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Comment Re:Normal (Score 1) 49

IQ tests measure how knowledgeable you are, but 'knowledgeable' doesn't necessarily equal 'smart'. It's true that a knowledgeable person can appear smart because they can solve problems or answer questions by simply knowing the correct answers (sometimes without understanding why it's correct). But a real smart person is the one who can figure out a solution to a new problem without prior knowledge of the correct solution.

Comment Re:Remember kids... (Score 1) 159

Just ask yourself, why do they put entire cities under quarantine in China and now in countries like Italy? That alone should give you a hint that this virus is not like a mere flue outbreak. Who cares whether it's man-made or not? It's already affecting many millions of people worldwide, not to mention it's wrecking havoc on the world economy, and it's only getting started. Even if this virus never reaches your country, the world's economy will very likely tank in the near future, if only due to the Chinese economy grinding to a standstill. And they are the world's biggest manufacturer of all the basic components required for all the things we use in our daily lives. Just look at the big companies like Apple and others, they are already warning of supply disruptions which will have a major affect on their profits this year.

And then there's this: some experts are now proposing 27-day quarantine instead of 14 days. Now ask yourself, when they declare a lockdown in your area, are you going to be prepared to spend a month in isolation at home? Imagine what will happen on the day they announce the lockdown, how many people will rush to the stores to get a month-worth of food and other supplies? How much time will it take until the shelves are empty? This is already a regular occurrence during major hurricanes and such, so you don't even need to imagine. Simply look up the actual accounts of what happens in such situations and you will have a rough idea of what to expect when this virus reaches your city.

Comment Re:The past 24 hours sucked. :P (Score 1) 159

average incubation time 5-6 days

And these low estimates are the reason why they've been quarantining people for only 14 days so far, like on the Diamond Princess cruise ship for example. Unfortunately they have now found cases of this virus with the incubation period of 20+ days. And that is what they should be preparing for, even if the average incubation time is usually shorter. There is a reason why some experts are now proposing 27-day quarantine, because 14 days is likely not long enough.

Comment Re: I thought it wasn't loaded! (Score 1) 206

I've known 3 people that accidentally discharged their firearms. One in their home, one shot their truck, and the other shot themselves in the leg. Oh, and all 3 were Army veterans. Even law abiding citizens are still dangerous with guns. And I say that as someone who owns guns and has a concealed carry permit.

And I've known people who stumbled and fell while walking. Clearly walking is dangerous and must be banned!

Comment Re:Call the Whaaaaaaambulance (Score 1) 391

A device that puts out 95% of the power run into it as heat instead of the job it was intended for? Sounds great to me.... not. The world's moved on, grandpa, go have a nap.

Putting out heat is actually perfectly fine in certain cases, such as for a light bulb inside an oven.

Comment Re:who committed it? why? (Score 1) 133

I have been running Gentoo on the first gen Surface Pro ever since I got the 256GB SSD model that was only available in Japan at the time. Formatted the drive and got rid of Windows on the same day I got it and never had problems booting with UEFI. WiFi used to break down occasionally in the first few months, but things got fixed with later Linux kernels, haven't had any issues with WiFi for at least a couple of years now. Love the 10.6 inch form factor btw, perfect for traveling! And I do travel often.

Comment Re:Easy grammar (Score 1) 626

This reminds me...

The New EC Regulations:

The European Commision have just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that will be known as "Euro-English":

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c"... Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"'s in the languag is disgracful, and they should go away.

By the 4th yar, peopl will be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yar, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After ziz fifz yar, ve vil hav a reli sesibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezy tu understand ech ozer.

ZE DREM VIL FINALI KOM TRU ! ! !

Comment Re:I don't see the problem. (Score 1) 667

The protesters were local Ukrainian people, who were unarmed and did not commit acts of terrorism. They were not paid by anyone, they were simply there because they were fed up with the rampant corruption in the previous Ukrainian government. These pro-Russian groups are mostly paid mercenaries from Russia and other neighboring countries, who are trained and fully armed with heavy weaponry supplied by Russia and who rob, torture and murder innocent people and even attack residential areas with grad missiles to create nice pictures for Russian news channels, saying the Ukrainian army did it. The difference between simple protesters and these criminals is as clear as night and day.

Comment Re:As a programmer (Score 1) 136

Yes, that's the point everyone seems to be missing. With the keyboard dock it's essentially a very compact and yet very powerful 10 inch laptop: http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-edge-keyboard-dock. I might actually buy this tablet simply because it's the only 10 inch tablet I know of that you can order with 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, an Intel Core i7 processor and a fast video card. I don't care about those gaming handles that you can attach to it or even that docking station for your tv, because I would use it solely for doing some work when traveling. Sure, it's a bit pricy, but not too pricy given those specs. When everyone is focused on making the cheapest possible hardware with crap specs, it's refreshing to see someone coming out with a product not aimed for an average Joe. The complete specs are here: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-edge-pro

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