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Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 108

Never mind a marathon, have you ever watched a near-toddler learning learning to "walk"?

After they manage to reliably lever themselves up on to two feet, they kinda tip forwards and hurtle towards whatever they want to reach at the best speed they can make which is something approaching a dead run (not like an adult sprint, but it's not like an adult walk either).

This usually leads to them crashing into something and falling over, though they generally only cry if an adult can see them.

So, in fact kids pretty much learn to run as the first thing and actually learning an efficient wallk comes a lot later.

And I certainly agree about the marathon (I've only run 13 miles, but the point stands). I used ot take off and get rapidly out of breath. These days I can run 10k cold (having not done any running or indeed exercise in about 3-4 months), mostly because I have learned how to run and pace myself. It took quite a lot of practice and yes, walking didn't help at all.

Comment Most skeptics believe they are correct (Score 1) 703

There are a lot of "skeptics" who are really motivated by their own special interests, like not wanting reduction in coal mining to impact their home state's economy. They are set up to be biased. But a lot of skeptics are true believers that climate science is some kind of grand conspiracy. Now with those people, I don't really know what their motivation is for being skeptics, because they're not scientists. They just repeat some stuff they've been told by other people that sounds plausible to them. But anyhow, this is the problem we face. Most of the skeptics are not "lying." They are simply misinformed.

Comment Re:And India (Score 2, Insightful) 703

The four most populous countries use the death penalty and in total over 50% of the world population lives in nations where state aurhorized executions occur.

Note how the parent poster specified civilised. China, India and Indonesia are not exactly renowned for the quality of their justice systems. Then again, neither is the US.

Also, if you chuck the EU in there instead of having the countries separately (not an insane choice given there are common laws they must abide by in order to be members, including on the death penalty), it comes in at number 3 on the list of most populous.

Comment Re:Why are they interested in this? (Score 0) 167

Given that makerspaces don't seem to encourage hands-on skills

That is complete ant utter bullshit.

I was going to be polite, but fuck it, I'm not going to be. Since joining one, I've learned to weld (mig and stick), learned how to make good dovetail joints, learned how to so SMD reflow, learned how to cast rubber and a whole bunch of other stuff all from people who were willing to share whatever they knew.

So, basically you have no idea what you're talking about but seem to have some snobby up-your-own-arse attitude where you get validation from hating on makerspaces.

Actually I've realised looking back at the thread that I keep replying to you over and over again because you keep making idiotic comments. Your one about the table saw is ALSO way off (surprise!). No, we don't have a sawstop, nice as that might be. We do have an authentication mechanism which requires users to be trained.

Comment Re:People, not tools (Score 1) 167

You say people not tools, and I agree to an extent.

The experience at the London Hackspace suggests that the laser cutter and 3D printer are major draws which induce people to join in the first place. I, in fact, joined because they had a 3D printer that I could use and people around who would give advice.

The people is the core, most important aspect and without the people all the tools won't help. However, some tools are apparently more important than others.

Comment Re: In defense of "makerspace" (Score 1) 167

That's your own personal workshop by the sounds of it. A hackspace or the like is a community owned and run workshop, usually a charity or members club.

The London Hackspace is large enough that even operating very loud power tools in the basement workshop will not disturb converstation on the ground floor which is for lighter activities, such as crafts, laser cutting, 3D printing, sewing, knitting, electronics, programming and so on and, of course, socalising.

If you make enough noise on the ground floor to stop people socalising, you'll also be making enough to piss off everyone else trying to get some work done.

You have no grounds to get mad if I interrupt you mid-sentence with an air impact.

If you're at the electronics end of a workshop, then I'm fairly sure people would have reasonable ground to be annoyed at that level of noise.

Comment Re:Makerspace.... (Score 1) 167

Jesus christ this thread is the biggest outpouring of bullshit and snobbery that I think I've ever heard on slashdot.

Let's take this:

As far as I'm concerned, if those in the room aren't required to have at least eye protection, if not hearing protection, then it may as well be craft night.

I take pride in my workshop. I don't work with metal much, can't weld and don't have a bending brake, but I can work with wood,

You always wear eye protection when using a plane? Does that make you just a "craft"sman because according to you that seems to be something of a perjorative. Or are you one of those nutters that never uses a hand tool for *anything*?

BTW: reflow ovens don't require eye protection either.

As far as I'm concerned, if those in the room aren't required to have at least eye protection, if not hearing protection

If you're running a machine lathe and you need hearing protection, you're either doing something quite unusual or you're making a total mess of something. I've never had a loud task on a machine lathe.

Comment Ugly but improving window manager (Score 1) 53

I've been saying for years that plasmoids (with their rounded corners and translucency and other cool effects) look neat, but the window manager looks terrible, because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the theme. It looks like they've been improving it a bit. It's still not totally seamless, but it's way better than it was a few years ago.

So, I have a question: KDE seems like a more technlogically advanced desktop system and it's more pleasant to look at than GNOME. What is the appeal of sticking to GNOME as the default in distros like Ubuntu?

Comment Re:Similar bill in many states (Score 1) 193

New Mexico,

Ah yes, good to enforce driving standards in NM. Such standards would include:

* Making sure you are in a convoy of 3 cars tailgaiting each other in the middle lane of an otherwise completely empty 3 lane road
* Driving round on the emergency spare for at least 6 months of the year
* Recommended (but not required) to use the temporary paper license plate until it fades completely (about a year in strong sunlight).
* A chipped windscreen
* One headlight

Comment Re:Don't be mean to Lennart (Score 4, Interesting) 177

Indeed, those who use the phrase as a pejorative essentially label themselves as angry idiots. It also doesn't mean anything. I've seen SJWs blames in the comments on almost everything including quite diametrically opposite things.

I even saw them get blamed for making sci-fi about dystopia, and that was an AC modded up to +3 insigntful so clearly some people agreed.

So, I'd like to challenge anyone actually using the phrase to actually define what it means in a way that isn't a catch-all of "crap I hate on the internet".

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