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User: bp+m_i_k_e

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  1. Re:How is presenting all theories a problem? on South Carolina Education Committee Removes Evolution From Standards · · Score: 1

    Evolution as an "origin of things" is not not provable either. You canot test it, nor can you confirm it - no more so than Creationism or Intelligent Design.

    So please, don't teach it as an "origin of things" either. Fair's fair.

    That's ridiculous. Evolution (natural selection) is not taught as an "origin of things." It explains the origin of humans. I guess one could make the (idiotic and scientifically disprovable) assertion that the origin of humans coincides with the "origin of things." But, that gets us right back where we started...

  2. Re:Prior art on Apple Files Patent For New Proprietary Port · · Score: 1

    So, Apple combined the dual-function (eSATA) port concept with the idea behind a splitter for a 4-wire phone line - which splits two lines to my fax machine and two lines to my phone. More comedy from the patent world...

  3. Re:Put in a seatbelt to police call system on NHTSA and DOT Want Your Car To Be Able To Disable Your Cellphone Functions · · Score: 1

    And if you unlatch a seatbelt while moving, the car automatically disables itself and the police are called.

    My state (PA) already actively enforces the use of seat belts - while at the same time allowing motorcyclists to ride without helmets. I wouldn't be surprised if our irrational representatives would be fully in favor of this absurd idea.

  4. Re:emergency calls allowed? on NHTSA and DOT Want Your Car To Be Able To Disable Your Cellphone Functions · · Score: 1

    I think the bigger concern would be calling 911 when some road-rage-nut-job is following you or when the suspicious looking unmarked "police" car is behind you on a deserted road.

  5. Re:What about false positive gesture recognition on Wi-Fi Signals Allow Gesture Recognition All Through the Home · · Score: 2

    The first malware will turn on your webcam when such fapping is detected.

  6. The American public? on House Judiciary Chairman Plans Comprehensive Review of US Copyright Law · · Score: 1

    "Even the Copyright Office itself faces challenges in meeting the growing needs of its customers - the American public."

    Comical.
    Since when is the "American public" considered the customers being served by the Copyright Office. Methinks there is a much more narrow description of the customers served by the Copyright Office. But, hey, it reads a lot better when you the widest description possible.

  7. Re:fucking great? on Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene · · Score: 1

    The patent appears to covers more than methods. It appears to cover the isolated DNA itself.

    Since NIH and University of Utah (a public university) were involved in the discovery of the gene, there should be no way to keep the gene a trade secret.

    The first seven claims in the patent are for "an isolated DNA" - the DNA itself, not some method of manipulating DNA or any treatment related to DNA.
    Patent claims: http://www.google.com/patents/US5747282?printsec=claims#v=onepage&q&f=false

  8. Re:if (genom.substr(x) == 'gtca') { throw 'cancer' on Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene · · Score: 1

    I think the patent is the isolated (from its natural state) gene sequence. This article on the US court case, linked from the one you provided, has more details on the patent and the arguments for/against:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_Molecular_Pathology_v._Myriad_Genetics

    I can't help but wonder what our world would be like if our current patent system was in place when man discovered things like gravity, fire, magnetism and electricity. I'm sure there are some good arguments for getting a patent on any and all use of those phenomena.

  9. Hate cloud printing on Google Announces 2,000 Schools Now Use Chromebooks, Up 100% In 3 Months · · Score: 2

    Bought a Chromebook for a family member for a gift - without realizing that the only printing option was "cloud printing." I hate it. I have to replace my barely-used color laser printer or setup a PC in the house to effectively be the print "server." Even so, I really think it bites to send print jobs through the "cloud" when the printer is five feet away.

  10. Re:Randomized passwords are the best on Bad Grammar Make Bestest Password, Research Say · · Score: 1

    I use variations of the same passwords, so I have memorized many more passwords than phone numbers. Usually I can even remember some infrequently-used passwords - based on using variations. However, the phone numbers that I have memorized have not changed for years, for the most part. At our company, it's actually pretty rare for people to forget their frequently-used passwords. However, I have no idea how often people forget phone numbers, since it is trivial to just look them up.

    If all passwords followed the same rules, without requiring frequent resets, it probably would be relatively easy for people to remember a few passwords. But, keep in mind that 3 of the 10 phone number digits (the area code) is relatively meaningless, in terms of the need to memorize it. So, for the most part, people are only remembering 7 numbers - not exactly a large number of possible values, compared to the possibilities for passwords.

  11. Re:Randomized passwords are the best on Bad Grammar Make Bestest Password, Research Say · · Score: 5, Insightful

    None of your phone numbers are changed every 30/60/90 days, while some of your passwords are.

  12. Re:Sounds improbable on Dutch Cold Case Murder Solved After 8000 People Gave Their DNA · · Score: 1

    The article, itself, states: The decision to launch the dna appeal came after De Vries in May broadcast information about a Playboy cigarette lighter found in Vaatstra's bag which contains dna traces that match the traces found on the schoolgirl's body.

  13. Re:Sounds improbable on Dutch Cold Case Murder Solved After 8000 People Gave Their DNA · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was more than a lighter exchange. Matching DNA was found on both the lighter and on the girl's body. That led to the DNA-dragnet. Apparently, the suspect's DNA matched the samples from her body and the lighter.

  14. Re:The wealthy don't matter on Greenhouse Emissions Drop Less During Economic Downturn Than Expected · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's unfortunate that the "they-pay-nothing" argument is made by so many, including a presidential candidate. This statement is false.

    Even the bottom 20% pays an average of 17.4% of their income in taxes. It is absurd for anyone to say that some group "pays nothing." It is grossly absurd for a well-educated, former governor and many supposedly informed supporters, including a member of the House Budget Committee, to say "they don't pay anything."

    Here is one summary of the overall tax burden as a % of income in 2011:
    17.4% - Lowest 20% (Avg cash income: $13,000)
    21.2% - Second 20% ($26,100)
    25.2% - Third 20% ($42,000)
    28.3% - Fourth 20% ($68,700)
    29.5% - Next 10% ($105,000)
    20.3% - Next 5% ($147,000)
    30.4% - Next 4% ($254,000)
    29.0% - Top 1% ($1,371,000)

    Source (pdf): http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2012.pdf

  15. Re:This will mean nothing... on Nature: Global Temperatures Are a Falling Trend · · Score: 1

    There are so many people who start from the premise that there is no problem. Why does it take anything more than common sense to determine that it is bad for the planet to burn, in a year, many billions of tons of coal and many billions of barrels of oil?

    I'd bet that most climate evangelists would be more than happy if people would simply use common sense & agree that there is a problem - with the expectation that agreeing that there is a problem would allow the focus to shift to solving it.

    Carbon tax, or whatever, isn't going to make your ice cream melt slower today. Unfortunately, too many people jump from that point to ignoring/denying the problem, then burn some more stuff to make the air around their ice cream colder. Then, their great, great grandchildren can burn even more stuff to keep their ice cream cold.

  16. Re:This will mean nothing... on Nature: Global Temperatures Are a Falling Trend · · Score: 2

    Yeah, everyone knows that God was smart enough to create the Earth with a feature to counteract the effect of a few billion people burning stuff all day long.

  17. Microsoft-ian? on Mozilla Labs: the URL Bar Has To Go · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This reminds me of the dubious decision to hide file name extensions in Windows Explorer by default - you know, since users don't really need that information.

  18. Re:Background checks on Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants · · Score: 1

    Facebook should get a pass for the same reason that "are you homosexual or heterosexual", "what church do you attend" and "how often do you masturbate" get a pass.

  19. Re:context sensitive ads on Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants · · Score: 1

    A while back, I created an account on ESPN and used "Miguel" instead of my real name - leading to ads in Spanish.

  20. Re:Privacy is so 20th century. on Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants · · Score: 2

    In this case, the employer's policy is to also obtain the FB password to re-certify existing employees. So, those employees should lose their jobs unless they give up their FB password?

    Also, viewing the FB account of a job seeker very likely gives the employer access to information that cannot be legally asked in an interview.

  21. Re:The criminal code calls it "Theft of Services" on TimeWarner DNS Hijacking · · Score: 1

    As a side note, I love how the only copy of the PA Crimes code online is on some personal page at AOL.com. Recently passed House Bill 976 says that the statutes will be available online by Jan 1, 2008.
  22. Re:My Congressman's explanation on U.S. House Rejects Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Some of your congressman's message is quoted directly from the Cato Institute opinion that someone mentioned above. Here's the link: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa507.pdf

    As one might expect, that paper is a bit more comprehensive (and interesting) than Congressman Boehner's letter.

  23. Re:Email Addresses on D-Link Firmware Abuses Open NTP Servers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Add the investor relations address (ir@dlink.com.tw) which is attributed to a few different people.

    Gavin Lee
    Deputy Manager, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
    886-2-6600-0123
    ir@dlink.com.tw

    Tracy Wang
    Media Contact, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
    886-2-6600-0123
    ir@dlink.com.tw

    A.P. Chen
    CFO
    886-2-6600-0123
    ir@dlink.com.tw

    ralio_sung@dlink.com.tw
    (from http://emops.tse.com.tw/server-java/t58main?TYPEK= sii&page=profiles&list=alphabet&alphabet=D)

  24. Re:What FILES are. on What Should People Understand About Computers? · · Score: 1

    I couldn't agree more. Some older users in particular have no clue what a file is. I can't tell you how many times I've heard comments about Word documents being "in" Word.

    AND...

    Explain how to configure Windows to reinforce what they learn in the book. There are some Windows settings that encourage users to know less than they should.

    For example, tell readers how to show file extensions. Hiding them by default is possibly the most assinine Windows default setting. The file extension is part of the file name. Hiding it (and relying on icons) is ridiculous.

    Find a good "real world" analogy for people to understand the relationship between a file and an application - like the file is the VCR tape and the application is the VCR, which allows the tape to be viewed or changed.

  25. Re:Hundreds of administrators on Behind the Scenes at Hotmail · · Score: 1
    ads typically aren't served directly through Akamais caching technology

    Ads are served "directly" for their advertising customers. Akamai definitely serves up lots of other stuff. But, on a per request basis, ads are probably at the top of the list. These links are a bit old, but I'm sure there are others:

    Yahoo! To Offer Targeted Local Advertising

    Advertising.com Teams With Akamai to Advance Intelligent Advertising Distribution

    Hitplay Media and Akamai Technologies Forge Strategic Technology Alliance for Ad Insertion

    Solbright Joins Akamai's Alliance Partner Program to Provide Enhanced Delivery of Rich Media Advertising