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Comments · 6,467

  1. Re:Minimum retrial on FBI Overstated Forensic Hair Matches In Nearly All Trials Before 2000 · · Score: 1

    There is nothing indicate that the rate would be any different among samples that were used in court.

    When hair "evidence" was used in a little over 10% of the times that it was available, it's reasonable to think that a lot of selection is going on.. It's reasonable to assume that those cases where the hair evidence was used were not typical. It's very reasonable to assume that the reason the hair evidence was used was lack of alternative evidence. It's not reasonable to make the assumption that the percentages would be similar when the number of cases when hair evidence was used in court is such a small proportion of the overall percentage.

    In your world, lack of evidence for a proposition is evidence of an alternative proposition? You have no evidence to support your claim that the 11% of all false positives also applied to hari evidence used in court. Nothing. Nada.

  2. Re:Minimum retrial on FBI Overstated Forensic Hair Matches In Nearly All Trials Before 2000 · · Score: 1

    it is very reasonable to assume that the 11% of false matches are over-represented in the 268 cases

    Pure speculation on your part, there's nothing to support that assumption.

    And your claim that the 11% false positives (of all analysis) applies to the subset cases where hair analysis evidence was used at trial? Where's your evidence to support that claim? It's no more than speculation.

    You have no more evidence than I do, but at least I have a rational explanation why it's likely to be greater than 11%.

  3. Re:Minimum retrial on FBI Overstated Forensic Hair Matches In Nearly All Trials Before 2000 · · Score: 1

    Re-reading the article, I think that I know where you got the 90% number from, but I think that you are wrong.

    Firstly, as you note in another post, it's 89%, not 90% (bias showing here?)

    However, more importantly, it's 89% of all the "positive" results, not 89% of those used at trial. In the 11% where there was a false match, the likelyhood of actual guilt is lower, so the amount of other evidence would be much lower, thus it is very reasonable to assume that the 11% of false matches are over-represented in the 268 cases where the hair evidence was used at trial. Thus, your estimate of 27 or 28 is likely to be very low.

  4. Re:Minimum retrial on FBI Overstated Forensic Hair Matches In Nearly All Trials Before 2000 · · Score: 1

    Of those, the evidence was used in something like 268 trials, and a retrospective analysis of the DNA revealed that the hair did indeed match almost 90% of the time.

    I don't see the 90% match through DNA testing in the article. Case to explain where it came from?

  5. Re:Unless on Joseph Goebbels' Estate Sues Publisher Over Diary Excerpt Royalties · · Score: 1

    Up front confession: haven't read the article, but unless the diaries are in the public domain, isn't this pretty cut and dry?

    In the USA there would also be the possibility of the extracts being fair use.

  6. Re:there's a strange bias on slashdot on Microsoft's Role As Accuser In the Antitrust Suit Against Google · · Score: 1

    They rarely, if ever, produce results that are even vaguely related to what I'm searching for. They don't have market share because THEY SUCK.

    Exactly. I find that Google produces better results for searches relating to Microsoft products.

    Some time back when Microsoft was advertising their website the showed Google results side-by-side with Bing (with the intent that Bing would give more useful results), I tried the side-by-side website and the Bing side did not even load.

  7. Re:HHS Asleep At The Switch on Kludgey Electronic Health Records Are Becoming Fodder For Malpractice Suits · · Score: 1

    Why is that the government's job? Shouldn't that be the job of ISO, ANSI, or the AMA (all NGOs)?

    Because they failed. Standards organizations don't get involved unless the companies in that technical field want them to be involved.

    It looks like medical records companies don't want standards -- probably because they would prefer to seek an effective monopoly through proprietary standards. However, enforcing open standards benefits society and that's why government should be involved.

    Government doesn't have to develop a standard, merely mandate the requirement for a standard.

  8. Who controls the cameras? on Allegation: Lottery Official Hacked RNG To Score Winning Ticket · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why do people who have access to the computer also have the ability to control the cameras?

    Splitting responsiblity this way is such a basic and obvious security measure.

  9. Re:Why is it even a discussion? on Republicans Introduce a Bill To Overturn Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    They HAVE asked Netflix to pay for the capacity upgrade at the border gateways -- capacity that is being used in large part by Netflix and is making Netflix money. Netflix is profiting from a peering agreement that Comcast has to pay for. Seems fair to me that Netflix pays part of the costs of upgrade.

    The cost for Comcast increasing its capacity at the handover point was a few thousand dollars. It wasn't money for upgrades that was holding up the capacity increase, it was money to pay the t[r]oll.

  10. Re:Tradeoffs on Acetaminophen Reduces Both Pain and Pleasure, Study Finds · · Score: 4, Funny

    That should be the next 'go back in time' movie, send the Puritans to colonize Krakatoa and let the good-timing criminals colonize America

    We know where that leads: Australia.

  11. Life for crypto experts at NSA on The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It "Front Door" Access To Encrypted Data · · Score: 1

    What must life be like for crypto experts at the NSA? I assume that they are smart people, who must surely realize what a boneheaded idea this is. Imagine working somewhere where your most senior bosses go around publicly showing off their lack of knowledge.

  12. Why do they not realize? on French Intelligence Bill: 5 Web Hosting Providers Threaten To Leave the Country · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why do the policiians not realize that the tools they are giving can and will be misused and abused and that those same politicians are very likely to be the targets of that misuse?

  13. Re:UAC is for idiots on LG Split Screen Software Compromises System Security · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As what I'd consider a 'power user', one of the first things I do is turn that obnoxious thing off. I understand it's purpose for being there, it's to protect idiots.

    You never heard of "drive-by installs"? And don't reply with "but I don't go to that type of website", because we have often seen that both ordinary websites and ad networks can be compromised to install malware.

  14. Strawman argument.

  15. Re:Alternative title on Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley · · Score: 1

    you do not fucking understand the concept of entrapment. stop talking about a concept you do not understand

    Is your anger or stupidity so great that you have to keep insisting that I am claiming entrapment, when I am not? But even in your examples: you say: cop gives person to keys to car, says go steal it: entrapment. In this case: FBI gives bomb to suspect, says: go use it. How is this different? What was the intent of the recipient of the car keys in your example?

    it's about *intent*. if you form the intent to do something malicious on your own, you are not entrapped. you are a criminal

    So let's talk about intent. No-one knows what is truly in someone else's mind. We can only infer this from a person's words and actions. So, let's look at this person's words and actions and see if an alternative intent fits the known facts:

    The accused person isn't the brightest person around. Imagine that he was worried about radical muslims and he formed the idea of catching some and turning them over to the FBI. So, what does he do? He goes on a fishing expedition for radicals by posting requests for a handler who will help him plant a bomb. He is contacted by someone who appears to be a radical muslim. He is careful not to build a bomb himself, but instead, he lets the supposed radical build a bomb and show him how to use it. His plan is to drive off with the bomb and then show it to the FBI as proof of the handler's intentions, however, his plan breaks down because he is arrested before he can hand it over to the FBI.

    As you can see, the above narrative fits the known facts, yet it presents an intent which is 180 degrees from the intent that you presume.

  16. Re:Alternative title on Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley · · Score: 2

    if the fbi wasn't around, he would have figured out how to buy gasoline or fertilizer on his own, or he would have hooked up with a genuinely malicious crew

    And you know this how? Isn't this the concept of "pre-crime"

    if you INTEND to do harm, stopping you from following through on your intent is doing good in the world, and removing you from society for being a murderous asshole is doing good in the world

    So we should prosecute "thought crime" should we?

    it's not entrapment. it does not fit the definition of the concept, which you don't seem to understand

    And you just showed that your reading skills are poor. I agreed that it did not fit the legal definition of entrapment.

    understand intent. understand entrapment. then comment on this topic. you don't seem to have the moral or social faculties to comment intelligently at this time, as you don't seem to understand the concepts involved

    The refuge of the weak of mind: an ad-hominem argument.

  17. the involvement of the fbi is manipulating all of his material to be harmless, and allowing him to proceed. they are not telling him what to do, he's choosing to do it

    You did not read the story properly. The FBI told him exactly what to do. They provided detailed instructions and "training". The FBI built the "bomb" for him and showed him how to "arm" it.

  18. Re:Alternative title on Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley · · Score: 3, Insightful

    it's not entrapment

    Just because it doesn't fit the legal definition of entrapment doesn't mean that it isn't morally entrapment.

    In this case, yes, the guy had the desire to do something. However, he did not and would never have had the capability to do anything. There was no public safety justificaton for this FBI operation.

  19. Re:masdf on Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did you not notice the stories about how random people have breached security at airports many times over the last few years? If there were any serious terrorists, there would have been attacks at airports. The fact that teenagers were able to get on planes while we haven't had any terrorist attacks shows that the threats are wildly over-stated.

  20. Alternative title on Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley · · Score: 5, Informative
  21. Re:About time. on Ten US Senators Seek Investigation Into the Replacement of US Tech Workers · · Score: 1

    According to this source, the H1-B program as it is today started in 1990. Since then, the visa cap fluctuated between 65,000 and 195,000 per year. Let's take an average of 85,000 and we're talking about 85,000 times 25 years which equals 2,125,000. That's 2.1 million.

    Your numbers may be in in the correct ballpark, but they overstate the real numbers. Firstly, I don't think that the full quota was used when the H1-B program started. Secondly, some H1-Bs went home. Others may have gone home for a year or more and come back to the USA on a new H1-B (don't discount this, I did it and I know many others who also did). Finally, many of those former H1-B workers may not work in tech any more.

  22. Re:Gold watches in the UK? on Swiss Launch of Apple Watch Hit By Patent Issue · · Score: 1

    They'll put one on? Why wouldn't they?

    First: the item must be marked by an assay office (after the maker's mark is applied by the manufacturer). Secondly, since this isn't a traditional gold alloy, traditional methods of assaying the gold may not work, thirdly, traditional methods of applying the hallmark may not work.

  23. Gold watches in the UK? on Swiss Launch of Apple Watch Hit By Patent Issue · · Score: 1

    I wonder what Apple is going to do in the UK, which requires marking of gold items with hallmarks.

  24. Can someone please explain to me on W. Virginia Bans Direct Tesla Sales, With Urging of Car-Dealer Senate President · · Score: 1

    How is that states can pass laws that relate to in-state sales of cars to consumers, but apparently laws that relate to in-state sales of drugs to consumers are pre-empted by federal law?

  25. Re:Journalism. :( on W. Virginia Bans Direct Tesla Sales, With Urging of Car-Dealer Senate President · · Score: 1

    That right! Earl Tomblin (D).

    Just goes to show that personal enrichment is higher on the average policician's priorities than ideology for all parties.