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User: Nekomusume

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Comments · 208

  1. Re:Won't hold up on Microsoft Patents XML Word Processing Documents · · Score: 1

    I think it's been pretty much established that the patent office will grant a patent for just about anything you throw at them. They prefer to let the courts do the hard work.

  2. Re:How about some nice menus instead? on Preview the Office 2007 Ribbon-Like UI Floated For OpenOffice.Org · · Score: 1

    I hate the ribbon because I can put every feature I use into a single toolbar that takes up almost no screen space. I understand it's good for a lot of people, but it bloody well needs to be optional and/or easily configurable.

  3. work on A Hypothesis On Segway Hate · · Score: 1

    because he's sitting astride it, he appears to be making an effort. When you're riding a Segway you're just standing there.

    Funny, last time I checked, most people considered sitting to be less work than standing.

    Segways are generally thought of as being something that rich lazy people use to avoid walking distances that most people do without any problem... and are utterly linked to the nerdiest of nerds.

    Motorcycles are viewed as real, long-distance vehicles... and have been linked to the cool people for a very long time.

  4. Morons. on Fewer Than 10 ET Civilizations In Our Galaxy? · · Score: 1

    There could be as few as 10! Or as many as 10,000,000,000 depending on which arbitrary assumptions the "researches" choose to make.

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but why assume the probes would leave evidence that we would recognize as being such in the first place? If something dropped onto the earth's surface 1000 years ago, scooped up some soil samples, etc. and then took off, chances are sort of unlikely that we'd know about it.

    It does make a good argument against other civilizations making use of von neumann probes. But then, there are good reasons not to make von neumann probes - namely pissing off any other races they should encounter, by trying to eat their homeworld.

  5. Evil Genius Card on Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs IS the Evil Genius on the card.
    He's not better than Gates, he's just better at making his poison taste good. Apple products have been based heavily on buy-in and proprietary control. Once you've got an apple product, you are almost obligated to buy more apple products.

  6. Feh! on Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man · · Score: 1

    Silly non-transhumanists. That's why we're supposed to incorporate them into ourselves. Glory to the Singularity!

  7. Re:Little off topic.. on Apple Dominates "Premium PC" Market · · Score: 1

    Of course, that might also have something to do with the fact that PCs are cheaper to upgrade and/or replace.

  8. This should be interesting. on Ireland Criminalizes Blasphemy · · Score: 1

    Every religion's core teachings are blasphemous to at least one other religion. The possibilities of where this could go boggle the mind.

  9. Voodoo on Best Home Backup Strategy Now? · · Score: 1

    Once a month I set my computer up in a circle of lit candles, spray a bit of booze around, and behead a live chicken.

  10. Re:Nobody saw this coming? on Belgium Tries to Fine Yahoo for Protecting US User Privacy · · Score: 1

    One thing we should realize it doesn't mean: it doesn't mean the whole world is suddenly one big USA.

    Thank any reasonably convenient gods you may happen to favour. Now if only the US government could learn to understand this concept.

  11. Re:Sorry, No. on Tomorrow's Science Heroes? · · Score: 1

    Not to mention that the scientific method is inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning has it's limits - one of which being that it doesn't really "prove" things. The best it can do is say "every time we've ever tried X, Y has happened". It establishes probability... but never certainty. That's what deductive reasoning is for.

    No matter how many white swans you see, you can't ever PROOVE that there are no black/green/purple swans. Of course, after seeing 10,000 white swans, it's probably fairly safe to say that there are no green swans... but then along comes a black swan.

    Used properly it serves as an excellend indicator of future probability... but when you hear somebody (for example) use "that violates the laws of conservations" as a reason to discount some claim out of hand, that person is taking it on faith that the laws are correct and that the claim isn't, essentially, a black swan.

    Faith is a fundamental part of how we operate psychologically. To have no faith is to question everything, and results into the spiral of catesian doubt, which nobody actually does outside of philosophical experiments.

    Scientific experiments are often driven by faith. Scientists have faith that fusion is achievable and that cancer can be cured.

    Any time you believe something that hasn't been completely proven (through deductive reasoning, rather than inductive, for example) you are commiting an act of faith.

    Which isn't to say that misplaced and/or excessive faith isn't a problem, but faith is required for normal human functioning.

  12. It's a mac. on What To Expect From Apple's Rumored MacPad · · Score: 1

    It will cost far too much, do not nearly enough, be "stylish" to some and "boring" to others... And even should 1 in 10 of them explode, the serious mac fans will drool over them and spend far too many hours trying to convince everybody else that they are subhuman trash for not taking apple marketing as the holy gospel.

  13. Re:random noise generator? on Stealing Data Via Electrical Outlet · · Score: 1

    Using a decent UPS might actually protect you from this. I think most of them shield the ground aswell as the main wires, but I could be wrong.

  14. Re:What do they hope to accomplish? on British Men Jailed For Online Hate Crimes · · Score: 1

    Because nobody has ever been convinced to hate gays, or jews, or the romany, or blacks/natives/asians/whatever. Not once in the history of our species has that ever been sucessful!

    No well educated, respected people have ever been racist, sexist or homophobic.

    There aren't really any large international racist groups. There were no genocide attempts in Rowanda or Darfur. There has never been a slave trade. The whites did not purposely infect the natives with smallpox and other diseases in the americas. No woman has ever been hurt simply for being a woman.

    It doesn't matter if their arguments are infantile moronic scapegoatism, the fact is that far too many people are willing to buy into them, and a lot of people experience real harm (beatings, rape, death, etc) as a result.

  15. Hmm. on Experimental Fees Settle Royalty War For Internet Radio · · Score: 1

    So say goodbye to all of the small Internet radio stations that you have been listening to, as they will no longer afford to operate legally.

    You're saying that the hundreds of illegal shoutcast radio stations and the like will vanish because it will still be illegal for them to run?

  16. Bah on Pandora Stabilizes, No Longer Completely Free · · Score: 1

    Let me know when it stops pretending that national borders are meaningfull on the internet.

  17. Re:Yup on Judge Rules IP Addresses Not "Personally Identifiable" · · Score: 1

    Of course, the problem is that most people probably don't consider websurfing to be "in public". Most don't even know what an IP address is, never mind that it's being logged. Losing your privacy rights when you are "in public" only makes sense if an average person knows the boundaries between public and private.

    What's more, those of us who understand IPs, logging, tracking cookies and the like don't all agree on where those lines are.

  18. awesome! on Don't Copy That Floppy! Gets a Sequel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    An anti-piracy video that portrays the RIAA/MPAA/Law Enforcement as being a bunch of over-reacting psychotics? Sounds like a pirate-party recruitment video.

  19. Touchbook on Good PDF Reader Device With Internet Browsing? · · Score: 1

    Not quite out yet, but this seems likely to be your best bet.
    It's a laptop, but the keyboard portion is removable (and, infact, optional) turning it unto a tablet. Reportedly 10 or so hours of battery life.

    http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

  20. Change your mind on What Are the Best First Steps For Becoming a Game Designer? · · Score: 1

    Game designers have one of the worst burn-out rates of any career you're likely to encounter.

  21. Death & Boredom on The Essentials of RPG Design · · Score: 1

    "When you're frequently a heartbeat away from death, it's difficult to become bored."

    Actually, thats one of the main things that made the rogue-like games so boring to me. It never seemed much fun to play a game where every action, no matter how trivial, seemed to come with a decent chance of spontaneous unavoidable death. Some people really get into the challenge, but a lot of people find the constant stream of trivial deaths fairly boring.

  22. Re:They sent radios to CANADA?! on US Sets Up Emergency Multi-Band Radio Project · · Score: 1

    I believe this sums it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7jlFZhprU4 ;)

  23. Well... on Ad Networks the Laggards In Jackson Traffic Spike · · Score: 1

    You can start by killing off flash ads. They are a pox on the face of the internet. Seriously.

    Ads should never take up more bandwidth, screen real-estate or other resources than a site's actual content.

  24. Re:Whatever the legal question on Of Catty Rants and Copyrights · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was thinking the same thing.

    Last I heard, teens growing up in small towns often hate living there. They usually either grow out of it, or move out of the town when they get old enough.

    Destroying her father's business, however, crosses the line into monstrous over-reaction. I have no idea what she wrote, but I have no choice but to assume that her hatred is very well founded.

  25. Re:Whoops on Controversy Over San Francisco Public Transportation Data · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's called 'fraud'.

    He's claiming the data is his under copyright. You can't copyright facts. Thus, fraud.