Posts by perlcat

Re: Cheers

You know why I never got a reagan.com email address? First off, it detracts from whatever I say. People discount whatever you say based upon social cues like email domains and such, much like we automatically think the hipster in the coffee shop bragging over his bluetooth about his sexual escapades is a douchebag (and a liar -- the army has good reason to call those glasses hipsters wear "VD-prevention eyewear").

Google is entitled to free speech in the form of political donations, but apparently, Republicans are not socially entitled to such a liberty. Possessing a conservative bumper sticker is a good way to get your car keyed. Usually, you'll hear some self-righteous juvenile bullshit about sticking it to the man or whatever. Case in point: you think it's intelligent to block the domain. Sadly, you'll get shown a good deal more respect for exercising your right to free speech than I will get for exercising mine in pointing out this hypocrisy. I suppose your next trick will be trotting out the usual the lame-assed excuses and ad hominem justifications afterwards.

You could, of course, grow up, and realize that anybody sporting this domain has handily singled themselves out as a ripe target for your abuse, but I suppose that's too much for you to comprehend.

Re: Processing seawater

"Somewhere along the way, you need someone to call out, "Wait a minute!" and keep the system within the bounds of civilized behavior."

This is what governments are for. They bridge the gap between what is most economic and what we as a society want. That is why we don't resolve liability issues with weregild.

However, to say that you should have all of one or the other is like building an airplane that is all wing, or all engine. Either way, it won't fly.

I'm not saying that socialist economies cannot come up with any innovation -- just that they tend to kill it off more than a country that acknowledges capitalism and leverages it. We *are* after all, flying into space on Russian rockets.

Re: Head above parapet

From the behavior of the vegetarians/vegans I know, the hardest part about it is telling other people what to eat and why.

@Vic & Rambler88

Yes, I am more than willing to take it out on him in the invoicing, but he's playing with somebody else's money, and doesn't care. While I'm not so proud that I wouldn't wash cars and type papers for $300/hr, it sets a bad precedent, and hard to get that sort of work at that rate once I let it get started. Far better to whip my cattle prod out early in the process, show him how it's all charged up & ready to go. I do it for the satisfaction of the look on his face.

Re: After 8 pints and a vindaloo

Zero calories as in it doesn't stay in your gut long enough to add to your caloric intake for the day. A form of Ex-Lax, but with a new and improved sonic boom.

Re: Simple solution

Nah, the use of 'empowered' proves that he's one of "Them".

Re: CTRL+Z

Yeah, it works just fine if you were trying to do task A, something went wrong, and you knew about it when it happened. Again, the problem is when you do the click-swipe thing, and don't catch it immediately.

Re: Ermm....

The only problem I've ever noticed with my preferred storage method for shit like this is that occasionally. when the flow of Bieber crap is too heavy, /dev/null throws up in its mouth just a little.

I refuse to call it 'hacking'.

Unauthorized access? Maybe. Hacking? No.

Hacking would involve either exploiting software vulnerabilities or using tools like a keylogger. This guy, in all probability, just logged onto her account with her password. That's something that any husband might do for his wife or vice-versa when she's away from her PC and calls to find out if the email from so-and-so arrived yet.

I know, 'hacking' makes for a great headline, but it is totally inaccurate. It also turns a domestic squabble and a privacy issue into something that it is not. It also lends an undeserved aura of sophistication, glamour and cleverness to simple, ugly domestic spying. So many good reasons *not* to use the term, and no good reasons to use it.

Re: ban 666

Don't you know that the 1's look like todgers, and should all be banned? ...and don't get me started on the wanton '0's, with their seductive hole in the middle.

All you humourless types need to stay far, far away from computers! It's the work of the devil, I tell ya!

Re: FFS

There is a really, really basic problem with that.

IF it works*, and we reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and the anticipated decrease in global temps does not materialize, then the warmtards have to give up on a lot of social engineering projects, and we can get on with our sinful, wasteful ways.

Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. Just because he's a fraud and a humbug doesn't mean that he isn't useful.

* -- and it will -- there are VAST areas of ocean far from land that never get enough of the minerals to allow algae/whatever to take up as much carbon as possible. Pity that it will never happen -- when you introduce a lot of food into that area, marine life patterns will change to take advantage of it, and a lot of marine life that is having a hard time of it no thanks to homo sapiens should get a big boost.

The argument that ocean seeding will have a bad effect, in light of the effect we're already having on the planet, and in light of the actual *size* of the oceans, is just plain silly. Especially when the remedy to it is to just stop doing it.

Re: "he was upskirting through the glass floor some 342 metres up"

Yep, they come up with some really cromulent words!

Re: wrong person to weigh in on science

...but you have to admit -- his ears are *indeed* mighty.

That, and the though of the whole world admiring his large, red ball is hysterical.

Re: Agreed

It works that way in the US, too. Apparently, voters aren't paying enough attention, and don't mind paying: wheel taxes for renovations of public buildings that have long been replaced by far newer, grander public buildings serving the same purpose for which a new tax is also implemented. Government is like a roach motel -- your money goes in to the roaches, and it never sees the light of day.

Re: Danger to people?

You're ruining the fun. I was going to suggest looking for a radioactive spider on the flight.

Re: My BS detector's going off.

Ah, I had forgotten those basic movie facts. It all becomes clear now.

Re: One law for corporations...

Yeah, Codevilla said it all.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/

Re: @perlcat - - Disappointing - Resolution far too low for aerial photographs.

Wah, wah, wah.

It was free. Stop looking at it if you hate it. Spend your own money to make your own if you have the need. Call your elected official and offer to help if you want to make yourself useful. Fix it if you own it.

Bitching about something you have no control over and are not charged anything for the privilege of using in public forums just looks whiny and pathetic, no matter how you church it up with quotations. All's it shows is that you have the power of wikipedia at your fingertips in a pretense of thinking ignoble thoughts in a noble way. Devil, scripture, own purposes, you know the drill.

Since I can't be bothered to come up with my own quotations, I guess your quest for excellence in smart-assed repertoire will just have to suffer.

Cheers!

Re: Sales Guys

I've always enjoyed laying a little karma down on the salesdroids.

Major PC maker I worked for owned a crap video card maker -- they couldn't write video software to save their lives, and it was clearly unsuitable for corporate use (or any other for that matter). Naturally, businesses stayed away from it in droves. Naturally, since the margins on crap video cards is so good, they'd offer the corporate salesdroids spiffs to move them. (I remember one spiff was a speedboat -- the margins were good indeed) In support, we'd get hourly ass-chewings over these cards, and in desperate cases, the other techs would ship out video cards made by competent manufacturers to replace them. Then they'd endure the ass-chewings from management about containing costs.

Not me. I'd carefully explain to the user about spiff's, crap video, what makes good video, track down their salesdroid, and drop the hot customer on the 'droid's line. It didn't take long for the salesdroids to decide that no spiff was worth that kind of epic ass-chewing.

It was good for another teaching moment, too. One tech I talked to was going to order his own PC, with one of these cards. I asked him: "WHY, for the love of G0d, WHY?!?!" He said "Because I know every way possible to *fix* these cards. I asked him why he didn't use the other brand of card. He said "Because I never get calls on them." I just sat there smirking at him until he figured it out.

IDGI

If you don't respect or like the editorial content, why are you wasting your time reading this*?

If you don't get the same buzz out of reading El Reg that you did in happier times, then maybe you should give up the rage part of the grieving process, and move on. Websites, news providers, and blogs all change over time. If you dislike, start your own -- surely you can get enough people of like mind to read it. You aren't going to change this one by bellyaching in the forums. Vote with your feet. That usually works, except upon the most clueless of all.

* -- I enjoy reading it because I enjoy various different points of view, and see the value in respectful dissension. Haven't noticed so much a "Right-wing" slant as I have just a refusal to march in lockstep with other news outlets, and a person that speaks their mind rather than tells you what you want to hear is much more valuable than some tool repeating what everybody else says.. If you want right-wing slant, there are places you can go to get the real thing -- and it isn't pretty. Many articles I read here, I think: "Yeah, he's got a point. Mostly fucked, but he has a point."