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Comment Re:Isn't this the opposite of evolution? (Score 1) 164

Do you not understand the word-symbols you're putting into your computer-box or do you just like being contrarian? God 'designs' things the way he wants them the first time. This music is generated randomly, then subjected to fitness tests in the form of listener reviews. The fittest members survive and provide the input material which is then randomly mutated again for the next generation.

Comment Amazon Prime (Score 5, Interesting) 272

don't forget Amazon Prime. $80/yr for free 2-day shipping? That's a guaranteed money-loser for them. And I'm shocked by what they include in that offer. They've sent me all sorts of heavy and bulky items including a 70-pound air compressor and a storage cabinet that was about 4'x4'x3', all free 2-day shipping. Beats driving to the store any day. It also gets you upgrades to overnight shipping for $3.99, so unless you absolutely must have it this instant, online shopping wins.

Comment Technobabble backlash (Score 1) 479

I agree, I think there's been a backlash against technobabble which is steering scifi away from Star Trek tech-porn towards a more BSG style focused more on people than cool gadgets. I certainly enjoy Star Trek, but they've saturated the gee-whiz-look-at-this-cool-gadget market, and people are ready for something new. Now that we've been exploring space for a few decades, and everyone has cool gadgets, they want more depth in the stories. It's not so much that scifi is running out of steam, it's just evolving as all genres do.

Comment Not discriminatory against smokers (Score 5, Insightful) 1078

I can't say whether this new policy is in line with their warranty, but I don't see how anyone would make a case that it's discriminatory even where smokers are a protected class. They are targeting the smoke itself, not the smokers. If you're a smoker but you don't do it around your computer, or it just happens to be reasonably clean, you're going to be fine. If you don't smoke, but you like to store your computer in your chimney flue, they're still going to refuse to work on it.

On the other hand, smoke residue is hardly the most dangerous or disgusting thing anyone has had to deal with on the job, and using OSHA as an excuse seems pretty weak. If they just acknowledged that they're going to treat excessive smoke exposure the same way they would excessive heat or humidity, that would seem entirely reasonable.

Comment Re:Robots.txt (Score 1) 549

Let's see what the hit count looks like when answers no longer are found from his pubs, in popular search engine results.

Indeed. Google could settle this thing now by removing all News Corp sites from their listings proactively. The screaming from Fox and the Right would be almost deafening though.

Comment Funny you should mention that: FDA Guidelines (Score 3, Insightful) 1255

Maybe have a look at this: FDA Food Defect Levels Handbook. For instance, strawberries are allowed to be up to 45% moldy. Wheat flour is A-OK as long as it averages less than 75 insect fragments per 50 grams. Cocoa beans can contain 10mg of mammal feces per pound. The point is, perfection is not possible. The existence of some sexist comments among billions of internet postings doesn't justify condemning the entire community. I'll fully support you in condemning individuals for their own behaviors. However, I think most of us have realized that arguing with internet trolls is futile. So if some jackass statement in a forum isn't followed up with righteous indignation, don't assume everyone else agrees with them.

Comment Re:Like I said. 0.1% of the comments. (Score 1) 1255

10% of FOSS developers are black, do you think that would make nigger references OK as long as we kept them under 1%? If 5% of FOSS developers are gay, do you think that allows up to 0.5% faggot references?

No, that wouldn't be ok either. But it also does not make the entire FOSS community racist or homophobic. The author of the article, along with many of his supporters here, seem quite willing to label all men in IT as sexists based on the comments of a few classless idiots. Which is, you know, kind of sexist.

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