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User: tirerim

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  1. Re:Sources of improvements? on A.I. Advances Through Deep Learning · · Score: 1

    from TFA

    " Modern artificial neural networks are composed of an array of software components, divided into inputs, hidden layers and outputs. The arrays can be “trained” by repeated exposures to recognize patterns like images or sounds.

    These techniques, aided by the growing speed and power of modern computers, have led to rapid improvements in speech recognition, drug discovery and computer vision. "

    Sounds like both.

    Well, that doesn't say anything; that just described every neural network for the past couple of decades, except for the "rapid improvement" part. I haven't read TFA, so I don't know if there's more detail, but just describing the basics of how neural networks operate isn't an explanation for why they're suddenly improving.

  2. Re:why on Ask Slashdot: Geekiest Way To Cook a Turkey? · · Score: 1

    My mother is a (retired) computer science professor and my father is a (retired) mathematician. I'm pretty sure that they would get into the geeky cooking as much as I would.

  3. "Earth"-shaking? on What "Earth-Shaking" Discovery Has Curiosity Made on Mars? · · Score: 1, Informative

    Mars-shaking seems much more likely than Earth-shaking, really.

  4. It's easy with an IDE on Does Coding Style Matter? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At my workplace, we just all plug the same code style settings into our IDEs, and everyone's code gets formatted the same way automatically. And yes, it matters: having everyone's code formatted the same way makes it much easier to read.

  5. Not in Philadelphia on Another EUSecWest NFC Trick: Ride the Subway For Free · · Score: 2

    Nice try, there's no chance this would work in Philadelphia -- they're still using tokens. (And magstripe for monthly/weekly passes, but definitely no NFC.)

  6. AlphaSmart or equivalent on Ask Slashdot: Teaching Typing With Limited Electricity, Computers? · · Score: 1

    Seems like a bunch of AlphaSmarts or equivalent would work pretty well -- they seem to be available for about $50 used. I learned to type on something very much like that in elementary school, though I have no idea what brand they were, just that they were red and had some simple typing games. They worked very well: I'm a pretty fast tough typist as a result.

  7. Re:Cost/Benefit Analysis on California's Unspoken Health Problem: Brain Parasites · · Score: 1

    You're not thinking about this the right way. Currently $13m is being spent annually on very expensive treatments for a very small number of people. Imagine if some of that money were instead spent on prevention, which according to TFA only costs a few hundred dollars per case if it's caught before it becomes severe. That means more money for treating more common ailments, not less.

  8. Re:Oh come on! on California's Unspoken Health Problem: Brain Parasites · · Score: 1

    Literally no one in recorded history has ever been killed by a meteorite. California has had a grand total of nine fatal shark attacks since 1926, so you're pretty safe on that count, too. You might still be right that tapeworms aren't that serious a problem, but you're way off base in your comparisons.

  9. Re:My response on Ask Slashdot: What's Your Take On Stand-Up Desks? · · Score: 1

    And just because it's not all volunteers doesn't mean anyone is getting rich off of it. I work for a small nonprofit, about fifteen employees total, and our combined compensation, including our president, is less than Brian Gallagher's. The president's salary is about twice what mine is as a developer.

  10. Re:Added home utility on Color Printing Reaches Its Ultimate Resolution · · Score: 1

    Just to nitpick, lens flare has nothing to do with film vs. digital sensors: it's entirely due to the optics.

  11. Re:Type 1 vs type 2 diabetes on Human Stem Cell Transplants Successfully Reversed Diabetes In Mice · · Score: 1

    You're a little off (as is TFA): in type 1 diabetes, the beta cells are actually killed off by the immune system. That also means that transplanting in new beta cells is only half of the solution, even if they're genetically identical to the person's original beta cells, because you also need to stop the immune system from attacking the new cells. In TFA, the mice had suppressed immune systems, but current immunosuppression drugs are pretty nasty, and cause a lot of other problems, worse than the original disease in all but the most severe cases.

  12. Re:Fantasy on Ask Slashdot: Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy For Kids? · · Score: 1

    Yep, those are both excellent (well, if you skip The Last Battle...). While we're talking about great children's fantasy series, I'll also add The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.

    Also, pretty much anything by Bruce Coville; he has both fantasy and SF. There's the "My Teacher is an Alien" series, the Unicorn Chronicles, "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher", and lots of others.

  13. Re:Sensationalized article on Black Death Discovered In Oregon · · Score: 1

    That article says that the recovered genome is "remarkably similar to that of the present-day bacterium". Note that it does not say "identical". It also says, "The changes in the genome will be studied one by one to see how each affects the microbe’s virulence." So there have definitely been changes, and the jury is still out on whether they are significant.

  14. Sensationalized article on Black Death Discovered In Oregon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, he contracted septicaemic plague, the blood-borne form of Yersinia pestis. That doesn't mean he contracted "the Black Death". The Black Death was almost certainly caused by a variant of Y. pestis which is no longer around (microorganisms tend to change a bit over the course of a few centuries). It's also the name of a specific pandemic of plague, and while there were other smaller outbreaks in the following centuries, they weren't generally referred to by that name. One human case of a disease that is now treatable with antibiotics and easy to contain does not make for a pandemic.

  15. Re:Would be nice if it wasn't a memory hog on Adobe Releases Sandboxed Flash Player For Firefox · · Score: 1

    Give him a break: it's impressive enough that he managed to cram in 512 MB, given that the 6502 can only address 64 kB of memory. And he even got Flash to run on it! Quite astounding for a 30-year-old CPU.

  16. Re:Is it possible to just leave? on TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump · · Score: 1

    Still probably better than taking the risk of forfeiting my $5,500 insulin pump. The warranty is pretty good, but I'm not sure it covers acts of idiot federal employees.

  17. Re:Is it possible to just leave? on TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump · · Score: 1

    I guess you never flew before 2001. The old system was private security, and they did a much better job of it: just as safe (don't tell me that the TSA is any better at preventing people from bringing things like box cutters on, because they aren't), with much less hassle.

  18. Re:Is it possible to just leave? on TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, they're not proof against x-rays, either, and I've also been warned against going through a backscatter x-ray scanner with it. If they really forced me to go through one, I would try to get them to do a manual inspection of just the pump, but if they refuse to do that then there aren't any options left aside from not getting on the plane.

  19. Is it possible to just leave? on TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump · · Score: 2

    Once you enter the security line, is it possible to just leave and not get on your flight if they refuse to do a manual search? Or are you at their complete mercy? I've never had a problem getting one with my own pump, but this story makes me nervous.

    In any case, I really hope she sues them and wins.

    P.S. This is probably a good time to mention Rand Paul's End the TSA petition and bill. I'm not usually a big fan of him, but this is one thing I can get behind.

  20. Re:All my old photos are faded on Ask Slashdot: Best Option For Printing Digital Photos? · · Score: 1

    How were you storing those prints? They survive best if you protect them from heat and light, and ideally acids and oxygen as well.

  21. Adoramapix on Ask Slashdot: Best Option For Printing Digital Photos? · · Score: 2

    Go to Adoramapix.com. They're a serious photography shop, so you can actually get your pictures to look the way you expect instead of with random color and contrast changes (which is my experience with other services). (They also offer a free "enhancement" service, but I haven't tried it.) Not quite as cheap as some of the other places out there, but still pretty reasonable, and they offer bulk discounts: 4x6s are currently $0.24 each, or $0.22 for over 100, or $0.1952 for over 1000 (you can buy a bunch in advance and get them printed over time).

  22. Re:The studios send reel-to-reel films to the troo on WW2 Vet Sent 300,000 Pirated DVDs To Troops In Iraq, Afghanistan · · Score: 1

    "Digital distribution" from Hollywood to movie theaters isn't over the internet -- they're sent on hard drives. (Remember, the movies you see in theaters are much higher resolution than the ones you see at home.) That's still a lot easier than sending reels of film around, though.

  23. Re:Big waves on Scientific Cruise Meets Perfect Storm, Inspires Extreme Wave Research · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA is talking about waves in the open ocean, though. Waves get higher when they reach shallower water, so the 20 m waves you're talking about would have been significantly smaller in the open ocean -- which makes 29 m open ocean waves that much more impressive.

  24. Re:Balance on 30 Blu-ray Discs In a 1.5TB MiniDisc-Like Cassette · · Score: 1

    That depends -- how fast does the dye degrade? Blu-Ray discs are supposed to last longer than CD or DVD, but given that those can degrade after only a few years, I still wouldn't be too confident about this format lasting long enough to be considered archival.

  25. 15,000-20,000 what? on Boeing Preparing an Ultra-Secure Smartphone · · Score: 2

    15,000 to 20,000 dollars? If so, seriously? Does that just factor in R&D to develop the software for a very small number of phones, or is there some other reason why they should be so expensive?