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User: Bigby

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  1. Re:Because everyone thinks they have the flu on When Google Got Flu Wrong · · Score: 1

    I've had two different colds in the last month...which is very very odd. One of them was quite powerful. Many people would call it the flu. Some out of ignorance and others to make their situation sound worse than it really is...for pity. Others will say that to solidify to their bosses that they aren't going to work.

  2. Re:Google just fell prey to a common phenomenon on When Google Got Flu Wrong · · Score: 1

    The scientists aren't the ones working as the middle man between their work and the media.

  3. Crimes on When Google Got Flu Wrong · · Score: 0

    The same idea can be used to find mass shooters before they fire a bullet. We'll start arresting people based on their search and CC usage history. And mainstream America will be happy "because we're safer".

  4. Re:This Is Beyond Inane & Changes Nothing on Lew Rockwell: Ron Paul Not Using the State or UN to Control RonPaul.Com · · Score: 1

    The GP is confusing libertarianism with anarchy. Libertarian are FOR government, but only when dealing with force and fraud. So that covers the police and the courts.

  5. Re:The main reason I'm against fracking on NASA: Huge Freshwater Loss In the Middle East · · Score: 1

    Except as the price of food increases, more people want to make food to get in on the profit train. You will literally see an increase in farms around the world. Same for water. As it gets more expensive, mechanisms to clean the water become not only feasible but profitable. Then supply increases.

    Now if you are talking about there being no arable land or water literally escapes our atmosphere; that is a different story.

  6. Re:Raising the minimum wage is worse than useless on Obama Proposes 'Meaningful Progress' On Climate Change · · Score: 1

    I've been preaching a basic income or a while now. They need to stop directly manipulating the market and just solve the problem. The problem is making sure people have enough to live. So we translate that to this idea that people have a right to a job or a right to a certain amount of money in a job. A basic income applied to all removes bureaucracy/decisions and eliminates minimum wage, unemployment insurance, social security, medicare, and medicaid. It also brings full employment (as defined by people willing to work). If you are getting enough money to live by just existing, then you can mow my lawn and clean my house every week to get cable TV if you really want it. And I can pay less for it, out of pocket, than I would today.

  7. Re:Circular Reference on Obama Proposes 'Meaningful Progress' On Climate Change · · Score: 1

    Correct. To a point. Everyone will have the opportunity to have a job if they elect to take it. There will be millions of penny jobs.

    It creates other problems, but there is no question minimum wage creates unemployment.

  8. Re:Yes on Ask Slashdot: Why Is It So Hard To Make An Accurate Progress Bar? · · Score: 1

    Unless you are on a Real Time System. But then you KNOW how much processor time you will get and you KNOW how many clock cycles your execution requires.

    The problem is simple. People want progress in "time remaining" and you aren't copying "time". So you have to do a translation of non-time to time and that is hardly ever linear.

  9. Re:No it's not.... on Everything You Know About Password-Stealing Is Wrong · · Score: 1

    When most people use more than 2 passwords across all sites, they need to write them down. I know there are tools out there, like hashing for specific sites, but is my 65 yr old mother going to use it? Or are they going to put it in Excel, print it out, and put it in their top drawer?

  10. Re:Flash Cards on Professors Rejecting Classroom Technology · · Score: 1

    I forgot to mention that I am 15 years removed from when I learned that stuff.

  11. Re:Flash Cards on Professors Rejecting Classroom Technology · · Score: 1

    This is why I never took notes in class. It may sound counter-intuitive. However, by taking notes, I only pay attention to the subject of the notes instead of actually listening to the teacher. I always made it a point to listen to teacher, process the information, and predict where they are going next. When you are at that point, you will likely retain the information. A little follow up on the information a week later can be used to verify that you retained the process/methodology taught. I never tried to memorize the specifics; only fully understand the abstract concepts.

    For instance, several months ago I couldn't remember how to do the derivative of something. I remembered simple derivatives and the reasoning behind the limit equation. I didn't remember the limit equation, but I knew how to come up with it. So I came up with it in my head and was like, "ok, I remember that now". Then I applied it to whatever I was trying to figure out. And from there I noticed the easier way to do it.

    This is actually how I typically think. I really threw my English teachers for a loop. I would remember what a contextually the most inconsequential part of a chapter, but forget the details about some major revelation.

  12. Re:The funny thing at my university on Professors Rejecting Classroom Technology · · Score: 1

    Like a CD? They are smaller (than the 5.25 floppies) and hold more. And they are dirt cheap.

  13. Re:Infallible? on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 1

    The "Open Championship" is not referred to as the British Open by most people because it was the first open championship. Everyone has to name themselves around it. When some other organization has their own Dalai Lama, should the real Dalai Lama have to rename himself the "Buddist Dalai Lama"?

  14. Re:So on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 1

    Did the start of the Iraq War. 9/11? Election of Obama? Tsunami of 2004? There are some events that transcend the subject matter of the site.

    Also, the Catholic Church is historically linked to a whole lot of scientific history. For good or not for good.

  15. Re:Not entirely on Ask Slashdot: Best Alternative To the Canonical Computer Science Degree? · · Score: 1

    A Computer Science degree should have no bearing on code structure or comments. Other sources of information, or likely the lack of real interest in software design, is why they write crappy code.

    True Computer Science is nearly useless for front-end web development. You are better off with some art driven usability degree. Frankly, Universities should start Art of Usability degree. It is desperately needed in the field.

  16. Infallible? on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 0

    Does he remain infallible after stepping down? If so, there will be two infallible people at the same time. Assuming infallible people could exist, is it logically possible for 2 to exist? Or do they simply have to be thinking the same thing about everything? I would assume that this pope would just have to keep his mouth shut as to not potentially conflict with the new pope.

  17. Re:Who cares if we are hungry... on Corn Shortage Hampers US Ethanol Production · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but residents of NYC use roads just as much as people in rural Kansas. Although they don't use them personally, most of the products they buy, including food, uses those roads. And we both know, people in north Jersey and NYC spend more than people in rural Kansas. Plus food HAS to travel to get to a city. A farmer could produce it on their own.

    In my opinion, beaches nor roads should be subsidized. However, roads are more justified. Everyone is GREATLY affected by roads. Not so for beaches. I would bet that 35% of the country never goes to a beach in their lifetime. And the beach will always be there, just that someone else's property will become beachfront. Insurance can cover the lost property.

  18. Re:Kill Corn Subsidies! on Corn Shortage Hampers US Ethanol Production · · Score: 1

    They are better off subsidizing farms based on the size of the farmed land than subsidizing a specific crop. At least it doesn't twist the food market.

  19. Re:Who cares if we are hungry... on Corn Shortage Hampers US Ethanol Production · · Score: 1

    How does arguing about the Federal subsidies of roads and highways counter the argument of subsidizing beaches? People living in and around beaches benefit just as much from subsidized roads and highways. However, you can't say the same about subsidies of beaches.

    Beach communities should pay to fortify their beach. And this should be true across the US as to not give one beach an advantage over another. There is plenty demand from tourists to offset the costs. And if the community or someone else can't put up the money to repair it, then it apparently wasn't worth existing for the general public.

    That said, I was in the Sandy storm as well. Worse than future subsidies that will come this way were the government interference in pricing. I couldn't get a hot water heater for 3.5 weeks...not because there was a shortage, but because we weren't allowed to be "gouged". I wanted to pay more for the ability to clean shit (literally) off stuff from the basement and take even warm showers. But I wasn't allowed. Similarly, they guaranteed a gas shortage. Pricing is a natural way to prevent a shortage.

  20. Cash Billionaire? on Eric Schmidt To Sell Up To 42% of Stake In Google · · Score: 1

    If he sells it all, will he be the first all cash billionaire, if only for a minute before he converts them to Treasuries, bonds, and other stocks?

  21. Re:Sold out fast == Understocked? on Surface Pro Sold Out; Was It Just Understocked? · · Score: 1

    But that isn't what "understocked" means. The title of the summary is stupid. It is like a title: "Does the company make more revenue than expenses or did it just profit?

  22. Re:Selective Indignation on Fox News: US Solar Energy Investment Less Than Germany Because US Has Less Sun · · Score: 2

    Even more amazing is how many people posted comments to this thread that don't understand that latitude has no bearing on how much sunlight you get. "Germany is as far north a Canada!" And your point? That only affects how direct. Total sunlight is affected by the horizon (mountainous areas have less) and cloudiness.

  23. Re:Just the numbers, Jack... on Fox News: US Solar Energy Investment Less Than Germany Because US Has Less Sun · · Score: 1

    But that is the point. It isn't about how much sunlight you get. Actually, mathematically, everywhere gets the same amount of daytime as everywhere else in a given 4 seasons. Some just experience most of it in the summer (Alaska). The only factor affecting the difference between Germany and the US is cloud cover and how direct the sunlight is. The US has more direct sunlight on average (although Alaska pulls that average down considerably). And from the numbers provided, it sounds like Germany is quite cloudy.

  24. Re:"has not resigned from her post so far." on German Science Minister Stripped of Her PhD · · Score: 1

    Well, at least she doesn't have a PhD anymore, so better take the jobs you can get. If that means keeping the current one, then all the better.

  25. Re:Shoelaces on First City In the US To Pass an Anti-Drone Resolution · · Score: 2

    Or it can be interpreted as the highest shoelace within a 1000 mile perimeter. Then they'll put shoelaces on top of radio towers.