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User: Palmyst

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Comments · 81

  1. You mean the Sun's spot production has been .... on Of Late, Fewer Sunspots Than Usual · · Score: 4, Funny

    a little spotty?

  2. If you can listen, you can save on Would You Rent a Song For a Dime? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you can listen, you can save, and it won't be long before a hack for that is posted on slashdot.

  3. United Kingdom? on Six Degrees of Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    Legacy of the colonial era, no doubt.

  4. Why wouldn't there be disjoint partitions? on Six Degrees of Wikipedia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ignoring obvious stuff like main page, index etc.. is it not possible that there could be two articles that are not in the same transitive closure at all?

  5. Patent it and sell it. on Using RFID Tags Around the House? · · Score: 1

    I've had the same thought. From TV remotes to your spectacles, there are lot of things that bear some tracking. No reason why it can't be a commercial product.

  6. The real surprise on Pentagon Manipulating TV Analysts · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is that the NYTimes did this analysis and published it. They had been as much a cheerleader for the war as anybody else.

  7. Anybody know what the "abuse" was? on Zap2It Labs Discontinuing Free TV Guide Service · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Their website does not explain. Is just using the data in MythTV, "abuse"?

  8. Cash can be stolen by employees on Is Cash No Longer Legal Tender? · · Score: 1

    Since cash doesn't leave a trail, unlike a check, and it is not made out to the intended payee, i.e. the business, it is much easier for employees to steal it and then claim the customer never made the payment.

    This is the reason businesses like this insist on checks and similar instruments. It is not some government mandated thing.

  9. How would you ban gerrymandering? on Redistricting Videogame Shows Problems in the System · · Score: 1

    Let us say you want to pass a state law or a national constitutional amendment that bars gerrymandering. How exactly would you word such a statute? It needs to remain flexible enough so that electoral districts can be changed in the future in response to population changes, but still not allow the "crazy shape" districts that are now common.

    Any ideas? Schwarzenneger's proposal simply moves the redistricting authority from the elected representatives to a panel of appointed jurists. This gets rid of the conflict of interest issue to some extent, but not entirely, since jurists will also have party affinities, probably coinciding with that of the appointer. We should instead look for some prescriptive changes to the redistricting geometry itself.

    My idea would be to say that districts should be drawn in such a way that the least number of smaller entities such as cities, towns or counties are split among them. For example, the law could prescribe that not more than one city, town, or county should be partially included in a district. I admit this is not a well thought out idea. It is something I am throwing out out there, and looking for new ideas from people.

    Maybe it is impossible. Maybe not. Let us discuss and figure out.

  10. Re:Internet commerce, but 90% goes to middlemen. on The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer · · Score: 1

    Hey buddy, look at your keyboard, look at your LCD, look down at your Nike shoes, you know how you paid a lot for them, I'll tell you a secret.... the poor guy who made them made only $2 a day!!! Yes, I understand that. That is why I specifically mentioned the fact that in this case, the whole thing happens on the internet. One would have thought that that would even out the playing field a bit, but I guess not.
  11. Astronaut Sets Female Space Record ... on Female Astronaut Sets Space Record · · Score: 2, Insightful

    is the more accurate headline.

  12. Internet commerce, but 90% goes to middlemen. on The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have no problem with some Chinese people making money off of selling "farmed gold" to rich gamers in the West, but the fact that more than 90% of what the customer pays goes to middlemen, rather than the "farmer", in a set of transactions conducted entirely on the internet is rather rankling.

  13. Can I take camera as carry on luggage? on Liquid Lens Can Magnify at the Flick of a Switch · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it contains liquid?

  14. God is Goatseing you. on Massive Cave Found on Mars · · Score: 1

    Don't ask me where His hands are. They are, of course, invisible.

  15. Meta-Cynicism on Tech Review Sites and Payola · · Score: 5, Funny

    How do we know daily tech did not take any payola from the reviewers surveyed?

  16. Hype - Second Law has not been repealed. on Turning Heat Into Sound Into Electricity · · Score: 1

    More stages of energy conversion = more waste. That is all.

  17. Meanwhile, Dell opens new R&D center in Bangal on Job Cuts For Dell, Motorola, and Circuit City · · Score: 5, Interesting

    May 31, 2007

    Dell inaugurated Thursday a new research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India, that can house up to 1,000 staff. The new facility is in line with Dell's plans to make India a hub for the development of enterprise products such as servers, storage, and software. Coincidence? Surely not.
  18. Re:Surveillance soceity. on Computers Outperform Humans at Recognizing Faces · · Score: 1

    As one of the researchers heavily involved in this field, I can say I don't. Several of the September 11th highjackers were already on watch lists, we knew they shouldn't be on planes, but they were using false identities. Working face recognition may have been able to prevent that tragedy as well as the wars that have resulted. Interesting isn't it, that nobody has yet suggested any other application than "security", which is just surveillance with the assurance that it will only be used against "the bad guys".
  19. A C compiler and a text editor on Germany Declares Hacking Tools Illegal · · Score: 1

    are also hacking tools. Are they banned now?

  20. Surveillance soceity. on Computers Outperform Humans at Recognizing Faces · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder whether these scientists lose any sleep over how their research advances will contribute to the future of our societies.

  21. Re:Expected Value on How to Keep Your Code From Destroying You · · Score: 1

    Good point. In my very long experience in this industry, the star programmers cobble something together as fast as possible without worrying about maintenance or documentation. What documentation there is is just the minimum that is needed for various members of the team to work together to make release 1.0, not something that will help future maintainers of the code very much. After release 1.0, they cash in their chips and move on to The New New Thing (yes, I am specifically referring to certain people in that book), and leave the system to be maintained by someone else with less cachet.

  22. Summary: Beginners need tips too. on How to Keep Your Code From Destroying You · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is suited for beginning programmers, I guess. Here is the summary of the tips.

    1. Comment smartly.
    2. Name your constants ("use #defines").
    3. Descriptive variable names, but not too long.
    4. Handle errors.
    5. Avoid premature optimization.
    6. Clarity is better than cleverness.

    The author may not be a beginning programmer, but it appears that he might be a beginning writer on programming.

  23. The gun is a lawsuit. on British Record Companies Win £41m In Damages · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The agreement was in response to the threat of a lawsuit.

  24. Aswathama hathaha (kunjarah) on Linux (Car) Crashes At Indy 500 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Balmer can now "honestly" say that Linux is the first to crash.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yudhishtira#Drona.27s _death

  25. Re:Belonging to a vigilant pack IS selfish. on The Drive For Altruism Is Hardwired · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What you are talking about is a reasoned decision to co-operate. That is a slow process and easily sabotaged by immediate concerns leading a tragedy of commons situation. The "altruism gene" makes co-operation a more deep seated and automatic process making survival that much more likely.