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User: I(rispee_I(reme

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Comments · 741

  1. Re:CRC on Ask Slashdot: How Do I De-Dupe a System With 4.2 Million Files? · · Score: 1

    GPL.txt

  2. Re:Say what? on Tree's Leaves Genetically Different From Its Roots · · Score: 2

    Those who want to read it need not settle for a wikipedia editor's summary.

    The story was originally printed in the March 1962 issue of Amazing Stories. Scan available here.

    Also, Asimov's original title for the story, "What Is This Thing Called Love?" is restored in his short story collection, "Nightfall and Other Stories".

  3. Re:Really? on Barnes & Noble Cuts Prices on Nook Color, Tablet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cyanogenmod 7 runs on the Nook Color, making it a full-fledged android tablet, now for 10% less money.

    While technically the Nook Color still something of a content feeder spoon, since the tablet form factor lends itself more to consumption of content than creation, it's not strictly a pipeline for Barnes and Noble content, as your post implies.

    I use mine mainly to read comic book scans. Now, for a modest $149,. you can read every Batman ever.

  4. Re:Not surprised on uTorrent Adds "Featured Torrents" Ads — With No Opt Out (Yet) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Running 2.2.1 here, also.

    It can be found here, if anyone is seeking it.

    Fair warning: Versions prior to 1.8 don't support magnet links.

  5. Re:iTunes is great on Google To Start Punishing Pirate Sites In Search Results · · Score: 1
  6. Re:ummm... Thanks? on Mexico Kills 8 Million Chickens To Contain H7N3 Virus · · Score: 1

    More like real life Zelda.

  7. Re:no, totally wrong on Why Internet Pirates Always Win · · Score: 1

    Our culture simply doesn't value non-corruption. So maybe we need to yield to others who do have such a culture.

    Chinese officials face the death penalty for accepting bribes. I predict they will go far with such a policy.

  8. Re:Forced Upgrades? on Why We Love Firefox, and Why We Hate It · · Score: 4, Informative

    Firefox version history.

    Note that the 3.6.x lineage continues to receive updates to fix security holes and improve stability. The most recent was March 13, 2012.

    The download is here.

    Install it, set the appropriate update options, and enjoy.

    Best of all, I have yet to encounter an extension that doesn't work with it.

    The trick is to disable extension version checking.

    Most extensions will work fine, even when Firefox says they won't (based on the extension target version number not matching your Firefox version).

  9. Re:It won't happen on Mathematician Predicts Wave of Violence In 2020 · · Score: 4, Informative
  10. Re:Worserridge's Law of Headlines on How Much Detail Is Too Much For Games? · · Score: 1

    This week in Time: "Is Betteridge's Law of Headlines Still Valid?"

  11. Re:Wasn't this the plot of a movie? on Australian Billionaire Wants To Build Jurassic Park-Style Resort · · Score: 2

    Not in the novel. Spielberg changed the ending of the movie to allow for a sequel.

  12. Re:But the real question is... on Koch Bros Study Finds Global Warming Is Real And Man-Made · · Score: 1

    1990's - "But the real question is, is climate change really occurring?"

    2000's - "But the real question is, is climate change caused by humans?"

    2010's - "But the real question is, is climate change a good thing or a bad thing?"

    2020's - "But the real question is, how will we deal with this famine?"

    The only climate change deniers for a long time now are people who are either too lazy to change or have a stake in not changing. Looking at you, auto and oil industries.

  13. Re:Should rename to derpa on Feds Plan 'Fog of Disinformation' To Track Information Leaks · · Score: 1

    Phone books also do this, since the list of phone numbers is not eligible for copyright.

    If another party publishes a list of numbers containing the mistakes, that proves they didn't compile their list independently.

  14. Re:Let the guy fucking rest already... on How Steve Jobs Changed Google Plus · · Score: 1

    Actually, it's my understanding that patent terms in Hell are quite reasonable- life of the creator plus 7 years.

  15. Re:priacy 2.0 on China Secretly Clones Austrian Village · · Score: 1

    Well, to be fair to Scotland, my research indicates that the Tennessee Parthenon is made of concrete, while the Scottish one is made of stone.

    Obviously, no true Scotsman fashions a temple out of concrete. ;)

  16. Re:Collected Short Stories on Ray Bradbury Has Died · · Score: 1

    This is the much better Bradbury collection. I have both, and the one you linked to omits some classics, in favor of his more recent work.

    Also, I was just researching Ray the other day, spurred by thoughts of his story of being compelled to "LIVE FOREVER!" at a carnival... I found this picture, which makes me laugh a little. You can almost see the thought balloons:

    Ray: "Why yes, it IS an honor to have your picture taken with me.
    Laura: "I thought this award was for CHRISTIAN authors..."
    George: "First man on Mars, hell of a guy!"

  17. Re:priacy 2.0 on China Secretly Clones Austrian Village · · Score: 2
  18. Re:Go Firefox! on Firefox 13 Released, Debuts Brand New Tab Page and Homepage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I tried Chromium. There is a problem: I've become addicted to tree-style tabs, courtesy of the Firefox extension.

    Chromium/Chrome had this feature natively for a long time, until the developers disabled it in a sneaky-Pete maneuver that pissed off a bunch of people.

    The obvious response, to write a Chromium extension for Tree-Style Tabs, is not an option. The Chromium plugin API does not expose the functionality necessary to do so.

    Webkit (Chromium/Chrome's layout engine) seems to be a little faster than Gecko (Firefox's equivalent), but I would prefer to use a browser that gives the user (ME!) control over it, even at the cost of some rendering speed.

    The time I would gain in rendering efficiency would probably be lost trying to scan this, as opposed to this.

  19. Re:Do they realise... on 'Eco-Anarchists' Targeting Nuclear and Nanotech Workers · · Score: 1

    For shame. I assumed you were talking about Leia.

  20. Re:It's not just specialization, there is also fea on Where's HAL 9000? · · Score: 1

    '"'That would be #2 "Ignore the premise that the CR supports and pick on the illustration'"

    Those who use analogies should be prepared to defend them. I admire the craft displayed in the creation of the Chinese Room scenario. It seems on the surface to be a well-intended thought experiment for the purpose of shedding light on whether Artificial Intelligence is possible. Upon closer examination, the conclusion forced by it is foregone, and it serves primarily to insult the author's opposition.

    A better thought experiment would be to replace the human with a black box that behaves exactly the same. For some reason, the presence of a human in the room incites an emotional response. Stripped of the author's semantic legerdemain, it is no longer so certain that the room does not "understand Chinese".

    In any case, I target the premise directly. The premise, as I understand it, is that the "Chinese Room" does not understand Chinese, and that's it's absurd to suggest that a room could do so.

    However, that fails to take into account that, in the Chinese Room scenario, the human occupant is part of the room, and by all accounts understands Chinese. Ignoring this is like removing the hardware from a workstation enclosure before benchmarking it.

    Ultimately, the measure of "understanding Chinese" is being able to carry on a meaningful conversation in Chinese. The alternative is to define thinking as "something humans do". If that's your perspective, I'll grant nothing but a human will ever be able to perform actions that by definition can be performed only by a human. (I suspect that even if our intellect is surpassed by machinery, homo sapiens will remain unsurpassed in its tautological vanity.)

    Would you say that a Chinaman's brain does not understand Chinese, since there's no Chinaman inside his skull to understand Chinese for him?

    Wikipedia lists five categories of replies to the Chinese Room scenario. You only listed 4. The omission is left as an exercise for any interested parties.

  21. Re:It's not just specialization, there is also fea on Where's HAL 9000? · · Score: 1

    Doug Hofstadter refutes it by pointing out that no human could ever perform the actions attributed to the human in the Chinese Room. I believe he also (it's been a while since I read "Le Ton beau de Marot") goes on to mention that the analogy is dishonest, by virtue of an inclusion of a human in the room.

    If the instructions in the book suffice to understand and reply to the room's input, then there is no need for a human to occupy the room. The legerdemain is offloading the capability of reading the book and arranging the characters to this human occupant.

    If, after a long, meaningful conversation via written Chinese, the door to the Chinese Room were broken down to reveal no one inside, it would be hard to refute the idea that the room "understands Chinese".

    The point of the Turing test is that whether or not the machine is "really" intelligent does not matter- it is debatable whether humans are, in fact- but rather, that "the proof is in the pudding", or, as I prefer, "stupid is as stupid does."

  22. Re:Blocked for being post-mediaeval on Pakistan Blocks Twitter Over 'Blasphemous' Images · · Score: 1

    There has never been a Jainist theocracy, so I'll consider your rebuttal mere conjecture. I'm sure that if a Jainist government ever committed genocide, the true Scotsman would make an appearance anyway.

    To my knowledge, every religion that has had power has abused it.

    For what it's worth, cursory googling reveals that Jainism is historically a religion of the upper castes, and that Jainism perpetuates a caste system.

  23. Re:Blocked for being post-mediaeval on Pakistan Blocks Twitter Over 'Blasphemous' Images · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I find it instructive to reframe discussions regarding belief in god as discussions regarding belief in unicorns.

    "Not believing in Unicorn/unicorn(s) is not the the same as believing there is/are no Unicorn/unicorn(s)." is thus easily revealed as the semantic niggling that it is. Either there's unicorns or there ain't; if there are, you believe in them.

    Also, Christianity in the U.S. only seems benevolent to the extent that it does because Christianity's become a toothless tiger after 200+ years of secular legislation forcing Christians to treat other human beings like human beings. Christianity, or any other religion, unchecked would be indistinguishable from radical Islam given free rein. The pretense of infallibility leaves no room for civil liberties.

    In keeping with the article's theme, let's all laugh at historical Islamic hubris: 12th century Muslim sultan tries to demolish the Great Pyramids; fails.

  24. Re:So why the right hand? on The Science of Handedness · · Score: 1

    There is also a theory that using the right hand for complex tasks allows primates to cradle a baby nearer to their heartbeat with their "dumb" hand.

    I heard of it in a book of Asimov essays. Somewhere in The Roving Mind, if I remember correctly.

  25. Re:Alternative solution on FCC To Require TV Stations To Post Rates For Campaign Ads · · Score: 1

    It takes less time to read a dollar amount than boilerplate.

    And it's more likely to be seen in the ad than on the tv station's website. Not that it couldn't be posted both places.