* Posts by Bucky

20 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jun 2008

Note to employers: Better sex = happier workers

Bucky
Stop

Cop out

'Andersson also found that "men were often more interested in the frequency of sex than women, who were more inclined to value the quality of sexual relations", as The Local puts it.'

That's such a cop out.

I've watched sitcom after sitcom, and if there's one thing I've learned about heterosexual relationships, it's that women simply don't like sex.

Egyptian cuts off todger to spite his face dad

Bucky
Paris Hilton

Drama Queen

Just goes to show that being a drama queen transcends culture (and gender).

Please kill this cookie monster to save Europe's websites

Bucky

Bad Example

The Google Analytics example wasn't that good.

Your server logs have all the information that Google Analytics provides you, and are available without resorting to third-party websites setting cookies.

Star Trek halted by pig plague

Bucky

Naive much?

Oh, you people.

The film company's NOT delaying the release because it doesn't want people to cram into a theatre and get sick.

It's delaying the release because it believes people will stay home in an effort to protect their health, and ticket sales will be down.

It's about maximizing revenue. Sheesh!

Microsoft gears up for Windows 8

Bucky
Thumb Down

"The First" ... ?

"Microsoft was one of the first to offer free web mail with Hotmail, which it acquired...."

That's an interesting sentence. It almost makes it sound like Microsoft was one of the first to offer free web mail service, when it was actually Hotmail which did so.

By this logic, if I ate the cow, and the cow ate the grass, does that mean that I performed photosynthesis?

Mozilla considers dumping Firefox support for Win2k, early XP

Bucky

New Lamps for Old

I don't remember the version numbers anymore, but I do remember back in the day that newer Mozillas wouldn't install on Mac OS 7, and Mac OS 8 was a bad choice for the old Mac cx's.

I think the overarching issue had something to do with OS 7 either not being completely 32-bit clean (or possibly the ROMs in the machine weren't and therefore wouldn't run OS8), or else that an application couldn't allocate memory from the global heap in an ad-hoc fashion in the older OS, or some such nonsense.

Someone may need to correct me on the exact version numbers. But that's not really the point.

My point is, that without really knowing WHAT features Vista is supplying that XP doesn't, it's difficult to judge whether dropping XP support is a logical, forward-thinking move, or a lateral move just because something is newer and shinier. Dropping a memory restriction that is only a problem on old machines on one platform could be a good thing for the product in general, for example.

Remember, now, Mozilla is just opening the doors for DISCUSSION on the issue. I think evaluating and reevaluating things from time to time is worthwhile.

User-generated reviews - blessing or bull?

Bucky
Unhappy

Review by any other name

Alas, I'm too poor nowadays to do much purchasing of cool products like cameras.

But I do tend to troll the recipe sites. A man has to eat. And what do I see attached to the ingredients I may or may not spend my hard-earned cash on tonight?

"Looks great!"

"My mouth is watering!"

"I'm going to go home and make this RIGHT NOW."

Translation: "I have not made this recipe, and know nothing about it."

Try as I might, I have YET to find a comment on a recipe site where the commenter has actually prepared the dish in question.

My point is that there is an underlying presumption--even in this article--that if you have ENOUGH user reviews saying "this is good" or "this is bad," then you have useful information.

This is not true.

You have NO information. None. Your data was not gathered in a controlled way under controlled circumstances. You have nothing. All 7000 comments saying "delicious!" are worth nothing.

Statistics must be meaningfully collected in order to be meaningfully applied. This is not just pedantic mumbo-jumbo. It's actually true and relevant in your day-to-day life.

Is filming someone in the street a breach of privacy?

Bucky

Who IS that cow?

If someone uses your likeness for profit and does not gain your permission first, then you may have a fair complaint against him. It's theft.

However, if your likeness is incidental to the photo (which is not true in this case), or if you are not personally identifiable (which is under dispute), then the photographer may not need your permission at all. Fair use, and all that.

Pursuant to AF's comment, above, this is just as relevant to "good" examples, like a fashion show, as it is to "bad" examples, like being overweight.

Also pursuant to AF's example, if the woman were actually a professional fashion model, then using her image without paying for it constitutes theft in a very direct sense.

Judge says tech-addled jurors undermine justice

Bucky
Thumb Down

Overdue Overhaul

Forcing us all to listen to hours upon hours of oral arguments would make sense if there were a significant percentage of people who had somehow missed out on the magic of literacy.

But there isn't. It would save SOOO much time to read the arguments instead of listening to them.

They complain about the expense--but what about the expense that we all incur by missing work for countless days?

So for most of us, it's a little slice of hell. Especially given that you know before you start that at least one of the sides (and often, probably, both) is chewing up your valuable time telling lies trying to trick you into getting away with something.

I recognize that it's my civic responsibility appear for jury duty EVERY YEAR WITHOUT EXCEPTION, but I'm very tired of having the state force me to lose countless days of revenue just to listen to some perp lie to me (I'm not pro-government per se, but I fail to see the police's motivation for picking a guy at random and prosecuting him for nothing).

How about this: If you have to serve on a jury, your state taxes are forgiven for that year?

This way, you'd actually be paid a fair wage for your time, and there'd be quite a disincentive to bring people to trial spuriously.

DARPA funds radical disco-copter concept

Bucky
Flame

Design Omissions

I'm profoundly irritated that the mirror ball and strobe lights were omitted from the final design at the last moment.

This happens every time I go on vacation.

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

Bucky
Flame

Why on Earth?

Why on Earth would anyone do a FRESH install of Photoshop CS2 nowadays?

CS3 is a year and a half old already. If I were to buy a new computer with gOS, and then buy a fresh copy of Photoshop (you're not suggesting violating the original licensing by installing copies of Photoshop across multiple computers, are you?), what I'd be buying is CS3.

Under any common circumstance, the proper phrase to use in this review is "Photoshop completely fails to run, or indeed, even install under wine."

Running some arbitrarily old version of Photoshop isn't much of a selling point.

US Congress to vote on in-flight mobile ban

Bucky
Flame

Proper Role of Government

It simply isn't the proper role of government to dictate whether an annoyance is legal or not, unless it's a public health issue. And as irritating as talking on a cell phone in public may be, it isn't the role of government to put a stop to it.

If the airlines didn't compose a cartel, and differentiated themselves in different ways, you could choose to fly the Quiet Airline, or the Smoke-Filled Airline, or the Fat-Free Airline.

But alas.

The proper role of government would be to break up the cartel, and to prosecute the airlines for fraud when they overbook, or change a schedule out from under you--and prosecute them for terrorism if they "lose" your luggage (with all that baggage screening, the TSA would be hypocritical to consider it anything else).

Pant. Pant. Pant.

Okay, I'm feeling better now.

US scientist commits suicide as Feds prep anthrax charges

Bucky
Black Helicopters

Is it still bioterrorism if there was no actual bio agent?

What if Ivans, as a major investigator, was going nuts because there wasn't any anthrax, he knew it and could prove it, but was nevertheless ordered to keep quiet about it in a calculated move to frighten the American public (or more specifically, congresspeople), making them more receptive to the whole Iraq invasion idea.

This would of course explain how he was able to be so calm and confident in 2004 even though he was "emotionally fractured"--he knew for a fact there wasn't any anthrax.

Oz man cracks one off while speeding in drug-packed car

Bucky
Thumb Up

What...

no utube link?

US court sides with Janet Jackson's breast

Bucky
Go

@AC

Of course it wasn't a "malfunction."

I think the reason that it ended up being such a big deal was partly because people (meaning the FCC) felt insulted when they were asked to believe it was all an accident. The "wardrobe malfunction" statement was what enraged the public and the FCC. And this is of course why the decision was overturned--the punishment didn't match the actual crime.

I recall a lawsuit many years back where a woman subverted the non-spill lid of a coffee cup at a drive-through window, decanted the coffee onto her lap, and then turned around and sued McDonald's because--gasp--the coffee was hot and burned her. McDonald's was fined a huge sum (later greatly reduced) by the jury not because the woman's case was so strong, but because the McDonald's law team was so insulting and abrasive.

If Jackson and Timberlake had just come clean and admitted that they thought it wouldn't be a big deal, and they thought the nipple shield was going to be enough, it would have all blown over. But they had to be dicks about the whole thing.

Clay minerals point to vast Martian lakes

Bucky
Alien

@Jaap Stoel

Uh, you seem to be COMPLETELY forgetting the Martian cities of Helium and Zodanga.

Next you'll be telling me that when I look at the clouds and see a horsie and a piggy that I'm not actually seeing horsies and piggies up there.

Sheesh!

Smut pop-up teacher retrial stuck in delay loop

Bucky
Alert

Whom to blame

Okay, so she was hired to teach a class which featured a computer, which she didn't know how to use.

Did she misrepresent her skills, or is the school just plunking anybody in front of a classroom, irrespective of that person's ability to teach that class?

At least it was just porn. It could have been a shop class. Or is loss of limb preferable to an accidental, split-second viewing of human biology?

[I like this icon because its description says to "man" the "pumps"--surely an expression to be banned from the classroom]

Fears mount over missing Webroot founder

Bucky
Paris Hilton

Rising expectations

So, there's this 6'2" guy with a tattoo running around naked?

My, isn't it warm in here?

[Paris, because there's no beefcake icon--or were you thinking Ballmer was it?]

Eco-satnav software solves 'drive or walk' decisions

Bucky
Pirate

Whole Equation?

Hmm. I'd prefer CO2 vs CO2 comparisons and calories vs calories comparisons.

That is: How many calories would I burn driving vs walking (because you burn a few calories just sitting around--though of course not that many).

Similarly: How much CO2 was produced making (and metabolizing!) the food I ate that gave me the calories to walk the distance instead?

Finally: The comparison being displayed in the screenshot seems odd. It appears that riding public transportation produces zero CO2 emissions? Witchcraft!

Firefox 3 downloads hit 7m despite server FAIL

Bucky
Black Helicopters

Still Can't Find It

I'm still looking for a proper download link.

I mean, I've found links that SAY they're to the new version 3.0, but when I follow them, they're to tarballs dated as of 10 June. Well, THAT can't be right. It was released on the 17th, right? Mid day on the 17th! I'm SURE I read that somewhere. Moreover, they spent all morning rebuilding it or something. I'm sure I remember there was some kind of 2 hour delay.

Okay, maybe the timestamp's just wrong. And you know how the wrong time setting on a computer can wreak all kinds of network havoc, right? Okay, let's test that therory:

If I install the tarball anyway, why, the "Back" button isn't bigger, like they said it should be ("They" being the "they" who have seen the real software, while I am seeing some kind of falsification). It's exactly the same size as the "Forward" button. The proof? About:Firefox says "Gecko/2008052912".

Why, this was built back in May! This isn't the June 17th thing at all!

This is all just a tissue of lies. LIES, I say!