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User: mwvdlee

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Comments · 7,368

  1. Re:New Snowden on German NSA Committee May Turn To Typewriters To Stop Leaks · · Score: 4, Funny

    5 reams of carbon copy paper contains much less information than a single USB stick.
    This is security by volume.

  2. Re:As an actual, full-time chess coach... on How To Fix The Shortage of K-5 Scholastic Chess Facilitators · · Score: 1

    The only time an actual ruling needs to be passed is if the students can't come to an agreement. This is very rare and will usually only happen 1 in 2000 games or so. We don't need to RDIF tag all of our 16000+ tournament pieces just so that 1 in 2000 games someone who knows nothing about chess can make an accurate ruling. We'll just bring over an expert in those cases.

    As an expert, what is the most difficult ruling you have ever had to make?
    I'm not a chess expert but I can't imagine any situation that would actually require an expert to resolve, as opposed to somebody who just read the rules and played a couple of games once.

  3. Re:Uh on William Binney: NSA Records and Stores 80% of All US Audio Calls · · Score: 1

    Are those petabytes compressed or uncompressed and if compressed, at what quality?
    Would they keep the recordings real-time accessible or on backup media?
    Petabytes of uncompressed telephone-grade audio would boil down to less than one backup tape a day easily.

  4. Re:I hate to imagine it on Child Thought To Be Cured of HIV Relapses, Tests Positive Again · · Score: 3, Informative

    GP implies stopping the drugs was the direct cause for the relapse.
    The CNN article states the child was initially "functionally cured" a few months after stopping the drugs.
    The facts us readers know, indicate neither correlation nor causation between stopping drugs and the relapse.

  5. Re:Wish I could say I was surprised on Peer Review Ring Broken - 60 Articles Retracted · · Score: 1

    Which is why there is a growing movement of scientists who promote publishing failed research results.
    Scientists, out of anybody, should know that failure is when you learn the most.

  6. Re:No on Will Google's Dart Language Replace Javascript? (Video) · · Score: 1

    Name me any language without bad parts.
    I've used several dozen languages so far; every single one of them had bad parts.

  7. Re:Simple answer is on Will Google's Dart Language Replace Javascript? (Video) · · Score: 1

    I've tried knockout.js and I really like the style of programming; I just haven't found any practical use for it beyond very basic single-page web apps which would be just as easy to do without MVVM.

  8. Re: Of course on The Video Game That Maps the Galaxy · · Score: 1

    I think GP meant "random" as in the seeded random values a computer generates; i.e. all over the place and unpredictable for a human but completely identical every time.

  9. Weird definition of "normal". on Normal Humans Effectively Excluded From Developing Software · · Score: 1

    A normal person is a person who's good at some things and bad at others.
    99.99% of programmers, including myself, are normal people who are good at the things required to be a programmer and bad at others (like social things, perhaps?).

    TFA is some self-righteous bullshit. Imagine if a garbage collector wrote a blog about "the insufferable unequality in his profession because it takes somebody with rare talents such as muscle-power and the ability to withstand excruciating smells, excluding all the normal people". We'd call that guy an arrogant prick. What is the difference?

    Get of your high horse, mr. Edwards. Unless you are one of these Jonathan Edwards's, you're just a normal person like pretty much the entire rest of humanity.

  10. Re:Not sure about that on The World's Best Living Programmers · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's hard to take your anti-school stance seriously while you keep misspelling "you".

  11. Using SSN? on Blue Shield Leaks 18,000 Doctors' Social Security Numbers · · Score: 1

    How could a criminal use SSNs anyway?
    What types of scam/hack/crime would be possible?

  12. Maintain DMCA safe harbor? on Rightscorp Pushing ISPs To Disconnect Repeat Infringers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How can a company be a threat to an ISP's DMCA safe harbor status without actual court decisions to back up their copyright infringement claims?

  13. Sensory deprevation tanks on Study: People Would Rather Be Shocked Than Be Alone With Their Thoughts · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, there are people happily paying to go into a sensory deprevation tank.
    It's all about context. If you choose the sensory deprevation, it's relaxation, if you're put into the same situation, it's boredom.

  14. Re:simple fix on IeSF Wants International Game Tournaments Segregated By Sex [Updated] · · Score: 1

    What about Bingo?

    Bingo involves the physical act of moving your hand to tick the scorecard, and there's a clear, objective winner.

  15. Re:interesting times... on IeSF Wants International Game Tournaments Segregated By Sex [Updated] · · Score: 1

    +1 insightful. Wish I hadn't already commented.

  16. Re:the real reason? on IeSF Wants International Game Tournaments Segregated By Sex [Updated] · · Score: 1

    Three words in reply to the "real sports are all segregated by sex" argument: "Mixed doubles tennis".

  17. Re:simple fix on IeSF Wants International Game Tournaments Segregated By Sex [Updated] · · Score: 1

    How about rock-paper-scissors?
    [X] physical skills involved
    [X] some kind of scoring system
    [X] objectively declare winner
    Ticks all your boxes!

  18. What's the business case? on Ask Slashdot: Switching From SAS To Python Or R For Data Analysis and Modeling? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it your feeling that SAS is "stifling any real innovation" or do you have examples of projects that are impossible with SAS but possible with Python or R?
    Do those example projects actually help the bottom line of the company or are they just "cooler"?

    If you can think of examples that have clear financial benefits to the company, you have a solid business case already.
    If there are no such examples or other factors negate the benefits, then the company has nothing to gain by switching and should not switch.

    Short answer; if you're asking on Slashdot for reasons to switch from product X to product Y, you probably have no real reason to switch.

  19. Re:Non-story. on Goldman Sachs Demands Google Unsend One of Its E-mails · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Assuming the data was in some attachment (of could have been easily put in an attachment), how about just encrypting the attachment if it contains information so incredibly sensitive that it warrants a court order if it ever leaks out.

    You don't need PGP, IMAP or any specific OS, just a small bit of common sense.

  20. Minor inconvenience on Goldman Sachs Demands Google Unsend One of Its E-mails · · Score: 1

    "By contrast, Google faces little more than the minor inconvenience of intercepting a single email - an email that was indisputably sent in error," it added.

    Losing a few thousand dollar is little more than a minor inconvenience for GS.
    So how about it GS... send me a few thousand dollars.

    Google is abso-fucking-lutely right to require a court order. If they don't, it'll just open the flood gates for other companies and people to "retract" damaging e-mails. The news here isn't that Google required proper legal procedures before violating it's users rights, it's that GS sends highly sensitive data by e-mail.

  21. Re:Non-story. on Goldman Sachs Demands Google Unsend One of Its E-mails · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because an issue was quickly resolved doesn't make it a non-story.

    If Goldman Sachs uses the insecure SMTP protocol to transmit highly sensitive unencrypted data, they deserve the reputation damage (and a security audit).

  22. FTFY

    That's chap-tard, you insensetive clod-tard.

  23. Re:Myths are socially hilarious on Alleged 'Bigfoot' DNA Samples Sequenced, Turn Out To Be Horses, Dogs, and Bears · · Score: 1

    Ask yourself. "is any of what I said an argument or am I trying to let the reader do my work?"

    Now we're in agreement on that, do you see how wrong you are?

  24. Re:The right to read. on Want To Resell Your Ebooks? You'd Better Act Fast · · Score: 1

    I guess you majored in "pedantry", with honors.

    What "Authors have right to be paid for their work" means is that if other people want to use the result of their work, the authors can ask payment in return.

    Ofcourse you fully understand what was meant, but thought treating another person like a moron would make you feel superior. Enjoy your fuzzy feelings.

  25. Re:Google Cardboard on Overkill? LG Phone Has 2560x1440 Display, Laser Focusing · · Score: 1

    How accurate does Cardboard track head movement?
    Note that head displays have been done many times before over the past decades.
    The problem has always been motion sickness inducing head tracking, never the display technology.