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User: mha

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  1. Let me translate on Google's Dart Becomes ECMA's Dart · · Score: 1

    "I don't much like Javascript" translates to "I know very little or nothing about Javascript and I'm unwilling to learn".

    There - how about some honesty?

    PS: Obligatory link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=douglas%20crockford&sm=3

  2. Typical confusion of terms. on Disqus Bug Deanonymizes Commenters · · Score: 1

    You confuse ANY-one and EVERY-one. ANY-one can be rich. ANY-one can do what you did. ANY-one can win the lottery. But if a certain threshold is reached that won't work any more, unless something fundamentally changes in the system (system in a "sciency" meaning), because whatever the current system is it allows only a certain amount of non-standard actions.

  3. I read it 3 or 4 times before I gave up and read the summary. Sounds like someone (submitter and the one accepting the submission) are easily excitable, or it is a marketing placement (which does not necessarily mean "for pay", good connections can achieve more, sometimes).

    Unless I'm wrong and this is the most exciting thing since the creation of http://www.reddit.com/r/cats/

  4. Re:MOOCs are great on How MOOC Faculty Exploit People's Desire To Learn · · Score: 1

    > The university sponsoring it is Yale and the professor was just awarded the Nobel prize!

    That is... naive. It is highly unlikely that that professor has any hand in this. It is like saying "pharao Khufu(Cheops) built the great pyramid", only that the pharao likely had a much bigger role in building the pyramid - he caused it to happen in the first place, while the professor may or may not have heard of all the tiny little things his team of Ph.D.s and Ph.D. hopefuls and other helpers are doing all day. That doesn't mean it's bad, my favorite (youtube, http://www.youtube.com/user/bullharrier/videos) medical lectures, for example, are from some unknown guy at a relatively unknown university after checking out what the ivy league videos had to offer. So you are naive for another reason yet: "leader (or famous person) cult".

  5. True but not true on Clam That Was Killed Determining Its Age Was Over 100 Years Older Than Estimated · · Score: 1

    People in the past have happily killed animals. The only reason your statement is true is because people have not had to kill an animal themselves. Even the pet is killed ("put down") by the vet and not the owner. If the people would no longer have access to supermarket meat but only to (live) cows on pasture and living chickens, it would not take years before they decided that killing them for the meat to EAT is better than trying to become a vegetarian for most people.

    By the way, the "sanctity of life" is a HUMAN invention. There is nothing in nature that hints to such a thing. Life throws away 90+% of life very early, before anything grows up. It's nature's QA process: instead of trying to perfect the production process, just mass-produce WAY more than needed and then throw away 90% of it.

    I'm not saying we have to live by that, not at all! We received a brain so what we do with it is all up to us. I think we may even not have to worry about hindering natural selection in those species we deem important enough to prevent all this mass-death (ourselves first of all). We have computers and science, at some point (very soon - in nature terms) we'll be able to do much or all (or even better) than nature does by simulating selection and using the results to improve our genes, maybe even in the living organism (where there are trillions of cells all with their own copy of the DNA so that's a challenge to change them all, or at least the relevant ones in relevant places). And someday hopefully we'll be able to grow not the animal but just its meat.

  6. Critics on Critics Reassess Starship Troopers As a Misunderstood Masterpiece · · Score: 1

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iTRZNhZGJkE/TdjpS-44TrI/AAAAAAAAAJg/LS2aJFqLCL0/s1600/english.jpg

    Text: "The curtains where blue"

    What the critic thinks: "The curtains represent his immense depression and his lack of will to carry on."

    What the author meant: "The curtains were fucking blue."

  7. That's not the point on Edward Snowden's New Job: Tech Support · · Score: 1

    The point is that IF (or when?) they get him, instead of an ugly trial process that the government may even loose, or not get a severe enough punishment (for them), or they may be forced to reveal (even more) stuff they don't want to, they have a very easy and clear-cut tax evasion case. Also, the public doesn't like people who avoid taxes, so it's also much easier on the PR front. And no war between the pro- and contra-Snowden factions, at least not nearly as much compared to if the trial is about "treason".

  8. Micro vs. Macro on Google: Our Robot Cars Are Better Drivers Than You · · Score: 1

    No, YOU got it completely wrong. You are unable to see the difference between micro- and macro-economics. I was talking macro. In micro you only see the individual or firm, in macro you see ALL (at ONCE, if you look at macro again looking at one individual at a time than you are NOT in macro view). You want low costs only in micro view, from the point of view of the individual. In macro costs = earnings (of the next entity in the chain).

  9. "the expected cost" on Google: Our Robot Cars Are Better Drivers Than You · · Score: 2

    You complain about "the expected cost".

    Did you ever think about that EVERYTHING anyone earns anywhere is a "cost" for somebody else? Nature and economies are circular systems.

    You WANT "costs" to be high - that means incomes are high. Of course, you don't want ANY costs to be high - battle tanks, mines, bridges to nowhere, poison gas, etc. are costs that are bad to have. Paying people to do nothing, by the way, is not on that category - these days A LOT of people would be much better paid to do nothing because what they DO get paid for is actually bad for the majority of people.

    So "costs" are over all GOOD, but you have to look at the details, what they stand for. Too much abstraction is bad, comparing apples and oranges ("cost, money" makes everything seem completely equal) has gotten WAY too far.

  10. WTF? on Facebook Comment Prompts Arrests In Cyberbullying Suicide Case · · Score: 1

    Why are you putting words into my writing that are not there? Do you have too much spare time? Is your need to argue so great that you have to go and invent stuff?

  11. Why was this upvoted? Feelings win over brain. on Facebook Comment Prompts Arrests In Cyberbullying Suicide Case · · Score: 2

    Science has long proven that what parent.parent said is true. Children's brain develop. That is why - except for maybe in parts of the US and the Internet public - children are not charged as adults in court. You can easily Google some interesting lectures etc. on this topic. Not that common sense wouldn't have told our grandparents - today everything needs a "scientific study" unless it already serves our worst, lowest instincts, in which case any stupid comment is accepted as true.

  12. Re:Should I laugh, cry or applaud? Not sure... on Space Camp: Not Just For Kids Any More · · Score: 1

    I don't mind the focus on robotics AT ALL. Humans have a VERY hard time up there with the currently available space ships/technology - just because we find enough volunteers (>200,000 just applied for that one-way(!!!) trip to Mars) doesn't mean it's worth it.

    No, my point is the country doesn't seem to be willing, able, interested, etc. to do even THAT.

    Oh yes, there's the "money" argument. The sad part is that people completely mix up the very different meanings of "money" on small (individuals, businesses, municipalities, small countries with dependent currencies) and large (countries with the power to control currency) scale. There wasn't a pot of money with xxx billion dollars given to Adam and Eve or to our ape ancestors with which we now have to live. When a whole society like the US (with a world currency) decides to create something like a huge road network, or a huge power grid, or a 4g network - or a space program, then money and the values that money stands for are created at the same time. Sure, that only works if there is access supply of labor and resources, not if everyone is already working and the country is starving, but those conditions are met in the US. They prefer to give trillions to too-big-to-fail banks and to the military, prisons, health care (where the US has the by far highest cost but less favorable outcomes than comparable western countries), and so on.

    And by the way, Silicon Valley was NOT the result of the "entrepreneurial spirit" and of private capital but of long-term government investments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo

  13. Should I laugh, cry or applaud? Not sure... on Space Camp: Not Just For Kids Any More · · Score: 2

    It seems to me, from far away, that in reality the US is going farther and farther away from space exploration and research in general, so I am not sure if these efforts are "placeholders" and "proxy actions" by people so that they don't have to see the painful reality as much. Which doesn't make it bad of course! Just saying it also serves a psychological purpose for those creating such programs. We just had headlines about a NASA conference that excludes Chinese scientists (incl. those already doing research at US universities). Then there's the government shutdown, and the big political and economic problems - basically ZERO change after the last financial crisis, same people, same actions. From where I am (not in the US but reading as much as I can - used to live there for many years) most people couldn't care less about space, and it only gets worse.

  14. It is NOT silent on German Federal Police Helicopter Circles US Consulate · · Score: 1

    You don't say "elicopter". You DO speak the "h". Silent really, REALLY means "silent".

  15. TIL: Some registered /. users may start at -1 on How To Monitor Leaky Radioactive Water Tanks · · Score: 1

    Okay, so no one voted roman_mir down, his articles start with -1, Slashdot punishment for low score. Never knew that was possible. Good comment this time though, a step to ihttp://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/08/24/1645258/how-to-monitor-leaky-radioactive-water-tanks#mprove the /. score ;-)

  16. You should have... on How To Monitor Leaky Radioactive Water Tanks · · Score: 1

    ...followed the link I provided. So again, for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening

    No problem, sometimes I don't read before responding myself.

  17. WHO VOTED THIS DOWN on How To Monitor Leaky Radioactive Water Tanks · · Score: 2

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening

    Maybe the submitter wrote about it, but the site is unavailable right now and his summary certainly does not reveal he knows a thing about the special considerations of electronics in radioactive environments. There is a reason we (in the East German army) had big tube-powered big bulky radios instead of smaller transistor-based ones.

  18. Disagree on Second SFO Disaster Avoided Seconds Before Crash · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry, but I learned to fly at San Carlos airport (next to Redwood Shores, right adjacent to SFO airport and airspace) so I know a little bit of flying AND the area. I cannot see anything "unsafe" in the approach to SFO. Ofc I don't fly a "heavy", so if a pilot of one of those wants to disagree I'll bow to superior knowledge. But as long as there is no ("heavy") pilot who disagrees I'll say the only thing a LITTLE bit difficult is the approach over water.

    However, even that is not an issue, you should have learned an easy way to track the point where you are going to touch down without ANY technical aids (we are talking visual approaches here, and visibility is near perfect in that area almost most of the time, esp. during the day): Keep your head in a position that you can easily remember and fix a point on the runway over a fixed point in front of you inside the airplane. When you look from your fixed head position over the fixed point inside the cockpit to the point on the runway it should not move. If it does (up or down) you are going to over- or under-shoot. That works independent of what the actual sink rate and speed (ergo the angle) is, always.

    But then, my very own flight instructor later asked ME to demonstrate when I went on to learn aerobatics (i.e. "real flying") - turned out the "professional" pilots hardly ever do anything but "straight & level". Also, 5000 hours does not seem a lot if most of it is spent not just "straight and level", under computer control, and "at altitude". Only while maneuvering, incl. take off and landing, do you exercise flying skills. I said "flying skills", piloting skills include a lot more of course, from talking to ATC to calculating course, fuel, etc. etc. What those "professionals" seem to lack is good old FLYING SKILLS. It may sound strange from a lowly "small airplane pilot", but when I read that that Air France flight from Brazil went down because the pilots wanted to pull up when the airplane was in a stall (or close) - FOR MINUTES!!! - I really couldn't believe it - with some solid (small airplane!) training every pilot knows that you can never, ever pull UP to get out of trouble unless you have excess speed to trade for.

    That doesn't mean I could fly a big airplane (wouldn't even be able to start it I guess), but while it does not matter to anyone that I lack the skills to fly a big airplane it matters to all passengers if the pilots cannot FLY (not "pilot") their airplane. I mean "fly" as in "without computer".

    Is there an airline pilot here? I'm curious, what would you say about the FLYING skills of (big airplane) pilots? It seems that in the US the situation isn't bad, that this is an Asian (or Korean?) problem, and as I read it in an aviation forum not necessarily one of culture (at least not any more) but of many variables, including how easy it is for a lot of people to get to fly privately in the US vs. small countries like S.Korea, so that when a S.Korean wants to become a pilot they start from zero and do the training with an eye on the cockpit jobs (ASAP ofc, time is money), so no time/resources to do "fun flying" (like acro, which really, really teaches to fly). Then there's that even if you go into the job with good skills, how much is left after 10 years of mostly computer-aided careful "by the book" flying? How many pilots keep their (low-level) flying skills sharp by flying a small airplane in their spare time, to do "fun stuff" and "unusual attitudes and maneuverer"?

  19. UPVOTE MANIA on Kernel Dev Tells Linus Torvalds To Stop Using Abusive Language · · Score: 1

    WTF - who upvoted EACH AND EVERY SINGLE POST here? The percentage of posts =2 is 1%.

    This site's voting system needs improvement. Definitely DO ONT upvote emotional posts without any rational part. DO NOT upvote untrue statements. For example, Linus only OCCASIONALLY resorts to "strong" statements, so those who portrait him as a kind of screaming manager a la Microsoft's Balmer are just liars out for emotional votes. ESPECIALLY if there's an emotional topic, upvote only on-topic an NON-EMOTIONAL posts.

    PS: My caps are NOT "screaming", I speak accentuated not loud. Think flat-tone poem vs. accentuated poem recitation. I don't know how else to bring the accentuated parts onto the screen in a "flat" font.

  20. No different... on Microsoft's Cooperation With NSA Either Voluntary, Or Reveals New Legal Tactic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...from the US today, or actually WORSE in the US today: You can democratically elect one of two parties that both continue on the same path.

    I know that's a cheap comment to make (and I too am from Germany lived and worked in the US for many years - and loved it), but wouldn't you say there's more than just a grain of truth? How I too celebrated when Obama was elected! How very stupid of me.

  21. You miss the point by miles on HP Keeps Installing Secret Backdoors In Enterprise Storage · · Score: 1

    The point is not that such access exists, the point is that it is NOT DOCUMENTED.

  22. I am connected to... on MIT Project Reveals What PRISM Knows About You · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...a lot of rich Nigerians, quite a few Viagra and p. enlargement sellers, a number of individuals who know jobs that pay thousands of dollars that you can do from home, a handful of real estate executives, and more.

  23. TIL: Adblocking in IE is actually BUILT-IN on Stanford, Mozilla, Opera Launch Web Privacy Initiative · · Score: 3, Informative

    See http://superuser.com/questions/257792/how-can-i-block-ads-in-internet-explorer

    Not that I use IE, but I tried that immediately and it works great. No need to install any add-ons, it works right out of the box, you just have to subscribe to one of those lists (like in Adblock+). And the page with those lists is provided by Microsoft!

  24. What are you talking about? on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    The ONLY one they can potentially track at all is the original buyer. What use is it to track the NEXT uploader (*with this method*)? They can find out who he/she is anyway (trace IPs) - which they can already do.

    What they are interested in here specifically is the original buyer turned uploader, because with the current method of tracking IPs they can get an uploader - but they still don't know if he/she is the source.

  25. Wrong on Do-It-Yourself Brain Stimulation Has Scientists Worried · · Score: 1

    You got it wrong, I say, and it is because of this:

    The benefits of this stuff are IMMEDIATE. You are talking genes, but the article (and I) are talking METHODS used by individuals. Genes: Only those having the gene benefit. Methods: EVERYONE using those methods benefit.

    This contradicts both your points, which are valid only for genes. For example, there is next to ZERO "opportunity-cost" of waiting: Since, as usual in this world, only 1% of the exact methods attempted will end up being beneficial, the other 99% will not be. On the other hand, if something turns out to be truly beneficial, I can implement those methods IMMEDIATELY, without delay.

    Or, trying to understand what/how you think, do you think this is about "brain zapping" turning into genetic advantages? This would be strange, since
    - this is not what we've been talking about AFAICS
    - the only thing natural selection can do *here* on genes is to let you SURVIVE those electric charges. Anyone who already survives or would survive will get any benefits immediately by just doing the same thing.