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  1. Language on How Much Math Do We Really Need? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The languages we know affect what thoughts we can think. While it is very zen to say that words hide meaning, empirical evidence seems to indicate that we cannot conceive of ideas that we do not have language to express. Math can express most anything which allows for thoughts right up to the limits of our hardware. It seems like this is also a good reason to learn a human language with different roots than your native one, but I have not done that yet, so I couldn't say.

  2. essential on How Much Math Do We Really Need? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How does literature or music get labeled as essential and not math? We learn math so we can build things that let us have time to create literature and music. Sure not everyone needs it (though probability would certainly help), but no one *needs* literature or music, its just the sort of thing we *want*. Some day when we finish automating all the jobs we'll all get to devote all our time to creating art... for our robotic overlords.

  3. pearls wrapped in manure thrown before swine on BSG Prequel Series Caprica Canceled · · Score: 1

    The show had some interesting themes. Its the only mainstream-ish media that I have seen address uploading and its implications even semi-intelligently. But those interesting themes were surrounded by the most boring writing I've ever endured. It was all so predictable and cliched that I had to force myself to watch for the bits of real sci-fi. Gladiatorial combat between virtual teenage girls? Really? And yet the monologue during the fight addressed how a copy of a person isn't the same person, starting from the first diverging experience. A sci-fi theme if I ever heard one. Very mixed feelings about this, hopefully someone will pick up the memes and wrap them in better writing.

  4. Gilbert Strang is awesome. on Astonishing Speedup In Solving Linear SDD Systems · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If I had had Gilbert Strang as an instructor for linear algebra instead of who I did have, maybe I would understand what the article is talking about. Having watched those videos I repeatedly said to myself "oh thats what we were doing!" Are covariance matrices SDDs? If so could this be used to speed up principle component analysis?

  5. old story on Pirated Software Could Bring Down Predator Drones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Reg had this a few weeks back. If the plane tells a bomb/missile the wrong coordinates it would be the plane at fault. Netazza didn't have permission to port the code, but they did tell the CIA about the potential error they had introduced by their unauthorized port from ppc to x86. The CIA said "we can accept that" probably while mumbling something about horseshoes, hand-grenades, and hellfires. The CIA later said "actually we think the discrepancy is an indication of inaccuracy in the *previous* system." Which if you think about it seems more likely in that the x86 has larger fpu registers than the ppc, but either way the customer knew about the defects of the sold software. They probably didn't know that it was violating a contract between the provider and its subcontractor.

  6. Templates good, defaults? on Bjarne Stroustrup Reflects On 25 Years of C++ · · Score: 1

    I like templates, besides the generalization of types, I find it ends up replacing a lot of #define macros which are infinitely more evil because of the lack of namespacing and typesafeness. Default parameters (template or otherwise) have bitten me so many times that I can't help but hate them, and I tell others not to use them, but every once in a long while....

    Also template specialization (and partial template specialization) can be very useful for optimizing specific versions of routines for a given type or size.

  7. Bypass them on Economy Puts US Nuclear Reactors Back In Doubt · · Score: 1

    Some rich bored guy should build a full up super-modern reactor (thorium, pebble bed, fast breeder, I have no clue), and put it near a city, where ever they feel like. Don't do any studies, don't ask anyone if its ok. Just put it there. The catch being that they don't put any fuel in it, and never have any intent of doing so. Its not really a nuclear reactor, so I don't see how it can violate any regulations. And it will just sit there with a website detailing its budget, schedule, and design as a lesson to us all.

  8. overhead on GM Criticized Over Chevy Volt's Hybrid Similarities · · Score: 1

    There are overhead costs with a second car. In some nations there are per car taxes quite in excess of the US registration tax. And car insurance almost doubles with the second car. Even worse with the third.

  9. Highlights something on NASA Head Ignores Congress, Eyes Cooperation With China · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've often made fun of the ACLU for being a little over the top on some things, but they are one of the few outspoken groups fighting the infringements against our freedoms and I am grateful for that. Except that second amendment one, they won't go near it. They will defend the rights of a violent felon, but not the man who shot him in defense of himself or his loved ones. So we are forced to look to a gun-manufacturers lobby to protect that right, and no matter how much individuals contribute, they won't match the manufacturers' contributions. If the ACLU stood up for all of our civil liberties and not a hand picked list, the NRA would fade to become a normal lobby group like orange growers or car makers. Hopefully that would lead to legislation that lined up more with the individual's best interest instead of the manufacturers.

  10. Rights on French ISP Refuses To Send Out Infringement Notices · · Score: 1

    At least in U.S. constitutional law, an innovator or creator has no right to the ideas they create. That is why copy-right is such a poor word choice. The constitution provides the *privilege* of a limited-time monopoly on their idea as a way to encourage innovation and creativity. But copying was never a right and ideas were never property, until the lobbyists became involved. The confusion comes from the word choice and the natural inclination that people should be compensated for effort. People should be compensated for value, not effort, the two aren't synonymous. The cost of copying ideas was hiding some over-inflation of the value we placed on ideas, and when the cost of copying plummeted, some people were shocked at how little we valued creation. But people do still value it, multiple pay sites have shown that, its just not the value we thought.

  11. forensics protocol on British Teen Jailed Over Encryption Password · · Score: 1

    First step is to copy the drive...

    If you really want to hide data, you need to encrypt it then steg it into innocuous media. Home videos would be best as there is no reference copy to show a difference with. Without a header encrypted data should be uniformly distributed. Camera noise should be normally distributed, so that might still be a way to detect it.

  12. and furthermore on China Embargos Rare Earth Exports To Japan · · Score: 1

    He who can destroy the magnets, controls the magnets, and he who controls the magnets, controls the universe.

    Stupid control freaks, I for one... lets just say I would have fought on the "other" side of the Butlerian Jihad.

  13. Insurance costs on Helicopter Crashes While Filming Autonomous Audi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Assuming the autonomous systems actually work most of the time car insurance providers could make a bundle offering discount rates for the feature (only slightly of course, they are evil), and then gradually raising the rates for the lack of the feature. So eventually we won't be able to afford to drive manual vehicles. At least I can read my kindle on the way to work.

  14. does it work like that? on In Canada, Criminal Libel Charges Laid For Criticizing Police · · Score: 1

    The recent past with the online gambling and hate speech arrests seems to indicate that it isn't where it was published, but where the person is. If you publish something on a website hosted in Germany that violates laws in Brazil, you won't get extradited if it is not illegal in Germany, but It would not surprise me to see you arrested if you visited Brazil. Bottom line, if you upset a nation state, don't even fly over it.

  15. and they don't need to! on High Fructose Corn Syrup To Get a Makeover · · Score: 1

    Its possible to get from cornstarch to simple sugars without all the sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. They wouldn't have as tight a control on the exact percentages of glucose and fructose, but I still don't get how all that extra work pays off. The steps leading up to the conversion to fructose are all fairly "natural", using types of fungus and what not. I for one don't consume sugar unless it has been processed by the pet yeast I keep in the fridge. Right now they are working on some apple juice and honey.

  16. motivation on WikiLeaks Set To Release Unpublished Iraq War Docs · · Score: 3, Informative

    I feel like the site has developed (and in part always had) a primary purpose of attacking U.S. foreign policy. The site needs to be more than that if it is to be a true data haven. Some have said Cryptome comes closer, I am not well read enough to agree or disagree. The problem of editing is a big one. Failing to edit out the names of informants for instance. The easiest way is to be neutral and edit nothing, allowing the posters to retain responsibility for all that is posted. That would flood the site with false data though, and part of the service wikileaks provides is at least rudimentary verification. If wikileaks wants to be what it claims it set out to be, it needs a larger diversity of leaked content.

  17. martianforming people on Charles Darwin's Best-Kept Secret · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rather than terraform earth, we should martianform people. Or adapt ourselves more generally to life on the average desolate locale. I have no ethical objection to modifying whole planets, but I have no ethical objections to modifying a single species either. The latter seems far easier than genetically engineering or otherwise adapting hundreds of species to drag a frozen rock without much gravity into the narrow window of conditions our current physical form can tolerate.

  18. Made for shipment on Whisky Made From Diabetics' Urine · · Score: 1

    Some styles just ship better. IPAs for instance were specifically designed to withstand transport. A subtle flavor profile with low ABV like a Pilsner lager probably responds very differently to abuse and age.

  19. not just hard drives on Everything You Need To Know About USB 3.0 · · Score: 1

    smoother webcams, better usb videocards, and I want a faster picoscope. Also you can run more things through it, as its got more power too. So several hard drives, and a couple sound cards along with your webcam.

  20. empathy is not sympathy on Teacher Asks Students To Plan a Terrorist Attack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.

            * Ender Wiggin

    I disagree with Ender. I think you can understand someone very well and not even like them. You may comprehend their motives without agreeing with their choices.

  21. keep it! on GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal · · Score: 1

    Use the GPS for a carputer or something, and detach the uplink (assuming it has one) and pretend to be the GPS module feeding in bogus locations. Drive circles around Hawaii, pentagrams over the Louvre etc. Or have it spell out the entire text of your favorite novel across the continent. That is if the datalink is VHF, if its actually cell-based.... Free internet! Or not, that would probably lead to meeting a hairy cellmate.

  22. yes and no on GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal · · Score: 1

    I agree, GPS eats batteries to a degree I cannot comprehend. I kind of know what is going on in there (a lot) and it still surprises me how much juice they eat.

    I also agree the math doesn't work, furthermore I cannot understand how you would fit a lat and long in 8 bytes without losing significant precision from the actual GPS measurement, though it might be "good 'nuff"

    I disagree on the cell usage, cellular is not free (or even cheap), not even to the police. I think free VHF is superior, especially to a local department that has repeaters set up in the same band for police radios. However VHF would up the power requirements I think.

    But I do hope they try and track me, that sound like a cool toy giveaway.

  23. pdf problems? on Co-op Neverwinter RPG Announced For 2011 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are your gripes related to the PDF of a d20? I liked rolling three d6 etc. The combination was decently close to a normal distribution which seems more realistic. And realism in simulating my attacks on gazebos is important to me.

  24. you are right on Union Boycotts LA Times Over Teacher Evaluation Disclosure · · Score: 1

    I guess I had some fuzzy notion that good teachers would be teaching no matter what. I was missing the notion that a good teacher isn't necessarily first and foremost a teacher. For instance if a good researcher who also happens to be a good teacher can't get money to work on his favorite field, he might instead be lured into teaching rather than researching in another if the pay was adequate. Thanks for the correction. I am still convinced tele-educating with a great teacher could be better than sitting in a smaller class with an average one, depending on the subject matter.

  25. exactly the point on Union Boycotts LA Times Over Teacher Evaluation Disclosure · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You do get what you pay for, and the teacher's union (NEA) are the single largest campaign contributors in the United States. They pay for politicians, and they get them. That is not the sole problem, but its intertwined with the rest of it. Schools have trouble telling good teachers from bad ones, and there aren't enough good ones to go around anyway, so they pay them all the same as if it were unskilled labor, and pay the administrators more in the hopes that overcompensated administrators can manage away incompetence in those actually doing the teaching. These incompetent teachers and overcompensated administrators like the NEA because it is job security. The really good teachers either go along knowing that most schools can't tell they are worth extra, don't care about the money anyway, and don't really have the ability to make a change. They are gifted teachers after all, not gifted politicians. I don't know if there is a way to tell a very good newly graduated teacher from a very poor one in the time allotted for an interview, or if there is any hint on a resume. The ability to terminate the employment of a teacher as soon as they show themselves to be sub par without worrying about lawsuits would be a less efficient, but more feasible solution to mind reading employment candidates. Paying more won't create a greater number of good teachers either, because they are almost never money motivated people. Using poor or untested teachers as little more than TAs and proctors while the better compensated, proven teachers instruct large numbers of students via live or recorded media would provide more students with access to good teachers, and a testing ground for new teachers to earn their credentials in a less pivotal role in the child's life.