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User: Main+Gauche

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Comments · 240

  1. "probably" much higher? on EU Commission: Corruption Across EU Costs €120 Billion · · Score: 3, Interesting

    120 billion euro? Internets, you so funny.

    To put things in perspective:

    1. Estimates of just medicare/medicaid fraud in the US easily approach $100 billion. I'd bet those estimates are conservative.

    2. Medicare/medicaid spending is only about a fifth of the US budget. (That doesn't necessarily mean that total US fraud is 5 times the above figure, but suggests it's much larger than $100B.).

    3. The Eurozone's GDP is about equal to (slightly larger than) that of the US.

    Put it all together, and tell me with a straight face that fraud in the Eurozone is 120 billion euro (about $160 billion). Keep in mind that for every Sweden there's an Italy.
    Yeah, it's "probably" much higher, like the Broncos "probably" lost.

  2. Re:So stop using corks on Molecule In Corked Wine Plugs Up Your Nose · · Score: 1

    "some pork rhines to help wash that merlot down?"

    Did you mean Riesling?

  3. TELL THEM ITS LIKE SHOUTING on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Fight Usage Caps? · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who first read the title as if it were "fighting caps usage", ... and then only to find that the submitter is SGT CAPSLOCK?!

  4. Re:Irony on Drone Hunters Lining Up and Paying Out In Colorado · · Score: 4, Funny

    *sigh* you've never field dressed a drone?

  5. Re:Huh? What? on The Greatest Keyboard Shortcut Ever · · Score: 1

    I am not kidding, I really, really thought that was going to end with
    "... lets me undo reading a Slashdot article."

  6. Re:Why "allegedly"? on FTC Wins Huge $7.5 Million Penalty Against "Do Not Call" List Violator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was a settlement. No guilt was ever established. This may also explain the low dollar figure everyone else is talking about.

  7. Re:Compulsive gamblers on Data Miners Liken Obama Voters To Caesars Gamblers · · Score: 1

    put it all on red for another spin.

    No, the last two times they put it on black.

    Don't you mean blue?

  8. Re:Ignore the FUD, here's the truth on Microsoft Reputation Manager's Guide To Xbox One · · Score: 1

    Indeterminate. There was no unit *cough* on the 3.

  9. Re:Oddly specific denial on Confirmed: CBS News Reporter's Computer Compromised · · Score: 0

    Why is the justice department denial so specific:

    Because they're refuting a specific accusal?

    Seriously, what kind of logic is this? The justice department didn't say that they didn't try to poison her! They must have!

  10. Re:Nuber not that impressive on Man Who Sold $100 Million Worth of Pirated Software Gets 12 Years In Prison · · Score: 1

    Median salary in Norway is closer to 50K, much further off.
    Median != Avg.

  11. Re:Good on Man Who Sold $100 Million Worth of Pirated Software Gets 12 Years In Prison · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, he was entrapped in Saipan, and prosecuted for crimes he didn't commit while in the US.

    2. Promptly escape through the Los Angeles underground.
    3. Work as soldier of fortune.
    4. Profit!

  12. Re:New version of portable street view camera? on How Google Street View Keeps an Eye on Things Where There Are No Streets (Video) · · Score: 1

    actually a Beowulf cluster of Google Glasses.

  13. gonna have to talk to Jordi about this on Why the 'Star Trek Computer' Will Be Open Source and Apache Licensed · · Score: 1

    Did the transporter just drop me into the middle of some poetry jam?

  14. something is worst, ever alright. on Thousands of Whistle Blowers Vulnerable After Anonymous Hacks SAPS · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to the second article above provided by krunster, the hackers posted this message with the data dump:

    "South African Police Service Web site hacked saps.gov.za database and e-mails leaked. The reason for this action is to serve as a reminder to the government regarding the murders of 34 protesting miners outside the Marikana platinum mine by police. To date no officers have been brought to justice... This situation will NOT be tolerated. #OpMarikanaMiners @domaineranon.”

    So in response to the alleged 34 murders, the hackers expose 16000 names of innocent people to "punish" the cops? This would be like punishing Hitler by gassing American Jews.

    If even one of those 16K people is killed as a result of this, the hackers become accessories to murder, in my book.

  15. Re:Damn it, Torvolds! on Linus Torvalds Advocates For 2560x1600 Standard Laptop Displays · · Score: 1

    I threw the 80 columns rule out a decade ago.

    Typesetters use fairly rigid rules about how many characters-wide text should be, in order to be easily readable. If you're filling a widescreen with one window of wrapped text, there is no way it is readable.

    Also, for the mathematically inclined, 16:10 is a close approximation of the golden ratio.

    That's pretty much the point: beauty before function.

  16. Re:Translation on Parent Questions Mandatory High School Chemistry · · Score: 1

    Fine, fine, change it to crystal meth and the executive will be right on board.

  17. Re:Stupid logic on Proposed Posting of Clients List In Prostitution Case Raises Privacy Concerns · · Score: 2

    Here is a more direct analogy:
    Selling is legal. Donating a kidney is legal. Selling a kidney is illegal (in the U.S.).

    I think even George Carlin (who was a comedian, we may need to recall) realized that laws reflect a society's collective (not unanimous!) views as to what is "right" and "wrong".

  18. Re:Good. on Laser Strikes On Aircraft Becoming Epidemic · · Score: 1

    Fuck you both. The last thing this country needs is people actively suggesting ways to strip more freedoms away from the people.

    One excuse politicians use to strip away freedoms is to point at those who abuse them. [Hint, hint, there moderators.]

  19. Re:ah, Ender's game on The Sci-fi Films To Look Forward To In 2013 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    " Well the Net is really here, and we have Slashdot and Twitter and blogs... we can post wisdom until cows come home and no great powers will have been gained."

    I couldn't disagree more.

    Consider Nate Silver. (See his wiki entry if you don't know who he is.) He is a smart guy who started off with baseball predictions, but his prominence shot up after he "posted his wisdom" essentially nailing the last presidential election state by state. There is no doubt that this lead to his prominence today (at a relatively young age).

    Secondly, regarding the rest of "us", I'm still waiting to find this wisdom of which you speak. And no, the occasional needle in the haystack does not count.

  20. Re:stopped using it? on Why Microsoft Killed the Windows Start Button · · Score: 1

    I'd never heard of 'pinning' something to the task bar before this article....??

    That's right, you hadn't.

  21. Re:How far behind were the criminals/spammers? on How Hackers Listened Their Way Around Google's Recaptcha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now it appears that machines can beat captcha and recaptcha very easily. So WHY do we still see these schemes in use?

    Could you give me your address, and let me know when you won't be home? (I presume you no longer lock your house.)

  22. Re:Hygiene and broken arms. on Japanese ATMs To Use Palm Readers In Place of Cash Cards · · Score: 2

    I never saw them once clean that thing.

    Dude, it's Japan. A little spray nozzle comes out after each use, followed by a mini-squeegie.

  23. Wrong link, summary writer on How To Share a Cake Over the Internet · · Score: 1

    The encrypted auction paper (the whole point of the summary) is at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4507
    and not at the arxiv link provided in the summary.

  24. Re:Guilty much? on Graduate Students Being Warned Away From Leaked Cables · · Score: 5, Informative

    it surprises me that the government wants their potential employees to be less informed than the general public.

    And as it turns out, that is not the case at all. Imagine that, a completely misleading summary on slashdot.

    Summary says: :The US State Dept has started to warn potential recruits from universities not to read leaked cables,"

    TFA says: Columbia University career services got a recommendation from an alumnus that if you want a job with the State Dept, he recommends
    "you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government."

    So,
    (1) This is not official policy; it is an alumnus giving personal advice to undergrads at his alma mater.
    (2) It has nothing to do with reading/not reading wikileaks.

    I really have to spend less time reading /. summaries.

  25. safe for awhile? on Is the Number Up For the Residential Phone Book? · · Score: 1

    If it takes phone companies as long to eliminate phone books as it takes for Slashdot to get around to the topic of phone book elimination, the phone books should be safe for awhile. (e.g. New York)