Comment Re:Posters here are like the teens in the vid (Score 1) 550
How would have Twitter helped? He may deserve to be arrested, but his refusal to tweet is not the reason why.
Comment They got it backwards (Score 1) 550
Some people should be arrested for what they decide to tweet about.
Comment Re:Sooo... (Score 1) 339
Returning the *whole* product would be a retail. Have you ever gotten a refund on a laptop hard drive? Or on RAM? I replaced the 1gig SIMM in my netbook with a 2gig - was I eligible for a refund from ASUS?
Comment Re:Zero blame on the woman? (Score 2, Insightful) 645
Any sort of work would require her showing up regularly to her workplace. Anyone with a history of depression will tell you this is hard. Can you summon the energy to go out and pretend to have a good time when a friend asks you out? Sure, especially if you know it means a lot to them. But to do that *every single day*? There will be days when you can't really get out of bed, because the world just feels too heavy, and it may ruin you company's presentation, or deadline, or whatever.
So yes, your mental illness may be such that you can function at a party, but not cope with the responsibilities of a job. The point is, this is not up to the insurer: there are doctors to verify the diagnosis.
As for the woman herself, if she lives in a system where she can get paid while she battles with depression, should she refuse it? Sure, she may be scamming them, but the photos don't prove anything.
Comment Re:Is she really sure it was locked? (Score 1) 645
Yeah, but I can't imagine a punchline that makes it funny.
Comment Re:Sooo... (Score 1) 339
If I wanted to buy a copy of XP, I should be able to get it for $6?
Do you think the PC manufacturer pays the same price you would for a hard drive, a motherboard, or any other component? Them reimbursing you for the market value does not seem fair to me, they should pay you no more than what it cost them. I agree there should be more Linux laptops, but I'm not holding my breath.
Comment Re:It's a trick question (Score 1) 836
So are economists and biologists blue collar as well? Politicians?
Comment Re:Transcripts are like MadLibs (Score 1) 164
So true. It is especially funny when you receive a message in a language that isn't English. Not that I have a problem with that.
Comment Re:People always forget about Hawaii (Score 5, Funny) 164
We all know Hawaii is in Kenya.
Comment Wrong diagnosis (Score 5, Insightful) 600
major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets
When someone reads the Mayan Calendar and predicts the end of times... I don't think the date is the most important detail they got wrong.
Submission + - Save The Planet: Eat Your Dog (stuff.co.nz)
R3d M3rcury writes: New Zealand's Dominion Post reports on a new book just released, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. In this book, they compare the environmental footprint of our housepets to other things that we own. Like that German Shepherd? It consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs. Cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. 2 Hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV.
Their suggestions? Chickens, Rabbits, and Pigs. But only if you eat them.
Their suggestions? Chickens, Rabbits, and Pigs. But only if you eat them.
Submission + - Programming a "Haunted" Halloween Jack-o-Lantern
An anonymous reader writes: NerdKits has just released a neat "haunted" Jack-O-Lantern video tutorial that glows when you reach your hand inside! The technology used for the sensor is the same as is used in laptop trackpads and smartphone touch screens but can be built with common materials: two pieces of aluminum foil, some paperclips, and a processor running C code at 14MHz. The sensor trips when a hand is nearby, and LEDs light up to surprise and scare the unsuspecting trick-or-treater. Download the source code and extend this idea for your home or office!
Submission + - Should a new technology change the patent system? (baltimoresun.com)
linuxizer writes: Congress seems poised to turn an effort to create a pathway for generic biotech drugs such as Remicade into the exact opposite. Instead of the 5-year protection that traditional pharmaceuticals get, or the 0-year protection that the FTC recommends, the bill offers 12-year exclusivity with renewability for minor changes. The issue is highly charged, with activists waging a campaign to change the bill. Yet it also raises interesting questions for other technologies. To what extent do the traditional contours of patent law need to change in response to new technologies with a different set of market realities (biotech drugs are 22 times more expensive on average, and development costs for generics will be substantially higher) and in what direction? Need every new technological category get its own patent rules, and how do those rules get decided?
Submission + - Does Exercise Boost Immunity? (nytimes.com) 1
antdude writes: The New York Times' Well Blog reports that two recent science experiments showed mice, that ran to their exhaustions, had more chances of being sick and died than those that did not exercise a lot.
Seen on Blue's News.
Seen on Blue's News.
Submission + - When Software Leaks (And What Really Goes Down) (aeroxp.org)
Bryant writes: "The Windows community is somewhat notorious for leaks from upcoming versions of Windows (obligatory link to this guy since that's most of what he does), and while the official PR word from Microsoft and many other companies with regards to leaks is a simple "no comment," no one has really gotten a candid, inside look at the various things that go down when word, screenshots, or builds of upcoming software leak. I managed to get some time with a senior Microsoft employee for the sake of discussing leaks, and the conclusions reached (leaks heavily affect communication, not so much the product schedule) as well as what these guys actually have to deal with whenever someone leaks a build, breaks an embargo, etc. may actually be a surprise given what most companies try to instill in the public mind."
