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Comment Re:It should be illegal..... (Score 5, Insightful) 291

Everyone is interesting to somebody, even if it's just their local bartender/coworker/pizza delivery guy/romantic rival... Now it used to be the case that it didn't matter as none of these everyday "mundane" acquaintances had the time, access or expertise to pull together a dossier but today it's pretty trivial.

Comment Re:It's convenience and security. (Score 1) 835

Fax was stupid tech 15 - 20 years ago. Transmitting bits instead of data? Are you nuts?

I'm intrigued... What is the difference between bits and data? You do realize it's all the same, right? Fax machines are just as digital as a workstation, they just interface over an analogue telephone network.

Perhaps the GP meant "bits" as rasterized image data versus "data" being the character-based document.

Comment Re:St. Reagan (Score 2) 788

If any nation that should lose its AAA rating it should be Japan. America has at least 6 other countries with worse debt to asset ratios that will default sooner. Greece failed because it was a poorer country and creditors became nervous it may not be able to pay it off.

Japan doesn't have a AAA rating. They're AA-. Fewer than 20 countries have a AAA rating.

Standard & Poor Sovereigns Ratings List
Wikipedia's list of countries by credit rating
Sovereign Ratings Infographic from Reuters

Comment Re:delta between manual and no manual (Score 2) 133

Needless to say, the downloaded copies were better than store bought, because they didn't have copy protection / DRM, but obviously they didn't have the manual that came in the box from the store.

You'd think it might have been easier to have the computer use the same technique we used to do in that situation - try every key one by one until you figured out how the game worked.

Comment Multiple criteria (Score 2) 311

There are 10 possible criteria from which to pick one that a nominated site satisfies, including the "masterpiece" criterion (i). 4 of them apply specifically to natural sites, such as the reef, while the other 6 are culturally-oriented.

The "masterpiece" criterion is criterion (i), although you could arguably make a case for Wikipedia under criteria (iv) or (vi) as well (emphasis mine):

(iv) "is an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural, or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history"

(as a global-scale collaborative project with millions of participants in the information age)

(vi) "is directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance"

(free and open dissemination of information)

Movies

Why Has Blu-ray Failed To Catch Hold? 1162

Velcroman1 writes "My VCR is stashed in a closet, right next to a couple of CD-ROM players, a laser disc player, and other forgotten electronics. Is my Blu-ray player about to join them? Blu-ray really hasn't caught on — and probably never will. 'I'm surprised DVDs have continued to hang on,' said King, referring to the fact that player sales of over 20 million units in the US last year were pretty much evenly split between DVD and Blu-ray models. Blu-ray discs and players are clearly superior to DVDs, offering more features and a better picture overall. So why haven't shoppers been impressed?"

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