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User: Talennor

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Comments · 143

  1. Re:I call BS on US Doctors Back Circumcision · · Score: 2

    There is likely a very good reason ancient cultures with a huge emphasis on cleanliness adopted the practice and codified it into their religions...probably much of the same reasons these doctors are touting.

    I'm going to go with different reason. Ancient cultures lived in the ancient world, where there wasn't (good) medicine and people died young. They did lots of things, like avoid pork, to stay alive, that just don't matter today. I'd imagine most similarities of medical advice between then and now to be coincidental.

  2. Backwards vocabulary, backwards thinking on Air Force Openly Seeking Cyberweapons · · Score: 1

    They're using their existing airforce vocabulary. Which means they're using their existing airforce thinking.

    You don't "intercept", "locate", "target", or "plan" with information technology the same way you do those things with enemy aircraft. We do have problems with information security and systems security, but they're not the same kinds of problems as bombers flying overhead. And we have solutions, too, which just don't detect or respond or work in the same ways. They need to find someone in the field and ask questions about what they should be looking for before setting their goals.

  3. Re:$313? on US Doctors Back Circumcision · · Score: 1

    Report linked stated cost to be "$216-601 across the nation." But they weren't using dollar amounts as the results to maximize, rather quality of life.

    However, it appears to be a very small average (average is important in this discussion) quality of life improvement. And this is something, if I were becoming a parent soon, I wouldn't worry much. There's important decisions like saying "yes" to vaccinations that matter much more.

  4. When I first saw the OBD2 data recorders that can give you an insurance discount, I figured I would have done this but make the plug do nothing. This limits your liability of breaking someone's car. Also, I'm under the impression that a driver will change their habits and drive safer when they feel like they're being watched. The actual data doesn't matter. An insurer doesn't care what your car does. They care how safe you are, and someone conscious about being safer is safer.

  5. Re:The only thing you can do on Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Your office sounds boring.

  6. Re:The Cloud offsets much of the local storage nee on 16GB Nexus 7 Sold Out On Google Play Store · · Score: 1

    My desktop only works at home too. But it's still cool.

  7. Re:Huh? on Apple Gets the Importance of Packaging; Why Doesn't Google? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is cutting tape really that difficult?

    Well, I watched the video, and it's apparently quite difficult if you try to cut it with your shirt.

  8. Re:more like 7th largest automaker! on General Motors To Slash Outsourcing In IT Overhaul · · Score: 2

    Pretty sure they were using by volume. Possibly the 2010 numbers

  9. Re:Confusion reigns supreme on Georgia Apple Store Refuses To Sell iPad To Iranian-American Teen · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure that their consumer services just decided to break export restrictions. Doing something doesn't mean it's legal. And illegal doesn't mean you'll be prosecuted.

  10. Re:Pirates? on China Pirates Austrian Village · · Score: 2

    So did Georgia. Not a bad place, but touristy, and the most redneck Bavarian village I've ever been to.

  11. Re:.TX on ICANN Reveals New TLD Application List · · Score: 1

    Never infer that Texas isn't a country. They get mad about that.

  12. Re:Check your password on Lessons Learned From Cracking 2M LinkedIn Passwords · · Score: 2

    You realize that the concern many computer security people here have is that your password hash is available in the open. And you want to freely type it into another website? I don't care how much you trust this site. Don't do this.

  13. Re:Don't get excited on Cognitive Software Identifies America's Brainiest Cities · · Score: 1

    Or it shows that their self selected dataset is relatively uniform. SAT scores by state, for example, have a lot more variance.

  14. Re:Marginal cost? on Windows 8 Won't Play DVDs Unless You Pay For the Media Center Pack · · Score: 1

    The marginal costs are the patent encumbered algorithms that cost per license.

  15. Re:Bunch of BUNK! on Oracle and the End of Programming As We Know It · · Score: 2

    Because one person deciding something is so much less efficient and costs so much more that we should exhaust all the other options and try the easier approach of a full jury trial first.

    Seriously? Wtf, judge?

  16. Re:You might as well say... on Analytic Thinking Can Decrease Religious Belief · · Score: 1

    I'm concerned you're saying you allow yourself to base your judgements on fiction. This is unfortunate, as it can lead to the wrong conclusions. I'll leave you to think up examples, but there are many extreme examples from the crazier side of Christianity and other religions, or just things people do to their cars. It turns out basing judgments of truth and validity on facts and measurements just works better.

  17. Re:not surprising on Hacked Skype IP Address Search Shows Who's Speaking From Where · · Score: 1

    I'm sure you could run your skype traffic through TOR. Not sure the quality of service you'd get... (Ok, I'm sure, and it's not looking good.)

  18. Re:not surprising on Hacked Skype IP Address Search Shows Who's Speaking From Where · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAT_traversal

    Skype servers help make the connection, but aren't involved in the data stream.

  19. boring historical sciency fiction? on Neal Stephenson Takes Blame For Innovation Failure · · Score: 1

    Maybe he's talking about the Baroque Cycle, making a dystopian future where all fiction is way too long and boring as hell.

    (disclosure: I didn't finish the first book, though I've been told it gets better right after the halfway point I quit at.)

  20. Re:But on Neal Stephenson Takes Blame For Innovation Failure · · Score: 1

    Maybe we should be more concerned by the kinds of people that are still interested in engineering the dystopian future. As a like minded person this conversation is making me feel a bit evil geniusy.

  21. Not really on Mechanical CPU Clock · · Score: 2

    So this is a neat counter. But it functions nothing like a CPU. The article tries to describe some instruction set, memory, bus, and registers. But it's only as close as most car metaphors (really off the mark).

  22. Find something open source that's exciting to him. He'll read the code, compile it, find the tools, edit it, and learn. The language isn't as important as the problem solving part and not getting lost in hello world programs and simple problems.

    However, I'd recommend staying away from PHP or Perl. You can learn some bad things there.

    I wouldn't limit the search for a fun project to high level software, either. Arduino is an awesome platform for embedded stuff with tons of open source code out there.

  23. Re:Normally C but... on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program? · · Score: 1

    Conversely, chasing crashes is a fun problem solving activity, and pointer arithmetic (while bad in the real world) really lets you know what's going on.

  24. Re:The question I have is... on New York Times Halves Monthly Free Article Views To Ten · · Score: 2

    I used to by the paper version. It had ads.

  25. Re:Shocked, shocked I tell you on SFPD Breathalyzer Mistake Puts Hundreds of DUI Convictions In Doubt · · Score: 1

    It's not even that. The devices probably worked! They were just being lazy.