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User: UpnAtom

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  1. Re:Other way around on When Beliefs and Facts Collide · · Score: 0

    You seem pretty anti-abortionist. The article is telling me not to bother talking rationally with you.

  2. Re:Other way around on When Beliefs and Facts Collide · · Score: 2

    True enough, pace Levitt & Dubner.

    It would be a brave anthropologist who tried to figure out what traits were more likely to survive the 'threat' of abortion.

  3. Re:Other way around on When Beliefs and Facts Collide · · Score: 1

    We're not talking about my belief system, we're talking about "scientific doctrine", or as I interpret it, scientific populism.

    Also, severely mentally handicapped are perhaps 2 orders of magnitude ahead of 19 week old fetuses in terms of recognisable intelligence.

    For what it's worth, I'm a centrist in my country (UK).

  4. Other way around on When Beliefs and Facts Collide · · Score: 1

    Science says fetuses don't have the brain capacity or structure to be even vaguely human until 20 weeks or so. Whether this is true or not is another matter.

  5. Are you sure these are scientific doctrine? on When Beliefs and Facts Collide · · Score: 3, Funny

    Really?

  6. Re:Buddhist meditation... on Study: People Would Rather Be Shocked Than Be Alone With Their Thoughts · · Score: 1

    That's just an indication of how much further we are from inner peace.

  7. Re:How about measuring the temperature of the food on Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe For a Better Oven · · Score: 1

    You're right, of course.

    I was thinking the outside is more predictable, particularly if you keep opening the oven or someone invents a reliable monitor.

  8. How about measuring the temperature of the food? on Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe For a Better Oven · · Score: 1

    The temperature of the oven is irrelevant to the temperature of the food. Replaceable probes that stick into the food and still work at 300deg C (800 LOL) would be vastly more important than anything else.

    Likewise, hobs should have thermostats and work according to temperature rather than fixed power.

    These things may well exist.

    A smoke detector would be nice too but is unlikely to be reliable.

  9. Your opinion on Opera Releases a New Version For Linux · · Score: 1

    There are old Opera users who agree with your opinion. From what I can see, most don't. Then there's the vast majority of the potential market who don't.

    You won't agree with this but with the limited resources from Opera Software and the web again diverging from WWW standards, there was no real alternative.

    What all the moaning is about is the slow pace of development. Time lacking features (O15+) goes slower than time where those features were introduced (O10-O12).

    What I greatly regret is the end of work on the Presto version of Opera Mobile. Having a tabbed browser that would run in 128MB is a great boon on mobile devices.

  10. Not just time on Wikipedia Editors Hit With $10 Million Defamation Suit · · Score: 1

    Willingness to employ sock/meat puppets seems to be the main one.

  11. Of all the arseholes we've had in the British govt on Google and Facebook Can Be Legally Intercepted, Says UK Spy Boss · · Score: 2

    ... Charles Farr is the worst. Maybe even worse than Blair.

    He is the main driving force behind the Snooping Charter, both under Brown.. and resurrected under the Coalition.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Remember, these were the powers he was pushing for whilst the NSA was reading our FB accounts and email, had compromised elliptic curve cryptography etc. GCHQ was recording our phone calls and even webcam images.

  12. It's clearly better to be optimistic on Study: Stop Being So Cynical, You Could Give Yourself Dementia · · Score: 1

    Whether for happiness reasons or Seligman's optimism ratio, optimism is clearly better for almost everyone. It doesn't matter if you're an idiot who doesn't know any better... or someone who creatively finds an optimistic way to perceive the tragic mess that is life. ;)

  13. Re:Modern audiophiles are no different. on Elite Violinists Can't Distinguish Between a Stradivarius and a Modern Violin · · Score: 1

    With AAC. Last I checked, MP3 even at 320kbps has artifacts.

  14. Arsehole thinks hero isn't a hero on Snowden A Hero? Gates Says No, Woz Says Yes · · Score: 1
  15. Re:Atkin's Diet on Low-Protein Diet May Extend Lifespan · · Score: 2

    If you come off a diet then it's not really the diet's fault, is it?

  16. Re:Atkin's Diet on Low-Protein Diet May Extend Lifespan · · Score: 1

    Done right, the weight loss on Atkins is two-fold. You do burn fat from ketosis, but the primary means of weight loss through Atkins is simply eating what you would have eaten before - just without all of the empty carbs

    Not as I understand it.

    Carbs:
    1. Boost insulin which promotes fat formation.
    2. Make us lazy.
    3. Reduce satiety.

    Such is the effect, it seems you can eat more calories via Atkins and still lose weight.

  17. Re:Easy clean, cheap solution on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    A fair point, my friend.

    It is possible to:
    a) pour water everywhere but the cup
    b) overfill the cup
    c) put the wrong amount of coffee in ... under my method.

    If you're not up to it, who am I to judge.

    Re: Starbucks, I think it's more about cognitive simplicity than mechanical simplicity . The less thought that has to go into something, the more successful it is. And perhaps emotional simplicity ie can't deal with the minor discomfort of going somewhere new.

  18. Re:Easy clean, cheap solution on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    what you describe sounds like it would be very mild coffee, poured quickly over the grounds rather than steeped?

    I would say potentially, but it is easily compensated for by using a darker roast such as the one I recommended and more of it. It is notable that if I use the same grounds a second time, that's a piss-weak coffee with negligible caffeine content. Normally, I just add new grounds on top.

    More of a perfectionist complaint is that espresso machines produce a deeper, bitter-sweet coffee. This is not true of french press, percolator or dripfeed filter. It is why I prefaced my suggestions with 'if you use milk & sweetener'.

    It seems a reasonable proposition that the pressure produced by an espresso machine is somewhat equivalent to a darker roasting. The former may be preferable, particularly if you drink it neat.

  19. Easy clean, cheap solution on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    Firstly, so many people drink shit coffee that how you make it is irrelevant.

    Secondly, if you have half-decent coffee but put milk & sweetener in, paying double for the coffee won't help.
    There's nothing wrong with putting milk & sweetener in, just like there's nothing wrong with eating milk chocolate.

    If you drink it neat, then yes, feel free to spend a fortune on the beans, hand grind them and use an Aeropress.

    Otherwise, here's what I do:

    1. Scour supermarkets for decent pre-ground own-brand coffee. Why? Because it will always be cheap and available. If you're in the UK, I can recommend Sainsbury's TtD Columbian Quichia.
    2. Buy hot chocolate (or make your own using cocoa powder and sweetener) if you like the sprinkles.
    3. Buy decent milk (of the big 4 UK supermarkets, Tesco's organic is the best, surprisingly).
    4. Buy a cup-sized steel sieve from eBay.
    5. Buy a milk-whisk from eBay.

    Serving:
    6. Microwave about 75ml of milk for 45s.
    7. Put sweetener in the bottom. In my opinion, Nutrasweet and clones are better than even sucrose -- the bitterness improves the coffee.
    8. Put a couple of teaspoons of coffee in the sieve and poor boiling water over it.
    9. Whisk the milk.
    10. Pour in and add chocolate sprinkles.

    The sieve doesn't need cleaning. You don't even need to empty the coffee out except after a couple of days or when it's too full. Literally tap against the side of the bin and you're done. No cleaning, no clogging up the sink, no blowing $hundreds on coffee and generating a ton of plastic waste.

    My coffee beats the shit out of Starbucks et al. Indeed, unless you drink coffee neat, it beats all the local independent cafes bar who charge 15x more.

  20. This is how you're supposed to make iced coffee on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    I tend to make a whole jug of it in Summer. Can take the first draft after a few hours, top up, another draft after 6 hours, top up, another draft after 6 hours, don't top up and drink the rest after another 6. Of course, sleep usually intervenes.

    Make is strong and add lots of milk & sweetener.

  21. The biggest problem with Windows Phone is the name on With 'Virgin' Developers, Microsoft Could Fork Android · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And the second biggest is that everyone knows Microsoft makes it.

    People want phones that are chic. Microsoft are about as chic as homophobia. Looks, both of the phone and of the UI, are even more important.

    Apparent price/performance is another factor. Probably the main reason Android is doing so well is because those phones look good value in comparison to Apple (not hard with their 200% markup). The fact that interpreted Android apps make those quad cores as slow as dual cores doesn't come into the equation.

    Lastly, some people really believe they need 100,000 apps.

  22. Yes, Maemo has Qt on Nokia Turns To Android To Regain Share In Emerging Markets · · Score: 1

    ... since ~2009. The community, who seem to be in love with Qt, have ported Qt5: http://talk.maemo.org/showthre...

  23. ^^ Pretty much this on Slashdot Tries Something New; Audience Responds! · · Score: 1

    You have nothing to lose by keeping Classic Slashdot as an option. Nothing apart from pride that is.

    Is there a single comment even complementary to Beta rated above 3? Even if there was 30%, Dice should scrap beta.

    But there are none. Never have I seen anything like it. I've seen a few obvious disasters that a company were set on driving headlong into.

    But I've never seen mass, universal condemnation for a change. Not even in politics.

  24. Re:What does this say about Cameron? on David Cameron Says Fictional Crime Proves Why Snooper's Charter Is Necessary · · Score: 1

    Whilst the Tories are 6 points behind in the polls, what it really means is that they're 12 points behind in terms of seats.

    We saw a 7.1 point lead by the Tories turn into an ungovernable minority. In 2005, Labour's 2.8% lead gave them an almost unaccountable majority. There's both an electoral system bias against the Tories and a pool of potential Labour voters who don't usually bother voting. I'd estimate the actual bias to be 3-4%, but in polling terms it's about 6% ie, if the Tories win by 6, they'll scrape an even smaller win than in 2010. They'd need a 9 point win to get a majority.

    For what it's worth, I got £250 back on a £100 bet for the Tories to win in 2010.

  25. What does this say about Cameron? on David Cameron Says Fictional Crime Proves Why Snooper's Charter Is Necessary · · Score: 2

    Firstly, Cameron didn't say it was necessary. He merely used that example to illustrate what he was saying.

    Cameron's first act as PM was to repeal Labour's ID Cards Act (which was compulsory fingerprinting, numbering and recording on a national database to hook up all govt databases) and destroy the hard disks Guardian-style. Maybe this is where he got the idea.

    He also attended the inception meeting of NO2ID, the immensely successful campaign that Labour's Home Minister Secretary at the time, David Blunkett, acknowledged in his final speech.

    The Tory Snooper's Charter was a mess. Expert after expert (including industry data-rape experts from Google et al) slagged it off in official proceedings and even an open letter. We're kinda used to Govts being clueless about IT but what was properly disturbing was how the Home Office ignored all this clear and helpful feedback. So certainly, Theresa May should be sacked.

    I'm not sure Cameron ever stepped in until now. Under pressure from his party, Clegg eventually said he wasn't going to support any such Bill and so that killed it for this Parliament.

    We badly need an Act clawing back some of the surveillance powers of the state. They can do already do any surveillance at the ISP level they want as well as lock up people for not disclosing their public keys. There are no checks on that power whatsover in this country bar possibly The Guardian.

    So that's a summary of where we are. The debate I wanted to highlight is how do we assess Cameron's views on this:

    Few people know this but Cameron used to write a column for the left-wing Guardian. And he was far more liberal a couple of years before he got into power.

    Has he gone from liberal to totalitarian in 3-6 years? If so, why? Is it merely scary-sounding intelligence reports or is it possible that our secret services are blackmailing him?

    Or is he merely trying to shift the cost burden of surveillance from the state to the ISP/customer? And if so, why is he talking about a dead Bill which he has almost no chance of reintroducing (since he'll almost certainly be kicked out in 2015)?