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Comment Re:This is ridiculous (Score 4, Insightful) 217

Blizzard already claims to do this at cost. That would mean no profit. Wonder where he's getting his $26 million profit statement from. It might be a cost instead of profit, but either way, his lawsuit is b.s. as the security fob is an optional and non required item, and the software version is free, that guy is an idiot trying to get a payday from Blizzard settling rather than paying to take it to court. I hope Blizzard takes the high road and fights him all the way.

Comment Re:Getting stupid... (Score 2) 220

Let's accept that even if you hate all the candidates, you still find one slightly less deplorable than the other.
Not everyone agrees with your analysis.
It's possible either candidate could win, even the worst of a bad lot, they just need more supporters in key locations.

If you don't vote, you make their votes MORE powerful/valuable.
If you do vote, you dilute the impact of their choice, and may be enough to sway the course away from the worst choice.

There are serious issues with our current political system, but it you don't participate, you are making yourself the minion of those who win.

Comment Re:JPL should watch it... apk (Score 1) 477

When I was in the military, there were 3 very incompetent people (among several bases) that they couldn't get rid of. When they'd done the final straw and court marshal was being called for (in one case he was caught in a no smoking, explosives storage area sitting on a stack of bombs smoking a cigarette) and they'd run to Social Actions screaming, "I'm a minority, they're discriminating against me." and Social Actions would deny the prosecution. Hell, they wouldn't even let the losers be transferred.

The point is, just because someone claims they are being unfairly persecuted, it may just be their imagination or lowlife attempt to justify their improper actions.
(It sounds like this guy was one of those types, but we only know what has been posted/printed.)

Comment Re:Dawkins is ignorant of psychology (Score 1) 1152

Last year I saw an article based on an interview with him. (No idea when it was done.) He doesn't think rational arguments work on faith-based thinkers, but then again, reason is his tool of choice and he has no intentions of lying to people, so it's not like he has anything else to use.

Comment Old idea, MASSIVE PROBLEM (Score 2) 227

Sci-fi has been talking about this exact type of thing for at least 20 years, so it's not a new idea.
Second, and far more important, only a complete F-N moron would even try to release such a thing.
The reason is very simple, it's called MUTATION. Yes, viruses mutate, even the engineered ones. That targeting mechanism is either going to cease to function, get bypassed, or widen it's range of targets, and there is no way to predict which it will do or when it will happen.
Here's another thing to think about. Without including a massive amount of targeting info in the virus, you won't be able to discern between related targets or just random individuals with similar dna. Because of that, you will be unintentionally targeting unwanted subjects. If that's not bad enough, if you really do put in enough info for the virus to target 1 individual in the human populace, that huge amount of info is going to be a drain on the resources of the virus. You know what many microbes like to do with massive useless genes like that? They throw them away. Yes, that's right, it might not even take one replication in release before they chuck all your precious targeting info. And then what happens? Do they no longer have their deadly payload, or do they use it on everyone?

So leave this stuff to sci-fi writers, because reality is that viruses make HORRIBLE targeted weapons, though they aren't bad for indiscriminant killing and terror, even if they are a lot slower than bombs, guns, knives, poisons, and all other weapons in existence.

Comment Re:Customs abuse (Score 2) 560

Considering the number of American businessmen and American toddlers that they have on their lists basically means the criteria for being on those same lists is incredibly easy and is itself suspect. Just do some googles, you find a number of reports of disrupted travel plans because some moron thinks a 2-6 year old is a suspected terrorist. They keep adding names at an insane rate to those lists, and getting off of it is almost impossible.

These days, having a dossier, being pulled off and questioned, or being on a no-fly list these days means absolutely nothing other than someone has been a stupid asshole and wants to F with you. Let's just say the signal to noise ratio on a questionable system has gone way past any expectation of remaining functionality.

Comment Re:Guilty of not doing as she was told. (Score 1) 652

Hey, if people keep moving things the direction they are currently going, China will be the bastion of freedom in comparison to the USA. People who believe in the American Ideals don't want that to happen and take steps to try and prevent it. Those steps may be activism, protests, letters to the editor, or even whining online.
Slashdot tends to attract the whiners, a group you and I are apparently members of. :)

Comment Re:Guilty of not doing as she was told. (Score 1) 652

Yeah, I'm just glad the guys on my bases knew me and knew about my eye color. I'm one of those rare people who's eyes change color. Blue, Green, Gray, and on rare occasions Yellow, or Brown, it's been lots of stuff, though they are usually blue or greenish. They've threatened to jack me up a few times as a joke when my eyes weren't blue (the color on my id since they don't have an entry for changes), but never did. I'm damn glad they knew me and that peculiarity of mine. (I actually think one of them was taking bets on my eye color.)

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