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Comment I personally... (Score 1) 198

Haven't updated the app since it started asking for "Personal Information" permissions several months ago.

I'm rather curious as to how the app is supposed to be determining my gender/sex in the first place. Algorithmically based on the songs I listen to? If so, all those Glee songs I upvoted are probably throwing it off.

Comment My First Thought (Score 1) 305

"Now why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you'd come today you could have reached the whole nation; Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication." -Judas, on Jesus' choice of time and place for his First Coming (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Censorship

FCC Fights To Maintain Indecency Policy 602

GovTechGuy writes "The FCC filed Thursday to appeal a recent court decision that struck down its policy of fining broadcasters for profanity or nudity shown on live television. The FCC's brief argues the court ruling would make it almost impossible to punish broadcasters that show nudity or profanity during hours when children are likely to be watching or listening."

Comment Re:What the hell happened inside Google? (Score 1) 410

I was about to say, facetiously, "Unless they discontinued it yesterday, you must have a very different definition of 'discontinued' than I do, since I used it a couple of days ago." Then I double-checked wikipedia: "On August 4, 2010, Google announced the suspension of standalone Wave development..." That'll teach me to be snarky on the internet.

Comment Re:Ah the joys... (Score 1) 551

I know this is anecdotal, but: I spent several hours trying to get drivers downloaded and installed for a two-year-old HP printer/scanner for Windows. Then I booted into Ubuntu, opened XSane (which is included with 10.04 at least) and pressed the "scan" button, and 30 seconds later I had my scanned image. So sure, some hardware isn't supported by Linux. But for the vast majority of supported hardware, it works from the get-go, or at the very least automatically scans the hardware and gives you a button to install the correct drivers (for things like graphics cards).

Comment Re:Hard disk failure? Unlikely... (Score 1) 551

I worked in IT at a medium-sized college, and we got 3 or 4 laptops a week in with either HDD failure or unrecoverable corruption (usually due to viruses). In either case, recovery partitions were un-usable. Fortunately, we had a bunch of OEM install disks lying around, but most people aren't in that situation. So yeah, it's less common than reinstalling due to software issues, but hard drive crashes happen often enough that it's worth having an install disk. But then, this is just one of the many reasons why I build my own computers and use exclusively OSS.
Security

Porn Sites More Infected Than Thought 170

nk497 writes "Porn sites are five times as likely to host malware as previously thought, with 3.6% offering up a digital infection of some sort, according to a researchers who set up their very own adult sites for a new study. One reason for the high rate of malware is that the online porn industry makes use of affiliate programs, where one site will drive traffic to another in exchange for links, cash, or simply free pornographic material to use. Because such programs don't check who they're doing business with, and sites use disguised links and other clandestine methods to drive people to different pages, it's easy for criminals to abuse the system to spread malware. Researcher Gilbert Wondracek said, 'They inadvertently have created an ecosystem that can easily be abused on a large scale by cyber criminals, and that's worrying.'"

Comment Re:Translation for the legislative impared. (Score 1) 703

The Honorable Representative should read her own laws, because it most certainly is a crime for a person to use a condom (properly) if the other party to the condom usage is under 18 (under 16 and it's a felony). If both are under 18, then it is mutual statutory rape under the laws of the fine state of Wisconsin. So yeah, Mrs. Roys, using a condom is a crime for the vast majority of high school students in your state.

No, having underage sex is a crime. The use of a condom during an otherwise illegal act has nothing to do with the condom. To make a car analogy: Driving without a license is a crime. But the claim that "Wearing a seat-belt is a crime for unlicensed drivers" is obviously absurd, as wearing a seat-belt has nothing to do with the reason why the action is illegal and is in fact a much safer option regardless of the legality of the action. A nitpick, sure. But wording can be important.

Hardware

Startup's Submerged Servers Could Cut Cooling Costs 147

1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."

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