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User: blippo

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  1. Re:Always wondered what this was on Motion Impossible: Tom Cruise Declares War on TV Frame Interpolation (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    I think it's the 3D post processing that primarily kills the lightning in the movies - and especially in a film like Hobbit that you need cram in as much light as possible due to a higher framerate, bizarre amount of cgi, and the need to post process the shit out of any remnants of a subtle dynamic range so it can be shown with those shitty glasses.

    The last film I really noticed the lightning was Michael Clayton - it had a nice feeling, I'm pretty sure they used some older lenses.

  2. Re: Sure Jan on Degradation of Lithium Batteries Shown In Real-time (ucl.ac.uk) · · Score: 1

    I just replaced one of those "10-year" 9v batteries in my smoke alarm. I doubt it's been there for more than two years. Probably less, but I can't remember exactly.

  3. Re:How sad on Mandriva Goes Out of Business · · Score: 2

    OK, for your benefit.

    My first experience with Linux was Slackware in 1993, when I was 19. I had to ask a mate to download 25 or so 3.5" disks for me because he had access to internet at the university, and the rest of the world did not. Since the disks where shitty and/or demagnetized by the train ride, it took a couple of weeks to get all 25 disks in a readable state. Fun autumn :-)

      I never even looked at Mandrake/Mandriva. I think I switched to Debian in 95 or so, when it got dpkg which was just really nice, and I saw no reason to change.

  4. Re:F/OSS reality on Mandriva Goes Out of Business · · Score: 2

    I don't think that say Ubuntu is particularly more of a headfuck than Windows 8... Windows try really hard to hide some pretty fundamental facts from the user,
    just to look simpler to use, with the result that it's *harder* to use the system since a lot of behavior is just inexplicable without the underlying metaphors.

    Like the file system in windows for instance. Where are my files? Is the file system root the desktop? Or My Documents, or C:/ or my network drive?

    (The driver support on Linux is a bit crappier though, since very few vendors spend time or money on linux drivers for their consumer-class stuff, especially l

  5. No, I don't think so.

    We have improved our understanding of "the problem."

    A lot of things that we thought was hard, was based on the fact that it's hard for a human.
    There are a lot of progress on the things that we think is "simple", such as looking at a spoon,
    and classifying it as a spoon, moving and navigating, etc, but it's almost nothing compared to
    the simplest animal, even insects.

    As an example: The ratslam algorithm is really interesting, and a rather neat and surprisingly simple algorithm for location awareness
    based on biological processes. Still not good enough for vacuuming my house though.

    Pure "logic" in a box is "solved" but useless since in reality we need fuzzy-logic and semantics and human-like analysis to clean up the data before it's analysed -which is hard. I think that Watson and other expert systems are getting fuzzier, but there is along way to go there.

  6. Re:truly an inspiration. on Woman Behind Pakistan's First Hackathon, Sabeen Mahmud, Shot Dead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you don't care for what other people think or their interests, why would they care about your ideas and interest?

    Really intelligent people - those who are smart over the whole range, not just the logic puzzle part, are normally a delight to talk with.
    And although they might be smarter than you, and know more about the world, they generally do no tell you so.

  7. Re:Forensic evidence should not be subjective on FBI Overstated Forensic Hair Matches In Nearly All Trials Before 2000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think that that's actually how it works here in Sweden.

    I seem to remember that it's also not always good. Since they only answer questions, more open ended searches are seldom performed.
    In one case where an elk killed a woman (unique case, apparently) the police got hung up on her husbands lawn mower (!) which happened to have traces
    of blood on the blades (which in fact could have been rust combined with other biological material ) and spent a year or so trying to convict him for murder,
    until someone actually saw a YouTube clip of an elk-attack and asked the lab if it could have in fact been an elk. Answer: Yes. Most likely.

  8. Re:Mamangement on Is This the Death of the Easter Egg? · · Score: 1

    Because a sense of humor is what saves the world.

    Dictators, repressive governments and religious despots share a lack of humor. As do certain companies, lawmakers and enforcers, as well as some public servants in otherwise reasonable states. Some people take themselves too seriously, and then things get dangerous. That's how simple it is.

    If you pull the plug on a whole product line just because a few developers made a silly message, then you are probably doing it wrong.

  9. Re:The Web of trust only works on Chinese CA Issues Certificates To Impersonate Google · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a bit of a scam from the beginning. I remember almost 20 years ago I asked where the safety was in that we had to shell up a relatively large sum of money to some unknown company on the other side of the world, so that they could "verify" our identity (how exactly?) - just because they had bought (?) a place in Netscape's or Internet Explorer's root CA list.

    Since there are so many certificate authorities it's safe to assume that too many are compromised by- or under the influence of- criminal organisations or non-democratic and/or corrupt governments. (Ignoring the just-for-lulz hackers, I'm not that worried about them.)

    I really wished PGP/GPG-style trust chain model worked in real life, but it's a hassle even for techies.

    One idea would be to utilize the existing social networks + phones for something, but I doubt it would be possible to build something that is idiot-proof enough.
    (Especially since a lot of people seems to have no idea who some of their contacts actually are...)

    It could potentially solve email too though.

  10. Re:News? on Workers On Autism Spectrum Finding Careers In Software Testing · · Score: 1

    All really good developers are positively not anywhere near the autism spectrum.

    The hard part of the job is finding out what other people thinks and wants.

  11. Re:Fact? Assertion? Slogan? on Interviews: Ask the Hampton Creek Team About the Science and Future of Food · · Score: 1

    I think egg's are as healthy that anything can be.

    Especially with regards to recent research.

    Fake eggs may be cheaper though, and probably taste like shit.

  12. Re:Sounds reasonable on Swedish Court Refuses To Revoke Julian Assange's Arrest Warrant · · Score: 1

    Aftermatch: Nothing.

    The other informed in leading roles, including other ministers indicated that this was vetted by the ministry of foreign affairs and ultimately the minister.

    Coincidentally and very unfortunate, she had been murdered by a madman when the story broke, and I think that took the edge out of any public or criminal investigation.

    I think a lot of people hid behind this unfortunate event - she was definitely informed, but since the gentlemen in question where allegedly two very dangerous terrorist suspects, it's hard to tell how the details where presented. The swedish ambassador made some effort to ensure a due legal process in Egypt, but I think in retrospect, everyone can agree that it's was a naïve approach.

  13. Re:motion sickness on The Airplane of the Future May Not Have Windows · · Score: 2

    I think there is little difference on the vomit-factor.

    However, I won't fly in a windowless or driverless airplane. I like the windows because I think I am entitled to some minimal situational awareness.

    Besides, I don't think it will happen, since it will make quite a few people too uncomfortable.

  14. Re:So... on Facebook and Apple Now Pay For Female Employees To Freeze Their Eggs · · Score: 1

    Yay!

  15. Re:Sexism on Facebook and Apple Now Pay For Female Employees To Freeze Their Eggs · · Score: 1

    The risks for the egg-removing is the same more or less, but the chance of a successful implant is decreased while the risks of pregnancy increases with age.

    Technically, you freeze zygotes if you have a partner, but that's perhaps what they meant.

  16. Re:Sexism on Facebook and Apple Now Pay For Female Employees To Freeze Their Eggs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, this is sexism against women.

    First - freezing the eggs is simple, but getting them is not. It's not risk-free, and not at all a non-event. If you do not believe me, stab yourself in the balls with knitting needles 20 times after giving yourself a hormone injection every day for a few weeks.

    Second. Signalling that healthy women should consider infertility treatment is just absurd. If they work so much now so they don't have time to find someone, is this really the solution to the correct problem?

    Helping women (and men) with fertility problems is noble and good (maybe - it's also very hard to adopt children.) But pitched like this, it's just sick.

  17. Re:Application sandboxing on Will Windows 10 Finally Address OS Decay? · · Score: 1

    Is that it? I have needed to reinstall my phones, consistently after a few month although I haven't installed any new apps, etc.
    It usually goes to a point where it takes 5-6 seconds for the phone to respond when answering a call - after the last reset,
    the performance deteriorated rather soon again. Very annoying.

  18. Re: that depends on If Java Wasn't Cool 10 Years Ago, What About Now? · · Score: 1

    I don't think the language itself is bad - there is not much bloat left in java8. The bloat is coming from code coventions and jee. And perhaps some retarded APIs - most of the core APIs are rather nice. Maybe low level programming is a bit awkward but doable, and i suppose you need C and assembly for AAA game engines.

    There are a lot of architecture astronauts and other complicators using Java, that's for certain.

    The JVM is rather fast once it's started, but that takes a while.

  19. Re:Dead as a profit source for Symantec, well, ... on Ask Slashdot: How Dead Is Antivirus, Exactly? · · Score: 2

    Since the industry managed to turn against the users and trust only the media industry, the "trusted computing" solution is not a viable option.

    Othervise, it would have been nice to allow only certain binaries or software developers/publishers to run. It would also be nice to sign the binaries
    and not allow changes.

    Since the user seems to be the least trusted element, and that it seems that I have to blindly trust 200+ root certificate signers when using the web,
    there is no use in pretending that there exist any computer security at all. Anyone that is motivated enough will be able to run an executable on your machine.

  20. Re:ATO - GoA 4 on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 1

    It's a trillion times easier than driving a car.

    The existing train protection systems have a map of the track with speed limits, acceleration and braking gradients, and what not.
    Moving the trains automatically is "solved" with a huge amount of engineering, but it's hardly AI. You still need a pair of eyes to monitor everything.

    The "fuzzy" problems that probably need some kind of AI includes:
      - Detecting obstacles on the track ( not that important, nothing is supposed to be near the tracks anyway.)
    - Operating the doors in a safe manner. (hard)
    - Detecting derailment and other fault conditions. (hard) ... and probably a thousand other tasks that is done by a human. Reacting to fault conditions for instance (very hard)

  21. Re:Customer service? on Man Booted From Southwest Flight and Threatened With Arrest After Critical Tweet · · Score: 1

    What's the point of that? Isn't it important to get the passengers to board as fast as possible?

    I just came of a flight without assigned seats, and the only explanation I could figure out was that it's because the software couldn't handle a multi-leg flight.

  22. Re: People pay for music? on Google: Indie Musicians Must Join Streaming Service Or Be Removed · · Score: 1

    Well...what would actually happen years and years before the level of AI that is required for prime directives, is that a slight error in the *very detailed* map used for navigation - in combination with an unexpected external factor, will cause a car to happily run over half a school class without even noticing.

    And it will be so far from human reasoning and performance that self driving cars will be banned.

  23. Re:Of course they have no concerns, they don't tes on Mad Cow Disease Blamed For Patient's Death In Texas · · Score: 1

    To answer Your rethorical question: No.

    More than 90,000 cows are slaughtered every day.

    So slightly more than 1 / 1000 of the cattle is tested.

  24. Re:640k isn't enough for everybody on Game of Thrones Author George R R Martin Writes with WordStar on DOS · · Score: 1

    Maybe, but unless a 25 year old with a hat has reinvented that in a browser, it doesn't count.

  25. Re:Maybe not extinction... on Are Habitable Exoplanets Bad News For Humanity? · · Score: 1

    I think we have lost a fair amount of Helium though.

    Selling the surplus of Helium at a discount seems to be unusually shortsighted since that's more or less what's left on earth and the alternative is to mine it from space somehow.