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User: sifi

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  1. Re:There is no "almost impossible" on Apple's "Warrant Canary" Has Died · · Score: 1

    Errr no it isn't Here is my encrypted password: ABIKLY It is encrypted with a symbol substitution. Enter it incorrectly three times and the data gets wiped.
    Good luck cracking that with brute force.

  2. Re:Crime? on Amazon Reveals "Prime Air", Their Plans For 30-minute Deliveries By Drone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Surely the whole point is you wait until you know you're going to in for 30mins and then order it? It wouldn't have to leave it anywhere then.

  3. Re:Not much need to worry on US Intelligence Wants To Radically Advance Facial Recognition Software · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Absolutely true. Even when they are 'accurate' they are of limited usefulness.

    Assume that it's 99.9% accurate for a given success rate (wildly optimistic) That is for every 1000 faces you show it 1 is incorrectly flagged as matching.

    Suppose that you have a list of 100 people you are 'interested' in. If the system is in an airport with 200,000 people per day - you are going to get 20,000 incorrect matches a day.

  4. Maybe it was correct? on Randomly Generated Math Article Accepted By 'Open-Access' Journal · · Score: 1

    Maybe MathGen randomly managed to generate a paper was a truly original result by accident? - did anyone bother to check?

  5. The Exchange knows who they are..... on Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of course the exchange knows who they are - you can't just stuff orders into the market anonymously from your PC at home. I'm mean the exchange needs to know who you are so they know who to charge for the trades. The exchanges aren't happy about people placing and cancelling tonnes of orders - after all they only make money when something trades. You can guarantee that they got on the phone to whom ever was doing this and asked them to stop.

  6. How about this... on Ask Slashdot: Good Metrics For a Small IT Team? · · Score: 1

    At the end of the day stats are used to compare people.

    Why not take a 'free-market' approach:
    Have people 'bid' points for tickets and the lowest bidder gets to do the work.
    When they complete the ticket they get the 'points'.

    This way how 'hard' a ticket is 'priced' in and people tend to do the tickets that they are best suited to.

  7. Re:Never going to happen. on What Microsoft Should and Shouldn't Do For the Xbox 720 · · Score: 2

    This seems to be what pretty much happens when I stick a new game in anyway....

    1) Sit down to play new game.
    2) Put in nice shiny new game disc.
    3) Wait 1hr for the 'updates' to install.
    4) Play game.

  8. Re:720 degrees? on What Microsoft Should and Shouldn't Do For the Xbox 720 · · Score: 1

    What I don't get is that you go 360 degrees around a roundabout and end up only turning through 180 degrees...

  9. Re:Not impressive on iOS App Acoustically Measures Distances Up To 25 Meters · · Score: 1

    Thank-you for this - it made my day!

    Please can we ban radar and bring them back immediately.

  10. Re:I hate it when people say things like: on Sony Racing Apple To Develop 'a New Kind of TV' · · Score: 1

    It probably means: We sell each TV for more than the marginal cost of making each TV, but we don't recoup enough money from this to cover the R&D/once-off costs. In this circumstance, Sony is doing what anyone else would do and it makes perfect sense, you've lost the up-front costs, but you might as well keep selling TVs if they are selling more than the marginal cost.

  11. Re:No they didn't. on 175 MPH Student-Built EV Smashes Speed Record · · Score: 3, Informative

    I agree - they also didn't smash the record either, as there wasn't one there to break.

    The streamliner, named “Electric Blue,” competes in the “E1” class, which includes cars weighing less than 1,100 pounds. Because electric cars rely on heavy batteries, engineering a speedy vehicle at such a light weight is very difficult. That’s why there were no prior certified speed runs for this class

    Hats off to them though, still a pretty impressive feat!

  12. Re:Now if only they could measure user experience. on Tom's Hardware Pits Newest Firefox, Opera and Chrome Against Each Other · · Score: 1

    I leave Chrome going for as long I can leave Windows going without grounding to a halt (typically about a month).

    You get a nice little update icon on the 'spanner' symbol telling you that updates are available and will be applied the next time that you restart Chrome - otherwise it leaves you alone.

  13. Sounds like a bank to me. on Feds Call Full-Tilt Poker a 'Global Ponzi Scheme' · · Score: 1

    Not enough money to cover deposits. Highly paid executives. The only difference is that it is the depositors gambling with the money NOT the compnay.

  14. Cable theft on Scientists Create New Type of Superconductor Wires · · Score: 1

    This is only going to make the problem of cable theft even worse! My train is frequently delayed because some selfish numbnut has stolen the signalling/power cables to sell the copper. Imagine what is going to happen when they find out that these cables are made out of sapphires!

  15. Re:If this was in the US... on BBC Crowdsources 3G Coverage Map · · Score: 1

    Sort of yes and no; from the Terms And Conditions:

    7. We understand from Epitiro that they will not publish any personal information or collate any personal information from your use of the App. However, the underlying data will remain the property of Epitiro who may create their own map/site afterwards.

  16. Re:Problem with face recognition on Facial Recognition Gone Wrong · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'll try a calculator next time.... :-)

  17. Problem with face recognition on Facial Recognition Gone Wrong · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was looking at facial recognition algorithms some while back, the problem is you get too many false positives.

    The problem with all of these algorithms is that it doesn't matter how accurate they are, they are only ever going to be a way to reduce the search space - you should never base a decision solely on the algorithm telling you "this is person X".

    For example, some sales person says "Hey I've got this great facial recognition software it is 99.99% accurate!" (that's better than most facial algorithms out there) sounds pretty good right! - Wrong!. Suppose you set it up to look for one terrorist at Heathrow airport. The system is likely to flag up 650 000 people a year (based on 65 million passengers a year); of course it gets even worse if you start looking for more people.

  18. Re:However, something important to keep in mind on Six-Drive SATA III SSD Round-Up Shows Big Gains · · Score: 1

    This is one of my pet hates too - it should really be GPM (Gallons per Mile); probably some conspiracy with the motor manufacturers. On another slightly related note: My car gives me an average MPG for each trip. If I do a regular trip (say to work), and I want to figure out the 'cheapest' route, I want to know the 'total fuel used' per trip. If I go for the route with the lowest average MPG figure, it might be a longer route with less stopping and starting, which actually uses more fuel overall. Of course, it gives me the distance too so I can work it out, but why not give me the 'total fuel used' information too?

  19. Re:Really bad idea. on Roundabout Revolution Sweeping US · · Score: 1

    The point I was making is that people are driving are driving slowly because it is confusing. People could be driving slowly for a number of other reasons: i) They have to stop to give way. ii) There are speed restrictions. iii) ...

  20. Re:Really bad idea. on Roundabout Revolution Sweeping US · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That roundabout is genius - it's so confusing that everyone drives really carefully and there are probably less serious accidents there than 'normal' roundabout.

  21. Re:It is a great idea, but.... on Boeing's Enormous Navy Laser Cannon · · Score: 1

    ++weather might be better - it's pretty expensive to copy.

  22. Re:Against Intellectual Property on Russian President: Time To Reform Copyright · · Score: 1

    “Against Intellectual Property” first appeared as part of the symposium Applications of Libertarian Legal Theory, published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies 15, no. 2 (Spring 2001). Copyright © 2008 Ludwig von Mises Institute

  23. Re:You know... on Students Banned From Bringing Pencils To School · · Score: 1

    No, but they have banned paintbrushes... A sad story, but really, why not wrap our kids up in cotton wool and let them do nothing?...

  24. Re:you can make monopoles on Researchers Discover "Magnetic Current" · · Score: 1

    What, like a sphere you mean?

  25. Re:No IRS exceptions for prizes. on What To Do With a Free Xbox 360 Pro? · · Score: 1

    Just looked at that. I particularly like the line:
    Bribes. If you receive a bribe include it in your income.

    Aren't bribes like illegal in the US?? on the other hand could be a typo - perhaps they meant brides?