Slashdot Mirror


User: StripedCow

StripedCow's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,032
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,032

  1. Re:Take that Darwin on Scientists Find Olfactory "Memory" Passed Between Generations In Mice · · Score: 1

    Celebrating?
    You do understand that this finding makes biology as a science much harder?

  2. but Bezos predicts it'll be available to the public in the next 4-5 years.

    In the next 4-5 years they will be obsoleted by 3d printers that can print stuff in our own home.

  3. Re:Build a Better Society on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy When It's Out of Your Control? · · Score: 1

    Now, if we can just agree on what we should do...

    Prohibition of advertisement could be a good start.

  4. Re:Not privacy on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy When It's Out of Your Control? · · Score: 1

    This is very similar to copyright, so let's just call it personal copyright.

    This will not work for the simple reason that in the EULA, you are waiving all your rights away.
    Big companies win again.

  5. Re:When it's out of your control on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy When It's Out of Your Control? · · Score: 1

    It's kind of like security-by-obscurity. It's not the same as real security.

  6. Re:When it's out of your control on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy When It's Out of Your Control? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...you can't. That's what "out of your control" means.

    Well actually, you can. The trick is to inject noise into the system, such that Google/Facebook's statistical classifiers and the such stop working.
    For example, take pictures of yourself, and tag them using a stranger's name.
    Or, take random pictures not featuring yourself, and tag them using your own name.
    Perform fake google searches every day (search for stuff that you have no interest in whatsoever).

    And so forth.

    In fact, I see a business model here.

  7. Re: Illusion shattered on Dial 00000000 To Blow Up the World · · Score: 1

    But what if the prng generates a code with all zeros?

  8. Re:wait on AI Reality Check In Online Dating · · Score: 2

    Sigh. Here is where most get it all wrong. It is not about *who* you are, or what you *have*, it is all about what you can *pretend* to be or have.
    Acting is the game.

    It holds not just for men, but for women as well.

    If you can't act, well then you know what to do...

  9. Egocentric world on Jolla's First Phone Goes On Sale · · Score: 3, Funny

    After *I*-OS, you can now buy a phone running "Selfish-OS".
    The question is: who needs a phone in a self-centered world?

  10. Re:Easy to ACTUALLY solve on EU Plastic Bag Debate Highlights a Wider Global Problem · · Score: 1

    The REAL challenge is not to come up with a practical solution. That part is easy.

    The difficulty starts when communicating it to a parliament that lacks common sense, is steered by lobbying groups, and is subject to dynamics of political self-interest and plain stupidity.

    Solve THAT, and I'm all ears.

  11. Re:It's all simulations! on Single-Atom Layer of Tin May Be a New Wonder Conductor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is the maximum current that can be transported through strips of various widths?

    Other questions:

    1. If a sheet of 1 atom thickness can transport x A/m at no loss, (ampere per meter of sheet), then how close can you stack these sheets together before x becomes significantly less?

    2. If there is a (mutual) magnetic interference between two layers that destroys the superconducting effect, then will the superconductor actually work when immersed in an external magnetic field?

  12. Re:Bitcoin is not anonymous. on Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin itself is of course not anonymous, otherwise its name would have not been known.

    Its use on the other hand...

  13. Re:Some good tips on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy These Days? Or Do You? · · Score: 1

    6) Insert noise into the system. Perform searches that have nothing to do with you. Tag yourself in photos that do not contain you. Tag your photos with another person's name, etc.

  14. Re:Not on FB? Are .you sure? on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy These Days? Or Do You? · · Score: 1

    How do you solve the tagging problem? Your friends get on FB, someone posts a photo of you, that person or someone else tags it with your name and possibly other info. How do you keep your friends from adding you to the FB collective?

    Wear a burqa. It's a remarkably effective technology invented by Muslims ages ago!

  15. Re:I don't use my real name. on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy These Days? Or Do You? · · Score: 1

    I just imagine that there are hundreds of Zuckerbergs that didn't make it to the top, and now suffer themselves from privacy violations by big corporations.

  16. Re:Don't use "free" services on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy These Days? Or Do You? · · Score: 1

    The main thing I do to protect my privacy is not to use "free" services

    All search engines are "free" services.

  17. Re:Don't use "free" services on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Protect Your Privacy These Days? Or Do You? · · Score: 1

    I think spammers are smart enough to evade that trick.

  18. A champion may not even exist on 22-Year-Old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen Is the New World Chess Champion · · Score: 2

    They're chess grandmasters, but they are still not able to deduce that "beating" is not necessarily a mathematical total order.

  19. Re:Money again... on Software Patent Reform Stalls Thanks To IBM and Microsoft Lobbying · · Score: 1

    What about the hundreds of thousands of small developers who support it?

    Do they get a "vote", too ... or is it only the people who are rich enough to bribe senators?

    Those developers already voted by buying MS products and by using Google stuff.

  20. Re:A big improvement indeed on GCC 4.9 Coming With Big New Features · · Score: 1

    That whole sockaddr design sucks. It's about time somebody (or some compiler) complained about it.

  21. Re:frist on GCC 4.9 Coming With Big New Features · · Score: 5, Funny

    finally

    C++0x does not have "finally".
    You'll have to implement it yourself, e.g. using a destructor.
    See for example: http://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/2864/an-implementation-of-finally-in-c0x

  22. Re:Patents on Reports: Apple To Buy Israeli 3D Sensing Company PrimeSense · · Score: 2

    They use a LIDAR system for that. Pretty ancient technology. Also used for law enforcement (speed guns).
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

    According to the article, this system costs $70.000 euros.
    That's a far cry from the $80 euros of a typical kinect system.

    I guess that's the price you pay for brute forcing your way into the market.

  23. Cool on How Your Coffee Table Could Pass Your Coffee · · Score: 1

    That is cool. But at the same time it is also the most lame way I could imagine to move stuff around.
    All the examples they show could be done better with a robot hand or two, with a FAR smaller number of actuators.
    Software that detects the position of each finger already exists.

  24. Re:So, time to scrap TSA/airport security checks on Object Lessons: Evan Booth's Post-Checkpoint Airport Weapons · · Score: 1

    So, airport security checks are useless and no more than a waste of taxpayers' money.

    Your logic does not apply. Let me demonstrate why.

    Say, you need perfume A, toothpaste B, and battery C to make an explosive.
    Now, it is known that the TSA builds a profile of you even before you enter the plane.
    This profile, combined with the information about stuff you bought post-checkin, can set off some alarm bells.
    Even if you buy stuff with several people.

    Hence, while you can build an explosive with post-checkin materials, it is NOT CERTAIN you can buy them AND enter a plane.
    There is just one step missing in the logic.

  25. Re:Security? on Google Chrome 31 Is Out: Web Payments, Portable Native Client · · Score: 1

    Indeed, it looks quite safe compared to JS.

    The only disadvantage of NaCl code is that it only runs on one brand of browser. Sigh.