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Comment Re:Telescope (Score 1) 368

Thats pretty good guide I'd just add that there are some quality budget scopes out there. Celestron firstscope ($100) and the Galileoscope($20 though this excludes the tripod)

That said if I were buying for a young astronomer I'd get them binoculars. Because a) there compact and generate little bedroom clutter and b) they can be used for Terrestrial observation ;-)

Comment Re:Sue the White Pages (Score 1) 105

Nice to know, but still relatively insignificant (as was cdrguru’s claim). The key is, they profit from them. How then is it significantly different from the White Pages’ business model? It isn’t. In any case, it’s absurd to blame the search engine for content when all it’s done is categorize and index said content. If they’re made aware of fraudulent pages, then sure, they can de-list them, but if they’re not aware of them yet then there’s nothing they can do about them.

Comment Re:Well, at least we know it'll run well... (Score 1) 379

Yes, true liberation was in WWII, but that's a foregone conclusion which I hope I wouldn't have to point out. People seem to forget about WWI a lot though. However, given the fact that Germany had lost no territory and fewer men than the allies, i think that our assistance in WWI went slightly beyond mere reinforcements.

Comment Re:Going to the movies is different than buying on (Score 1) 276

> They added value by making the damned thing in the first place, you fucking imbecile.

No they didn't. They made something that they think will enhance their own control over the experience.

They didn't sell what the customer actually wanted. They sold something that the customer might actually settle for, or not.

Comment Re:too funny (Score 1) 219

Actually, if you read the rest of my posts, you would see that I specified the "Preview My Profile" tool to someone else who asked. My main proficiency is networking, and rescuing people's computers from their owner's actions and lack of planning. Being up on the latest quirk in social networking has nothing to do with my hardware/software/coding/radio protocol abilities. As a matter of fact, I spend so much time fixing other people's stuff some of my own problems are collecting dust in the office. Facebook is a small diversion for a busy geek. Part of the point of my original post is the fact that I should not have to spend a week trying to undo and reset what a "play" site has done.

Nice riff on Princess Bride.

Comment Re:Do you believe in Democracy? (Score 1) 906

Perhaps I didn't have the health insurance I needed, perhaps I crossed the street at the wrong time, perhaps I ate the wrong mushroom. But at least it was *MY* choice, I'd rather die of a disease my health insurance didn't cover than from a disease the State Health Insurance Plan didn't provide for.

But isn't universal healthcare supposed to be about not dying at all? If everyone contributes a certain percentage of their income to a nationwide pool, with the intention of helping people in dire need regardless of their ability to pay, then no one has to suffer, even if they would otherwise be unable to choose the better insurance plan.

Comment Re:Ext4 small files performance? (Score 1) 161

I know for certain that I care about big-file performance in almost only these ways:

Can I write the file faster than the network sends it to me?

Whether or not that's at all difficult depends on the network in question. You could just about carve the data into stone tablets with a hammer and a chisel at the speed my cable modem delivers it, but when I'm moving files between machines on the LAN (Gig-E), it's a very different story.

Government

It's Official, Australia Needs a Space Agency 199

Dante_J writes "In the final report published by the Australian Senate inquiry into 'The Current State of Australia's Space Science & Industry Sector' entitled 'Lost in Space? Setting a new direction for Australia's space science and industry sector,' it calls for the formation of a 'Space Industry Advisory Council' to oversee the creation of a fully-fledged Australian Space Agency. Of the top 20 GDP nations, Australia is the only one without a Space Agency, which impacts on many aspects of ordinary life, not to mention Research and Engineering endeavors. Every satellite operated by Australia is owned by another party and the costs of this alone are comparable to that of a Space Agency. The report is a tidy piece that drew upon submissions form Andy Thomas, and an impressive collection of Australian Academics and Space Science entities frustrated by successive generations of government apathy. While this report is welcome, lethargic Government action in a climate of competing concerns is not expected to stem the flow of Space Science brain drain out of Australia any time soon."
Yahoo!

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang To Step Down 199

JagsLive was one of several readers to point out Jerry Yang's departure as Yahoo CEO. He's not leaving the company; he will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo, whatever that entails. Yang has been under fire in recent months from investors for his handling of Microsoft's recent acquisition attempt."Yahoo, under fierce financial pressure, has begun a search to replace company co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive, the company said Monday. 'Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level,' Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement."
AMD

Submission + - An insight into AMD's new linux driver development (phoronix.com)

Cowards Anonymous writes: "It's no secret that ATI Technologies has had a rough time in the past delivering display drivers that met the expectations of their customers. When ATI started out producing a FireGL and Radeon Linux driver they for some time were greatly behind NVIDIA's feature-rich driver.

The early ATI Linux driver had lacked essential functionality such as PCI Express and x86_64 architecture support and was also affected by stability and performance problems — not to mention a great deal of bugs.

Things are looking better though, as the article explains."

Businesses

Submission + - Newscorp to Purchase Photobucket

DJCacophony writes: Cnet is reporting that Newscorp, having already purchased Myspace, is purchasing image hosting site Photobucket for between 250 and 300 million dollars. The story details how Photobucket and Myspace, which have previously had disputes over advertising on each others' sites, will now be integrated with each other.
Announcements

Submission + - Wikipedia releases offline CD

Anonymous Coward writes: "WikipediaOnDVD, with cooperation with the Wikipedia community, has released its first offline test version. The articles were selected by Wikipedians and reviewed for accuracy, vandalism, and importance. Nearly 2,000 core Wikipedia articles will be sold on compact disc to give people without a net connection access to highlights of the popular web resource. The CD can be purchased or downloaded online via http or torrent for free."

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