Slashdot Mirror


User: s.petry

s.petry's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
6,967
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 6,967

  1. Re:Which users? on Microsoft's Asimov System To Monitor Users' Machines In Real Time · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of many reasons I am currently developing internal proxy services is due to Windows 8 constantly phoning home, trying to download games and themes, etc.. We can only block the 3rd party requests, so nothing past Windows 7 will be in a PCI cage any time soon. Further, we have postponed any further 'upgrades'/orders which contain Windows 8 until we can determine how much impact the proxy will have. The proxy surely won't fix issues like this proposal since it will talk to "microsoft.com", so I see many others having to adopt the same plan of action you stated.

  2. Say what? on Robotic Taster Will Judge 'Real Thai Food' · · Score: 1

    Gordon Ramsey is not a culinary genius. I think you miss the whole point of the shows if you get that idea. He's a business chef and his goal is to make money, not to make food necessarily taste great. Often times a chef has to cut quality to make a profit, so good and great are two very different things.

    It does not take pounds of pepper (implying black pepper) to make something hot. If you would have said "peppers" I'd agree with the you, since the best heat in food comes from various chili peppers. Vegetable heat also seems to be much easier on the stomach. You personally may not like hot food, but many people do. There is no real "normal" when it comes to taste.

    I disagree more with the name of the device than the purpose. Consistently measuring heat and acidity is surely something science can do very well. Taste is always subjective, so the machine can not know "delicious". I could surely measure "warm" and "wholly FU$* that is hot!", which I think is a good thing to know.

  3. Re:No he didn't on Man Walks Past Security Screening Staring At iPad, Causing Airport Evacuation · · Score: 2

    Sure, the guy was not paying enough attention but to argue it's only him is wrong. The money we pay for security people to frisk Meemaw's depends undergarments is surely enough to have the same security person yell "STOP".. *sigh* I'll bet that the Airport has more than one guard at every station too, so they are way more at fault than some idiot not watching where he is walking.

  4. Re:More eugenics propaganda? on New Research Casts Doubt On the "10,000 Hour Rule" of Expertise · · Score: 1

    The study failed to mention social biases, hence my statement that the study is flawed and not false. They could easily have provided additional facts to demonstrate any potential bias. Perhaps they have this information in a different location, or unpublished. My point is that _any_ study of this type has serious biases outside of just genetics.

    I only provided easy to demonstrate potential bias since you stated that you could not see any way for a bias to exist outside of genetics.

    Boys and Girls develop quite differently, and express different interests at different ages. Would you suspect that a boy and girl can both draw at the same skill level, whether fraternal or identical twins? Is this another potential source of bias?

    How about twins, either fraternal or identical, where parents spend more time with one child for numerous possible reasons? No child receives equal and identical treatment to a sibling, twins or not. Is this another potential source of bias?

    None of this implies that the bias was forced or intentional, but biases don't have to be forced or intentional to exist.

  5. Re:More eugenics propaganda? on New Research Casts Doubt On the "10,000 Hour Rule" of Expertise · · Score: 2

    If I take 2 sets of identical twins from an upper class neighborhood and "whole" family and compared them to 2 sets of fraternal twins in different homes (divorced parents), I would surely have biased results. Age of the twins makes a difference, abuse in the home makes a difference, etc.. etc...

  6. More eugenics propaganda? on New Research Casts Doubt On the "10,000 Hour Rule" of Expertise · · Score: 1

    Honest, I'll get to the point but have to lay the groundwork. Quotes are all from TFA.

    In the late 1800s, Francis Galton—founder of the scientific study of intelligence and a cousin of Charles Darwin—analyzed the genealogical records of hundreds of scholars, artists, musicians, and other professionals and found that greatness tends to run in families. For example, he counted more than 20 eminent musicians in the Bach family. (Johann Sebastian was just the most famous.) Galton concluded that experts are “born.”

    Obviously this line of thinking ignores things that nepotism and cronyism easily explains. Obviously Rockefeller wealth means that his kids get the best education, have way more free time to get an education, and more money to pursue projects and education. People that don't have to clean the house, milk the cows, cook the food, etc.. have a whole lot of time on their hands to devote to intellectual advancement.

    Nearly half a century later, the behaviorist John Watson countered that experts are “made” when he famously guaranteed that he could take any infant at random and “train him to become any type of specialist [he] might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents.”

    Numerous sociological experiments have confirmed this same thing. It's not the genes you are born with as much as the education, life style, and social surroundings you have growing up that matters. Hanging around with great musicians as a youngster results in someone learning music and being a good musician over time. This obviously assumes no disorders that prevent learning and activity.

    The 10,000 hour rule seems to work from that same line of thought. Hard work yields results, at least most of the time.

    The end of the article however jumps over to the recent flawed study that goes back to eugenics (one of many out of the UK in the last 2 years). That study claims that identical twins can draw pictures more similarly than fraternal twins, therefor genes are the key factor in a persons natural ability to draw. This study is flawed as they obviously ignore every other possible impact on a person's ability to draw a picture, and simply claim "genetics".

  7. Re:Not guaranteed memory problems on The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning · · Score: 1

    Merely being in contact with the door handle would create a condition whereby the car provides a more conductive path to ground than your body.

    This is what I stated in slightly different terms. I used to try to run differential equations trying to estimate how many volts/amps my arm may have taken. There are far too many unknown variables to do so, but it was a fun project for a while.

    You appear to have a poor understanding of electricity.

    It's actually pretty good, which may not be apparent even if you had bothered to read both posts (It's Slashdot, not a dissertation). It's been a couple decades since circuit design, but I can still read schematics and calculate impedance, frequencies, etc... Perhaps this is confusing to you, since I don't attempt to belittle people. If information is missing I attempt to have people fill in the gaps, I don't jump right to conclusions based on opinion.

  8. This always cracks me up! on Piracy Police Chief Calls For State Interference To Stop Internet "Anarchy" · · Score: 1

    Having a queen who stays out of politics isn't a big deal.

    Sure, in public she and the other so called 'blue bloods' stay out of politics but why on earth would you believe they stay completely out of politics? No, none of them will stand in parliament and debate, but thanks to England (and every other country paying homage) they have plenty of political influence and cash to influence with.

    I find it sadly comical that tax payers continue to justify directly funding these people with billions of pounds in taxes every year, while trying to diminish their influence. The indirect funding is quite extensive as well.

    Oh, I know.. if the Monarchy was dissolved a few corn dog venders would never be able to find other work.

  9. Re:Not guaranteed memory problems on The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning · · Score: 1

    The car is wet so has direct to ground connection since said car was parked in the dirt next to the baseball field. I didn't fill in every minor detail, but assume that people can read a bit into "a thunderstorm rolled in" which usually indicates lot of water is also coming down. I surely hope I don't have to point out that water is conductive.

  10. Re:Not guaranteed memory problems on The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning · · Score: 1

    So a metal handle is not conductive, and my hand being on the handle would transfer no energy from me to the car? Either you believe this happened in very modern times where cars are surely made with many low/non conductive materials or you don't know much about electricity.

  11. I believe that was sarcasm? on Update: At Least 31 People Feared Dead After Japan Volcano Erupts · · Score: 1

    First, I see all deaths as negative things so am not trying to belittle the loss of any lives. That said, I believe that the person you responded to was missing a sarcasm tag. We have gotten much better at detecting volcanic activity ahead of an event, but not always, and the severity of the event is always a big question mark. I remember reports about bulging at Mt. St. Helen that had scientists giving out warnings of another eminent eruption for about a year. I used to check a watch site they had set up with camera feeds directly to the internet (site may still be active?). Seems like it became a scenario of the boy crying wolf, so people started ignoring the warnings after a time.

    We have had other volcanic events occur without warning, and this very well could be the case here. (Minutes of seismic activity as a warning is not really a warning for those on the volcano). Obviously tragic for anyone on the volcano at the time of the eruption, but not unheard of.

  12. Re:conveniently leave out Xerox, Apple on Microsoft Co-opts Ice Bucket Challenge Idea To Promote Coding In Latin America · · Score: 1

    Leaving out Xerox seems to be pretty common, and not just with tablets. Xerox was one of the first companies with a commercial "windowing" graphical interface too.

  13. Personal profit == funding? on Microsoft Co-opts Ice Bucket Challenge Idea To Promote Coding In Latin America · · Score: 1

    The amount of funds that actually goes to ALS research from the Ice Bucket challenge is a very low percentage, while the people in charge of the charity are paying themselves well over living wages on the same charity dime. If you research various charities you will find that this is not a unique practice. I personally am very careful where my donations go, and would not donate to this one. This "charity" claims that 72.4% of the donations for "program expenses" which includes salaries. Here is a source in case you are interested, which shows that out of 24 million in donations they claim 21 million in "expenses" leaving a whopping 3 million for actual donation. Sadly this gets them a 4 star rating, because many charities only donate a fraction of a percent and yet can still be tax exempt "charities".

    Microsoft could easily be using this for a similar objective. Obviously these programs entitle them to a tax write off, but longer term leads to reduced developer pay so increased profits. India and China have been increasing in costs, and are not that far from the US in costs for developers today. Obviously this is also used for public relations (propaganda).

  14. Not guaranteed memory problems on The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was struck as a kid, probably 11 or so years old, when a thunderstorm rolled in during a little league baseball game. I happened to be opening a car door, so was grounded when I was hit. My forearm turned black and blue, like a massive bruising, but I didn't feel any pain in my arm. I was blinded for a short time, my eyes were not closed when the lighting struck. Outside of a headache from the flash, I had no short or long term damage. Yes, I was extremely lucky to have been mostly grounded.

    The Guinness record holder was struck 7 times, and lived to 71. Hard to say if the long term effects led to suicide, but an interview of him I heard long ago seemed to indicate a pretty normal guy.

    TFA also indicates that not all incidents lead to permanent damage, physical or psychological. As with most events dealing with electricity, there are a massive number of factors involved making each event unique. For example, when I was in the military I saw two people guy get popped by a 550KW generator. Both guys mishandled the same coupling, both were in Texas and on similar training grounds. The primary different was weather and luck. One guy's clothing caught fire and he suffered only minor burns as they put his clothing out, the other guy died almost instantly. It was winter so rainy and wet when the first guy was popped, making its likely that his wet clothing caused a grounding effect which saved him. The second happened in the summer, extremely dry and hot.

  15. Re:~/.cshrc on Apple Yet To Push Patch For "Shellshock" Bug · · Score: 1

    This is overgeneralized. A script looking for bash will fail if, and only if, it's calling bash specific features that doesn't exist in the linked shell.

    Surely those bash specific entities are used and exist for a reason, but the _majority_ of scripts calling bash don't care what SH derived shell they have because they don't use the bash specific features. They call bash for convenience only.

    Example, take every script in my /etc/init.d/ directory and there are zero bash specific features being called.

  16. Really, a single oint of failure? on Nearly 2,000 Chicago Flights Canceled After Worker Sets Fire At Radar Center · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would think that the major hubs in the US didn't operate with this poor of a practice. Honestly, I'm flabbergasted. This is not something you can hide when it's exposed. What I find more surprising is that with this big of a deficiency, they didn't go with the "terrorist" card in order to deflect some of the backlash this should cause.

    I wonder how many other airports are using a system with similar vulnerability.

    I don't see this as just a problem with some guy who obviously did something wrong. Seems like lighting or other natural events could have the same impact.

  17. Re:Honestly? on How the NSA Profits Off of Its Surveillance Technology · · Score: 1

    Troll much? You moved from a formal fallacy to a fabrication. I never stated that the money vanished, go back and read my post again.

  18. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 1

    I should have also stated that I don't find it surprising that you immediately jump to ad hominem instead of discussing anything I wrote, followed by a thoroughly complete fabrication as an attempt to justify the ad hominem. And you call me insane, too funny.

  19. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 1

    I repeated nothing I stated previously, zero words or phrases. I did however state that you were basing most of your questions on an absolutely false belief (that the author is completely incompetent). I even provided that if you reconfigure the debate without the false beliefs and followed the Socratic method, I would surely debate.

    If you can't handle debating rationally and reasonably, shame on you. Debating without guiding principles is a pissing match, not a debate.

  20. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 2

    I read your post, every time you make the false claim "you're mischaracterizing" you are attempting to claim that a professional writer, who makes their living by writing, is a failure at their job. It implies that one or more of the following occurred. 1) The author did not intentionally choose their words. 2) The author did not perform proper research. 3) The author unwittingly provided an opinion contrary to what they wanted. Your claim is absolute nonsense.

    I did not make up the quotes provided. I extracted them from the article,in the order the author gave them, to ensure that the message of the document was maintained. Anyone can validate this by simply checking the source next to my quotes.

    Most of your questions seem to stem from that same irrational perspective, that a professional writer is completely incompetent, so will be ignored. The following paragraph covers what remains of your post.

    As to other companies that provide encryption technology, you can search the web and find thousands of examples dating back for decades. As to your implication that encryption is only used to thwart law enforcement, that implication is absolutely false. Lastly, your implication that a phone is somehow different than any other container for data is absolutely false.

    If you wish to debate further I will demand that you follow the Socratic method. Reduce the questions to their simplest forms and debate each question individually. If you can not, or refuse to, do this I will not debate further. It is impossible to debate with someone that refuses to approach a subject rationally.

  21. Re:Honestly? on How the NSA Profits Off of Its Surveillance Technology · · Score: 1

    An appeal to ignorance (fallacy). You could easily prove me wrong by sharing budget line items, or income tax returns which showed someone received benefit from the income generated these programs generated.

  22. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 2

    Apple is a third party, and should not be required to provide the Government with back doors. The encryption, as stated above, removes them as a middle agent. A middle agent does not (and never did) prevent a judge from issuing a warrant nor does it prevent an agency/agent from issuing and exercising a warrant. A warrant is a legal issue between Law Enforcement and a Suspect, and nowhere does the US Constitution imply that third parties are to be placed between those two parties.

    If you wish to pursue an argument of "harboring", please search the thread for another of my posts which provides an analogy for a Safe maker and Apple. If you believe that analogy incorrect I will be happy to debate under that posts section.

  23. Honestly? on How the NSA Profits Off of Its Surveillance Technology · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps providing a few facts will help you decide. In order to do so, lets remove the term "security tools" because this is not the only thing they are renting out. Let us also remove "NSA", as they are not the only Government agency that does this.

    1. Government agencies are funded with Tax dollars. They do not use their own capital to develop products, they use your money and my money.
    2. Your taxes have never been reduced by the Government reselling this technology. That is absolutely zero dollars you or I have seen in refunds due to "selling" what your investment pays for.
    3. Government agencies are supposed to be reigned in by their Budgets. Lawful requests receive lawful funding, unlawful requests are supposed to be removed from the budget by Congressional committee prior to approving the budget.

    These facts should then lead to several key questions that should be answered by not just the NSA, but all Government agency following similar procedures.

    1. Does the funding reduce the tax payer footprint for the agency, or extend the budget beyond what Congress is approving?
    2. What accountability is there for how revenue from "renting" is being spent?

    Given that the answer to those two question are "increases budget, does not decrease tax payer burden" and "no accountability" this should be illegal on all fronts. It is used to bypass both Congressional oversight and legal restrictions on spending.

    I'm right there with you if you were to say "Not all technology developed by the Government is bad.", but that is not the point of debate we should be making. Most technology is not inherently bad, it's the implementation and abuse that is bad.

  24. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 2

    Thankfully, rational people realize that encryption is not a "hidden compartment". The phone is still visible, as is the lock. Instead of attempting to comprehend or address the safe analogy you responded to, you are attempting to introduce another appeal to emotion fallacy analogy.

  25. Re:Think of the children on FBI Chief: Apple, Google Phone Encryption Perilous · · Score: 1, Troll

    More importantly, "do not expect" is not a refusal, but an expectation. "I refuse to" would be examples of refusals.