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User: ziggystarsky

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  1. Because it already is on EU Set To Crack Down On Bitcoin and Anonymous Payments After Paris Attack (thestack.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because it already is. And killing people with guns and bombs is something you want to prevent instead of penalizing it after it happens. For this you need the ability to predict what will happen. Such ability is gained from observing the current state of the world (because you cannot observe the future), and drawing inferences from these observations. The more you observe, the more predictive power you gain. Large-scale organized activities (like organized crime or organized terrorism) usually require monetary support, thus observation of monetary transfers gives valuable information about the existence of organized structures, which in turn improves prediction about terroristic (or criminal) activity.

  2. Re:wouldn't hold my breath on Ask Slashdot: Is it Practical To Replace C With Rust? · · Score: 1

    Sounds very much like Rust is a huge pain for those of us that actually know what we are doing.

    Honestly, I hope I will never have to work together with someone who "actually knows what he is doing".

  3. Re:You know the old saying... on Ask Slashdot: Is it Practical To Replace C With Rust? · · Score: 1

    It takes as much work to write safe code in Rust.

    The upside is that the unsafe code will not compile under Rust.

  4. Re:The problem with neural networks on Deep Learning Pioneer On the Next Generation of Hardware For Neural Networks · · Score: 1

    You need to have your sarcasm detector checked.

  5. Re:The problem with neural networks on Deep Learning Pioneer On the Next Generation of Hardware For Neural Networks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fortunately we can understand the processes within real people that lead to their actions. This is the reason that we safely let them drive cars, trains or fly planes.

  6. Re:Infinity on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    I've written algorithms for machine learning, where I'm constantly doing things like multiplying 0 and infinity. And, depending on the situation it is totally clear what the correct result must be (either 0 or infinity).

    Take for example computation of the entropy of a deterministic Bernoulli distribution: You have 1 * ln 1 + 0 * ln 0. The correct result is 0.

    Mostly I am relying on the proper handling of infinity and NaN by the floating-point implementation; but sometimes I have to catch cases and correct the result by hand.

  7. Relative improvement on Baidu's Supercomputer Beats Google At Image Recognition · · Score: 2

    Going from 99.5 to 100.0 percent is extremely impressive, while going from 50.0 to 50.5 is probably just noise.

  8. Re:Casting on Was Linus Torvalds Right About C++ Being So Wrong? · · Score: 1

    I was able to avoid casting completely for over two years while working in Scala. Certainly, the kind of work I did somehow supported this.

    Only lately I had to resort to casting sometimes. But this happened only when dealing with rather complex types that abstract over nearly arbitrary computations. At one point you reach the ceiling of what is achievable with some fixed type system—and then you need casting.

    I am now using shapeless for meta-programming, but I think this is the point where you yearn for more a expressive (dependently typed) type system than the one offered by Scala (or even Haskell). I hope the next generation of programming languages will make this practical.

  9. Re:Casting on Was Linus Torvalds Right About C++ Being So Wrong? · · Score: 2

    What I really wanted to say: Just allowing casting does not mean loosing type safety. If you use casting and crash it's your fault.

    The language is just not very type safe if you need to cast often during regular programming.

  10. Casting on Was Linus Torvalds Right About C++ Being So Wrong? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Casting is telling the compiler to do what you want. It's like saying "Shut up! I know what I'm doing, this thing is a XY pointer, even if you can't figure it out yourself."

    In every language (which supports casting) you can make an error while casting by claiming something that isn't correct. Surprise!

  11. Re:Super efficient amphibiuous propulsion on Underwater Vehicle Uses a Balloon To Dart Like an Octopus · · Score: 1

    The external human has to stand atop an external land mass, of course. Thanks for my next publication!

  12. Super efficient amphibiuous propulsion on Underwater Vehicle Uses a Balloon To Dart Like an Octopus · · Score: 1

    It sounds like magic! Scientists at Slashdot have invented a mechanism that can propell any vehicle, both under water and on land. The invention works by attaching an external string. An also external human then pulls said string, and the object moves in direction of the string. Youtube video follows.

  13. Re:This is obviously correct on Spanish Judge Cites Use of Secure Email As a Potential Terrorist Indicator · · Score: 1
    In reality there no such thing as a (formal) proof. You cannot prove the simplest things.

    You can prove things based on axioms and hypothesis. This works for theoretical settings like mathematics. In reality, even the most simple statement (like "This is an apple.") cannot be verified with certainty (what IS an apple?). Even if you do a DNA analysis of the genome of the object, you have uncertainty in the analysis, e.g. random misreadings of your equipment.

    All you can do is be "pretty certain" about something. But that's not a proof.

  14. This is obviously correct on Spanish Judge Cites Use of Secure Email As a Potential Terrorist Indicator · · Score: 0

    Is it possible that using secure email services can be construed as an indicator of being a terrorist?

    Take the experiment of drawing a random person. Define two events

    • T - the person is a terrorist
    • X - the person uses encrypted internet messaging

    If P(T|X) (probability of the person is a terrorist given he uses encryption) is larger than P(T) (probability of the person being a terrorist using no other evidence), I'd call the fact of using encryption an indicator of being a terrorist.

    Any objections?

    Of course the "indication strength" might be low. But I think the fact of using encryption increases my belief in someone being a terrorist. And taken together with other observations this might be enough to take according action.

  15. Re:I no longer think this is an issue on AI Experts Sign Open Letter Pledging To Protect Mankind From Machines · · Score: 1

    I strongly disagree. The idea that AI will be based on logics is from the 70ies and plain wrong. If some program will develop something that can be called a conciesness, then this program will be "black box" in the sense that we built it, but have no idea how it is working. It will have goals and motivations, and maybe it will be able to find or reinterpret those goals in a non-inspectable way. Asimovs laws are also not practical because there will be no way to implement them. How would you implement these rules in a human brain?

  16. Let's compare these advantages to Haskell on Kawa 2.0 Supports Scheme R7RS · · Score: 2

    It combines the strengths of dynamic scripting languages (less boiler-plate, fast and easy start-up, a REPL, no required compilation step).

    Let's see whether the great dynamic scripting language Haskell also fulfills these points.

    • - less boiler-plate: in addition to not requiring type annotations, Haskell even gets rid of parens; check
    • - fast and easy start-up: you can compile it to native; check
    • - REPL: check
    • - no required compilation step: if you use runhaskell it looks like interpreted, check (thouch technically that's a lie, as it is for JITed scripting languages

    Now we see Haskell has all the advantages of dynamic scripting languages. How about the advantages of compiled languages?

    with the strengths of traditional compiled languages (fast execution, static error detection, modularity, zero-overhead Java platform integration).

    • - fast execution: ghc creates very efficient native code, check
    • - static error detection: uhm, yes; though better than traditional languages, check
    • - modularity: dunno what this means. Since there are modules in Haskell we call it check.
    • - zero-overhead Java platform integration: unfortunately not. But since exactly when is Java-integration zero overhead?

    Which proves that Haskell has all the advantages of dynamic scripting languages, and most of the advantages of traditional compiled languages.

    Btw., you can do the same using any other modern compiled language. This post wants to show the "advantages of dynamic scripting languages" have nothing to do with the languages being "dynamic" or "scripting", whatever that means.

  17. Script languages have few concurrency errors on The Effect of Programming Language On Software Quality · · Score: 1
    See Figure 2. They even stress this in the text:

    Among the dynamic languages, only Erlang is more prone to concurrency errors. The regression analysis also shows that projects written in dynamic languages like CoffeeScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Php have fewer concurrency errors

    Now everyone knows that Erlang is bs for doing concurrent stuff, right? I do all my concurrency related programming in Ruby, as every other sane developer would do!

  18. Bring it down on A Mysterious Piece of Russian Space Junk Does Maneuvers · · Score: 1

    Get it down now. Then you can claim you were testing technology to remove space junk from orbit. Once the Ruskies admit it's a satellite that's no longer a valid option.

  19. Re:Good luck with that on US Army May Relax Physical Requirements To Recruit Cyber Warriors · · Score: 1

    Mandatory unit testing.

  20. Re:overqualified on Ask Slashdot: Finding a Job After Completing Computer Science Ph.D? · · Score: 1

    I know the BS and MS students from India. If the PhDs are the same...

    They appear to put enormous work into making their CV look good (like having publications in shitty journals, about shitty pseudo research). But they're not able to get anything done, because they have no skill whatsoever. Only on paper.

  21. Re:special software client on The Site That Teaches You To Code Well Enough To Get a Job · · Score: 1

    In particular when other sides manage to do everything within the browser. A good example is hackerrank.com. There, you can edit your code for a multitude of languages (Bash, Brainfuck, Haskell, Scala, Ocaml, Octave, R, ... just to name a few) within the browser. When you hit submit the code is compiled and run on the server.

    I don't want to use a stinky client, just because these people can't code their website properly.

  22. Re:So it runs Doom ? on Canon Printer Hacked To Run Doom Video Game · · Score: 1

    You know what the next logical step is?

    Not quite yet.

    A "security researcher" has four months of over spare time. check.

    Yes, I think I got it now!

  23. Re:That's that then on Microsoft To Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang For $2.5 Billion · · Score: 1

    But you have to craft ketchup then...

  24. Re:roadside picnic on The Future According To Stanislaw Lem · · Score: 2

    "Roadside Picnic" is by the Strugatski brothers.

  25. Re:yet if we did it on Deputy Who Fatally Struck Cyclist While Answering Email Will Face No Charges · · Score: 1

    Omg, now I do understand the high levels of police violence in this country.