Skep

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• Commented on RIAA "history by Tuesday of next week."
  This is bad. They won't stop litigating, instead they'll be nothing but a lawsuit factory, like SCO....
• Commented on Neuroscience of gambling
  Using MRI, he studied brain activity in people gambling, looking particularly at "near misses" in which a loss seems close to a win. He found that the brain activated the same reward system that is activated in a real win,...
• Commented on BBC tapes people slipping on icy steps in London
  That's what news people do. They cover what happens. Think of all the accident scenes and other news events where the camera person was watching rather than helping. It is one of the dilemmas of reporting. The BBC didn't create...
• Commented on Contemporary wedding video shot in grainy 8mm black and white
  Yes, I can see the 8mm black-and-white look that they were going for. But the author is clearly using video movements with a film medium. Specifically, she's shooting handheld (a no-no with film) and she's panning WAY too quickly for...
• Commented on Author's Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
  Take a look at this #87 posted by bililoquy , February 11, 2009 12:49 PM The foundational point here is that an author is not wrong or acting outside the legitimate purview of the law to secure her rights to...
• Commented on Author's Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
  #81 posted by mellon , February 11, 2009 12:25 PM I'm a bit surprised that people are so interested in this argument. The bottom line is that the Kindle is a specialized device which fails to deliver value for...
• Commented on Author's Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
  Arkizzle @ 71 If I charge a bunch of people to hear me read a Neil Gaiman story at the local bookstore, I am breaking the law. For a fee (you do buy the Kindle, remember) Amazon transforms copyrighted...
• Commented on Author's Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
  Ha! That's nothing. Clearly just being able to enlarge the font is an un-authorized derivative work! How are publishers going to sell their Large Print e-books if Amazon just lets users enlarge the font on their own? Time for a...
• Commented on Scientist who criticised DJ for vaccination scare talk gets copyright threat
  #86 posted by buddy66 , February 6, 2009 10:14 AM The Bad Old Days. I'm surprised my siblings and I survived those goddamn childhood plagues (I'm old enough that the word "siblings" sounds silly). You are a survivor, and...
• Commented on Scientist who criticised DJ for vaccination scare talk gets copyright threat
  If you want to inject themiorsal into your kids, go ahead -- just don't ask me to. Nobody is asking you to do any such thing. This can't be said enough. Large epidemiological studies have proven that there is NO,...
• Commented on Scientist who criticised DJ for vaccination scare talk gets copyright threat
  #9 posted by Anonymous , February 5, 2009 11:35 PM The problem with modern vaccination is not vaccination itself. Vaccination is a real boon to prevention in dense populations. Please get your children vaccinated! The problem is most cheap...
• Commented on Pocket Shark: The Pen of Death
  I have to agree with post two. The giant logos and "coldsteel.com" silk screen on this thing make it Epic Fail as far as making a covert weapon that can pass as an everyday writing utensil. The pen will not...
• Commented on Pig and the Box anti-DRM kids book in a new edition
  @Rezpect: Well, fortunately the book can be read as a DRM-free PDF, so you can find out for yourself :)...
• Commented on Kim Jong Il to drag moon back to North Korea
  Wow. The Onion does some amazing parodies. The attention to detail--and the expense involved in creating it--is remarkable....
• Commented on Folding Bicycle Backpack is a cross-country dream
  Not really a **cross country** dream, seeing as how the bikes have no *seat* or *peadals*. These are strictly folding down hill scooters with big wheels. The seem very cool until you find out they have no drive train or...
• Commented on Get a Matte Book Pro for $199
  I gotta say I think $199 to replace the entire screen on a 15" unibody MBP seems pretty darn cheap, especially when just having a service technician even look at your computer can cost $150. I'm not sure about the...
• Commented on Problem of saggy-pants "much bigger" than Constitution, says Mayor
  That list sorta blew my mind. How the frig is that guy still in power? That stuff should be from a tv show, not real life...goddamn. Quite. The man appears to be a megalomaniac criminal of the first order and...
• Commented on Apple dropping DRM from music in iTunes, keeping DRM for audiobooks, video
  @ #20 posted by rdi , January 6, 2009 1:00 PM Thanks for the update, rdi. As rdi noted, TUAW has now retracted the claim about extra restrictions on 69 cent songs....
• Commented on Apple dropping DRM from music in iTunes, keeping DRM for audiobooks, video
  Not so fast. According to TUAW Apple isn't dropping DRM for music at all. It is adding lots more DRM free offerings, but, for instance, will be **increasing** the DRM restrictions on some songs. "69 cent songs will have greater...
• Commented on Make your own Alka Seltzer for a fraction of the cost
  Aspirin is merely a crude synthesis of the main active ingredient of willow bark tea. If you are concerned that your home-made alka-seltzer has no aspirin, simply take it in willow bark tea... available at many supermarkets. Crude? What is...
• Commented on Make your own Alka Seltzer for a fraction of the cost
  Well, it is cool that you can make it your self, but there is probably no worse treatment for heartburn than aspirin--a stomach irritant that can actually **cause** heartburn....
• Commented on Heavy-duty overhead luggage with a chest of drawers and a seat
  The organizer drawers are interesting. Seems like they would make it hard to pack actual clothes in it, since they are so small. And organizer thingies can actually increase the weight and reduce the volume available for your own stuff--even...
• Commented on Monitor the quality of your erection with the EQM
  @Scuba SM: Yes, it is in grams. This is nothing more than a gimmicky scale that measures the force in grams that it takes to visually bend the penis. From the seller's site via Giz: Once you obtain an erection...
• Commented on Prop 8 - The Musical -- starring Jack Black, Allison Janney, John C. Reilly, Marc Shaiman, and many more...
  #39 posted by Takuan , December 3, 2008 10:00 PM hello. Human rights are not negotiable. There is no "for" or "against" cases to be made here. Sorry, that just isn't true. While I think there is no valid...
• Commented on Behold the Meat Cannon of Philadelphia
  "the Meat Cannon of Philadelphia" Worst...port..ever......
• Commented on Video: Microphone Fellatio
  :-| I dunno. A little short and skinny shotgun mic. Perhaps an RE-20 kick drum mic (one of the industry standard talk radio mics) would be more interesting... http://www.electrovoice.com/products/91.html...
• Commented on Dery on decapitation
  @ 2, I believe the Nazi's used a guillotine in that fashion. (Sounds like a misreading of history, "Nazi" and "guillotine" but I remember seeing a photo of a Nazi guillotine where face up executions had been supposedly practiced. It...
• Commented on Photo gallery of female body builders
  You know what's gross about these photos? No, not the muscles, but the skin damage from all the tanning these people do for competition. All of their faces show damage from over tanning....
• Commented on Odd lion coffee table
  Is there some reason it has human genitalia and its legs spread? This isn't an "odd" coffee table it is a creepy Furrie sexual fantasy sculpture somebody has crudely disguised as a coffee table....
• Commented on You Will Not, In Fact, Put Anyone's Eye Out
  How complete can this be if it doesn't include a whole film devoted to penile amputation and vagina dentata horor? Leaving out Killer Condom seems like a rather large omission. Even I've heard of it and I'm not into horror...