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User: Cowboy

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Comments · 29

  1. Re:The stock market idea was dumb on Electric Grid is a Vast Machine · · Score: 1

    Maybe then, companies need to start charging "transmission fees" or some such to receive compensation for energy transmission through Point C, including additional monies for high-congestion peaks. Would this help alleviate the dangerous congestion levels? You also figure it could potentially reduce the detrimental effect of power shifts if suppliers and users could also make money on "transporting" energy, thus adding incentive to revitalizing the infrastructure.

  2. Re:Cool... on College Freshman Builds Fusion Reactor · · Score: 1

    that's pronounced nuke-yu-lar, of course.

  3. Re:The truth about Howard Dean on Howard Dean to Guest Blog for Lawrence Lessig · · Score: 1

    One minor point; you've managed to confuse the two candidates on abortion rights. Specifically, Kucinich was pro-life right up until he had an epiphany on the day he announced his candidacy.
    I trust Bob Harris to be (mostly) fair and even handed, but you?
    nah

  4. Re:So? on Matrix Gets Egyptian Ban For Explicit Religion · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure about this. You can be pretty certain that for Arabic audiences, the concept of "Zion" would make much more sense when the translation refers to Paradise instead of a Judeo-Christian concept of New Jerusalem.
    As it should be. Religious words are always freighted with greater meanings--that's why they're used in The Matrix, for pete's sake (another religious phrase!). That doesn't mean that one religion's words translate well into other cultures--the concepts should, though.

  5. Re:Ha! a paramedic geek on Build Your Own ECG · · Score: 1

    Good comment, but way-off topic. sigh. Me I was pretty scared with the guy's project in that with his filtering through Windows, there's no telling what his results would turn out to be. I'd also love to know just what lead his homemade ECG would correspond to.
    any ideas?

    Just took my NREMT-I/85 exam (TX prefers it over the /99 because it might make the paragods nervous ;>). Passed the skills, but I have to wait 2-3 weeks for the written resulats to catch up.

  6. Re:Hmmm on New US $20 bills Released, Colors & Layout Change · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may want to check out this page. An average $20 bill is only in circulation for about 4 years before it gets replaced. More to the point, 95% of all bills printed in a given year go to replace existing currency. Better ways to keep the US government out of debt would include reducing military spending and rolling back existing tax cuts. In case you hadn't noticed, keeping inflation down is the least of our worries concerning the US economy.

  7. Re:Alien aliens on Enterprise Getting New Aliens, Hairdos, Weapons · · Score: 1
    It would be nice if they'd use cgi to create some real alien aliens rather than just creating a different shaped latex mask for a human.
    Better still, they should use some real aliens. That would put those SETI fakers in their place.
  8. Re:yeah but... on A Word a Day · · Score: 1
    Please do not assume that everyone posting on /. had a US high school education. The usage in your example:
    a large enough group here that chooses to conjugate verbs relating to companies in the plural as in: [sic]
    "Microsoft are doing something evil."
    as opposed to the proper:
    "Microsoft is doing something evil."
    is in fact improper in every other dialect of English (other than American) currently used on the planet.
    If you're going to have the chutzpah to correct someone's grammar, at least realize that you may in fact be demonstrating your childish parochialism instead.
  9. um...this really is against the law. on Droning On · · Score: 1
    supporters envision the use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, for such tasks as moving cargo, pinpointing traffic problems, patrolling the border, searching for fugitives or fighting forest fires...

    hasn't anyone here ever heard of posse comitatus?
    The US military is not allowed to engage on US soil (within the states) unless so requested by the states themselves.

    talk about flying below the radar...

  10. Re:That'll be the day on Microsoft takes on PDF · · Score: 1
    When designers trust a Microsoft product to get their high-end print jobs to the printer.

    An excellent point. It took years for publishers and printers to accept digital PostScript files as equal to or better than camera-ready copy, and even longer for the industry to accept PDFs as a legitimate substitute for PostScript. There are still some large printers/presses out there that have yet to willingly receive digital jobs at all. Microsoft has such a bad reputation in this field anyway (ask your friendly neghborhood pressman about getting an RGB MS Publisher doc with truetype fonts and sreen-resolution art for high-resolution 4-color output), that Adobe has nothing to fear about loss of its base demographic to Microsoft.
  11. Re:I am an EMT--this is great on Organizers Plan Online Medical School · · Score: 1

    I'm just about to start EMT-I training and follow up with paramedic certification. Most of the learning is classroom-based and involves using fellow students as dummies, but increasingly more and more states are requiring heavy-duty clinical hours (both pre-hospital and ED) for emergency medical technicians.
    I'd like to parley this process into med school eventually, and if I can get away with starting the process online then what a great idea, on my own time while I still make money in a day job, a day job that will probably include getting in more patient time than most doctors see in their lifetimes.

  12. Re:First Off on Police Database Lists 'Future Criminals' · · Score: 1
    This is a pure violation of several aspects of the bill of rights and the Constitution at large. This violates due process,

    how? the people listed in the database aren't being charged with anything, so it's not as if they have to appear in court.

    this violates a persons right to be free from warantless searches (their identity and "person" will be searched everytime a crime is comitted without a clear suspect!),

    nb: their identity and "person" are already a matter of public record; they're in public.

    and this violates the much ignored 14th amendment which pleges "equal protection under the law".

    the police department in question would probably suggest the opposite: they are trying to ensure equal protection; hence the database.

    Look, it's SOP for a women's health clinic to photograph those who appear on the sidewalk protesting abortions, and to maintain a fairly comprehensive description of actions and behavior not only at that particular clinic, but indeed any other clinic where that particular individual may appear. You might even call a collection of such descriptions a database.

    These clinics started the process over 20 years ago as a way of protecting themselves from those unknown extremists who decide to act outside the bounds of law (i.e., criminals). The descriptions and photographs are used to defend the clinics and their patients against unwarranted attack, as well as chronicling the behavioral development of those that may one day commit crimes, instead of just loitering on the sidewalk, as it were.

    The practices undertaken by this specific department are tried and tested, and from my NSH perspective, valid.

    Do us all a favor, and ponder before you rant.

  13. Re:It'd be fairly easy to change on Pledge of Allegiance Ruled Unconstitutional · · Score: 1
    How about One Nation Under Shiva?


    actually, that would probably make these United States a hell of a lot more interesting place to live...
  14. Re:Internet Radio? on How Long Can The Free Services Stay Free? · · Score: 1

    two words:
    Arbitron ratings
    That, together with the sheer volume of people listening to traditional radio compared to internet stations means that advertising in traditional radio will be a worthwhile endeavor for a long time to come.

  15. Re:It may be nothing insideous on The Silent Kernel Platform War? · · Score: 1
    >>The number of x86 users dwarfs the number of PPC/SPARC/etc users, so in the time it takes to verify and integrate the other architectures might be better spent elsewhere for now.

    There is a distinct flaw in this argument. This would mean that Microsoft is more important than any other OS, and we as a result should spend all of our energies working with and supporting it rather than any other OS, like say, linux. If Linux is to be cross-platform with regard to hardware, then it does remain the onus of the primary developer to incorporate that information into the kernel.

  16. on strike, eh? on Student Suspended For Taking Teacher's Challenge · · Score: 1

    that would explain the crappy level of journalism the article displayed.

  17. physics? heat? on Intel Says 10GHz By 2005 · · Score: 1

    10 GHz is not the problem, keeping the ambient temperature in the room at 40 degrees fahrenheit is the problem.

  18. Re:Maybe tying electors to congressional districts on Statistics, Elections, Frustration · · Score: 1

    that's a concept I had not thought of before, simply divide into whole blocks by population alone (not by geography) for the sake of presidential elections. I like it.
    However, I would be leery of suggesting such a device for any other voting population--geography (land use and resource management, infrastructure and schools are all hot-button issues) is still a motivating factor in many state and local elections.

  19. Re:Maybe tying electors to congressional districts on Statistics, Elections, Frustration · · Score: 1
    I'm having difficulty agreeing to the premise that congressional seats change hands between parties fairly often. That may have been true during the nineteenth century, but no longer; we now have a system where seats are occupied by the same individual for decades at a time. I also want to note those areas that are predominantly urban (most of the Northeast) or predominantly rural (the western states, e.g.) rarely change power. Granted, those may also be most resistant to gerrymandering, but it still does not support the concept of fluid power handovers.

    I think you're right when it comes to states being perhaps too large a classification to provide a voting incentive, but I'm not comfortable with an electoral college by congressional districts that change shape every 10 years either. The next logical step (imo) is at the county level, but as each state has a different number that doesn't seem feasible either.

  20. Re:Maybe tying electors to congressional districts on Statistics, Elections, Frustration · · Score: 1
    Natapoff thought about this point though, and decided against it, remember? He asked those exact same questions regarding districts and their optimal size, and decided to leave it at the original state level.

    He correctly realized that most congressional districts are gerrymandered, often to set up a demographic that trends toward one of the major parties, or to a specific minority bloc (like some of the districts in the Southern states that were forcibly gerrymandered by the feds so that there would be an African-American presence in the state legislatures) as a result of politicking in the state houses.

    If you tie electoral votes to congressional districts in more than just number, you wind up relying on the party in power immediately after a census to discern the composition of the voting districts, and I can't even begin to think about how much of a nightmare that would be.

    That being said, I think your perspective on finding a participatory incentive to be a valid one. I think the Electoral College goes a long way toward making the process feel fair enough for people to think their individual votes are worthwhile. Otherwise, a voter from Wyoming who differed from the majority in New York City would never bother to vote. Is there a balance between democracy and equality?

  21. Re:Analysis of Natapof argument on Statistics, Elections, Frustration · · Score: 1

    Look at it from another perspective-- that of Pennsylvania.
    Now Pennsylvania has been described by various and sundry political analysts and campaign managers as having Philadelphia on one side and Pittsburgh on the other, with Alabama (or Mississippi even) in the middle. Philadelphia and its surrounding counties voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidate in '92 and in '96, with the end result being that Clinton won the state both times even though he lost the rest of the state.
    In 2000, it happened again. Gore won only four counties in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and the surrounding counties of Bucks, Chester and Montgomery), with a margin in those counties of approximately 400,000 votes. Gore only beat out Bush for the state by 200,000 total.
    Four counties in one state decided the outcome of 23 electoral votes. Had those electoral votes gone to Bush, I seriously doubt we'd be having this conversation about Florida.
    We can talk all we want about the power of the One Voter, and the value of direct election, but as the Pennsylvania experience shows, it is possible to set one bloc up, focus heavily on that bloc, and to hell with the rest.
    The presence of the Electoral college prohibits that, as it forces candidates to campaign to all blocs, not just the majority.
    If for nothing else, the value of the Electoral College lies in its ability to prohibit the majority from ignoring the minority completely. If you assume that the strength of the United States depends on its tolerance of diversity, than you must accept the Electoral College for embracing that diversity.

  22. Re:What's interesting about that county... on Statistics, Elections, Frustration · · Score: 1
    I think you should check your source. Did you mean the last national election or the last Republican primary?

    Surely you can understand the explicit difference between the two elections.

  23. Re:Why are you bothering? on Politics With A Slice Of Lemon · · Score: 2

    Both candidates are identical in pretty much every respect Have you been under a rock for the past 18 months? Bush and Gore (I assume that's who you mean when you say "both") differ on underlying philosophy, and that means they differ on foreign policy (btw, of the four presidential candidates currently visible on national polls only Buchanan and Bush could be described as subscribing to arrogance and insularity), social justice, and education, to name a few. If nothing else, decide for yourself; do you agree with Bush when he says that government exists to protect and encourage business (a position, I point out, that even Adam Smith would find a horrifying prospect), or Gore when he thinks that government exists to protect and encourage the populace? Alternatively, if you agree with neither, then it behooves you figure with whom you do agree, and vote your conscience. That's why you're not using the windows os, right?

  24. Re:character assassination? on Politics, Assassination, and Debates · · Score: 1
    Uh, if you're going to post this, why not post something balanced

    Uh, as was pointed out in the lead, what is being posted is a representation of what is being submitted. I find it far more telling that slashdotters themselves seem to be leaning toward the Democratic candidate.

  25. remembering to pay close attention on The Last Days Of Politics · · Score: 1
    Mr. Katz makes some rather rash assumptions regarding politics.

    Politics as a concept was never intended to show innovation or originality. Even the Greeks (one of our sources for Western culture) didn't see it that way: Politics was the term used for living in society.

    Their word for individual was idios, the etymological source for our word idiot, a good descriptive word for Mr. Katz' lack of insight into what makes the world a safe place for his technology (techn&acuteethe Greek term meaning art and skill in opposition to heart and culture (tuch&acutee). Even thousands of years ago people recognized that technology was a means and not an end.

    What Mr. Katz should remember is that technology in its current iteration of the 'net is nothing more than a vehicle implementing democratic politics and nothing more, nor can it be otherwise.

    Currently, politics is the distribution of power (food, energy, shelter, money, employment) by an authority to a mass. In a democracy (regardless of its flavor or fervor), the authority at some level reflects the mass.

    The 'net does not in any way reflect the mass. The mass worldwide is nowhere near connected to the 'net in its current form, as that requires electricity, a phone line and computer access, not to mention a preference for literacy in English (something not even prevalent in the USA).

    Before Mr. Katz starts declaring politics dead, perhaps he should point not to the DMCA but to his solution for solving the AIDS crisis in Southern Africa or the economic crisis in Russia or the oil crisis in Europe or the education crisis in the USA. Until his "technological revolution" can solve problems such as these, politics is our best bet.