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User: tobiah

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  1. False Positives and False Negatives on One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working With the FBI (buzzfeednews.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I developed algorithms and code for a genetic testing company, mostly aimed at infectious diseases. But one day the FBI came calling to see if our system could be used for identifying people, seeing as it was 30-120minutes and fully automated. Spit on one side, get an answer on the other.

    Sure, so I was briefly sent to the new alphabet-outreach department to look at that. And their test was based on matching 5 phenotypes out of 6. Worked well when it was first developed on 100 volunteers. In our test database of bit less than 200k subject samples, we'd get 0-10 positive matches for anyone in the lab, usually more than one. We'd also get false negatives, where we'd put someone's dna in the database and a new test would miss it. This is due to things like sample error, corruption, and genetic drift. Turns out the body is constantly evolving, and over 20 years blood genes are unlikely to match hair samples. In that 20 year span a hair sample may not match the previous one, due to drift.

    I suggested they look at more than 6 phenotypes to improve accuracy, was told that's the standard and its not changing, and dropped from the team a few days later.

  2. isolation on Adding New DNA Letters Make Novel Proteins Possible (economist.com) · · Score: 1

    I really hope this is happening in an off-world level 5 containment facility.

  3. How can a corporation commit a crime? on Tidal Under Criminal Investigation In Norway Over 'Faked' Streams (engadget.com) · · Score: 1

    Or if it can, how can a living being commit a crime? What are these things?

    For me, a crime means one being harming another. If a security guard steals my tootsie pop, it was not done by the imaginary corporation paying him in imaginary dollars. It was done by a dunce in a poorly fitting uniform. It was done physically, by a physical being, in the name of an imaginary being.

    So I return to the original question: How can Tidal, a fictional corporation, face criminal charges? If found guilty will it be sent to jail? What is jail for a fiction? We are banned from thinking about it for a period? Who's in jail?

  4. lawyers still try on 'Send Noncompete Agreements Back To the Middle Ages' (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    Two California companies I signed with had NCAs. Rather than argue with legal I just crossed those section out, and any other I didn't like, then signed it. Didn't hear any complaints back.

  5. My uncle Richard Fernsler came up with a method, late 1970s I recall, for identifying where lightning will strike, which helped launch his career as an exotic weapon developer for the Navy. His publications only hint at what actually gets built (functioning yet buggy unpredictable prototypes).
    https://journals.ametsoc.org/d...

  6. cool, thanks

  7. Re:U.S. Living Will Registry on An Unconscious Patient With a 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE' Tattoo (nejm.org) · · Score: 1

    lovely, thanks for sharing

  8. blockchain to the rescue on Tim Berners-Lee on the Future of the Web: 'The System is Failing' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Web 3.0 will most likely be built on blockchain technology, and resolve most of the issues mentioned above. e.g. advertising: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse...

  9. Re:Laughing, fear, and soon governments collapse on Russian Central Bank To Ban Websites Offering Crypto-currencies (reuters.com) · · Score: 0

    It does appear that blockchain technology will make banks and their governments branches obsolete. Hopefully this is followed by a Charles Eisenstein-style More Beautiful World of personal and mutual responsibility, rather than a Mad Max-style cage match.

  10. Re:And Nourse's _Blade Runer_ was excellent. on Why Is 'Blade Runner' the Title of 'Blade Runner'? (vulture.com) · · Score: 2

    Setting: Dystopia with eugenics gone wrong:

    Still waiting for a "eugenics gone right" story..

  11. May we all be so lucky

  12. ..or too blind

  13. Good summary of established technology, but cost is a red herring:
    1) Moores Law may not be as fast for manufacturing, but it still holds that things get cheaper on repetition. Cars, TVs and computers all used to be luxury items for the well-off.
    2) I've done a fair amount of coding for DNA/RNA analysis, and the resulting assays cost a few hundred dollars to run. A profitable $1000 test could be developed that IDs the cancer and describes the treatment in a few years time. An alternative to monoclonal antibodies is antisense drugs, which directly redirect/reprogram DNA of specific organs of the body. Antisense can be remarkably quick to produce, as the delivery package (retroviruses,etc.) are generic and there are various commercially available machines that mass-produce the genetic sequence of your choice. Isis Pharmaceuticals is one that's been working on antisense drugs for nearly 30 years, ten years ago I'd watch their R&D spit out a dozen possible drugs per day. Not hard to write D/RNA, not hard to read it, just need to bring those worlds together, along with a big database and proper analysis tools.
    D/RNA looks just like software code, with start/end markers, execute statements, comments, etc. A rapid read-write interface is only a matter of time.

  14. lol

  15. lol

  16. Re:What the source code could show? on CIA Tricked Antivirus Programs, Claims WikiLeaks (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    Cold litter ate my source code.

  17. Re:The problem is that it's so very plausible on UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We're Losing It (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 1

    And sometimes it takes a few decades for the truth to come out. Look at the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
    http://fair.org/media-beat-col... ..or Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Two wars based on lies.

    Immoral government and compliant media makes everything they say questionable.
    "Fraud vitiates everything"

  18. ThePirateBay rocks on on Swedish Court Rules: 'Block the Pirate Bay For Next 3 Years' (fossbytes.com) · · Score: 1

    This is such a minor hit, and they survive the big ones. Burden of proof is well on the censorship side, if they went away today pirate bay would live in-memory for thousands of years.
    In any case sounds more like a few Swedes will have to type in thepiratebay.ee to get their torrents, for a week or two, until the censors give up blocking those 600 participants..

  19. Re:Youtube is the biggest offender on US Government Targets Pirate Bay and Other 'Piracy Havens' (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 1

    Too true. Too bad I can't get ebooks and software off youtube..

  20. Re:Let the hate flow through you on US Government Targets Pirate Bay and Other 'Piracy Havens' (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 1

    Beautifully put, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

  21. Re:"self investigate" == alt.right on Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    good points, hope the accuracy catches on

  22. tool to manage facebook on Facebook Rolls Out Code To Nullify Adblock Plus' Workaround (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    this plug-in still blocks ads and does many other things to make facebook tolerable: http://www.fbpurity.com/

  23. Re:Put your money where your mouth is on Ontario Parents Refusing To Vaccinate Their Children Could Be Forced to Take Science Class (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    I've met many parents with children they believe were damaged by vaccines, some rather severely. My daughter is remarkably vibrant, yet has never had a vaccination shot. I'm not necessarily opposed, but as we've considered each vaccine, that one at that time seemed unnecessary or unhealthy.

  24. Re:Whats the CIA doing this for on CIA Left Inert Explosives On School Bus After Exercise (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    good point, the CIA is not allowed to operate in the USA ..or in my kid's school

  25. Today's Facebook is tomorrow's MySpace on Facebook's 'Closed Silos' Pose Challenges To Open Web · · Score: 1

    ..or AOL, if anyone still remembers that one.