Slashdot Mirror


User: maxwell+demon

maxwell+demon's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
12,279
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 12,279

  1. Re:But what if two observers look at the particle? on Proof Mooted For Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle · · Score: 1

    Because the only thing that relativity changes in respect to the uncertainty relation is is that the velocity is no longer proportional to the momentum, so you cannot say "velocity" instead of "momentum" here (in particular, the uncertainty relation also holds for the photon, but that doesn't change the fact that the photon goes exactly with c, because for photons a momentum uncertainty does not translate to a velocity uncertainty). But other than that, relativity doesn't add anything relevant to the uncertainty relation.

  2. Re:But what if two observers look at the particle? on Proof Mooted For Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle · · Score: 1

    If they try to do the measurements at the same time, they will disturb each other's measurement.

  3. Re:Catch-22 on California Sends a Cease and Desist Order To the Bitcoin Foundation · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter whether bitcoins are technically transferred. What matters is that I can take some dollars and pay them in return to some change in the bitcoin network being done (in cooperation with me and you) which ultimately enable you to get the same amount of dollars from someone. That's money transfer. The technicalities on the bitcoin side don't matter. All that matters is that I put dollars in, and you get dollars out.

  4. Re:California Is Wrong on California Sends a Cease and Desist Order To the Bitcoin Foundation · · Score: 1

    Would it not be enough that it is used as method to transfer money? You pay money for bitcoins, pass ther bitcoins on, and someone else gets money for those bitcoins. Voila, bitcoins used for money transfer, without the need to consider bitcoins as money any more than you'd have to consider the electrical impulses sent between banks for money transfers to be money.

  5. Re:Internet Explorer on Ask Slashdot: Most Secure Browser In an Age of Surveillance? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Of course you can win. All you have do is to build up a massive surveillance system yourself. Then you know exactly who is trying to listen to you with which methods, and can enact appropriate counter measures. :-)

  6. Re:WOPR on Fear of Thinking War Machines May Push U.S. To Exascale · · Score: 1

    Actually, the World War 3 is going on already. Nearly 3,400 people die on the world's roads every day. By 2020 it will be about 5200 every day (1.9 million per year) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/index.html

    That's not a war. There's no organization intentionally causing all those traffic accidents.

  7. Re:That word does not mean what you think it means on Fear of Thinking War Machines May Push U.S. To Exascale · · Score: 1

    Gigabyte storage is still a buzzword? And here I thought Terabytes were the norm as of now.

  8. Re:wow, stupider than MAD! on Fear of Thinking War Machines May Push U.S. To Exascale · · Score: 1

    So you're saying that they will build hyperintelligent machines in order to have them post anonymously?

    Well, thinking about it, if the machine can emulate different enough people, that may indeed be an useful tool to influence public opinion.

  9. Re:wow, stupider than MAD! on Fear of Thinking War Machines May Push U.S. To Exascale · · Score: 1

    and in real-world case studies typically both sides believe they have a much greater than 50% chance of winning (which violates the law of conservation of probability...)

    No, it does not. It would if one person would believe that both parties have a much greater than 50% chance of winning. As is, it's just two people using different measures of probability. Which may be caused by irrational thinking, but it may also be caused by rational thinking based on different knowledge sets.

    A simple example: Both parties have a secret weapon, but no idea that the other also has one. Therefore each party thinks the own secret weapon will change the odds in favour of themselves, and indeed, from their state of knowledge it is rational to think so.

  10. Re:wow, stupider than MAD! on Fear of Thinking War Machines May Push U.S. To Exascale · · Score: 1

    When it's not engaging targets with drones, it can read all our emails and listen to our phone calls to identify new targets. It's got a million uses in and out of the kitchen!

    Well, the real dangerous step is when those two functionalities get combined. And nobody can be blamed fort he incident because, after all, there was no human decision involved ...

    And of course you cannot switch it off because everyone who wants to do so will be seen by it as danger and eliminated.

  11. Re:Thou hast angered thy King on China Says Serious Polluters Will Get the Death Penalty · · Score: 2

    You know, serious criminals are usually convinced they never will get caught. If you don't expect to get caught, why should the question what happens to you in that case bother you?

    If you believe you can fly, you'll have no reason not to jump out of the window in the 100th floor. Certainly not the warning of the bad things that happen to you when you hit the ground.

  12. 4. You do not upgrade on Why Your Sysadmin Hates You · · Score: 2

    "It forces us to work harder than needed to find a path to get data off the dead system and onto the new system."

    That's not caused by a failure to upgrade hardware. That's caused by a failed or non-existent backup strategy.

  13. Re:Mostly Harmless on Amazon Vows To Fight Government Requests For Data · · Score: 1

    just ROL like I made a good joke...

    Ranting Out Loud? :-)

  14. Re:Ahem... on Amazon Vows To Fight Government Requests For Data · · Score: 1

    Running the CIA's cloud will give Amazon access to the CIA's data, not the other way round.

  15. Re:Every pro-israel is a terrorist by default on 2 Men Accused of Trying To Make X-Ray Weapon · · Score: 1

    The biggest crime of the Jews is the fact of their survival

    Seeing that you post here, you're obviously not dead yet, and thus I conclude you've survived so far. Therefore you're guilty of the exact same "crime".

  16. Re:A conspiracy... on 2 Men Accused of Trying To Make X-Ray Weapon · · Score: 2

    Umm, pray tell, what has heating up (using microwaves) got to do with ionization?

    Well, if you heat up enough, you'll get ionization (plasma). Of course to heat up to such high temperatures you'd need much more power than your typical microwave oven.

    The DNA is simply, by design, susceptible to this kind of radiation

    So there's not only an intelligent designer, but he intentionally made the DNA vulnerable to UV-B? :-)

  17. Re:sure on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    And of course all those pirates have to coordinate, and to trust each other (if even a single one is an undercover cop, then the whole group is caught). That's certainly a big step from a lonely pirate breaking a DRM or watermarking scheme in his basement.

  18. Re:The new black on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    Wel, ad leest wee nou ann exxcuse hav four ourr speling annd grammer erors. ;-)

  19. Re:Article in case of slashdotting on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    Called SoDoMy

    Great marketing. Imagine ... "Our copies of the bible are protected with SoDoMy ..." — I doubt that edition will sell well. ;-)

  20. Re:So, rip 3 copies of the ebook and diff them. on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    That task is easy. There's even a command for this provided in your operating system. Depending on which OS you run, it's either rm or del.

  21. Re:sure on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 1

    If the alterations encode who has bought it, then your three copies will likely share that information. Therefore comparing the three copies will not remove it.

  22. Re:Goddammit. on Altering Text In eBooks To Track Pirates · · Score: 2

    "I see there are no double spaces in your copy. This is a clear sign that you pirated it."

  23. Re:What is the point of this? on Google Aims To Cull Child Porn By Algorithm, Not Human Review · · Score: 1

    Sure, the terrorists use movie/music/game piracy to make enough money to create child porn, which they then sell to get money for their terror. Now we just have to add something about Global Warming to the mix, and we've got the perfect catch-all "justification" ;-)

  24. Re:Xp - Linux easy path on XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec · · Score: 1

    They all found it easier then Windows.

    So at first they found Ubuntu easier, but then they found Windows easier?

  25. Re:Windows 7 death watch - 2407 days 13 hours... on XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec · · Score: 1

    And XP's original expiry time has long passed. Who tells you that Microsoft won't extend Windows 7's expiry date as well?