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Comment Re:No PHP? (Score 1) 65

Technical skills... You mean like how half of the bubbles say fluffy BS like "leadership", "strategy", "demand generation" and "spanish" (yes, the chart includes "spanish" as a node, over near ITIL)? Yeah, sure, "technical" - If you work in HR, maybe.

"Applicant must recognize a computer, and not attempt to eat the mouse. 2-4 years experience stuffing envelopes preferred, because we don't understand metered trifolds. Ideal candidate can tell Brioni from Armani by smell alone".

Comment Re:MMORPGs aren't any of those things anymore (Score 2) 75

Tried wow. it felt like everquest in "easy" mode. I could see why it would appeal to many.

Everquest had a sense of wonder I will never feel again. Nothing was documented. Gm's showed up personally to give you your second name or marry characters. It was extremely hard and was a lifestyle. You had to play 40+ hours a week to keep up.

You could lose everything and be badly hurt. You needed other people to survive. The 72 person raids demanded huge political guilds with massive logistics,strategy and tactical skills. We won't see 72 person content again.

It's sort of like DND vs all the other systems that came later. They were more polished and had some great ideas. But there was something primal in DND that I never found elsewhere.

Submission + - XKEYSCORE: NSA'S Google for the World's Private Communications (firstlook.org)

Advocatus Diaboli writes: "The NSA’s ability to piggyback off of private companies’ tracking of their own users is a vital instrument that allows the agency to trace the data it collects to individual users. It makes no difference if visitors switch to public Wi-Fi networks or connect to VPNs to change their IP addresses: the tracking cookie will follow them around as long as they are using the same web browser and fail to clear their cookies. Apps that run on tablets and smartphones also use analytics services that uniquely track users. Almost every time a user sees an advertisement (in an app or in a web browser), the ad network is tracking users in the same way. A secret GCHQ and CSE program called BADASS, which is similar to XKEYSCORE but with a much narrower scope, mines as much valuable information from leaky smartphone apps as possible, including unique tracking identifiers that app developers use to track their own users."

also

"Other information gained via XKEYSCORE facilitates the remote exploitation of target computers. By extracting browser fingerprint and operating system versions from Internet traffic, the system allows analysts to quickly assess the exploitability of a target. Brossard, the security researcher, said that “NSA has built an impressively complete set of automated hacking tools for their analysts to use.” Given the breadth of information collected by XKEYSCORE, accessing and exploiting a target’s online activity is a matter of a few mouse clicks. Brossard explains: “The amount of work an analyst has to perform to actually break into remote computers over the Internet seems ridiculously reduced — we are talking minutes, if not seconds. Simple. As easy as typing a few words in Google.”

Comment "Software" has no opinions of race. (Score 4, Insightful) 352

Software doesn't hate black people. Software doesn't dislike Islam. Software doesn't think kids these days need to pull their damned pants up and stop playing that crap music too loudly.

Apologizing for a program miscategorizing an image it has never seen before as somehow "racist" makes about as much sense as GE apologizing because my toaster looks like a frowny-face from just the right angle.

Yes, Virginia, we've taken this shit too far.

Comment Re:linux hard to install and use for desktop users (Score 5, Insightful) 187

1999 called and wants its meme back.

Seriously, have you actually used any modern Linux distros? Hey, good news, it has gotten so easy to install and use, you don't even need to install it! Download any of a dozen LiveCD / DVD / BRD / Thumbdrive versions, burn it to the appropriate media, and reboot. Bam! You have a fully functional modern OS at your fingertips.

Give it a try, and if you don't like it, it comes with a 100% money back guarantee.

Comment Re:Once Again (Score 5, Insightful) 141

Because that should definetly be the benchmark, right?

Not in the way you meant it, but yes, it should!

If it disgusts us to hear about $150M wasted on an endeavor that enriches all of humanity, how much more disgust should we feel over F-35s that cost twice as much and don't even work? How much more disgust should we feel over spending trillions on a never-ending war on terrorism? How much more disgust should we feel about paying 250 times that much to oppress our own citizens in a show of Security Theatre?

Yes, NASA wasting $150M disgusts me - Because of all the complete bullshit our taxes go toward, NASA shouldn't even need to blink at the cost to human-rate this thing.

Comment Re:Game of War: Fire Age is way better (Score 2) 75

Here, let me quote TFS to you:

"I found a game world with a lot to offer. Player created civilizations, unique monsters, and the sheer mystery of the world combine to keep this ancient MMO compelling. For all the ways in which the genre has improved, Ultima Online remains one of just a few MMOs that let you live an alternative life. That feeling of ownership ... combined with the diversity on offer, keeps players coming back day after day."

Does that help, or should someone post an mp3 of themselves reading it for you?

Comment Re:Easy. (Score 0) 250

How about you respect your wife's choices and let her decide what she wants to do, you're treating her like a teenage child.

The subtext of the TFS makes that pretty clear - Because "sitting around the house watching Oprah and eating Cheetos" doesn't pay the bills.

Hey, guess what - I feel "not very eager" to get my ass out of bed every morning just so I can go make some rich inbreds even more rich. But the mortgage doesn't pay itself.

Comment Re:Article conclusion is quite a stretch (Score 2) 172

then draw a wild conclusion that people are using it to get Windows 10?!

I recently helped a local nonprofit upgrade to Win7 for exactly that reason.

Yes, I can think of plenty of other reasons for people to pick up a Win7 license (as the most obvious, "I just got a new laptop with Win8, help!"), but the average retail customer will realistically just use whatever the computer comes with, and keep it for the life of the machine.

If, therefore, we see an uptick in sales of an OS you can't even easily get on a new machine anymore (yes, we geeks can still get it, but Granny, not so much) - That means something.

Comment Re:The founding documents present a path... (Score 2) 161

Soo, you want to replace a democratically elected government because you disagree with the electorate?

Did you even read TFS? The electorate fully agrees with him. Congress mostly agrees with him. The 2nd circuit agrees with him.

...And yet, we still have these asshats in FISA blatantly saying "to hell with all of the above, fuck 'em even harder, NSA!".

Yeah, we have a problem here. And the "democratically elected government" ain't it.

Comment Re:Goodbye free speech (Score 1) 210

Freedom of speech is a government thing.

Court orders to reveal someone's identity are also a government thing.


anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion

And the real courts have fuck-all to do with that. Using them as a tool to out your enemies goes against everything we supposedly believe in.


In this particular case, the business owner believes that the reviews are malicious, fake, the act of a single person, etc. etc.

I "believe" Google should pay me for beta-testing their various products that almost never leave beta. When can I expect the courts to make them send me a check?

Comment Re:Might read the whole thing yourself (Score 1) 16

The pope's not supposed to be an offender of God, tho. Elevating the creation (as just one example) detracts from giving *all* of the glory to the Creator. (I'm pretty sure "thou shalt have no other gods before Me" includes "thou shalt have no other gods alongside Me", even lesser ones.)

I have reverence for God, and nothing else shares/competes with my reverence. Not even a Bible. I have reverence for the words, but not any given printed version of them. It's just a paper and bindings. Placing one's hand on a Bible and swearing to anything, is stupid. Same with the American flag. Go ahead and burn it; it's just fabric.

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