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Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1098/

Uhh, the blueprints are not lost. What do you think these are?

I was, like now, waiting on something to compile. Relevant XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/303/

Obligatory XKCD that you need to read and understand.

see here. If the gov't has it out for you there's plenty of ways for them to come down on you like a ton of bricks.

This is what's made me a Democratic Socialist. People don't oppress other people for the hell of it. They do it because they're monopolizing all the money to the point where folks lack economic security and when you do crap like that you've got to do all sorts of nasty things to get away with it. The surest fire way to make that a moot point is to guarantee everybody food, shelter, healthcare, education and transportation (the latter needed to access to former). Tyrants lose power when they can't threaten you with starvation, the elements or dying of disease.

Obligatory XKCD that you need to read and understand.

Obligatory XKCD that you need to read and understand.

https://xkcd.com/1172/

Obligatory XKCD that you need to read and understand.

It's likely illegal as well. News agencies are supposed to give both sides equal coverage, So purposely hiding search results for RNC candidates is likely breaking that. Whether Twitter and other social media outlets want to call themselves a news source, the fact is a lot of people are getting their "news" through these platforms so they should keep balanced.

Just more of social media being used to meddle with the election process.

Yeh, it's not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is what you're incorrectly referring to. The fact is, it's most likely because of the racist, bigoted, misogynistic bullshit that flows freely from republican politicians. Maybe, you should try electing people who aren't fucking worthless pieces of shit.

https://xkcd.com/1357/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... 'nuff said.

Sorry about the word-nazism, but this stuff really grates on me.

Never apologize for being a grammar Nazi. Lesser beings must be corrected!

Obligatory XKCD that you need to read and actually understand.

Worse, Napoleon.

I believe you need to read and understand this.

https://xkcd.com/1014/

I'm a physicist. That's what we do.

Physics is just applied mathematics! /snark

... ... I'll show myself the door.

https://www.xkcd.com/435/

Note the line in the OP:

The measure, SB-1001 [...] also doesn't mandate that tech companies enforce the regulation.

This is a ridiculous proposal, along the lines of DMCA requests where there is no penalty for filing a false claim.

Rather than have senators note a problem and legislate the first thing that pops into their head, how about we get one or two of the big players on board, get several proposed solutions, identify a method to measure success, and try each of those solutions?

Specifically on the subject of bots, note that CAPTCHAS have evolved over the years with several rounds of implementation. The original implementation ("enter the letters shown") can now be cracked by programs at the human level - so much so that making it more difficult than the algorithms can handle makes it more difficult than *humans* can handle.

The proposed law will only lead to more false-positive banning of real humans, which can be a) tuned to a political ideology, and b) for the human to give up privacy to regain their account. ("Send us a copy of your ID and we'll reinstate your account", or "Send us your phone number and we'll make you more secure.")

California needs to stop making laws on a whim, and start making laws based on study and evaluation of results.

I raise issue with calling it a "double-blind study" since clearly those that got meth instead of sugar figured it out on the first dose. There are some thing you cant play make believe about. You may be able to trick someone into thinking they got it when they didnt, but there is no way to do the opposite.

Which, of course, calls for the relevant XKCD comic...
https://xkcd.com/1462/

Came here to say this: https://xkcd.com/1179

https://xkcd.com/1387/

Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra.

This is what happens when you let English majors try to write science fiction. A warp-capable civilization whose language is based on folklore and metaphor? Absurd to the point of stupidity. One of the more pathetic attempts to justify the writer's own feeble existence. You can't do engineering with memes.

(I now wait for Slashdot to attempt it.)

Also, obligatory XKCD.

Oh, fuck sia.

Step one will be: have everyone involved learn to spell that word correctly, because currently, no one does

So what "assigns" a car maker the subsidy, and what mechanism "uses one up" ?

Could Eon create a second, third, and fourth Electric car company, lease some Tesla production facilities and license some Tesla IP to the additional companies, and get the subsidy for 200,000 more vehicles manufactured by each additional company?

By how much would a new car manufacturer's product, supply lines, and distribution be required to differ in order to say they are Different car companies for purpose of counting subsidies?

Pretty sure that would qualify as tax evasion.

I want to know which logfile editor to use to read the journal.d or /etc/logs.

That would be journalctl. I don't know what the hot-key combo for emacs is, but you can be relatively sure there is one

For vi or emacs, you could do:

journalctl > foo
vi foo

but I'm not sure why you wouldn't just look at the output of journalctl directly. Its output can be piped through your favorite parsing and sorting programs just the same as if it you were directly reading from a file.

If you are talking about writing to the logs, then you should use the existing logging mechanisms in your programming language of choice, they still work the way they always did.

If you are talking about altering existing system logs, then I am going to say with all due rudeness, that you are talking about the Linux equivalent of altering official documents, and are either up to something nefarious, or are a blithering idiot, either way I see no reason to make your task any easier than it has to be.

At the end of the day, this is all about the fact that the world is not text based, it is based in far more complex and subtle data types, and it is time that the Unix/Linux weenies got with the program and dealt with the fact that \0 can and should be used for things other than the end of a string of text.

I saw something about this while watching C-SPAN on my Smart TV and I heard the Senators say, "Smart TVs are wonderful and everyone should own one and watch it every day."

Obligatory xkcd: New Phone Thread

This one perhaps: https://m.xkcd.com/2006/

Relevent XKCD

Please do not engage publicly (or privately) with customers in a negative manner. This is a big "no-no", and can result in a negative outcome, similar to this one.

I agree that firing could be excessive, but it is still within the bounds of how HR can approach these issues.

If you are worried about someone being wrong in the internet, remember the xkcd:
https://xkcd.com/386/

It is not your job to fix the internet.

Well, by YELLING random WORDS like PROVEN and REAL I am convinced.

Nothing to see here.

What ever happened to ignoring stuff you don't agree with.

You forgot a question mark there, mate.

A lot of today's generation have always got to have the last word regardless.

This has always been the case. Expecially on the internet.

On another note, I frankly don't care a whit about this spat, it playing out on twatter, or whatever else. But looking at it from the summary (you didn't expect me to RTFA or TF twatter barf, did you?) it looks like the whole self-victimisation through gender backfired wonderfully on the perpetrator here. Even if it took a (male) boss going a bit hysterical in return. Though he certainly didn't discriminate on gender, firing both a girl and a boy over being twats in public on company time.

These sorts of stories come up fairly regularly here on Slashdot. And, each time they do, it reminds me of the classic XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/927/

This doesn’t just apply to no-name indie developers... the good folks at Google are some of the worst offenders in this regard.

We should build a language better than all others one... soon https://xkcd.com/927/

Ah! That explains today's XKCD comic.

Bring Back the 'Away' Message -- not answering the phone

I was going to mention that. My cell phone insists on ringing during a call, temporarily interrupting it. That's a "call alert" or some such nonsense. I can disable it by dialing a prefix Every Single Time I call out but doesn't disable on answering a call.

I called the company (Verizon) about disabling this feature. "It's just a feature added into my phone's feature-set. No extra charge." "Can I get it removed?" No, but it's a free feature." "Can I *PAY* for it to be removed?" "No, we can't do that."

If there's a busy signal, there's a pretty good chance I'm busy on the phone. Imagine that! If it rings and rings, there's a good chance I'm not at home. Or maybe in the bathroom, or maybe out of earshot, or maybe I've got laryngitis. Where did all of this "online, every time, all of the time" thing COME from, anyway? I'm NOT online all of the time, and even if I were I'm doing something. If I'm not talking to you, then I'm doing something else -- surprise! Leave me a message / email / SMS and I'll get back to you.

Obligitory XKCD.

I'll bet it's Tommy Wiseau!

Right. See this XKCD cartoon.

What they show is that the mortality rate is bounded, and thus, there is always a small chance of survival. There is never 100% chance of dying during in year.

They built a model based on extrapolating to infinity from a very tiny plateau in a very tiny data set which I showed was totally wrong using data from a different country and that doesn't pass the sniff test.

As a biologist, I find nothing medically ridiculous until proven otherwise. Aging is something that is not well understood excepted on /.

Ah, the people who failed math, statistics and logic in general. Let me try to dumb it down, if a 106yo would have the same mortality rate as a 105yo then all other things being equal it would mean that no part of the body is worse off than last year. A 106yo heart is as good as a 105yo heart, 106yo lungs are as good as 105yo lungs, 106yo kidneys as good as 105yo kidneys, 106yo bones as strong as 105yo bones. It would basically mean that there's no wear and tear, no weakening of the immune system, no accumulation of faulty cells, waste products or toxins - basically no bodily decay at all. It goes against everything we know about aging in <105yos, aging in other species or even basic product reliability - more and more parts wear out and risk breaking.

I think I'm probably a psychopath; but I haven't killed enough people to tell.

if you've actually considered the possibility that you're a psychopath then you probably aren't one.

If you want some (virtual!) practice though, play Yandere Simulator or at least watch some YouTube videos. You can learn all types of useful things!

Needless to say, this is obviously just a game, not indicative of real life -- unless you start seeing 2D characters around you.

Also, we want to think that "we're" always in control, but if we get stressed out enough (think enough repressed aggravation and hate morphed into rage) I think the lower brain comes into play and subverts things. So you "always" control your feelings and actions, but they suddenly and literally control you, so your conscious and planning mind flips to solving the imperative panic response problems. Legal, moral, and ethical ideas all be dammed, adrenaline solves the immediate problem; the next breath can take care of itself.

This is partly what I think is wrong with schools -- teach Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic, basic health, math, and budgeting skills, along with self-control (And Hell, maybe that includes dealing with bullies.) You WANT it now, you don't NEED it now. That cookie, doughnut, movie can wait. That new car can wait if you still have a beat-up working one. We all have to get along with others, although sometimes you just have to agree to disagree and minimize contact. You are NOT always right, listen to opposing views, realize they might have a point as well.

That works BOTH WAYS though, they need to listen to you. Demonizing them (those INHUMAN monsters!) and completely shutting them out doesn't help anyone. I was shocked to see the mandatory XKCD cartoon here in a discussion. If he's right -- if everyone's completely made up their mind and not ever talking or listening to each other -- we're lost. (BF: we'll all hang separately.) Zealots are one thing, discussion is another. And "civility is white privilege" -- oh my God, if you tarnish the golden rule (completely ignoring religion) then you really ARE evil. If "Strength is Justice" then snipers rule.

To clarify this using an "old conflict": angels and demons all fight for what's "right" -- but I imagine in their own mind they think THEY'RE 100% right and it's the OTHER group contains the demons.

So which side are you on again? Are you sure?

Oh, and one final group that actually wants to kill me, that I know of -- extreme Muslims. I'm an atheist and either I'll submit, or die. Or so I understand. I don't like religion and hate extreme anything, but I don't think the extreme Buddhists, Wiccans, and Christians literally want to kill me while the Muslims do. I could be wrong but haven't found any evidence yet. (And I haven't looked THAT much, and one article/comment in either direction isn't enough.)

Relevant XKCD

Holy crap, a 50% increase in death by blogging!

Relevant XKCD

https://xkcd.com/384/

There probably are several new medicines that will cure or alleviate symptoms for all manner of things developed each month. Sometimes the news is a bit premature as the drug hasn't even been tried in humans yet. Once further testing is done some of these are found to cause all manner of nasty side effects, some worse than what they cure. Sometimes the FDA approves it anyhow if the side effects don't appear to be life threatening, even as off-putting as they may be.

This inevitable increase in use of alternative energy is never taken into account by climate models that assume an ever increasing generation of CO2.

No that's yoyu making shit up to fit your agenda.

Look at the future extrapolation bit:

https://xkcd.com/1732/

yes, it is sourced.

but sadly that is not how the world works any longer, no one wants real data,

At least you're honest!

https://xkcd.com/810/

https://xkcd.com/538/

/Oblg. xckd 538

If the earth were a point mass with no atmosphere, then yes one would need cancel the orbital velocity in order to allow the object to simply fall.

The point mass approximation is important and useful because it's used for determining the orbit of orbiting bodies. It fails completely when you talk about de-orbit from LEO. IIS is 254 miles above the earth, which 8,000 miles across. Meaning from LEO earth is nothing like a far off point, it fills the entire downward side of your view, much like it does when you view the earth from 50 feet up. It's very much not a point mass. The illustrations in this xkcd make the point clear (the author is a former NASA physicist):
https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

Having that out of the way, let's look at de-orbiting from LEO, which is orbit in the upper atmosphere (thermosphere). We know that in space, there is no air resistance, so if you fire a projectile it will keep going forever until it hits something. The range of a .22 gun, fired in space, is approximately infinite.

We also know that the lower the orbit, the faster it has to be, in order to move sideways fast enough to turn the downward fall into a arc around the mass. As you mentioned, to orbit at LEO, you have to go extremely fast. If you go a little too slow, you'll fall slightly, which will put you at an altitude which requires higher velocity for orbit. You'll then be even more deficient in orbital velocity for the lower orbit, which will cause you to fall faster, spiraling downward in a vicious cycle. In other words, getting to orbit is hard. If you fail to do the hard thing (orbit), you de-orbit. Meaning de-orbit is easy - just slow down a little bit and let gravity take make over.

Once you get to about 50-80 miles above the earth, you run into air resistance, which slows you pretty quickly. Remember the more your orbital speed is reduced, the faster you fall (technically, the more you fail to counteract the fall with sideways motion).

So from LEO at 254 miles, we can de-orbit in two different ways, or both at the same time. If we're used to thinking of the earth as a point mass, we can fire our projectile retrograde to slow it down a bit. That'll mean it's no longer at the correct orbital velocity, and will gradually spiral down. If we notice that earth's (denser) atmosphere is only 200 miles away, we can fire at it. US ships have guns that can fire *through air* sixty miles. Our pistol can fire a million miles through space. Traversing the 200 miles of space to get to air below isn't terribly difficult.

Obligatory... What If?

It was similar to one of the question sent to XKCD : "What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?"

https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/

It is for the LHC, but it could be adapted...

There's a technology that is better now at detecting certain types of tumours in images than radiologists.

In one, carefully curated study. When doctors start actually being replaced by that technology, we can say it's better, but for now all we have is a preliminary study. Here is just one of many reasons it matters.