Slashdot Mirror


User: Livius

Livius's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,750
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,750

  1. Re:give each citizen a laser cannon on 3 Former Astronauts: Earth-Asteroid Collisions Are a Real But Preventable Danger · · Score: 1

    But we don't have 3-D printers that can make sharks yet.

  2. Re:I'm liking how Russia is standing up these days on Russia Writes Off 90 Percent of North Korea Debt · · Score: 1

    They've made various broken promises before.

    Really? Name one.

  3. Re:And again in English please? on SpaceX Launches Load to ISS, Successfully Tests Falcon 9 Over Water · · Score: 1

    I'm going to guess 'launches' then 'lands', but I could be wrong.

  4. Microsoft Office 95 on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Products Were Built To Last? · · Score: 1

    Works perfectly fine without the bloat or broken user interfaces of the newer versions.

  5. Re:Tesla needs just a few more things on Mercedes Pooh-Poohs Tesla, Says It Has "Limited Potential" · · Score: 2

    But a Tesla can be still viable in the short term, just not a complete transportation solution. For example, if a few times a year you expect to make a trip where there might not recharging facilities, just rent a car those few times.

  6. Re:Useful Idiot on Snowden Queries Putin On Live TV Regarding Russian Internet Surveillance · · Score: 1

    Wrong. He fled *FROM* the country with the biggest surveillance issue in the world; he fled *TO* numbers two and three.

  7. Re:wait, what? on Survey: 56 Percent of US Developers Expect To Become Millionaires · · Score: 2

    Presumably the same 80% who believe they are above average...

  8. Re:Wat? on How Does Heartbleed Alter the 'Open Source Is Safer' Discussion? · · Score: 2

    "Open Source is inherently safer"

    Yes.

    Open source absolutely safe?
    No.

  9. Re:And they've already stopped on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 1

    The attempt reveals something about the IRS' attitude. That problem still needs to be fixed.

  10. Re:No shit Sherlock on Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming · · Score: 1

    They are a carbon sync, but no so much a carbon sink.

  11. German is not English on Is Germany Raising a Generation of Illiterates? · · Score: 1

    English has very little in the way of grammatical marking. Counter-intuitively (to English speakers), this makes English harder to learn, because the grammatical structure is just as complex as any other language, but it's not explicit.

    In most European languages, children grow up with a good intuition about the grammar of their language, but some amount of formal instruction is very valuable so they can understand how to structure their communication with a minimum of ambiguity. In Canadian schools, for example, English (as a first language) is taught with relatively little formal grammar, but French with a great deal.

    Also, although it's not really natural for a language community to have a high degree of uniformity artificially imposed on it, and each generation does speak it is slightly (or perhaps significantly) different from the previous, there is a practical value in having, and learning, an agreed-upon standard variation. In particular, for languages like English and German, which are widely spoken, it is enormously valuable to have access to the large numbers of speakers and the large bodies of fiction and non-fiction writing.

  12. Re:Question of scale on Crowd Wisdom Better At Predictions Than Top CIA Analysts · · Score: 1

    Not the whole world. Plenty of people knew he was bluffing.

  13. Re:Government bills itself .... on Bill Would End US Govt's Sale of Already-Available Technical Papers To Itself · · Score: 1

    It's not obvious that that's much different. It certainly sounds like one form of old-fashioned embezzlement or another.

  14. Re:Question of scale on Crowd Wisdom Better At Predictions Than Top CIA Analysts · · Score: 1

    Professional intelligent agents were not fooled. People who only heard what they wanted to hear do not count as professionals.

  15. Question of scale on Crowd Wisdom Better At Predictions Than Top CIA Analysts · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With enough people, there will be someone with insightful information, and probably a balance of opinions. Searching for bugs in open source works a little like that.

    But in theory if a professional intelligence service had hard evidence that, for example, a politician is bluffing about something, then a policy can be adopted even if it goes against some conventional wisdom.

    For example, the information that Saddam Hussein's WMD programme was a hoax prevented a rash invasion...., um, never mind.

  16. Re:Not just the Declaration on 'weev' Conviction Vacated · · Score: 1

    A wonderful ideal, but it did break down when a smuggler was tried with a jury of other smugglers.

  17. Re:NatGeo: look at who owns it.... on Nat Geo Writer: Science Is Running Out of "Great" Things To Discover · · Score: 1

    1min youtube videos describing string theory

    But 2-minute videos explaining the Schrödinger's cat paradox from the cat's perspective.

  18. Catch? on MA Gov. Wants To Ban Non-Competes; Will It Matter? · · Score: 1

    "Just one catch: he's a lame duck, and will be out of office in January."

    Feature, not a bug.

  19. Re:Good? on How Cochlear Implants Are Being Blamed For Killing Deaf Culture · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pretending the handicapped are just "differently-abled" is perhaps the cruellest form of bigotry by low expectations. People who have disadvantages that are not of their choosing deserve sympathy and support, but celebrating disability is condescending to the point of madness.

  20. Re:Outrage fatigue on Snowden: NSA Spied On Human Rights Workers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...this really is the way ordinary people think.

    Ordinary people are very mistaken but sadly, yes, this is the way they think.

  21. Re:reasons to be fired on Mozilla CEO Firestorm Likely Violated California Law · · Score: 1

    Is this supposed to be about a metaphorical grenade? Because I'm pretty sure just showing up to work with a grenade will get you fired for cause.

  22. Headline threw me on Judge (Tech) Advice By Results · · Score: 1

    The headline was confusing enough that after

    "What advice would you give someone who just bought a new..."

    I was expecting 'judge'.

  23. Re:Hotel tax??? on SF Evictions Surging From Crackdown On Airbnb Rentals · · Score: 1

    Many local governments invest in attracting tourists. Hotels benefit, so they should pay a share.

  24. Something is missing on Sand in the Brain: A Fundamental Theory To Model the Mind · · Score: 1

    I even Read The Fine Article but I still get the sense there is supposed to more to this than just the self-evident "if a system reaches a state of instability it stops being stable".

  25. Re:What if there is no reason? on Why Are We Made of Matter? · · Score: 1

    The question is why is there an asymmetry. Not when.