I imagine the governor general would be an effective watchdog. Or the courts. We just need a law that makes it illegal for parties to coerce votes from MPs. It should be illegal for parties to accept funds too - only individual candidates could fundraise.
I'm not criticizing Brosseau but rather the constituents who elected her. They clearly didn't elect a representative, since they'd never met her.
I'd be in favour of that. Or we could keep political parties as rough guidelines, but any hint of "party discipline" would result in punishment for the party. There would be no party leaders, and the prime minister would be elected by popular vote in the House.
It's only going to happen if voters demand it though. So vote for a representative in the next election, not some party automaton like that woman from Montreal who got elected even though she'd never visited her riding.
Why would you want a Tivo when you could just download whatever you want, whenever you want? It was a useful device in it's time, but that time is just about up. And why would you want to cancel something like a Netflix streaming account in favour of an expensive cable package?
I think it would be a huge mistake for Google (or anyone else) to invest in cable boxes. Some people are perfectly happy with analog cable or have digital and want it to work like analog, but I think everyone else is going to move to digital distribution. A cable box is a tuner and should be nothing more - everything else is better done by other means.
I own papers but I took it off after getting iAnnotate Pro. Tags and your own arbitrary folder structure, plus excellent searchable annotation that you can share and dropbox support. And I find the actual PDF reader, locking zoom, etc. nicer. It lacks the pubmed integration but with the ability for Safari to transfer PDFs that's okay.
For the story poster, consider an iPad. I tried ebook readers and the inability to scroll smoothly and the flashing when they updated the screen really annoyed me. I prefer to read papers on my iPad to any other way now.
Analog cable isn't encrypted, at least not where I live. You can get it with the tuners that have been built into TVs for the last fifteen or twenty years.
For digital, yes, most new TVs have a QAM tuner built in, and no, they don't let you get the channels that your provider is being a dick and encrypting. If the cable company insists on doing that, you need a cable box. Which should be just a box. I don't understand why there's so much interest in "perfecting" it.
Or you could just skip the whole thing and download whatever you want to watch.
When I had a digital cable box I just plugged a Firewire cable from my Mac Mini into it and wrote a dozen lines of Python code to control the thing. Video popped up in VLC and dumped into an MPEG2 file on the hard drive.
Oh right, they disable the firewire port in the US don't they?
There's a good question. Do people even own cable boxes anymore? Mine's built into my TV. I remember my grandfather had this little box sitting by the TV twenty years ago that let him get cable channels. Then when he got a new TV it went away.
You imply (I notice you don't come right out and say it) that they're "trying to replicate something by copying only its most outwardly obvious features." Care to back that up? What are the outward features they're copying? What are the non-obvious ones they should be copying?
There is lots of research into which problems brains solve better than computers, and a fairly good list. We also have a rough idea of how brains make these computations better than computers, and have had a fair bit of success copying them.
It's only a cargo cult if you keep doing it without success. If you build a runway and a plane lands, then you do it again and a plane lands again, etc. it's not a cargo cult.
You'd be correct, except that longitudinal data is positively correlated. Checking the market six times is not equivalent to flipping a coin six times. Also, presumably by "move" they mean a move relative to the original price, not the last time they checked.
There are 100 stocks. 1 goes way down, to like 1%. 99 go very slightly up. A random subset of 10 stocks does not have a 50% chance of beating the average, since there is not a 50% chance it will include the 1 that went down. (Yes, I know I'm disagreeing with you.)
In concrete terms, you're suggesting that the distribution of stock changes is highly skewed, and claiming that it MUST be skewed in terms of a long tail of stocks going UP. You're going to have to justify that.
I don't understand why more people don't demand respect in their workplace. People choose jobs, or strike, based on salary all the time, but very few choose based on lifestyle or respect. I guess it's just not that important to them.
"There is essentially no verification that the voter is who they claim to be at physical polls - just show up and sign the little book (right next to the easily copied sample signature). I still don't understand how this is considered enough to validate a vote."
It's not in Canada. You need to present government issued ID.
You only feel it's broken because you broke it. In the representative system you're supposed to elect a representative. You are NOT voting for the prime minister, who is really just a figurehead most of the time.
Next time vote for the local candidate who you think will represent you best, no matter what party he's from. Vote for the guy who you think has the guts to stand up to his party line if it doesn't agree with his constituents. Vote for an independent if you want to be sure.
"In particular the ban on publishing results is a running joke that was easily circumvented by a ton of people on election night. It's so easy to get around it these days (particularly thanks to helpful foreigners willing to lend a hand by reposting results) that even trying to enforce it just wastes time and makes the government look stupid."
I disagree. The ban still does exactly what it's supposed to. Sure you can get early results, but you have to go look for them. The mass media has to obey the ban, because they're a nice easy target for prosecution if they don't. So the person who isn't specifically looking for early election results probably won't find them.
The person who IS looking for results probably has a strong opinion already anyway and isn't going to be swayed.
On the other hand, I don't know why elections Canada just doesn't release ANY results until polls are closed everywhere.
I don't think I've ever lived more than a five minute walk from a polling station and when you get there a nice older woman smiles at you, welcomes you to the polling station and points you towards one of the booths. The whole thing takes about forty five seconds usually, or occasionally four or five minutes if you just moved and aren't on the voters list.
Yes, it does. I definitely do not sit at work for eight hours on top of the bus ride. No punching a clock. If I'm not productive sitting in the lab I go somewhere else. If I really need to get something done I stay home and work from my hammock or the balcony.
Some of us have jobs we actually like, where we're treated like adults. For example, I consider my on-the-bus time part of my work day. Other people could be working on hobbies or reading for enjoyment.
Slashdot Mirror
You can get a provisional patent for $25 and five minutes on a web site. Don't get too concerned.
We're talking about the mean of the CHANGES in stocks, so the law of large numbers and your point about a non-stationary mean don't apply.
The rest of your post about beneficiaries, regulation, and happy people is irrelevant to the topic.
I imagine the governor general would be an effective watchdog. Or the courts. We just need a law that makes it illegal for parties to coerce votes from MPs. It should be illegal for parties to accept funds too - only individual candidates could fundraise.
I'm not criticizing Brosseau but rather the constituents who elected her. They clearly didn't elect a representative, since they'd never met her.
I'd be in favour of that. Or we could keep political parties as rough guidelines, but any hint of "party discipline" would result in punishment for the party. There would be no party leaders, and the prime minister would be elected by popular vote in the House.
It's only going to happen if voters demand it though. So vote for a representative in the next election, not some party automaton like that woman from Montreal who got elected even though she'd never visited her riding.
Why would you want a Tivo when you could just download whatever you want, whenever you want? It was a useful device in it's time, but that time is just about up. And why would you want to cancel something like a Netflix streaming account in favour of an expensive cable package?
I think it would be a huge mistake for Google (or anyone else) to invest in cable boxes. Some people are perfectly happy with analog cable or have digital and want it to work like analog, but I think everyone else is going to move to digital distribution. A cable box is a tuner and should be nothing more - everything else is better done by other means.
I own papers but I took it off after getting iAnnotate Pro. Tags and your own arbitrary folder structure, plus excellent searchable annotation that you can share and dropbox support. And I find the actual PDF reader, locking zoom, etc. nicer. It lacks the pubmed integration but with the ability for Safari to transfer PDFs that's okay.
For the story poster, consider an iPad. I tried ebook readers and the inability to scroll smoothly and the flashing when they updated the screen really annoyed me. I prefer to read papers on my iPad to any other way now.
Isn't HP the largest PC maker? That's going to be quite the boon for the rest of the manufacturers.
Analog cable isn't encrypted, at least not where I live. You can get it with the tuners that have been built into TVs for the last fifteen or twenty years.
For digital, yes, most new TVs have a QAM tuner built in, and no, they don't let you get the channels that your provider is being a dick and encrypting. If the cable company insists on doing that, you need a cable box. Which should be just a box. I don't understand why there's so much interest in "perfecting" it.
Or you could just skip the whole thing and download whatever you want to watch.
Yup. Everybody uses that excuse.
When I had a digital cable box I just plugged a Firewire cable from my Mac Mini into it and wrote a dozen lines of Python code to control the thing. Video popped up in VLC and dumped into an MPEG2 file on the hard drive.
Oh right, they disable the firewire port in the US don't they?
There's a good question. Do people even own cable boxes anymore? Mine's built into my TV. I remember my grandfather had this little box sitting by the TV twenty years ago that let him get cable channels. Then when he got a new TV it went away.
You imply (I notice you don't come right out and say it) that they're "trying to replicate something by copying only its most outwardly obvious features." Care to back that up? What are the outward features they're copying? What are the non-obvious ones they should be copying?
There is lots of research into which problems brains solve better than computers, and a fairly good list. We also have a rough idea of how brains make these computations better than computers, and have had a fair bit of success copying them.
It's only a cargo cult if you keep doing it without success. If you build a runway and a plane lands, then you do it again and a plane lands again, etc. it's not a cargo cult.
You'd be correct, except that longitudinal data is positively correlated. Checking the market six times is not equivalent to flipping a coin six times. Also, presumably by "move" they mean a move relative to the original price, not the last time they checked.
There are 100 stocks. 1 goes way down, to like 1%. 99 go very slightly up. A random subset of 10 stocks does not have a 50% chance of beating the average, since there is not a 50% chance it will include the 1 that went down. (Yes, I know I'm disagreeing with you.)
In concrete terms, you're suggesting that the distribution of stock changes is highly skewed, and claiming that it MUST be skewed in terms of a long tail of stocks going UP. You're going to have to justify that.
More than 50%. There's a study that shows a random stock picker will beat the average fund manager.
I don't understand why more people don't demand respect in their workplace. People choose jobs, or strike, based on salary all the time, but very few choose based on lifestyle or respect. I guess it's just not that important to them.
"There is essentially no verification that the voter is who they claim to be at physical polls - just show up and sign the little book (right next to the easily copied sample signature). I still don't understand how this is considered enough to validate a vote."
It's not in Canada. You need to present government issued ID.
You only feel it's broken because you broke it. In the representative system you're supposed to elect a representative. You are NOT voting for the prime minister, who is really just a figurehead most of the time.
Next time vote for the local candidate who you think will represent you best, no matter what party he's from. Vote for the guy who you think has the guts to stand up to his party line if it doesn't agree with his constituents. Vote for an independent if you want to be sure.
"In particular the ban on publishing results is a running joke that was easily circumvented by a ton of people on election night. It's so easy to get around it these days (particularly thanks to helpful foreigners willing to lend a hand by reposting results) that even trying to enforce it just wastes time and makes the government look stupid."
I disagree. The ban still does exactly what it's supposed to. Sure you can get early results, but you have to go look for them. The mass media has to obey the ban, because they're a nice easy target for prosecution if they don't. So the person who isn't specifically looking for early election results probably won't find them.
The person who IS looking for results probably has a strong opinion already anyway and isn't going to be swayed.
On the other hand, I don't know why elections Canada just doesn't release ANY results until polls are closed everywhere.
I don't think I've ever lived more than a five minute walk from a polling station and when you get there a nice older woman smiles at you, welcomes you to the polling station and points you towards one of the booths. The whole thing takes about forty five seconds usually, or occasionally four or five minutes if you just moved and aren't on the voters list.
Of course, this is Canada....
Yes, it does. I definitely do not sit at work for eight hours on top of the bus ride. No punching a clock. If I'm not productive sitting in the lab I go somewhere else. If I really need to get something done I stay home and work from my hammock or the balcony.
Some of us have jobs we actually like, where we're treated like adults. For example, I consider my on-the-bus time part of my work day. Other people could be working on hobbies or reading for enjoyment.
The iPad has integrated spell check though.
Hey, it isn't easy to make "media" on an iPad!
There are a lot of other useful things that can be done other than writing a blog nobody reads.