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User: AchilleTalon

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  1. Re:They are all paid too much on Are Bankers Paid Too Much? Are Technology CEOs? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    BTW, bankers are an exception due to what happened with the financial crisis which ended with governement pumping tons of dollars to keep them afloat no matter how bad they did. At then end, everyone did pay for the risk, not just the shareholders and investors. That's what was unacceptable. The rules were bent in that case at the advantage of bankers.

  2. Re:They are all paid too much on Are Bankers Paid Too Much? Are Technology CEOs? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You are right since the devil is right as well.

    There is absolutely no reason to cap the CEO or anyone else salary based on whatever equation anyone can come with thinking he is clever than the next door guy.

    CEO salary is determined by investors, those who are taking risks in the company and hired him to take care of their investment in that company.

    If the investors believe this guy to earn that salary, it is up to them to reduce the salary and compensations or to fire him to hire someone else capable to take care of the investors' money.

    It is not a matter of how much money someone needs to be comfortable, it is a matter of how much money this guy will bring to the investors and shareholders.

    No investor wants the CEO to spend more money than needed in employees wage and salary. No investor wants the CEO to not spend enough money that the company will be put at risk or go to bankrupcy lacking the talented people it needs to make money. You can disagree with what the investors think and their strategy for the company, that's fair. However, it is not to someone which have no money in the company and who risks nothing in the enterprise to decide.

  3. Re:So... on German Chancellor Proposes European Communications Network · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Pretty much studip idea to solve the problem. Encryption is the way to go rather than trying to build a parallel infrastructure which will anyway be subject to laws of the countries where the infrastructure is installed. It doesn't solve anything. It is not like other countries are not spying anyone else.

    In fact, the proposed solution may just create the problem as well. What she propose is what China is building, a network owned by the State, managed by the State and purposedly for the best interest of the State.

  4. Re:Interesting on Snowden Used Software Scraper, Say NSA Officials · · Score: 1

    I don't believe NSA needs to demonstrate all of this to make the point. The simple fact that Snowden didn't know where the evidence to make his point was is enough to conclude he was really going fishing here hoping to find what he was seeking for, because in first place his conviction the NSA was breaking the law was not well founded.

    And second, NSA can always request a closed trial due to the nature of the proof.

  5. Re:Stunning. on Snowden Used Software Scraper, Say NSA Officials · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think many here are missing the point. Point the Moon with your finger and the fool will look at the finger.

    The entire point about the use of automated tools to scrape data here and there on the NSA network is that Snowden wasn't going at the only data he needs to prove the point he says he wants to make. He was just grabbing a full load of data hoping for some of it to prove something that could make him a credible whistleblower. This is playing against him if he would have to convince a judge he is a "legitimate" whistleblower just wanting to free America from the dictatorship of the NSA. He did grab way too much data and some of it having no relation at all with the point he supposedly wants to make. But worst, he just gave everything to a third party rather than just what was necessary to prove that point about the NSA and the violation of US citizen rights.

    So, the point is not about the automation of the data scraping, it is about the indistinct data scraping itself. And NSA may make a point here.

  6. Re:Come stand trial. on Russia Plans To Extend Edward Snowden's Asylum · · Score: 2

    Exactly the point. Snowden has taken way too many data needed to prove his point about US citizen rights violation by NSA. He leaked everything in the hands of a third party with no right to access this data. In a trial, it would be hard for him to prove he was really trying to make a point about violation of US citizen rights. It could easily be seen as an alibi to leak top secret data to foreign countries. It could be seen as fishing without knowing exactly what he will find in the data he has taken. Could a whistleblower been qualified as is if he doesn't have a clue about the data he has just taken? If you say yes to this, anyone taking any dataset from anywhere and leaking it to public could be seen has a whistleblower, including your credit card data and other personal records.

  7. Re:Patent portfolio ? on Google Buys Home Automation Company Nest · · Score: 1

    You have a point here. Maybe Google just don't care much about Nest products, they may have bought it to avoid future IP issues with a newcoming product.

  8. Re:I think $3.2B is too much on Google Buys Home Automation Company Nest · · Score: 1

    Only if you have registered trademark and own intellectual property on the lemonade receipe. Look what people pay for sweetened water with artificial flavor.

  9. Re:$3.2B on Google Buys Home Automation Company Nest · · Score: 1
    Do you realize it's a lot of stupidos out there? What's the whole point of this product? As mentioned above, thermostats are doing their job since 1930 which is to keep a constant temperature. Well, this programmable thing appears nice to economize energy, however in practice there is no need to put it on internet to do that just to adjust a schedule once or twice in a year.

    Maybe Google is planning to develop a wireless-coupled-ass-thermometer-with-gyroscope-and-gps to track your body temperature, body orientation and position in the house or even outside and adjust thermostats accordingly. Then you would become a smart ass.

  10. Re:Not replacing grandmasters in an economic sense on If I Had a Hammer · · Score: 2
    True, Friedman's view of AI is over optimistic. No matter how well certain systems are performing well under controlled circumstances, the point is a general AI system doesn't exist yet and is not to exist soon unless breakdown technologies and scientific discoveries happen really soon.

    A typical brain consumes 20 watts-hour of electricity and is capable to reason and learn almost anything. No software is capable to do a thousandth of what a brain can and what it is doing is at the expense of thousands of watts-hour. This model just simply doesn't scale at the worldwide level even if you just pick the very wealthier ones in that world.

  11. Re:Job limit. on If I Had a Hammer · · Score: 1

    Centuries ago, you had slaves to work in the fields for almost nothing. It is untrue the fields were sustaining a full-employement and good wealth at the same time. Most people were miserable accomplishing dirty work for peanuts. Working in the fields was seasonal work, not each day and full-time work neither. You must let the wheat grow before harvesting it. In today scheme, the days between seedtime and harvest wouldn't been paid. In the old time, you would be feed enough to make sure you will be alive for harvest.

  12. Re:You mean on Why We Think There's a Multiverse, Not Just Our Universe · · Score: 1
    True and this is why to some extent cosmology has become something like a scientific religion. And it is why it is doing much harm than good to science since religious people are usually taking it as an example that science is some kind of faith in something, what it is surely not, however, due to the limitations we have, everything that cannot be observed is speculation.

    Cosmology is drawing way too much attention for what it worth.

  13. Re: You mean on Why We Think There's a Multiverse, Not Just Our Universe · · Score: 1

    False, the majority of people out-there are morons enough to vote for the guys in the office. You can conclude from that: The probability to pick randomly someone worst than the guys in the office is much higher than 50%.

  14. Re:Employers want day 1 results on Ask Slashdot: Why Are Tech Job Requirements So Specific? · · Score: 1

    To summarize: HR people are idiots!

  15. Re: To hire specific people on Ask Slashdot: Why Are Tech Job Requirements So Specific? · · Score: 2

    Also they are written for HR and recruiters that don't have a clue about what they are seeking for. So, they get a long shopping list and try to match resumes the best with the shopping list. I have seen recruiters specialized in the field of web development thinking a guy with Javascript skills is skilled at Java. So, he was looking for guys with Java skills to fill a job with Javascript requirements. These guys don't know their stuff and they are there to scan resumes and pick a candidate out of the white noise.

    Over specifiying the skills for the job is some kind of ass protection/cushion for them if they pick the wrong one. They can rely on the shopping list and resume matching. They don't want good candidates, they don't want clever candidates, they want candidates that fit the shopping list. They just don't care the clever and good ones are left alone. They will never being embarrassed having left alone the mighty great candidate that this company would have benefit most to hire. It is impossible to evaluate. The only thing that can be evaluated is they picked the wrong candidate accordingly to the shopping list.

  16. Re:dammit... on Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time · · Score: 1

    Absolutely right! The risks associated with the volatility of the currency overwhelm the advantages of it by far. Only speculators and investors may be interested in such a currency. This experience is doomed to fail in its current setup. Who would like to be paid in Bitcoins? The first thing you will do with your paycheck in BTC is to exchange it in another more stable currency to avoid the risk of not being able to pay your mortage at the end of the month.

  17. Re:Not unproven on Fukushima Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Starts Generating Power · · Score: 0

    Proven until the next typhoon to hit the coastline of Japan.

  18. Re:so green on Germany Finances Major Push Into Home Battery Storage For Solar · · Score: 1

    Your example doesn't hold water. :-)

    I mean they dump the excess, in the case of batteries, this isn't excess.

  19. Re:so green on Germany Finances Major Push Into Home Battery Storage For Solar · · Score: 2

    Not holding a charge mean wasting energy at the end. It is like drilling a giant hole into a hydroelectric dam at the end.

    Anyway, the other question is: What's the carbon footprint of these batteries including the whole life cycle on a sufficient long period of time to not bias the result?

  20. Re:False positives. on EU Considering Sensors In Sewers To Detect Bomb-Makers · · Score: 1

    People undergoing radiotherapy also excrete high enough levels of radiation to pose some hazard to other people. So their toilets will be detected as dirty bomb factories.

    False, even if in some case you can detect a high level of radiation from such patients, it never pose some hazard to anyone. You have to prove your statement. Second, the chemical detectors are not aimed at detecting radiation. Third, even if the would, it could be easy to discriminate the medical isotopes from those which could be involved in the fabrication of a dirty bomb. Fourth, no one would bother fabricating a dirty bomb while he can do a biological or chemical one much more easily.

  21. Re:permissions on Edward Snowden's New Job: Tech Support · · Score: 1

    I suppose your last sentence is adding some credibility to your point. Can't you find more insults to spite? I find it short, maybe you are lazy today?

  22. Re:permissions on Edward Snowden's New Job: Tech Support · · Score: 2

    I do not agree with this simplistic view. The guy may think you are evil and decide to share your data, it is all left to his own appreciation and judgement. A single guy may destroy a lot of other guys because he believes it is the right thing to do. In some sense, your data is better in the hands of the NSA than in the hands of a free-electron you don't know really what he is thinking and cannot predict what he will do with it..

    Sorry to say that, but a whistleblower isn't automagically a good guy with high moral and integrity. You just don't know.

  23. Re:What could possibly go wrong? on 90% of Nuclear Regulators Sent Home Due To Shutdown · · Score: 1

    ""Yes, I am worried," said Ed Lyman, senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It's not good for anyone and it's certainly not good for the agency that needs to safeguard our nuclear power plants against accidents and terrorism, and it's certainly not good for the American people. If there's an emergency of course, they'll call back more people. But it's just counterproductive to go through the motions of furloughing a lot of people.""

    That's not the article that thinks that, that's Ed Lyman senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. It seems they are not concerned enough to know what they are talking about. Unfortunately for them, it just shows how they are trying to take advantage of this event to boost their anti-nuclear agenda.

  24. Re:Cargo size? on Robotic Boat Hits 1,000-Mile Mark In Transatlantic Crossing · · Score: 1

    Maybe you are not aware of that, but you can easily localize motored boats and identify them by the sound they emit underwater. The coast line is full of sonar devices and microphones used for many purposes and from which you can extract a signal and signature for a particular submersible or boat vehicle.

    So, no matter how good is your encryption, you cannot really hide permanently. If such vehicles are to be efficient, they will need appropriate propellers and engine.

    And unless you robotized cargo is near enough the coast line, nobody really cares. Anyway, it is in international waters.

  25. Re:Another social network on A Beautiful Mind and Broken Body For Silicon Valley · · Score: 1

    Neither, natural language processing.