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Comment Re:"cantaloupe-sized cannonball"? (Score 1) 631

Because there are many different sizes of melon and since it is a cantaloupe and you're an idiot we'll call it a cantaloupe since North American Cantaloupe is really too long

And cantaloupes come in a large range of sizes from about a pound to around 10 pounds (possibly bigger, the biggest I ever saw was around 10 pounds) Comparison to something that is that variable in size is sort of useless, just give the actual (or even close) dimensions.

Comment Re:I can see it now... (Score 1) 614

What about the parents who used to be able to rely on their kids being in school so they could go out to work? Do they now need to arrange childcare for Fridays too?

<politicianspeak> By instituting a 4 day school week, we will be creating additional jobs in childcare services, thus offsetting the loss of income by the non teaching school staffers </politicianspeak>

Comment Re:Volkswagen too (Score 1) 189

Inded, that is exactly what it means.

Volkswagen, same thing. Happened to my 1996 Golf. I left the lights on, ran down the battery -- so the radio locked itself tight, awaiting the release code.

With my old departed 95 Jetta (@350k miles), the reset code came on a card in the user manual for the radio.

Comment We have to wait and see -- (Score 1) 517

I can see both sides of this
From Apple's point of view (and also from that of an independent developer & the non-tech user's) - with a closed software system (just like the hardware) there are a limited number of variables to deal with. This makes it easier to use the "it just works" marketing, fewer systems to test on, no "brand x video does not work with brand y software when there is a brand z network interface present". From the independent developers view, Apple provides some of the marketing, assures that the app meets a certain set of standards, handles the finances and limits the number of potential competing apps.

On the other hand --
As an independent developer
- I have to do it the approved Apple Way or not at all
- Apple takes a cut of my sales


As a User --
- I have to do it the approved Apple Way or not at all
- Apple controls what can or cannot go onto my own system


Overall, I can see this going either way, I guess we will have to see how everythiong shakes out.

Comment Re:Excellent! (Score 1) 366

It would be like if Google created a new standard called norobotsexceptgoogles.txt and lowered the page rank of any sites that didn't refuse to be crawled by anyone but google

For some reason I read norobotsexceptgoogles.txt as no robot sex except google

Must be time for new reading glasses, the problem might be caused by all of that robot sex...

Comment Re:Proposed? (Score 2) 428

I don't know what the relevant difference is between Texas and North Dakota, but given the murder rates are anti-correlated with the harshness of the penalties it seems unlikely that the two are related at all.

You are only looking at one factor here, another possible reason is population density. I don't have the most recent statistics handy, but the version I have (2006) has TX @ 86 people/sq mi & ND @ 9 people/sq mi.
In ND, finding a person to who pisses you off enough to kill means you have to go a bit of a distance, in TX, that person is just across the street.

Comment Re:I thought COBOL basically died after Y2K. (Score 1) 178

Because, once the Y2K bug was fixed, those systems that were already probably working just fine with 20-30 years of minimal maintenance and one huge spurge of Y2K updates will carry on running, most probably. Or people took it as a sign that maybe it's *not* a good idea to be relying on code that nobody on your staff can understand in order to run your business. See what happens come 2038. That'll be the interesting bit.

The COBOL stuff will still be cruising along in 2038, but just wait until the Y10K bug hits.

Comment Re:Linux? (Score 1) 123

Uh, even if it's true that the blast radius is larger than 40 feet (which I don't think it is), if you miss your target by 40 feet using a bomb with a a 40 foot blast radius, your target would be 20 feet outside of the blast radius.

So the obvious solution is to use bombs with a blast radius > 40 feet. Lets say 200 feet to be on the safe side. No need for overkill.

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