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Comment Jesus, I don't what's more annoying.... (Score 1) 387

by MC Negro (#28484245) Attached to: News Sites Slammed By Michael Jackson Traffic
...Christians that insist on injecting quaint little refrigerator magnet-style philosophy and superstitious dogma into conversations about death, or pseudo-intellectual atheists that hamfistedly bring up their personal beliefs (or lack of beliefs) at every fucking opportunity. For the more vocal atheist like the OP, here's a tip for winning over middle-of-the-road crowd : When you haphazardly ejaculate your "deep" musings into topics that really have nothing to do with them, you look just as fucking retarded and self-righteous as the zealous Bible-thumper prattling on about eternal hellfire or heaven or whatever they're talking about these days.

I am an atheist, believing in no life after this one, and the upshot of this is I find all human life to have indefinite value - indefinite but basically equal. If you are mourning right now and your surname isn't "Jackson", then it is a direct affront to those who die through no fault of their own and are implicitly disregarded by the rest of the world during the absurd rituals we employ to mark the death of somebody famous.

I don't believe in human nature or historical inevitability. I believe in free will, and thus I believe people have a choice. Masses of people have made the wrong choice, and it makes me both sad and angry. The reaction to Michael Jackson's death, rather than the death itself, has put a real downer on my day.

Wow! That's fascinating!

Please be sure and keep us updated on your personal beliefs and what they imply for your vision of the world! Afterward, take a moment to reflect on how you have the social and intellectual high ground on annoying theists who invoke their religion at times that are inappropriate and to an audience that doesn't care.

Comment Re:Glad to see.. (Score 1) 1188

by MC Negro (#27445111) Attached to: Angry Villagers Run Google Out of Town

2) If my wife calls me and says she is lost, if I can get Google Street up, I can get a fair sense of what she is seeing once I have an intersection. Much, much better than guiding someone around over the phone using a map.

Mod this shit up, yo!

Streetview is especially useful when you're in a big city other than your own - rows and rows of skyscrapers and highrises can all blend in and obscure the actual street and location you're looking for, but Streetview allows you to look around and pick a landmark as an identifier. When I first saw it demoed on mobile devices, I was like "Why the fuck would I want to see (what is essentially) a Power Point presentation of city blocks on my phone?", but one set of wonky directions from my GPS provided an opportunity for Streetview to prove its usefulness.

I can't speak to the usefulness of the service to criminals, but I can definitely find legitimate purpose in it.
Image

Securing PHP Web Applications 229

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-ya-neck dept.
Michael J. Ross writes "The owners and the developers of typical Web sites face a quandary, one often unrecognized and unstated: They generally want their sites' contents and functionality to be accessible to everyone on the Internet, yet the more they open those sites, the more vulnerable they can become to attackers of all sorts. In their latest book, Securing PHP Web Applications, Tricia and William Ballad argue that PHP is an inherently insecure language, and they attempt to arm PHP programmers with the knowledge and techniques for making the sites they develop as secure as possible, short of disconnecting them from the Internet." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.

Comment Re:Not sure about other places but the US has... (Score 1) 148

by MC Negro (#26999309) Attached to: Flying Car Flies From London To Africa

Not if your net worth is below something like $5,000,000. Those poor multi-millionaires!

So because they're worth a certain amount of money, it's okay to plunder the estate state of the deceased?

What a peculiar outlook. Not necessarily a wrong outlook - it just strikes me as odd to see the "us vs. them" mentality justified because those "poor multi-millionaires" are somehow less deserving to pass their worldly gains to their children with less taxation than those who are worth less.

I don't really get it, but then I suppose that doesn't really matter.
The Courts

Will Obama's DOJ Intervene To Help RIAA? 546

Posted by kdawson from the jury-is-out dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Cloud, a Pennsylvania case in which the RIAA's statutory damages theory — seeking from 2,200 to 450,000 times the amount of actual damages — is being tested, the US Department of Justice has just filed papers indicating that it is considering intervening in the case to defend the constitutionality of such awards, and requesting an extension of time (PDF) in which to decide whether such intervention 'is appropriate.' This is an early test of whether President Obama will make good on his promises (a) not to allow industry insiders to participate in cases affecting the industry they represented (the 2nd and 3rd highest DOJ officials are RIAA lawyers) and (b) to look out for ordinary citizens rather than big corporations."
Games

Congressman Wants Health Warnings On Video Games 421

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nanny-state dept.
An anonymous reader writes "California Rep. Joe Baca has proposed a bill which would mandate placing health warning labels on any video game rated T (13+) or higher by the ESRB. The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 would require a cigarette pack-like label that reads, 'WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.'"
Government

Rick Boucher To Chair House Internet Committee 55

Posted by kdawson from the friend-in-a-high-place dept.
Misch writes "Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA) will be taking the chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Rep. Boucher has been an advocate for consumers rights, is a co-founder of the Congressional Internet Caucus, and has participated in a Slashdot Interview. He was instrumental in defeating key escrow, back in the day."
Censorship

After Columbine, Eric Holder Advocated Internet "Restrictions" 430

Posted by timothy from the but-that-was-then-and-this-is-now dept.
ErikTheRed writes "In an audio clip discovered by NewsBusters, then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder advocated federal censorship of the Internet. This was in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings. From the clip: 'The court has really struck down every government effort to try to regulate it. We tried with regard to pornography. It is gonna be a difficult thing, but it seems to me that if we can come up with reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet, that is something that the Supreme Court and the courts ought to favorably look at.'" Holder is reported to be Barack Obama's choice for Attorney General of the United States.
Medicine

Scientists Erase Specific Memories In Mice 320

Posted by samzenpus from the where's-the-cheese dept.
Ostracus writes "It sounds like science fiction, but scientists say it might one day be possible to erase undesirable memories from the brain, selectively and safely. After exposing mice to emotionally powerful stimuli, such as a mild shock to their paws, the scientists then observed how well or poorly the animals subsequently recalled the particular trauma as their brain's expression of CaMKII was manipulated up and down. When the brain was made to overproduce CaMKII at the exact moment the mouse was prodded to retrieve the traumatic memory, the memory wasn't just blocked, it appeared to be fully erased."
Robotics

Robotic Suit For Rent In Japan 202

Posted by timothy from the low-miles-one-owner-died-quick dept.
xTantrum writes with an AP story that begins "A robotic suit that reads brain signals and helps people with mobility problems will be available to rent in Japan for $2,200 a month starting Friday — an invention that may have far-reaching benefits for the disabled and elderly."
The Courts

Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted 846

Posted by CmdrTaco from the very-stealthy dept.
doomsdaywire writes "A University of Tennessee student who is the son of a Memphis legislator has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. [...] If convicted, [David C.] Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. A trial date has not been set."
Windows

Microsoft Updates Multiple Sysinternals Tools 179

Posted by timothy from the might-as-well-make-the-best-of-it dept.
wiedzmin writes "A couple of very useful updates have just been released by Microsoft for the ever so popular Sysinternals tool set. The most notable one is ProcessMonitor v2.0 which will now include 'real-time TCP and UDP monitoring.' Another one, released earlier this year — Desktops 1.0, provides a very unique multi-thread way to get multiple desktops running on your Windows box."
Space

No Space Porn (For Now) 260

Posted by timothy from the perpetual-virgin-galactic dept.
With the entry to sub-orbital flight, and even orbital flight, becoming ever so slightly easier, the obvious thought of space porn kicks in. Who wouldn't want to see two or more people going at it like rabbits in a weightless environment (or at least trying to go at it like rabbits in a weightless environment)? Sadly, Virgin Galactic has turned down a $1 million offer to do just that. The offer was made by an unidentified party who was willing to put the money up front to do a space porn movie. Considering that a flight aboard VG costs $200,000 for a two-hour flight, $1 million doesn't seem too bad. Though how much you could actually do and perform in two hours is debatable. And what if one or more of the actors gets sick?
Science

Studies Say Ideology Trumps Facts 784

Posted by samzenpus from the water-still-wet dept.
Anti-Globalism writes "We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that's not always the case. Being uninformed is one thing, but having a population that's actively misinformed presents problems when it comes to participating in the national debate, or the democratic process. If the findings of some political scientists are right, attempting to correct misinformation might do nothing more than reinforce the false belief."

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