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User: rs1n

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  1. Re:And this is why on Alan Cox to NVIDIA: You Can't Use DMA-BUF · · Score: 2

    If NVIDIA were the only GPU makers then your concern would make for a stronger point. However, there are other GPU makers: ATI and Intel for example.

  2. Prior Art: Check UIUC Cave on Microsoft Patent Details Whole-Room Projection Game Environment · · Score: 4, Informative

    This was already done by UIUC -- they have "caves" in the Beckman Institute that already do this, and I believe they even played Quake II in there.

    Beckman Institute Cave link: http://isl.beckman.illinois.edu/Labs/CAVE/CAVE.html

    Quake II in cave: http://www.visbox.com/prajlich/caveQuake/

  3. Google should not have to change anything on Germany's Former First Lady Sues Google · · Score: 1

    The fact that the search suggestion appears is merely a reflection of the information that is currently out there -- whether factual or not. She should be going after the party(s) responsible for the character assassination (and Google can help, actually, to find the perpetrators).

  4. Very unlikely anything would happen... on Most Torrent Downloaders Are Monitored, Study Finds · · Score: 1

    There are several reasons why I think reverse class action suits or even fine-per-infraction would happen. If all you do is download, then the copyright holders would have to not only identify you (and IP's are not reliable) but also get around fair use (depending on where you live) in the case where you download content you've already purchased. If you're also seeding, then chances are you will probably get caught sooner or later.

  5. Apologies? Nah... on ArenaNet Suspends Digital Sales of Guild Wars 2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To be honest, I do not think it is necessary. Most folks know what is right from wrong in real life. The fact that it is a game means very little.

  6. Re:Here is the Copy/Pasted Context, Please Show Me on Misunderstanding of Prior Art May Have Led to Apple-Samsung Verdict · · Score: 2

    So your interpretation requires both an unlikely parsing of the actual quote, and unreasonableness from the jurors. I'll take the simpler explanation, no pro-Apple bias needed.

    Except for the fact that the jury botched their own decisions -- awarding damages on products that don't infringe, for example. Twice, at that. This is just as "unlikely" for most folks as your proposition.

  7. Has a patent and yet does not understand prior art on Misunderstanding of Prior Art May Have Led to Apple-Samsung Verdict · · Score: 1

    I do not know how this could even be possible given that the foreman has a patent of his own. Surely he had to deal with the possibility of prior art (or at least be made of aware of that that is) when he applied for his own patent.

    Having read a lot of discussion regarding the qualifications of the jury, I thought they looked good -- on paper. However, when you account for the fact that most of them are fairly old, I cannot help but hold reservations on whether they are still "up-to-date" with today's technology, laws, etc. To me, this jury is highly unqualified for this case.

  8. Re:US women prefer circumcised penises on US Doctors Back Circumcision · · Score: 2
    Here is the actual info from Wikipedia:

    Wildman & Wildman (1976) surveyed 55 young women in Georgia, US, where most men are circumcised, and reported that 47 (89%) of respondents preferred the circumcised penis (the remainder preferred the noncircumcised penis).[41] Williamson et al. (1988) studied randomly selected young mothers in Iowa, where most men are circumcised, and found that 76% would prefer a circumcised penis for achieving sexual arousal through viewing it.[42]

    A sample size of 55 all from Georgia is hardly representative of the normal population. What would be really interesting is a survey done on women on whether they can even distinguish an erect, circumcised penis from one that is erect and not circumcised. When the penis is erect, the foreskin is naturally pulled back and an uncircumcised penis will not look that much different from a circumcised one.

  9. Doctor bias on US Doctors Back Circumcision · · Score: 1

    Here's one youtube video on why circumcision is biased: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruJ62wHpHuw There was another one by a Jewish doctor who DOES NOT advocate circumcision. I cannot seem to find it, now. From what I have read, it appears that even today many doctors still do not know just precisely what the foreskin's function is (more precisely, the literature on this subject is quite lacking). On top of that, there seems to be a lack in education on how to care for the foreskin -- in part because the current situation is such that most men are likely circumcised, so any literature on skin care would be useless for a large number of men. I am also curious how many doctors today also follow religious or cultural practices of circumcision, further adding bias to the debate.

  10. Re:Inman's suit against Carreon on Charles Carreon Drops Case Against the Oatmeal · · Score: 1

    One of the commenting websites (I forget which) noted that Carreon and his wife were upset that his email was used to sign up for porn sites. I would wager that perhaps a Carreon supporter (or he himself) may be attempting to seek retribution by doing something in the same vein.

  11. Hopefully they will soon make the realization that on Another Afghan School Poisoned — 160 Girls Hospitalized · · Score: 1

    even if they want a society in which women are subservient, they still need women. Even at the most basic level, you cannot have sons without a mother. It is a pity, though, that some people feel so threatened by others of different gender (or race, education, etc) that they must resort to violence.

  12. Up next, education on FDA May Let Patients Buy More Drugs Without Prescriptions · · Score: 1

    Soon, the government will further cut costs by removing all teachers from public education, and let citizens simply take online courses. How about we stop make cuts in places that don't need cuts, and cut out stuff like ridiculous travel expenses for congressmen?

  13. This cannot and will not work on FDA May Let Patients Buy More Drugs Without Prescriptions · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A few of my acquaintances are pharmacists, and one of their biggest contributions to the overall health and care of patients is drug interaction and reconciliation. Basically, what this means is that they check that a patient's drugs do not interact with each other in a negative way. They also help patients reduce the number of dependencies on medication. When you start to automate this process, you will need to have a centralized system that handles all patients' drug information as you have now removed the role of various trained medical professionals. A patient will not know that his need for a prescriptive drug may adversely affect his health because he is already taking another drug. That's sort of why we have pharmacists and doctors.

  14. Re:How come everyone in the movie is white? on Travelling Salesman, Thriller Set In a World Where P=NP · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I often wonder why people invoke racism so often when it comes to these issues when the reality is... disadvantaged white kids often fare pretty poorly too. If one of your strongest indicators, do you really need race to explain why, generation after generation, racial dmeographics shift less than we "would like".

    Yes the smartest in this society are probably mostly a bunch of white guys. Not because being white makes you better, or smarter, but because there are more white people who can give their children the opportunity to advance. Which isn't to say that being white people gave them that ability, but just that, the "initial condition" that we started with has done more to influence the outcome than we want to give it credit.

    In short, I often feel racism is used as an excuse to deny the lack of real mobility within society....because if you don't think race/genetics is a major factor, then how do you explain the "lack of progress" along racial lines, if there is very high mobility? Seems to me it may be the lack of real mobility.

    The lack of real mobility is a myth. I can say this because I come from a family that emigrated and came to the United States and started off on welfare, living in government projects, and going to very poorly supported schools. What made the difference for me were parents to valued education and pushed their kids to go beyond what was considered average. They convinced me, my siblings, and themselves, that the government handouts were temporary aids for us, and that continuing to live off the government when we have the ability to eventually make it on our own is shameful. My parents were farmers and made it as far as completing elementary school back in their homeland. So it isn't as if they had a great start, either. Yet my siblings and I, on the other hand, completed college, and I completed my Ph. D. in mathematics -- and we all went through public schools prior to college. If I were an exception, then we might call it "lack of mobility." The problem I see is that our government has made it too easy for those who have to rely on its social programs to do it for so long. For many, it is much easier to accept a very modest, but not-uncomfortable lifestyle of welfare and food stamps rather than to make an honest effort to move out of their current conditions.

    Many immigrants who come to the US will have very similar stories of how they or their parents moved to the US with hopes of finding better opportunities. They often come from places where the conditions are so terrible that even the living in government projects and relying on the US welfare system is heavenly in comparison. Yet they do not fall into the welfare trap and eventually contribute to society like the rest of US citizens who were born and raised here. What they have that a lot of folks who are "stuck on welfare" is a drive. In my own parents' case, what drove them was their belief that if they could escape a communist government (that sought to execute anyone who defied it) by risking everything on a 2-piston boat set off into unknown waters, then they can certainly get out of welfare. This drive is lacking in a lot of families who are currently relying on government programs (I'm referring to families in which welfare reliance occurs for generations).

  15. Re:Just keep in mind the tradeoff on Indian Gov't Uses Special Powers To Slash Cancer Drug Price By 97% · · Score: 1

    I'd like to add that in determining the cost of "selling, informational and administrative expenses" they probably include their assessed value of the samples which they give. And if they are charging excessively high prices, that gets figured into the costs of samples. If pill A costs $1,000 (but arguably should only cost, say, $100), think of how much of that inflated 4.6 billion is inflated by ridiculous prices.

  16. Re:I'd fire them on Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials · · Score: 1

    banned from all parts of the government in which security _could_ be an issue.

    Its not an issue of NATO officials using social networks at work vs home. Its one of revealing personal or family movements to foreign intelligence agents. Someone being deployed overseas, or attending a secret meeting can inadvertently reveal this when they post changing contact details. Or when their kids start posting photos of their friends at the new expatriate school.

    The emphasis on _could_ was intentional, and in fact was meant to include what you've described.

  17. Re:No damage on Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials · · Score: 1

    This is disputable. Your personal information may be considered a security risk and need to be kept private -- possibly even for your own safety. For example, your spouse may work for the CIA, and your spouse may not even have a Facebook account. However, the "enemy" tracking your spouse would find some very useful information about your address should they happen to know that their target is also married to you. Then you post something like "*sigh* my husband/wife will be gone again, and I'll miss him/her so much" and suddenly they know he/she is on a mission.

  18. I'd fire them on Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials · · Score: 2

    While hindsight is 20/20, common sense should have prevailed when it comes to Facebook and security. Social networks should, on a general basis, be banned from all parts of the government in which security _could_ be an issue.

  19. Sleeping pills not necessarily the cause... on Those Sleeping Pills May Be Killing You · · Score: 2

    ...it could be the fact that those who have trouble sleeping are pre-dispositioned to having lower mortality. The fact that they also taking sleeping pills is a side issue. I'm just sayin...

  20. I already have this on my iPhone 4S on Transparency Grenade Collects and Leaks Sensitive Data · · Score: 1

    Open up a dictation and it will record everything to text. The 4S has a special processor to even handle the filtering of noise. There's really nothing new here...

  21. Not really bloat on A Rant Against Splash Screens · · Score: 1

    Most programs (I'd like to think) use a splash screen so that users know that when they started the program, something is actually loading since a lot of programs take some time to load (i.e. it's not "instantaneous"). Having something there to say "yeah, we're working on your request; give us a second or two.." helps pass the time. On the other hand, programs that have a splash screen just for the sake of a splash screen... then yes, that is additional bloat no matter how small.

  22. Enforcing patents on the internet..a bit late, no? on Texas Jury Strikes Down Man's Claim to Own the Interactive Web · · Score: 1

    Anyone claiming to have patents on fundamental aspects of the internet, even if said patent were valid, would and should not be given any benefit. If their patent is indeed valid, it would have had to have been given well before the internet ever came into being, so most of those patents would have to be well over 10 years ago. That is way too long to be sitting on a patent and not enforcing until now, after everyone has well been using it.

  23. The real problem is stupid voters... on Why Politicians Should Never Make Laws About Technology · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Instead of electing educated scientists and engineers (see China) to office, we instead elect people whose qualifications are in social sciences. That is, the politicians we often end up choosing are mostly good at manipulating people with their rhetoric (and the masses fall for it); but they are pretty stupid when it comes to technical details. Furthermore, your average Joe is intimidated by the nerds (hence the term "nerd"). We often say "Oh I suck at math" when that term is brought up, and that is too often the typical response by the average American. We're too proud of being stupid, and then we elect stupid politicians to office to run our country.

  24. Re:Why not just make Win8 secure? on MS To Build Antivirus Into Win8: Boon Or Monopoly? · · Score: 1

    Then you haven't properly designed a secure system. If you already know that Grandma and many typical users have a tendency to do stupid things, the solution isn't AV -- it's either 1) educate the user (which isn't going to happen) or 2) redesign your system so that such a problem that has been known for decades does not perpetuate into newer versions of .

  25. Why not just make Win8 secure? on MS To Build Antivirus Into Win8: Boon Or Monopoly? · · Score: 0

    The point of an anti-virus protection is to fix or patch up an insecure system. The reason we have viruses is because there are design flaws that enable them to even be effective. On the other hand, even the most effective AV systems are out of date by design. At best, they can handle the viruses that are already in the wild. Any predictive feature of any AV system still relies on knowing where the virus writers might attack. But if you knew that much, why not just patch your system so it no longer becomes an attack vector.