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Comment Intangible benefits (Score 1) 475

Even if this plant isn't the most efficient way to generate kilowatt hours or jobs, many pragmatic questions can be answered. By test-driving these new technologies on a large enough scale, we are investing in research and educating a new workforce that will help generate more efficient solar power plants in the future.

Comment Re:The nature of tech requires adaptation & le (Score 1) 453

I disagree, because young people who use computers today are constantly learning new ways of doing things. If they don't figure out the underlying concepts, then it becomes challenging to learn something new. It's actually more expedient to figure out how a tree-like file system works (even if they wouldn't call it as such) rather than memorize what a folder icon looks like and where it will temporarily take them in the system. They have been learning how to learn for quite some time.

The evidence I point to are the older folks on Slashdot who still keep up with the latest tech updates. It's possible they may have some difficulty adapting (that's just how aging works), but they force themselves to learn the underlying concepts and not simply memorize interfaces.

As long as I don't fall into a simple pattern, hopefully I too will stay as sharp in my autumn years.

Comment Re:Interesting... (Score 2) 99

I had the same problem. There are days where I simply "forgot" to eat until late afternoon or evening.

Except keep in mind those food breaks would usually involve something not very healthy, like potato chips or a box of something microwaveable. Anything that I could make quickly, so I could return to playing. Even though there were fewer food breaks, I probably developed poor eating habits as a result.

Comment Re:i will call my ISP and cancel (Score 2) 276

Don't call your ISP; your phone might be tapped.

And don't write a letter, because--can you believe it?--the government owns the post office too!

I wouldn't dare step outside. CIA spy satellites can track your movements to the nearest meter.

Looks like you might just have to grin and bear it like the rest of us proles.

Comment Re:Right (Score 1) 480

Yes, depriving people of access to knowledge in the Information Age is a form of torture. If it was a child at risk, I'd call it child abuse.

The Internet is quickly becoming the best tool to access knowledge and communicate with others over a long distance. And it's hella convenient too. Plus, word-for-word, it's cheaper than mass production of bound books too.

Physical brutality can keep you down for a day, but intellectual poverty will keep you down for a lifetime.

Comment Re:Lets Stop Expanding This Rights Nonsense (Score 4, Insightful) 480

This is becoming a joke, first people try to claim health care is a right (as if I could just march in a doctor's office and demand my right to a checkup)

It's no joke. You can walk into any emergency room in US and demand your right to be seen. I would hate to live in a country where I would be denied care if I had a certain skin color, if I didn't belong to a certain social class, or if I didn't have enough money to pay.

Sure, you have to pay later, but someone has to foot the bill for any public service, just like someone has to foot the bill for a police force and a justice system to enforce your other rights. If you can afford to pay the doctor's bill, you pay. If you can't afford to pay, then the government (AKA your fellow taxpayers) will cover you.

I want to live in a society that ensures everyone will be taken care of when they are sick or injured, especially those most vulnerable like children or the poor. That seems like my idea of a just, fair society. The trick, of course, is finding the most affordable way to do this, and who knows if we are anywhere near that ideal yet.

Comment The Innocence Project (Score 2) 365

Before you salute this vigilante gesture, a lone captain taking on the high seas of piracy, stop and consider these necessary questions:

1. How does the developer determine whether the customer's version of the product (a mod, no less) is legitimate or pirated?
2. Is this method a 100% foolproof way to detect a pirated copy?
3. Could a false positive ever be detected, flagging a legitimate customer as a pirate?
4. Could a programming error, introduced either now or in the future, ever flag a user as a pirate?
5. Could a cracked game executable, modified content files, or lack of Internet connection ever flag a user as a pirate?
6. What does the developer do with this new list of suspected users? Is it merely for research purposes, or does he plan to turn it over to other authorities (i.e. could these users be perma-banned not just from the forums, but also from the mod, from the game, or from the Steam network?)
7. What makes the developer think the pirate community can't bypass this slightly more deceptive form of DRM, like they have so many times in the past?

I do not condone the actions of people who would pirate an indy developer's $10 game, but I also don't condone a developer running wild on an anti-piracy power-trip. By banning every single person who complains of this from his forums, he may be inadvertently banning users with legitimate problems. It wouldn't be the first time.

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