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Comment Re:The solution seems so simple (Score 1) 110

Like encryption, those high powered IR LEDs to blind cameras, only attract attention -- until everyone is doing it.

Once encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will use encryption. Similarly wearing IR LEDs wired into your hat.


Well tested code is best. Therefore you should run your unit tests many times so you can say your code is well tested.

Comment The solution seems so simple (Score 4, Funny) 110

The stores which own the legislatures of both Illinois and Texas should simply order them to change the laws.

You can buy all of the government some of the time, and some of the government all of the time, but . . . it takes a lot of money to buy all of the government, all of the time. So that option is only available to very large companies.

Comment Passports are for puny week annoying humans (Score 1) 164

Why should a robot need a passport? It is a machine. Like your toaster. This will continue to be true for some time to come.

Should other dangerous machines also need a passport? What about a robot welding machine? A numerically controlled drill press? (Hey, it could decide to hurt you just when you happen to have your hand in the wrong spot!)

Comment Society will completely collapse (Score 2) 182

If the electricity is off for two weeks, society will begin to totally disintegrate.

Your water tap stops because no power to pump water into your nearby water tower. It may have a backup generator, but that takes fuel, which I'll come to next.

You won't be able to put fuel into your car because no electricity to operate the gas pumps at the filling station. Even using siphoning or other ways of pumping the fuel out of the underground storage tanks, the filling station fuel supplies will get tapped out soon.

Not only will you no longer be able to use your car (electric or fuel powered) but there will be no more deliveries. Your local grocery store should be completely picked clean by now.

At this point, people will fight for food, water, batteries, fuel, other supplies. Don't expect help from the police, military of government. They will be having the same basic problems. The people who participate in the police and military will be having the same basic problems with their own families.

By now, you can see where this is going.

Comment Video Bites (Score -1, Offtopic) 100

Dear Slashdot,

It is not "video bytes", it is "video bites". As in, wow that's too bad, that really bites. The term 'bites' is not as widely used as 'sucks', but it is more correct, since the former is a bad thing, and the latter is a good thing.

So please correct the spelling of your "Video Bites" spam inserts on the front page.

Thank you

Regards, with my sincerest indifference to the success of your organization and source forge spam operations

Comment Re:3D Printers a Serious Danger to Civilized Socie (Score 1) 391

> I know you are being sarcastic

How could you tell? :-)

> 3d printing a gun certainly takes a lot of effort.

In 1985, using your own Laser Printer to print leaflets took a lot of effort and money. Apple's first LaserWriter cost just a shave under $8000. Add the cost of a Mac, you're well over $10,000. And this is in 1985 dollars.

Choice of software, at the time was painfully limited. MacDraw wasn't even around yet. So you could use MacPaint (painfully) and get low quality images on your laserwriter. You could use MacWrite, or Microsoft Word (such as it was) and get lots of neatly formatted text in multiple fonts and styles.

3D printing is only going to get cheaper and easier. The state of 3D printing today is the worst it will ever be.

Comment My Feedback to Netflix (Score 1) 318

I was able to get into a live chat with someone at Netflix and give them this feedback.



Please do not even go down the rabbit hole of experimenting with advertising. I enjoy the ad-free experience that you currently offer. The world is literally polluted with ads, and we do not need more. Advertisers will mandate the placement of ads on the inside of our eyeballs once the technology becomes available. Instead, raise your prices if it is more money that you need to support and improve your already excellent service.

If this terrible idea must go forward (managers, executives, etc), then please offer a higher priced ad-free plan.

Decades ago, cable TV sold itself to the advertisers. It's like an addictive drug. It was argued back then, at first, to justify that you pay for cable tv, that it would be ad-free. We see how that worked out. Now cable tv spends more time on ads than it does on content. And the content has deteriorated to the point that it is literally un-watchable. Instead I watch online internet TV, such as Netflix and others. I hope that I don't eventually have to shift my viewing habits again because Netflix goes the way of cable TV.

Please, please do not open up this can of worms. You cannot re-can it once opened. Netflix will gradually deteriorate into more and more ads and less and less content. Ads will end up driving decisions, including eventually the content, until the disease of ads infect the content itself like a cancer. It is a gradual process that starts on a slippery slope at a watershed moment. A watershed is like the continental divide. There is a line through the US where if a drop of rain falls on one side of the line, it ends up eventually in the Atlantic ocean. If it falls only a few inches away on the other side of the line, it eventually ends up in the Pacific ocean. This advertising is like that. Netflix is at a watershed moment that will affect its destiny. Please don't make the wrong choice.

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