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Comment Re:there's an easy solution to this shit. (Score 1) 299

A strong #2? So who was supporting the Laughable Bumblefsck? It seems like a long list of very ignorant people to beware of.

And was your sister unaware of the booze, weed, crack, and even horse(!); the bullying; the thefts; the racism; the homophobia; the perjury; the groping; or the other assaults? Or was she simply glossing over them all in repayment for some preferential treatment that had somehow benefited her?

Comment Re:You know what this means (Score 1) 182

I hear you! Bedrooms should not be lit at night. Black tape and an Xacto knife works great for blocking indicator lights without being too ugly.

But I've had a couple of weird issues with the electronics in our bedroom. Our garage door indicator has a bright green light to indicate the door is closed, and just taping the LED wasn't enough, as the case was semi translucent. I lined the inside of the case with aluminum duct tape to solve that problem. Fortunately, the red LED is a separate component, so it can visibly blink when the garage door is open. It's not something we ignore.

The worst offender I've ever experienced, though, is my Harmony remote with its charging cradle. The remote itself is absolutely brilliant, and is a treat to use. But the charging cradle -- what a piece of shit. There is a large glowing blue ring in the bottom, and it illuminates the entire bedroom if the remote is not in its place. And the cradle itself is stupidly sculpted to match the remote, causing a different problem. Instead of a mechanically positive connection, the curved cradle supports the remote at precisely its center of gravity, allowing it to teeter, and every time it teeters it slips on and off the tiny charging contacts. Of course the remote helpfully signals every time it's made contact with the charging cradle by beeping loudly and backlighting the screen for a few seconds. Our little 15 pound dog scratching herself on the floor nearby will cause enough of a microtremor in the floor to get it to momentarily break contact. If anyone so much as walks near the bedroom, the remote beeps and the lights glow. I have to keep a hefty weight on the stupid remote so we can sleep.

I think it's the contrast between the usability of the remote and the stupidity of the charging cradle that makes it all the more painfully awful.

Comment Re:Yeah sorry, no (Score 3, Informative) 299

The odds of them actually fining a reporter doing anything like reporting are nil. That is clearly not the intent of it, as it has an exception for reporting news. I guess the problem is writing the law in a way that disallows shooting commercials or movies, without creating some objectionable corner cases.

Unless there has actually been any issue with this, it's just another trumped up nonstory that will be inflated to cartoonish proportions in the comments to follow.

To be fair, the wording written in the Forest Service Handbook is incredibly vague, and encompasses all photography, not just commercial or news photography. http://www.fs.fed.us/specialus...

Comment Re:there's an easy solution to this shit. (Score 1) 299

it's all up to you. if you're in the room the next some some retard with too much power makes a suggestion like this, just stab him in the throat with your pen. if we just put down all these fucks before they got too high up in society we'd have a fuckin' utopia by now.

Yeah, a utopia; or at least a caliphate.

Comment Re:Petitions.org... (Score 2) 299

The problem with tripods is not the weight, it's that they might be set up in a place where they block a trail or interfere with access to a display. It's not ordinarily a problem in some places, but they can be in more crowded areas. But placing them in non-disruptive locations is already required in the rules.

Comment Re:Can't help plugging Atwood (Score 1) 410

Just to be pedantic, the Genesis Device and the Death Star were examples of plot devices, not MacGuffins.

A MacGuffin is an specific type of plot device that has two defining tests. First, is it interchangeable with another object? Would the motives of the character be the same regardless of whether the treasure was a ruby necklace, a sack of cash, or a folder of secret papers? Second, does it do anything, and is it ever used in the story?

The briefcase in Pulp Fiction was a classic MacGuffin. It was never spent, only desired. You never even saw the contents of the briefcase, simply a bright golden glow that was cast whenever the case was opened, and the avarice on every face that was exposed to it. In contrast, the Genesis Device was not only used in the story, it was central to the resurrection of Spock! It was most definitely a plot device.

Comment Re:Third option (Score 1) 421

Machining titanium is substantially more difficult and expensive than machining cast aluminum, so it's not quite as simple as comparing prices of raw materials. I'm also assuming the current chassis is machined cast aluminum, and could be strengthened by being replaced by Ti, but I've not taken an iPhone 6 apart to know.

Comment Re:ha ha (Score 1) 203

One of the many advantages of jailbreaking is that I have no temptation to upgrade until someone releases a jailbreak for the new version. I probably won't be updating to iOS 8 for months, at which time it will be only to a reasonably stable version.

Of course the buggier they are, the easier it is for the guys to find an exploitable vulnerability. Maybe I should install 8.0.1.

Comment Re:why the obsession with thin? (Score 1) 421

one iFan responded by saying that ultrathin is proof of competence in engineering from Apple.

I think ultrathin has indeed proven the engineering capabilities of Apple.

If nothing else, it's proof that if you let marketing drive engineering, you'll produce everything with the quality you would expect from such an effort.

Comment Re:why the obsession with thin? (Score 1) 421

This.

I want a phone that doesn't require me to carry a rechargeable battery in my backpack so I will be sure to have enough juice for the train ride home. And I don't want a walrus-sized case with integrated battery, because that stupidly adds four extra layers of thickness I wouldn't need if a thicker battery was simply built into the original device.

Alternately, I wouldn't mind a replaceable battery. I used to swap batteries in my RAZR, and had spare batteries and chargers at both work and home. Never had a power problem they couldn't solve. And way, way long ago, Nokia and Motorola phone batteries served as the back of the phone, allowing us to buy a battery as thick or thin as we chose. Had Apple gone that route with the iPhones and had a problem like this, they could simply swap battery-backs for ones that had more stiffness.

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