound like the kind of person who would want to make a phone call on your phone. They don't like your type, down at the Apple Store!

  5. You could apply hardware to the DRIVER that prevents them from texting while driving. That seems to work more effectively than more complicated technical solutions.

  6. Meh on Apple Announces Smartwatch, Bigger iPhones, Mobile Payments · · Score: 1

    I won't be happy until my MacBook is small enough to comfortably rest on my pinkie-nail and my iPhone is as big as a Monolith! An iMonolith! The ad campaign can have a bunch of monkeys dancing around it. Yeah.

  7. Hah! Oh... Thanks... on AT&T Says 10Mbps Is Too Fast For "Broadband," 4Mbps Is Enough · · Score: 3, Funny

    I needed a good laugh. I suppose as a potential investor, I'm happy to know that his company is woefully unprepared to compete in a rapidly-evolving marketplace. It's kind of surprising to encounter such honesty in this day and age. Of course, he probably doesn't realize that he just admitted his company is woefully unprepared to compete in a rapidly-evolving marketplace, but that's one of the root causes of them being woefully unprepared to compete in this marketplace, isn't it?

  8. Re:all that money on Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion · · Score: 0

    Hey, you know where you might be able to get some Chinese biotech researchers for cheap? Alibaba!

  9. Re:all that money on Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion · · Score: 1

    Hey, you know where might be a good place to get some Chinese biotech researchers for cheap? Alibaba!

  10. Should there be an ice bucket challenge for Ebola? I'm sure if we had one of those, it would be sorted out in a jiffy!

    I have a hypothesis that in a western hospital, the survival rate might be a bit more than 50%, too. We don't have a large sample size to judge by, yet.

  11. Re:Sure on Should Cyborgs Have the Same Privacy Rights As Humans? · · Score: 1
    The Nazis didn't view the Jews as being people either. The first thing you do when you're looking to oppress some group is to fire up the propaganda machine and dehumanize that group. Hell, it was in the Constitution for a while, a slave's counted as 2/3rds of a person. You want to make an argument that marriage is for children, I'm FINE with what, as long as a man and a woman won't be able to get married if they'd be unable to produce children. You never see that in any of those "Marriage Protection" laws, and there'd be riots if you did.

    You think the Ferguson police force views the citizens there as people? I think they'd randomly stop and harass them a lot less if they did. It's awfully hard to do that sort of thing to people. It's also a lot harder to be so terrified of them that faced with an unarmed one (person,) with his hands up, you'd point an assault rifle at them and threaten to kill them.

  12. Sure on Should Cyborgs Have the Same Privacy Rights As Humans? · · Score: 1
    If they're people. Many of the discriminatory laws in the USA over the years are obviously based on the assumption that the discriminated-against group, being different from us, are obviously not people. Take, for example, the current marriage fight. It's pretty easy to make the argument that gays should not be allowed to marry, if you don't consider them to be people. Kind of like how in the '60's, most states didn't allow interracial marriage. That was before we discovered that other races were also people. Though some groups are quite resistant to changing their philosophy on THAT subject. That's why the favorite straw-man argument of those in favor of denying those rights is always "Where does this stop? We'll eventually have to issue a marriage license between a man and his horse!" Sure, if the horse is a person. It's immediately obvious from that argument that the person making it does not consider a homosexual person to actually be a person. But I digress...

    Anywhoo, the upshot of that is that if the cyborg is a person, the cyborg should have the same rights as a person, and should damn well be able to marry another cyborg if they want to. I'm not going to allow some uneducated shithead to stand between me and my Sony HD Eyeballs (Now with TerminatorVision(tm)).

  13. Object Vs Primitive on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Strangest Features of Various Programming Languages? · · Score: 1

    In assorted languages. Java and vbscript being particularly problematic, if you're a library programmer. "Oh, I'd like to write this generic container of things but I can't make it generic because some programmer might try to store an int in it :-/" Java's introduced some features to address that, and it's quite easy to solve in vbscript by never programming in vbscript.

  14. You can index negatively in C as well, if you want to.

    If you REALLY want your array to start at 1, why not just subtract one from its pointer? Then it'll start at 1 just fine!

  15. I'm Still Bummed Out on Scientists Sequence Coffee Genome, Ponder Genetic Modification · · Score: 1

    I'm still bummed out that the "Grapple" isn't some genetic abomination created by a DNA scientist in a lab somewhere. The reality is far more boring. If these scientists wanted to do something truly horrific, they could engineer up a strain of coffee with no caffeine. That's like one step off of building a "Death Ray" and holding the world for hostage with it.

  16. Re:Putin is the most out of control leader on Invasion of Ukraine Continues As Russia Begins Nuclear Weapons Sabre Rattling · · Score: 0

    Poor Shrub. He just wanted so badly to prove he could do something his daddy couldn't...

  17. Re:what could possibly go wrong? on DoT Proposes Mandating Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communications · · Score: 1

    Yes, in that case they'll probably be at-fault, which really isn't much consolation when you have to stop everything you were planning on doing to deal with your damaged-ass car. And if you're seriously injured or killed in the accident, that will further ruin your day. And if you're really unlucky, the other driver will not be carrying insurance. The only time I've ever been in an accident that involved another driver, the other driver wasn't. And yes, it was required by law in that state. And yes, my insurance was pretty good about paying for my damages while they were suing the bejesus out of them. Took a month to put my car back together, and the body shop really didn't do a very good job of it. So in general if you can avoid an accident, it's really better to do so, no matter whose fault it's going to turn out to be.

  18. Well Lessee on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Games To Have In Your Collection? · · Score: 1
    Cards against humanity if you're having friends over. Unless they're Mormons. Then, cards against humanity with all the expansion packs.

    I've probably put 80+ hours into dwarf fortress. And I haven't even started doing megaprojects yet. I did have a king set up residence once, before everyone died.

  19. Re:what could possibly go wrong? on DoT Proposes Mandating Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communications · · Score: 1

    That still gets you rear-ended, which is still a huge pain in the ass.

  20. Could Be Worse on $75K Prosthetic Arm Is Bricked When Paired iPod Is Stolen · · Score: 4, Funny

    The guy who stole it could now be controlling his hand. "Now hand over your wallet! No, wait... I'll do it! Bwahahahahah!" Small favors and all that...

  21. Re:Oh Lord on Linux 3.17-rc2 Release Marks 23 Years of the Linux Kernel · · Score: 1

    The source tarball. Everyone was like "Oooh all the people downloading a 10MB source tarball will DESTROY THE INTERNET!"

  22. Oh Lord on Linux 3.17-rc2 Release Marks 23 Years of the Linux Kernel · · Score: 2

    Doesn't feel like that long. Admittedly a lot of the 90's is a blur. Hey, hey, you guys remember that time when the Linux kernel went over 10 MB and we predicted it would destroy the Internet?

  23. Re:White hat application to cycling on It's Easy To Hack Traffic Lights · · Score: 1

    Hah. In my town the traffic lights seem to be designed so that traffic stops at every goddamn one of them. I wonder if they could be fixed. I'm already not liking where this train of thought is going heh heh.

  24. Ooh I Got One! on NASA's Space Launch System Searches For a Mission · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can we use it to shoot Congress into Space? We could call it an "Emergency preparedness for giant asteroid strike" or something! Of course once IN space, they might have to stay there for a while. Giant asteroid and all that. Earth might not be habitable again for decades!

  25. Re:How Many Birds on Solar Plant Sets Birds On Fire As They Fly Overhead · · Score: 1

    Nuclear power CREATES birds? That would be AWESOME!