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Comment Re:Have I lost my mind? (Score 1) 378

If you've ever changed an infant's diaper you'd have seen that green-yellow mess that comes out for a while.

Kids put everything in their mouth. Put them on the floor, they'll lick the carpets. Unsupervised they'll eat the "poopsicles" in the cat litter, and play with the dogs "turdles." Every time they find something they'll put it in their mouth.

Thanks. In fact, I have changed quite a few diapers and I'd love to change more!

Comment Re:I'd defer to whatever the man who died wished (Score 5, Interesting) 645

Since I didn't watch it, I don't know what it contains, but I would suspect they do not show the man at his best.

The video shows that man at his absolute best. I could never be as brave as that pilot watching the flames come for him. You _think_ that you've seen brave people in movies. This was a real brave person, handling a certain-death situation with more dignity than I've ever approached a problem in my life.

If you ever wonder what "dignity" and "bravery" mean, you'll have to watch that video. We see not only humans at their absolute worst, but we also see one human at the absolute best that a human could be.

Comment Re:Even Fox gets it right sometimes (Score 5, Insightful) 645

I actually think that it is important for those interested to see this video. At the very least, know your enemy. Those who are _not_ disgusted by the video were already lost before they saw it. I saw it. I cannot believe what some people will do to one another.

Related discussion on Stack Exchange:
http://islam.stackexchange.com...

Comment Re:My FreeBSD Report: Four Months In (Score 1) 471

It has yet to crash even once, unlike Debian and Linux, where I'd get a kernel panic around once a month.

This sounds like the problem right here. What was casing the kernel panics? From what you say you seem extremely competent with *NIX systems, so why didn't you find the cause of the panics?

For what it's worth, I run quite a few Debian-based systems (alright, I'll say it: Ubuntu Server) both on real hardware (commodity and a Dell PowerEdge) and also in AWS (virtual machines in the cloud). I cannot remember my last kernel panic, it has been _years_ since I've seen that.

Note that Ubuntu is still using upstart, so I have never evaluated systemd. I'm not addressing systemd in this post, rather, I'm addressing your oops.

Comment Re:Ebay Had the Same Problem (Score 1) 265

A lot of that has to do with Ebay policy. I mentioned this recently in another post, here's a copy-paste:

Recently I ordered two computer mice for my daughters:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Real-Fi...

When they didn't arrive after two months, I contacted the seller and he sent two more. When one of _those_ didn't work he sent a _fifth_ mouse! This was two days before the claims for the unreceived mice was to expire in my favour (i.e. a full refund). I contacted Ebay and requested them not to close the issue in two days, as I was still waiting for the replacement mouse. Within five minutes (not two days) the issue was closed in my favour and I got an automatic refund that I neither wanted nor deserved. The poor seller sent _five_ mice and didn't get any of his money. He probably thinks that I'm a scammer as well, when the issue is that Ebay didn't even read my mail asking them to extend his deadline.

Comment Re:Good and Bad Outcomes (Score 1) 265

I used to order breakfast at the same restaurant every morning on my way to work, pretty much the same dish each time. One day I'm super late and just as I arrive the waitress puts down a dish for me to eat. She mentions that it's not _exactly_ how I like it but it's close, and the guy who ordered it will wait as he's in less of a hurry than I am.

That waitress always got a good tip, but on that particular day she made us both happy. I don't know how it affected the tip from the guy who order the food, but I made up for that with my tip!

Comment Re:Good data first, then maybe big data later (Score 1) 99

Data cleanup will take twice as long, cost twice as much, and you will lose at least 10% of your data when you decide to finally give up scrubbing the data.

I actually independently came up with the 10% figure today as well, and mentioned to my project manager that unless he wants to invest real money chasing the long tail of data, he was going to have 10% of the records with bogus values in some fields. I will certainly adopt the rest of your quote!

I have since added a corollary: I do not do IT projects unless you pay me enough to retire on.

Here you lost me. Why were you even in this business if you didn't love the challenge? Don't take other peoples' bad data personally. Take it as an opportunity.

Comment Re: This is junk science (Score 1) 226

It contains inaccuracies and is a clear troll. The poster knows enough terminology to sound smart, and deliberately twists it.

Oh, and the username begins with the word "Troll". Whoever went on to moderate that post as "Insightful" (as it now stands) does not understand cosmology, and additionally does not know how to identify an obvious troll.

Comment Re: Planetary migration due to tidal forces? (Score 1) 65

The fine article suggests that it does in fact affect orbit. Truth be told, it is the first time that I hear this, and _perhaps_ it is the case for gaseous worlds, for which slowing down the rotation is not as straightforward as for rocky worlds.

I've asked on space.SE, your input and comments are welcome on that discussion:
http://space.stackexchange.com...

Comment Re:Planetary migration due to tidal forces? (Score 1) 65

What is that all about? From what I've read the earth's moon is currently moving away from the earth, not closer. So wouldn't the same forces affect the migration of planets once their environs are cleared of dust, gas and planetismals?

The tidal forces bend and stretch the planet. This results in friction and ultimately, heat.

As soon as you hear the word "heat", you should immediately start looking for places to drain the energy from. In this case, it is orbital velocity that is shed, which brings the planet in closer to the star.

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