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User: PhilHibbs

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  1. Re:Good luck with that. on Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions · · Score: 1

    ...and the extension doesn't actually say what it is, it says what the operating system will try to do with it. Which is just as important, if not more so, but it's important to get these details right. Sloppy tech journalism.

  2. Excession on Astronomers Find an Old-Looking Galaxy In the Early Universe · · Score: 1

    It's a visitor from a different spacetime.

  3. Re:I AM SICK OF ZOMBIES! on Statistical Mechanics Finds Best Places To Hide During Zombie Apocalypse · · Score: 1

    Zombies have been a popular story trope since long before memes, or even tropes, were invented.

  4. Until it hits Facebook... on AVG Announces Invisibility Glasses · · Score: 3, Informative

    So when someone takes a picture of you wearing these glasses, uploads it to Facebook and tags you...

  5. Re:No obvious reason on 20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Explodes In Orbit · · Score: 1

    But which of those is the actual reason is not obvious.

  6. Name an Elite: Dangerous station on Leonard Nimoy Dies At 83 · · Score: 1

    Please go here and propose Leonard Nimoy:
    http://elitedangerous.com/name...

  7. Re:Who are these people? on Lawmakers Seek Information On Funding For Climate Change Critics · · Score: 1

    It's the natural tendency for people to interpret evidence in the way that supports their prejudice. Go to any football match (I'm thinking soccer as I'm a Brit, but I guess USian football is probably the same) and ask two supporters from different sides what they honestly thought of the merits of a referee's decision. 90% of the time they will agree with decisions that went their way and disagree with decisions that went the other way.

    My mum watches a load of those "psychic detectives" TV programmes, and whenever I watch one with her, I steadfastly refuse to accept as credible anything I'm seeing. Why? Because I don't believe in psychic powers. All that evidence, all those police officers saying they would never have solved the case without the psychic's help, I disregard it out of hand. I don't know why it's invalid, I can't prove that any of them are lying and I don't have the statistics to hand about how often "psychics" turn out to be time-wasting frauds that get in the way of investigations, I don't care. I've made my mind up and I ignore any evidence that I am presented with. I guess I'm just as bad as AGW-deniers.

  8. Re:Put up or Shut up. on Use Astrology To Save Britain's Health System, Says MP · · Score: 1

    He's talking nonsense, but he's talking about diagnosis. Withdrawing from the NHS would involve withdrawing from treatment as well, so that's not really a fair challenge.

  9. Re:Is Google a monopoly? on Google Faces Anti-Trust Probe In Russia Over Android · · Score: 1

    Of course the other way to look at this is as one of linked services - Ford can't sell a car that mandates Ford tyres or Ford petrol, so maybe Google can't sell an OS that mandates Google search.

  10. Is Google a monopoly? on Google Faces Anti-Trust Probe In Russia Over Android · · Score: 1

    Or are the rules different in Russia, that you don't have to be a monopoly in order to come under antitrust regulations?

  11. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe on Mars One: Final 100 Candidates Selected · · Score: 5, Informative

    Birth is a death sentence.

  12. Re:oh please. I'm tired of this "diversity" bullsh on Will Elementary School Teachers Take the Rap For Tech's Diversity Problem? · · Score: 1

    Considering that the environment in IT is actually more hostile to men than to women, the question is kind of moot.

    I've not encountered that, but anyway the specific problem in IT is purely a numbers game. Even assuming mysogyny and mysandry are equally pervasive, if 50% of people are hostile to men and 50% are hostile to women, then in a department of mostly men, each man will feel threatened about half of the time but women will feel threatened all of the time, because there are fewer targets and so each one becomes the target of mysogyny far more often. The same can be said for any minority. When one group dominates, the minority suffer even if bias is evenly distributed.

  13. No Streisand Zone on NoFlyZone.org Aims To Keep the Airspace Above Your Home Drone-Free · · Score: 1

    Yeah, this is going to be great. What's the betting someone finds a remote vulnerability and hacks these drones to invert the flag so they just fly straight to the nearest no-fly-zone?

  14. Zip it! on Your Java Code Is Mostly Fluff, New Research Finds · · Score: 1

    Until we can read and write in huffman encoding, that's the way programming languages will always be.

  15. Re: oh please. I'm tired of this "diversity" bulls on Will Elementary School Teachers Take the Rap For Tech's Diversity Problem? · · Score: 1

    Maybe this problem is more prevalent in the UK. I don't think it's my fault, I prefer to think that I notice it more than most men might do.

  16. Re:How about energy conservation? on Quantum Equation Suggests Universe Had No Beginning · · Score: 1

    Naively, doesn't conservation of energy also suggest that particles can't pop into existence out of nothing? But they do.

    Do they? Hawking Radiation has never been observed or proven. It's a theory. And in any case, the black hole would lose the same amount of energy as was in the radiation.

  17. Re:But... on Quantum Equation Suggests Universe Had No Beginning · · Score: 1

    ...and playing the universe's expansion in reverse would imply that it started at a single point. How do they account for this?

    They're saying that under this theory, playing it backwards does not imply that it starts at a single point. I could point to someone blowing up a balloon, and say "it must have started from an infinitely dense singularity". I'd be completely wrong.

  18. Re:oh please. I'm tired of this "diversity" bullsh on Will Elementary School Teachers Take the Rap For Tech's Diversity Problem? · · Score: 1

    "Every post like mine"? What's wrong with my post? I've worked in dozens of places, and most of them have had highly toxic macho cultures, men talking about women like they are pieces of meat and belittling their abilities, even when women are present. If the truth reinforces an accurate portrayal, that's not irony.

  19. Re:oh please. I'm tired of this "diversity" bullsh on Will Elementary School Teachers Take the Rap For Tech's Diversity Problem? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The article is talking about primary school children, not women. 50 years ago women (generally speaking) weren't interested in management, politics, science, high level medicine, or a host of other traditionally male occupations. So now, if women generally aren't interested in IT (largely due to the hostile environment that any male dominated sphere inevitably creates), should we maintain that prejudice for future generations?

  20. Re:Stop looking for a single point of failure on Will Elementary School Teachers Take the Rap For Tech's Diversity Problem? · · Score: 2

    Absolutely. It's inconceivable that there's something specifically wrong with American elementary school teachers. The same thing is happening all over the world, and there isn't a grand global conspiracy to indoctrinate primary, elementary, prep, whatever the local term is, teachers with a male-centric view of IT.

  21. Re: Seems a bit unfair on Drone Maker Enforces No-Fly Zone Over DC, Hijacking Malware Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    The "area around the capitol" is the capital. So... double not wrong?

  22. Re:Dodgy record on Computer Chess Created In 487 Bytes, Breaks 32-Year-Old Record · · Score: 1

    That's what mathematicians refer to as "trivial", which is one of the most derogatory terms in mathematics.

  23. Re:I have an idea.. on Ubisoft Revokes Digital Keys For Games Purchased Via Unauthorised Retailers · · Score: 1

    He's referencing GWB's mangled attempt at the quote.

  24. Re:Science by democracy doesn't work? on Science By Democracy Doesn't Work · · Score: 1

    And this article linked from yours shows just how disingenuous that approach is. Brilliant.

  25. Re:Science by democracy doesn't work? on Science By Democracy Doesn't Work · · Score: 1

    The great thing about statistics and graphs is that by carefully selecting your data you can do things like this with them.