Comment Re:Cookies suck (Score 2) 166
Prefers flamethrower (ibid.).
Comment Re:bet (Score 1) 361
They should stomp all over this crap. Here you have an unregulated free-market system in all it's glory. Without some kind of cop pointing a stick at them to do the right thing, of course they don't bother with backups, they don't bother with accountability and they don't honor their debts. They claim they can't figure out what happened. They probably hacked it themselves. Scammers scamming other scammers, take the money and run. Just want to close the site and move on. Ayn Rand would indeed be proud of them.
This fiasco is exactly why we need a stronger regulation in financial markets, not weaker. There's really not much difference between bitcoin exchange and exotic securities markets. You just get a bunch of private people together and start trading something, like tranches of unsecured rubber dog shit. My URDS exchange is a great way to make real US dollars, and buy drugs too!
Comment Wow... (Score 1) 361
I never thought this would happen.
Submission + - NASA Upgrades Mars Curiosity Software ... From 350M Miles Away (computerworld.com)
CWmike writes: "Picture doing a remote software upgrade. Now picture doing it when the machine you're upgrading is a robotic rover sitting 350 million miles away, on the surface of Mars. That's what a team of programmers and engineers at NASA are dealing with as they get ready to download a new version of the flight software on the Mars rover Curiosity, which landed safely on the Red Planet earlier this week. 'We need to take a whole series of steps to make that software active. You have to imagine that if something goes wrong with this, it could be the last time you hear from the rover,' said Steve Scandore, a senior flight software engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'It has to work,' he told Computerworld. 'You don't' want to be known as the guy doing the last activity on the rover before you lose contact.'"
Comment Re:Cordwainer Smith (Score 1) 1130
Thread over. Also, best doggerel.
Comment Re:Also Rans... (Score 1) 1365
Had to search this thread pretty far to find mention of Cordwainer Smith. The short stories. I like his novel "Norstrilia", but it's an acquired taste. Think I'll break out some C'Mell tonight.
Comment Re:Crowdsource (Score 2) 288
There are lots of easy ways forward for him, but he seems to be even more butthurt than the people complaining to his host. All he was asked to do was respond to them. Fine. We don't need to crowdsource that. Don't handle any complaints, just send them all the same three paragraphs and be done. Add some text to the site somewhere to discourage this in the future. We don't need to hold this guy's weiner for him, if he wants to be in business he knows what to do.
The fact is, the site owner has a reasonably cool idea but can't be bothered with managing it. Just seems like a convenient opportunity to play the victim. Nothing to see here.
Submission + - Brutal July heat a new U.S. record (cnn.com) 1
gollum123 writes: The July heat wave that wilted crops, shriveled rivers and fueled wildfires officially went into the books Wednesday as the hottest single month on record for the continental United States. The average temperature across the Lower 48 was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.3 degrees above the 20th-century average, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported. That edged out the previous high mark, set in 1936, by two-tenths of a degree, NOAA said. n addition, the seven months of 2012 to date are the warmest of any year on record and were drier than average as well, NOAA said. U.S. forecasters started keeping records in 1895. And the past 12 months have been the warmest of any such period on record, topping a mark set between July 2011 and this past June. Every U.S. state except Washington experienced warmer-than-average temperatures, NOAA reported.
Comment Re:Canticle for Leibowitz (Score 1) 1365
Canticle: Doesn't the protagonist just die a pointless death about 1/3 of the way in? He's on his way somewhere and gets shot by a stray arrow, just because. Or maybe the point is that life sucks. I wouldn't know if it has a happy ending. I liked "The Lineman". Miller really likes his characters to suffer.
But "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester is worse. Talk about punishing some poor sod beyond the limits of sanity. Once again it may be unicorns and lollipops in the end, but there's no motivation to read that far. Apparently "repeatedly voted in polls the "Best Science Fiction Novel of All Time'" by people who like pain.
Philip K. Dick manages to stay classy while being all post-apocalyptic.
Submission + - Productivity and creativity software coming to Steam
lga writes: "Valve announced today in a press release that they are expanding Steam beyond games and will start to deliver other software. This means that Steam will compete directly with Microsoft's Windows Store and perhaps explains some of Gabe's disdain for Windows 8. The ability to save documents to Steam Cloud space also brings Valve into competition with the likes of Dropbox and Skydrive.
According to the press release:
According to the press release:
"The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.
Submission + - No bomb powerful enough to destroy an on-rushing asteroid, sorry Bruce Willis (networkworld.com) 2
coondoggie writes: "Maybe it's the doom predictions some folks are fearing about the end of the Mayan calendar this year or maybe these guys are obsessed with old Bruce Willis movies. Either way a class of physics students from the University of Leicester decided to evaluate whether or not the premise of Willis' 1998 "Armageddon" movie — where a group of oil drillers is sent by NASA to detonate nuclear devices on an asteroid that threatens to destroy Earth — could actually happen."
Comment Re:work an election before you tout pen and paper. (Score 2) 241
Multiple ballots are put in mult, iple bal... you lost me.
Comment Re:Only... (Score 1) 262
The US shot one down immediately afterward, with an anti-ballistic missile fired from a warship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-193 They also have the X-37B with shark-mounted laser beams. If they wanted it gone it would probably take a day or two at the most.
Comment Re:Making Time (Score 1) 439
Cory Doctorow already sounds like he's x2.
Comment and re: bitcoin (Score 1) 439
I love how he handled the attempt at 48:40 to get him to give up a bitcoin soundbite. He just asks for another question without even answering LOL! A very disciplined speaker.
