On that last: it's de-identified before it ever hits our system. We see that a person was treated, but it's literally impossible for me to see what services you had (or conversely, to see a record and figure out that it was yours).
My company got a lot of help from Medicare when we wanted to analyze their data. There was about as much paperwork as you'd expect from a giant government entity, but everyone was nice and helpful. We were always made to feel welcome and Medicare publicly said they were glad to have us.
Your portrayal of government healthcare, at least under a Democrat president, is far from the reality I actually witnessed.
Apple's Siri is much better than Amazon Echo for this. It listens and processes audio locally to detect you saying "Hey Siri". Only after that does it start recording. I just verified this by putting my iPhone 6S Plus into airplane mode and saying "Hey Siri". That got me a "Siri not available" popup.
I'm perfectly fine with my voice being sent to Apple after I've asked them to process my commands, so long as it never goes to them before I've explicitly asked my phone to start listening to me.
Why do I, as an ISP, need to build out my network so that some Silicon Valley company can serve ads to my subscribers when the subscribers don't even want ads?
"Because the customers have already paid for their connection, and that Silicon Valley strawman has already paid for theirs. You're a dumb pipe. Carry the damn packets and stay in your lane."
Kind a like saying "My google was hacked" during the last few days, when the reality is, you "allowed" it to be installed.
Nope. As long as we maintain that attitude, security will be a dumpster fire. Basically, we've built a system that makes it dead simple for our users to shoot themselves in the foot. You and I might be clever enough to avoid the pitfalls, but it shouldn't take a degree in compsci to use a device safely any more than you should need to be a mechanical engineer to drive a car.
The haughty "it's not our fault!" POV has to die if we're ever going to fix things. If we design systems that let our users get pwned at the drop of a hat, it's more our fault than theirs.
"On Slashdot, questions in the form 'do you still use...?' will be answered with a vehement 'YES!'". Doesn't matter what the questions is - someone will be hanging on to it. "Does anyone here still use Banyan VINES?" "I sure as hell do, son! In fact, just last week I was uucp'ing the latest.zoo from kremvax when..."
Guaranteed. Every time. I like RSS, but this is the wrong forum to take a survey like this. Ask a random sample of the general population and maybe.1% will have the foggiest. Ask on Slashdot and you'll hear about the mountain man who reads it on his Amiga using Mosaic running on a Sun IPC via X tunneled over thicknet, "which is clearly better but these damned kids can't be bothered to set it up right."
Taste is a sensation that serves a specific purpose, there is absolutely no reason to believe that other organs need "taste buds" as well in order to serve entirely different functions.
Here's a Harvard article about it, with links. Prepare to be shocked.
I'm actually pretty impossible to please in this department. I would like to see yet still more indication that the problem is well understood. Predictions that are precise to 15 digits, and that unlike all other scientific endeavors don't need to be "corrected" post hoc would do most of it for me.
But that's the thing: it is very well understood, and scientists have made many predictions that are panning out. No one's ever going to say "the earth will get x.xxxxxxx% warmer on this date". Predictions are in the form of "we believe the atmosphere will get between x and y% warmer, with a confidence of z". And they've been accurate as stated. Any claims to the contrary are radical restatements of history.
Question: what would it take to get you to admit that measurably rising sea levels due to climate change is causing problems? We're losing goddamn Louisiana to it. Literally everyone who studies this stuff for a living agrees with this. No one seriously doubts it. But you'd rather blame some river hacking for literally submerging Louisiana.
What are you going to blame when we lose Florida? Is there a convenient river there to point the finger at? What ungodly amount of river water is flowing through the Solomon Islands that's causing them to disappear7?
How can an artificial sweetener that is not absorbed by the body, like sucralose, have any physical effect, unless the brain hates being tricked and is getting even.
The elevated insulin response could be a good thing, she pointed out, because it shows the person is able to make enough insulin to deal with spiking glucose levels. But it also might be bad because when people routinely secrete more insulin, they can become resistant to its effects, a path that leads to type 2 diabetes.
Basically, the part of your digestive tract that identifies incoming sugar and triggers an insulin release can't tell the difference between sugar and sweeteners. That's not a shocker: if our taste buds can be tricked, it's not crazy to imagine that our sugar-detecting circuits are also fallible. When your body is continually flooded with elevated insulin, it becomes resistant to it. Another term for insulin resistance is type 2 (adult onset) diabetes.
I don't have a strong opinion about Scala, but the answer to questions in the form of "should I Move from Java to _____?" is almost always "yes" (for values of _____ not including PHP, VB*, or other asininities).
I don't think that's a good analogy. Most things in life are fungible: while we might prefer Safeway's canned corn to Costco's, for all intents and purposes one can substitute for the other. Marketing aside, Shell and ExxonMobil gasoline are mostly identical. I like Levis jeans, but there are other brands on the market and my Kohl's shirt and Target socks are 100% compatible (well, my wife might make fun of my pairings, but I don't go into anaphylaxis if the brands don't match).
The same is true for Debian and Red Hat - while I have my preferences, software I write on one will run on the other with minimal tweaking. Linux is the product I need and there are many, many vendors who will provide it to me. If Red Hat closes tomorrow, I'm a couple of Dockerfile lines away from not noticing or caring. That's absolutely not true of macOS or Windows. Again, I don't think Apple or Microsoft is likely to pull the plug on them tomorrow, but they could (and have) so substantially modify them that stuff no longer runs unchanged on them. If/when they do, there's literally not a thing you or I could do about it but ride the unsupported legacy tail as long as we can while we rushedly port to new platforms.
I disagree. RMS is supremely practical over long periods of time. His core message is "if you tie your fate to something you don't control, you will get burned." I've never seen this not be correct. Vendors come and go. Sometimes they change their pricing model from reasonable to extortionate. Maybe they discontinue features that were critical to you. Perhaps they throw away the whole thing and start over. But whatever form it takes, the end result is the same: if you can't control it, it will control you.
Apple and Microsoft have probably been the best major companies for keeping their changes small and manageable. Eventually you had to migrate off VB6. Eventually you had to click the "also compile this for Intel" checkbox in Xcode. But that doesn't change the fact that if you use their platforms, you are subject to their business decisions, even when they conflict with yours.
Perhaps hypocritically, I'm typing this on a Mac. I've decided that given Apple's track record, they're probably not going to yank the rug out from under me overnight. But you can bet that all the code I write is in FOSS languages and deployed to FOSS operating systems. I can change my desktop OS - with some pain and gnashing of teeth to be sure - without compromising the things I design. That's because RMS is correct: he's convinced many of us that it's practical to choose open platforms instead of closed shininess where it really matters.
Well, they still haven't gotten over losing the tablet war. They see millions using their iPads and Android tablets and figure that being able to touch stuff is the killer feature. They never seem to get that making a UI that people can and want to touch is where the real magic lies.
ALL trackpads are ass. Only the worst of the Apple fanboys claim Apple trackpads are good. They're not. It's simply an inferior tool.
So no, you haven't used Apple trackpads. Gotcha. So, I'm sitting at my work desk surrounded by all sorts of things plugged into my Mac - monitors, keyboards, etc. There's plenty of room on my desk for a mouse. And yet I have a Magic Trackpad because - wait for it! - it suits me better than a mouse. I have gaming mice at home, but at work the trackpad is much more comfortable.
It's OK that you don't like them. To each their own. But you can't objectively claim that Apple's trackpads are bad, because plenty of people who use both devices and have the money for any kind they want still choose the trackpads. We're not buying them because we have Apple neck tattoos or some crack. We buy them because we like them more.
"I prefer mice" is justifiable and reasonable. "It's simply an inferior tool" makes you sound like... an inferior tool.
Slashdot Mirror
I LIKE SPROUTS!
smacks head with 2x4, eats paint chips
Why do you assume they disabled the "make it easy to leave this website" service due to lack of engineering resources?
I concur, newbie.
On that last: it's de-identified before it ever hits our system. We see that a person was treated, but it's literally impossible for me to see what services you had (or conversely, to see a record and figure out that it was yours).
Why wouldn't they be "nice and helpful"?
You said they'd demonize us.
The very fact that you qualify this with "under a Democrat president" means that you recognize that there are huge political risks involved.
I was replying to your incorrect message that Democrats would be upset with someone trying to make a profit. You're moving the goalposts here.
The question is: did you actually bet your company on a business model that relied on the federal government and Medicaid?
It's my employer, not my personal company. You'd have to ask them about their financing discussions. But yes, it's a major part of our strategy.
Also, why is this on Slashdot?
Because it's news for nerds (and everyone else).
My company got a lot of help from Medicare when we wanted to analyze their data. There was about as much paperwork as you'd expect from a giant government entity, but everyone was nice and helpful. We were always made to feel welcome and Medicare publicly said they were glad to have us.
Your portrayal of government healthcare, at least under a Democrat president, is far from the reality I actually witnessed.
Oh, and I'm not a Democrat.
Apple's Siri is much better than Amazon Echo for this. It listens and processes audio locally to detect you saying "Hey Siri". Only after that does it start recording. I just verified this by putting my iPhone 6S Plus into airplane mode and saying "Hey Siri". That got me a "Siri not available" popup.
I'm perfectly fine with my voice being sent to Apple after I've asked them to process my commands, so long as it never goes to them before I've explicitly asked my phone to start listening to me.
Why do I, as an ISP, need to build out my network so that some Silicon Valley company can serve ads to my subscribers when the subscribers don't even want ads?
"Because the customers have already paid for their connection, and that Silicon Valley strawman has already paid for theirs. You're a dumb pipe. Carry the damn packets and stay in your lane."
Evidence has shown that this is incorrect. Repeatedly.
Kind a like saying "My google was hacked" during the last few days, when the reality is, you "allowed" it to be installed.
Nope. As long as we maintain that attitude, security will be a dumpster fire. Basically, we've built a system that makes it dead simple for our users to shoot themselves in the foot. You and I might be clever enough to avoid the pitfalls, but it shouldn't take a degree in compsci to use a device safely any more than you should need to be a mechanical engineer to drive a car.
The haughty "it's not our fault!" POV has to die if we're ever going to fix things. If we design systems that let our users get pwned at the drop of a hat, it's more our fault than theirs.
Guaranteed. Every time. I like RSS, but this is the wrong forum to take a survey like this. Ask a random sample of the general population and maybe .1% will have the foggiest. Ask on Slashdot and you'll hear about the mountain man who reads it on his Amiga using Mosaic running on a Sun IPC via X tunneled over thicknet, "which is clearly better but these damned kids can't be bothered to set it up right."
Taste is a sensation that serves a specific purpose, there is absolutely no reason to believe that other organs need "taste buds" as well in order to serve entirely different functions.
Here's a Harvard article about it, with links. Prepare to be shocked.
I'm actually pretty impossible to please in this department. I would like to see yet still more indication that the problem is well understood. Predictions that are precise to 15 digits, and that unlike all other scientific endeavors don't need to be "corrected" post hoc would do most of it for me.
But that's the thing: it is very well understood, and scientists have made many predictions that are panning out. No one's ever going to say "the earth will get x.xxxxxxx% warmer on this date". Predictions are in the form of "we believe the atmosphere will get between x and y% warmer, with a confidence of z". And they've been accurate as stated. Any claims to the contrary are radical restatements of history.
I am eternally glad to have access to experts who can dispute research published by respected med schools.
What are you going to blame when we lose Florida? Is there a convenient river there to point the finger at? What ungodly amount of river water is flowing through the Solomon Islands that's causing them to disappear7?
How can an artificial sweetener that is not absorbed by the body, like sucralose, have any physical effect, unless the brain hates being tricked and is getting even.
Nailed it. From Wash U med school:
Basically, the part of your digestive tract that identifies incoming sugar and triggers an insulin release can't tell the difference between sugar and sweeteners. That's not a shocker: if our taste buds can be tricked, it's not crazy to imagine that our sugar-detecting circuits are also fallible. When your body is continually flooded with elevated insulin, it becomes resistant to it. Another term for insulin resistance is type 2 (adult onset) diabetes.
Pay up, Skippy.
I don't have a strong opinion about Scala, but the answer to questions in the form of "should I Move from Java to _____?" is almost always "yes" (for values of _____ not including PHP, VB*, or other asininities).
LOL Safeway? Welcome to the future, Mr. 1950s. Today our grocery stores are called "Ralphs" and "Vons".
Aw, hello little SoCal! Up in Bay Area, we didn't realize you had Internet already. Welcome aboard!
I don't think that's a good analogy. Most things in life are fungible: while we might prefer Safeway's canned corn to Costco's, for all intents and purposes one can substitute for the other. Marketing aside, Shell and ExxonMobil gasoline are mostly identical. I like Levis jeans, but there are other brands on the market and my Kohl's shirt and Target socks are 100% compatible (well, my wife might make fun of my pairings, but I don't go into anaphylaxis if the brands don't match).
The same is true for Debian and Red Hat - while I have my preferences, software I write on one will run on the other with minimal tweaking. Linux is the product I need and there are many, many vendors who will provide it to me. If Red Hat closes tomorrow, I'm a couple of Dockerfile lines away from not noticing or caring. That's absolutely not true of macOS or Windows. Again, I don't think Apple or Microsoft is likely to pull the plug on them tomorrow, but they could (and have) so substantially modify them that stuff no longer runs unchanged on them. If/when they do, there's literally not a thing you or I could do about it but ride the unsupported legacy tail as long as we can while we rushedly port to new platforms.
Apple and Microsoft have probably been the best major companies for keeping their changes small and manageable. Eventually you had to migrate off VB6. Eventually you had to click the "also compile this for Intel" checkbox in Xcode. But that doesn't change the fact that if you use their platforms, you are subject to their business decisions, even when they conflict with yours.
Perhaps hypocritically, I'm typing this on a Mac. I've decided that given Apple's track record, they're probably not going to yank the rug out from under me overnight. But you can bet that all the code I write is in FOSS languages and deployed to FOSS operating systems. I can change my desktop OS - with some pain and gnashing of teeth to be sure - without compromising the things I design. That's because RMS is correct: he's convinced many of us that it's practical to choose open platforms instead of closed shininess where it really matters.
Once, long ago..., Slashdot was a place of serious programmers.
No it wasn't.
Well, they still haven't gotten over losing the tablet war. They see millions using their iPads and Android tablets and figure that being able to touch stuff is the killer feature. They never seem to get that making a UI that people can and want to touch is where the real magic lies.
ALL trackpads are ass. Only the worst of the Apple fanboys claim Apple trackpads are good. They're not. It's simply an inferior tool.
So no, you haven't used Apple trackpads. Gotcha. So, I'm sitting at my work desk surrounded by all sorts of things plugged into my Mac - monitors, keyboards, etc. There's plenty of room on my desk for a mouse. And yet I have a Magic Trackpad because - wait for it! - it suits me better than a mouse. I have gaming mice at home, but at work the trackpad is much more comfortable.
It's OK that you don't like them. To each their own. But you can't objectively claim that Apple's trackpads are bad, because plenty of people who use both devices and have the money for any kind they want still choose the trackpads. We're not buying them because we have Apple neck tattoos or some crack. We buy them because we like them more.
"I prefer mice" is justifiable and reasonable. "It's simply an inferior tool" makes you sound like... an inferior tool.