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Comment: Re:"Liberty-Minded"? (Score 1) 694

by iapetus (#43965379) Attached to: The Free State Project, One Decade Later

Interesting map, which raises a question; are you being willfully ignorant or just intellectually dishonest?

That choice of colouring ranges lumps the US (3.6 deaths per 100k) in with Italy (0.36 deaths per 100k) - that's an order of magnitude difference. And with the UK (0.04 deaths per 100k) - that's two orders of magnitude difference.

Do the same the other way, and you'd be lumping the US in with the likes of Swaziland and Guatemala.

Look at this list, for example. Count the first world countries on that list with worse gun homicide rates than the US. Look at how strictly controlled guns tend to leave countries towards the low end of the list, and lax or no controls tend to put them higher up the list.

Comment: Re:Not getting complicated (Score 2) 213

by iapetus (#43914133) Attached to: iPhone 4, iPad 2 Get US Import Ban

I'm saying that punching people in the street, whatever the reason, is a bad thing that we should want not to happen, if that's what you're asking, yes.

You, on the other hand, appear to be taking the kindergarten line of argument. "But... but... but he did it first!" Doesn't make it any better, I'm afraid.

The reality is that your analogy is bad. In the real world we can't make it impossible for anyone to punch someone else in the face. In terms of abuse of patents, we can do that - or at least make the penalty for doing so high enough to make it undesirable.

Comment: Not getting complicated (Score 5, Insightful) 213

by iapetus (#43912361) Attached to: iPhone 4, iPad 2 Get US Import Ban

No need for a scorecard. As always, the patent lawyers are winning, and the consumers are losing.

This sort of shitty competition through litigation was vile when Apple did it to Samsung, and it's equally vile when Samsung do it to Apple. Showing more and more why we desperately need patent reform. I'm not even that concerned about the impact on Apple and Samsung - it's the smaller players who can be crushed by litigation like this that I've got more sympathy for.

Comment: Re:I totally agree with Bruce here (Score 3, Insightful) 284

by iapetus (#43221999) Attached to: Schneier: Security Awareness Training 'a Waste of Time'

Sorry, but your approach is inefficient. Since the system now requires users to choose passwords that aren't memorable (and probably to change them regularly as well) a large number of them will have them written down on post-it notes stuck to their monitors. That reduces the search space even more. :D

Comment: Immediately heard these lines in my head... (Score 2) 154

by iapetus (#43203143) Attached to: "Lazarus Project" Clones Extinct Frog

I recall the time they found those fossilized mosquitoes
And before long, they were cloning DNA
Now I'm being chased by some irate veloceraptors
Well, believe me... this has been one lousy day

Jurassic Park is frightning in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone shut the fence off in the rain
I admit it's kinda eerie
But this proves my chaos theory
And I don't think I'll be coming back again
Oh no

I cannot approve of this attraction
'Cause getting disemboweled always makes me kinda mad
A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawer
Well, I suppose that proves... they're really not all bad

Jurassic Park is frightning in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone let T. Rex out of his pen
I'm afraid those things'll harm me
'Cause they sure don't act like Barney
And they think that I'm their dinner, not their friend
Oh no

Jurassic Park is frightning in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
What a crummy weekend this has been
Well, this sure ain't no E-ticket
Think I'll tell them where to stick it
'Cause I'm never coming back this way again
Oh no... oh no

"We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem." -- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982

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