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User: hedwards

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Comments · 12,373

  1. Re:This is what Ronald Regan protected us from on Abandoned UK National Health Service IT System Has Cost $16bn... So Far · · Score: 1

    We already know what the results will be, the care will improve, the costs will go down and if it doesn't work, the private insurers will be removed from the equation. That's basically what happened in the UK when they first tried to reform health care.

  2. Re:This is what Ronald Regan protected us from on Abandoned UK National Health Service IT System Has Cost $16bn... So Far · · Score: 1

    That's because most people that use the term "Obamacare" are doing it to disparage the President. I use the term because it's an accomplishment that the President should be proud of. It's just that until next month when people can start signing up, a lot of people view it as a failed initiative. Even though those plans don't start until the first of the year.

    As soon as people start to actually get those plans, it's going to be impossible for the GOP to get them away from us. It's also harder to scare people about health related matters when they have access to affordable health care.

  3. Re:This is what Ronald Regan protected us from on Abandoned UK National Health Service IT System Has Cost $16bn... So Far · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's because you're crazy. But, thankfully you'll be able to get affordable coverage starting in a few months.

    Honestly, when you look at the cost of health care in America compared with even the most expensive systems in the developed world, the costs are higher here and the outcomes are inferior.

    In other words, it may cost more in the near term as preventative care becomes more accessible. But, fewer people using the ER for primary care and fewer bankruptcies caused by medical bills should start to bring the costs down fairly quickly. Then in a few decades the savings from preventative care should be apparent.

    It's mostly people who watch Fox Noise and have no idea what it is that they're paying for when they go to the doctor's office that are afraid. All that charity care isn't being paid for by the government, it's being tacked on to the cost of insurance.

  4. Re:Excellent! on Abandoned UK National Health Service IT System Has Cost $16bn... So Far · · Score: 2

    That's the thing, there's always going to be problems with the health care system, but when one system spends twice as much per capita as another, for worse results, only a die hard fascist would continue to support profits being made for inferior results.

  5. Re:No Surprise on Secret Court Upholds Phone Data Collection · · Score: 0

    That's how we wound up with President Bush. The vote wouldn't have been close enough for SCrOTUmS to steal from Gore had people not been voting for Nader.

  6. Re:No Surprise on Secret Court Upholds Phone Data Collection · · Score: 2

    The last 3rd party candidate to do that was Roosevelt. The only person in my lifetime to get anywhere near that was Ross Perot. And even he wasn't able to crack 20% of the popular vote.

  7. Re:No Surprise on Secret Court Upholds Phone Data Collection · · Score: 1

    In many cases the other guy is even worse than the incumbent. Granted this is a huge issue, but it's hardly the only issue. The same Libertarians that are usually standing up to this stuff are also the same Libertarians that are for abolishing various workers' rights and generally deregulating things.

    That's your typical alternative.

    Bottom line is that until the states take away the right of the parties to handle their own nominations and the right of the ruling party to draw the districting lines, this isn't likely to change. To date 48 out of 50 states still permit the ruling party to draw the districting lines. A top 2 primary combined with that tends to push the parties closer together to the point that they can actually talk.

    Or just vote the GOP out of office as they're the ones that started this and they're the ones that refuse to compromise on anything. It's not like they're a viable party at this point anyways, they only have seats because of gerrymandering.

  8. Re:Universal Acclaim? on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 1

    Fox News isn't a news organization, they're an entertainment channel. They regularly make up things to broadcast and broadcast them long past the point where everybody else realizes that they're not true. They were the last ones to stop claiming that Obamacare included death panels even though they could have simply read the entire act and found that there were never any death panels in there.

    Hence the term Faux News, it's not real news, it's right wing propaganda from a company owned by a foreigner. That spends a lot of time spewing xenophobic trash.

  9. Re:Universal Acclaim? on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 1

    Oh, good, that's what I'm planning to do next week after my CC billing date. Looks to be an awesome phone, I loved my Nexus One, but it's getting rather long in the tooth. Having 16gb of storage space and a bit larger screen is going to make my Plecco much nicer to use.

    Plus, the wireless charging is something I missed from that back I had for my Razr. It's nice to just set the phone down and not have to worry about damaging the jack late at night.

  10. Re:Obama and the FCC dont get cell phone tech on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 1

    Sprint refuses to allow any phones that don't have their logo to connect to their network, regardless of whether or not they use the right portion of the spectrum. It's why I canceled my contract with them for AT&T. I kind of regret doing it because the Sprint network around here is much better and AT&T is run by asshats.

  11. Re:Promised fulfilled on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And he did bring change, he brought an astonishing amount of change seeing as the GOP asshats in congress have spent the last nearly 5 years shooting down even their own proposals to destroy his Presidency.

    Apparently getting 90% of what they want isn't sufficient they have to get that remaining 10% as well.

    But, despite of that DADT is gone, DOMA is gone, we have Obamacare, the President actually waited for the UN in Libya. Not to mention we did get some banking reforms, even if they weren't anywhere near enough and the economy has been slowly on the mend. Slowed mainly by the refusal of the GOP to do anything to help the progress out.

  12. Re:Promised fulfilled on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 1

    It's not a loan, it's extortion. You pay the "loan" whether or not you borrow money for a phone. The only difference is whether or not you're required to have a contract. I think T-Mobile might offer a discount for not borrowing for a phone, but AT&T doesn't.

    I've been using a T-Mobile phone on AT&T's network for years because the 3G service was so spotty that it was faster to turn it off and stick with EDGE anyways due to the constant finding and losing of signals.

  13. Re:What's the difference? on OpenZFS Project Launches, Uniting ZFS Developers · · Score: 1

    Selective encryption means that you have to be incredibly careful that sensitive data never hits a non-encrypted portion of the disk. So, I'd say that the full disk encryption is the cleaner option.

  14. Re:Advatages of ZFS over BTRFS? on OpenZFS Project Launches, Uniting ZFS Developers · · Score: 1

    It means the files were lost from the filesystem, and he was notified and recovered them from the backups. Which is a hell of a lot more than what other filesystems would do for you. One of the benefits of ZFS is that it makes it a lot easier to monitor for bit rot.

  15. Re:Advatages of ZFS over BTRFS? on OpenZFS Project Launches, Uniting ZFS Developers · · Score: 2

    That's never been true, you always had the option of detaching it or outright deleting just one disk, you just had to make sure you did it in a careful manner so as not to delete things you didn't want to delete.

    Also resizing a volume on a disk is a risky operation to engage in. If it's something that you really need to do, the correct way is to back up the data to a separate disk and restore it to a new volume. Resizing volumes is not exactly in keeping with the philosophy that led to ZFS being created.

  16. Re:all i want is BP-rewrite on OpenZFS Project Launches, Uniting ZFS Developers · · Score: 1

    Why would ZFS need defrag support? UFS never had defrag support and the only times that ever became a problem was when the disk was running out of room. Which is bad for performance reasons anyways.

  17. Re:Because of FED on True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous) · · Score: 1

    Inflation is well over 1.5%, how much is hard to say since the Fed no longer tracks it. They eliminated the effort a few years back. And even then it was laughable. The CPI wouldn't include things like rent, gas or food, you know the things that the poor spend most of their money on so that the picture didn't look as bleak.

  18. Re:Because of FED on True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous) · · Score: 1

    Of course not, small businesses are actually contributing more than they take, which means they can't possibly be sound for investment.

    Bottom line is that as long as the idiots in the peanut gallery keep demanding deregulation, we're not going to have the kind of competition necessary for a free market to develop. As the incumbent players aren't interested in competing.

  19. Re: I have mixed feelings about this. on Doubleclick Cofounder Responds to Patent Troll by Filing Extortion Lawsuit · · Score: 1

    If they want us to look so bad, perhaps they shouldn't use flash ads that obscure content and other tricks to get clicks fraudulently. I only have a 5mbps connection and a lot of those ads are so corpulent that it slows down what should be a quickly loading site.

  20. Re: I have mixed feelings about this. on Doubleclick Cofounder Responds to Patent Troll by Filing Extortion Lawsuit · · Score: 1

    Calling somebody what they are is disrespectful and insulting?

    That explains a lot.

  21. Re:Surely they mean 2001 on Belgium Investigates Suspected Cyber Spying By Foreign State · · Score: 2

    By and large he did mend things though. The Chinese absolutely love him and he's done a far better job of mending things with the Europeans than either McCain or Romney would have.

    As for the Nobel Peace Prize, signalling to the world that a black man can be elected President of a nation that's mainly populated by black people is significant. It's never happened before and it's something worth recognizing.

    Compared to the Nobel Peace Prizes given out in 1994 it made at least some sense. Giving the Peace Prize out to terrorists and war criminals pretty much debased the prize to the point where it's not a worthy accomplishment any more.

  22. Re:Surely they mean 2001 on Belgium Investigates Suspected Cyber Spying By Foreign State · · Score: 0

    Why? Obama never promised to stop spying on foreign nations and such a policy would be completely irresponsible.

    Then again, you're a troll so what do I care what you think.

  23. Re:Country spies on other country on Belgium Investigates Suspected Cyber Spying By Foreign State · · Score: 3, Informative

    And Israel spies on the US more than anybody else. It's hardly a shocker that the US would be spying on Belgium, I'm sure we're spying on pretty much everybody.

    Doesn't necessarily make it right, but it's unrealistic to believe that they aren't spying on us as well. It's how international relations work. Perhaps someday that will change, but until then, nobody can allow others to do that without also joining in.

  24. Re:Not Completely Safe on USB "Condom" Allows You To Practice Safe Charging · · Score: 1

    Windows 8 wasn't sufficient? I just have a Windows 8 logo on my phone and that was enough to get mine returned with crude note questioning my parentage.

  25. Re:*yawn* these have around for years? on USB "Condom" Allows You To Practice Safe Charging · · Score: 1

    That irritates me. Sometimes I just want to plug the item into the computer and have it charge, but some devices won't let me do that. They insist that they be fully connected, or they won't charge. But, if they're fully connected, they won't charge because they're being accessed.

    I may end up getting one of these for that reason.