andygates

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• Commented on Dane who ripped his DVDs demands to be arrested under DRM law
  Ah, but he's not just breaking a law to show that he disagrees with it. He's showing that the law is paradoxical: he can take backups legally but not without breaking DRM illegally. What's a guy to do? One of...
• Commented on Custom laser-engraved patent drawings on copper sheets
  I want a diagram of some absurd automatic page-turning device from the 1880s to use as the cover of my next ebook reader......
• Commented on Brits: sign petition to kill three-strikes law
  His Holiness St Stephen of Fry was tweeting this earlier today. Signed. I have a legal friend who is giddy with the amount of work that bad legislation like this will bring her... If Mandelson doesn't get this through before...
• Commented on BREAKING: Leaked UK government plan to create "Pirate Finder General" with power to appoint militias, create laws
  Secondary legislation is not in itself evil: it is appropriate to take the detailed decisions out of Parliament when the details are highly technical (exceeding the expertise of MPs), or change regularly (such as environmental standards). Geek stuff moves so...
• Commented on The decline of civilization symbolized in a modern light socket
  #16 is why they're riveted now: "I did kinda a neat job but made a mistake, but hey, it'll probably be okay..." Remove the user, remove user error. ;)...
• Commented on MPAA shuts down entire town's muni WiFi over a single download
  Looks like the administrator was spooked by the goons into turning the service off. There's no mention of any actual proceedings in the story. If that's the same admin as thinks that a product exists which will stop illegal stuff,...
• Commented on One morning in a fitness boot camp
  Aloisius, reframe that: eating is the reward for exercise. :) Rest is the only cure for shinsplints, and check your shoes are still good. It amuses me that this Next Big Thing is the thing without any tech toys... when...
• Commented on Stealthy anti-whaling powerboat
  Indeed. And Sea Shepherd are upfront that they're not a protest organisation but enforcers. And that's a purdy boat. I'm guessing it's for getting in and out with evidence for prosecutions....
• Commented on Bicycle defense kit fits in Altoids tin
  I need me some "SMOOTH MOVE, EX-LAX" stickers. In crackback. An maybe a magnapoon. Yeah, that would rock....
• Commented on Bicycle defense kit fits in Altoids tin
  Ha! This isn't a real utility kit. It's a fantasy revenge kit: it shares its heritage with the vampire hunting kits hat were posted here a while back. As a city cyclist for over 25 years I've dreamed of doing...
• Commented on Thieves who stole from child get a public shaming
  @cwahlers, it's just begging for photoshopping. "I can haz punnishment?" Also: Punishment is never brief when there's immortal images on the intertubes. Village stocks are transient; this person's image will be passed around for amusement for as long as she's...
• Commented on Car Finder app for iPhone
  @slugabed - the worst thing about trying to find a rental is when you can't remember the colour or model of the damned thing. I've had to phone the rental company and ask them what it was I was driving......
• Commented on Mechanical computer uses matchboxes and beans to learn Tic-Tac-Toe
  MENACE is very, very sneaky. Nice work! (Makes me want to build Lego logic gates...)...
• Commented on Climate Change Now
  Another to add to the list: Arctic ice is *already* thin enough in summer to steam an ice-capable ship through. The thick multi-year ice has gone, replaced by half a meter of crappy one-year stuff. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE59S3LT20091029?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&sp=true...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  amk, "over-vaccination is dangerous" - please qualify that assertion. Remember, it's not vax vs not-vax, it's vax vs not-vax-plus-disease. Disease is dangerous....
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  As I understand it, "skyrocketing rates of autism" owe much to improved diagnoses of autism-spectrum disorders: we're just better at spotting it now. Vaccine 'proliferation' means more protection: how is this a bad thing? Chickenpox has complications later in life;...
• Commented on Wee English church rebuilt on 22nd floor of Osaka tower
  Kaiza beat me to it. This is no wedding chapel, it's an elaborate Xanatos gambit......
• Commented on Brit business secretary promises to punish accused file-sharers' families with Internet disconnection by 2011
  Assuming this doesn't die when Mandy loses his job in the coming election (heh), it's the pinnacle of dumb: it'll surely just mean that there's a massive pressure to adopt encryption. Now the spooks can't tell interesting encryption from last...
• Commented on Zombie/Scooby Doo mashup illo
  Finally, a paintjob for my camper van!...
• Commented on Reversing the brain impairments caused by sleeplessness
  IWood, caffeine *is* a PDE inhibitor. So, rather magnificently, is viagra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphodiesterase_inhibitor I'm tempted to try this: stay up all night then pop a blue pill and see how many user password resets I get wrong tomorrow. Science!...
• Commented on Yet another reason McCain's "Internet Freedom Act" is dumb, Net Neutrality is good: national security?
  MrJim: National-Security-as-understood-by-voters: "But what if a RUSSIAN or CHINESE company bought out the backbone? ZOMG NOES!"...
• Commented on Dear Britain, please stop helping the fascists
  Antinous said, "The BNP is not a political party any more than the KKK is a political party. To be a legal political party in the UK, you need to admit members from all races. The BNP is whites only."...
• Commented on Dear Britain, please stop helping the fascists
  It's a sticky problem: mere exposure to these views is contaminatory (just hark to the little-Britain political right now saying his immigration ideas "had a point"), but banning them is, well, illegal. As a party with some voters, they get...
• Commented on No cross-dressing at Morehouse College
  The traditional argument was that without the distraction of the opposite sex, students would excel in their studies. The dress-code is down on street and shabby clothes. I think the cross-dressers just need to get classier. A little black Chanel...
• Commented on Hit-and-run driver who hit cyclist
  "the driver chose to turn it into a felony hit and run, with three witnesses, a paramedic report, and a photo of his license plate" Yeah, they do that. Never really understood why: they're not usually evil people, but something...
• Commented on Urban surveillance as a game?
  It's an interesting spin on sousveillance, no? Civlib advocates could watch the cameras and report naughty police. :)...
• Commented on Jugaad: India's duct-tape ingenuity
  And in Malawi, the BBC covered young William Kamkwamba decided he wanted electricity so he went ahead and built windmills and generators from old bike parts and junk: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8257153.stm There must be something especially good about bike parts. They're everywhere....
• Commented on Royal Mail uses legal threats to shut down service that provided postcode lookups to charities and nonprofits
  Yes, Sparrow, it's called FreeThePostcode - www.freethepostcode.org :)...
• Commented on Royal Mail uses legal threats to shut down service that provided postcode lookups to charities and nonprofits
  This is pretty low stuff from the RM. Deeply disappointed. Once again, I'll have to blow the trumpet for www.FreeThePostcode.org, the openstreetmap-powered project to get this PUBLIC information into public hands. The data isn't private; the database is. Crazy. Double...
• Commented on Report: Woman paralyzed by E. coli-tainted hamburger
  #76, without something to back up what you say, you're going to be ignored as an internet crazy person. Anonymous - no references - grand conspiracy? Bah....