Comment Re:Horrible for the rural poor (Score 4, Insightful) 1143
The presence of a propane tank does not imply there is propane in it.
Comment There's nothing wrong with ranking employees (Score 2) 177
There is absolutely nothing wrong with measuring employee performance relative to other employees. That's how you identify and promote the most promising candidates for internal promotion, and eliminate people who don't measure up.
What there IS something wrong with is using irrelevant metrics to make those measurements. Goals and deliverables must be objective, reasonable, and attainable. Many companies already named in this thread have a bad habit of setting subjective, unreasonable, and unattainable goals for employees they want to get rid of.
Comment The problem with artificial markets (Score -1, Redundant) 282
The problem with government-created, artificial markets is that the second the government money stops, so does the artificial market.
Nobody would spend their own money on solar or wind energy, because anyone expecting a return on their investment knows that these are poor investments that are likely to lose money over time.
Government has no problem losing money because they can always just take more from you.
Comment Re:so green (Score 4, Informative) 282
Personally I prefer my home steam generator. It uses 100% renewable, carbon-cycle, eco-friendly biofuel (wood) to generate steam that drives a turbine generator. I can get about 3kW out of my setup.
Comment Re:changing it is a good idea regardless (Score 5, Insightful) 107
No doubt there is a provision buried in Law somewhere that says that any attempt to subvert the surveillance system, obscure your identity, or obscure your location, shall constitution obstruction of police powers and land you in jail.
Comment Re:SPD (Score 2) 107
What do you mean, "coming soon?"
It's here today, and has been here for quite a while.
Seattle PD Mum On Tracking By Its New Wi-Fi Mesh Network 107
An anonymous reader writes "The Stranger reports that Seattle's police department has installed a Wi-Fi mesh network paid for by the Department of Homeland Security. FTA: 'The SPD declined to answer more than a dozen questions from The Stranger, including whether the network is operational, who has access to its data, what it might be used for, and whether the SPD has used it (or intends to use it) to geo-locate people's devices via their MAC addresses or other identifiers.'"
Comment Glad I don't have GAAPS / PrivacyGuard++ (Score 2) 160
I don't run GAAPS on my android phone, and CyanogenMod's Privacy Guard blocks app access to location data, your phonebook, and other private data.
Comment Wait, what? (Score 1) 726
Whomever came up with this interpretation obviously didn't read the book upon which the movie is based. And, if they did read it, they didn't understand one word of it.
Critics Reassess Starship Troopers As a Misunderstood Masterpiece 726
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Calum Marsh writes in The Atlantic that when Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers hit theaters 16 years ago today, American critics slammed it as a 'crazed, lurid spectacle' featuring 'raunchiness tailor-made for teen-age boys' and 'a nonstop splatterfest so devoid of taste and logic that it makes even the most brainless summer blockbuster look intelligent.' But now the reputation of the movie based on Robert Heinlein's Hugo award winning novel is beginning to improve as critics begin to recognize the film as a critique of the military-industrial complex, the jingoism of American foreign policy, and a culture that privileges reactionary violence over sensitivity and reason. 'Starship Troopers is satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism,' writes Marsh. 'The fact that it was and continues to be taken at face value speaks to the very vapidity the movie skewers.' The movie has rightfully come to be appreciated by some as an unsung masterpiece. Coming in at number 20 on Slant Magazine's list of the 100 best films of the 1990s last year, the site's Phil Coldiron described it as 'one of the greatest of all anti-imperialist films,' a parody of Hollywood form whose superficial 'badness' is central to its critique. 'That concept is stiob, which I'll crudely define as a form of parody requiring such a degree of over-identification with the subject being parodied that it becomes impossible to tell where the love for that subject ends and the parody begins,' writes Coldiron. 'If you're prepared for the rigor and intensity of Verhoeven's approach—you'll get the joke Starship Troopers is telling,' says Marsh. 'And you'll laugh.'"
Healthcare.gov Official Resigns, Website Still a Disaster 559
Nerval's Lobster writes "A government official who helped oversee the bug-riddled Healthcare.gov Website has resigned his post. Tony Trenkle, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Healthcare.gov, will reportedly join the private sector after he departs on November 15. A spokesperson for the Medicare agency refused to say whether he had been forced out, telling reporters: 'Tony made a decision that he was going to move to the private sector and that is what our COO announced yesterday.' Because of his supervisory role, Trenkle is considered a significant player in the Website's development; The New York Times indicated that he was one of two federal officials who signed an internal memo suggesting that security protocols for the Website weren't in place as recently as late September, a few days before Healthcare.gov's launch.Following Trenkle's resignation, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to the Senate Finance Committee that Healthcare.gov would require hundreds of fixes. 'We're not where we need to be,' she said. 'It's a pretty aggressive schedule to get to the entire punch list by the end of November.' Sebelius added that she was ultimately accountable for what she termed the 'excruciatingly awful' rollout. Healthcare.gov has experienced massive problems since its Oct. 1 debut. In addition to repeated crashes and slow performance, the Website's software often prevents people from setting up accounts. President Obama has expressed intense frustration with the situation, but insists the Affordable Care Act (ACA) backing the Website remains strong. 'The essence of the law, the health insurance that's available to people is working just fine,' he told reporters in October. 'The problem has been that the website that's supposed to make it easy to apply for insurance hasn't been working.' While the federal government won't release 'official' enrollment numbers until the end of November, it's clear that the Website's backers are losing the battle of public perception."
Comment What took them so long? (Score 1) 510
What took the authoritarian statists so long to come up with the "think of the children" defense?
Comment Funny Logic (Score 1) 172
"Although you can never prove that correlation is equal to causation, certainly the most plausible explanation is that correlation is equal to causation."
There, fixed the quote...
Comment Re:Not very PC and more than a little creepy, but. (Score 1) 545
It's not the crime, but the thought that counts. After all, this is the USA we're talking about, where thinking about committing a crime is just as bad (or worse) than actually committing it.
Researchers Use Computer-Generated 10-Year-Old Girl To Catch Online Predators 545
mrspoonsi writes "Dutch researchers conducted a 10-week sting, using a life-like, computer-generated 10-year-old Filipino girl named 'Sweetie.' During this time, 20,000 men contacted her. 1,000 of these men offered money to remove clothing (254 were from the U.S., 110 from the U.K. and 103 from India). Charity organization Terre des Hommes launched a global campaign to stop 'webcam sex tourism.' It has 'handed over its findings to police and has said it will provide authorities with the technology it has developed."
