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Comment Re:Conveniently forgetting the details (Score 1) 929

-passport stamps from Arab countries -

What's wrong with visiting an arab country? or do you believe in enclosing a race to their own land and prevent them from outside contact? Similar logic to that of a certain country, I must say.

Erm, have you ever tried to enter certain Arab coutries with an Israeli stamp in your passport? I don't think so. Israel will still let you in the country, just they make ask more questions and check you and your belongings out a little more. Some countries just wont let you in if you have an Israeli stamp, this is why some people have 2 passports, both from the same country.

Comment Re:And nothing of value was lost. (Score 1) 429

Yes, because a first past the post system for electing a national president is a brilliant little bit of political legislation.

While PR may, possibly, at some point in the future for some mythical nation work when electing a legislative house of some kind, I find it very hard to work out how you can use anything other than FPTP when allowing the electorate to directly decide on a single person to lead a nation. Do you really want to see Obamas bottom half and McCains top half running the USA. (It would be that way around, that way the knees work properly)

Comment Re:What's the fascination? (Score 1) 54

Erm, if your tone deaf, learning to play a musical instrument is astonishingly hard, trust me, you end up learning everything by wrote with no real aural feeling of what you are playing. Ditto with DJing, you can learn to beat match, but not being able to tell which key parts of your records are in makes things sound just wrong to normal people. Guitar Hero gets round this issue, also as others have said, it's fun.
The Courts

Submission + - McLaren fined $100M for possession of Ferrari IP

gvtech writes: The FIA world motor sport council held a hearing today in an on going investigation of McLaren of the theft of confidential technical data from their main rivals Ferrari. They have been stripped of all constructors points and banned from collecting any more this year and fined $100 Million (US). In what I felt was a very good decision on the FIA's part they allowed the 2 McLaren driver to keep their drivers points. Full story can be found here:
    http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6767.html
Announcements

Submission + - At Least 20 Dead in Virginia Tech Shooting

StarvingSE writes: Virginia Tech police state that at least 20 are dead in a campus shooting school officials are describing as a "monumental tragedy." From the article:

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university President Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The attacks mark the worst school shooting incident since 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado


This story is a little off-topic on a technology-related site, but I'm sure quite a few readers attend or are alumni of Virginia Tech.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Paid to do nothing?

djupedal writes: Are you paid to do nothing? Were you hired to do nothing?

Are you paid, yet you don't do any work? This is for anyone, except of course those collecting job benefits. I'm talking about those that come into work and hang out and do nothing whatsoever productive, but still receive regular performance reviews, generic corporate emails and a routine weekly/monthly salary. Maybe you don't even have to show up at the office.

I have a friend who is going on six months since he was asked to do any type of work, yet his (not meager) salary keeps being automatically deposited and the only time anyone from the office checks on him is to make sure he is still alive. How long has it been since you had an assignment or participated in an active project, etc.? What do you do with your time? How long do you think this type of ghost position can continue? Is this a dream job or an ethical burden?
Software

Submission + - Is working for DARPA ethically defensible?

evil_breeds writes: "I've recently been offered a job to write software for a company contracting to DARPA and I'm stuck on the ethics of the situation. Take as given that the nature of the job and its benefits to me are excellent — what I'm interested in is the ethics of working for the U.S. military and what that supports, versus the net Good that some of DARPA's past work (like say, the internet) has produced. I think it's fair to suspend Godwin's Law for this discussion."
HP

Submission + - 14 Hp's Secrets Spilled by Ex-Employee

da5idnetlimit.com writes: The Consumerist reports on an Ex Hp Emplyoee that felt compelled to reveal some truth about HP, truths the company considers trade secrets...
In this Fine Article, you'll learn why your El Cheapo HP Ink Printers tend to self destruct after a set page count, that there is a way to actually speak to a human when calling support, and also that it is standard policy to hang up on customers threatening to sue...
It's at this point that I want to remind you that HP's motto is "Actions speak louder than words", and seing from the article, HP really is the Bastard Manufacturer From Hell I always thought it is...
Google

Submission + - Google Bought, Burned NC Seniors' Homes

theodp writes: "Nicholas Carr has a nice roundup of the latest Googlegate News, including the heartwarming story of how NC government officials acting on Google's behalf hounded the elderly into selling their homes, keeping prices down by using a nonprofit front funded by Google to conceal the search giant's identity from folks like Eugene and Violet Anderson, both 86. As former homeowners took up residence in apartments and doublewides, the local fire department burned down a number of their homes to make way for Google, whose tax incentives are now being pegged at $260M."
Security

Submission + - Stealing diamonds using a hacked Chip&Pin read

biscuitfever11 writes: ZDNet has found out from some lab reseachers at Cambridge University in the UK how to steal diamonds by rigging up a faulty Chip and Pin machine in a restaurant. Via a simple system of relays, card details are transferred not to the restaurant's point of sale system, but instead to the hacker's accomplice. The accomplice writes the stolen information to a fake bank card and within minutes can spend the contents of the victim's bank account at the jewellers' (of wherever he fancies). The researchers reckon there's little chance of being caught if the setup is sound and the whole procedure takes minutes.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,3928 5787,00.htm
Printer

Submission + - Kodak to Sell Inkjet Printers With Low Cost Ink

rocketjam writes: "Kodak is introducing a line of desktop inkjet printers in March. They are entering a market crowded with well-established players. To compete with HP, Epson, Canon and Lexmark, Kodak plans to differentiate their line of printers with low-cost replacement ink cartridges. Rather than selling the printers at a loss and making up the difference and future profits by selling expensive replacement cartridges, Kodak's entry-level printer will be priced at $150, but ink cartridges will cost roughly half of what most other companies charge. Black ink cartridges will be sold for $10 and 5-ink color cartridges will cost $15. I've maintained for some time that if a big player in the inkjet printer market began selling their inks for substantially less than the rip-off, liquid gold prices the market leaders charge, they could quickly gain significant market share. I'll be interested to see if this happens."
Upgrades

Submission + - A Diamond is a scientist's best friend

jd writes: "The Diamond Light Source synchrotron ring opened Feb. 5th for operation. The largest scientific facility to be built in the UK for over 30 years, it is the size of five full-sized soccer stadia and boasts a three GeV synchrotron ring hooked up to two booster accelerators. For those who prefer more normal units, the circumference is 562.6 meters. By no means as large as the Large Hadron Collider being built through the Alps, this is still considered the best medium-energy synchrotron ring anywhere in the world — according to their publicists. Their press release states that this ring is to replace the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) accelerator at Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, which is due to close at the end of 2008."

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