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Comment Re:Lift the gag order first... (Score 1) 550

And none of this explains why comcast had such incredibly poor performance for netflix during off hours when the bandwidth wasn't being used (and was fast for everything else) and also how you could sign onto a VPN and your bandwidth to netflix instantly went to full speed.

I've had a couple people say Comcast wasn't throttling- but I think they are using a distinct definition when they say that because the result of comcast's configuration was reduced bandwidth (as in 2mbs vs 24mbs) for netflix vs other traffic.

Comment Re:Just Askin' (Score 0) 367

the current intepretation is a product of late 20th century judicial activism in an era of increasing crime and bernie goetz/ dirty harry style anger. it has to do with handguns, individual action, and urban environments

but the second amendment is about long guns, community action, and rural hinterland

as crime declined and continues to decline (due to the waning of the crack epidemic and better policing like COMPSTAT, not handgun ownership) we are at a crossroads where a loud minority insists hothead douchebags walking around half cocked with guns in civil society is good. it's fucking stupid, it's a recipe for unnecessary death, and doesn't impact crime at all

our social and economic peers control hand guns far better, and are not cesspools of rape, murder, and robbery. in fact, they are a mostly equivalent on crime measures as us, but a lot lower than us on measure of murder. because we're the morons with all the extra pointless easy guns

so we shall return to the original intent of the founding fathers: long guns, community action, and rural hinterland (no one wants to take away your shot gun, farmer/ hunter, and you deserve it), and do away with this late 20th century judicial activism about handguns, individual action, and urban environments

you get trained, tested, THEN you get a gun. and we will cut down on the USA's absolutely insane sky high homicide rate compared to our social and economic peers

do you see a problem here that needs correcting? the majority of americans do:

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/...

Comment Exactly! Recognizing irony is key... (Score 2) 47

As I wrote here: http://www.pdfernhout.net/reco...
" Military robots like drones are ironic because they are created essentially to force humans to work like robots in an industrialized social order. Why not just create industrial robots to do the work instead?
    Nuclear weapons are ironic because they are about using space age systems to fight over oil and land. Why not just use advanced materials as found in nuclear missiles to make renewable energy sources (like windmills or solar panels) to replace oil, or why not use rocketry to move into space by building space habitats for more land?
    Biological weapons like genetically-engineered plagues are ironic because they are about using advanced life-altering biotechnology to fight over which old-fashioned humans get to occupy the planet. Why not just use advanced biotech to let people pick their skin color, or to create living arkologies and agricultural abundance for everyone everywhere?
    These militaristic socio-economic ironies would be hilarious if they were not so deadly serious. Here is some dark humor I wrote on the topic: A post-scarcity "Downfall" parody remix of the bunker scene. See also a little ironic story I wrote on trying to talk the USA out of collective suicide because it feels "Burdened by Bags of Sand". Or this YouTube video I put together: The Richest Man in the World: A parable about structural unemployment and a basic income.
    Likewise, even United States three-letter agencies like the NSA and the CIA, as well as their foreign counterparts, are becoming ironic institutions in many ways. Despite probably having more computing power per square foot than any other place in the world, they seem not to have thought much about the implications of all that computer power and organized information to transform the world into a place of abundance for all. Cheap computing makes possible just about cheap everything else, as does the ability to make better designs through shared computing. I discuss that at length here: http://www.pdfernhout.net/post...
    There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th century security thinking. Those "security" agencies are using those tools of abundance, cooperation, and sharing mainly from a mindset of scarcity, competition, and secrecy. Given the power of 21st century technology as an amplifier (including as weapons of mass destruction), a scarcity-based approach to using such technology ultimately is just making us all insecure. Such powerful technologies of abundance, designed, organized, and used from a mindset of scarcity could well ironically doom us all whether through military robots, nukes, plagues, propaganda, or whatever else... Or alternatively, as Bucky Fuller and others have suggested, we could use such technologies to build a world that is abundant and secure for all. ...
      The big problem is that all these new war machines and the surrounding infrastructure are created with the tools of abundance. The irony is that these tools of abundance are being wielded by people still obsessed with fighting over scarcity. So, the scarcity-based political mindset driving the military uses the technologies of abundance to create artificial scarcity. That is a tremendously deep irony that remains so far unappreciated by the mainstream.
    We the people need to redefine security in a sustainable and resilient way. Much current US military doctrine is based around unilateral security ("I'm safe because you are nervous") and extrinsic security ("I'm safe despite long supply lines because I have a bunch of soldiers to defend them"), which both lead to expensive arms races. We need as a society to move to other paradigms like Morton Deutsch's mutual security ("We're all looking out for each other's safety")
http://www.beyondintractabilit...
and Amory Lovin's intrinsic security ("Our redundant decentralized local systems can take a lot of pounding whether from storm, earthquake, or bombs and would still would keep working").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
    There are lots of alternatives I helped organize here for helping transcend an economy based around militarism and artificial scarcity:
http://knol.google.com/k/paul-...
    Still, we must accept that there is nothing wrong with wanting some security. The issue is how we go about it in a non-ironic way that works for everyone. The people serving the USA in uniform are some of the most idealistic, brave, and altruistic people around; they just unfortunately are often misled for reasons of profit and power that Major General Butler outlined very clearly in "War is a Racket" decades ago. We need to build a better world where our trusting young people (and the people who give them orders) have more options for helping build a world that works for everyone than "war play". We need to build a better world where some of our most hopeful and trusting citizens are not coming home with PTSD as shattered people (or worse, coming home in body bags) because they were asked to kill and die for an unrecognized irony of using the tools of abundance to create artificial scarcity. ..."

Comment Could someone explain Republicans motivation? (Score 1) 550

I'm on several discussion boards and the republicans have universally just got bat shit crazy over this issue.

I'm having a hard time understanding their motivation or rational or source of talking points that's driving them.

Comcast gave huge amounts of money to both parties but it looks like it only stuck with republicans.

But are their some philosophical reasons why they support comcast and verizon being able to manipulate the internet and extort web sites to provide service the comcast customers already paid for?

Comment Re:"an act of social provocation"? (Score 2) 367

And I just came back from riding my recumbent trike around the neighborhood. During my ride 3 motorists cut me off. This is not an uncommon occurrence in Florida. A man walking was put into the hospital around the corner from us last week by a hit and run driver -- while in a crosswalk.

Since traffic laws don't stop these morons, does this mean we should not have traffic laws?

Comment Re:Just Askin' (Score -1, Flamebait) 367

Ah, gun nut, one of the favorite insults of the anti-rights crowd. Much easier to demean those that disagree with you rather than respond to their points, eh?

Fair enough. So let's examine your "point" and see what we have:

I'll turn in my modern firearm in favor of a musket when you exchange your computer for a printing press.

OK, I've given it some careful thought, and I've decided that for that point, the most appropriate response, the most reasonable response, and the absolute best response is, gun nut logic.

Satisfied?

Comment Re:Floating (Score 1) 765

I think it has moved far, far beyond that and the systemd folks are enemies of choice in Linux. As choice is a core principle in Linux and FOSS, these people are enemies of Linux itself.

And different from you, I see absolutely nothing limiting the useful lifetime for init. In fact, it will likely be good until computing changes completely, and that may be centuries in the future.

Comment Re:Watching systemd evolve (Score 0) 765

That is not what I said. I never claimed that rsyslogd cannot cause corruption. I just claimed that there are not-so-rare cases where rsyslogd and alternatives work, while systemd causes corruption. In addition, the corruption by rsyslogd is usually what you describe, namely things cut short. With the binary log-format from systemd, the damage is far more extensive, so, yes, rotating them is "right", but having binary logs is deeply wrong in the first place.

Comment Re:Gee, thanks Texas (Score 1) 367

Yes. I have dentures. Good dentist and virtually pain-free when he extracted all my teeth and dug remaining bits of root out of my gums, but the cost! Crazy. He needs to have one of these in in a back room instead of paying a lab and marking their charges up. Sadly, the major chain discount denture makers in my part of FL have terrible user ratings. Ah well. One day. I'm not complaining. I have high-end dentures that fit and look good, and the cost, while high to me, was lower than a lot of people pay. But one day....

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