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Comment Let Me Google That For You (Score 3, Informative) 694

Considering how forceful and near-universal condemnation from women and women's groups in and out of tech has been to the memo, it is extremely difficult to believe that this Ask Slashdot was submitted in good faith. Particularly in light of the extreme ease of finding high-profile responses. Here is a (small) sample from a simple google search:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-big-id...
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffirst-pers...
http://fortune.com/2017/08/09/...
http://www.businessinsider.com...
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatch.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fm...

If you really are that out of the loop, that should inform you pretty well. If you're begging the question, then the quantity of vile reactions in these comments have likely confirmed that it was worth it. I hope it is the former.

Comment Re:Someone doesn't understand how this works (Score 1) 292

This is 100% true. The contents of the annotations are summaries of cases written by someone other than the court (sometimes the court's staff but most often by an indexing service like Lexis), and aren't actually law. Their sole purpose is to identify to attorneys and judges which cases stand for which principles. They are never even a complete statement of the law of that case, since they are usually a short paragraph long and only mention one of many issues the court dealt with. Half the time, the case identified by an annotation isn't even useful to the project, but they are always a good starting point.

Submission + - President Obama Backs Regulation of Broadband as a Utility 1

vivIsel writes: In a move that is sure to generate controversy, the President has announced his support for regulation of broadband connections, including cellular broadband, under Title 2 of the Telecommunications Act. Reclassification of broadband in this way would treat it as a utility, like landline telephones, subject providers to new regulations governing access, and would allow the FCC to easily impose net neutrality requirements.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Life After N900 2

Rydia writes: Since it first released, I have been in love with my Nokia N900, and it has satisfied all my needs for a mobile with a high degree of control and utility. Sadly, the little guy is showing his age, both in battery life (even with the powersaving kernel options enabled), and performing in general has been left far, far in the dust by phones that are now considered quite old. The time has come to find its successor, but after a thorough search of smartphone options, I can't find any handset that offers everything for the power user that the N900 did (much less a hardware keyboard). I'd like to avoid supporting Google/Android, but there don't seem to be many options. Have any other techies found a replacement for their N900?

Comment Re:Dickish move... (Score 2) 259

A markholder attempting to avoid dilution/abandonment only has an obligation to combat infringement of their mark. Legitimate uses of the mark, including the fair use associated with criticism in this case, do not affect the markholder's rights in any way.

Comment Not Remotely Similar (Score 2) 786

Beyond the fact that they were both directives from the government, there are no similarities

Moonshot:ACA Exchange

Regulation:
Whatever NASA thought was a good idea:Three extremely technical laws, plus various state laws

Interoperability:
Everything done in-house by NASA:Interacting with dozens of different providers using different systems that don't talk to each other, plus data verification from a few more agencies

Public Support:
Viewed as way to get one up on those darned ruskies:Extremely bitter partisan divide, was a major contentious issue in two elections

Government Support:
Willing to throw money at NASA to get it done:Part of the House of Representatives shut down the government and threatened default in order to build anti-ACA support for the next election

Actual Work Done:
Mostly in-house NASA work:Lots of contractors

Not that the exchange's launch hasn't been a complete disaster, but comparing the two is extremely tenuous.

Comment Misdirection (Score -1) 610

Because the prima donnas at the heart of the story (Snowden and Greenwald) made and continue to make the story about themselves, rather than the material. A story about a reporter and his whistleblowing buddy on the lam, both making crazy statements that greatly overshadow the series but drier material they are disclosing, always played better and therefore was covered better.

At this point, everyone's tired of them, and has forgotten what the whole fuss was about.

Comment Oh this will end well... (Score 1) 220

...I mean it's not like we've already seen privatisations of Gas, Water, Steel, Coal, Telecoms, and Rail go down the tubes is it. And it's not like in some of those we're subsidising the PRIVATISED industry while they give bonuses to bosses. And it is absolutely not the case that a regulator has ever had to step in against any of those industries to stop them doing amoral or ridiculous things...

Comment Frameworks are great, but ... (Score 5, Interesting) 115

Allowing more open development is fantastic. However, the summary (and really a ton of people) have the relationship at play with games backwards:

"This has helped developers focus less on creating a video game's underlying technology and more on the artistic and creative processes that actually make games fun to play."

The underlying technology, however, is the essence of the game. It's what tells us how mario moves compared to sonic or y metroid cant crawl. The artistic and creative process, while quite important, largely affect how a game is presented visually and thematically. The rise of one-size-fits-all platforms, designed to be broadly used not only between titles but between genres and platforms, has led to a massive homogenization of gameplay. Gameplay, of course, is what makes a game fun to actually play. Setting is not gameplay. Writing is not gameplay, and graphics aren't gameplay.

Yes, these platforms are customizable, but the distinctness that came with each game or class of games has largely been lost as games increasingly rely on generalized engines. Unity and Unreal (and various other engines) are great, but they're not responsible for freeing developers to make experimental games. To the extent that is happening, it is despite of, not because of, those engines.

Comment SuSE (Score 5, Insightful) 573

SuSE has the best installation and configuration utility and has a ton of helpful user-run repos for packages. It also has builds for basically every windowing system, so you can pick your preference without any hacking, and when you do want to get down to brass tacks, the system will get out of your way (now that suseconfig is gone) and let you tinker as much as you please.

And when you screw everything up (half the fun, right?), it ships with a fantastic system repair tool to get you back on your feet. You can also use SuSE Studio to make a custom image if you have weird hardware.

It's a really great linux experience.

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