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User: Bob+the+Super+Hamste

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  1. Re:I'm Okay With It on US Mining Data Directly From 9 Silicon Valley Companies · · Score: 1

    I wish I could mod this insightful.
    Not because I agree with the statements but even if the poster does actually believe this (seems unlikely) it still seems to be a very common belief held by people. How many times have you heard someone in the general populous state something along the lines of "Well if it keeps me safe from X". I only wonder if this incident will be enough to change the thinking of the general populous on things like this but I doubt it. On the way into work I heard on the radio news that this activity had prevented 1 terrorist attack within the US so it sounds like damage control is already out in force on this. A better question is let's assume the terrorist attack was a bad as any have been in the US (~3,000 dead) is there a better way we could have spent that money to prevent as many or more lives? Let's not even assume that in all likelihood that if the terrorist attack had happened the number killed would have likely been 2 or 3 orders of magnitude less, yes I do mean likely it might have killed between 3 and 30 people, which would make the number look even worse.

  2. Re:land of the free... on US Mining Data Directly From 9 Silicon Valley Companies · · Score: 2
    If you only saw this coming 12 years ago you had your head in the sand or haven't read history.

    People have been saying this has been happening for years but the computational resources didn't allow the current scale until recently. Every incident where the government could expand it power and take away rights it took full advantage. Small incidents small ambiguous rights thaken that could be later expanded upon because of vague laws, big incidents here comes the PATRIOT ACT. We do have a tyrannical government but it isn't the hard tyranny one usually things of but the soft tyranny that works slowly. There is also the famous Sinclair Lewis quote which seem very appropriate especially given how things like this are always done for the most nationalistic reasons

    When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

    I don't know if this incident will be a tipping point or if too many people have bought the line of "if it keeps me safe from then it is ok" reasoning.

  3. Re:Reminder on Class Action Suit Goodies Await Tech Users · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had a run in with small claims years ago just after I graduated from college. The insurance company didn't want to pay anywhere near the fair market value of a vehicle that was totaled as determined by various objective not involved 3rd parties (NADA, KBB, and an independent appraisal). I paid my $35 filing fee which you could as part of your requested damages. The car sat in storage with the insurance company for 6 months as they stone walled me and I went to court. I went in with a stack of paper to prove my point that included:
    The KBB value of the car
    The NADA value of the car
    The independent appraisers valuation of the car
    Examples of very similar cars and their asking price with pictures they were all in really bad condition and/or had really high mileages even by my standards with one having 750,000+ miles on it
    Examples of the same vehicle in the price range the insurance company was claiming my vehicle was worth
    The data and method the insurance company used to come up with a valuation

    I presented my stuff and picked apart their valuation making sure to point out where they had deducted things multiple times. The judge then asked the insurance company to justify their valuation in which they presented their method and data that I had presented. The judge looked at the insurance company lawyer and told them they should have just settled as what I was asking was perfectly reasonable. The whole court proceeding took about half an hour. After that the insurance company still stalled on getting me my money and I had to threaten to get a lien against their assets as I had a court order to have my money by a certain date which had passed and I was now legally allowed to do so and if I didn't have my check by the end of the day I would be doing that. About an hour later my check was hand delivered. In the end they ended up paying the fair market value of the car, storage for 6 months, what ever it cost to have someone go to court, what ever it cost to prepare for court, and what ever it cost to have someone hand deliver a check to me when it should have only cost them the fair market value of the vehicle.

    More people need to put the screws to companies like this and things would get better quick because what ever it costs you in your time it will cost the company more. If a kid just out of college can force a big insurance company to pony up just about anyone can.

  4. Re:X-actly on TSA Decides Against Allowing Small Knives On Aircraft · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget all the crap the TSA misses. I would add to your list belts, especially those thick leather ones with a nice heavy buckle.

  5. Re:Seems an unnecessary feature on Keyless Remote Entry For Cars May Have Been Cracked · · Score: 2

    That sounds similar to my experience, I haven't been driving for 30 years but 25. All I have driven have been high mileage used vehicles and a couple of them the tumbler in the ignition was so worn that any thing that would go into the key slot would work, screwdrivers, other random keys, my pocket knife, etc. Granted most of those vehicles were around 20 years old and had well over 200,000 miles on them. One of them eventually got so bad you didn't even need anything in the key slot and could just turn the ignition and it would start (that was my 88 Bronco II).

  6. Re:Come on guys, have some ethics on GM Crop Producer Monsanto Using Data Analytics To Expand Its Footprint · · Score: 1

    You are confusing conservative leading individuals with the conservative leaning political party which is typically the party of big business (only the scary big businesses as there is a different party for the other big businesses). Also when looking at agriculture related bills the split typically isn't along party lines but more along rural vs urban.

  7. Re:Think About It This Way on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 1

    It has always puzzled my why physics is required and not just any full first year of any non CS science like chemistry, biology, or astronomy. I understand since it is a BS degree that there needs to be a somewhat broad exposure to science but why force everyone through physics?

  8. Re:Think About It This Way on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 1

    Dammit I don't have mod points today but you need some.

  9. Re:Think About It This Way on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 1

    My experience has been GPA only really matters for the first few jobs. I don't even include it any more as now my experience and past performance matters, although they do care that I actually have the degree. The same is also true for where you went to college. If you had a lower GPA or went to a lesser school (I went to a lesser state school in my state) instead of of the big name ones you will generally start out lower but if you don't suck at your job you can move up and out fast. Granted this has been my experience as a software engineer. I am sure where you went to school is more important for MBA jobs as those still seem to be the old boys club type of jobs.

  10. Re:depends on what you're going into on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Too true. I just finished working 5 hours on a proof with another guy in the office to show that something had complete coverage of the state space, will always produce the correct output for all inputs. Now it is time to code once I finish my lunch. Granted some of that time was spent simplifying the final solution. I use higher math almost every day, granted it ins't diffeq, but I often use linear algebra, boolean algebra, discrete math, and proofs (the non shapes part of geometry). I don't use calculus or stats in my current line of work but in my previous job stats was a big part of it writing insurance code.

  11. Re: Beck on Schools Scanned Students' Irises Without Permission · · Score: 1

    Lets not forget how insistent he is that people need to follow Christian values and live a good Christian life to the point of wanting government to mandate specific Christian values. For someone who is small government he sure seems to want government to enforce a specific religious code.

  12. Re:scanning students for bus? on Schools Scanned Students' Irises Without Permission · · Score: 1

    At least they are greased palms.

  13. Re:Offshore on Could Bitcoin Go Legit? · · Score: 2

    I forget the name, but in Macroeconomics, there's a theory that suggests that whenever you raise the tax rate, you get diminishing returns because more people look for ways to avoid the tax. Beyond a certain point, a higher tax rate actually results in less tax collected.

    The concept you are looking for is the Laffer curve.

  14. Re:Car analogy on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 1

    Wrong.
    You don't need a license to own a car, you only need one to operate it on the public roadways. Same with having the vehicle being licensed and registered. There also isn't as restrictive rules on acquiring a car or acquiring items needed to operate it as there is with firearms. Also in most states you need to have a license to carry a firearm in public. First lets start with the standard carry permit that a number of states now offer, and to get that you have to go through training, show some basic level of proficiency (not much more than is required to operate a motor vehicle), and get it renewed just like a driver's license. Additionally there is a background check to get a carry permit and there doesn't seem to be any such restriction on getting a driver's license. Second there is carrying a firearm when hunting which again requires a license even if you are hunting on private land which again is something not applicable to a state issued driver's license as you can drive all you want on private property at any age. With the current rules for getting a hunting license in most states now you need to have gone through the standard firearms safety or hunter education (includes firearm safety) course. Also with hunting licenses there are strict rules governing where you can carry your hunting firearm and when.

    For the record I legally own a vehicle that I bought from a private party that is not registered or licensed with the state. I also have been driving vehicles for longer than I have had a drivers license. First out on the farm with tractors and trucks and later, but still to young to drive on public roads, high performance race cars out on race tracks.

  15. Re:do your own damn homework! on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 1

    That still sounds like a better and more effective use of funds than this.

  16. Re:This solves ? on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 1

    Or if only there existed a large difficult to open with force box that firearms could be stored in some place nice and safe to store them. This large box would also help prevent firearm theft as it could be large and very bulky and possibly attached to a concrete floor. As an added bonus you could line the inside of the box with firebrick to provide fire protection and you could also put a box of silica pellets in it to keep the humidity down and prevent rust.

  17. Re:This solves ? on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 1

    A safety incorporating, for example, a combination lock would accomplish the same thing for most purposes and it could be trivially made as a simple and highly reliable mechanical feature without any need for complex electronics and power.

    And that already exists, some use a combo but most use a key. This seems like a solution in search of a problem, and it really isn't a solution at the moment. Same thing with the proposed law but there it has the added benefit of being a feel good measure with some think of the children thrown in for good measure.

  18. Re:$1 Grant on California Bill Would Mandate Open Access To Publicly Funded Research · · Score: 1

    Someone should try and get a meta grant for just this sort of thing thus making is much easier to to force publishers hands.

  19. I always thought this was common knowledge on Iron In Egyptian Relics Came From Space · · Score: 1

    I always thought it was common knowledge that the iron used in various artifacts that predates iron smelting the the region came from meteorites. I don't know what culture I ran across that was doing it (Indian, Mesopotamian, Germanic, Egyptian, Chinese, etc.) but it doesn't seem like a stretch that if one culture figured out that a metallic rock could be heated and pounded into something that others cultures couldn't, especially since most of those cultures were already working with copper, gold "rocks" so why not try with this harder metal rock. From what I remember reading an iron sword in these bronze age or pre-bronze age (copper and gold as the primary metal used but past neolithic status) was a kingly gift as it was very rare, substantially more durable, had greater edge holding ability, and would go a significant way through a copper or bronze sword.

  20. Apple II on How Did You Learn How To Program? · · Score: 1

    The good old Apple II (not a GS or C to C+) . My elementary school had an Apple II lab with like 25 machines and everyone learned how to type on the computer and play educational games like number munchers but the lucky ones in the gifted and talented program you got to do all sorts of stuff with them. I lucked out and got to program apple soft basic, logo, and even got exposed to the Lego logo environment. Then my family got an Apple II C+ when I was in 4th or 5th grade and I just ran with it reading all sorts of books and figuring out how to translate QBASIC and Quick Basic programs to run on it and eventually learned 6502 assembly (I still have the book for that somewhere in my collection).

  21. Re:Interpretations on Interpreting Global Flight Maps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The meta-interpretation is that I should only hire an expert in an appropriate field to analyze my data.

    And possibility a data visualization expert along with the industry expert.

  22. Re:Learning to do more in 8 than most do in 16? on $30,000 For a Developer Referral? · · Score: 1

    The few occasions where I have rewritten someone's code has been because it was initially very closely tied to some specific hardware (a couple of times), a tied to specific OS (a couple of times), or is no longer doing what it was originally intended to do (once). It isn't something that I do regularly as it does need consideration but when bringing something over to new hardware or a new OS it is worth looking at the time it would take to make the old code work or restart from scratch and correct the limitations of the original.

  23. Re:Why are they using a Nikon lens on a canon? on Canon DSLR Hack Allows It To Shoot RAW Video · · Score: 1

    From my experience it varies but I do wonder if what you are seeing is some automatic selection bias. All the cheap crappy lenses bought by consumers have long since broken and been trashed while the good well taken care of high end ones used by pros are mostly what are left. Thus when you look at older lenses you are only seeing the best. Almost all of the lenses I have for my 35mm M42 screw mount camera are Ashi-Pentax or Ziess (I also have some Russian ones that were smuggled out by my wife's grandfather that are great as well but heavy as hell) and they are great lenses. Most of the camera stores here won't touch those screw mount lenses as they were not widely used and there really isn't much of a market for them. I see the same thing with tools most of the old tools that you see today are the good ones the cheap crap has already gone to the trash can. My grandfather had some trash tools but since he didn't do much with them they managed to survive until we cleaned out the garage after he passed. Most of these tools were crap and I gave most of them to my 4 year old to play with since they are only slightly better than toys.

  24. Re:Too good? I think not on Ask Slashdot: When Is the User Experience Too Good? · · Score: 1

    So you were responsible for the Windows Vista's endless warnings.

  25. Re:Truth in labeling. on FiOS User Finds Limit of 'Unlimited' Data Plan: 77 TB/Month · · Score: 1

    My ISP told me, "we do not allow business accounts to be set up at residential addresses."

    Mine told me that too, then I call their business class people who were more than willing to answer my questions and sell me one.