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User: tinkerton

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Comments · 1,983

  1. That's not cool on Headlights That See Through Rain and Snow · · Score: 3, Funny

    Use the tracking of the individual snowflakes to steer a MW laser installed on the hood of the car, that blasts all the nearby snowflakes, reducing glare.

    Now it's cool.

  2. Re:Oldest human dna on Oldest DNA Recovered From 7,000-Year-Old Skeletons In Spain · · Score: 1

    Bummer, is that so? Wait, I have a way out: definitely a neanderthal is no homo sapiens. Now there! My reputation is saved. Sorta.

  3. Re:You are citing from them ? on Oldest DNA Recovered From 7,000-Year-Old Skeletons In Spain · · Score: 1

    Why not, if it works with Microsoft? To be fair, the page I googled looked sensible. It's a defensible approach to use a sensible quote independent of the source - if it's not too much out of context.

  4. Re:You are citing from them ? on Oldest DNA Recovered From 7,000-Year-Old Skeletons In Spain · · Score: 1

    Look, I wouldn't fuck you with a 6 foot pole. Do it yourself. As for the link. blame Google. It was harder than i thought to find a good link. There are lots of other links listing ancient dna , some claiming 40 million year old snippets, and couldn't find out which claims are still standing. Most of the old ones appear to have been abandoned though, if wikipedia is a guide.

  5. Oldest human dna on Oldest DNA Recovered From 7,000-Year-Old Skeletons In Spain · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not the oldest dna, but the oldest human DNA that they've found. This site reports DNA extracted from a 20 million year magnolia leaf.

  6. Re:Vietnam on Drug-Sniffing Drones Take Flight Over Bolivia · · Score: 1

    I can just see it: a vietcong suddenly comes running straight at you, then farts and passes at top speed. And then a missile lands on your head.

  7. Next up.. on Drug-Sniffing Drones Take Flight Over Bolivia · · Score: 1

    Drug drones discover the smell of coca leaves is present in all of bolivia.

  8. Re:Can you psych it out? on Robot Hand Beats You At Rock, Paper, Scissors 100% of the Time · · Score: 1

    That would be a fallback strategy yes. The trick I was thinking about was to give the robot enough cues to make it decide, and then change the hand movement. Of course this requires that the robot isn't allowed to change its mind after it's decided.

  9. Re:Can you psych it out? on Robot Hand Beats You At Rock, Paper, Scissors 100% of the Time · · Score: 1

    It's well possible that once the robot is set up someone can learn to mislead it and turn 100% loss into 100% win.

  10. Re:Original research on ACAD/Medre.A at ESET's web on AutoCAD Worm Medre.A Stealing Designs, Blueprints · · Score: 1

    Yes, an acad.fas file next to a drawing will be loaded automatically if you open the drawing by doubleclicking on it.

  11. Re:Original research on ACAD/Medre.A at ESET's web on AutoCAD Worm Medre.A Stealing Designs, Blueprints · · Score: 1

    I checked the technical analysis document: the file involved is a fas file, that is compiled lisp. It's called acad.fas , maybe this increases the chances it gets executed automatically. The source in this case a mixture of vbs and lisp,probably the lisp file writes vbs scripts.

    Although the malware is written in AutoLISP, its main functions are carried out by Visual Basic Scripts, which are dropped and executed by the VBS interpreter built in Windows. This is shown in the following code snippet, where the VBS script was previously stored to the MK-INFO-BIN variable.

    I think it can be made by a single person.

  12. Re:SAP is horrible on Vulnerable SAP Deployments Make Prime Attack Targets · · Score: 1

    That's why it's called SAP. It drains your company of money and resources.

  13. BTW....first post! woot!! etc...

    Well you should have thought of that earlier, now it doesn't count anymore.

  14. Re:Liberals = More Educated = More Cognitive Error on Why Smart People Are Stupid · · Score: 1

    Which you then play for 10 years in a row.

  15. Re:Yeah... on Why Smart People Are Stupid · · Score: 1

    You turned your flaws into a major asset then:)
    There are more patterns: the idea basher:
    There's the danger of becoming a smart person with a large ego that is tied to an ability to bash other people's ideas, which is mostly a negative achievement.
    Or the 'powerful car, bad driver' pattern where all kinds of skills are underdeveloped because one always managed to hang on without them.
    It sounds a bit like advice for gifted kids but I got it from old books about thinking in general by an Edward de Bono.

  16. Re:Yeah... on Why Smart People Are Stupid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes you commit more mistakes when you think more about things. Guess what, you also reach a lot more correct conclusions. The best way to avoid making mistakes is not doing anything at all. Same principle.

    There are concrete things that can be done though. There are also "smart people patterns" of systematic errors in thinking. For example, smart people are better at arguing their position, hence better at defending bad decisions , allowing them to persist in bad choices. Or, smart people can suffer more from analysis paralysis. It helps then to be aware of these weaknesses so you can compensate for them.

  17. Re:Sleeper agent? on Richard Feynman's FBI Files Released · · Score: 2

    In any case since even Feynman himself didn't know he was a sleeper agent, the guys who were controlling him must have been pretty good.

  18. Re:Ugh on The Cost of Crappy Security In Software Infrastructure · · Score: 1

    but a chainsaw to the ribcage is not much better.

    Or to the neck. A guy I knew lost his brother due to a chainsaw accident.

  19. Re:links? on What Should We Do About Wikipedia's Porn Problem? · · Score: 2

    Wait'll you see the one with the amorous elephant chasing after his intended. "Look at the size of that thing!"

    Not that thing! The other thing!

  20. Re:God's experiment in free will on Debate Over Evolution Will Soon Be History, Says Leakey · · Score: 1

    I agree with the main value of religion, as a metasystem for organizing society, and keeping things from going off the rails.
    But, a few quick (and uncommon) comments.
    One, deities are not necessarily central in religion.Buddhism is often given as example but, take early Christianity, the God concept isn't that important in it. It became more central afterwards, partly because it helped the authoritarian structure in the Catholic church. In practice Catholicism then evolved to polytheism. We all know what nonsense that is of course since the only Saint that really works is Saint Anthony.
    Two, the God concept shouldn't be made into a major issue. The authoritarian aspect can be a bit problematic, but the anthropomorphism isn't a problem. We do it all the time.
    Three, don't underestimate the wisdom of these old books. It may be hard to access because it's been filtered by centuries of reinterpretation, but there was a lot of insight in it. Who's aware of the radical rejection of scapegoating in early Christianity? By the looks of it, most of christianity certainly never was.
    Four, don't overestimate people. They think they're evolved and got over religion, and promptly switch to chakras, astrology, homeopathy and crystals. Don't think of people as rationality on two legs. They aren't and they shouldn't be. Freeman Dyson is an atheist who goes to church, something that's odd for Christians but normal for Jews.
    Acknowledge that religion has complex values, including social structure and belonging.
    Five, religions sure could use a major upgrade, but the worst approach is to first try and get rid of religion, and then find a replacement.

  21. Re:Don't bet on it. on Debate Over Evolution Will Soon Be History, Says Leakey · · Score: 1

    Exactly. People forget that Occam was a barber in Seville.

  22. Re:Tycho Brahe? on Designing the World's Tiniest Manned Suborbital Vehicle · · Score: 1

    The next one will be called the 60 mile high club. It will be a bit wider and have room for two people.

  23. Re:NUKE the SUN! on Rare 'Annular Solar Eclipse' Tonight · · Score: 1

    "gnat's fart in a hurricane"

    Don't underestimate the gnat's fart effect though, there are those who claim it's even more powerful than a butterfly wingflap.

  24. Re:False positives and false negatives ... on FDA Panel Backs First Rapid, Take Home HIV Test · · Score: 1

    I don't know if it will be much lower than 7%. On one end of the spectrum, the test will show a false negative for a reason (a certain stage of the disease, or a variant)and repeating the test will give a failure for the same reason. on the other hand, the failure is random and a repeated test has 0.05% failure. And then the prescribed test procedure would indeed be to repeat it.

  25. Re:All well and good on NASA Counts 4,700 Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Asteroids · · Score: 1

    We need a nationwide network of marshmallow repositories to be kept on permanent 24/7 standby. And long sticks.