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User: Cobble

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Comments · 15

  1. Woz innovation on Woz Worries Microsoft Is Now More Innovative Than Apple · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has been more innovative than the Woz since about 1986 ;)

  2. brick and mortar on Walmart Abandons Amazon's Kindle Lineup · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Amazon should just buy the ailing Best Buy franchise and then they have instant brick and mortar storefronts all across America. Apparently, many people already go to Best Buy to touch the merchandise before they go online to buy it at Amazon anyway ;)

  3. Re:kids are worried ... on High School Students Sue Federal Gov't Over Global Warming · · Score: 0

    Nothing happened? We came very, very close to a nuclear war with the Russians, and atomic proliferation is in such a state that rogue nations and terrorists are increasingly likely to use a nuke. We are already in the midst of the greatest extinction of life since the end of the Cretaceous, when the dinosaurs went extinct. That is a measurable fact, and it's also human caused.

  4. A few thoughts on Positive Bias Could Erode Public Trust In Science · · Score: 1

    1) This is all part of the process, and shouldn't be too much cause for concern. Interesting results will be re-tested for confirmation. If these results can't be replicated, it casts doubt on the original study and the reputation of the authors. Negative results are rarely published except when they challenge a prior paper with a positive result. 2) The citation index is another way that bad data gets ignored. The average citation for a paper is less than 1. This means that most papers are never cited and a few good ones are cited heavily. It is true that if wrong ideas become generally accepted, they may remain in the literature unchallenged for some time and can be hard to root out. 3) I suspect that research in biomedical and other highly profitable fields bias these results, since whenever there is huge money to be made, there is pressure for a positive finding. Many of these studies are even bankrolled by the drug companies who want to show that they have the next promising cure or, better yet, treatment--since if you cure someone, you lose your market ;) It's always good to look at who's funding the work.

  5. there's always another bastion on Last Bastion For Climate Dissenters Crumbling · · Score: 1

    When one "believes" something, no amount of data will convince him.

  6. turn the problem upside down on Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu Lockdown Options? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're looking for a technological solution to a pedagogical problem. Redesign the questions and let them have all the Internet access they want.

  7. skeptical on Facebook To Be 'Biggest Bank' By 2015 · · Score: 1

    I predict Facebook will be a bigger version of itself in 2015. Not a bank. Not a sparkly unicorn.

  8. correction on Amazon Kindle Fails First College Test · · Score: 1

    Correction: That's Seton Hill that will try the iPad, not Seton Hall, which is a different school.

  9. Re:Push them further away on Space Junk Getting Worse · · Score: 1

    We need the Matlock guy to get up there with Salvage 1 (remember that awful tv show?) and clean this mess up. But seriously, we should probably send up some unmanned garbage collection ship(s) to boost the stuff back into the atmosphere where it will *mostly* burn up on re-entry.

  10. Now how about killing IE 7 and 8? on YouTube To Kill IE6 Support On March 13 · · Score: 1

    Now how about killing IE 7 and 8?

  11. Do less evil. on Google Patents Country-Specific Content Blocking · · Score: 1

    Do no less evil.

  12. Re:Blackboard was hated before the patent issue on All 44 Blackboard Patent Claims Invalidated · · Score: 1

    Blackboard has been working harder on their monopoly building practices than on their software...they bought and then promptly shut down a small up-and-coming competitor called Prometheus, they bought their biggest competitor, WebCT, and managed to squeak by the anti-trust investigation. Then they sue Desire2Learn for infringing on their silly patents, mostly to drain this small innovative company's resources and weaken them. Even when they develop new products, the primary goal seems to be ripping off the intellectual property of others...Bb Scholar is a del.icio.us ripoff and SafeAssign gives away for free what the company TurnItIn has worked hard to develop. There have also been veiled threats made to the open source alternatives like Moodle and Sakai, crappy as they are. Blackboard is using Micro$oft tactics and never really expected to win these patents but rather to spread FUD among their competitors.

  13. Ministry of Truth on Newmark Denies Craigslist Is Killing Newspapers · · Score: 1

    The last good reason to keep newspapers around is that the news can't be revised. Once it goes to print, that's it. You can't go back and say "Oh, we never said invading Iraq was about WMD. It was about installing democracy. Oh we never said it was about installing democracy. It was about bringing the war to the terrorists. Oh, we never said that...

  14. Who cares? on Newmark Denies Craigslist Is Killing Newspapers · · Score: 1

    Save a tree. Read your news online.

  15. ass-uh-nine on Nova Scotia to Build Space Tourist Launchpad · · Score: 1

    This is one of the stupidist ideas I've heard of. I spent the first half of my life in Cape Breton, and I can tell you that it is the jewel of eastern Canada. Would you put a spaceport in Cape Cod? How about Cape May, N.J.? Cape Breton has scenic beauty and tourism potential that is unrivaled. The Bras d'or Lakes, the Cabot Trail, the Fortress of Louisbourg are world class destinations. The last thing I want is astronaut parts raining down on the Mira River.