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User: Neil+Blender

Neil+Blender's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,060

  1. My email address has only been on Slashdot on 12% of E-mail Users Have Responded To Spam · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I got this username and email as an experiment. I have only posted it publicly on Slashdot and have not used it for anything else. I don't even check it. I just checked. I have 5,000 messages in my spam folder. And gmail deletes them after a month. So posting my email publicly on Slashdot only is resulting in 5,000 spams a month.

  2. Re:Passing this data back to the scientist on Sequencing a Human Genome In a Week · · Score: 1

    There are raw intensity files which are used for base calling. The output of the base calling is used to generated alignments, quality, etc. You don't just get the short reads at the end. Most people are just going to use the short reads but that still can be 30G of data for a run.

  3. Re:Passing this data back to the scientist on Sequencing a Human Genome In a Week · · Score: 1

    A single run on a Solexa next gen sequencer can generate over 200GB of data and half a million files. And that is for 8 samples only. You get into the terabyte range very quickly.

    That's why data is delivered on hard drives.

  4. Idea on How To Get Out of Developer's Block? · · Score: 5, Funny

    echo '0.0.0.0 slashdot.org' >> /etc/hosts

  5. Re:Here's the real costs on $1.9 Million Award In Thomas Case Raises Constitutional Questions · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Which is pretty much what they offered her before the dumb bitch thought a jury would not rule against her and decided to go to trial. She probably thought a "jury of her peers" would consist of the people on whatever internet forums she hung out on. The ones who, either before or after the fact, convinced her that there is absolutely nothing wrong with downloading music for free.

  6. Re:True story .... on A Mathematician's Lament — an Indictment of US Math Education · · Score: 1

    "No, that's just indicative of lazy teachers. Since most humans are lazy and all teachers are human, this is to be expected."

    In college, I found it's more likely that profs refuse to admit they are wrong. I got dinged more than once for typos/errors in books that the professor wrote for the class.

  7. Re:OT: Which browser is slashdot supposed to work on FTC Shuts Down Calif. ISP For Botnets, Child Porn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Slashdot doesn't work in any browser.

    Also, they have a policy of launching new, untested, broken features mid week during peak usage.

    In addition, they have a policy of "belittle and close" when you submit a bug to sourceforge.

  8. He dictated his epitaph on Stephen Hawking Is "Very Ill" In Hospital · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Mgmgmhhhh uggghhhh mggyh emmm slober unintelligible.

  9. Shares or options? on When To Consider Taking Shares In an IT Company? · · Score: 1

    Shares can have tax liabilities, even in private companies.

  10. Well on When To Consider Taking Shares In an IT Company? · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you are low on toilet paper. Other than that, never.

  11. Re:Show me some example code on The Power of the R Programming Language · · Score: 1

    Include reasons to support the notion that the R language is [necessarily] better at what it does.

    Bioconductor.

  12. Taco.... on Home Generators (or How DTE Energy Ruined My Holidays) · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Why do you think anyone gives two shits about your power outage?

    And if you don't want your pipes to burst, there is a simple solution - you let your water drip at the farthest faucets from the main line.

  13. Need I say more? on Resurrecting Old Games, What Works? · · Score: 5, Funny

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  14. Re:Any role for Linux? on Cisco Launching Blade Servers in 2009 · · Score: 1

    The distro will Red Hat enterprise. At best, you could hope for the option of CentOS (or no OS at all).

  15. Re:The largest human outpost in space... on The ISS Marks 10 Years In Space · · Score: 1

    Mir and Skylab currently reside on earth. Mostly as dust, at least in the case of Skylab.

  16. OK on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 1

    Even ICANN is not this stupid. This will not happen.

  17. Re:Anyone ever rip a running scsi drive out? on A Fond Look at Some Obsolete Ports · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nah. I came across that when I was tasked with turning 50 busted servers into as many working servers as possible. That was when I learned about durability and the fact that processors could be hammered into wood beams quite nicely. The pins are like little nails. I had a nice little column of pentiums.

  18. Anyone ever rip a running scsi drive out? on A Fond Look at Some Obsolete Ports · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you ever get the chance, pull a running scsi drive out of a computer. Hold it your hand and try rotating your wrist. Very nice angular momentum demonstration. The platters are spinning so fast the drive will counter your wrist rotation quite forcibly.

  19. Re:Here are some ideas... on Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched · · Score: -1, Troll

    Oh, my. Pointing out serious flaws in a linux distro is trolling. If it was 5 equally valid points about a Microsoft OS, it would be +5 insightful before you could blink.

  20. Re:Just do what Global Warming Advocates Do on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There is A debate on weather its the main cause of global warming, IMO (and thats all it is) it is, but that doesnt even matter as it IS causing global warming (it just may not be the largest cause).

    And that is my skepticism. Is it the main cause? 90% 40%? 5%? And that little tidbit of information matters very much.

    Look, I've been recycling since the 70s (since I can remember), I ride my bike to work almost every day, year around. I am an environmentalist. But as a scientist, I simply will not swallow politicized agendas regarding science. I will not take a party line, ever.

  21. Re:Just do what Global Warming Advocates Do on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1

    I do believe the climate is changing. I see enough anecdotal evidence alone to nearly convince myself.

    Don't believe it: Know it. Read up on the subject from a wide array of sources and make your own conclusion. When you say "I do believe" you're saying "I haven't actually looked into it, but someone I trust told me so."


    No. There are a few things I am pretty sure I know. Math. 1 + 1 = 2 - I'm pretty sure that is absolutely true, but I am sure a mathematician could give me an example of where it isn't. Some physics. Some chemistry. I put a lot of trust in these things. People I trust told me so.

    But chaotic things like climate and weather, it is very hard for me or anyone for that matter to "know" anything. Ten years ago I picked up a biochemistry textbook that had been discarded in a hallway, waiting for the janitors to throw it away, at the university I worked at. It was published in 1980. I laughed at all the stuff that was wrong in it. Ten years later, I am amazed at how wrong many things I firmly believed about genetics were. Not an undergrads understanding but 10 years of solid bench research in the field. I'm talking 1998 vs 2008. Not 2008 vs 1968.

    No. For most things, I believe. For most things, I don't know.

  22. Re:Just do what Global Warming Advocates Do on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Great. You sat in an undergraduate lab last week so the debate is over. You know what? Newtonian physics are good enough for you. They are good enough for most people. That's undergrad for you.

    I am no climatologist, but I have 20 years of post graduate scientific experience. I spent 10 years in academic biochemistry research and 10 in commercial bioinformatics. I can analyze data. I do it for a living. I have probably been doing it longer than you have been alive. Again I will reiterate, to state that the "debate is over" is arrogant and self-serving. The debate is rarely, if ever, over.

  23. Re:Just do what Global Warming Advocates Do on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1

    I'm not pushing one way or the other. I just don't believe that there is incontrovertible evidence that climate change is man-made. I do believe the climate is changing. I see enough anecdotal evidence alone to nearly convince myself.

    The cause is now a political agenda.

  24. Re:Just do what Global Warming Advocates Do on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1, Informative

    The same goes with Global Warming deniers

    Anyone who claims "the debate is over" about global warming is not a scientist. The debate on global warming is certainly not over. Weather is a very poorly understood phenomena. To declare "the debate is over" is arrogant.

  25. I read about this once on Mathematicians Solve the Mystery of Traffic Jams · · Score: 2, Informative

    20 fucking years ago.