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User: pjt33

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  1. Re:cooperative game on Designing the Best Board Game · · Score: 1

    I've played Hanabi with three players, and one of them had played it with two players.

  2. Re:Yay! Statistics! on Being Colder May Be Good For Your Health · · Score: 1

    I wish the article said something about which parts of Spain, because with the exception of the Pyrenees it doesn't really make sense to talk about the "warmer parts" versus the "cooler parts". There are the parts which have much more seasonal variation - and so are warmer in summer and cooler in winter - and the parts which are more moderate all year round. This is influenced by altitude and proximity to the coast, so probably also has a good correlation with humidity. And I'm sure there are even more confounding factors which could be added to the list.

  3. Re:Yeah right. on Skype Unveils Preview of Live English-To-Spanish Translator · · Score: 2

    You're probably thinking of Samuel Johnson as quoted by Boswell:

    Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

  4. Re:Doublespeak on Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain · · Score: 1

    It's not a closed market. Just a regulated one.

  5. Re:Greasing Palms. on Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain · · Score: 1

    Like, I'd be making money on every transaction since it uses my app, and my app's purpose is solely to connect riders to drivers, but I wouldn't be the one supplying the vehicles or drivers.

    They'd get you for conspiracy instead.

  6. Re:Hard to say on Facebook Founder Presents Vision For The New Republic, Many Resign In Protest · · Score: 4, Informative

    The report I read elsewhere suggested that it was, at least in part, a reaction to the new owner sacking the editor.

  7. Re:... break most modern cryptographic codes? on Mathematical Trick Helps Smash Record For the Largest Quantum Factorization · · Score: 1

    I think GPP was talking about the generic comments made on quantum computing rather than the particular analysis which is the main topic. Shor's algorithm does discrete log as well as factorisation.

  8. If you have to explain the joke, it's not funny.

  9. Re:Examples given look like 1 bit different on Mathematical Trick Helps Smash Record For the Largest Quantum Factorization · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I rather hope that it requires that the bits which flip are next to each other, because otherwise they've overlooked 16843009 = 257 * 65537, the product of the two largest known Fermat primes.

  10. Re:I agree on Finland Dumps Handwriting In Favor of Typing · · Score: 3, Informative

    The word "cursive" isn't used much outside North America. "(Hand)writing" (as contrasted with "printing") has much wider currency.

  11. Re:quick notes? on Finland Dumps Handwriting In Favor of Typing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know about you, but I can jot-down quick notes on scraps of paper a hell of a lot faster than I can get out an electronic device, open a note-taking program, and attempt to use an on-screen keyboard to type the same notes with any degree of accuracy.

    That's not a fair comparison. If you're counting the time to open the memo app on your phone, you should also count the time to find a pen or pencil and a scrap of paper. For me the time which the former takes is fairly consistent, but the latter varies considerably because I don't usually carry a pen in my trouser pocket.

    As an aside, you seem to be making more of an argument for teaching shorthand than for teaching writing.

  12. Re:PR works well? Where? on Mathematicians Study Effects of Gerrymandering On 2012 Election · · Score: 2

    By contrast Belgium's record of 18 months without a government as a result of PR should be a warning to us all.

    A warning or an incentive?

  13. Re:Serfdom on UK Announces Hybrid Work/Study Undergraduate Program To Fill Digital Gap · · Score: 2

    The topic is undergraduate study, not research. The people who are inclined towards research will want to take a full CS degree rather than an apprenticeship.

  14. Re: How are we covering the shortfall/defecit? on MARS, Inc: We Are Running Out of Chocolate · · Score: 1

    Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserve, so the idea that the USA could have a strategic cocoa reserve isn't completely ridiculous.

  15. Re:Amino acid data? on Philae's Batteries Have Drained; Comet Lander Sleeps · · Score: 1

    I think it's the gas chromatograph rather than the mass spectrometer (surely chirality doesn't measurably affect the mass of a molecule?), but they're built in to the same instrument, COSAC. This abstract sounds like a chromatograph to me.

  16. Re:2 3 Letter acronyms on Mathematics Great Alexander Grothendieck Dies At 86 · · Score: 1

    In fairness, I saw Terry Tao get half-way through saying that 27 and 29 are twin primes on the Colbert Report the other day, before he caught himself. (Just after the 3 minute mark).

  17. Re:It wasn't just PLATO on Education Chief Should Know About PLATO and the History of Online CS Education · · Score: 1

    Teletype? Luxury! My mother learnt to program when she was in secondary school by posting punched cards across the country to Manchester University and getting the results back a week later.

  18. Re:MS Office Incompatibility on What Happens When Nobody Proofreads an Academic Paper · · Score: 1

    If you ever look at a document.xml extracted from a .docx file you'll be astonished at how much crap there is in there just to support revision tracking.

  19. Re:If a lawyer or journalist needs protection on British Spies Are Free To Target Lawyers and Journalists · · Score: 1
  20. Re:UK article, US units on U.K. Supermarkets Beta Test Full-Body 3D Scanners For Selfie Figurines · · Score: 3, Informative

    For some things. But a lot of the units which people in the US call English are different sizes to the units with the same name in England. And the UK certainly doesn't use $ for its currency, which I think is what the GPP was talking about, although I think they may have overlooked a context switch from the UK beta tests to the US launch.

  21. Re:Is Google Losing It? on Google Changes 'To Fight Piracy' By Highlighting Legal Sites · · Score: 1

    If they're highlighting Google Play then I can see a new anti-trust investigation in the near future.

  22. Re:incremental backups on If Your Cloud Vendor Goes Out of Business, Are You Ready? · · Score: 2

    Depends on what the problem with the colo server is. It's not entirely unknown for police to seize an entire rack of servers from a colo. (E.g. 1, 2, and I half-remember incidents in other countries too).

  23. Re:WTF? on Ask Slashdot: Why Can't Google Block Spam In Gmail? · · Score: 1

    Indeed. Now that I've trained it to treat unsolicited e-mails from Twitter as spam, I hardly see any.

  24. Re:It's hard being an editor, sure. on BitHammer, the BitTorrent Banhammer · · Score: 2

    I was more struck by the hostpots. I'm not entirely sure what they are, but I think it probably means that the owners of the cafes where OP does his web browsing serve their own fingers for cannibalistic patrons.

  25. Re:Whales? on Killer Whales Caught On Tape Speaking Dolphin · · Score: 2

    Yes. And dolphins are apparently classified as toothed whales, just to completely confuse things.