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User: wcrowe

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  1. Pancho Barnes said it best on Moon Landing By Israel's Beresheet Spacecraft Appears To End In Crash (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1, Insightful

    'See, some peckerwood's gotta get the thing up. And some peckerwood's gotta land the son of a bitch. And that "peckerwood" is called a "pilot."'

  2. We need SimResources too on How 'SimCity' Inspired a Generation of City Planners (latimes.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wish there were also SimFood, SimEnergy, SimWater etc. Maybe it could all be covered under SimResources. Perhaps it would give millennial urbanites, who think that food, water and energy just magically show up at their local Starbucks, Trader Joes and so on, a clue as to where that stuff comes from and that the values and livelihoods of the people in other parts of the country who provide their food and energy actually matter.

  3. Re:If it creates a worldwide non-government on 'Bitcoin Could Cost Us Our Clean-Energy Future' (grist.org) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, you summer child. You are so naive.

  4. I hear it too on Why Some People Can Hear Silent GIF (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    That is, I sort of "hear" it. But I'm smart enough to know that it's just my brain "filling in the blanks" for me. My brain wants it to sound like a Pythonesque "thud", but if I concentrate I can also hear it going "boing, boing" or "ah-OOOH-gah, a-OOOH-gah!"

  5. Ha! I see what you did there! :-)

  6. I'm skeptical. on Deep Learning Is Eating Software (petewarden.com) · · Score: 1

    This sounds suspiciously like a lot of 4GL promises that were made in the 80s and 90s. They also sound like the kinds of promises made by Microsoft promoting their distributed data model based on Office. Many times I've seen users get in over their heads with systems that start out easy, but get complicated quickly. Worse, sometimes they ended up with processes that produced erroneous data. Ultimately, they resort to piling the whole smoldering hot mess onto the programmers, who have to "make it work" somehow.

  7. This reminds me of those US Post Office commercials from a few years ago that were trying to encourage businesses to mail invoices and receipts because "people want a paper copy".

  8. There is no such thing as "instant pickup" on Amazon Adds 'Instant Pickup Points' In US Brick-And-Mortar Push (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    I suspect you're stlll going to be standing in line, just like you would at any other brick and mortar store.

    I watched how this "free pickup" works at Lowes last week when I went to return something. The people came in to pick up what they had ordered online. First, there was a ton of paperwork. Then the service person had to go find the items from this cage area filled with other crap that people had bought online. Finally he returned with only one of the items, and had to explain to them that the other item wasn't in stock. All in all, the couple could have simply walked in, found their item in an aisle, and paid for it in the self checkout in about the same time or less.

  9. You're stupid if you can't get around this. on US Visitors May Have to Hand Over Social Media Passwords: DHS (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Step 1. Delete your Facebook Account before leaving your country.
    Step 2. Reply, "I don't have a Facebook Account" when asked.
    Step 3. Restart your Facebook Account at some later time.

    Problem solved.

  10. Great! Now they'll have an operating system that only takes 10 minutes to boot up instead of the 20 minutes currently required.

  11. "Samsung's Latest Unstable Hand Grenade Will Feature a Headphone Jack..."

    There. Fixed that for ya.

     

  12. Maybe because they are useless. on Alexa and Google Assistant Have a Problem: People Aren't Sticking With Voice Apps They Try (recode.net) · · Score: 1

    I think their biggest problem is that they are completely useless devices, while at the same time being highly intrusive. I cannot think of a single compelling reason to have one. There is nothing that would cause me to remark, "Wow! I can't wait until I get my Alexa so I can do _________ ."

  13. I want a list on Samsung Answers Burning Note 7 Questions, Vows Better Batteries (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    When I see the list of upper management people who were fired over this, I will consider buying another Samsung product. Otherwise, and especially in light of their "exploding" washing machine fiasco in November, I will continue to operate under the assumption that their QA problems have not been fixed. Disappointing too, since I used to think quite highly of Samsung products.

  14. Government looks after itself on US Announces Response To Russian Election Hacking [Update] (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    If you or I get hacked, and our computers are held for ransom, the FBI acts like, "Meh. We don't know who did it. Just pay the ransom." But if the DNC gets hacked, suddenly we know exactly who did it, and we're expelling diplomats and what not.

  15. "Every day" means each 24-hour rotation of the globe.
    "Everyday" means mediocre.

  16. Re:Unions are needed! on University of California's Outsourcing Is Wrong, Says US Lawmaker (computerworld.com) · · Score: 0

    Unions are needful. Kindly do the needful.

  17. Much as I dislike Mark Zuckerberg, the real problem is not him, nor Facebook, but the users who have made Facebook the " lynchpin of the distribution of news and information around the world..." I realize that Facebook is how a lot of people get their news, but the responsibility for that rests on the shoulders of the dumb shits who use it that way, not on Mark Zuckerberg. While Zuckerberg has made it clear that he would like for Facebook to become everyone's entire internet experience, that can't happen without the cooperation of the people using it.

  18. Re:But it's not like it's some sort of natural law on Android Users More Honest and Humble Than iPhone Users, Study Says (www.bgr.in) · · Score: 1

    I see a lot of reasons stated for using one type of phone over the other, and they are all good reasons based on individual needs or points of view. The one thing I haven't seen yet is a reason that's based on "status", which is what I was addressing. There may have been a time, back when the iPhone was a new thing, that it was a status symbol to own one, but smart phones are so common these days, and there are enough manufacturers, that I don't think anyone really pays attention to that sort of thing any more.

  19. But it's not like it's some sort of natural law on Android Users More Honest and Humble Than iPhone Users, Study Says (www.bgr.in) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The main reason I have an iPhone has nothing to do with status. It's because I like the way it works. I had an Android phone for a couple of years, but it was noticably slower than the iPhones of colleagues and friends. The iPhone seemed snappier. Additionally, I have a Macbook, iPad, iPod, and AppleTV. It makes sense to have a phone which is compatible with that universe. Again, I don't have these devices because of whatever "status" they might impart. I have them because I like the way they work.

    Besides, is there really some sort of status attached to an iPhone these days? They are ubiquitous -- even my 83-year-old father has one, and he doesn't even know what he has. He just makes calls and sends texts. If he has a problem, well, his phone has an Apple logo on it, and the Apple store has an Apple logo on it, so he knows he can go in there and some friendly person will help him with his phone. For him it's like taking your car into a mechanic. He has a GM car, so he takes it to the GM dealer when there is a problem. For him, that is how it is done. If an old fart like my dad has an iPhone, it can hardly be thought of as a status symbol.

    I would like to add that I also have friends and colleagues who have Android phones. They seem happy with their phones, and that's great. I do not, in any way, feel like I am superior just because I have an iPhone.

  20. Good luck changing human nature on Robot Babies Not Effective Birth Control, Australian Study Finds (sky.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that humans, particularly young human females, have an innate desire, probably driven by hormones, to reproduce, and no amount of scolding, cajoling, lecturing or whatever is going to override that.

  21. Solar city is moot on SolarCity Plans To Release New 'Solar Roof' Product Next Year (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Wake me when they're available in my city. zzzzZZZZ

  22. Bad news for expatriots on Canada's Police Chiefs Want New Law To Compel People To Reveal Passwords (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 1

    I guess that's bad news for all the grumblers out there threatening to "move to Canada" when their candidate doesn't get elected. :-D

  23. Botnet? on LinkedIn Sues 100 Individuals For Scraping User Data From the Site (betanews.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So they're saying a botnet was used to gain access to the data, then passed on to third parties. Unless I'm mistaken, the IP addresses will be pointing to machines on the botnet, and the owners of those machines have no idea that is happening. It sounds like a lot of innocent people might get swept up in this.

    Also ironic that LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, who is no doubt responsible for the operating systems running on all those bots on the aforementioned botnet.

  24. I call BS on More Airline Outages Seen As Carriers Grapple With Aging Technology (reuters.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is bullshit. Software does not "age" the same way that a car or a washing machine ages. The hardware can age, but the hardware can be replaced, and in this case we are talking about IBM software and hardware, which has a long-standing reputation for reliability and for maintaining backwards compatibility.

    I think the more likely story is that the interfaces to these systems are being compromised. That's why it's happening, first at one airline, then another. Someone, somewhere is fucking around with the airlines' reservation systems.

    I think these stories about "fires" and "aging" software is covering up for the fact that these systems are getting hacked. If people start to lose confidence in the systems they'll fly less or stop flying altogether.

  25. From consumers to products on Hackers Make the First-Ever Ransomware For Smart Thermostats (vice.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is why I don't understand the rush to have all these IOT devices in the house. I have a couple, but they are isolated, and if they were hacked I could still function without them. There seems to be a rush to have everything, from the washing machine, to the microwave, to the toaster hooked to the internet, and there seems to be even a push to build these devices so that they do not function without an internet connection. I used to be baffled as to why consumers would even want such things. But, of course, it is not the consumers who want all this IOT, but the vendors who sell the devices and the services, trying to turn us into the product.