Comment i'm so sorry so sorry (Score 5, Funny) 500
In America, you put in Linux.
In Soviet Russia, Putin Linux you.
Comment as long as (Score 1) 239
Sure, why not?
However, Thiel better be right about selecting people correctly for the program. Otherwise, you've "stopped out" for a couple of years, got a failed .com startup to your credit, and might have trouble getting back into or adjusting to university.
Comment not the same issue (Score 4, Insightful) 108
I dislike the analogy between "large social networking sites walling off your data" and net neutrality infringement/censorship/monitoring. Walled gardens are a perfectly acceptable consequence of a FREE web; net neutrality infringement is the opposite. Would you complain if your
Comment not so... (Score 3, Insightful) 164
and spaceflight bragging rights for years afterward
Hopefully, this won't turn out to be true. Brag in the short term, you bourgeois pig, but I'm still among the idealistic holdouts, with thousands of dollars in my hand waiting in line to sign up, who believe in Virgin Galactic and economies of scale.
Comment Re:H3rb41 V14gr4? (Score 3, Insightful) 162
I never got the leet speak in spam thing. Sure, it might get past the filter, but who can read it? Are they trying to sell drugs to script kiddies?
I don't know about you, but I can't stop trying to figure out what word they're trying to represent with the symbols. For example, I know the second word in your subject means viagra, but what is "H3rb41"? Oh..."herbal". It's naturally (perhaps unknowingly) targeted towards geeks and puzzle-solvers, which perhaps isn't the worst market to target available-without-human-contact penis drugs towards.
Comment Re:Earthlink? Network Solutions? (Score 4, Insightful) 170
and you're an idiot if you post anything there expecting to be anonymous.
Why? If I really wanted to post something anonymously, I would set up a network of proxy SSH severs paid for with prepaid debit cards (purchased using cash), change the wireless MAC on a throwaway secondhand laptop (purchased using cash off Craigslist), walk down to the local Starbucks, access my proxy setup through Tor, and then be reasonably confident that I would be able to do anything anonymously. Of course, I would only post plain text files.
So I don't really understand why you would be an idiot for expecting anonymity if you went to the pains of taking care of it.
Comment Re:Of course the big irony here is... (Score 3, Insightful) 485
... that cameras are not allowed in many/most court rooms.
It's not ironic because there is an expectation of privacy in a courtroom. Hypothetical: I accuse you of being a pedophile, procure tons of evidence against you, which I display in court. Sure, the case gets thrown out (maybe I face charges myself, but I'm reckless that way), but someone videotapes the proceedings, edits out the juicy bits and puts it up on youtube without context. Pretty sure your life's ruined.
If my fate's being determined, that's between me, the lawyers, the defendant/plaintiff, and the judge/jury.
Comment Re:Programmer? (Score 1) 149
It's programming.
Comment a cynical take (Score 4, Funny) 86
...allow me to plug my own banal "checkin" service, based on things "most people do"...
FourGoHookupPlaces: for telling your friends when and who you procreate with! BONUS: use your iphone's built-in accelerometer to compute your "performance", and try to best your friends! Become the virtual "mayor" of PEOPLE! Make lovemaking an ONLINE social game!
Submission + - Gaming foursquare with 9 lines of Perl (uic.edu)
caffeinemessiah writes: With the recent launch of Facebook Places, the rise to prominence of Foursquare and GoWalla, and articles in the New York Times about the increasing popularity of "checking in" to locations using GPS-enabled mobile phones, a number of businesses are wondering how to reward frequent patrons. But exactly how susceptible are these "location based services" to being abused? A researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows how easily Foursquare can be gamed in 9 Perl statements, and invites readers to submit more succinct versions of the code to game the system.
Comment Re:Hill Climbing (Score 1) 64
Hopefully a decent spec would also be sensitive to privacy concerns and would simply have an "off" bit as well.
I wasn't talking about privacy, but rather security in terms of the routing algorithm being gamed for malicious reasons.
Comment Re:Hypocrisy Isn't Free (Score -1, Troll) 671
Last I heard, American soldiers were supposed to be fighting to preserve a way of life, a way which includes freedom of expression.
Except this has absolutely nothing to do with freedom, but rather good taste and a little sensitivity towards their target market (unless they're planning on selling this game in Afghanistan).
Comment Re:Hill Climbing (Score 5, Insightful) 64
It just sounds like the classic hill climbing algorithm to me.
That's because it's very similar -- with a massive stochastic component. It might be effective at routing, but I image leaving "pheromone traces" over network routes to indicate quality (latency, bandwidth, whatever) is something that will make sure security researchers have jobs for a long, long time.
Comment Re:The great tradeoff (Score 2, Insightful) 115
So, now, if I get all the people I want to call on Facebook and get them to use this app, then we can call each other be buying the $10-15/mo unlimited data plan and buying 0 min/mo. Heck, it's a lot cheaper.
Which is precisely why you can't buy a plan that has no voice and only data. The ultra-cheap $15 data plan is in addition to the clusterf**k that is your monthly base price, plus the tons of fees added. Sure, you can get a broadband card, but try sticking one of those things in your shiny new iphone. Every phone operator, pretty much the world over, is a thieving a-hole.
Comment Re:Anonymous Coward (Score 1) 115
Vonage awesome! Facebook - not so!
I thought people used Facebook because they did NOT want to talk in person, but rather receive information in an asynchronous way. Same reason why some people prefer chat/SMS/IM over phone calls. Neat gimmick though.
