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Comment Re:4,000 Books = 4,000 Screens (Score 1) 312

Not a valid example. I can and do have several technical books open at the same time, side by side, with the ability to refer to one right after the other. For example, right at this moment I have "Definitive Guide to CentOS" open and right next to that "Spring Security" and next to that "MySQL" (5th Ed). Each of them is open to a specific page. And you know that having to go find the other bookmark really follows the "out of sight, out of mind" principle. Your example fails. Any one of those books I could take to the bathtub to read--something you would never do with a Kindle--but something books handle easily. (If they get wet along the bottom edge, no biggie.) I don't play any games so I can't speak to that issue. I do have two iMacs with three screens for the exact reason I specified. One will have Eclipse open, the second may have a stackoverflow page and a third email or a movie. Three screens.

Comment 4,000 Books = 4,000 Screens (Score 1) 312

I have 4,000 books, most of them hardbacks. I stopped watching television in 8th grade and have never owned a TV. I have two 27" iMacs. If I were to buy a kindle, I could have one book open at a time. I like to read 4 or 5 books at a time, reading a few chapters of one and then switching to another one. Sometimes I will encounter a particularly brilliant passage in a book and so I will leave the book on my desk open to that page for quick reference. It is, in effect, as if I have 4,000 screens. Many dozens of them can be open at the same time. My favorite place to read long-form works is in the bathtub. I just finished "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnson about how the rich are ripping all of us off by getting the US government to underwrite them. Then I switched to "The Definitive Guide to CentOS". I have "War & Peace" open on my desk to a brilliant passage that never fails to inspire me as I work on my 12th novel. All of these activities would be impossible if I had one measly Kindle. The printed book is a technology that has never been bettered.

Comment Re:Jag Off Republicans (Score 1) 237

Oh? So what possible benefit can we derive from going to the moon AGAIN? If you read the article, it's clear the only reason they want to go to the moon is for a jobs program. Having followed politics for years, I can clearly state that the Republicans care about nothing but getting their money. They are all about cashing in and this is yet another example. So, douche bag, I stand by my comments.

Comment Re:The Path To Faster-Than-Light Travel (Score 1) 255

No, I understand that this particular story was about the reverse effects of antimatter.
I was taking the excuse of this news to point out the idea of negative mass being the ideal way to circumvent E=MC2. If your net mass is zero, then the massive energy that would be converted into mass does not need to happen. I agree with your assessment of what kind of mass antimatter has--positive mass--but if there were negative mass, that's the way to Warp 5.

Comment The Path To Faster-Than-Light Travel (Score 1, Interesting) 255

I have been thinking this for twenty years.

Think of E=MC2.

Faster than light travel is only impossible when you have a net positive mass. If your mass is net zero, (meaning in your magnetic grip you hold matter and antimatter in the same functional unit but not touching each other (two magnetic bottles), then you could travel faster than the speed of light.

Comment Last Dealings With Microsoft for me? 1998 (Score -1, Troll) 154

For all of the morons out there who are so uncreative as to still be using a damned Windows OS, I pity you and wish that you could set up a curtain so the rest of us don't have to see the ugly machinations going on in your Windows ecosystem.
As I write this from my 27-inch iMac, I know that nobody's perfect. Macs are 99% awesome but even they have a tiny blemish or two.
But that's nothing like the ongoing decade-long bloodbath going on in the Microsoft camp. So, Microsoft itself cannot get it right? Them asking you to clean up a mess they pushed on you? Are you freaking kidding?

In the Apple world, we have had the occasional inconvenience as Apple reacted, proactively, to protect from some zero-day Java exploits. (Thank you, you Apple bastards.)
But that is NOTHING like living in Microsoft's jungle with all those rabid wild animals sniffing around, looking for fresh meat.

Comment Last Software Written By Bill Gates (Score 1) 143

This was my first computer! I spent $1,000 on it. It was awesome and I still have it. I'm sure if I popped some fresh batteries in it it would still work. The funny thing is I'm betting Bill Gates also wrote the manual which was famously a mess with references to non-existent sections. Still, this got me into software development. I remember I had a tape-backup drive that I used to store off programs and after I had been storing them on tape for a long while I noticed that I had a variable-speed tape player and I was never able to recover a dang thing from tape. Still, I loved this and eventually got a floppy disk drive for it that would store 250K. Still have all that in a bin.

Comment WHAT New York City Phone Booths ??? (Score 1) 124

So, they're going to do this for all six pay phones in New York City? I should clarify to mean working pay phones. The subways are full of the derelict hulks of formerly working pay phones. Across the five boroughs, pay phones--especially working ones--are as scarce as hen's teeth. Actual step-inside phone booths are even less abundant.

Comment Stop The Yahoo Spam Tsunami First (Score 0) 40

Yahoo, this is all fine but I think the rest of the world would be happier if you would first stop the tsunami of spam email that comes from @yahoo.com servers. It's ridiculous. Unless you want to block every moron who still uses an @yahoo.com email address, you are stuck putting up with a tidal wave of spam.

Comment Hah! What Has Indian Invented? (Score 0) 157

This is rich. They're going to tax Indian entrepreneurs. So, who? What has India invented? The last thing they invented was Sanscrit. The rest has been derivative.
But I will say the only impact this law will have is making sure it stays that way. To a person who lives in the United States, this is comical. "Don't interfere with your enemy when he's committing suicide."

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