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User: marcosdumay

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Comments · 6,436

  1. Re:Foster Creativity By Shortening Copyright Lengt on Y Combinator Wants To Kill Hollywood · · Score: 1

    let's kill Hollywood because SOPA wouldn't let us put a Mad Men episode on Tumblr.

    What were you smoking when you heard "Let's kill Hollywood, there is plenty of money on their market that they are incapable of getting, and we can get it." and "SOPA is a threat to any legitimate site on the Internet, and a threat to political speech", mix the two, and came out with that phrase above?

  2. Re:No? on Megaupload Shutdown: Should RapidShare and Dropbox Worry? · · Score: 1

    If they want it all to be all by themselves, no I don't think that is abusive. So, we extinguish copyrights and rely on contracts for now on?

  3. Re:Either them or someone else on Mutant Flu Researchers Declare a Time Out · · Score: 1

    Evolution selects the populations that invest on vaccines.

  4. Re:Because when you weaponise it on Mutant Flu Researchers Declare a Time Out · · Score: 1

    I bet the military aren't that interested on something that is also easy to pass and effective at taking out their own population.

  5. Re:Why does the virus have to be both? on Mutant Flu Researchers Declare a Time Out · · Score: 2

    Different situation here.

    Those researchers found that there is a virus that is hightly contagious and deadly. Also, this virus is likely* to be created at Nature, so it is interesting by itself. The researchers thus want to know how this specific virus behave, not some generic fast spreading or some generic lethal variation of it.

    * For suficiently unlikely values of "likely". It is likely enough to make people afraid, but just because the result will be a lethal pandemic. If it was something less damaging, the same probability wouldn't be considered "likely".

  6. Re:Akin to people walking out with data... on Mutant Flu Researchers Declare a Time Out · · Score: 1

    He can walk out of it with some data too, and manufacture the virus later.

  7. Re:I would rather.... on Mutant Flu Researchers Declare a Time Out · · Score: 1

    I really don't know about that...

    How many different proteins you must put in a vaccine before it stops a kind of Influenza? If that number is low, we probably can make a vaccine that is close enough to whatever evolves at nature, if it is hight, we can't.

    The problem is, it is going to be expensive, and it will hurt a few people. There is no other way to protect the population.

  8. Re:Wish I could understand the details of FFTs on Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform · · Score: 1

    It is simpler in linear algebra. I guess that is the theory where DFT and FFT are simpler. So if you want to understand them, read a book about linear algebra, and read about the FFT again.

  9. Re:U.S. law is the new international law on Megaupload.com Shut Down, Founder Charged With Piracy · · Score: 1

    Ok, I think I correctly parsed (and error corrected) this.

    You are saying that the GP shouldn't send his data encrypted through Mega Upload servers because Mega Upload staff can get the keys by comming to his house and breaking his knees?

    Well, I have news for you. They can get the original files the same way, even if they don't pass through their servers.

  10. Re:Like ISO 9000 on Do Data Center Audits Mean Anything? · · Score: 1

    Will that certification be meaningless to not create any kind of trouble, and yet obscure enough for potential clients not discovering it is meaningless?

  11. Re:There are old receivers in use on LightSquared Says GPS Tests Were Rigged · · Score: 1

    Maintence is part of making sure the plane can fly. That's right.

    But upgrades are only required if they'll lead to an increase in safety (and that increase is neeed at the first place). Just changing your GPS receivers won't.

  12. Right to Read on Will Secure Boot Cripple Linux Compatibility? · · Score: 1

    That's the begining of the implementation of that "Right to Read" stuff. We tought it was averted at the 90's, but it was just delayed.

    One thing is certain, if this thing goes forward (what is not granted yet) the organization (company, country, whatever) that somehow avoids Microsoft will have a huge competitive edge.

  13. Re:Kind of a bummer on Jerry Yang Resigns From Yahoo · · Score: 1

    Most of the people that are on the Internet since the 90's aren't computer iliterated. Also, you don't know what you are missing by not looking into it, Yahoo's UI is way better than Google's.

    I've been moving my email from Yahoo since the failed partneship with Microsoft, but there is no way I'll put anything important on Gmail.

  14. Re:Kind of a bummer on Jerry Yang Resigns From Yahoo · · Score: 1

    From the MS point of view, they just backstabed a company without even making a partneship with it. That must be a new record for them, they just needed Yahoo to say "I agree".

  15. Re:Oh, Einstein. on Astronomers Planning To Image Milky Way's Central Black Hole · · Score: 1

    They'll stop when they find a problem. That's how science works.

  16. Re:Yes - sounds like "grant time" on Multicellular Life Evolves In Months, In a Lab · · Score: 1

    The relevant fact here is how terminal velocity relates to volume.

  17. Re:My $0.02 on GIS tools on Ask Slashdot: Open Source vs Proprietary GIS Solution? · · Score: 1

    And, of course, all of those use PostGIS at the back end.

  18. Re:A bit sad. on Ask Slashdot: Open Source vs Proprietary GIS Solution? · · Score: 1

    There are a few problem with your approach.

    First, the Earth isn't a sphere. It also isn't an elipsoid.

    Second, how many rows will be on that database? We normaly use databases when we have a non-trivial amount of data, so that is probably what he have. Now that you know how to calculate distances (you don't, but let's pretend you do), how do you efficiently search for rows that are within 1000km of any random point?

    Third, why would his developers reinvent a square weel when there are perfectly good circular ones available at the internet for free?

  19. Re:PostGIS + GeoDjango, no contest on Ask Slashdot: Open Source vs Proprietary GIS Solution? · · Score: 1

    Hey, I didn't know about GeoDjango. Thanks a lot for the pointer.

  20. Re:PostgreSQL with PostGIS on Ask Slashdot: Open Source vs Proprietary GIS Solution? · · Score: 1

    Besides functional problems, converting encodings can be quite slow. Specialy so if you are using Microsoft's converters.

  21. Re:And did they answer? on RSA Chief: Last Year's Breach Has Silver Lining · · Score: 1

    Changing "people are mad at us, and won't trust us unless we evidence that we changed" into "see? People care about us" well... Could get any name you want :)

  22. Re:Sleepwalking to destruction. on Predicting Life 100 Years From Now · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but an AI killing us does not solve the Fermi paradox.

  23. Re:No more humans on Predicting Life 100 Years From Now · · Score: 1

    And then tht AI will finish all fossil fuels availabe, polute every square meter of land and sea, destroy all life on Earth, and get out of this rock to repeat it all through the galaxy. How can it look at us as a virus?

    But I bet both of us are wrong (except for this bet and this disclaimer, that are right).

  24. Re:So come on /., put forth YOUR predictions! on Predicting Life 100 Years From Now · · Score: 1

    I'd be happy if I knew that it would be only there.

    Ok, other places have rocks too. It wil be just there.

  25. Re:Oh, the Horseshit You Will Print! on Predicting Life 100 Years From Now · · Score: 1

    How do you want me to belive you know something about the future if you are not even a futurologist yet?