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User: Gorkamecha

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Comments · 57

  1. "relentlessly automating and merging the best of our optimized business models with the best new thinking and technologies." AKA let the best PowerPoint win.

  2. New Metric required on Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus (nytimes.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can we use a new metric in place of Jobs?
    Jobs might have meant something back in the day - but the word has been mangled so completely it could mean "well paying blue collar work" or it could be "third shift, part time apprentices who have to pay for their own uniforms"

    How about instead we expect a "wealth" metric like "We plan to employ X million dollars of employees"?

    ...they won't of course. They don't want us regular plebs being able to do the math in our heads.
    "Wait....we we're giving you 1 billion/y in tax breaks, and you're only bringing in 1/2 billion/yr in wealth......"

  3. What do they expect to find? on New Zealand Travelers Refusing Digital Search Now Face $5000 Customs Fine (msn.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm curious what customs expects to find on my phone that a normal strip search would find? Weapons? Is there a way to smuggle in drugs, or farm animals, or plant life on my phone that I'm missing? Is this all about child porn??

  4. Re:The TSA boondoggle needs to be terminated on TSA Screeners Can't Detect Weapons (and They Never Could) (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    What's the incentive for the individual politician to fix the problem? If he votes to tear it down, and tomorrow someone figures out a new way to blow up a plane, he will be blamed for removing the "protection" for "bean counting". He just needs to grumble with a "but what can you do, the /other/ guys won't do anything to remove it" and he's got the same bump. System's borked.

  5. It's always manipulating the results.... on Can Google Influence Elections? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's always manipulating the results....by design. Google will show you the links that it thinks the majority of people are looking for, based on your search term. It might even adjust them a bit if it knows more about you. So if I'm a minority candidate in an election, with a weak online campaign, there is a chance my content is filtered out simply because Google thinks I'm noise. Or I'm pushed several pages down in the listings. As a person using google, I can tweak my search to find better results, but only if I know the results are there to find." What color of lipstick does Trinity wear in the matrix" will get me a vastly different answer from "What color lipstick do movie stars wear?" Same for politics - "What candidate supports gun control" will get you a different result from "What candidate is looking to limit the caliber of rifles to .22". Both could get me a politician, but the first is going to get me a far more generic "popular" link then the much more specific second. And if I don't know I'm looking for the second guy, I might stop at the first.

  6. Re:Shame on them on Clam That Was Killed Determining Its Age Was Over 100 Years Older Than Estimated · · Score: 2

    +1 Groan

  7. Re:I'm at a loss for words. on TSA's VIPR Bites Rail, Bus, and Ferry Passengers · · Score: 1

    Well played sir, well played.

  8. I'm at a loss for words. on TSA's VIPR Bites Rail, Bus, and Ferry Passengers · · Score: 5, Funny

    How is this possibly of any use to anyone. Hey, TSA! I have this rock that keeps me safe from terrorist. To date, it's be 100% effective at protecting me and everyone else I interact with from terrorism. It's also had zero false positives! I'll be happy to sell you my rock at the bargain price of 250 Million dollars. For another 50 million, my rock will also protect you from vampires, space aliens and Bears (The football team, not the animal.)

  9. Re:jurisdiction? on Share Links, Become Extradited To the US · · Score: 1

    So the lesson is move all your stuff from a .com to a .uk.

  10. Back in my day... on Do Gadgets Degrade Our Common Sense? · · Score: 1

    Back in my day, we didn't use any sort of "books" or "writing" to remember stuff. If we needed to remember we did! And if someone else needed to know, they came and they asked the person who did! All these books are going to do is rot your memory! Besides, how do you know if that book is true or not? People are going to believe 100% of what some damn fool writes in that book! Then what will happen! Everyone in the village will have no memory and be believing a bunch of lies, that's what!

  11. I've been robbed... on 77 Million Accounts Stolen From Playstation Network · · Score: 2

    I've been robbed, and I'm not even sure what they have stolen. I've had my PS3 for years, it collects dust most of the time lately - But I'm sure I setup a PSN account back in the day. So, I know they have some data. I have a pretty good idea what that data is - But I can't be sure. And since their site is down, I can't go in and check. Wonderful. And I'm getting this info from the media - Where's my letter saying "Hey, we got robbed, they took this and it was yours." Or some sort of note. Anything. Sony...Hello?

  12. Too good on Why Has Blu-ray Failed To Catch Hold? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Honestly, the quality is too good - You can see the wizard behind the curtain. Real life example: My geeks friends and I were all standing around watching Iron man 2 on a super huge LCD screen at best buy. It was the scene where Tony escapes his captors in the clunky MKI armor. We all noted that the suit looked like plastic, not metal. That you could see where the joints didn't quite connect. In short, the illusion was shattered. I haven't bought a blue ray video since. (I have a PS3, I own a few blueray films that I got for the extra features - But I prefer to watch plain old DVDs.)

  13. Re:Great! on Sony Says PSP2 "As Powerful as PS3" · · Score: 2

    Yes, but only until you pay for it, at which point that feature is automatically disabled.

  14. Wrong market - Wrong target audience on Wireless GeForce Graphics Card Announced · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This baby is not for gamers or engineers. It's for marketing and sales. Remote screens at trade shows and in a show rooms pumping out messages while all the ugly boxes are tucked away in a room elsewhere. No un-slightly wires to trip over or to run. Funky little kiosks that float in the open air. That kind of thing.

  15. WoW authenticator - But for everything. on Passwords Are the Weakest Link In Online Security · · Score: 1

    Why not a universal authenticator? At the very least, I could see a common system setup by the banks here in North America allow the use of any debit card to work on almost every debit machine.

    I'm not sure why my video game character is the most secure bit of digital data I have.

  16. Why not just take driving away? on US May Disable All Car Phones, Says Trans. Secretary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, it seems to me the #1 cause of accidents is the bag of meat behind the wheel. Automate the whole damn system. It would help cut traffic problems as well. Sure the system might flip out now and then and a few hundred people could die, but really, it would still be less then the number of people who get killed on the road in any given month.

  17. Re:This has all happened before. on BSG Prequel Series Caprica Canceled · · Score: 1

    I'm skipping most of the earth stuff in Stargate Universe....Additionally, they need to figure out who the audience is supposed to be identifying/cheering for - Other then the gamer nerd, everyone on that ship is a jerk. Currently, I'm cheering for Rush, because at least he gets sh!t done.

    As for Caprica, that writing universe lost me with the BSG final. The Final was the writer's chance to prove that the last couple years weren't a total waste of my time.

  18. More then the sum of its parts? on Gambling On Bacteria · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought the research was pointing at the fact that bacteria seem to function as collectives and are therefore more complex then their individual components would indicate. http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html

  19. Re:Wait... on Pope Says Technology Causes Confusion Between Reality and Fiction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're not supposed to have free time - Any time that you're not working in the fields for your King/Leader/Authority figure you should be spending in contemplation on how awful a person you are, and begging for forgiveness for that. At least that's my understanding of the situation.

  20. Re:simple math on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 1

    Does a construction worker continue to get money after he's finished the road you're driving on?
    Does the engineer still get money after he finishes the plans for a bridge? (Even though he will catch hell if that bridge falls).
    Does any drone at any major tech firm get on going money for the sale of the widget he helped create?
    There are all sorts of people out there that create a lasting, reused idea within society and have to survive on whatever the market valued that idea at when it was first created. Once you've released your idea into the wild, you've lost it. Why should society create a special bubble to protect the person who can't negotiate what they believe is a fair market price?

  21. Re:Privacy paranoia on Privacy Machiavellis · · Score: 1

    Then maybe you shouldn't have given that information to Facebook.

    I don't understand why people trust things that are important to them to total strangers, and then freak out when the stranger does something they didn't see coming. Would you hand your wallet to a stranger, while you ran into the bathroom?

  22. Re:It's News, but... on TSA Worker Jailed In Body Scan Rage Incident · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It highlights the personality types of the people we've trusted with this technology. It additionally demonstrates that there is enough private information shared by the device to create a uncomfortable breach of privacy.

  23. Re:Answer: No. Unless you only mean video. on Is HTML5 Ready To Take Over From Flash? · · Score: 1

    Games or creating specific styles of user activity. I've seen some amazingly beautiful websites that require flash to execute some of their tricks.

    I'm aware this is /. so functionality will trump form, but flash does some things that are pretty much impossible to pull off with just JS.

    Plus, given that flash is more or less browser independent, it's easier to create a ubiquitous user experience. That was always the big selling point in my mind for flash....it took me out of the browser wars.

  24. X-ray? on Hollow Spy Coins · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't this look bizarre under an x-ray, given change is usually zapped by itself in a little bowl? I'm not sure I risk a full cavity search trying to fly internationally with one of these...

  25. Re:Why isn't China a Partner? on ACTA Internet Chapter Leaked — Bad For Everyone · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wait, I thought Canadians were the biggest pirates on the planet? (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117939142.html?categoryid=19&cs=1&nid=2570)