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Comment Re:Who cares? (Score 1) 835

Dude, my dad and brother and uncle run linux. They don't give a shit about what's under the hood. I put it on their computers so they would stop begging me to fix their shitty windows boxes every time I visit. Do you know how many headaches getting them to convert has saved me? Hundreds probably. I started converting them over about 4 years ago--in the dark ages. My dad just asked me for a new unbuntu disk to install on a computer he is selling or buying for himself. I ripped the disk and mailed it to him, and I haven't heard from him. *He doesn't know jack-shit about linux or unix.* Can you wrap your mind around that. This is the man's native operating system and he couldn't "ls" if his life depended on it. And he couldn't configure a driver either. Do you get that? In fact, if I hadn't switched him and my brother to linux, I wouldn't have time to write this. I'm not friggin' lying here. In fact, I run OS X exclusively for myself except in VMs, so I'm not a linux zealot. If I had a choice between linux and windows, I'd run linux hands down. But I fork over the big $$ for OS X. You probably do to. So quit pretending windows is just as good as linux. Windows is shit. I have first hand experience.
Books

Google Books As "Train Wreck" For Scholars 160

Following up on our earlier discussion, here's more detail on Geoffrey Nunberg's argument that Google Books could prove detrimental to academics and other scholars. Recently Nunberg gave a talk at a conference claiming that the metadata in Google Books is riddled with errors and is classified in a scheme unfit for scholarly use. This blog post was fleshed out somewhat a few days later in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Quoting from the latter: "Start with publication dates. To take Google's word for it, 1899 was a literary annus mirabilis, which saw the publication of Raymond Chandler's Killer in the Rain, The Portable Dorothy Parker, [and] Stephen King's Christine... A search on 'internet' in books written before 1950 and turns up 527 hits. ... [Google blames some errors on the originating libraries.] ...the libraries can't be responsible for books mislabeled as Health and Fitness and Antiques and Collectibles, for the simple reason that those categories are drawn from the Book Industry Standards and Communications codes, which are used by the publishers to tell booksellers where to put books on the shelves. ... In short, Google has taken a group of the world's great research collections and returned them in the form of a suburban-mall bookstore." The head of metadata for Google Books, Jon Orwant, has responded in detail to Numberg's complaints in a comment on the original blog post — and says his team has already fixed the errors that Nunberg so helpfully pointed out.
Microsoft

Lawsuit Claims WGA Is Spyware 360

twitter writes "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's euphemistically named digital restrictions scheme, is the target of another spyware and false advertising lawsuit. 'Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information [daily IP address and other details that could be used to trace information back to a home or user]. The complaint further argued that Microsoft portrayed WGA as a necessary security update rather than acknowledge its copy protection nature in the update. WGA's implementation also prevented users from purging the protection from their PCs without completely reformatting a computer's system drive.' There were at least two other lawsuits launched in 2006 over WGA. According to the Wikipedia article, none of them have been resolved. The system is built into Vista and Windows 7."

Comment Re:WTF (Score 3, Funny) 349

No shit, Sherlock?

Sherlock was actually the sleuth from some fictional stories written long ago. So it's inaccurate to use "Sherlock" here.

If I hear one more person use "Sherlock" in the wrong context, my brain is going to explode because they don't know proper usage.

The term you are looking for is "fucktard".

Learn English.

Comment Re:WTF (Score 4, Insightful) 349

That sill doesn't explain why placebos are now nearly twice as effective as ~1990, but this paragraph from the article might be a factor:

Because if you have an imaginary concocted ailment like restless leg syndrome or hyperactivity, then the imaginary effects of a sugar pill are going to work well to alleviate the imaginary symptoms of the imaginary disease.

Pharmaceutical companies define disease these days. They advertise diseases and they push doctors to prescribe their poisonous ineffective chemicals to treat the advertised diseases.

You could probably find a correlation between the number of advertised diseases like restless leg syndrome and this so called "placebo effect".

Comment Re:Jesus was NOT a hippie (Score 1) 464

Anyone that thinks Jesus was some hippy "I'm OK, You're OK" kind of guy really has never read the Bible.

That's because any religion that doesn't aim to (1) convert others and (2) kill those who won't be converted is not going to make it in the long run. Over 2000 years, "I'm ok, your ok." looses to "I'm ok, you aren't, it's your kneecaps or my religion."

Comment Re:what's the point? (Score 1) 282

I don't get why people keep come up with all these bizarre alternatives.

What is your favorite video game? Zork wasn't good enough for you?

Oh, I like modern video games...I'm sorry such simple, logical arguments go over your head. Have you considered a career in breaking rocks for a living?

No. But I have considered a career in psychology--and it seems I might be pretty damn good at it.

Comment Re:Personal mobility (Score 1) 282

Why aren't we satisfied with walking anymore?

Umm, it's slow? It's unpleasant. You have to dodge assholes who run red lights. It's not intense enough for a workout. It does not work your entire body.

Do you need more reasons?

I row 10,000 m five days a week on an indoor rower and I use mechanized transportation to and from work every day. The 10,000 m on the rower would just about cover my round trip *in a rowboat*. An equivalent amount of energy on a bicycle or walking would get me to work and back twice at least. I don't walk for the reasons I mentioned. I don't run because I don't like to show up to work sweaty and I have too many injuries from the knees down to do it for more than a week without crippling myself. I don't ride a bike because I live in LA and I LIKE LIVING!

If I didn't think some jackass in a car would try to nail me on a yike bike just because he didn't like the way I looked, I'd probably get one. Instead, I savor the thought of the thousands of pounds of metal around my body as I commute to and from work.

The antagonism towards segways and yike bikes even on the hyper liberal /. drives me away from these environmental alternatives because I know the attitude you and others show here is expressed as dangerous aggression on the road. I'd rather mother earth burn up in a stew of CO2 than make myself a target for drivers who are insecure about their own masculinity and aim their SUVs at everything that doesn't have four wheels.

Comment Re:yeah yeah. (Score 1) 282

I'm from the Humor Assistance League. I'm here to help.

Parent wants us to imagine Fred Flintstone's legs under his car running, like he does at the intro of every show. Parent may also want us to contrast more primitive technologies with present and future technology and the impact these technologies have on our lives and perspectives.

Please call 555-I-SUBTLE if you continue to get modded inappropriately.

Comment Re:Judge doesn't quite understand (Score 1) 429

except it's a self correcting issue. Don't build more roads, but keep the current in repair. People will get sick of the traffic and find other was to get into the city.

Do I need to use the sarcasm tags when I say the following or is the absurdity enough of a hint?

Yes, this really has worked well for southern California.

Comment Re:Yes. (Score 1) 429

but it's not at all inconceivable that Childs could cause damage to that network if he chose to do so.

Estanislao, you need to turn yourself into the authorities because it is not inconceivable that you will commit a heinous crime of wanton murder if you choose to do so. Your guilty of thinking that.

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