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  1. Re:Lack of compatibility is why I don't like Pytho on Twelve Malicious Python Libraries Found and Removed From PyPI (zdnet.com) · · Score: 2

    You must be doing it wrong. I have literally never had python break due to versioning.

  2. Re:Not sure what country you're in on Authors of Controversial 'Seattle Minimum Wage' Study Revise Their Conclusions (bloombergquint.com) · · Score: 1

    So what you're saying is that a tax cut now would be the ultimate in stupid?

  3. Re:Wonder what happens when you look at numbers on Authors of Controversial 'Seattle Minimum Wage' Study Revise Their Conclusions (bloombergquint.com) · · Score: 1

    Yes, 3.0% unemployment is BETTER than 3.1% unemployment.

    I haven't done much healing this week, but that's just because my only 'injury' was a small bruise on my elbow. There simply wasn't much healing for me to do.

  4. Re:The rest of the problem on Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Will Now Plead Guilty To Dozens More Swat Incidents (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's plenty of blame to go around. The person who deserves none though is the guy who was just looking to see what all the commotions was about and probably died wondering who the police were talking to and why they were in his neighborhood.

  5. Re:The rest of the problem on Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Will Now Plead Guilty To Dozens More Swat Incidents (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Says the guy who's been in thousands of gunfights (on his game console in the basement).

  6. Re:How fucked up is America to let this happen? on Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Will Now Plead Guilty To Dozens More Swat Incidents (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Be shot with WHAT? A dirty look? Unarmed citizen in the open vs squad of well armed body armored cops standing behind their cars.

    And he probably couldn't hear their instructions.

    Keep in mind, you may be the turkey the next time a squad of cops opens fire. It's not like you have to actually be doing anything even vaguely questionable to end up in their crosshairs.

  7. Re:...state-sanctioned hit squads... on Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Will Now Plead Guilty To Dozens More Swat Incidents (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The police had cause to come to the house, they had a call for help and the caller provided an address.

    Absolutely. Then they had a call to wonder why the house didn't match the description, why the call didn't actually come in on 911, why the guy at the door seems confused, etc. Too bad they failed that one. Next up, they had the number one rule of shooting, VERIFY YOUR TARGET. They get an EPIC FAIL on that one.

    I don't think it's at all too much to ask that police think before they start shooting so they don't kill people minding their own business in their own homes.

  8. Re:Wonder what happens when you look at numbers on Authors of Controversial 'Seattle Minimum Wage' Study Revise Their Conclusions (bloombergquint.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And yet Seattle is still doing better than Portland. Portland only had a larger recovery because it was worse off.

    Your logic suggests that if you stub your toe, you should break your femur with a hammer so you can have a bigger recovery./

    Fuzzy headed thinking like that would be really really funny except that it needlessly increases suffering in the world.

  9. Re: Ghosts are what kills you. Touching ghosts is on IBM Researchers Teach Pac-Man To Do No Harm (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    The power pills still have strategic value when you don't want to eat the ghosts.

  10. Re:Of Printers and Cars on Tech To Blame For Ever-Growing Car Repair Costs, AAA Says (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    If you're taking a loss to compete with the aftermarket, you're just inefficient since they are surely not taking a loss.

  11. Since I don't have a time machine to fix your being apparently raised by wolves, I'll just mention that they also mis-quoted the only named expert and they haven't even managed to show us a picture of an affected board (they did, however, show us utterly useless pictures of generic un-hacked boards and a harmless signal conditioner in order to leave the impression that they had presented photographic evidence).

  12. Re:Ghosts are what kills you. Touching ghosts is b on IBM Researchers Teach Pac-Man To Do No Harm (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    Do read TFA again. They did multiple runs with different emphasis on having the AI emulate the human player who avoided ghosts.

  13. Re:Nope, just simplifies optimum. Ghosts are bad. on IBM Researchers Teach Pac-Man To Do No Harm (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    It goes beyond that. In your suggested scenario, it would be neutral to eat a ghost. What they actually trained was that eating ghosts is bad. That is, it learns to not do that even though it would result in a higher score.

  14. Re: I fail to see what this has to do with ethics on IBM Researchers Teach Pac-Man To Do No Harm (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's the point. There are plenty of real world cases where we could be more efficient if we simply disregarded moral and ethical concerns. One of the concerns with machine learning is that they may find an optimal solution that violates ethical considerations. The problem is even larger when you consider an AI finding locally optimal solutions disregarding externalities.

    For a classic example, Ford once determined that paying off expected damages in wrongful death suits would be slightly cheaper than refitting existing Pintos to not explode.

    The Pac-Man simulation is a very simplified version of a case where, due to ethical considerations it is necessary to avoid the locally optimal solution.

  15. Re:Anecdotal data warning! on Lavender's Soothing Scent Could Be More Than Just Folk Medicine (nytimes.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Given the study in TFA and the anecdotal report from OP, perhaps she's smarter than you too.

  16. Re:Am I the only one on Lavender's Soothing Scent Could Be More Than Just Folk Medicine (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    You should try the actual essential oil to decide. Perhaps lavender really isn't for you, or perhaps cheap fake lavender is just crap. I find many things that supposedly smell "just like" actual flowers smell terrible and irritating while the actual essential oil and the flowers themselves smell good to me.

  17. Re:Prior Study on Lavender's Soothing Scent Could Be More Than Just Folk Medicine (nytimes.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    The study in TFA was more in-depth and thorough. It's rare for a single study to provide all of the answers to all of the questions with complete certainty. For example, the current study looked at the mechanism for the effect rather than simply determining that an effect existed.

  18. Re:We already know scents can have physical effect on Lavender's Soothing Scent Could Be More Than Just Folk Medicine (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    RTFA! This isn't just about the smell being relaxing, the research delves into WHY the smell is relaxing.

  19. C) Actually pay attention to performance when developing and make it possible to turn off resource heavy new features.

    D) Adopt a tiered system like Debian where Stable only gets bug fixes and perhaps backports.

    Add in user replaceable batteries or at least make it easy for a moderately skilled tech to do it without crazy special tools or resorting to grey market parts.

  20. Re: Did they put in spin loop on sleep()? on In First Ruling of Its Kind, Apple and Samsung Fined For Deliberately Slowing Down Old Phones (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Given the time frame, it's more like you installed SP3 on your screaming XP machine and performance went to hell.

    The other half of the complaint is that they offered the users no way back. So you installed SP3 on your screaming XP machine and performance tanked. But, Surprise, there's no way to go back.

  21. Re:Enter AI? on Prank Calls Brought ICE Hotline To a Standstill, Internal Emails Show (theverge.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The whole protest was just to clog the phone lines, not get ICE dispatched. Do try to keep up.

  22. Make a complaint that is plausible but not actionable. "Some guy with dark skin was laughing loudly outside Home Depot, I think he might be Mexican".

  23. Re:I think Oracle sees the writing on the wall... on Amazon's Move Off Oracle Caused Prime Day Outage in One of its Biggest Warehouses, Internal Report Says (cnbc.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oracle has simply overplayed their hand. For years, they have used the intrinsic difficulty of migrating as a tool to keep customers on-board in spite of constant abuse.

    They finally tightened the thumb screws one turn too tight and their customers have decided that the intrinsic pain of migration is less than the pain of staying with Oracle.

  24. Re:This is a terrible idea on Feds Shut Down Self-Driving School Bus Pilot In Florida · · Score: 1

    The point is that for a school bus, they will never not need adult supervision, so schoolbus is a poor target for automation in any case.

  25. Re:The SJWs Are Already Attacking The Project on SQLite Adopts 'Monastic' Code of Conduct (sqlite.org) · · Score: 1

    Could we get back to that? It was terribly silly but it was harmless.