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User: drooling-dog

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Comments · 1,898

  1. Re:Ain't it bizarre? on How To Shoot Down a Drone · · Score: 1

    When did Slashdot become a luddite website?

    It can't possibly be a nuisance because it's technology? What if we use equally advanced/recent technology to shoot them down? Then only a luddite would let them hover overhead unmolested.

  2. Re:Trading one for the other on DoD Ditches Open Source Medical Records System In $4.3B Contract · · Score: 2

    I have no knowledge of the particulars in this case, but lobbying isn't even really necessary. It's often just the revolving door: The procurement people on the government side now have very lucrative careers in the private sector to look forward to, and that is something you can never get by going with the open source solution. But who knows, maybe this time they did make the call purely on its technical merits.

  3. Politics on "Breaking Bad" At the National Institute of Standards and Technology · · Score: 3, Funny

    Here we go... A relatively routine law enforcement matter is going to become a political pseudo-scandal. Scientists are evil and corrupt, so how can we trust them about climate change or evolution? Perhaps the drugs were being made at Obama's personal request. Why else would Lamar Smith be taking and interest?

  4. Re:Hosts on the Android on Smartphone Apps Fraudulently Collecting Revenue From Invisible Ads · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've had a very good experience with this one. I'm accustomed to it now, so using someone else's computer without it (or similar) feels like swimming in a shark-infested pool with turds floating in front of my face.

  5. Re:Overpriced. on Comcast Launches Streaming Service and Unveils Pricing For 2G Fiber · · Score: 3, Informative

    only drawback is you have to buy your own endpoint gear as they will not rent it to you.

    That's a benefit, not a drawback. You'll come out ahead money-wise inside a year, and your router will be under your control.

  6. Part of the game? on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 1

    Maybe companies like Comcast are fine with WiFi saturation. They have a monopoly on the cables in most localities, so if anyone is going to challenge them as a competitive ISP, they'll have to do it wireless. Too bad for them (and good for Comcast) if wireless connections are degraded to the point of uselessness.

  7. The perplexing thing on White House Asks FISA Court To Ignore 2nd Circuit's Decision On Bulk Surveillance · · Score: 0

    The perplexing thing about all of this "Obama == Hitler" spin is that (1) his main field before he got into politics was constitutional law (he taught it at the U. of Chicago), and (2) he's only got about 18 months left on his term of office. Does it make sense that he would push for greater domestic spying powers for the waning months of his own administration, when those same powers will accrue to whomever succeeds him for their full 4 or 8 years? Could there be something else going on?

  8. Re:A Computer on Choosing the Right IDE · · Score: 1

    My first programming class: Punch cards. Punch your deck, take it to the input window, wait around an hour or two for it to run, pick up the printout at the output window, debug. Rinse, repeat until successful. The IDE was long nights at the computing center with a thermos of coffee. Finally getting a terminal and 300 baud modem at home was a really big deal.

  9. Re:gmail address == don't care if Google scans ema on Does Using an AOL Email Address Suggest You're a Tech Dinosaur? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. The idea of gmail users ridiculing AOL email addresses is giving me a good laugh. "Sure! Please spy on all of my messages and advertise to me in exchange for free email. Sign me up!". Chumps.

  10. Re:LOL LOL OMG.. HAHAHAHA on Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina Announces Bid For White House · · Score: 1

    So you're saying that interest rates are somehow being manipulated downward to hide the magnitude of the deficit? Since the deficit is a known quantity, why would anyone take that deal? In the sane world, creditors demand a premium for assuming greater risk. If there's a stronger economy out there offering a higher rate, they'll go there in a heartbeat.

  11. Re:I am a Republican voting Conservative. on House Panel Holds Hearing On "Politically Driven Science" - Without Scientists · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Republicans in power seems to be reflexively against anything "those liberals" are in favor of.

    There's a lot of that going around, for sure, but the real issue is that science always has the potential of being disruptive to established economic interests. Whether it's Big Tobacco or fossil carbon, those interests are paying the GOP serious money for protection against these kinds of disruptions.

  12. Re:LOL LOL OMG.. HAHAHAHA on Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina Announces Bid For White House · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The country is 18 trillion dollars in debt.

    And yet investors all over the world are falling over themselves to loan money to Uncle Sam at virtually zero percent interest. If the size of the deficit were considered a big problem by serious money, interest rates would be very much higher than they are.

    That said, it's been a long time (Eisenhower, maybe?) since having Republicans in the White House has been good for deficit reduction!

  13. Re:One word: Cloud on Unable To Hack Into Grading System, Georgia Student Torches Computer Lab · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would agree with you, but what we have here is an opportunity to demonstrate our upstanding character to our peers by venting self-righteousness against someone of lesser moral virtue. Before you know it, we'll be arguing over which method of execution is most appropriate, and whether the boy's family ought to be punished as well. No punishment will be quite harsh enough to quench our indignation over what this evil, horrible boy has done. We're an angry mob, and we want everyone to see it because we imagine that it makes us look virtuous. It's the American Way.

  14. Re:Hydration reminder on New Nudge Technology Prods You To Take Action · · Score: 1

    > It's called "thirst"

    Is that a new app? Where can I get that?

  15. Re:Is the math not towing the groupthink? on Social Science Journal 'Bans' Use of p-values · · Score: 1

    The math works fine; the problem is choosing the appropriate method. My hunch is that the biggest mistake in the use of stats in the social sciences is failing to correct p-values for multiple comparisons. That is, if you're hypothesis is limited to predicting an association between two variables, then p-values are just fine. But if you sent out a questionnaire with 20 questions on it and compute all 190 pairwise correlations between them, you'll get around 9 or 10 "significant" (p 0.05) but meaningless associations just by chance. You can't (or shouldn't) cherry-pick these and write them up like they mean anything. Yet many people do just this, often not realizing how the hypotheses were selected (it can sometimes be subtle, or buried in the history of the project).

  16. Re:Even more obligatory on Social Science Journal 'Bans' Use of p-values · · Score: 1

    A useful exercise (if you can use basic statistics software) that illustrates this is to generate a bunch (say, 10 or 20) of series of random numbers and then compute the matrix of correlations (or t-values, if you prefer) between all of them. You'll find that roughly 5% of the correlations are "significant" at the p.05 level, even though the series are really random and independent. It's a trivial result and just what you'd expect by chance, but it does drive the point home that you can't rely on p-values alone if you're testing multiple hypotheses. In the latter case there are corrected measures available that take this into account.

  17. Wondering... on Tracking the Weather On an Exoplanet · · Score: 2

    ...how long it will be before the climate on HD189733b becomes a political issue.

  18. Re: Lifestyle on California Looks To the Sea For a Drink of Water · · Score: 1

    It appears you're comparing total water consumption (including industrial and residential use) in other countries with residential use in California. I don't know how Cali stacks up against other states statistically, but the average you quote (178 g/day) is about 2.5X my own experience (2 person household) in Michigan.

  19. Re:If it stops them from .... on How to Prepare for an IT Security Disaster (Video) · · Score: 1

    It helps to let executive management outside of IT know that you're doing something. Maybe periodic reports detailing intrusion attempts, right down to failed SSH logins (there are always lots of those). The value of defense goes up if it's clear to everyone that you're actually under siege.

  20. Re:Disagree on Apple's Tim Cook Calls Out "Religious Freedom" Laws As Discriminatory · · Score: 1

    Private businesses are not public accommodations.

    But that's exactly what they are, if they do business with the public. When you incorporate a business, the government grants you special rights, like being able to protect your personal assets from the liabilities of your business, and having access to a stable legal system to enforce the contracts that you make. In return, you have certain responsibilities about how you conduct your business; e.g., things covered by consumer protection laws, the way you keep your accounts, and not discriminating against classes of customers and employees out of your own bigotry. You want the advantages and protections of an incorporated business without having to follow the rules of a civilized society? Tough shit.

  21. Send a letter on Senator: 'Plenty' of Domestic Surveillance We Still Don't Know About · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If a bunch of Republican senators could get together and write a letter outlining the details of these abuses, I'm sure there wouldn't be any consequences (to themselves) whether the spying is classified or not. Plus, it would be a great way to limit the powers of the federal government and stick it to Obama at the same time!

  22. Re:There's a cheaper solution on The Internet of Things Just Found Your Lost Wallet · · Score: 1

    Another advantage being that your wallet won't sit there alerting everyone to the fact that its owner isn't anywhere nearby...

  23. Re:Didn't you get the memo? on Ask Slashdot: Why Does Science Appear To Be Getting Things Increasingly Wrong? · · Score: 1

    Well, you could try making a solid, robust scientific argument that accounts for existing as well as new data. But if instead you want to put your faith in PR firms that are paid to manufacture public doubt on behalf of industries with vested interests, then you're building a political controversy and not a scientific one.

  24. In Florida... on Sugar Industry Shaped NIH Agenda On Dental Research · · Score: 1

    ...you're not even allowed to talk about tooth decay.

  25. Re:So let's give a number scail so we can't self t on Treadmill Performance Predicts Mortality · · Score: 1

    Didn't RTFA, but... Age is a pretty big part of this formula. If you're 50, thats a hit of -200 points, which is half of the entire scale. So basically we've discovered that old people are more likely than young people to die in the next decade?