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Comment Re:He didn't write an office suite in 30 days (Score 1) 266

And NO we cannot use 'The Web' as we are in a closed and restricted Missions Operation Center.

Strictly speaking, couldn't you use closed and restricted web servers to do what you need to do? And I mean, if you're actually considering implementing something using an alpha-quality Java module that was slapped together in a few days, why wouldn't you consider installing a SharePoint server and getting the full functionality of the Office Web Apps on your local network? If all your users needed to do was read documentation, they could get 100 percent fidelity that way.

Comment Re:He built an Alpha in 30 days (Score 1) 266

Because the rest of us don't get mentioned on NetworkWorld.com or Slashdot for working 30 days to create incomplete alpha software to solve a problem that has been solved by multiple free (speech and/or beer) and commercial software packages that actually are complete and work well.

But you'd like to get yourself mentioned on NetworkWorld.com or Slashdot? So ... you're vain and jealous?

Comment Re:How does he mean it with the license? (Score 1) 266

The GPL is designed for the freedom of the user (or customer), not the intellectual property protection of the programmer or as socialistic "software mus be open for everybody".

How do you figure that one? The GPL grants users a limited license to the programmer's copyrighted works. That most definitely is a form of intellectual property protection. As for the socialistic part, that's a rather loaded term; still, it seems like you haven't read much from Stallman or the FSF.

Comment Re:antibiotics are bad (Score 1) 223

Well, that definition would also apply to your classical 'antibiotic'. It appears from the Wikipedia site that Triclosan is not a generic antimicrobial in that it won't affect viruses, protozoa or Scientologists.

Fair enough. To prove your theory, I propose we infect you with pneumonia and then have you swallow a quart of antibiotic soap. You'll be cured, right? Or, the reason you won't be cured is because too many people have been washing their hands with triclosan soap? Is that right? I propose this ludicrous test because you seem willing to move the goalposts at whim. You call it a biocide, I call it a an antimicrobial -- what's your point?

Furthermore, though you quoted a paragraph from some paper, I don't believe you understand a word of it. Prove me wrong. Why don't you assume we all have a tenth grade education and explain it to us? You're the expert.

Comment Re:Or (Score 1) 273

It would probably be good to get it bundled with your zoster shot

Maybe, but that's not how it comes. It comes (optionally) with your tetanus booster. As a poster above mentioned, it's called a Tdap (so if you see that term, it's "tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis"). It's not two separate shots, it's one shot.

This isn't something that I should worry about. My doctor should take care of it for me. I don't have time to read a stack of literature on every disease I might get.

You've been told you need a tetanus booster every ten years since you were a child. Next time you go in for one, your doctor is likely to recommend a pertussis booster at the same time -- if he doesn't just give you it without telling you.

Comment Re:antibiotics are bad (Score 3, Informative) 223

Actually, on a more serious note, TFA is not talking about antibiotics. The word used is antibacterial, which refers to things that can kill bacteria while not being harmful to humans. For more clarity, a better term would be antimicrobial soaps, because they can also work on a variety of other microbes. But there is no real relationship between these agents and the kinds of antibiotics that come in pills.

Comment Re:Or (Score 1) 273

Smallpox vaccine causes shingles in people over 50.

The United States hasn't included the smallpox vaccine in routine immunizations since the 70s. I don't think you could get it if you asked for it. Most doctors and pharmacies don't even carry it. You might be able to get it if you're in the military and are being deployed to certain regions known to be iffy about chemical/biological weapons.

Comment Re:Or (Score 4, Insightful) 273

Or maybe people should stop refusing to have their child vaccinated because of $CONSPIRACYTHEORY. Just a thought.

This.

From the article (emphasis mine):

During the 1980s, U.S. parents successfully sued manufacturers, alleging that the whole-cell vaccine also caused long-term brain damage. A 1991 Institute of Medicine report concluded that this was unproven, but by then many pertussis vaccine manufacturers had withdrawn from the market, leading Congress to create a federal vaccine injury compensation program for families who could show a strong case for vaccine damage.

Sound familiar?

One of the first areas in the US hit by a modern pertussis outbreak was here in California. It wasn't among poor people who couldn't afford the vaccine, like you might expect in emergent epidemics. Instead, it was in Marin County, home of highly affluent post-hippy folks like (say) George Lucas. These folks have been reading all of the holistic alternative medicine literature for years and have convinced themselves that every single article is another threat to the precious, precious unborn babies that they plan to have spring from their middle-aged wombs, and so huge numbers of them have decided to stop vaccinating altogether. Shock, horror, when the result is a resurgence of a disease that had been all but unseen in the area for decades, and a couple of those precious babies actually die.

You see the same thing all over the world. In France, there's some kind of conspiracy theory going around that the measles vaccine is bad. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases around. In 2011, there were 118 cases of measles in the entire United States in the first five months; in France, which has only about twice the population of California, there were 17,000.

On the positive side, people, including childless adults, can help to stop the spread of pertussis by getting a booster vaccination, which helps to increase herd immunity. If you catch whooping cough as an adult, you won't die, you'll get a very lousy respiratory illness for a while. But if you don't catch pertussis, you can't spread it to people who are more vulnerable, like children and the elderly. Right now, doctors believe you need a booster about once in your adult life. It's easy to get -- you can get it bundled with your tetanus vaccine, which if you're smart, you're getting every 10 years or so anyway. Last time I got a tetanus shot, I got the pertussis booster with it, and there was no change in price (i.e. both were fully covered by insurance).

Comment Re:meh (Score 1) 514

Man, I guess you just don't like Star Trek.

Spock's Brain had its laughable qualities, but it was also a perfectly acceptable cautionary sci-fi story about a society that had stagnated under the control of a machine intelligence. If they had resolved the story some other way than by piloting Spock around like a robot, it would have been pretty good.

Operation: Annihilate! is one of my all-time favorites! Those creepy jelly creatures are creepy. The shots of the seemingly abandoned city are spooky. They killed Kirk's brother in that episode -- BOOM, dead. And the idea that an alien, thoroughly inhuman lifeform can inject cells into your body that grow up your spinal cord and control you, AND that although the aliens look like brainless jellyfish, they are actually a malevolent force that wants to use humans piloting starships to carry them across the galaxy, is a compelling science fiction concept.

Catspaw is another favorite of mine, but why argue the point? It's ludicrous.

The Enterprise Incident was kinda just a Mission Impossible episode set in space ... TV was full of episodes like that at the time. Nothing particularly great about it, but nothing exceptionally bad, either.

As for the Omega Glory, while the whole "alternate, identical Earth" idea was way overused in TOS scripts, it's actually a pretty decent take on the whole Cold War scenario, flipped on its head so that the Federation guy was actually a crazy bastard in league with the Commie Chinese and the guys he was killing off were actually the good guys -- only the good guys had become so debased and ignorant that you couldn't recognize them. The Chinese were the ones that seemed intelligent and sophisticated. And remember, this aired during the Vietnam War, six months after the Tet Offensive.

Bread and Circuses? That was about a world where the Roman Empire survived into the 20th Century technology, with 20th Century technology. They watched gladiator fights ON TELEVISION -- don't you see how that might have resonated with TV audiences in the 1960s? Marshal "The Medium is the Message" McLuhan was publishing his books on media theory around this time. Again, totally valid sci-fi speculation ... really, the lamest thing about it was that they had to shoehorn Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise into it, instead of letting it stand on its own.

Honestly, I'll argue that ANY episode of TOS has its charms and intelligence ... even something like Spectre of the Gun, which has its farcical elements, wouldn't really be out of place on a show like The Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits, and if it weren't for the fact that they had to have Chekhov and Scotty in it, it would be fondly remembered.

But anyway, with a list of "hated its" that long, I repeat: I guess you just don't like Star Trek.

Comment Re:meh (Score 1) 514

Watch TOS again. Most of the episodes were truly terrible.

I totally disagree. It declined in quality over the three seasons, and there are a few real howlers, but "terrible"? I don't think so. That's the kind of criticism people are always leveling at the old Doctor Who, with the cardboard sets and rubber monsters, but that was a clever, endearing show, too. I think it's Star Wars that ruined it for everybody ... all of a sudden, a sci-fi story meant "visual spectacle" instead of just telling a compelling story.

Comment Re:Did they get rid of the fake lens flares? (Score 1) 514

I found the first one unwatchable due to all the fake lens flares that were artificially inserted.

Not so fast, bunkie... http://io9.com/5230278/jj-abrams-admits-star-trek-lens-flares-are-ridiculous

They were all done live, they weren't added later. There are something about those flares, especially in a movie that can potentially be very sterile and CG and overly controlled. There is something incredibly unpredictable and gorgeous about them. It is a really fun thing. Our DP would be off camera with this incredibly powerful flashlight aiming it at the lens. It became an art because different lenses required angles, and different proximity to the lens. Sometimes, when we were outside we'd use mirrors. Certain sizes were too big... literally, it was ridiculous. It was like another actor in the scene....

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