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User: davecotter

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  1. Upload on It's Time to End the 'Data Is' vs 'Data Are' Debate (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    I to tech support for desktop software. It seems every newby and many old-timers simply don't know what "upload" means (or "download, for that matter). They seem to think it can mean any of: save, load, import, export, rip, burn, copy, transfer, install, launch, forward, update, upgrade, and probably others. Here, i've taken my best stab and providing the original meaning: i hope i've got it, feel free to update my map:

    Upload:
    To transfer a file over a network (usually over the internet) or other connection, from the computer you are controlling (typically your local machine) to a different computer, server or device (typically remote server). You are "pushing" the file to "up" to the "cloud", to it's destination, like when you "upload" a photo to Facebook or a video to YouTube.

    Note that this is NOT the same as Ripping, Copying, Burning, Importing, Loading, Updating, or Downloading, these words are NOT interchangeable.

    You typically "control" the computer that is physically sitting in front of you, but this distinction is subtle. You may instead do a screen share where you control a computer down the street, and, controlling it's screen, cause a connection from that remote computer back to the computer that is physically in front of you. Then from the "down the street" computer, you transfer a file TO the computer sitting in front of you. This is still an "Upload", and NOT a "Download", even though the file is traveling FROM the remote computer TO the one in front of you.

  2. please enquote "Scientists" on Pasta Is Good For You, Say Scientists Funded By Big Pasta (buzzfeed.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the heading, you should enquote "Scientists" to indicate the irony. A Scientist is not a Shill. A Shill is not a Scientist.

  3. mod parent up please

  4. Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality on Ask Slashdot: What Are You Reading This Month? · · Score: 1

    i'm a fan of the J.K. books, but this book is MUCH BETTER THAN THE ORIGINALS. Deeper, richer, and RATIONAL (ie: you never have to suspend your disbelief because characters simply don't do dumb things). Also, you learn rationality, science & cognitive psychology techniques as you read, it really does make you smarter as you read it (or at least, you FEEL smarter!). Best book i've ever read. free at hpmor.com

  5. Re:no abstract on their web site? on The Washington Post Pans Apple-Sponsored School Reform TV Special (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    i had formatted my above post with carriage returns, which were stripped when i posted. hence the seeming run-on sentences and seeming disjointed presentation. and there's apparently no way to edit your post. sorry about that.

  6. no abstract on their web site? on The Washington Post Pans Apple-Sponsored School Reform TV Special (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 2

    i spent ten minutes browsing their web site and found very little about WHAT they're really proposing. i want a page that directly answers the questions: What needs to change? How can we fix it? What is our Plan? Do they investigate individual learning styles? seems not: they still want standardized testing School for me was like that old cartoon: the students are: a monkey, a bird, a giraffe, a fish. The standardized test is "get the thing at the top of this tree". I'm the fish. They didn't teach to my strengths. Yeah, school, what i remember of it, was mostly "memorize, regurgitate, and then forget". It was great at teaching THAT modality, but horrible at teaching *understanding of a subject*.

  7. Let's add: hidden UI on It's Official: Users Navigate Flat UI Designs 22 Percent Slower (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 2

    may i just register my frustration with "invisible or hidden UI", the ones that you DON'T EVEN SEE until you happen to roll over the correct area of the screen? with no visual affordance, there's no way to visually discover that there's something to click on. i am dismayed and discouraged that Apple threw out their own very good "Human Interface Guidelines" to foist this insane UI design on us, and then, like Lemmings, the industry has picked it up and run with it, as if apple made some brilliant decision that they must now all mimic, to the suffering of actual users?

  8. there *are* some good workplaces on Ask Slashdot: Female Engineers, Could You Please Share Your Thoughts On the Google Memo · · Score: 1

    I'm male and work at one of the giant software companies. I don't know what it's like on other teams, i've been on the same team my whole career, but i can say that at least on MY team, i haven't seen nor heard of any woman being treated as anything other than just how awesome she is. We have female engineers, female QE, female managers (who USED to be engineers or QE), and, IMHO, they are awesome at what they do. A best of the best white box QE lead is a woman, and she kicks everyone's ass, we're all like "i can't figure out how to repro this bug, we should give it to !". All the men just love and utterly respect all the women, and vice versa. Maybe i'm in some insulated fantasy bubble, but nobody on MY team acts like the neanderthals we're referring to in this post, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

  9. forks over knives, cowspiracy on What Are Some Documentaries and TV Shows That You Recommend To Others? · · Score: 1

    'nuff said

  10. "Bricked" - you keep using that word... on Microsoft Accidentally Released Internal Windows 10 Development Builds (theverge.com) · · Score: 2

    I don't think it means what you think it means...

  11. Umm, yes, it is an ad. on Google Home Gets 'Beauty & The Beast' Promo But Google Says It's Not an Ad (marketingland.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "This isn't an ad" Umm, yes, it is. This is doublespeak.

  12. because nobody actually cares? on Ask Slashdot: Why Did 3D TVs and Stereoscopic 3D Television Broadcasting Fail? · · Score: 1

    I'm sure it's been said before, but IMHO what went wrong is that nobody fucking cares that much about 3D. I think it's NEAT, but not compelling. Every time there's a choice between seeing a movie in 2D or 3D i pick 3D, and i'm like "mmmyeah that's kinda neat" but then AFTERWARD there's no memory if it being any more compelling than a 2D movie, in fact what i remember most was "it was a little darker (nits) than it should have been".

  13. Doesn't FLIC do all this? on Amazon Introduces $20 Dash-Like Button For IoT (slashgear.com) · · Score: 1

    I got me these flic buttons https://flic.io/ to control my LIFX bulbs, but they could be programmed to do literally anything a script on your computer could do, or anything from dozens of included IoT plugins... I think the only difference is that FLIC requires a computer or other device to act as go-between (doesn't connect directly to your wifi)

  14. okay, THAT makes much more sense.

  15. wait a second on Apple Says Sorry For iPhone Error 53 and Issues IOS 9.2.1 Update To Fix It (betanews.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i thought the point of this error 53 was to purposely render your data inaccessible in the case where the touchID had been tampered with? when i read about it, i was like, the people that are whining about this don't fully understand security, that this bricking thing is actually good, cuz a bad guy could replace a real touch sensor with a compromised one, then unlock the phone with a fake fingerprint. now, with this "fix", it seems a bad guy could do exactly that? i'm sure i'm missing something.

  16. Bonjour browser on Ask Slashdot: Most Useful Browser Extensions? · · Score: 1

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... I'm surprised this isn't built in to the browser itself.

  17. Natural Language Interface on Interviews: Ask Stephen Wolfram a Question · · Score: 2

    Will you please do something with http://www.cyc.com/ and bring the ability to just talk to our computers in natural language? Not like Siri, but like the computer in ST:TNG.

  18. but... my face is smaller than 25 cm? on Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face From Space · · Score: 5, Insightful

    doesn't that mean my entire face would be 1 pixel large?

  19. Re:Who Killed the Electric Car? on Future of Cars: Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Or Electric? · · Score: 1

    Sure. Replace the word "dead" with "to disappear (for now)" and "kill" with "make prohibitively expensive / make unavailable".

  20. Who Killed the Electric Car? on Future of Cars: Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Or Electric? · · Score: 2

    Did you see the movie? The oil companies and other incumbents want it dead. They bought all the patents they could get their hands on for the components of electric cars but the much of the proverbial cat was already out of the bag. However, they already own just about everything related to hydrogen fuel and it's pipeline. So they're pulling out all the stops to kill the electric car.

  21. Myst series, FEZ on Ask Slashdot: What Games Are You Playing? · · Score: 1

    With Obduction coming out (next year?), I thought I'd go play the entire Myst series. And can i just say WOW? MYST was great. Then RIVEN was BETTER! Then (skipping 3 and 4, not on steam) "End of Ages" was AWESOME, then OMG "URU: Complete Chronicles" just makes my head explode with awesomeness! And if you like 8 bit platformers, and insanely difficult puzzles, then you'll love FEZ.

  22. Tad Williams "Otherland" series: great scifi on Startup Out of MIT Promises Digital Afterlife — Just Hand Over Your Data · · Score: 1

    IMHO Pretty excellent scifi series exploring this and other cool ideas. I don't want to spoil with details, so i'll just say: think neuromancer + matrix + johnny mnemonic + illuminati + these guys and you get the gist.

  23. Re:Sometimes you can win, however... on Utilities Fight Back Against Solar Energy · · Score: 2

    if you read the whole story then you know he has voltage regulators so exactly that problem you (rightfully) bring up doesn't happen.

  24. Sometimes you can win, however... on Utilities Fight Back Against Solar Energy · · Score: 3, Informative

    a fantastic story from a neighbor of mine in Watsonville, CA. He fought PG&E over some years and finally won: http://www.solarwarrior.com/pgebattle.html

  25. Re:Easy: Incentives on The Man Who Created the Pencil Eraser and How Patents Have Changed · · Score: 0

    mod parent up