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User: Headw1nd

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  1. If you assume accidentally hiring great numbers of sociopaths were a big issue facing the company, I suppose you would be correct. However my guess is that wasn't a big issue, and any gains noticed in that department will be offset by the future difficulties in hiring experienced and talented workers who know their value. Then again it is Reddit, so I can't imagine what they would need them for anyways.

  2. Re:Physical keys. on Smartphone-Enabled Replicators Are 3-5 Years Away, Caltech Professor Says · · Score: 1

    Anyone with silly putty and a dremel can duplicate keys, and has been able to for some time. All this does is make it easier if you have an appropriate 3d printer. If it becomes an issue, then keys can easily start featuring retractable covers. Or maybe this lock will finally see its heyday.

  3. Still needs some more work on Smartphone-Enabled Replicators Are 3-5 Years Away, Caltech Professor Says · · Score: 1

    This story still needs drones and twitter. I am disappointed.

  4. Re:Aluminium -- low flammability ?? on Stanford Develops Fast-Charging, Stable Aluminum Battery · · Score: 1

    Gentlemen, why use lighters or batteries, when you can use the tool everyone carries, a common 1W laser

  5. Skin in the game on Planes Without Pilots · · Score: 1

    I think one important part of the trust we have in pilot is that they get to die with the rest of us if something goes wrong. Where it is obviously not a foolproof system, it is much more inherently trustworthy than a remote pilot. Also what happens when two autopilots have concurrent problems and they have the same remote co-pilot?

  6. Re:Crossed lines on The Arrival of Man-Made Earthquakes · · Score: 1

    Also if earthquakes become a thing, then earthquake insurance might be mandated (or at least be more attractive), and the insurance companies will take in far more than they put out. Insurance companies rarely lose money in a game like this. Really, it's a win-win for both sides to say the earthquakes are "natural".

  7. Re:But do we know? on The Arrival of Man-Made Earthquakes · · Score: 1

    So considering their history with the dust bowl, they should be the first ones to believe in climate change, since they saw firsthand the effects of inadvertent geoengineering. But instead they produce the most hard-core denialists. Truly ironic.

  8. This is ridiculous on Carly Fiorina Calls Apple's Tim Cook a 'Hypocrite' On Gay Rights · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I am not entirely sure about how discriminatory the Indiana law is ( I have heard convincing arguments on both sides) the idea that Tim Cook should use the same logic when addressing an issue of rights in the US (a democratic country of which he is a citizen) as in Saudi Arabia (a monarchy with heavy religious influence, to which he is a foreigner) is absolutely ludicrous. If anything, it only says he should be more proactive about issues in the US, since it sets an example, good or bad, for the rest of the world, and it is more within his sphere of influence. This also seems to be trotting about hand in hand with the idea that Apple is somehow boycotting Indiana, which is itself a bizarre falsehood.

  9. Re:I remember this lake... on The Dystopian Lake Filled By the World's Tech Sludge · · Score: 1

    I never said it was barren, I said it was dismal. Went back and looked again. First thing I notice is how the entire image looks washed out by smog. They have hundreds of identical apartment blocks, separated from industrial hell by a half-assed canal. On the north side they have what looks to be slums. Apparently they have parks. Half the place looks like it might have been made yesterday, which I assume it was. Still not impressed.

    Lest you think I'm biased against China, Ordos to the south looks like a much nicer place to live. though I gather it has its own issues.

  10. Thanks for joining us tonight on NSA's Former General Council Talks Privacy, Security, and Snowden's 'Betrayal' · · Score: 1

    Tonight on our program, a man who made his living defending the practices of a massive extra-legal spying organization will defend the practices of that organization. But first, a look at sports.

  11. Re:Russians were first, on The Dystopian Lake Filled By the World's Tech Sludge · · Score: 1

    600 röntgens per hour

    Holy shit. Russia wins by a mile.

  12. I remember this lake... on The Dystopian Lake Filled By the World's Tech Sludge · · Score: 1

    It killed Tasha Yar.

    Also is it just me, or are there a suspicious number of ACs chiming in about how there is only a really tiny sludge lake and Baotou is in fact wonderful? Because I looked on Google maps, there was pretty big sludge lake and the place looks pretty dismal.

  13. Re:Slashdot posts article about Slashdot? on The Dystopian Lake Filled By the World's Tech Sludge · · Score: 1

    This is a massively underrated comment.

  14. Re:Check the data! on The Dystopian Lake Filled By the World's Tech Sludge · · Score: 1

    A roughly 1.8 x 1.8 mile catchment, with about half a square mile of "water" - is that really small for a sludge pond? And the rest of the city "appears quite nice"...where exactly are you from?

  15. Re:Slow on World's First 1 Megawatt All-Electric Race Car · · Score: 1

    While you have a commendable grasp of physics, I think you are underestimating motorcycles. The OP might be hyperbolic if he has a stock motorcycle, but if he owns a competition drag motorcycle he is likely telling the truth. Also motorcycle tires have a peak COF of around 1.2, roughly the same as car tires.

  16. Has anyone busted out the quote from Phaedrus? on Google 'Makes People Think They Are Smarter Than They Are' · · Score: 1
    If not, allow me, as it seems appropriate:

    “This invention (writing), O king,” said Theuth, “will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom that I have discovered.”

    But Thamus replied, “Most ingenious Theuth, one man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their users belongs to another; and now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess.

    “For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.”

    So we can't say we weren't warned.

  17. Re:Is there a fixed length for he on Einstein and Schrodinger's Quest for a Unified Theory led to a Titanic Clash · · Score: 1

    SAP is like the computing version of steampunk, only unfortunately not as cool and all too real.

  18. Re:The Bush Doctrine again on NASA-ESA Project Will Shoot an Asteroid To See What Happens · · Score: 1
  19. The best divison of labor on NASA-ESA Project Will Shoot an Asteroid To See What Happens · · Score: 2

    The Europeans go in trepidatiously, carefully measuring things, trying to understand the asteroid. A couple months later the US flies in fast and hot, and blows everything up, mission over. As an American, I love it.

  20. Re:No room in the curriculum on Why America's Obsession With STEM Education Is Dangerous · · Score: 1

    I think your experience hits one of the major problems, we expect all types of education to fit the same time period, usually because that's all the students can afford, both in tuition and in opportunity costs. This is amplified by the commonly held belief that the purpose of college is to increase one's employment opportunities, when looking at the problem in this one dimension invites a high degree of min-maxing. The truth is that education just takes longer than we are willing to invest.

  21. Re:I find author's "facts" dubious on Why America's Obsession With STEM Education Is Dangerous · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That has a lot to do with the fact that most of these places are using much newer systems. The first line on the Shanghai metro was opened in 1993, and much of the system opened with the last 5 years. In comparison, NYC has some subway cars from 1964 still in use. The US has been slow to upgrade major systems because it is politically hard to mobilize the capital to replace existing infrastructure, not because we lack the knowledge.

  22. This is going to go over well. on Why America's Obsession With STEM Education Is Dangerous · · Score: 1

    I am eager to see the kind of responses this headline is going to generate here, where STEM is the bread and butter of most of the userbase.

  23. Why dressed as women? on Attempted Breach of NSA HQ Checkpoint; One Shot Dead · · Score: 1

    What I can't figure out is why they though dressing in drag would help whatever they were doing. If you don't have the right credentials, being a woman is not going to help, and being a really suspiciously manly woman will help even less. Unless your face is personally known to them all you are doing is risking drawing even more scrutiny on yourself for literally no benefit.

  24. Re:Ballsy, but stupid ... on Attempted Breach of NSA HQ Checkpoint; One Shot Dead · · Score: 1

    Also to add a very important point, the natural suspicion with a car trying to run through the gate at a base would be that it contains a bomb. If that is the case it is urgent that it be stopped as quickly as possible, by any means possible.

  25. PHRASING! on Oops: World Leaders' Personal Data Mistakenly Released By Autofill Error · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OK, so the summary makes it sound like the Guardian got a copy of the personal information via a FOI request, which would make no sense. "Welp, we sent it in an email. Guess we have to release it now if anyone asks." In fact what happened is they learned about the breach through a FOI request, though I'm not sure how they knew to make the request.