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User: kdemetter

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  1. Re:Break Their Legs and Put Them in the Everglades on 'This Is Your Second and Final Notice' Robocallers Revealed · · Score: 1

    In a perfect world spammers would not exist.

  2. Re:How does this account for those who change part on Is "Left" Vs. "Right" Hard-coded Into Your Brain? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was a hard-core conservative a few years ago, now I'm a hard-core liberal.

    Did my brain rewire itself?

    It's more likely that your definition if conservative and liberal changed.
    My people call themselves conservative or liberal, while meaning totally different things.

    Infact, the original meaning isn't left right :
    the normal opposite of "conservative" would be "progessive" ( sticking to what's known to work versus taking the risk of trying new things ).
    the normal opposite of "liberal" , would be authoritarian ( liberalism favoring more freedom , whereas authoritarianism favoring less freedom ( more control by state ) ). Although there is also the distinction between liberal (state should ensure freedom ) and libertarian ( state should be minimized, thus providing more freedom)

    Left : more personal freedom, less economic freedom.
    Right : more economic freedom, less personal freedom.

    For example, you could be a left-leaning conservative liberal, which would mean that you value freedom, with emphasis on personal freedom, but prefer to stick to tried and true policies for achieving this ( just an example, I'm not saying you are ) .

  3. Re:NASA didn't just hand over the $5 million on ATLAS Meteor Tracking System Gets $5M NASA Funding · · Score: 1

    (1) Seems most plausible. It's newsworthy today and so it's worth ( money ) mentioning it.

  4. Re:Just oppose the mark.. and Python was First on Python Trademark At Risk In Europe · · Score: 1

    Reading the article, it seems that the other company did use the name 'python' before, but didn't enforce it, and now suddenly wants to make us of it ( after not caring for it for years ).

    If I understand trademark law correctly ( maybe I don't ) , if you do not enforce a trademark, you forfeit your exclusive use of it.
    The company didn't enforce their trademark ( they didn't contact the creators of Python back then to tell them they violated their trademark ).

    They should contact EFF, I'm sure they would be more than willing to help out.

  5. One "solution' i can think of, is a private cloud.
    In other words : you do have a "cloud" , but it's only company wide, with strong encryption.

    The company keeps the data in it's own cloud, and still has a lot of advantages of the cloud.
    They just need to maintain the cloud themselves, which does require some expertise.

  6. It's depends from company to company : if you are a big company, it's better to have your own people in IT. You can still set up a cloud yourself to have the advantages.

    If you are a small company, then you may not be able to afford an IT department to set all of that up. So then using a cloud might make sense, in particular when using excess processing power of larger companies.

  7. Re:I Got It! on Deloitte: Use a Longer Password In 2013. Seriously. · · Score: 1

    That only works well if no one else has access to the passfile and knows where to find it.
    If you have it on a usb stick labeled 'passfile' , with a file on it named passfile.key, it's not going to be very difficult to use the passfile.

    However, if you have a number of usb sticks ( unlabeld, or labeled differently ) , and you know which one has the passfile, that's different.
      Also, you could give the passfile a name like libxml2.dll, and put it some standalone program folder.

  8. Re:But what if Java is the next WAIS? on LibreOffice 4 Released · · Score: 1

    Ezekiel 23:20

    ancient porn ?

  9. Re:I have a better idea... on Richard Stallman's Solution To 'Too Big To Fail' · · Score: 1

    Unless you use the money you would have otherwise spend to bail them out, in measures to stimulate the economy.
    You could use it to stimulate start-ups, work out outplacement planning, re-training people so they can find a new job, etc...

    Nothing is too big to fail, but it can certainly be too big to be saved ( I can cost many taxdollars and then still fail a few years later ).

  10. Re:Brogramming??? on Is 'Brogramming' Killing Requirements Engineering? · · Score: 1

    Though I can understand writing some code just for fun, or even to get your mind of things, but that's all it is then : entertainment.
    I have written plenty of code like that : just for fun, without any practical application.

    However, I doubt this has any negative effect on coding professionally, just like an artist having some fun painting would make his professional paintings bad.
    However, just like the artist paints because he loves it, many programmers code because they love it. Nothing wrong with that.

  11. Re:Safari and Firefox on Twitter #Hacked · · Score: 1

    And how exactly is that not using a web browser ? It may not look the same way, but it does the same thing : it connects to a website ( using HTTP protocol ) , thus allowing you to browse the web. So it's still a browser.

    However, being a browser doesn't mean it has to support applets.

  12. Re:Hmm... on Amazon.com Suffers Outage: Nearly $5M Down the Drain? · · Score: 1

    The actual cost is hard to calculate :
    Most people don't 'stumble' upon Amazon : they go there for a reason. So they will wait until the site is back up.
    People who did accidentally stumble upon Amazon ( just googling for a product ) , will see a site that doesn't work, and ignore it, so that might be a lost purchase.

    However, I think the biggest cost might come from the knowledge that Amazon got hacked : even if hackers didn't get anywhere near the users' credit card information, most people won't understand that, and the idea alone will scare people away ( I'm sure the media coverage won't help either ).

    Luckily, people quickly forget, so the losses will only be short term.

  13. Re:USA! USA! on What You Can Do About the Phone Unlocking Fiasco · · Score: 2

    Extremes are always a lot closer than it seems : in extreme socialism/communism everything is controlled by a single government entity ( the government owns everything, including all companies )
    In extreme capitalism, everything is controlled by a single company ( the company owns everything, including the government ).

    Unsurprisingly , the end results are the same.

  14. Re:This is why on Machine Gun Fire From Military Helicopters Flying Over Downtown Miami · · Score: 1

    Why is that? Because you are assuming that any action by your government is nefarious by default?

    I assume any entity ( that includes governments ) will do what it thinks is best for itself.
    So the government will do what is best for the government.

    Don't be so sure that's automatically what's best for you.

  15. Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? on Iran Says It Sent Monkey Into Space and Back · · Score: 1

    I'm convinced that's true ( people being treated badly in Iran ) , but my comment was more broad than that. The fact is a lot of us have never been to a country like Iran, so basically I have no way of real knowing what going on there.

    I don't have the money to go to Iran though, so don't worry :-)
    When you say "spend them on getting people out" , what are referring to ? I'd like to help where I can.

  16. Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? on Iran Says It Sent Monkey Into Space and Back · · Score: 1

    I just realized that most of what I know comes from tv,radio and the internet.
    Very little comes from actually being somewhere and witnessing something with my own eyes.

    I need to get out and found out things for myself.

  17. Re:we should fit microphones on In Brazil, Trees To Call For Help If Illegally Felled · · Score: 2

    If someone is only allowed to speak 'freely' in a specific area, it's not "speaking freely" .
    Freedom of speech means freedom to speak about anything, in any place, by anyone .

    So yes, it's still censorship.

  18. Re:Really!? on EFF Moves To Nix Trademark On "Gaymer" · · Score: 1

    pal means "friend" in french , and the plural would be "pals" , not paux. But it's only used in a non-formal setting.

    There is also the concept of "false friends" , which are words which are pronounced similary in different languages, but have a totally different meaning.
    Ex : library (to borrow books) libraire ( bookshop , to buy books )

    That term is called "faux amis" in french ( false friends ).

  19. Re:Really!? on EFF Moves To Nix Trademark On "Gaymer" · · Score: 1

    faux pas = false step
    the word "pas" in plural is still "pas"
    So , "false steps" , is still "faux pas"

    French has more of this words, where the plural is the same, or even the word has a completely different based on the context.
    Usually, other words in the sentence will make it clear that the word is in plural.

    For example :
    I took a big step : J'ai pris un grand pas
    I took big steps : J'ai pris de grands pas

    the usage of "s" after "grand" signifies that it's plural, and the usage of "de" signifies a quantity.
    To make things worse "ne ... pas" is also used to mean "not" .
    I didn't take steps : Je n'ai pas pris de pas :-)

  20. user yes, but doesn't work on Kim Dotcom's Mega Claims 1 Million Users Within 24 Hours · · Score: 1

    I registered , but when I tried to upload something as a test, it just stalled.
    Well, it's beta, but still, you do expect the most important functionality to work.

    Hope they fix it soon.

  21. Neanderthal rights movement now on Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby · · Score: 1

    What I'm more concerned about, is how he will be treated : what rights will he have . What is the legal definition of 'human' ?
    If it's not covered by law, we need Neanderthal rights as soon as possible, or they might just start experimenting on him ( which I find horrible for any animal though, but it's currently still legal ).

  22. Re:MMMM, Doughnut on Belgium Plans Artificial Island To Store Wind Power · · Score: 1

    That depends on what you would otherwise do with the energy.
    Typically, traditional power plants keep on running at the same output level, regardless of energy demand ( they can't quickly lower their output ).
    However, looking at a typical day, the consumption of energy is not always the same : at noon there will be a much higher demand for energy than at night.

    What happens in this case is the following : water is pumped up to a higher level at night ( using electricity that is produced anyway and would otherwise go to waste ). At noon , the water is brought down again, thus producing electricity which can be used to handle the higher demand at a certain moment.

    Added advantage is that electricity is cheaper at night than in the day, so you win back some of the money you lose on efficiency.
    This isn't exactly a new idea though.

  23. Re:So... on Asteroid Apophis Just Got Bigger · · Score: 1

    Well, if you were leading a government, and you know that an asteroid is going to hit the earth, are you going tell everyone that, knowing that it would cause mass hysteria, riots,etc..., long before the asteroid would hit.

    Probably not.

  24. Re:Doesn't matter on Why Girls Do Better At School · · Score: 1

    You should look into Khan Academy, I think you might like it.
    https://www.khanacademy.org/

  25. possible scenario on Panda Blood May Hold Potent Assailant Against Superbugs · · Score: 1

    1. We manufacture this cathelicin-AM , to create very powerful antibiotics
    2. People start taking the antibiotics, specificaly to counter resistant super bacteria infections
    3. cathelicin-AM kills of all the super bacteria, except some super super bacteria , which now has free reign since all the competition is destroyed
    4. cathelicin-AM resistant bacteria kill off 90 % of the panda population