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User: Popocatepetl

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Comments · 90

  1. Re:evils of sugar on Study Ties High Blood Sugar To Dementia · · Score: 2

    Don't worry about the dementia thing too much. While it's a very strong correlation, it only increases the risk of developing dementia to 120% of normal for nondiabetics and 140% of normal for diabetics, which is still only about 1-2% of the people in their study.

    About a quarter of the participants (524 of 2067) developed dementia over the course of the study. I'm not sure where you got the 1-2% figure. Perhaps you are referring to the p-values, but p indicates how likely it would be to observe the data if the null hypothesis were true.

  2. A possible solution on Wikipedia and the Politics of Verification · · Score: 1

    There does seem to be a solution to many of the problems found on Wikipedia. The solution is as follows: allow all of the junk edits to stay but choose a default or canonical version of the article according to how many people have adopted it as a version they trust. You could incorporate various meta rankings to weight individual trust scores if you want. You would also need to make it easy for people to review non-canonical versions of the article. The result would be like browsing slashdot comments at 5.

  3. Re:Midwest on Obama Announces for President, Boosts Broadband · · Score: 1

    Kick out the supports from the sugar market and the rest of the sector will compensate partially by switching to cheaper sugar. That wouldn't solve all of the problems you outline, but it could be one part of a strategy.

  4. Stuck? on Space Elevator Going Up · · Score: 1

    I hope they invlude a stairway in case of a power outage.

  5. Re:Mozilla? on Seven Spam Filters Compared · · Score: 1

    I like your idea of comparing client-based filters.

    SpamKiller is another filter that operates on the user's machine.

  6. Re:My opinion.. on Matrix Reloads to $42.5 Million Opening · · Score: 1

    I agree, the depth of this movie is fantastic. It is definitely better than the first movie, which I thought was pleasant to watch, but shallow. It was always clear in the first movie, for example, that machines were exploiting people and people were just sleeping through their lives. In contrast, Reloaded does not force a particular point of view, rather it presents a lot of questions with threads of plot that meet and diverge in both obvious and subtle ways.

  7. Re:Apple Trash Icon Patent on Slashback: Humility, Patents. Vapor.com · · Score: 1

    A giant joke read by many thousands of people. Who's on a "Jihad?"

  8. Free Mac for Val Campaign on Microsoft PR Rep is the Switcher · · Score: 1

    Apple should offer a free Mac to her.

  9. Re:Um, how would anything change? on How Could TV Survive Without Commercials? · · Score: 1

    Hmmm - 0% APR financing, it looks good, and it's in my price range - I'll have to check that out this weekend...

  10. Re:Um, how would anything change? on How Could TV Survive Without Commercials? · · Score: 1

    Particular ads *do* work on particular people at particular times. If you are looking to buy a new car, but are as yet undecided, an ad for a car can make a difference. You are likely to pay attention to that kind of ad, while ignoring ads for cat food because you don't have a cat, but if you ever did get a cat maybe you'd buy Meow Mix because you know about it from all of those ads...

  11. Test on Gates and Lasser on Palladium · · Score: 1

    Test

  12. Imagine on WorldCom to File for Chapter 11 Protection · · Score: 0

    The Chapter 11 filing by WorldCom would follow once high-flying companies like energy trader Enron Corp. and Global Crossing Ltd. ...

    Imagine a...wait...

    There is a Beowulf cluster of these!

  13. Possible MS Project Names on Microsoft Freon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft is running out of destructive chemicals/materials to use as product codenames.

    Here are some suggestions so they can continue to innovate:

    Plutonium - the "most powerful" platform
    Asbestos - Microsoft's new embedded platform
    Acrylamide - for next generation restaurant machinery
    Lead Paint Chips - top-secret, pervasive computing initiative

  14. Re:Windows update: patched and go. on Microsoft Discloses Security Flaws in XP and WMPlayer · · Score: 1

    Until computer science reaches the point where a compiler can proof that software is security flaw free...

    Two words: halting problem

  15. Re:scribled not writes on Comparison Of Google to Teoma · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In clear English, that would be:

    I am a pedant.

  16. Re:Linux FUD on The Ideas Behind Longhorn · · Score: 1

    Try to restart the Apache service without simply rebooting the whole machine. What's that command again? Type "?" or "help" and you get a screen full of completely useless crap.

    apachectl restart

  17. Re:Whoa on Microsoft's 'Palladium' Privacy/DRM Scheme · · Score: 1

    And yet here you are taking the time to read and respond to it. Funny, isn't it?

  18. Re:I have a hunch.... on Microsoft's 'Palladium' Privacy/DRM Scheme · · Score: 1

    "Though Microsoft does not claim a panacea, the system is designed to dramatically improve THEIR ability to control and protect OUR personal and corporate information."

    Take out "and protect" and you have a complete translation.

  19. Some Books on General IT Books? · · Score: 1

    Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment - a bit outdated, but still good; does not cover kernel internals
    The Practice of Programming - good tips related to style, algorithms & data structures, debugging, etc.
    UNIX System Administration Handbook- actually shows you how to get stuff done
    Concrete Mathematics - to help you understand The Art of Computer Programming

  20. Re:Workstations bad. on Making Users Back Up Important Data? · · Score: 1

    Then, if need be, pick a sacrifical lamb. Back up their harddrive, then engineer a 'hard disk failure.' Make sure something important was there, that wasn't properly placed onto the fileserver. This'll drive the point home.

    That is unethical. I am surpised nobody has pointed that out yet. For one thing, it is dishonest.

    I do not trust you or anyone else here who condones that behavior to manage my network in a responsible manner.

  21. Re:QT? on Games in High School? · · Score: 1

    From SlangSite.com:

    QT: 1)Quality Time. 2)as part of the phrase on the QT, off the record or in confidence

    Example: Did I tell you? Amber Lynn and I have been enjoying a LOT of QT lately... but if Holmes finds he'll kill me so keep it on the QT okay?
  22. Re:BayTSPs netblocks on Pardon, Is This Your File? · · Score: 1

    ASN Explorer produces these results for 14478:

    216.49.32.0/19
    216.218.207.0/24

  23. Re:Not going into orbit on Rocket Guy Getting Closer - But No Firm Launch Date · · Score: 1

    "Space" and the associated term "space environment" are used to mean various things, but we can define "space" (or "outer space") as beginning above the troposphere (altitude 10 km) and the environment of that region as the "space environment."
    - from http://spaceboy.nasda.go.jp/qanda/qanda_e/qspaceen v_e.html

  24. Re:Things to bear in mind on What is Well-Commented Code? · · Score: 1

    i stands for "index". It is not appropriate to describe what the index is indexing in the index variable's name because the index is not the thing being indexed!

  25. Mr McIndoe on Echelon Architect Interviewed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is not like the interview revealed anything. Absolutely nothing of importance was mentioned that you can not find elsewhere. The thing is, I think this interview is real.

    This doesn't prove the case, but Bruce McIndoe is mentioned on the net. Here is his official biographical blurb on IJet's web site: . Everything there corroborates the interview. His bio hypes him up, but that doesn't mean it is totally false.

    I just don't understand why everyone is so skeptical about this interview. It wasn't even particularly interesting. I would understand the cynicism if Mr McIndoe had actually said something of interest, but since he said exactly the things (nothing juicy or outrageous or even anything more than mildly interesting) I would expect someone to say who is involved in such projects, I don't have any reason to doubt the credibility of the article.