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Comment Re:oh no (Score 2) 140

Oh, the SDS guy. OK then. And no one has explained how Mr. Ayers was not interested in the violent overthrow of the government, he was interested in resistance to specific injustices, specifically the draft and the Viet Nam war in general. Then as now the arms were nearly always in the hands of the police. He was never charged or convicted of any crime-- his only crime was thinking (and writing and speaking) against the status quo. He's now dragged out as a symbol of violent insurrection by the right because the media knows almost no one will bother to look him up to find out the real story anyway. Besides, no one is interested in Ayers-- he's been a college professor for 30 years-- only in his relationship to Obama, which was slight, and the opportunity to use an unfair and incorrect innuendo to besmirch the President.

Sorry to nit-pick, but it's important to be informed.

Comment Re:oh no (Score 4, Informative) 140

Are you referring to the right Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Because Rev. Wright is an honorable, articulate, educated, honest, and forthright man, who is at least second generation military, served as a Marine and a Navy corpsman, has more academic degrees than most Tea-Baggers have fingers on their right hand, is a college professor and runs a church. The fact that the fucktard-right-- errr, I mean mainstream media-- in this country can't tell the difference between an intelligent man's hyperbole (used to illustrate a point about the history of racial oppression) and violent insurrection-- does not condemn the man.

And if not Rev. Wright, then who are you talking about?

Comment Re:I used to block ads (Score 1) 978

Thank you for proving definitively that my experience has been wrong for all these years. I never got to enjoy that online world of the past, blessed with all that lovely non-shitty and bloat-free "user created content," when browsers could cope with whatever was posted, and search engines only returned relevant results. For so long, my experience was just the opposite. It's a relief to finally realize I was living in an alternate universe.

Comment Oracle is losing their class (Score 1) 193

I was entertained that Larry Ellison attached crapware to their security updates, which have to be specifically turned off in the installation, and their stupid toolbar turns off popup windows, but that disables Oracle's Discoverer product, and it works differently than the IE popup blocker, by not looking for user configurable exceptions. So for pennies per user, Oracle collects from the toolbar makers for every installation. And they're alienating IT departments. I hate working with them-- they're more mafia-like every year. End of complaint.

Comment Re:Punishment to fit the crime (Score 1) 390

If JSTORE didn't want to make the archives available to scripts, it would have been easy to tighten the access. When a service publishes their data in an openly accessible way-- with an API, or with a query front end, or just the file-system shell interface, this is an indicator the data is OK to access in a script or batch job.

No password was required on the MIT network (hence no hacking on Swartz's part), and the JSTORE documents were available in a shell, which indicates JSTORE didn't do much to establish their value-add to legitimize their ownership of this IP. Just saying.

Comment Re:Punishment to fit the crime (Score 1) 390

You're right, but it shouldn't require establishing sterling bona fides to protect Swartz from 35 years in prison, or even the threat. One thing he most complained about was the lawyers absorbing all his money, and then moving in on his parents home. In the US judicial system we're innocent until proven guilty if the defendant continues to pay in to the legal system. And defense lawyers are the only profession to have arranged that non-payment of their bills is a criminal matter and not a civil matter, as it would be with not paying your surgeon, roofer, or computer consultant.

Comment Re:What is this crap? (Score 4, Insightful) 390

Thank you sir, you are completely correct. Corps have convinced government at every level that their needs-- for protection of future profits, for protection of trade secrets, for maintaining their own security rubrics, for protecting their IP)-- make it necessary they be able to interpret and prosecute their own lines of inquiry, sanctions, and punishments against citizens. Government at every level (and on both sides of the aisle) is jumping at the chance to hand them anything they ask for, from SOPA passed in secret, to pepper spray for college protesters, to absurd prison terms for the unregenerate such as Aaron Swartz. It's shocking and unsustainable, but it's happening.

Comment Re:lol (Score 1) 332

All jokes aside is it just me or is it sad we have to point out to fricking scientists doing these studies that "correlation does not equal causation" like they are noobs?

Some of what passes for bad science is really bad reporting. Science reporting in the mainstream media is terrible, and the source of most bad interpretations and conclusions. It's cheaper for a corporation to pay journalists to spin the science than it is to pay for the science. Let government pay for the science, and let Fox news interpret the findings. Welcome to the plutocracy. Please remove your shoes.

Comment Re:lol (Score 2) 332

Dear AC, The parent AC was encouraging open-mindedness and a willingness to do more research. I think anecdotal evidence with a sample size of two is an acceptable way to promote more research. It's not evidence so much as motivation. There's not much science on cannabis yet.

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