Comment Re: If we don't do it soon, then never. (Score 1) 212
Germany had been destroyed the most of all European countries, it got the least assistance from the US and recovered the fastest.
The least assistance? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Comment Re:C!=C (Score 1) 276
I have found there enough people with common interests, more that I have met outside Mensa.
And since moste Mensans I know are quite curious, those people without common interests are even more interesting.
Comment Re:Number of Reciients? (Score 3, Informative) 37
With such a restriction we would have lost the the 1993 Ig Nobel Literature Prize: http://www.improbable.com/ig/1993/1993-lit.html
which was awarded to E. Topol, R. Califf, F. Van de Werf, P.W. Armstrong, and their 972 co-authors,
for publishing a medical research paper which has one hundred times as many authors as pages.
Comment Battlestar Galactica (Score 1) 88
Isn't that the way the Cylons deactivated the Colonial ships in the BSG miniseries? Already installed malware activated when the sensors picked up a certain signal from the Cylons?
Comment Does anybody remember GURPS Y2K? (Score 2, Informative) 614
In October 1999 Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Y2K which included an article named "Plastics Ate My Baby's WHAT" about the effects of phthalates. That was 10 years ago!
How is it possible that these things are known for such a long time and nobody cares?
Comment Re:50 % direct / 50 % proportional. (Score 1) 246
And if he has a direct seat that it stays which him even when he changes party.
He doesn't have a direct seat, but it still stays with him. His old party will demand that he should return it like they always do when someone changes party, but as usual he will keep it.
Comment Re:C'mon people... (Score 1) 860
No one on earth is cooler than House.
But not every doctor is from earth.
Comment Re:Gigaton Fail - (Score 1) 420
Um, East Germany?
Hello?
Berlin wall? Iron curtain? Ringing any bells?
Yes, but even that was 20 years ago and those from east germany tend to ignore the bad parts of it.
http://www.france24.com/en/20081003-wave-nostalgia-former-east-germany-berlin-gdr-stasi
Comment Re:Gigaton Fail - (Score 3, Interesting) 420
Oh, most people here would agree that police states are bad. But on the other hand they would say that there are exceptions (child pornography, terrorism etc.). And of course "our politicians would never do something really wrong!!!"
People in Germany live in a rich land which has last experienced war 64 years ago - so most people see it for granted that they will always live in a democracy, where their freedom is guaranteed.
Intellectually they know that in other countries this isn't so, but if you personally never experienced something else, then it is hard to imagine that this might change. And because they fail to grasp the fact that their freedom and their rights could be endangered they see no reason to defend it.
A Black Day For Internet Freedom In Germany 420
Several readers including erlehmann and tmk wrote to inform us about the dawning of Internet censorship in Germany under the usual guise of protecting the children. "This week, the two big political parties ruling Germany in a coalition held the final talks on their proposed Internet censorship scheme. DNS queries for sites on a list will be given fake answers that lead to a page with a stop sign. The list itself is maintained by the German federal police (Bundeskriminalamt). A protest movement has formed over the course of the last several months, and over 130K citizens have signed a petition protesting the law. Despite this, and despite criticism from all sides, the two parties sped up the process for the law to be signed on Thursday, June 18, 2009."
FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE Now Available 100
cperciva writes "FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE, the fourth release from the highly successful 6-STABLE branch of FreeBSD development, has been released. In addition to being available from many FTP sites, ISO images can be downloaded via the BitTorrent tracker, or for users of earlier FreeBSD releases, FreeBSD Update can be used to perform a binary upgrade."
Interview With Pirate Party Leader Rick Falkvinge 515
mmuch writes "In the wake of the recent copyright debate in Swedish mainstream media, the P2P Consortium has published an interview with Rick Falkvinge, the leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. He comments on the mainstream politicians starting to understand the issues, the interplay between strict copyright enforcement and mass surveillance, and the chances for global copyright reform." Some choice Falkvinge quotes: "What was remarkable was that this was the point where the enemy — forces that want to lock down culture and knowledge at the cost of total surveillance — realized they were under a serious attack... for the first time, we saw everything they could bring to the battle. And it was... nothing. Not even a fizzle. All they can say is 'thief, we have our rights, we want our rights, nothing must change, we want more money, thief, thief, thief'... Whereas we are talking about scarcity vs. abundance, monopolies, the nature of property, 500-year historical perspectives on culture and knowledge, incentive structures, economic theory, disruptive technologies, etc. The difference in intellectual levels between the sides is astounding... When the Iron Curtain fell, all of the West rejoiced that the East would become just as free as the West. It was never supposed to be the other way around."
Submission + - Blu-ray won't play Profile 2.0 Discs 4
Reservoir Hill writes: "Blu-ray may have taken a commanding lead in the next-generation format war but Betanews is reporting that early supporters of Blu-ray will be left out in the cold when the Blu-ray Disc Association introduces BD Profile 2.0, expected to arrive in October. Unlike HD DVD, which mandated features such as local storage, a second video and audio decoder for picture-in-picture, and a network connection from the very beginning, the companies behind Blu-ray took a different approach to keep costs down. "We should have waited another year to introduce Blu-ray to the public, but the format war changed the situation," said one manufacturer. Representatives at the Blu-ray booth at CES said that the PlayStation 3 is currently the only player they would recommend, due to upcoming changes to the platform. Asked if they were concerned about a backlash from early adopters who supported the format from the beginning, one representative said: "They knew what they were getting into.""
Submission + - Google Reader shares private data, ruins Christmas (slashdot.org)
Felipe Hoffa writes: One week ago Google Reader's team decided showing your private data to all your GMail contacts. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. Complaints haven't been answered. Some users share their problems, including one family that won't be able to enjoy this Christmas due to this "feature". Will this start happening with all Google products?
You can check a summary of complaints or the whole thread.
You can check a summary of complaints or the whole thread.
Submission + - Netgear introduces Linux based NAS devices (linuxdevices.com)
drewmoney writes: A LinuxDevices.com article introduces several of Netgear's Linux based NAS devices. These come in a 1.5TB model, all the way up to a 4TB rackmount version. These are geared towards the professional home user, and small and medium businesses. Comes complete with the usual RAID features, file system access and a built in USB print server. All are controlled through a WebGUI and some even have SSH access.
Slashdot Top Deals
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.
