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User: infodragon

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  1. Humans communicate 10 bits per second? on Elon Musk: Humans Need To Merge With Machines Else They Will Become Irrelevant in AI Age (cnbc.com) · · Score: 3

    I didn't read the article. However even if this is bytes there's so much that is missed!

    I look at a tree, recognize it and say "tree" in less than a second.

    I can throw a ball against a wall and catch it before it hits the ground. Now give me a completely different size/weight ball and I can do the same (within tolerances of weight and size).

    There is communication in both of those in which massive amounts of information is consumed and processed. For example the tree, 32 bits of information is relayed. However if I speak it then there is inflection, volume, direction, body language and intent that are all communicated in a short time.

    Even though nothing is typed/spoken with the ball there is an output, catching the ball, that requires a tremendous amount of bandwidth utilized by a human.

    Human Computer interfaces have a long way to go to catch up to these types of things; however, I think someone is raising an alarm about something that has no near term danger and just from the porn perspective will be developed as soon as is humanly possible. Think Matrix and Mouse pushing the girl in the red dress to Neo... The first in the porn industry to do that get's money from 99% of the world's men and a good portion of the world's women. Same thing happened with VHS....

  2. Re:Malicious actors will not follow rules on Study: Drones Present Minimal Threat To Aircraft (cio.com) · · Score: 1

    It is possible for cars to prevent people from plowing through crowds, however rules/regulation will not do that!

  3. Malicious actors will not follow rules on Study: Drones Present Minimal Threat To Aircraft (cio.com) · · Score: 2

    " In addition, the research doesn't include the possibility of someone maliciously trying to hit an aircraft."

    Why are we continuously discussing rules and regulations that will have zero impact on a malicious actor. If it's available to the general population but "regulated" only those bent on malicious actions will break those rules.

    I'm all for reasonable rules; "don't fly your drones around an airport; don't discharge a firearm within city limits; drive on the proper side of the road; ..."

    Will any of those rules stop someone from attempting to down an aircraft using a drone? Someone attempting to plow through a crowd using their car?

    It would seem the things that give us the most freedom, aka liberty, are those things that are most regulated. A drone gives us a huge amount of freedom to do so many different things, including observe authority. It would seem those making the rules have a conflict of interest here...

  4. Re:You must be new here on Ask Slashdot: How Can We Improve Slashdot? · · Score: 1

    In any sufficiently large crowd, most are idiots.

  5. Re:Pathetic on Twinkies: The Breakfast of Champion Programmers Still Hard To Get · · Score: 4, Funny

    They have been used as a unit of measure for psychokinetic energy.

    "Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's sample, it would be a Twinkie... thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds."

  6. Re:Wayback machine? on Ask Slashdot: What To Do When Another Dev Steals Your Work and Adds Their Name? · · Score: 1

    Its not so grey as one would think.

    Unless he was an employee (i.e. work for hire), which I doubt as he states contract; and unless the contract has some extremely strong language as to who owns the copyright then the originating developer has the copyright, the client has a license (This is the default of copyright law.) I have been in the situation of developing code as a contractor, there was lots of legal paperwork involved up front, but nothing stipulated the transfer of copyright to the corporation. This was a fortune 500 company and the code was for the only profitable division of the company for three years. When I wanted the code for another project that had nothing to do with them I stated this clearly when my contract ended. All their best attorneys got involved and I just maintained my right to the code, I did not get any attorneys involved. The end was a very nicely worded contract stating they, the client, would receive unlimited license to the code and a gentleman's agreement I would not compete with them. Fortunately it was a good relationship and I did not need an attorney. In the end their attorneys conceded that there was no way for them to obtain a true copyright unless the original contract started this was the intent, or that I signed it over at the end (which I was unwilling.)

    To sum it up, employees are screwed; contractors have the option not to be screwed.

    Hope this helps...

  7. Re:You're asking the wrong question. on Do Recreational Drugs Help Programmers? · · Score: 1

    I picked up a large base of C code of a guy who would only code when he was drunk. It was the biggest mess I ever saw, except a small part that was commented, "I did this sober because it had to be fixed yesterday..."

    In his case mind altering substances helped, but he had no business coding to begin with.

    I had the misfortune of meeting one of his team mates who was consulting for the firm to "bring us up to speed." 60's throwback begins to describe him, which explained the other mass of rambling code I had to deal with. You could tell, by the names of functions and variables, when he had the munchies/giggles and it got dark when he was paranoid. Humorous to go through, terrible to maintain. Oh yea, did I mention this software was operating networks of ATMs, as in peoples money?!?

  8. Re:Time perspective on Discovery of Early Human Tools Hint at Earlier Start · · Score: 1

    Yea, it's called Naquadah. Our ancient ancestors strip mined Sol of all of it! Now we are stuck with oil, and attempting to go green :(

  9. Re:Umm on Ask Slashdot: How Do SSDs Die? · · Score: 1

    They were on a pretty good UPS system connected to a GFI breaker. The room was climate controlled so unless something very weird happened I don't think electrical or environmental were an issue.

  10. Re:Umm on Ask Slashdot: How Do SSDs Die? · · Score: 1

    I couldn't agree more... But what's best often meets real world. It was a skunkworks project with no budget. It was amazing we got things working the way we did and the results got the attention it needed and then the resources were allocated.

    The server was the old 737(?) pin first gen amd64 bit system. 64 bit Gentoo linux with software raid running the 5 SATA 80GB Seagate HDs. 2Gb of ram for a DB of 150GB of which 80% of the data was accessed on a daily basis... It was CRAZY project put together with the lowest of budget that achieved results good enough to actually get resources allocated rather than "it's good! keep it up!"

    Gotta love the reactions on /.

  11. Re:Umm on Ask Slashdot: How Do SSDs Die? · · Score: 1

    That and the fab process is so precise that a fault is replicated so precisely that after 90 days of 24/7 operation they all failed within 24 hours, 4 failing in 8 hours. So it was engineered bad luck!

    Anyway I glad those days of system admin are behind me, I'm with my passion now which is HPC C++ development. Those experiences stuck with me and give me much more respect for the admin of the HW I now use. It's funny and sad to watch their expressions when I talk to them intelligently and with respect. It's like they've never had that happen before.

  12. Re:Umm on Ask Slashdot: How Do SSDs Die? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    [Sarcasm]Nothing like 20/20 hindsight... If I had done anything like trying to rebuild the array it would have fallen apart... Oh wait... If I had followed what you suggested I would have been SCREWED.[/Sarcasm]

    I made a decision based on what on the information on hand.. The rebuild would have take more than a few hours, 80GB disk was SLOW, i.e. first gen SATA. By executing the DB dump I was hitting less than 1/2 the disk capacity on read than 100% disk capacity on a write. It would be significantly faster to retrieve the data than to rebuild. That time window was critical, 2 hours of read vs 4+ hours of write. I also knew I had all the data on hand and all the scripts tested monthly for rebuilding the entire DB on a different server. The decision was easy! Grab the DB data now, redeploy on another system and address the issue on the spot. The system ended up being down 3 hours rather than 24+.

    Secondly The failure was abrupt with no SMART messages, I couldn't trust the others to not have the same non-reporting issues. I made a choice on the spot on how to proceed knowing full well I may have signed my own 24h torture warrant. Fortunately I didn't have the worst case happen and I learned a critical lesson.

    A bit more information...

    +- 30 minutes on each one
    First disk failed...
    2 hours later second disk failed...
    2 hours later third disk failed.
    2 hours later 4th disk failed
    16 hours later 5th disk failed.

  13. Re:Umm on Ask Slashdot: How Do SSDs Die? · · Score: 2

    Never paranoid enough when dealing with data! I had a RAID 5 (5 disks) of Seagate 80GB SATA disks; 4 failed within an 8 hour window, the 5th failed within 24 hours of the first; this was 3 months after purchase. It was a HUGE PITA. First drive failed and I started an immediate DB dump to an NFS mount. 20GB and 2 hours later the second disk failed and RAID was dead. I ran the other three disks just to see what would happen...

    I will NEVER, EVER run two storage medium (Spinning platter, SSD, ...) from the same lot in the same RAID ever again. I was saved by 20 minutes, in the above situation, from 24 hours of hell.

  14. Re:Press coverage on Rapid Arctic Melt Called 'Planetary Emergency' · · Score: 2

    They aren't that stupid, they just choose to be! There was a /. article a few months back that showed that giving evidence that contradicted someone's beliefs had the effect of reinforcing their beliefs. That on top of that you have many that just don't care, don't understand, or just want to be distracted. They exist on both sides.

    Based on what is readily available, linking the ice melt in the north to global warming is incorrect. This does not mean there is no global warming, I personally believe the earth is still warming from the mini-ice age that just ended http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age.

    Below are reports on what is going on. Both state facts that can be shown to draw separate conclusions. The really interesting thing is we are past the 2nd standard deviation for antarctic ice growth, which is exceeding the amount of ice lost so we are in a net positive. Just try to explain this to the average Joe and watch them lose interest really fast! Use a car analogy and you still don't get anywhere. Once evidence is shown that seems to conflict most humans ignore it because understanding the complexity exceeds the effort to survive the next week.

    Earth Loses Its 'Air Conditioner': Arctic Ice Cap Shrinks to Record Low Level
    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec12/icemelt_09-20.html
    http://nsidc.org/news/press/2012_seaiceminimum.html

    Polar sea ice could set ANOTHER record this year
    Exceptionally large amounts of it down south right now
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/21/arctic_antarctic_sea_ice_record/

  15. Re:Press coverage on Rapid Arctic Melt Called 'Planetary Emergency' · · Score: -1

    [sarcasm] Scientists first observed global warming in 1895. Then in 1920 they said it was global cooling. Then in 1935 they said there was global warming, but then in 1975 they said it was the verge of a new Ice Age but then it became global warming again. But that is all old news. Let's stop talking about discredited work... [/sarcasm]

    From generation to generation people have heard so much about global warming and global cooling that they don't believe what is being said now. "Back in my day the world was cooling and the US was going to be covered in ice in 50 years!" Kids grew up hearing that and those kids now have heard from their (grand)parents the opposite of what is being said now. So science was wrong before it is wrong now so give me my iPhone 7SSS!

    Also we have become numb to almost everything due to the massive bombardment by the media of anything and everything. From the most important, the Kardashians, to the least, Global Warming. Oh yea and something about our embassies being attacked, somewhere in a desert...

    The fault lies with us, as a population, not wanting to deal with what isn't going to affect us in the next week or two (oddly the time between most paychecks.) The masses are incurably ignorant. In any group large enough, most are idiots! So we continue to consume a scarce resource in moving about back and forth to the mall and think that consuming 2x as much to produce the equivalent in "bio-fuel" which is then consumed to go to the mall is "green."

    The blind following the blind following the def.

    I'm just in a bad mood today so take that into account.

  16. Re:Looks like Metro tiles on Microsoft Unveils First New Company Logo In 25 Years · · Score: 1

    M$ has too much cash on hand to be sold off. They'd have to hemorrhage quite a bit before they could be bought out. Either that or they could get rid of Ballmer!

  17. Re:Looks like Metro tiles on Microsoft Unveils First New Company Logo In 25 Years · · Score: 5, Funny

    “People liked NASCAR because the constant crashes made it exciting, and this gave me an idea...”
                -- Bill Gates on Microsoft Windows

    Another brilliant idea, change the look of your brand as the exciting crash of the company begins.

    For those of you not able to tell, this is my terrible attempt at humor.

  18. Re:Round 783 on Recent Warming of Antarctica "Unusual But Not Unprecedented" · · Score: 1

    Let the Global Warming flame-wars begin!

    Scientists first observed global warming in 1895... But that is all old news. Let's stop talking about discredited work and move on...

    I was responding to an obvious joke about flame wars with a not so obvious joke. Apparently being subtle is not appreciated and moderated as if it were truth.

  19. Re:Round 783 on Recent Warming of Antarctica "Unusual But Not Unprecedented" · · Score: 1

    Woosh!

  20. Re:Mod story down on Recent Warming of Antarctica "Unusual But Not Unprecedented" · · Score: 0

    It's not just /. groupthink...

    One summer morning, scientists watching the expansion of mercury in a thermometer all realized: the Earth was getting hotter! If the trend continued unabated, spontaneous fires would start everywhere and entire forests, jungles, and cities would burn down. It was simple arithmetic.

    Their eyes met and they knew they were all thinking the same thing: A soft life through endless government research grants. Lifetime sinecures not just for cousins of legislators! This was the first case of scientific consensus. In fact, science previously had not been conducted through votes and consensus at all. These scientists reached an equally unprecedented conclusion that has echoed through legislative hearing rooms ever since: The science is settled!

  21. Re:Round 783 on Recent Warming of Antarctica "Unusual But Not Unprecedented" · · Score: 0

    Scientists first observed global warming in 1895. Then in 1920 they said it was global cooling. Then in 1935 they said there was global warming, but then in 1975 they said it was the verge of a new Ice Age but then it became global warming again. But that is all old news. Let's stop talking about discredited work and move on...

  22. Re:privacy? on The Rapid Rise of License Plate Readers · · Score: 1

    If it works, it's illegal, by definition. IR license plate frames don't work though. With a good IR filter it will just look like a set of dull white LEDs around the perfectly readable plate.

    I don't see anything *good* being installed by government contractors. It will take a few generations to get the filters as standard then it will take time for them to replace existing camera emplacements. Hopefully there will be enough outcry over such Orwellian surveillance that by the time the cameras would be properly curtailed.

    I can also see the cameras used to issue speeding tickets. You are at point A at time X, then point B at time Y. Distance traveled over time traveled exceeds speed limit, citation issued.

    In a semi-perfect world I would be happy to have these cameras up and running if the data was purged no more than once a week, excepting a court order.

  23. Re:Please ignore... on Judge Suggests Apple Is "Smoking Crack" With Witness List In Samsung Case · · Score: 3, Informative

    LMAO. I checked /. before I left for work and didn't want to be tempted. I feel it was a mater of personal integrity not to mod posts in a story I submitted. I knew I would be tempted so I posted just before I hit the highway. It's better to remove temptation before you act and personally I try to conduct myself in manners of personal integrity no matter how big or small. Funny thing is I work in the financial industry and many of my peers would see this shameful, apparently so do many on /.

  24. Please ignore... on Judge Suggests Apple Is "Smoking Crack" With Witness List In Samsung Case · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Posting to remove ability to mod story I submitted.

  25. Re:Take it one step further on Scientists Store Entire Textbook In DNA · · Score: 1

    Then something happens, random mutation, chemical poisoning, radiation, ... and then cancer starts. A cell containing some obscure text about homicidal geniuses becomes cancerous and spreads to the reproductive organs, and then happens to reproduce before they die. This passes on an overwhelming amount of information to an impressionable brain which then becomes an homicidal genius. Not to tip their hand too soon, they wait to unleash the homicidal nature of their being until they reproduce. Their offspring do the same and before you know it skynet is developed. Earth becomes a planet of homicidal geniuses bent on... Skynet becomes self aware and then the homicidal geniuses have a new target.