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User: onebeaumond

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Comments · 37

  1. A Bitcoin transaction requires 1 hour to complete on Surrogate Database Key, Not Bitcoin Protocol Flaw, To Blame For Mt Gox Problems · · Score: 1

    It's built into the protocol, and always will be. Everyone who uses Bitcoin needs to be aware of this limitation!

  2. TFA tells a different story, as usual on The Human Brain Project Kicks Off · · Score: 5, Informative

    The goal (or "vision" as they put it):" ...a global collaborative effort to understand the human brain and its diseases and ultimately to emulate its computational capabilities." This sounds more like a finite element model of the chemistry of the brain, with the main goal of modeling diseases and basic switching functions.

  3. Who runs Russia? on Russian Government Takes Over Country's 289-year Old Scientific Academy · · Score: 2

    Most would say the Russian Mafia. Putin is their Ronald Reagan professional actor-leader. But there are no Italians in Russia, so who are these Mafia people? Well, they are the "businessmen" of course. That's businessmen, with big scary quotes. Not really the greatest fans of scientists, unless they can build them a cool looking yacht.

  4. market flaws? on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant To Close In 2014 · · Score: 1

    There's a market "flaw" that "keeps.. prices low"? Sounds more like a feature than a flaw.

  5. And the article says... on Why Computers Still Don't Understand People · · Score: 1

    The paper argues that all current Turing tests basically devolve into blatant lies and debate tricks. I'm listening to Carly Fiorina on a Sunday morning "debate" right now, so makes sense. The paper's solution is to limit Turing tests to a format that mostly looks like a typical SAT test. Presumably, including the trick questions and rightish answers that only upper-middle class wasps can recognize. And with no hint of irony, says the test is best graded by computer. At least mention the irony, guys!

  6. Cooperation vs Cheaters on Paper: Evolution Favors Cooperation Over Selfishness · · Score: 1

    Yes, cooperation wins. Well, as long as no one cheats and manages to "free ride" on the backs of cooperators. Once that happens, cooperation collapses back to selfishness. This ground has been plowed many times. One of the greatest mysteries of Biology continues to be the existence of human altruism. That is, how can a gene that encodes for "die for your country" behavior, survive that organism's... death for its country. The better such behavior works, the more likely the cooperator dies and leaves no children. And yet, we all know that altruism works, we just don't know how yet.

  7. Re:The summary makes a bigger deal of this than it on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Yes, have to agree. Couldn't a valid observation of this experiment be that "the entangled property of photon 2 does not change with time"? This would explain things without having to violate "everyday notions of space and time". At least, no more so than usual.

  8. Didn't Alan Turing already do this in 1936? on Why We Should Build a Supercomputer Replica of the Human Brain · · Score: 2

    Unless the brain taps into some unknown force of nature, it can be completely simulated and run on any computer available today. Might run a little slow on a flip phone, but still..

  9. Car Buying Services on N. Carolina May Ban Tesla Sales To Prevent "Unfair Competition" · · Score: 1

    Services like this one https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/car_buying_services_products will negotiate with many dealers at once, within your state or anywhere else you specify. This particular service is for ex-military, but there are others. Current marketing trends have already moved well beyond the local dealer, who for years was always the "richest man in town".

  10. There's no underemployed solicitors in the UK? on UK Benefits Claimants Must Use Windows XP, IE6 · · Score: 1

    IE 6 was designed to be unmigratable. No one disputes it, not even Microsoft. So the resulting years of monopolistic profit taking should be used to help develop software tools to migrate old html. If Microsoft did it on their own, everyone would praise them and say "it's the right thing to do".

  11. If Human Intelligence is so valuable... on Physicist Proposes New Way To Think About Intelligence · · Score: 1

    Why don't other animals have it? The answer is it just can't compete, in an evolutionary sense, with other phenotypes (like instinct). Or, put more simply: "He who hesitates is lunch". Evolution can certainly be modeled as a system that maintains entropy, but I just don't see this abstraction being all that useful in explaining intelligence.

  12. Black Box on DARPA Tackles Machine Learning · · Score: 1

    What they really want is the classic "Computer that Gives a Shit". Instead of the usual passive-aggressive taunting, using your own dumb SQL statement, it fixes it for you instead!

  13. Offer to settle on Ask Slashdot: What To Do About Patent Trolls Seeking Wi-fi License Fees? · · Score: 1

    " we are a small free software company" Offer them 5% of gross from software sales. Agree to 10 if they reimburse you for attorney's fees. Find a good attorney who enjoys this kind of thing, they are out there!

  14. Church-Turing on The Human Brain Project Receives Up To $1.34 Billion · · Score: 1

    proved there is no conceptual difference between software and hardware. Basically, either can always emulate the other. So the idea that the Human Brain project is "uniquely different" by copying brain hardware is deep marketing hype.

  15. Why would I want a CD if I have a MP3? on Amazon AutoRip — 14 Years Late · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't see the value of a free CD with a MP3 purchase, oh wait...

  16. Well, there's RFC 4213 on Worldwide IPv6 Adoption: Where Do We Stand Today? · · Score: 1

    Describes the dual-stack solution where IPv4 and IPv6 coexists on the same network. This standard dates from 2005, is widely used, and works well. When the tipping point comes, the speed of transition will come as a great surprise to many. Probably within weeks rather than months.

  17. Use something like Church-Turing on USPTO Asks For Input On Software Patents · · Score: 1

    One implication of the Church-Turing hypothesis is that any algorithm can be "emulated" by an infinite number of other algorithms. So the "patent universe" could be considered an entropic system; where a new algorithm's value drops as other algorithms relentlessly take its place. The time constant currently granted by the USPTO is probably much larger than reality, for most situations (just guessing here).

  18. Move to a Democratic country on How Do YOU Establish a Secure Computing Environment? · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    and work to keep it that way. Security is a political state, according to most experts (Schneirer et al). And yes, "reducing the size of government" in a democracy means reducing that democracy.

  19. Apple is now on the global 100 on Now That It's Here, Is There a Place For Windows RT? · · Score: 0

    And MSFT isn't. The last few years have been a humiliating time for Windows corporate, and they really had to do something to show some vestige of due diligence to shareholders. The mess formerly called Metro was their first answer, which at least can be fixed with SP1. But, the ipad-beating ARM reference design (Surface) was such an obviously pointless laughing stock, that they had to build it themselves to keep the fiduciary duty lawyers at bay. At this rate, private equity will be circling overhead for some time to come...

  20. Re:Netflix, not "legal actions" on BitTorrent Traffic Falls In the U.S. · · Score: 1

    This is very true in my case. But as soon as Hulu and Netflix don't continue as is, it's back to HMA for me.

  21. OK, a scientific hypothesis is falsifiable, on Crowdsourcing and Scientific Truth · · Score: 1

    and different media can be used to discuss the falsifying data. So, what does "type of media" have to do with "scientific truth"? (hint: nothing) I guess the author's main point is that "crowd sourcing" is being ignored by the "elite scientific media". NYTimes, not your best moment here...

  22. Living fossils on Is Humanity Still Evolving? · · Score: 1

    are actually fairly common. If a particular species' environment doesn't change much over time, then "natural selection" is pretty much done with them. The article's points about juvenile death rates and mate selection are interesting, but would like to see a better description of evolutionary pressure, in order to agree that evolution could still be at work.

  23. New donate site for your favorite artists on UK ISPs Ordered To Block Pirate Bay · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, you'll never see this. Because it's illegal for artists to be paid for their work, if Sony et all can't get their 90% "cut".

  24. Re:Too Late! on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Out; Unity Gets a Second Chance · · Score: 1

    Don't worry! Windows 8 Metro to the rescue! Those dumb-a$$s in Redford actually fell for our plan and copied Unity. Not even a good copy. Not even as cool a name.

  25. Re:Who pays? on Harvard: Journals Too Expensive, Switch To Open Access · · Score: 2

    Print journals charge market rates, not actual costs. The difference (profit) goes to the owners, usually an allied association run much like a private club with compensated officers, scholarship programs, etc. The journal editors and reviewers (who provide all the actual prestige and work of the journal) usually get "academic credit" for their participation and therefore not paid anything else. Certain engineering association journals even seem to specialize in "teaser" papers, designed to drum up consulting contracts for authors (association members) who can write baffling yet interesting sounding papers. Lots of advantages for a more open process here.