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User: triffid_98

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  1. Re:The population ponzi scheme... on China Ends One-Child Policy · · Score: 1

    I can't find anyplace for less than $40k/yr currently (my mom needs one). God forbid we find a way to reduce the cost.

    Start charging admission to the "Old People Zoo"?

  2. They don't want their fucking car's polluting. Unlike the cock-suckers who buy old ass cars to get around emissions checks.

    Yes, because tons of people commute in 40+ year old cars with laughable MPG, all to get around your precious precious smog laws.

  3. Re:Facts not in evidence on NSA Director Wants Legal Right To Snoop On Encrypted Data · · Score: 1

    That sounds awesome. When will the Stargate to that alternate Earth be opening?

  4. Re:Translation: on Surface RT Devices Won't Get Windows 10 · · Score: 1

    I think that RT was kind of a short stop-gap solution to fix the problem of making low(er) cost Windows tablets at a time when running full Windows would have been just too expensive. Not that you can get tablets running full X86 windows for $100-$200, there's much less of a reason to continue on with Windows RT.

    I think costs may have been part of it but the bigger issue was battery life. Now that Intel has fully fledged x86 chips that are quite close on power consumption there's no longer any reason to settle for the RT 'port' that still won't run half the software users are expecting to 'just work'.

    ...the fact that easily 3/4 of these things are rocking 32gb of flash memory certainly isn't helping either. Lets see, we have windows RT, one or two other big applications and...we're out of space. You do have that handy SD slot but that doesn't help because you still can't install apps on it.

  5. Re:Homeland Security? Everyone is a terrorist on Silk Road 2.0 Deputy Arrested · · Score: 1

    Edgar Allen Poe
    Oscar Wilde
    John Keats
    Lewis Carroll
    Robert Louis Stevenson
    Charles Dickens
    Florence Nightengale


    ...notorious opium abusers every one...fortunately for us they lived in a time before it was demonized, or they wouldn't have been able to make their various contributions to society.

  6. Re:It all comes down to payroll on The Tech Industry's Legacy: Creating Disposable Employees · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a former H1-B visa holder you should also be well aware that the 'prevailing wage' is subject to substantial interpretation and visa holders are essentially locked in to that company.

    They can't leave unless it's to go back home. In the case of some countries it's just a few years, but if you're from someplace like India you'll probably be there a decade or more before you ever get a green card.

    I've worked at a number of smaller companies, and (at least in that environment) this whole yearly wage increase thing simply doesn't happen. If you want a substantial raise, it means accepting an opportunity somewhere else. Something an H1-B holder cannot do, so it's no wonder that they're preferred. I wouldn't exactly call you slaves, you're really more like indentured servants.

  7. Re:Oh I live in this world as well on The Tech Industry's Legacy: Creating Disposable Employees · · Score: 1

    My counter-view (sitting, between product and customer). Product have made something that's not quite right. We ask them to fix it. They don't want to, as they're adding the latest shiny new feature instead.

    Um...if you're following the scrum process the product owner/project managers are firmly in control of this.

    Developers certainly aren't the ones deciding what has priority, they're merely deciding how much each fix/feature 'costs' in terms of development time and letting you lot decide what they should be working on.

    Likewise, if it's 'not quite right', you have only yourselves to blame since they're providing frequent builds and not just one ginormous deliverable every 8 months or so.

  8. Re:This is incredibly exciting on Interior of Burnt Herculaneum Scroll Read For First Time · · Score: 1

    I believe you're thinking of vellum, which is parchment made from animal hide, not paper.
    It was fairly common to scrape the pages blank and write over the existing texts. In some cases fragments of the original texts can be retrieved, but obviously that's fairly hit and miss.

  9. Re:Bad idea on FBI Seeks To Legally Hack You If You're Connected To TOR Or a VPN · · Score: 1

    The government is an undistorted, but maybe slightly embellished reflection of the wishes of the voters.

    Is it really though? When your only two choices are crap, and it comes in a choice of brown or dark brown it's really not much of a choice, and it seems perfectly reasonable for the voters not to care much. It's not as if anything substantial will change depending on which of these amoral fuckwads they vote in.

  10. So um...WW2 era flak shells anyone? on US Army Wants Weapon To Destroy Drone Swarms · · Score: 1

    It doesn't take much to take down a drone, so a little flak ought to do wonders. That or AEGIS systems and conventional ammunition.

  11. Re:A simple defense on The Computer Security Threat From Ultrasonic Networks · · Score: 1

    Actually...for ultrasonics piezoelectric speakers are far better than conventional cone drivers...just not the 2 cent variety you're referring to here.

  12. Re:Seriously? on US Secret Service Wants To Identify Snark · · Score: 2

    Any kind of automated mass collection of data without a human in the loop to determine if a threat is credible or not is going to have significant problems.

    If you haven't been paying attention lately, having any kind of civil servant in the loop to determine if a threat is credible or not is also going to have significant problems.

    Keywords: Swatting, ATHF Movie/Boston, NSA/FISA Court, Hello Kitty "bubble gun" and/or pop-tarts, etc.

  13. Re:General trend of militarization of police on Local Police Increasingly Rely On Secret Surveillance · · Score: 1

    The police everywhere are given those assault rifles, military grade body armor, etc. just for the price of a stamp, so it's hardly surprising. This is where (some) of the boatload of money the DHS is spending goes.

  14. Re:Money is irrelevant... on US Officials Cut Estimate of Recoverable Monterey Shale Oil By 96% · · Score: 1

    It may be an environmental train wreck but if push comes to shove we can make our gasoline out it (coal).

    ...and just like our space program you can thank those cuddly Nazis for it.

  15. "the lack of a smaller Surface tablet" on With the Surface Pro, Microsoft Is Trying To Recreate the PC Market · · Score: 1

    There are very important reasons for this. Probably the most important one is DPI scaling, something Windows never supported properly until quite recently (Windows 8.1). With 8.1 it's possible, but any non 'DPI aware' apps (AKA almost all of them) may still need a lot of tweaking. The only reliable way of handling this is either increase the size of the screen or lower the resolution.

    For anyone who hasn't experienced this for themselves, 4K laptop displays + Windows 7 = complete train wreck.

  16. pwn to own=new normal? on Google Foresees Ads On Your Refrigerator, Thermostat, and Glasses · · Score: 1

    You know, it depresses me enough what we have to hack our phones to remove crappy "features" (disabled OS functions, bloatware) we don't want.

    I for one simply cannot wait to do the same to my new car/refrigerator/thermostat. In the meantime, one alternate plan that's worked very well so far is to not buy any new cars or refrigerators or $200 learning thermostats.

  17. Re:can we think bigger picture? on NASA Looks To Volcanic Rocks As Target For Next Mars Rover · · Score: 1

    The $1.5 billion rover, a near-copy of the Curiosity rover, will collect about 30 samples of rock and soil for eventual return to Earth.

    Or we could spend that money on something worthwhile.

    No problem. Would you prefer 3 weeks of corporate farm subsidies (20B/yr), one Ohio class submarine (2B/ea) or three B-2 bombers (500M/ea)?

  18. Re:If you regulate properly, we'll stop our busine on Major ISPs Threaten To Throttle Innovation and Slow Network Upgrades · · Score: 2

    "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."

    -P.J. O'Rourke

  19. Re:Change of perspective. on New Battery Tech From Japan Could Supercharge EVs · · Score: 1

    There are fewer parts in an EV, so you might need one large bill to replace batteries, but vs water pump and two cambelt changes I've had to stump up for already at 90k and other servicing costs.

    In a pure EV sure, though you still have some new things to break. Specifically anything that's an accessory. Electric motors are far less reliable than hydraulic pumps. (Power Steering, Air Conditioning, Power Brakes) and of course you have the electric motor(s), batteries, computers and any associated charging/voltage conversion hardware bits.

    In a Hybrid you've got the worst of both words maintenance wise, but that's the trade-off you're making.

  20. Re:Wake up and smell the ducats, peons.... on Shunting the FCC To the Slow Lane · · Score: 2

    I'll see your Plutocracy and raise you one Corporatocracy

  21. Re:Beats sound like garbage on Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion · · Score: 1

    Dr. Dre can suck my dick,
    that bitch got no PHD,
    I lost count of mine,
    I got stupid whack degrees.

    -Stephen Hawking

  22. Re:Environmentalists eat your heart out. on Feds Issue Emergency Order On Crude Oil Trains · · Score: 1

    A new refinery hasn't been built in the US since 1976...because there are zero new players in the refining industry, not because the government has some eviiiil conspiracy preventing them from doing so.

    FTFY.

    It's cheaper for existing players to upgrade their existing plants than build shiny new ones and it's a double win when you get to shut down half of them down for "maintenance" at the same time and jack up gas prices

  23. Re:Microsoft has no spine. on XP Systems Getting Emergency IE Zero Day Patch · · Score: 1

    Why should they continue to spend money to support an ancient OS that no one is buying any more?

    ...because this is the exact same patch that they're already contractually obligated to release for Windows 2003 (which won't EOL until next July)?

  24. Re:Efficiency? on Toyota Describes Combustion Engine That Generates Electricity Directly · · Score: 1

    Pontiac is out of business. So low-priced overpowered ego-peen vehicles are slowly dwindling away

    You'd like to think that wouldn't you? Even a freaking Honda Accord has (with appropriate options) 280ish horsepower nowadays.

    So pretty much the same, just minus the mullet haircuts and screaming chicken hoods.

  25. Re:Convenient timing. on US and UK Governments Advise Avoiding Internet Explorer Until Bug Fixed · · Score: 2

    I'm fairly sure that the corporate customers running 2003 might take exception to that, and by "take exception" of course we mean sue.

    That OS doesn't officially EOL until next year.