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User: redshirt

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  1. Pot, meet Kettle on Warner Bros. Sued By Meme Creators Over Copyright Infringement · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Doesn't Nyan cat use the image of a Pop Tart as the body of the cat?

  2. Re:I suggest a better feature. on New Smart Gun Company Hopes To Begin Production This Summer · · Score: 1

    If it's as poorly written as most software, it would likely prompt:

    Would you like to cancel your trigger pull request?
    [ok][cancel]

  3. Justice Department is just like an HR department on National Security Letters Ruled Unconstitutional, Banned · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many people think that a corporation's Human Resources department is there for the protection of the employees. In reality, the opposite is the case - to protect the management from the employees. The same is true for the Justice Department. It doesn't exist to protect the people, but rather to protect the administration and control the population. Sure every once in a while they manage to do the right thing to satisfy the people. My HR department organizes an annual summer picnic.

  4. Small Claims Court on Joyent Drops Lifetime Account Holders · · Score: 1

    I haven't read the ToS, but if there aren't any disclaimers that allow them to arbitrarily change the terms, small claims court is the place to go. They are essentially not fulfilling the contract, and you can probably get some, if not all, your money back. If enough people do this, it can become a real hassle to the provider.

  5. SNMP on Ask Slashdot: Documenting a Tangle of Network Devices? · · Score: 1

    Why would you spend time doing this by hand when you can have SNMP probe the network for you? It can collect nearly all that information. You might have to put in some smarts to correlate switch port activates and new clients requesting DHCP, but that's easy (hint: your key is MAC address). If you need to, you can have the SNMP client supply custom OIDs to query for more specific information. Then just dump into the DB of your choice. THEN you add the appropriate DB driver to your visualizer of choice (Excel, for example) and you can generate reports.

    This isn't too complicated to set up on your own, but there are off-the-shelf products that do this, too. I've used OpenNMS with success for this purpose.

  6. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong on California Governor Vetoes Ban On Warrantless Phone Searches · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's right. The officer doesn't. Those records are actually best and easily obtained from the wireless carrier with a warrant. The evidence (in your example) won't change state if the investigators follow the constitution.

  7. Re:Wilfully drain batteries? on Mobile Carriers Impose Handicaps On Smartphones · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another issue is that a lot of developers are writing mobile applications the same way they might for a desktop computer in an office with a significantly more reliable Internet connection. They aren't considering the reality that a connection may be intermittent, or drop off unexpectedly, and the effort the phone goes through to re-establish that connection.

  8. Boo! on Lodsys Sues 7 iPhone Devs Over Patent Infringement Claims · · Score: 1

    Boo to the Eastern District Courts of Texas!

  9. Profitable?? Ha Ha on Are 10-11 Hour Programming Days Feasible? · · Score: 1

    Don't be fooled by that. Management always gives some abstract time period during which the employees will need to sacrifice. It's like "War on drugs" or "War on terrorism". You'll work like a bitch, and in the end get nothing.

    Don't tell me that your company gets revenue from advertising, too.

  10. That's... on Comcast Awarded the Golden Poo Award · · Score: 1

    Comcastic!

  11. Explains a lot on "Supertaskers" Can Safely Use Mobile Phones While Driving · · Score: 1

    Like why I can drive while getting a blow job.

  12. Re:Close captioned? on C-Span Posts Full Archives Online · · Score: 1

    I used to work there back in the early 90s when it was still the Public Affairs Video Archives. Not long before I left, I wrote software to parse closed-captioning and generate metadata for the program. It would collect things like what part of the session congress was in, the topics being discussed, who was talking, vote outcomes, etc.

    The biggest problem by far was there because it is a live program, there were a lot of misspellings that had to be accounted for, as the people doing the closed captions didn't really pay any attention to what was being said, just what sounds they heard. A lot of times, a word or part of a word, would be spelled like a similarly sounding word.

    I'm not sure what ever happened to it after I left.....

  13. Now where did I leave that pesky DNA? on Yale Law Student Wants Government To Have Everybody's DNA · · Score: 1

    This student from Yale (I don't even see why that matters, does it give him some sort of credibility? You know, like John Kerry and George Bush) has really only focused on the application of a DNA profile to criminal investigations. He makes some poor argument about how the DNA profile can't be used to glean physical characteristics, etc. To build a DNA profile, they use an actual DNA sample, which does contain that information. What happens to all the blood and saliva samples used to collect DNA? Does he think that those samples will be disposed of, and that's that? Guess again.

    He also seems to think that the only privacy exposure is what your genes represent (i.e. blue or green eyes, or a disposition to diabetes). The government doesn't care about any of that. They care about tracking people and finding out what they are doing, regardless of any criminal intent. That's what DNA will be used for.

  14. Liability on Should I Take Toyota's Software Update? · · Score: 1

    It's all about liability. If you take the update and your car does something it obviously shouldn't, at least to have some legal recourse against Toyota. If you don't take the update, it's the same as absolving Toyota of all future problems you may have. All Toyota has to say is: "It's really tragic that he lost his left arm in that accident when his car sped out of control, after foolishly choosing not to take the free firmware update that would have prevented the accident, thus giving us indemnity."

    Dumb ass.

  15. Venting Frustrations on Israeli Border Police Shoot US Student's Laptop · · Score: 1

    Seriously, as a former sys admin I can't count the number of times I've wanted to put three slugs into somebody else's computer.

  16. Where's the motivation? on Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort · · Score: 1

    While I concede that schools are generally underfunded, the program is a waste of time and money. Why? Because is leaves out the most important factor: motivation. You can have science programs, science fairs, etc., but without some guiding motivation, it all leads to nowhere. I like the old saying that "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Our problem today is that we can't lead our kids to science. They just aren't interested. And you blame them? The text reads like: Phase 1: put money into schools and partner with corporations, Phase 2:???, Phase 3: We're #1 .

    You can't just tell a kid you need to learn science because it's cool. You have to present a problem first. Not some pansy rhetoric about "moving our country from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math." A real problem. One that the government is ready to put money into to accomplish a concrete goal. Like how to detect incoming aircraft without seeing them, split an atom, or getting a man to the moon and safely returning him to the Earth [before the Soviets]. Frankly, WW2 and the Space Program of the 60s is what led the US to being first in math & science.

    If we want to match that level of science, math and engineering, we need to figure out a national goal and put up the $50 billion to really solve problems that require new kinds of sciences. I don't know what those problems are, maybe fusion power (I've always been told it's fifty years away), or machines that remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere, or clean the oceans.

    It comes down to this: If the government won't get serious and really invest in math & science, why should kids?

  17. Rain isn't causing those accidents on New Zealand Creates Safety Billboard That Bleeds When It Rains · · Score: 5, Funny

    After watching the video, the real cause of accidents is clear: they drive on the wrong side of the road!

  18. Re:Darwin awards? on Toothy Racoon Bit Off Manhood · · Score: 1

    You are correct, of course; as long as he is capable of passing on his genes, he doesn't qualify. Though it will be quite a challenge to find a woman willing to mate with a man who has had part of his dick swallowed by a raccoon.

  19. Re:Darwin awards? on Toothy Racoon Bit Off Manhood · · Score: 1

    He qualifies for the Darwin Award regardless of the outcome.

  20. a bottle of your most expensive champagne on Santa Shocker · · Score: 1

    Looks like Santa is about to get a tag-teaming lap dance.

  21. laptop longevity? on What Restrictions Should Student Laptops Have? · · Score: 1

    So students who were issued a macbook in 6th grade will have the option of purchase? No thanks! It'll be little more than a paper weight by that point. Seriously, have you even thought about the need to replace a laptop after the useful life is over?

    Don't forget the maintenance needs. I'll bet that 6th graders will put a lot of wear on them, and apple products aren't exactly known for their ability to take damage.

    This is a really bad idea.

  22. not games... on A Very Special Reindeer · · Score: 1

    She may not be into reindeer games, but I bet she is into reindeer porn.

  23. Use red for positive marks! on Australian Teachers Told Marking In Red Damages Students · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seriously, I had an Literature teacher in high school that felt red was getting a bad rap, so he used green for negative marks and red for positive marks. It didn't bother me so much, but I think he drove a student with OCD completely mad.

  24. why two rowers? on Two Men Prepare To Row Naked Across the Indian Ocean · · Score: 1

    It's hard to rub lotion into your own backside, and perhaps they enjoy the occasional reach-around.

  25. existing precedents on Should You Get Paid While Your Computer Boots? · · Score: 3, Informative

    This one is a slam dunk for any competent law firm. It used to be the case the coal miners were not paid for the time spent donning and removing protective gear. Despite the very different industries, it basically means that if you are required to do tasks to prepare to do work, then you need to paid for that additional time. It's then easy to apply this logic to a computer booting up, as that is obviously a required task. So is shutting down.