Posts by Richard 102

Irony alert

So the colors associated with MS are now black and blue? Yeah, sounds about right ...

What?

Wouldn't uucp count as prior art? I'm just sayin' ...

AC @14:35 GMT

You are absolutely right; USB's spec ties performance to the CPU and system, thus making it depend on a lot of things other than itself. I'll stick with Firewire, where applicable.

Better yet

Force them to sell AND support Vista and ME in perpetuity.

@Steve Coffman

"US supplies of helium are dwindling... "

So we'll switch to hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?

Sincerely,

Mort Hindenberg

Presumed innocent

"I'm sure there's a well-known mantra in law that says "suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty." Or at least there used to be....."

We lost that here in the states after the 1916 election. My great-grandfather, a third-generation American, was pulled from dinner with his family nearly beaten to death on his front lawn in front of his wife and kids for commiting the crime of having a German last name. This was a certain organization that a certain US President re-elected around that time encouraged via law, money, and executive order. All to help the Limeys beat the Hun.

Lead

"Internet Explorer users are at risk from a newly discovered and unpatched vulnerability in older versions of Microsoft's browser."

The heck you say.

@Geoffrey Summerhayes

"Eye, sun, anubis, falcon, cat, rover?"

Which will return optical recognition software for solaris, using a GNU outgoing mail processor, used by the Atlanta NFL team and Danny John-Jules to document their old British-Leyland automobiles.

@Ross 7

No, it's not just you. Reminds me of an old newspaper (remember those?) want ad that said "Illiterate? Write for help!"

Do the math

2 x 0 = 0.

Stap my vitals, Jeeves, the man is right!

Mine's the one with "Leave It to Psmith" in the pocket.

Don't Do It!

It will lead to global cooling! We're all gonna die!

Huh?

Why would they need to put one in when they've built a World Without Walls?

Um ...

"But we really focus on user needs."

Since we're all geeks, nerds, and w@nkers here, does that mean they'll be coming out with a line of Personality Implants and Google Fashion Sense?

Cheers, it's the weekend.

Damn straight!

Makes you proud to be an American, because let's face it, if you are going to waste taxpayers' hard-earned money, is there a cooler way to do it? On top of that, with one of these babies, it might become almost safe to drive through Detroit or Newark. (But not DC; that place is scary.)

And think of the children? Yeah, I'll think of the children; something like this might keep the dirtbags from biking through my yard and chucking rocks at the dogs.

Or we could bring back spanking, but no, that's cruel.

@Unacceptable

"What kind of policeman can't restrain a ten year old child without using a taser?"

One who is doubled over and can't breathe after a sharp, hard kick in the goolies by an utter brat.

Besides, have you SEEN the women in Arkansas? Most of them look like Australian Rules Football players who've been going a bit heavy on the starches and Human Growth Hormone. Hell, Hillary Clinton looks TRIM in comparison.

Outlaw poverty?

Isn't that a moving target? I remember reading that, in 1990, you could make more money than 97% of the rest of the world and still qualify for poverty benefits.

The real cause of poverty is people making poor personal choices. Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank in DC) had a book called "Getting Better All the Time" where he talked about trends in the US through the 20th century and how life has improved. One thing I remember vividly. In the US, if you:

1) graduate high school at the age of 19 or younger,

2) have your first child at the age of 20 or older, and

3) are married to the other parent when that child is born (not conceived, but born)

then you are 98% likely to never need government poverty benefits. Now, to make poverty "illegal", we will need to have the government meddling EVEN DEEPER in our lives, and really, that isn't going to solve anything except the problem of how to get more totalitarian government bureaucracy ... and ask people in eastern Germany how well that worked 20 years ago.

Excuse me?

"Ozzie noted Dallas might help the government achieve its aim of openness and transparency"

Excuse me? That's the last thing the government wants! Well, not counting a civil service based on merit.

@Henry Wertz 1

"Windows traditional strengths such as video and 3D driver support"

Excuse me, I laughed so hard I need to wipe up the tears of mirth that fell onto the PowerMac workstation and flowed towards the Linux servers.

Thanks, I needed the laugh.

@Jess

I think you might be missing a point. If you want to buy a copy of OS X and try to hack it to run on some hardware, Apple probably wouldn't object. For one thing, you weren't going to buy their hardware anyway. They made a sale of OS X. And they won't do any support for you, obviously.

Now, Psystar was doing this, but not for personal use, but reselling the boxes. This is directly in violation of the EULA and about five or six laws. Why Psystar thought this would go unchallenged and thought they would have a legal leg to stand on is beyond me.

Excuse me?

You're citing Gartner for their predictions? The people who predicted sweeping success for Vista and Zune? The ones who predicted Apple would go bankrupt because of OS X and the iPod, who poo-poo'd the iPhone?

They've got a worse prediction record than NFL pundits on ESPN.

Washington State University

... is called The Cougars.

There are some very odd team names here in the colonies. There are the usual things you'd suspect: big scary animals like Lions, Bears, Tigers, etc. You get names like Spartans, Warriors, Giants, etc. Bulldogs is common, given that they are tenacious strong dogs, and Blue Devils/Red Devils/Blue Demons/etc are more common than you'd think. Indian names used to be common but those have, sadly, largely gone away. Oddly enough, Florida State University is known as the Seminoles, and the Seminole nation is happy that they continue with the name. It's good publicity for them, the university works with them to keep things inoffensive, and there are financial benefits to the tribe as well. The irony is that the NCAA, which is the organization that regulate intercollegiate athletics, is trying to get rid of all Indian names, but they are based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Then again, there have been years when the entire Boston Celtics NBA team is black, and no one says anything about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, so whatever.

But there are some that make you laugh or scratch your head. A high school in Illinois is known as The Wooden Shoes. (Dutch settlement, I'd guess.) Purdue University is known as the Boilermakers because the city of Lafayette, IN, once had the largest boiler factory in the US and you had to be strong to work there. My graduate school, Colorado, was the Buffaloes ... which is not only a euphamism, but also strikes fear into opponents by suggesting an image of a large herbivore pooping on the prairie dogs. My favorite has to be the University of California at Santa Cruz, known as The Banana Slugs.

Oh great

Look for a hit song called "One Night in Yakutsk" by those guys from Abba.

Maybe next they can make one from Rook. Or "Sorry: Revenge of the Reverse 4" or whatever.

Uno: The Movie! Starring Uno the Beagle.

Okay, I'll stop.