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User: LynnwoodRooster

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Comments · 10,294

  1. Re:Someone teach me something here... on NASA, NOAA: 2014 Was the Warmest Year In the Modern Record · · Score: 1

    Current inflation rates are around 1.6%. And that's with the steep decline in the price of oil. Of course food is really up quite a bit...

  2. Re:Someone teach me something here... on NASA, NOAA: 2014 Was the Warmest Year In the Modern Record · · Score: 1

    Actually, I'd call that a nicely slowed down rate of inflation...

  3. Re:The Dangers of the World on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 1

    So, across the street with a parent or guardian watching - that's essentially zero appropriate distance.

  4. Re:Biased Institutions FTW on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 2

    You just explained pretty much every Government agency ever. They are in charge of creating rules (rules which, of course, require more "work" for them and justify their position - and more positions as well), but never feel the costs of implementing those rules - because it's bought-and-paid-for by the same people now under control of the agency: the taxpayer. Governments grow in scope and size and totalitarianism unless RUTHLESSLY watched and pruned.

  5. Re:OT: Your signature line on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 0

    Modded: -1, offtopic

  6. Re:The Dangers of the World on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 1

    I feel the parents were stupid to allow their children at this age to walk that distance alone.

    What distance is appropriate, then? I think it's much more an "either/or" - you are either too young or old enough to walk home alone. Distance is immaterial.

    That said, the neighborhood/region may be more than safe enough. I know I wouldn't sweat it in many locales, but others I wouldn't feel safe walking alone...

  7. Re:The Dangers of the World on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    CPS needs to be disbanded. Nazis indeed.

    Removed the superfluous portion...

  8. Yeah, usually more fiber means you lay more cable...

  9. Pitcher of sweet nectar? on Carnivorous Pitcher Plant "Out-Thinks" Insects · · Score: 4, Funny

    The plant kingdom's equivalent of a honey pot!

  10. Re:Schedule C is not Only for Business on Intuit Charges More For Previously Offered TurboTax Features, Users Livid · · Score: 1

    It's about 32% of all households a lot more common than most people think.

  11. Re:Dirty Little Secret on Intuit Charges More For Previously Offered TurboTax Features, Users Livid · · Score: 1

    In most countries, making an honest mistake on your taxes doesn't expose you to criminal prosecution. In the US, you sign an affidavit on penalty of perjury that everything is accurate to the best of your knowledge. And if there is an error (and the tax laws are so conflicting and obfuscationary that there is ALWAYS an error), you have to essentially prove it was an honest mistake, not a purposeful action. Innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to tax law/tax courts - it's guilty until proven innocent.

    In the US, tax laws are complicated to buy off constituencies, reward donors, and criminalize every single taxpayer.

  12. Re:Schedule C is not Only for Business on Intuit Charges More For Previously Offered TurboTax Features, Users Livid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Schedule E is the rare one. It's only for landlords.

    Have a few friends living in your house with you, and they pay some rent towards mortgage? You're the landlord, you need a schedule E. Likewise if you have a sole-individual lease and sublease out a room or two to friends/roomies...

  13. Re:Makes sense. on Google Throws Microsoft Under Bus, Then Won't Patch Android Flaw · · Score: 1

    Windows XP accounts for less than 5% of all Windows deployments. I don't think that counts as "widely used" in anyone's estimation. Yes, it's a HUGE number of boxes (simply because of the absolute market domination of Windows), but it's less than 1 out of 20 PCs running Windows. I mean, even Linux passed Windows XP in deployments...

  14. Rotary phone on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The clicking as the dial came back to rest...

  15. Re:And? on Unbundling Cable TV: Be Careful What You Wish For · · Score: 4, Funny

    Read the fucking article?

    READ the fucking article?

    THIS

    IS

    SLASHDOT!

  16. Re:Let's ban all guns! on Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 7 At French Magazine HQ · · Score: 1

    Even faster with a bomb. And trying to restrict bomb-making materials is essentially impossible - unless you want to restrict civilization advances from about 900 AD and forward...

  17. Re:Terry Pratchett say... on What Language Will the World Speak In 2115? · · Score: 1

    So, you have to memorize Chinese in the first place... Meaning you need to learn two languages to make it work. That's what my wife and her friends do (type in pinyin, select from the dropdown menu). It's twice the work...

  18. Re:Waste of money on Intel Pledges $300 Million To Improve Diversity In Tech · · Score: 1

    Incarceration rates by gender AND race. If you want to be blunt about it, a white man is about 7 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white woman. For blacks, the ratio is over twice that (about 17:1). And the ACTUAL total ratio is about 10:1 (not 15:1).

    If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, it's not diversity of gender that's needed, it's gender of race - at least, if you're going to talk about incarceration rates and aggression as a reason for hiring more women...

    There's always a group "less represented" than you, always a smaller minority - and to them, YOU are the majority. Too bad we cannot go by the content of character, rather than the color (or gender) of the skin...

  19. Re: Waste of money on Intel Pledges $300 Million To Improve Diversity In Tech · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So how do you explain all those single moms who manage to do both?

    Disclaimer: I was brought up by a single mother...

    The truth is, the vast, VAST majority do no such thing. They typically have others (friends, daycare, relatives) take care of the kids during the day/afternoon/evening whilst mom is working. They are "out of the picture" as much as a father who goes to work to earn money and comes home at night to spend time with the family, eat, and sleep. The concept of a "hero-mom" who works 8+ hours a day AND is home for the kids all the time is a highly-flawed one.

  20. Re:Chinglish on What Language Will the World Speak In 2115? · · Score: 1

    There are basically 3 possible meanings, two that are common, one that is rarely used. The common ones relate to the element Pb, or that you (or another) want to head someone/a group somewhere. The rarely used meaning relates to the last, with lead meaning a cord used with animals to guide them - but even that definition is a derivative use of the 2nd.

    Xi, on the other hand, has about 15 different meanings on its own. English has a few words with double - and very few with triple, totally independent - meanings. Chinese written in pinyin has thousands with 4+ meanings, and hundreds with 6+ meanings. Writing without Chinese symbols is basically impossible. I say this as someone who's been learning Mandarin (and a touch of Shanghainese) for the last 7 years, and with a Chinese wife assisting.

  21. Re:Chinglish on What Language Will the World Speak In 2115? · · Score: 1

    Pinyin: xi. What did I mean?

  22. Re:Chinglish on What Language Will the World Speak In 2115? · · Score: 1

    Current Chinese educations requirements are such that you cannot graduate high school without 4 years of English training and showing a basic mastery. It's been that way for a little over a decade now. China's betting on English for it's own future.

  23. Re:Terry Pratchett say... on What Language Will the World Speak In 2115? · · Score: 1

    What holds Chinese back isn't the flexibility of the language (it's about as flexible as English), it's the written form. Literally thousands of unique characters. Pinyin tries to avoid that, but if I type "xi", which character am I actually writing? In addition to the 4 tones, each tone has about 3 different meanings. And this is not all that unique in Chinese - it's common for the same base word to have 6+ meanings, based upon tonality and reason - and have 6+ different Chinese characters representing it.

    I'd say Korean stands a better chance of becoming the dominant language over Chinese, simply because of the 23 basic characters now used. But both will never get the adoption or ubiquity of English.

  24. Re:It sounds so WARM! on Vinyl's Revival Is Now a Phenomenon On Both Sides of the Atlantic · · Score: 1

    Build a man a fire, you'll keep him warm for a day.

    Set a man on fire, and you'll keep him warm for the rest of his life.

  25. Re:Nah... on Vinyl's Revival Is Now a Phenomenon On Both Sides of the Atlantic · · Score: 1

    Most decent gear can reach 96+ dB SPL with inaudible distortion, for frequencies above 50 Hz. For getting that first octave and a half, you'll need something bigger or a dedicated subwoofer. But in general, good mid-fi (meaning around $1000 for the set) speakers can give you 96 to 102 dB SPL with minimal distortion over nearly all the audible frequency spectrum. SOURCE: me, designing speakers professionally for the last 25 years (including for monster names in consumer and professional audio markets).