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Comment Re:I hate these "get out the vote campaigns (Score 1) 468

Is it required in Canada that you pre-register in person? In my jurisdiction in the US, you can just fill out a form and send it by mail or fax. I moved last year and had to update my registration. I filled out the form online (hard copy still has to be mailed or faxed) and it even let me print a temporary card prepopulated with my precinct and district information. I had the real card back in the mail 3 or 4 days later.

Comment Re:West Virginia too (Score 1) 468

The problem is that with the US system, you cannot vote blank.

I don't think I've ever had a problem doing this, I just don't select any candidate in a particular race. Of course I have no way to know that the machine doesn't interpret that as a vote for Cthulu, but I have to place some amount of trust in the system.

Comment Re:See, they don't need H1-B visas... (Score 1) 286

Plus I'm willing to bet they claimed the travel expenses on their taxes. What did it cost to fly in 8 guys from India, and then fly them back a few months later? BLR to SFO, even booking the flights a month in advance, is about $800 per ticket and that's only one way. Could have easily been a $20K+ write-off, in addition to the other benefits they got from the arrangement.

Comment Re:backup for 911 (Score 1) 115

If you care enough about 911 and emergency situations to be reading this article, and you don't have a landline, then that's on you for being irresponsible. People spend more on texting than it costs to have a landline.

Every line in the US is required by law to be able to dial 911, even if you aren't paying for any service at all. This applies to landlines and cellphones. I often keep the police scanner on as background noise, and I can say at least a quarter of the 911 calls in Memphis originate from disconnected cell phones. If your landline gets a dial tone or your cellphone is charged and has a signal, you can dial 911 whether you have a phone plan or not.

Of course that doesn't help in the event of a 911 outage but those are, fortunately, quite rare. I can't justify $50 a month to pay for landline service in the extremely unlikely event that both the cell network and the local 911 network go down. If something like that occurs, there's been a catastrophic event on a scale where emergency officials aren't going to be much help anyway.

Comment Can we stop trying to come up with a reason? (Score 5, Interesting) 786

The only thing responsible for a "lack of women coders" is that fewer women than men are interested in software development as a career path. So what? I have yet to hear a convincing argument as to why this is a problem, why this is something to be concerned about, or why millions of dollars are being thrown around in an attempt to change the situation.

Comment Re:So you have to install an app... (Score 1) 113

Apple's App Store has plenty of apps available without charge, too, but they sure hope you buy some that cost money. I don't think I know anyone with a smart phone, regardless of OS, who only has free apps and hasn't purchased at least one. F-Droid isn't really an app store, unless you want to get clever and interpret "store" as a storage facility as opposed to a marketplace. It's a curated library, not a store. F-Droid is a registered nonprofit and relies on donations to survive.

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