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Comment Re:Basic DVD feature (Score 3, Interesting) 62

Sure was. My DVD remote still has the Angle button. I can't recall a single title that used it.

That's because it's a useless gimmick. And it requires lot of extra work to produce, with little or no real benefit.

On a DVD, sure. On live TV? Particularly sports? It's awesome. One of the stations - NBC or CBS, I think - streamed an NFL game on their website last year and let you select either the broadcast stream or any of the individual cameras, including sideline, overhead, QB close up, etc. That was really fun. I could see the same benefit for anything where different viewers may be interested in different things happening simultaneously - sports or concerts, primarily.

Comment Nope (Score 1) 141

POssibly the moon is formed from 2 bodies colliding and before it could completely settle down into a round shape it froze with that ridge remaining?

Nah, it's clearly an equatorial mass driver that was covered over with rock to keep it safe from meteorites.

Comment Re:I concur (Score 1) 425

This guy's my hero - misuse of "comprised" is a pet peeve of mine.

Despite sounding vaguely similar to "composed", it's not a synonym. Comprised is a near-synonym for included, but implies totality. "The band comprised a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer" means that was the entirety of the band. Since so few people actually understand this, I tend to avoid the word.

I believe you have that backwards. "Comprising" is open-ended, and means "including at least". "Consisting of" implies totality. At least in the legal world.

Comment Re:Is she sure she told them the correct address? (Score 1) 224

Just fyi, and you may be aware of this as you are getting mails both with & without the period. Gmail essentially ignores them so you can send a mail to yourname@gmail.com, your.name@gmail.com or y.ourna.m....e@gmail.com and they will all work just fine :)

Yep. OTOH, I also have a common firstnamelastname@gmail address, and I've replied to emails to the other me with a similar polite explanation, and get angry responses back that no, firstname.lastname is different.

Okay, sure it is... But then, how did I manage to reply to your email?

Comment Re:hmm I wonder (Score 1) 779

Lolz. Back in the 1960s, the same exact argument was made for why women were better at computer work.

Your link makes no argument for why women are better at computer work. "And if it doesn't sound like women's work--well, it just is." So no, it doesn't make the same argument at all. I don't buy the original claim (for one thing, "jumping around quickly to different thoughts, problems, and topics" is actually quite useful), but your link fails to refute it.

Of course it fails to refute it, because neither proposition is true: women are neither inherently better nor worse at computer work. It's not like there's some dominant gene on the Y chromosome that makes men appreciate terminal windows more.

Comment Re:That's like ... (Score 1) 779

Genetically predisposed to be uninterested in CS. As in, hundreds of thousands of years of evolution created a genetic predisposition to be interested or not interested in a field that has only existed for half a century?

Just because the field has only existed for half a century doesn't mean that the predispositions aren't older than that. Humans are genetically predisposed to be better at riding a bike than a fish even though both have been around for much longer.

Yes, because, among other reasons, fish lack knees.

How many female professional race car drivers do you see?

For decades, women were not allowed to be professional race car drivers. Now, they're able to, and so there are now several, both in F1 and NASCAR. Are you going to suggest that women genetically evolved to become race car drivers over the past 80 years?

There are certain things about computers and cars that more boys than girls are attracted to.

Sure. For one, marketing. But you'd have to be crazy to suggest that that's due to genetics.

There are obvious exceptions like my daughter who likes sports and frogs more than her brothers but on average you will find more of one gender than the other attracted to certain activities and I don't see a problem with it as long as everyone is allowed to freely choose their own interests.

Yes, but again, that has nothing to do with a genetic predisposition. Now, if you were to say that you find more women than men menstruating or bearing children, or more men than women having color blindness, then you could point to a genetic predisposition. But to say that boys like computers because of genetics is just silly.

Not to mention the fact that most programming used to be done by women, back when it paid significantly less.

Comment Re:This thread will be a sewer of misogyny (Score 1) 779

No one is inherently more intelligent about anything. The truth is boys go into computers because boys are interested in computers: experiments with small children under 2 years old have shown that small boys find interests more in trucks, and small girls prefer dolls. Small boys who do play with dolls in such experiments tend to make them fight; we call boys's dolls "action figures" for this reason. In both cases, the children select for what interests them inherently.

This happens to be almost 100% incorrect:

New research from the University of Western Sydney shows baby boys prefer objects with faces over machines, challenging the theory of an innate preference among babies for ‘girly’ or ‘macho’ toys.
Researchers from the MARCS Institute Babylab at the University of Western Sydney gauged the preferences of four and five month old babies by showing them pictures of male and female humans and dolls, as well as cars and stoves.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, found that like baby girls, baby boys were more willing to engage with dolls than cars.

Comment Re:hmm I wonder (Score 1) 779

How about their pull their heads out of political correct land and realize male brains are better at logical computer tasks. Male and female brains process thoughts differently. This is known science! Female brains typically work well with relational thoughts and can piece multiple things together but lack solid focus on solving one individual problem. Male brains compartmentalize thoughts and like to process one thing to completion then move on instead of jumping around quickly to different thoughts, problems, or topics. Males are better at most computer work because of this and that's the end of it. Females don't work with computer science fields because they don't enjoy it and aren't good at it.

Lolz. Back in the 1960s, the same exact argument was made for why women were better at computer work. What's the difference between then and now? The amount that a computer programmer is paid compared to the minimum wage.

Comment Re:That's like ... (Score 1) 779

Are you trying to say that girls are genetically predisposed to be uninterested in CS? That doesn't seem right...

That's exactly what he's saying. I have 3 kids age 7-9. The boys love computers and video games. My girl won't touch a video game unless someone else is playing with her...

Genetically predisposed to be uninterested in CS. As in, hundreds of thousands of years of evolution created a genetic predisposition to be interested or not interested in a field that has only existed for half a century?

Comment Re:What's unclear? (Score 1) 99

Along with your work, you provide a promise not to sue, giving up all your rights to the work in question. It's clearly illegal to do that with the intent of changing your mind later.

Well, since the armchair /. lawyers will soon descend upon your post spouting off about how you can't enforce anything without a contract, let's just go ahead and get this posted: Promissory Estoppel ;-)

However, as your link notes, the measure of recovery wouldn't be the same as if the contract existed, since there would've been no negotiation and awarding full use of the work would be unjust enrichment. Instead, a court would probably say that there are no royalties due for past infringement, but that you don't get an unlimited right going forward to keep using the work.

Comment Re:Slashdot stance on #gamergate (Score 1) 693

First your entire understanding is completely incorrect.

She initially claimed that a RO was needed becuase he was spreading nudes of her, while it was she who posted them publicly when working as a model. A) He did not spread the links (or rather nothing concrete can be found to link him), and B) they were distributed BEFORE the RO was issued; give they were used as justification for one.

Unless you are now arguing that action which promoted the issuance of a RO can then be used as evidence of violating it after issuance?

The police report you linked says that they were distributed in a podcast on 09/20/14. It also says the restraining order was issued on 09/16/14. Now, I'm no mathematician, but I do believe that 9/16 is before 9/20, not after.

Or are you arguing that the police report you provided is fake?

Secondly, I guess you missed the start of the second paragraph, wherein she claims Milo and Gjoni are part of some group whose purpose is to spread doxx information.

Nope, read it. You claimed - and I quote - she "claimed that he and Milo, are part of some professional doxxing organization." I responded that the word "professional" doesn't appear there. Are you now backpedaling on that and admitting that she's only claiming that he's part of a group that doxxes people? Or do you want to double down and claim that use of the word "organization" automatically means it's professional?

Third, if you simply listen to the podcast, it was not Gjoni discussing that information. KoP was, and Gjoni was just present. So even if the information was spread, it was not Gjoni spreading it. A RO may prevent Gjoni from discussing the matter but that does not hold him liable for when others do.

Do you have a copy of the transcript? I can't find one online, so I can't verify. Also, depending on the wording of the restraining order, a judge is still going to crack down on Gjoni if he tries to pull a "I didn't reveal her personal information, the person sitting to my right (reading the note I passed him) revealed her personal information".

Also in followup to this, Gjoni's Lawyer was then doxxed and threatened; and the doxxer is now being sued.

First, got a link? Second, I'm not sure how this is relevant to what we're discussing. Is there any claim that Quinn was the doxxer?
Incidentally, if by Gjoni's lawyer, you mean Mike Cernovich, I really hope he's not claiming to be Gjoni's lawyer, because he's not a member of the Massachusetts Bar, and unlicensed practice of law can get him huge sanctions.

RalphRetort has the rest of the links but I am opting not to share them directly due to doxxing issues.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. You can't provide a citation because you're afraid of being doxxed?

Comment Re:Slashdot stance on #gamergate (Score 1) 693

OR how as part of the gag order, she claimed that Gjoni spread internet links to nude pictures of her, while failing to mention these were images she had made public of her own volition, while working as a model/camgirl.

And claimed that he and Milo, are part of some professional doxxing organization, despite in reality they had never spoken prior to GG

http://theralphretort.com/wp-c...

*Police report obtained via FOIA

First, your link doesn't say what you claim it says. The word "professional" never appears anywhere in there, nor "paid", "compensation", or anything else that might imply it was a professional organization.

Second, the police report indicates that the restraining order forbid any posting of her personal information by Gjoni. But, as you admit, Gjoni spread internet links to nude pictures of her. Regardless of who put them up initially, it certainly seems like you're admitting he violated the restraining order.

Restraining orders are explicit orders to not do certain things. If you do them, you're in deep shiat, even if they seem to make no sense at the time. For example, when people with restraining orders who are told to stay away from each other due to a domestic fight later reconcile and get back together without first going to a court and having the order withdrawn go to jail. If the order tells Gjoni not to post any personal information about Quinn, and he posts a copy of a white pages entry naming her, he's still in violation of the order. There's no "sure, I posted personal information, but other people did too" or "sure I posted personal information, but it wasn't secret" defenses. You simply can't do it, or you're in violation.

Comment Re:Slashdot stance on #gamergate (Score 1) 693

I'm starting to think this gamer gate is just another grouping of right wing nuts.

No, that's been researched. GG is mostly left of center. This is authoritarian left (SJWs like Quinn, Alexander, Grayson, McIntosh, Chu, etc) vs libertarian left (GG).

Say what? GG's supporters include writers at Breitbart, Ed Morrisey at Hot Air, conservative Adam Baldwin, Christina Hoff Sommers, etc. This is Tea Party-style "libertarians" and conservatives against progressives.

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