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User: cheetah_spottycat

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  1. More informative article with pictures on Welding Glass To Metal Is Now Possible Using An Ultrafast Laser System, Researchers Report (phys.org) · · Score: 1

    If you want to know how the actual welds look like, here you go: https://www.lasersystemseurope...

  2. Re:If you didn’t get motion sickness you wil on Alaska Airlines Trials Virtual Reality On Some Flights (pcmag.com) · · Score: 1

    The opposite is the case. I've used my Oculus Go on a plane, and it's actually LESS nausea inducing, since the VR headset tracks your movement relative to the ground, and not to the plane. So if the plane banks and turns, the horizon in VR stays parallel to the REAL horizon, actually eliminating one of the causes of motion sickness on planes.

  3. Re:What about a FPS with Valve as the target? on Valve Will Stop Removing Controversial Games on Steam Unless They Are 'Illegal or Straight up Trolling' (geekwire.com) · · Score: 1

    I think that would fall square into the "outright trolling" category.

  4. Re:REALITY CHECK on 'Call For a Ban On Child Sex Robots' (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Yeah, only that Samatha (second article) is not a robot. It's a completely immobile sex doll with a couple of touch sensors. And it's a private project a "spanish dude" built, so absolutely not a product of any kind. The Real Doll app (and yes, it's really only a phone app at this point) comes slightly closer when coupled with the animated doll head, but that is far from being a product yet, too. McMullen will only sell the app as a doll accessory, any kind of animated features are far off in the future of his roadmap. Both are currently as much of a robot as Siri and Alexa are robots.

  5. REALITY CHECK on 'Call For a Ban On Child Sex Robots' (bbc.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sex robots do not exist, and likely will not exist for quite some time. Child sex robots are a hypothetical niche in a field that is entirely hypothetical at this point. This guy is trying to stir up a hypothetical moral panic about a hypothetical niche in a hypothetical genre that does not exist. The whole debate is as far removed from reality as it could possibly be. It's science-fiction at best, purely made up bullshit at worst. Don't these guys have anything else to do? Makes you wonder what the real agenda is.

  6. Re:Who needs a movie soundtrack? on For Video Soundtracks, Computers Are the New Composers (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    That's like asking "Humans don't need wheels for walking, so why do cars need them for driving?" It's a different medium that uses different forms of expression.

  7. Re:Digital Rights? on W3C Erects DRM As Web Standard (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if you can sell a product and set terms of use at all.

    Then how can licenses like the GPL work?

  8. Re:Unattended workstation is an endangered species on New Office Sensors Know When You Leave Your Desk (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    The rift has OLED screens that will suffer from burn-in if you leave them on with a static image being shown. It is literally a screen saver, and has nothing to do with restricting the user.

  9. Re:Yes, that's why I tell them on Study Shows Wearable Sensors Can Tell When You Are Getting Sick (phys.org) · · Score: 2

    You're living in Europe, right? In the USA, a different kind of capitalism rules, and there are quite a few dystopian scenarios that I can come up with, if that kind of monitoring is not strictly regulated by privacy laws. On a company wide level, the aggregate health level becomes another key performance indicator. Your employed can and will analyze just how sick their workforce can be before productivity drops. Workload can now be increased and work conditions / safety standards lowered until that sweet spot is reached where profit is maximized. On an individual level, your biodata can not only show if you're sick, it can also calculate the risk of you becoming sick, or maybe even predict it. That is very convenient. If your employer knows you're going go drop out of work in two weeks, the human resources department has enough time to hire a replacement for you, and fire you just in time your absence might cause them a loss in productivity. On top of that, your health data will likely not be collected by your employer, but by some kind of third party. And not only will they closely cooperate with anyone else with who is interested in putting a score on your health (foremost your insurances), but also future employers. Which will of course mean, that this will primarily hit poor workers, who can't afford the best healthcare. And I could go on like that. Maybe I should write a novel :) Worst case:

  10. The real reason for the digitalization on Norway To Become First Country To Switch Off FM Radio (reuters.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... is monetization. They can sell more channel licenses, encrypt their radio streams, and sell paid subscriptions. This is the beginning of the end of free radio.

  11. Re:Don't forget about the War on Drugs. on Are Psychiatric Medications Hurting More Patients Than They Help? (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1

    A lot of medication takes up to three weeks to show any effect, and sudden changes in dosage can wreak havoc on your neurochemistry, and possibly make things much, much worse. Also, in case of clinical depression for example, you want to prevent the next episode. When it's already there (and that come very quickly), and you're already standing on the bridge ready to jump, so to speak, it's unlikely you're going to be motivated to take your medicine. There's a joke that goes, "There's that new book "The power of positive thinking". I didn't buy it, because what would that be good for.". That sounds funny, but captures a depressive mindset rather well.

  12. Could A 'Smart Firewall' Protect IoT Devices? on Ask Slashdot: Could A 'Smart Firewall' Protect IoT Devices? · · Score: 1

    Could A 'Smart Firewall' Protect IoT Devices? No. "Smart" firewalls are in fact the problem. Getting rid of them, and using regular non-smart firewalls that only allow incoming connections when you explicitly and manually configured them to do so can protect your IoT devices.

  13. Re:Ideally a manifest/profile from IoT makers... on Ask Slashdot: Could A 'Smart Firewall' Protect IoT Devices? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is called UPNP, and is exactly the problem why so many devices are reachable through the internet while their owners don't suspect a thing.

  14. Nothing to see here, move along. on There Are Some Super Shady Things In Oculus Rift's Terms of Service (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The terms of service are almost identical to those of, for example, Steam. Which is also "always on" by default. And nobody seems to have a problem with it. So could we please be rational, and stop pretending that Oculus is doing anything special here? And a lot of clauses highlighted in the article are pure boilerplate, and actually required for the service being allowed to publish, for example, your reviews or your screenshots. Yes, you can raise privacy concerns, but you would have to do so against any software storefront that lives in your system tray. This is worth discussing, but it is definitely nothing "Super Shady". And if you want to put on your HMD, and instantly see your home screen (or hit the xbox button on your controller), there needs to be some background service watching. The same goes for notifications / multiplayer invites / chat requests. You don't want that? Go to System Settings/Administrative Tools/Services, select "Oculus VR Runtime" and hit "stop". There, it's gone.

  15. Re:Ever killed a poacher? on Game About Killing Poachers Vies For Top Prize In Microsoft Student Tech Contest · · Score: 4, Funny

    That sounds pretty much like Far Cry 4.

  16. Re:Not just a GUI toolkit on Qt 5.5 Released · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up! The value of Qt as at a cross-platform c++ platform / enhancement is much undervalued. It is so much more than just part of a Desktop Environiment and the GUI Toolkit reallky is just a small part.

  17. We have already answered the question. on Should a Service Robot Bring an Alcoholic a Drink? · · Score: 2

    Apparently it's perfectly fine to send killer robots to murder random unwanted people around the globe at the command of a single person with no parliamental control, no charges, no sentence, no judges, no jury, no defense and against all governing international laws. But serving alcohol to its owner is a problem because, oh my god, it might not be healthy? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

  18. Re:Who are you? I'm bat- er, ANON! on Anonymous Asks Activists To Fight Pedophiles In 'Operation Deatheaters' · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, it's not. The slippery slope is where the legal definition got extended so much beyond the clinical definition that it no longer makes any sense by any rational criteria in an alarming number of cases it is applied to. Before we go out on the street and call for a witch hunt, the common definition of "pedophilia" needs to be reformed, so that it again means actual child abuse, and neither "12 year old boys discover their sexuality like everyone else did during puperty" nor "17 year old girlfriend sends naughty pictures to 18 year old boyfriend" or any completely normal, consensual and non-threatening behaviour in between. Free those resources to fight actual child abuse, and we don't need self-appointed trigger happy internet superheroes with torches and pitchforks who think who need to take the law into their own hands.

  19. Re:Think of the children! on Anonymous Asks Activists To Fight Pedophiles In 'Operation Deatheaters' · · Score: 1

    I agree! Let's replace our judicial system and its ineffective division of powers with full on witch hunt! I think my neighbour is one, too. Fuck due process, let's burn down his house! Here, want a torch? Or are you with the witches?

  20. Demo Scene on YouTube Opens Up 60fps To Everyone · · Score: 3, Funny

    I really hope, people are going to re-upload all those C64 and Amiga demos that just stutter like hell in 25/30fps in their original 50/60fps glory!

  21. Re:Faith in God on Site of 1976 "Atomic Man" Accident To Be Cleaned · · Score: 1

    That is 50% better than blindly trusting in the god of your choice.

  22. Re:Why is this so difficult? on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    I absolutely agree! Just in case that wasn't obvious from my posting :)

  23. Re:Why is this so difficult? on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are many known painless and very effective ways of killing a human being. For example, suffocation with Nitrogen gas. It will cause a state of euphoria, then unconsciousness, then death. No pain, dead simple (pun not intended), and 100% success rate. It's a no-brainer. Or a simple, massive overdose of pretty much any anesthetic will do. It does not take complicated mixtures. But it would mean, your convict would die "happy". And that thought would be too much to bear for the victims. The death penalty is not about justice. It is about revenge. It is designed to be gruesome, the suffering is intentional. The deliquent is no longer considered a human being, and the pig deserves to suffer. It seems to be consensus even here on slashdot.

  24. Re:Time to move into the Century of the fruit bat. on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    Why does the US still even have the Death penalty?

    It's all about revenge. The american people are thirsty for blood. It's a dark truth that watching people die can be very satisfying, once you've been relieved from the burden of conscience.

  25. Re:Punishment fits the crime on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    Well, if you want to go full-on medieval, let's do it properly and just implent the sharia. Slowly poisoning someone to death ... or stoning them. What is the difference? Yes, the stoning is the more honest option.