Slashdot Mirror


User: StCredZero

StCredZero's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
582
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 582

  1. Instead of "Dances with Wolves..." on New Research Sheds Light On the Evolution of Dogs · · Score: 1

    It's "Exploited by Wolves."

  2. Re:What are they needed for? on Boeing Touts Fighter Jet To Rival F-35 — At Half the Price · · Score: 1

    Many analysts have decried the F-35. "Can't turn." (So much for air superiority) "Can't loiter." (So much for ground support)

  3. Re:Backwards compatibility on Boeing Touts Fighter Jet To Rival F-35 — At Half the Price · · Score: 1

    A grip is a mythical animal, half lion and half bird, and a vigg is a sea bird. Hence the names. The predecessor to Viggen was the J-35 Draken (Dragon) and before that there'se been Tunnan (barrel) etc. Weird names sometimes.

    Think of them as the IKEA of fighter jets.

  4. Re:Too much valuable intel on The Battle of Hoth: Vader the Invader · · Score: 1

    In any case it seems like the rebels always planned to use the ion cannon to cover their escape path, so the issue of the shield creating a "chokepoint" was probably moot.

    From what I remember of the dialogue, the rebels fired the ion cannon, and let the fighters and transports pass, by turning off the whole shield for a fraction of a second. The ion cannon is mounted in a ball turret, which seems to be able to cover 1/3rd of the sky. Hence, the shield is not a choke point. An entire 1/3rd of the sky is available for escape vectors.

  5. Is there a non-free-as-in-beer Free Beer? on Nobel Prize Winner Got Free House and Free (as In Beer) Beer · · Score: 1

    Any free/open source beers?

  6. Re:Change is Inevitable (Re:Good grief...) on Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? · · Score: 1

    In real life this can only be a factor when women join a male team.

    If a white joins an all black team, you can't get away with imposing a culture. Same as when a black joins a white team.
    Substitute any other characteristic, religion, teetotaler, smokers, income, political affiliation, what ever.
    You can't get away with imposing a culture.

    Then you have a limited understanding of "real life." I know for a fact that groups of women, or mixed groups of men and women can also impose such a culture on a newcomer. In fact, this pretty much always happens in some way. The key is that it doesn't happen in a way that's non-consensual for the newcomer.

    But if a woman walks into the shop all of a sudden a work environment is "unsafe" if there is one picture of a girl and a car anywhere in the service bays or the lunch room.

    I'm staying in San Francisco's "Castro," also known as "The Gayborhood." If you are a hetero male, I bet I could find an environment where playful "ribbing" from the crowd could make you feel at least "a bit weird." In this place, I pass by posters of scantily clad men all the time. I'm sure most heterosexual males wouldn't be enthusiastic about their workplaces being festooned with such decorations.

  7. Re:People just need to grow up. on Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? · · Score: 1

    Well to hell with their "realness" and their "feelings". Their attitude is pathetic.

    I could imagine members of that group saying exactly that to the newcomers. Presumably this group adds real value to the business. The fact that they have real cohesion and esprit de corps is also valuable. People are people, not monsters or 2D toons. The real challenge is simply to get everyone to realize this.

    Which is why the far easier route of adhering to a accepted standard of maturity and professionalism is the way to go. Don't harass people. Don't have your "fun" at the expense of someone else's ability to their job without unwanted and needless distraction.

    This group probably feels that everyone who comes to work with them has somehow bought into their particular cultural standards. The business can either ratify this culture, or convince them to adjust. The former is probably going to limit hiring and open the business up to legal action. The latter can also be disastrous if it's handled badly.

    I think the key is consensual behavior.

    I'm not against off-color or horrible jokes -- in the context of my close friends and family. Total strangers coming out of the woodwork and imposing things like that upon me isn't acceptable, and feels wrong. Right now I'm staying at a Hacker Hostel in "The Castro" in San Francisco. (It's also called "The Gayborhood.") There are places aplenty here where the gentlemen being discussed could go and experience some "kidding around" of a sexually charged nature, much of which might not be to their personal preferences. I wonder how they would feel being the subject of such non-consensual kidding.

  8. Re:Change is Inevitable (Re:Good grief...) on Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? · · Score: 1

    One person's idea of "good clean fun" isn't necessarily the same as another person's.

    There's plenty of things that make me uncomfortable but I don't expect them to be enshrined in law. Businesses should be able to decide what is and isn't acceptable for their business. Keep the government out of our lives as much as possible. These are social issues, not legal issues. Hurt feelings do not equal broken bones.

    Yes, I was talking about this in the context of the business and what the business can do internally. And yes, hurt feelings aren't like broken bones, but they can be especially critical to the operation of knowledge based businesses.

    Social and legal issues are all enmeshed. It's the consequence of living in a world based on evolution and emergent processes. In the end, no one pure principle rules all, and we really just muddle through in some pragmatic fashion.

  9. Change is Inevitable (Re:Good grief...) on Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...It is guaranteed that there will be remarks, double entendres and innuendos with huge potential of getting worse...

    So you work with a bunch of unprofessional animals?

    You should *already* have a policy that makes such comments and such a work environment unacceptable.

    Let them know that this type of childish behavior is not only unacceptable, but will result in being canned.

    End of sentence.

    This man's coworkers probably just think they're having good clean fun and that they're "keeping it real" in the face of what they feel to be phony soul-tarnishing political correctness. However, it's hard to really walk in another's shoes sometimes. Points of view are intellectually challenging. (Which is why scientists use the mirror test as a marker of sentience.)

    One person's idea of "good clean fun" isn't necessarily the same as another person's. It sounds like there's a group there who has been enjoying the camaraderie and other benefits of a tight-knit "workplace culture." of their own. As the workforce at your company gets larger, the likelihood of everyone new liking all aspects of the original group's "culture" are going to diminish. So either you're going to have to impose the same "culture" on all new employees or this group "culture" is going to have to change.

    Again, it's a point of view thing, so it's going to be very hard to convey what it truly means to be on the other side of their "ribbing." A good professional trainer might be in order. (But a bad trainer is likely to only make things worse.) Change also needs to be backed up by authority. It's probably only going to work at all smoothly with buy-in from the social leaders of that group.

  10. Solve Energy/Carbon problems (Re:Molycorp already) on China Begins Stockpiling Rare Earths, Draws WTO Attention · · Score: 0

    Start a serious Thorium energy program, and US Rare Earths would be even cheaper to produce. We might even solve the carbon emission problem at the same time.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=tyqYP6f66Mw&NR=1

  11. Solution for US Thorium and Energy Problems on China Begins Stockpiling Rare Earths, Draws WTO Attention · · Score: 2

    Start a Thorium energy program. This makes lots of heavy rare earth deposits in the US economical to mine:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=tyqYP6f66Mw&NR=1

  12. Varies Over Time (Re:False dichotomy) on Should Cyber Vigilantes Be Cheered Or Feared · · Score: 1

    None of the above.

    Agreed. Historically, organizations vary in their quality and relevance over time. They tend to start out fresh and idealistic, then end up having outlived their usefulness. Anonymous, being an "un-organization" might be able to avoid this fate. I suspect, by the time, if ever, Anonymous has become stale, another such media-stunt group will adopt their methods and pick up such activities under their own banner.

  13. Viable..Only as Adjunct, Unfortunately on Will the Apple TV Become a Gaming Platform? · · Score: 1

    At the same time, Nintendo look increasingly like a successful toy manufacturer, who have feet of clay when it comes to actually making interesting games - and in attracting decent third party developers.

    This will only be a success as a way of tying interactive content with TV shows. Unfortunately, established game makers have managed to accomplish a mathematical paradox: they've made tie-in into a 4 letter word.

    Still, I see tremendous potential for folks like Zynga doing tie-ins with big media events. How about "Drinking Game"? People publish sets of rules before an event. (Academy Awards?) Then, you get to watch a set of virtual college students get sloshed playing the game. Viewers will vote up or vote down claims that rules were triggered. Drinking with the virtual students is entirely optional, of course.

  14. Presaged by George Lucas (Re:T-Hawk) on Honeywell To Sell Miami-Dade Police a Surveillance Drone · · Score: 1

    No wonder Gibson and Stross quip that we're living in the sci-fi future already. This was in Empire Strikes Back

  15. TASER (Re: Important question) on Honeywell To Sell Miami-Dade Police a Surveillance Drone · · Score: 1

    Does it come with missiles?

    For police use, a TASER would be a better idea. A quadrotor drone equipped with a TASER would be very useful to police. Once you've identified a perp using gyrostabilized telescopic video cameras invisibly from 1000's of feet in the air, you can wait until the perp is alone, then swoop in and stun the perp while a patrol car is called in with the GPS coordinates to take him in.

    Hilarity (read police atrocity) ensues

  16. Actually, Meta-Hybrid! (volt is not a EV) on GE To Buy 25,000 EVs, Starting With the Chevy Volt · · Score: 1

    It's a hybrid. Unfortunately hybrid is very unambiguous as well.

    To be precise, the Chevy Volt was originally a Series Hybrid that added a capability to add about 15% of total power output through a direct mechanical connection, because this turned out to be more efficient. So it's a combination between series hybrid and parallel hybrid which makes it a kind of hybrid of hybrids -- a meta-hybrid!

    (The Volt could probably run just fine as a series hybrid, with most of its range, power, and efficiency if the direct mechanical linkage were disabled. In contrast, a Prius can run only on electric motors but with a pretty piddling range.)

  17. Series Hybrids Rock on The Rise and Fall of America's Jet-Powered Car · · Score: 1

    A series hybrid car with turbine generators would rock! People have proposed additional generator modules for series hybrids which can be added as needed for long trips. Turbine modules could be made small, so that they could recharge your vehicle while parked during the day, though this wouldn't be the most efficient use of the fuel. Conversely, one could add additional turbine modules for specific purposes, like towing cargo or driving on very steep roads. Cars would become configurable!

  18. Sang Froid on Researcher Builds Machines That Daydream · · Score: 1

    Just base the machine's emotions on a ruthlessly efficient Sang Froid covering up a tremendous inner pain of loss.

    We'd all end up dead, but the world would be run in a ruthlessly efficient fashion, with a techno James Bond theme playing in the background.

  19. Make / DIY version! on Heat Ray Gun Fails Final Test; Nixed From War · · Score: 1

    My money's on the Maker / DIY crowd! Hopefully, it works better than the Arduino powered Bedazzler.

  20. Microwaves & Cold War on Heat Ray Gun Fails Final Test; Nixed From War · · Score: 1

    My physics PhD ex told me about one of her professors. In the 1950's in Nevada, he was working on DoD projects concerning radar. Well, it gets awful cold in the desert at night, and it's still awful cold in the morning. So my ex's professor and the rest of the crew would stand in front of the RADAR set and let the microwaves warm them up.

  21. Re:Thought of this sort of thing in 2004 on How Cyber Spies Infiltrate Business Systems · · Score: 1

    LOL so LOL

    Clueless, so clueless. Yes, getting some kind of data out of a corporation is easy, and can be done with a flash drive/laptop/etc... Getting data on every single petroleum product trade done by a large multinational in near-realtime is a little bit more demanding and useful. As it so happens, there's a good number of devs with access to the databases, and with the ability to run a daemon which could send the data out over FTP. (It's not that much data, actually.) The disgruntled employee (the right particular one) is the perfect one to pull exactly this off.

  22. Re:Thought of this sort of thing in 2004 on How Cyber Spies Infiltrate Business Systems · · Score: 1

    Actually, a whole bunch of people I've worked with have worked on apps that route global shipping fleets. Ballast is controlled by a local, non-networked shipboard mechanisms.

  23. fire up nmap and start scanning (Re:Oh noes!) on How Cyber Spies Infiltrate Business Systems · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously, just fire up nmap and start scanning your internal work networks and some key systems. If the security and network admins don't show up in your cube within 30 minutes, you might have a problem that no amount of products from CA/Symantec could ever hope to solve.

    Four jobs ago, I used to fire up nmap and scan the internal network, then tell the network admins where the trojans were! (No, I never put them there.)

  24. Thought of this sort of thing in 2004 on How Cyber Spies Infiltrate Business Systems · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought of this sort of thing in 2004 with some coworkers. The scenario we came up with would be for a disgruntled employee to query trading app databases (unencrypted) and export the data in dribs and drabs using FTP. Outgoing FTP was wide open. The place where we were working (major petroleum multinational) the information could have been used by competitors to make a killing doing commodity trading, possibly even corner a market.

    The problem's not the technology. There's always security holes. It's relatively easy to get your hands on something illegally. It's safely making money off of it which is the problem. No way I'd want the kind of heat a major petroleum multinational could hire going after my ass!

  25. News Flash! on Are Googlers Too Smart For Their Own Good? · · Score: 1

    Something not understood by Slashdotter! Film at 11.