Slashdot Mirror


User: Kohath

Kohath's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
8,093
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 8,093

  1. Re:There are issues to resolve... on Obama Offers Funding For 50,000 Police Body Cameras · · Score: 1

    So you acknowledge the poster was correct about the motivation for the footage request? Just (maybe) wrong about who requested it.

  2. Re:Drop test on The Cashless Society? It's Already Coming · · Score: 2

    This is how I chose my wife. She's a survivor, God love her.

    We're buying a dog next week. What are the heartiest, most durable breeds?

  3. Re:Part of the Solution on Obama Offers Funding For 50,000 Police Body Cameras · · Score: 5, Informative

    Police also need to respect citizens. Being on camera all the time will help that at lot. Everyone behaves better when they're on camera.

    Example from the article:

    In 2013, The New York Times reported that the city of Rialto, Calif., was able to cut down on complaints against officers by 88 percent over the previous year when it gave its officers body cameras. Use of force by officers fell by almost 60 percent.

  4. Re:Who cares on How the Rollout of 5G Will Change Everything · · Score: 2

    Lots of complaining about Verizon and ATT, but prices on mobile phone contracts are way down. T-Mobile has an unlimited data, unlimited text, 100 minutes talk time plan for $30/month, for example. Others have dropped their prices for phone-subsidy plans to compete with T-Mobile.

    Despite the usual internet whining, things have improved a lot in the last 2 years.

  5. Re:Projector? Recommendations on Ask Slashdot: Making a 'Wife Friendly' Gaming PC? · · Score: 1

    Projectors are so inferior to a TV that you probably can't get anything even remotely like what you want. You should just get over it and get a TV. Finding a way to make a TV work for you will be easier and you'll end up liking the result better.

  6. Re:Why are medallions sold and not leased? on Taxi Medallion Prices Plummet Under Pressure From Uber · · Score: 2

    The roads were jammed and the prices were cutthroat

    That's a really negative way to say everyone who wanted to hire a driver could do so easily and inexpensively.

  7. Re:The lesson on Taxi Medallion Prices Plummet Under Pressure From Uber · · Score: 1

    When you create artificial scarcity in lots of industries -- taxis, teachers, food vendors, interior decorators, cosmetologists, child care workers, doctors and medical workers, lawyers, financial advisors, accountants, any union job, and a hundred other professions subject to licensing requirements or other artificial scarcity measures -- you increase the labor pool for every other industry.

    People don't get to do the work they'd prefer, they don't get paid as much for the work they are doing because of the oversupply of labor, and when they need the services of one of these licensed people, they have to overpay to get it.

  8. Re:RFID/card scanner on Ask Slashdot: Best Biometric Authentication System? · · Score: 2

    If you really need security for some reason, use it to match the person to the badge at the clean room entrance. That will keep someone from using a stolen badge.

  9. Re:Economic system on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    I would think saving the planet would be motivation enough.

    That only works on the truest of true believers.

    But if nothing else, I think the US government should fund and subsidize the shift to a new energy infrastructure, through research grants, tax incentives, etc.

    Using money to motivate people. That works.

    In a larger scope, it is interesting to me that profit is the only way we can think of to motivate people. It's as if we weren't creative beings at heart. Absent the profit motive, I think people would create and build things out of necessity, creativity, or a desire to make life better for oneself and others. Profit is actually a poor motivator because a well-done job or quality product is only a by product of a desire for profit. If a profit can be made with shoddy work or an inferior product, that's just as well; because the motivation is profit, not doing a good job.

    You don't need to motivate people to do what they already want to do. But they're probably already doing that, so how will you get anyone to change?

    The US government has shown that it will come up with large amounts of money when properly motivated. We need a Manhattan Project ...

    In WW2, the US was attacked. This is an obvious motivating factor. Climate change is something with ambiguous consequences in the distant future. "Something bad might happen someday" isn't really similar to "we're under attack".

    If you give up on using money, you can only motivate change by telling a convincing story or threatening people. That's why people focus on money.

  10. Re:Nuclear doesn't work either on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    But they don't say anything like this:

    The problem isn't cheap energy but man made global warming and climate change; the CO2 levels are now so massive that inventing a zero emission ultra cheap energy source, that globally replaced all other polluting energy sources in an instant, no longer is enough stop the global warming process going on for hundreds of years.

    They didn't address the "what if everything changed in an instant" case in their article.

  11. Re:Economic system on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    What's the alternative motivation besides profit? How do you get some people to do what you want without paying them?

    Fear won't work. People can just decide not to be afraid. And, since doomsday predictions have always been wrong, they would be wise not to fear the end you're warning them about. Altruism won't work either.

    People focus on profit/money because its a clear way to motivate others. Everything else is just salesmanship, putting a gun to someone's head, or asking "pretty please".

  12. Re:Nuclear doesn't work either on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1
  13. Re:Nuclear won't be acknowledged as a solution. on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    the Pentagon takes it seriously, can you get realer than that?

    Yes.

  14. Re:Well if two google engineers say so on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    Real-world limits tend to preclude taking "every" opportunity. A more realistic approach would be to do things that might help a lot and not do things that take time and effort and won't help much.

  15. Re:Deliberate on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    Get all the experts into the same room and lock the door..

    That's not how free, democratic societies make policy.

  16. Re:If and only if on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    Is there evidence to conclude that enough people in democratic countries and enough leaders in undemocratic countries would support sufficient political action for long enough to solve the problem (according to the climate models)?

    The opposite conclusion seems to be true so far.

  17. Re:Well if two google engineers say so on Two Google Engineers Say Renewables Can't Cure Climate Change · · Score: 1

    A common argument is that climate change can be avoided if everyone makes a number of small changes in their lives. These guys have determined that marginal, easily affordable changes in people's lives are insufficient according to some climate models. (Unless there's are large, unforeseeable technological advances.)

    In other words, a specific approach or category of approaches won't work if you believe the forecasts of some severe climate models. The obvious response would be to stop advocating the unworkable approaches and/or re-examine the climate models to see if they might be overestimating the challenge.

    Perhaps the article communicates this poorly. It's still useful info though.

  18. Re:Get a sales force and some customers on Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Starting and Running a Software Shop? · · Score: 1

    Which one of those is "a software shop"? None of them.

  19. Re:Get a sales force and some customers on Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Starting and Running a Software Shop? · · Score: 1

    If he were going to start the next Google, he would be talking to his venture capital friends and his other advisors, not to AskSlashdot.

  20. Get a sales force and some customers on Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Starting and Running a Software Shop? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Business is about sales and customers. Everything else you do is completely irrelevant if you don't have sales and customers. If you don't have a good plan to sell your wares, you don't need to spend 5 minutes thinking about how you will produce them.

  21. Tech news vs. political news on As Amazon Grows In Seattle, Pay Equity For Women Declines · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days you’ll see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period you’ll see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart. Please explain the difference.

  22. Microaggressions on Interviews: Ask Adora Svitak About Education and Women In STEM and Politics · · Score: 3

    Do you believe in microaggressions? Why or why not? Is a belief in microaggressions helpful or harmful? To whom is it helpful? Who should worry about microaggressions? Who shouldn't? How can someone be certain they are innocent of committing microaggressions? If someone is accused of something like committing microaggressions, are there two sides that must be considered, or only one?

  23. Re:More detailed ratings are a good thing on Sweden Considers Adding "Sexism" Ratings To Video Games · · Score: 1

    European governments are a lot more professional than their U.S. counterparts. European pro-government sentiment and US anti-government sentiment may both be correct and wise.

  24. Re:Can government solve government problems? on Can the US Actually Cultivate Local Competition in Broadband? · · Score: 1

    You can expect some disadvantages from living in North Dakota.

    One actual advantage is that you have elected government beholden to a small number of people. If you can get a few neighbors together, you can probably get a meeting with your local officials who deal with CenturyLink. Get them to pressure CenturyLink to do upgrades or to find an alternate solution for you. You might actually get part of what you want if you work at it a little.

  25. Re:Can government solve government problems? on Can the US Actually Cultivate Local Competition in Broadband? · · Score: 1

    An ILEC is a local telephone company. Non-ILECs have no such requirement.

    Also, what do you expect in North Dakota? We shouldn't make laws for everyone based on conditions in North Dakota.