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User: Creepy

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  1. Re:Simple on Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up? · · Score: 1

    Back in college (LOOOONG ago) I often used pico because of vi's arcane command set and emacs equally bad commmand set and abhorrent load time (it took 2+ minutes to start on our minicomputer, which consisted of 6 6502 processors - it was basically 6 Apple ][s and we had faster PCs and macs in other labs, but they didn't have Pascal, which was still the learning language of choice until they year after I had it). Oddly enough, I learned vi later because of some of the things it could do that pico couldn't (at least not at the time), especially searching for and removing linefeeds and other hidden characters from files. Hidden characters caused problems when I started writing my code on my home computer and transferring it to the UNIX server via network drive for testing/debugging.

  2. Re:old school a little bit... on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Games To Have In Your Collection? · · Score: 1

    Space Harrier and 1942 both had a design flaw in that if you just keep circling you never die. I beat Space Harrier with that and gave up on 1942 after about 4 hours of play because I had to go home (and handed the game to some kid with a whole bunch of lives left). If I recall correctly, even when dip switched to hard 1942 was still easy. The flaw was fixed in the sequel.

    I liked Rush 'N Attack more than Commando, but probably my all time favorite "classic" arcade game is Bosconian. It was never super popular, but it did win a bunch of awards. First game with a continue timer, too. I also absolutely loved Rolling Thunder, but hated the sequel (graphics on the original looked better, IMO) and never played the Genesis second sequel. I also loved Shinobi (I liked side scrollers a lot, can't say I'm as big of a fan these days).

  3. Re:Does anyone get the impression.. on DHS Mistakenly Releases 840 Pages of Critical Infrastructure Documents · · Score: 2

    There is no such thing as whistle blowing in the US, since the US classifies giving classified information to "someone that is not supposed to have it" as treason under the Espionage Act of 1917.

    And it isn't just whistle blowing - the White House recently committed treason by exposing the CIA operative in Afghanistan, for instance (and then said "whoops"). Note that the White House decided not to prosecute itself, just as it chose not to prosecute Dick Cheney and Richard Armitage for the same crime (in Plamegate).

  4. Re:How fitting on Study: People Would Rather Be Shocked Than Be Alone With Their Thoughts · · Score: 1

    If I do it sitting down, I usually do stuff like create and flesh out characters as if I was writing a novel, I've sat in slow bake tanning beds in the winter (24 minutes, less intense radiation than standard beds, so it takes a long time) where I probably couldn't take it if I didn't exercise my mind that way. Not that I use tanning beds often - once every 2-3 years or so during a depressingly long winter.

  5. Re:His choices... on The Internet's Own Boy · · Score: 1

    Series of bad choices? The main one is making the public domain articles in JSTOR available on the Internet instead of having to pay a dime a page for a copy (yes, PUBLIC DOMAIN). It was the government calling that a Terms of Service violation and thus "wire fraud" which is a felony under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (a horribly loose law that lifts wording directly from the Espionage Act of 1917, which itself is possibly the worst piece of legislation on the books). According to the CFAA, using the internet is a felony punishable by 30 years in prison if you basically visit any for profit website and use an alias. In other words, visiting /. is a felony unless you're using your real name.

    The CFAA was meant for one main purpose - to protect ATM transactions. It was never meant for networked computers like the internet and should not be used as such. This is a blatant abuse of power by the US government, as is the espionage charge against Snowden (sorry, but you can't commit espionage by giving information to your own people - that is really fucked up - it is purely theft).

  6. Re:time to die... on X Window System Turns 30 Years Old · · Score: 1

    I saw the film on TV first, but my memory of it was foggy until I saw it again on VHS many years later. They ran it as a precursor to the TV series the first time I saw it, with the nudity edited out (which is quite significant for a PG movie). I was at an age where I had to beg my parents to let me see Star Wars because it was PG and had "Wars" in the name, so it was well before my tweens.

  7. Re:time to die... on X Window System Turns 30 Years Old · · Score: 2

    Except Carousel is at 21 years of age :)

    I know, you are referring to the film, though - they extended it to 30 so they could use "known" actors and actresses.

  8. Re: Most qualified and motivated candidates? on Yahoo's Diversity Record Is Almost As Bad As Google's · · Score: 1

    Yeah, it is hard to tell in some cases, too. When you work for a diversified multinational company like I do, you can have 5% women in your IT division and 85% women in your health division. We also outsource far more jobs in India and China than we have in Europe or America, and in both those countries, tech is not taboo for women, so their ratios are vastly higher.

  9. Re:Most qualified and motivated candidates? on Yahoo's Diversity Record Is Almost As Bad As Google's · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Finding qualified women is less difficult than finding qualified blacks as long as you aren't looking for qualified _white_ women. If I scrap management and QA from my company, we have exactly one white woman in tech. We have as many Hispanic women. To put that in perspective, we have more (at least semi) out of the closet gay and lesbians than either of those (with at least 3 lesbians in management). The only black guy I work (directly) with is native Ethiopian who attended college in the US and then got a green card and eventually citizenship.

    When I interviewed prospective employees last, I interviewed 40 (mostly) white men, 0 women, 1 person of color (Indian from India), and one man from Ecuador that spoke English poorly. How are you supposed to diversify when you don't even have diverse candidates? We ended up hiring a white guy and the person from India, even though I recommended against him (most of the white guys were better qualified). Incidentally, HR wanted us to hire a woman for diversity reasons, but that is kind of difficult given that we didn't have any female candidates. We have hired women for my site, but mostly in India and China and then relocated them.

  10. Re:Ummm on Google: Indie Musicians Must Join Streaming Service Or Be Removed · · Score: 0

    yeah - my thoughts exactly, as well.

  11. Re:"HTML5 video" doesn't actually exist. on Netflix Ditches Silverlight For HTML5 On Macs · · Score: 1

    Yep, and Netflix has even said that the reason the DRM is there is because the studios require it. Even when Netflix told them some of it is easy to work around (like region requirements), they still required it, and thus we get plugins like mediahint.

  12. Re:Sweden on Seattle Approves $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage · · Score: 1

    First off, let me say that I agree with your point - I am against the business subsidies of low wages.

    But I think you're envisioning a very small subset of Socialism, specifically the subset applied to Communism.

    I'm a full blown Socialist as far as my own business goes, since each employee owns a full quarter of it and (generally) earns 1/4 of the profits from it. Yep, that form of Socialism is basically Capitalism with joint employee ownership (yes, you still sell your goods and make a profit). In fact, this is the original form and probably clearest form of what Marx meant by Socialism. Where it got mucky is when merged with Communist doctrine where instead of profiting from the goods, you basically barter them for other goods. This got morphed even further with Lenin/Stalin-ism where the state just takes your excess production and distributes it as it pleases.

    I also work for a full blown capitalist company with a multimillionaire CEO and peons getting paid much, much less (but still a comfortable amount, since I'm salaried in a tech company).

    In any case, people seem to think Socialism just in terms of Communist doctrine and not that it spans between Capitalism and Communism depending on whether the goods are sold or traded for other goods you (hopefully) want. Since Marxism is a total pipe dream, I'd have to say I'm anti-Communism, since the "Socialism" practiced in other forms of Communism means the state takes your goods and redistributes them as it chooses and gives you what it thinks you want.

  13. Re:Sweden on Seattle Approves $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage · · Score: 1

    To employers, the proper wage is the market clearing wage where employees accept the wages offered by the employer. For every employer who pays below the market wage, another pays the market wage, and the worker choses the employer who pays more.

    That works until there are no jobs at the other business. I would far rather work for Costco than WalMart, but the Costco jobs fill quickly and have few openings and there are always openings at WalMart. WalMart then uses that as a reason to cut wages further to boost profits and suddenly nearly all of their employees depend on federal subsidies paid by taxpayers.

    Boosting minimum wage pulls many of these people off of welfare and may even make them taxpaying citizens. I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing Sam Walton's low prices. We should be paying the actual value of goods including human labor costs, not a taxpayer subsidized number. This is also why I'm opposed to wage subsidies - what a horrible solution - take away welfare subsidies and make wage subsidies and all you've done is move numbers around on paper and not fixed the problem.

  14. Re:Sweden on Seattle Approves $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage · · Score: 1

    It is widely believed (and disputed) that Stalin intentionally caused events such as the Holodomor (Ukrainian famine). I think sending propaganda into the Ukraine saying "don't eat your children" instead of food says it all, though.

  15. Re:Sweden on Seattle Approves $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage · · Score: 1

    Socialism is an economic system and many people seem to think it's a political system. The political-economic system is Communism, which uses a state controlled form of Socialism (but even that is ass-backward according to Marxism - the people are supposed to voluntarily give excess production to the state, not get it taken by the state, but now we're delving into Lenninism/Stalinism).

    What people use the term "socialist country" they mean welfare state, because every single one of those countries is, in fact, mostly capitalist (but just like America, there are employee owned businesses which are socialist such as co-ops).

  16. Re:Some thing are not worth aiding on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 1

    Well currently it doesn't matter - any whistleblowing to anyone that can't legally see the documents is treason by current law, so your only choice is to go through your superiors, which Snowden did and his grievances were ignored. Basically, all this says is now you are obliged to bring these things up with your superiors when you see them so you can quickly be tossed in a tiny isolated cell and be called a threat to national security before you take the next step and tell the press.

  17. Re:Some thing are not worth aiding on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 1

    What Snowden did was illegal and treason according to the Espionage Act of 1917. Of course, the Espionage Act of 1917 is entirely broken and redefines treason as giving any confidential information to anyone that isn't supposed to have it. Heck, the White House itself committed treason just last week when it revealed the name of the CIA head in Afghanistan.

    Furthermore, the NSA's charter forbids it from collecting information on Americans, but they've wanted their fingers in that honeypot for a long time. They got bashed on the wrist for illegal wiretapping under Nixon, Carter scolded them for phone tapping again and told them to stop, and then they got in trouble again with Echelon, since it scoops up all information from all satellites, including US communications. The NSA only has jurisdiction when one end of the communication is in a foreign country (and only then because of and since the Patriot Act). Anything else is illegal for them to do, since it is FBI jurisdiction and under tighter rules.

  18. Re:Ellsberg got a fair trial on Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden Would Not Get a Fair Trial – and Kerry Is Wrong · · Score: 1

    And they actually committed espionage. Nobody that has actually committed whistleblowing has finished a trial when accused of espionage under this act - in Ellsberg's case, it was thrown out due to illegal evidence gathering.

  19. Re:Ellsberg got a fair trial on Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden Would Not Get a Fair Trial – and Kerry Is Wrong · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's the problem with the Espionage Act of 1917 - it defines espionage as giving any confidential information to anyone that isn't supposed to have it (and yes, in that loosely worded terminology). That means Richard Armitage, likely Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby, and someone at the White House for last week's press release of the CIA head in Afghanistan are all guilty of treason.

    I really question of whether even Ellsberg would have walked if it weren't for the gross misconduct of evidence gathering (you know Nixon loved his wiretapping). He certainly was guilty of the Espionage Act of 1917. I suspect had he been convicted, a legal battle over the Constitutionality of the act would have ensued, but it was delayed by the case's dismissal. I doubt either the Espionage Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (which was designed using the Espionage Act as a template) could stand a serious court challenge.

  20. Re:Ellsberg got a fair trial on Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden Would Not Get a Fair Trial – and Kerry Is Wrong · · Score: 1

    The problem is the NSA violating its charter against spying on Americans, not their spying on foreigners. That is the job of the FBI and they have a lot more judicial oversight. The NSA has gotten in trouble for overstepping into FBI jurisdiction multiple times all the way back to Watergate, and once again needs to be reigned in. The exceptions put in after 9/11 seem pretty far stretched to justify collecting bulk metadata on American calls by the NSA, and it certainly is out of their jurisdiction (they should only be able to collect information on calls where at least one end is in a foreign country).

    As for spying on our foreign allies, I think it is a dick move on our part, but it certainly is in the jurisdiction of the NSA. I'm a little mixed on that one - while it is in NSA jurisdiction, it shows our paranoia is pretty damn acute.

  21. Re:Ellsberg got a fair trial on Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden Would Not Get a Fair Trial – and Kerry Is Wrong · · Score: 1

    He is guilty of giving the documents to friendly press, not everybody. The press then revealed some of the exposed documents, but not all of them, and censored some information. This is different than Manning, who revealed the documents to a bulk dump leak site.

    The real problem is the espionage charge, though. This is based on the loosely worded and likely unconstitutional Espionage Act of 1917, which states that giving Confidential information to anyone that "is not supposed to have it" is illegal. The White House itself has committed treason by this standard by revealing the name of the CIA top official in Afghanistan last week.

    As long as the espionage charge stands, I don't think Snowden can get a fair trial in the US. With Obama backing the espionage charge, there is no way he gets pardoned. In fact, I'd say there is a better chance he gets hung than there is he gets a pardon, despite the government promise that they won't chase execution for the espionage charge.

  22. Re:Oh China... on China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative · · Score: 1

    oh that's where _nsakey.lkm comes from (kidding - it's a joke referring to _NSAKEY

  23. Re:Hydroelectric killed 280,000 people in 1 accide on Waste Management: The Critical Element For Nuclear Energy Expansion · · Score: 1

    I've actually never heard of a silver solar cell; usually they use the same elements used in computer chips like silicon, cadmium telluride or gallium arsenic.

    I have to back that post on the ugly house, though - my parents had solar heat, which was ridiculous because they got about 8 hours of sun during the winter if there was any at all. And at best got 1-2 hours of decent heating for their 6 giant ugly panels. This is my biggest issue with solar - it tends to be off when you need it most (if used for electrical, you need it most in the evening). That said, with decent battery technology it may be worth it.

  24. Re:!?!?!? 500,000 is more than zero on Waste Management: The Critical Element For Nuclear Energy Expansion · · Score: 1

    The skin actually is very good at protecting against the radiation from alpha and beta emitters (most of what was leaked), so playing in the water may have little to no effect. Drinking it is an entirely different story. Burns to the skin happen the same as if you hang out too long under the great nuclear reactor in the sky (aka sunburns).

    Funny thing is, I never hear people bitching about the uranium kicked out of coal plants or the radon in natural gas, both of which are likely inhaled and bad things to inhale. One of the biggest killers in tobacco is polonium, part of the natural decay cycle of radon (in tobacco it comes from fertilizer).

  25. Re:Hydroelectric killed 280,000 people in 1 accide on Waste Management: The Critical Element For Nuclear Energy Expansion · · Score: 1

    Actually, the MSR was designed by the same guy that designed pressurized water reactors (or PWRs - the guy is Alvin Weinberg). Nixon had him fired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for promoting it over PWRs because he was getting a bunch of reactors built in his home state of California and that meant jobs for Californians. Stalling those projects to redesign would mean a crapload of Californians were out of work, and that was against Nixon's agenda.

    Just saying Alvin didn't need to learn by other people's mistakes, they were his own :D