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User: magarity

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  1. Re:Democratize? on For Video Soundtracks, Computers Are the New Composers (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    More like the practical definition of democracy, which is along the lines of "the least unpleasant compromise nobody really wants other than its better than what the other demographic truly wanted".

  2. Re:Pfizer and Amphastar the only option? on Baking Soda Shortage Has Hospitals Frantic, Delaying Treatments and Surgeries (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    I think the summary neglected to mention this is "Pharmaceutical Grade" baking soda. Which would need approval from the FDA to be used as medicine.

    Other than handling and packaging requirements any idea what exactly makes sodium bicarbonate "pharmaceutical" vs "commercial" besides millions of dollars and years of approval processes?

  3. Re:What does this have to do with science? on 'Science Must Clean Up Its Act' (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1

    most of these just aren't "scientific issues"

    If there is a cause and an effect, it's science.

    If a causal link can be hypothesized between the cause and the effect AND it can be duplicated in any properly equipped lab then it's science. Bonus points for being able to conduct double blind testing in the field.

  4. L is more abused than H1-B on US Law Allows Low H-1B Wages; Just Look At Apple (networkworld.com) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    L visas let the employer pay the foreign employee's home town wage for up to a year while in the US. When I lived in China for a couple of years I interviewed with the local IBM office about database consulting. They wanted to fly me to the US on an L visa while paying the local wage of about $1K USD which would be OK there in town but not in L.A. The hiring manager assured me on the 3rd level interview that they did it all the time and it was no problem. Then I mentioned that as a US citizen I couldn't be sent on any kind of visa and I couldn't work in the US for sub-minimum wage. He hung up and I couldn't get him to answer when I called back. Since they wanted to hire and send me immediately but an L visa requires a prior year of employment, minimum, they were obviously quite handy at lying on the paperwork. Think about this the next time big blue sends in a consultant from another country.

  5. You should see Yahoo's news links on Facebook Downranks News Feed Links To Crappy Sites Smothered In Ads (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For a while now Yahoo's news has been polluted with the worst sort of clickbait adbombs. Facebook has their work cut out for them if they are trying to be worse.

  6. hungry.... on Slashdot Asks: Which Tech Giant You Can't Live Without? · · Score: 1

    Monsanto :(

  7. Re:Great idea... on Inside Germany's Plan To Kill Online Registrations (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    No, numbers on arms would be inefficient. Tatooing 2D barcodes on people's foreheads; now there's efficiency.

  8. Re:Commercial use on Inside Germany's Plan To Kill Online Registrations (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    Why would there even be a myth in the first place that someone whose political party was called 'the national socialists' was somehow not a liberal?

  9. Re:Since when is viewing a video 'unsafe'? on Facebook Hiring 3,000 To Monitor Videos After Murders, Violence Shown Live (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    Yes. That's why we need tons more H-1B. America has no next generation to speak of.

    Where do you think all the new hires are coming from?

  10. Re:Getting Paid to Watch Cat Videos on Facebook Hiring 3,000 To Monitor Videos After Murders, Violence Shown Live (usatoday.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I knew someone who's job it was to watch terrorist beheading videos and then watch all the gruesome blood, and death bits so it could be cut out to show on the news in a manner that wouldn't traumatise viewers. It's only a matter of time before seeing that stuff is going to affect you.

    If viewers didn't get a sanitized version of events there would be more political willpower to do something about people whose agenda includes sawing off the heads of "infidels" with knives.

  11. outcome vs opportunity on Interns at Facebook, Google Out-Earn the Average American (axios.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article's main point seems to be complaining about income inequality in general which is a complaint of equality of outcomes. Focusing on outcomes never seems to work. The war on poverty has killed too many poor people. More focus on opportunity and let people work out their own outcomes.

  12. Re:But Google will get a free pass on Google To Auto-Migrate Some Users To 64-bit Chrome · · Score: 2

    Will people who depend on a 32 bit plug-in be able to use it seamlessly with the 64 bit Chrome? That may not be the case.

  13. Re:What is a "Robot?" on San Francisco Politician Jane Kim Is Exploring a Tax On Robots (businessinsider.com) · · Score: 1

    neither one of those things could ever classify as a robot. No moving parts in either. 1 it is a machine, neither a light nor a cell phone can be considered machines.

    Yet look at how many jobs traffic lights stole from honest humans. There used to be a traffic policeman at every major intersection directing traffic. All those jobs were lost to automation just as surely as a housekeeper replaced by a hotel's towel delivery robot.

  14. Training, maybe? on Credit Suisse Deploys 20 Robots Within Bank (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    To help employees answer basic compliance questions? Maybe a better approach is some basic training on basic compliance.

  15. The Discovery of Freedom on Ask Slashdot: What Are Your Favorite Books On Entrepreneurship? · · Score: 1

    by Rose Wilder Lane. Discusses why entrepreneurship has thrived only twice in human history: for the Saracens in the middle ages and in the US from the late 1800- mid 1900's (and up to present).

  16. Re:Space is Adam Smith's Commons on US Space Firms Tell Washington: China Will Take Over the Moon if You're Not Careful (yahoo.com) · · Score: 1

    It is there to be used to the benefit of all, no one can "own" it.

    Just like the southwest Pacific and all those teeny uninhabitable atolls no one can own?

  17. Re:T-Mo on Slashdot Asks: Which Wireless Carrier Do You Prefer? · · Score: 1

    Project Fi's coverage maps lists a few addresses around Beijing. To say the coverage is better means you haven't actually tried it. TMo uses one of the major telecoms so coverage is almost everywhere.

  18. Re:Poor life decisions on In Costly Bay Area, Even Six-Figure Salaries Are Considered 'Low Income' (mercurynews.com) · · Score: 3

    For the same reason as the SanFranciscans on high wages are subsidizing Tennessee's shitty economy. Remember - CA is a net contributor to the US economy, it takes out less from the tax pool than it puts in.

    Consider how totally jacked up government is when you take that statement and combine it with California's state and local governments being heavily in debt.

  19. Re:T-Mo on Slashdot Asks: Which Wireless Carrier Do You Prefer? · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have to travel internationally every couple of years and the TMo international is no joke. Upon landing in Beijing you get a 'Welcome to China' text and service includes unlimited pokey 2G data speed data that goes straight through TMo's US servers so the websites blocked normally in China work just fine. Coverage is most excellent; pretty much any city or town, just not out in the countryside.

  20. Coming soon if the video is evidence on No Longer a Dream: Silicon Valley Takes On the Flying Car (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    They'll have a ready for consumers version in no time at all if they put as much effort into R&D as they did in producing that promo video.

  21. Re:Oops on Diet Sodas May Be Tied To Stroke, Dementia Risk (cnn.com) · · Score: 2

    it's drunk by fat people.

    You're going to need some real data to back that up. All the 'normal' sized people I know who drink soda drink diet soda.

    My anecdotal response to your anecdote is that I mainly see obese people drinking diet soda... along with entire pizzas, supersized fries, etc.

  22. The second is more effective against somebody cloning your card - which around here is more common - but it means that your CC company presumably needs your biometric info

    Don't they just need a one-way hash of your biometric info? But the second way is more likely since otherwise the card will need a battery to power that processing internally.

  23. Re:Not what I expected on Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    Here I thought you would stick fruit containers in it, and it would pulp them up. But using bags of... juice? Did no one along the line wonder what the device was actually for?

    It's hidden down in the article text; the bags of juice are sold only to people who bought the bag squeezer machine (I can't bring myself to call it a juicer) for $400. Brilliant if you can get enough people to buy in to that model.

  24. Re: Make America Great on Trump To Overhaul H-1B Visa Program To Encourage Hiring Americans (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    I find American made products to be inferior in quality.

    You've apparently never bought decent furniture.

  25. Re:Is it marketable? on Steve Wozniak Predicts The Future (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    I didn't bother to specify: because startup costs in the 60's were too high. it is still too high today. at some future point when the costs are lower, there are whopping piles of profit on the moon.