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User: nickol

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Comments · 88

  1. Re:Top Secret on Russian Nuclear Scientists Arrested For 'Bitcoin Mining Plot' (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Also, in Soviet Russia coin beats you.

  2. Re:Nice Advertisement on Deep Learning Is Eating Software (petewarden.com) · · Score: 1

    If you ever worked with marketing specialists, you know that there is nothing like "deterministic and foreseeable behavior" in marketing. In fact there are few deterministic and predictable processes in business, and most likely traditional software will remain there. However, let's take a look at a typical chain of business processes of an internet store:

    advertising - far from predictable
    SEO - not deterministic
    affecting buying habits - unpredictable and informal
    placing order - yes
    processing order - yes
    shipping - well... maybe
    actual delivery - unpredictable, especially in big towns\
    user reviews, post buying behaviour - unpredictable

    So...

  3. This kind of accounting software indeed is a regional thing. It is intended for use in small to medium business and it has ready-made forms and reports. Also it reflects changes in local laws and regulations. Think of it like of a software for filling tax forms, it is not universal worldwide. In Russia there also exists the similar product, called 1C.
    Windows? Yes, it's a long story. I do not know details about Ukraine, but in Russia until 1994 there were almost no laws against software piracy. Everybody could copy Windows without any risk. As a consequence, there are too many people who know only Windows. MEDoc and 1C are too busy implementing latest laws and regulations into their products, that they have no resources for development for Linux. BTW 1C has no Linux version also. I mean, in Russia there is the same threat.
    I think nobody in Ukraine expected this.

  4. Re:I had assumed Fortran was dead on NASA Runs Competition To Help Make Old Fortran Code Faster (bbc.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As an active Fortran programmer, I'd like to tell you that it is definitely NOT the best language for any task. It is old and also spoiled by multiple improvements. It has terrible syntax. It has entertaining semantics. And it has all these implementations also, which makes things even more interesting.
    However it is not probable that someone will be able to increase the speed of the program 10000 times. For example, I recently took a Fortran program for 16-bit DOS, running in emulator (DOSBOX), and recompiled it under 64-bit Linux. This yielded speed increase of about 20 times. My personal record in this area is 200 times, but this was PL-SQL.
    10000 times could be possible if they still use, for example, IBM PC for the program, and it will be rewritten for NVIDIA-CUDA or something parallel like this. But not for the same machine. Also the task description says that the requirement is 10-1000 times speedup.

  5. Re:Will it scale? on Disposable Lasers Created Using Inkjet Printer (dailymail.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    Yes, it does. Lasers based on organic dyes are known for decades. I've seen a DIY project in 1970-s magazine. And it was large. Something like, yes, a gallon bucket. What is interesting in this new approach is that it is small.

  6. Re:Quantized inertia? on The 'Impossible' EM Drive Being Tested By NASA May Finally Be Explained (technologyreview.com) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Exactly. And this is the explaination of the effect. As you probably know, at the same time when EmDrive has been invented, there were experiments to verify if our universe is a simulation. In these experiments they tried to find a regular structure in the observations (aka modelling grid). Knowing this fact, those who run this simulation stopped the process and made some changes in the engine, so now it woks on an irregular (stochastic) grid.
    As a side effect of this, the process of modelling of microwaves bouncing in a truncated cone introduces some calculation errors that eventually leads to the movement of the cone itself.

  7. Re:Polls on Putin Says Panama Papers Part of US Plot to Weaken Russia (go.com) · · Score: 5, Funny

    I live in Russia and I can confirm that most Russians are sure that most Russians haven't heard of -- or don't care about -- the Panama Papers.

  8. The true story is somewhat different, and it is about corruption. It's Empire, you know. Darth Wader got a government contract to build a Death Star. It was built not from iron and steel, but from cheapest available materials, using non-qualified workers and third-world subcontractors. In fact, the quality of the construction was so low, that it could fire only once. The Emperor somehow was aware of this affair and arranged an investigating committee (everything goes slow in Galactic Empires). At the time of Episode 4, this committee was already on board of the Death Star. Darth Wader had to do something to get away from this trouble. And he asked his children for help. He gave drawing of the Death Star to Leia and she delivered them to rebels. Rebels successfully destroyed the Death Star and the investigating committee. The only person who could run away was Darth Wader. And later he got another contract from the government - to build another Death Star. Which was never finished.

    From the economical point of view, corruption is not good, but the waste of valuable construction materials was not so substantial. Most of the money went to Darth Wader's pockets.

  9. I tried to guess on 3 Open Source Projects For Modern COBOL Development (opensource.com) · · Score: 1

    I tried to guess before reading. At least one of these projects should be f COBOL compiler. Yes.
    There are more FORTH implementations in the world, than useful programs, written in FORTH.

  10. I doubt on Study: $1.8 Billion In Reshipping Fraud With Stolen Cards Each Year · · Score: 1

    I live in Russia and I think that this information is not completely true. Please note that $1.8 billion is a lot of money. What can I see here is that this service is not offered to a general public. It is not advertized, I knew nothing about it before reding this article.
    That means that the situation when many Americans are constantly sending things to many Russians is very improbable. What are the alternatives?
    They can send these goods to few companies or persons which later resell them in Russia. But here comes Russian customs service that tracks packages from abroad. And in this case it is technically difficult to bribe them, because there is no single customs officer who is responsible for all those packages.
    Thus, two possible scenarios, when many people send packages to many people and when many send to few are improbable (however not impossible).

  11. Re:How will this compete? on Russian Company Unveils Homegrown PC Chips · · Score: 1

    The answer is simple: they will not. Today the price of an office workstation is 200000 roubles = 5000 dollars. They are marketing these computers for government and military only. The phrase “This chip has been designed for everything connected with the extremely critical applications, such as military, information security, governance” means it is too expensive for anybody else.
    You can also see benchmarks here (in Russian, scroll down to table).

  12. Re:Licenses That Are Missing on Canadian Police Recommend Ending Anonymity On the Internet · · Score: 1

    4) License to make anonymous postings. Requires exam and health control.

  13. Re:"famous" people on Facebook Apologizes To Drag Queens Over "Real Name" Rule · · Score: 1

    It depends on the definition of what "famous" really is. My friend is a musician, and well, she is famous. In Russia. But Facebook apparently does not know abou this. They forced her to change her last name in FB account to real, and the problem is, her fans do not know (or did not know) her real name.
    On the other hand I see many people who are using nicknames or invented names on FB for years without problems. This could be because they are _not_ famous, and there is no way for FB to tell that "John Smith" is actually "James Kowalsky". Especially if this another name is actually is in a language other than English.

  14. Re:Q: Why Are Scientists Still Using FORTRAN in 20 on Why Scientists Are Still Using FORTRAN in 2014 · · Score: 1

    That's wrong. Aliasing in FORTRAN is exactly the feature that can make optimization very difficult or impossible. Aliasing was invented because computers had small memories.
    I've just finished a project in FORTRAN in geophysics, so I have some experience with this language. Why it is still in use? The answer is: scientists know it. No other reason. Projects in FORTRAN are very hard to maintain. Refactoring is also difficult. Half of the project was in FORTRAN, other half in C++. On any feature request we had a meeting to decide whether we are going to implement it in C++ or in FORTRAN and how the interface will look like.
    FORTRAN _may_ have better efficiency in some cases. For really simple programs with no memory management and no hardware interaction.
    I think that FORTRAN is a good language, but it is also an old language.

  15. What exactly is morning on Study: Exposure To Morning Sunlight Helps Managing Weight · · Score: 1

    In northern countries a day in the winter is short, in southern countries it is longer. As we do not notice big difference between body weight in north and south, what is morning exactly? Is it the time just after you wake up and turn on light? Or is it time when the Sun rises? Or what?

  16. Re:Why a Cheshire Cat? on Physicists Claim First Observation of a Quantum Cheshire Cat · · Score: 1

    This is a decent analogy. A smile without a cat and an acid trip without any acid (invented almost a century later).

  17. Re:What to read on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Books Everyone Should Read? · · Score: 1

    Karl Marx's Capital is a detailed analysis of how capitalism worked in 19th century. Just imagine a world without trade unions, patents, copyright, cinema, automobiles, telephones. It was Karl Marx's world and he described it.

  18. Re:Sci-fi, non-fiction, and a classic on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Books Everyone Should Read? · · Score: 1

    This is interesting. As a native Russian speaker I assure you that "Brothers Karamazov" is incrediby boring and tedious book with unnatural characters. One of the worst books of Dostoyevsky. On the other hand I've read "To kill a mockingbird" in translation and found it interesting. Not in "must read" category, but good enough.
    Maybe something is "found in translation".

  19. Is it a problem? on Researchers Claim Facebook Is 'Dead and Buried' To Many Young Users · · Score: 1

    Obviously teens and older people have different interests and different views, so they need different forms of expression. It is good that the separation occured by natural selection and not by advertising.

  20. Re:Sexually transmitted political power? on Geeks For Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries · · Score: 1

    At that time it worked.

  21. Re:Sexually transmitted political power? on Geeks For Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Please, put it correct: ... he is raised from birth to rule the country as is was 20 years ago by the people who supposedly knew how to rule it 60 years ago.

  22. Sexually transmitted political power? on Geeks For Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, thanks.

  23. Re:That's the BBC too then on Russia Proposes Banning Foul Language On the Internet · · Score: 1

    BBC - no. Just because the English word "fuck" has no meaning in Russian.
    But - this site is already banned in Russia

    http://ironscheme.net/

    Enjoy.

  24. The question is on One-Time Pad From Caltech Offers Uncrackable Cryptography · · Score: 1

    The question is: how soon this diffusive glass will become a forbidden substance ?

  25. Re:And here is the solution on In Brazil, Trees To Call For Help If Illegally Felled · · Score: 1

    Why use EMP ? Aluminium foil will do the job.