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Comments · 49

  1. Signaling bidders? on Google Bid Pi Billion Dollars For Nortel Patents · · Score: 1

    I wonder if they were part of a collusive bidding effort. http://www.cramton.umd.edu/papers2000-2004/cramton-schwartz-collusive-bidding.pdf Probably just Google being geeky again though.

  2. Re:iPad makes zero sense on NFL Teams Considering IPads To Replace Playbooks · · Score: 1

    Don't games like Madden already have something like this for consumers? Hell, for cheap animations, they could just do it all in a PowerPoint presentation. Assuming you can view PowerPoint on an iPad.

  3. Retirement on Is Setting Up an Offshore IT Help Desk Ethical? · · Score: 1

    Many of these companies that outsource are also part of your 401k and IRAs for retirement. You get upset when they lose their value. Sure, we hear about greedy CEOs in the media, but they're not the norm. Besides, some places are starting to outsource to Detroit instead of India. It comes around full circle.

  4. Re:Doh on House Passes TV Commercial Volume Bill · · Score: 1

    I'm a big fan of the free market but if you don't buy a product, it's anyone's guess as to why you didn't. As far as they're concerned, you might just be drooling over their products and just not have the money. Or you just haven't seen it yet. Or you already have something that does the job. They almost never concern themselves with the flaws in the product or the advertising unless someone smacks them upside the head.

  5. Re:Fully Informed Jury members on eJuror Will Lead To New List of Jury Duty Excuses · · Score: 1

    They're legally obligated not to fire you.

  6. Re:Best excuse ever on eJuror Will Lead To New List of Jury Duty Excuses · · Score: 1

    Why do you hate me?

  7. Re:The problem is outsourcing not language on Which Language To Learn? · · Score: 1

    In my current job I get to review and fix code written by a Chinese development firm. Since it's in the financial industry, they want to make sure all of the internal interface stuff (talking to banks, etc.) is done here in the US while the GUI can be done elsewhere. This company does not do a very good job of testing at all, many times we send it back to be redone. Because they cannot access the banks and other institutions directly, they have no motivation to test any of it. There's a lot of crap code to fix, and the names keep changing.

  8. Re:i'm sorry... on NASA To Auction Automated Code Generation Patents · · Score: 1
    http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/multimedia/gtv_copyright.html

    This general permission does not include the NASA insignia logo (the blue "meatball" insignia), the NASA logotype (the red "worm" logo) and the NASA seal. These images may not be used by persons who are not NASA employees or on products (including Web pages) that are not NASA sponsored.

    What do you call that?

  9. Re:The one they always overlook on The Time Travel Paradoxes of Back To the Future · · Score: 1

    What if C A T really spelled dog?

  10. Re:Linux Router Project of Course on Who Invented the Linux-Based Wireless Router? · · Score: 1

    When I worked at Ford in 1995-1996 we were playing with wireless connections and UPS backups to move diagnostic PCs around a repair bay without tripping on wires. These diagnostic computers were already pretty old, 386 PCs running OS/2. I don't remember what the wireless routers ran though.

  11. Re:Politics of envy on How to Heartlessly Arbitrage Used Books With a PDA · · Score: 1

    My parents have been doing garage sales for years, and early birds at every rummage and garage sale take the good stuff. Many have the knowledge in their heads. No one seems to be saying that they won't hold these sales anymore.

  12. Re:Lots of reasons... on How to Heartlessly Arbitrage Used Books With a PDA · · Score: 1

    The difference is that a scalper extracted $2.50 out of the economy for doing nothing of value at all.

    I remember the original eBay banner ads. They went something like "The thing you want in Washington, is sitting on a shelf in Ohio. Who knew?" He is doing exactly what eBay started out doing. The local area might not care about the book, but someone does. And there is value in it.

    One year I decided to get a music keyboard on sale at Target for my kids for Christmas. The two Target locations near me were sold out. One in a poorer area had a ton in stock. Each market is different. Don't assume that the books in one area will always appeal to the locals. I have sold books on Half.com for much more than I paid at the local resale shop after it was marked down several times, and I didn't even have a scanner. Just a hunch.

  13. Re:Politics of envy on How to Heartlessly Arbitrage Used Books With a PDA · · Score: 1

    Maybe they think instead of buying the books to resell, they should spend money on a PDA, scan all the books at a bookstore for free, and inform the bookstore owner that his prices are too low for these books. There is nothing stopping the bookstore from doing their own research. In fact, it would be even easier for a bookstore to do it. I know of one bookstore that listed most of his inventory on ABE at different prices than in the store. When it sold online, he'd erase the price he wrote in the book in pencil. The only objections I can see are to the people who grab a stack of books and block the aisle, or make the staff put them all back, or scan all day and not buy anything, etc.

  14. Re:Why it's shameful on How to Heartlessly Arbitrage Used Books With a PDA · · Score: 1

    Some people have fun doing it. One article said he was making $1,000 per week doing it on average, which for $52,000/year is not too shabby. Though he did work 80 hours per week.

  15. Re:So why don't the sellers do this? on How to Heartlessly Arbitrage Used Books With a PDA · · Score: 1

    There are many used book stores that sell online via ABE or Amazon. A better strategy if they don't want these people in their stores is to inform them that all books are scanned when acquired so all the good ones are already for sale online.

  16. Linux distro? on Word Processors — One Writer's Further Retreat · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there a Linux distro that would boot right into a text editor?

  17. Re:Quit yer damn whinning on Wikipedia Reveals Secret of 'The Mousetrap' · · Score: 1

    So if I've never seen the play, and I go to the library and read the end of the book, then go tell people, I am not bound to that oral contract.

  18. Re:Tell it to the plastic clown on Uniforms For the Help Desk? · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is why I buy security uniform ties. One swift yank and the Velcro(TM) closure opens.

  19. Re:There's more than one way to do it. on Dumbing Down Programming? · · Score: 1

    We worry about when a bunch of non-programmers get hold of things like this, then say things like "It took me an hour to build this program, why do you guys take months to build yours?" Used to happen to me all the time with Microsoft Access, I'm sure that still happens all the time now. "I build this database in 10 minutes in Access, why does it take days in Oracle or SQL Server??"

  20. Club Bing on Bing Gains 10% Marketshare · · Score: 1

    My mother in law spends a large amount of time on the Club Bing website, playing their stupid games in order to win points for prizes. The word games there are silly, most centering on "how many words can you make out of these seven letters". Every time you type in a word, it does a Bing search for that word. Get enough people trying to win Bing points for free things, and it will skew the search results.

  21. Don't forget other movie tie ins. on Tron Legacy Exposed · · Score: 1
  22. Re:Porn is obscene only if it has no plot on US Couple Gets Prison Time For Internet Obscenity · · Score: 1

    The company that made it is in South America. However, I believe that a lawyer for the group went to prison in Florida because he was associated with the company that made it.

  23. Re:Be useful. on What To Do With 78 USB Drives Next Christmas? · · Score: 1

    Did you try Deal Extreme?

  24. Re:Shit on Cola Consumption Can Lead To Muscle Problems · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pregnant for the last six years?

  25. Corporations and stolen laptops on Alienware Refusing Customers As Thieves · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A laptop was stolen from our company in August 2008. Two weeks ago, the most recent purchaser acquired it off of eBay and called Panasonic to get tech support when something wasn't working. Panasonic said "That laptop is stolen, please contact this company." We ended up buying it back from this guy for what he paid for it.