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User: jopsen

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  1. Re:The directive does not mention google. on Google Should Be Broken Up, Say European MPs · · Score: 1

    Every evaluation and ranking algorithm that is not based off a random number generator carries, by definition, biases favoring some criteria over others. There will always be someone crying foul because they're lower in the rankings. This is a tar pit.

    Sure, but this is about ensuring that there is competition in the field, having multiple player, instead of a single algorithm sitting on the whole market is a good mitigation of the technical issue you describe.

  2. Re:He still plead guilty to something ... on Hacker Threatened With 44 Felony Charges Escapes With Misdemeanor · · Score: 1

    Well, sure, there are plenty of public servants who are motivated by a desire to, you know, serve the public, but they don't make headlines or get famous so you don't hear about them much.

    True... I suspect the only reason a governor like Chris Christie is even being talked about with respect to 2016 is because he is in the media.
    Granted I don't follow American politics closely, but it seems to me he is only in the media because he is borderline crazy...

  3. Re:Having worked with prosecutors on Hacker Threatened With 44 Felony Charges Escapes With Misdemeanor · · Score: 1

    It's actually funny.

    It might be funny... It's certainly not justice.

    I don't get why you elect judges and prosecutors mixing politics into the justice system. It makes the whole thing so adversarial.
    When it should be about truth and not convictions...

  4. So how is the price... on Is LTO Tape On Its Way Out? · · Score: 1

    LTO-9 goes to 25TB/cart, LTO-10 goes to 48TB.

    So comparing this to AWS glacier, at 0.01 USD/GB, that is 480 USD for 48 TB...
    Probably still an advantage to tapes... but how close it?

  5. Re:Inconsistent on Firefox Will Soon Offer One-Click Buttons For Your Search Engines · · Score: 1

    Slashdot users probably use keyword search anyways... I suspect this is aimed at "normal" people, the kind that clicks on everything.

  6. Just make it inert on Nuclear Weapons Create Their Own Security Codes With Radiation · · Score: 1

    It's a lot cheaper and safer to make an inert nuclear weapon... Just don't tell anyone :)

  7. Re:Wait, 314 million per year? on Mozilla's 2013 Report: Revenue Up 1% To $314M; 90% From Google · · Score: 1

    Yes, you ~should~ dump a lot of the projects that go on, and get back to the core project of making a usable cross-platform web browser that doesn't suck.

    Maybe/probably, to be honest I suspect prioritizing projects at Mozilla isn't trivial.
    I mean when your goal is to improve the open web, how do you measure impact of your projects?

    Number of users, etc. is certainly a metric... But so are specs implemented by multiple vendors.

  8. Re:Wait, 314 million per year? on Mozilla's 2013 Report: Revenue Up 1% To $314M; 90% From Google · · Score: 1

    Translation: Our core business (browsers) is so ridiculously profitable and since our mission is open ended we can spend it on almost any pet project we like.

    I don't speak on behalf of Mozilla; let's be very clear about that.

    Anyways, if you wanted to do a startup, or a small and focused group, you can certainly find more lucrative opportunities (also open source), than writing a web-browser. Granted I don't touch much gecko code, but it's my clear impression from co-workers (and the few patches I've done) that moving it forward is not easy.

    By the way, a lot of things still is happening in Firefox. Try out the latest nightly, it comes with process isolation (e10n); it still extremely buggy, but it's nice to see it happening.

  9. Re: Education versus racism on Cops 101: NYC High School Teaches How To Behave During Stop-and-Frisk · · Score: 1

    A lot of us do. More than you would guess.

    Hmm... I don't think that's enough... The problem here is in large the adversarial nature of your justice system.
    With cops being allowed to lie during interrogation, the state offering plea bargains if you confess, etc...

    Cases like this were someone after hours of interrogations breaks and "admits"
    'You’re telling me you have a video, so I guess it happened but I have no memory of it.'

    The only reason that guy isn't rotting in prison, is because he could afford 200k in legal expenses.
    Lesson being, don't talk to the police in America. Doing so is a liability most people can't afford.

  10. Re:Nonprofit?? on Mozilla's 2013 Report: Revenue Up 1% To $314M; 90% From Google · · Score: 1

    Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit, it owns Mozilla Corporation which is a for-profit entity.

  11. Re:Wait, 314 million per year? on Mozilla's 2013 Report: Revenue Up 1% To $314M; 90% From Google · · Score: 4, Informative

    That is a lot of money. What could they possibly be spending it on because it certainly isn't firefox. I mean... it is a nice browser... but.... 314 million?

    Disclaimer I work at Mozilla... There is obviously a lot of development, not just Firefox and FirefoxOS, but also research projects like rust, servo (new browser engine), daala (video codec). Followed by an end-less line of smaller projects, services and what not. For example I work on a project called TaskCluster which runs tasks (currently only docker containers on AWS spot nodes); the goal of this project is to make our CI infrastructure faster, cheaper and easier to configure (more self-serve; and more cloud based).

    But this is only the development things... Mozilla does things ranging from lobby work (net neutrality to name one); to education and campaigns for this (See webmaker parties). Sometimes I'm surprised to see all the things that goes on at Mozilla.


    A lot of what Mozilla does yields little obvious results... A lot of it is high risk (from a business perspective)... A lot of it has no business perspective at all. But Mozilla is not about money, it was we should really dump a lot of the projects that goes on :)

  12. Why do you speculate??? on Mozilla's 2013 Report: Revenue Up 1% To $314M; 90% From Google · · Score: 1

    Yahoo knew this, and probably offered them $150 million a year (Google may even have declined to make an offer of renewal

    From the official blog post you'll see that all the options, including a renewal of the Google contract, had stronger economic terms (for mozilla).
    To spell it out: Google offer to renew the contract and to pay more than they currently do.

    I see this partly as a way to diversify revenue, by having different partners in different geographical regions. And as a strategy to avoid a fostering a global search mono-culture.

  13. Re:Google Should Offer More Money on Firefox Signs Five-Year Deal With Yahoo, Drops Google as Default Search Engine · · Score: 2

    Why would Google want to crush Firefox? What motive does it have?

    No, but the way Google is creating a mono-culture, creating chrome-only services (only porting to other browser later), and increasingly rolling features out to the web around the standard bodies (I hangout a guy who works on web components at Mozilla); maybe Google is increasingly becoming a problem for the open web... (maybe not intentionally, but still going too big)
    Mono-cultures are bad. With different default search deals in multiple geographical regions, Mozilla is not only diversifying it's revenue stream, it's also not supporting a single global mono-culture.

  14. There were options... on Firefox Signs Five-Year Deal With Yahoo, Drops Google as Default Search Engine · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But I think Google cut Mozilla out of some revenue sharing thing. It doesn't look like there was much choice.

    This is not the case... I was the internal meeting at Mozilla earlier today, and it was made very clear that all options (including Google) had stronger economic terms (than the current deal).
    So it wasn't because Google cut Mozilla out.

    See the official announcement too:
    https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/...

    Personally, I see how this can only foster more competition, less monoculture and thus a better web.

  15. Re:Comcast tried to steal $50 from me on Overbilled Customer Sues Time Warner Cable For False Advertising · · Score: 2

    Why should the government prevent competent adults from entering into an agreement that includes a rebate? Sure, the companies are hoping that many will not claim it, but that's the customer's choice./quote> Because as you say the companies are actively planning to make the advertised price/rebate not possible, or very complicated for the customer to get. Most rebates only serves to confuse the customer, so they can't see the real cost. This is not honest business.

    For the customers to compare products, with such complicated pricing schemes is just not feasible; it would take days to evaluate. In many cases it is fraud, just very hard to prove intent when companies claim institutional incompetence.

    Either way, it is a government issue to promote and ensure a transparent market that facilitates competition.

  16. Re:Yes, after all... on Groupon Backs Down On Gnome · · Score: 2

    He he, nice come back... But you do realize that most of those are in completely different markets which doesn't make cause a conflict...

    I don't see GNOME trying to bully out the Santa Gnome market: https://www.etsy.com/market/sa...

  17. Re:Always RTFA on ISPs Removing Their Customers' Email Encryption · · Score: 1

    If you're relying on the MTA to keep your email communications secure, you're doing it wrong. If data is important enough to encrypt, encrypt it at the sender side first.

    Security holes and poor security does not make it legal to take advantage of suck security holes.

  18. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act on ISPs Removing Their Customers' Email Encryption · · Score: 1

    This seems like it should be a violation of the DMCA. It probably isn't but it sure seems close.

    Isn't this just hacking, in the criminal media-defined sense of the word.

    With recent additions from patriot to fraud act, this smells a lot like "conspire to commit" at the very least. It certainly seems like unauthorized access, as you forced access to information you were not authorized to access.
    Just because the internet protocols have lots of holes does not mean they can be legally exploited.

    Is this a crazy thought?

  19. Re:This just proves... on Codecademy's ReSkillUSA: Gestation Period For New Developers Is 3 Months · · Score: 1

    That's a far cry from learning what it takes to create quality software.

    Sure, that doesn' t mean they are useless... Sure, if you pay them a regular tech-salary...
    But can you have second-class developers in a company?

    For example writing tests, or internal web applications based on rock solid automation APIs. Or web-based dashboards for presentation of metrics collected and exposed through a stable APIs...

    I 50-75 % of study points for my MSc in CS comes from or is related to large group projects. As someone who is smart and skilled, I quickly learned how to isolate parts of the project and hand out smaller isolated pieces. Typically, just implement a strategy pattern, then tell someone write a strategy or two that filled the interface of my strategy. In the meantime I could rely on a strategy with a bare minimum implementation, for example hard code input instead of loading from file, accepting memory leaks, accepting poor performance.

    It's not always easy to use people with limited skills, but it's not impossible. Though you obviously don't get the same results.
    On the other hand, I have an MSc and is super generalist, and sometimes I'm wasting my time writing simple things in node.js, not that everything in node is simple :)

  20. I point out the fact that the majority of R&D into this comes from America, ..... and yet, you point to a link that has to do with using our technology, to make your companies.

    Okay, I might have that link wrong... It's not unbelievable,but [citation needed] still stands...


    Note, without building something... ie. applying technology you're not getting a big energy sector with private R&D.

  21. Re:I don't know what they are doing to burn coal n on Denmark Plans To Be Coal-Free In 10 Years · · Score: 1

    3 servers is not normal house hold :)
    But A/C is a big eater... so LED vs cheap ordinary energy saving bulbs does not matter, if you have A/C.
    Perhaps you should look at how low the A/C and what level of isolation you have...

    That said, I have not here in San Francisco nor in Denmark ever paid for A/C. SF is the only place I've had electric heating.. tsk tsk..

  22. Re:I'm not sure the point... on Mozilla Teases First Browser Dedicated To Devs · · Score: 1

    I write code in the editor of my choice, then I open chrome and look at my results. Any issues are addressed with the already pretty nice built in tools.

    This could be interesting... In chrome break points move when you modify the code... It make console.log() debugging hard...
    Yes let's face it we all debug with printf :)

  23. Re:Underwater will face the same challenges as Tid on Scotland Builds Power Farms of the Future Under the Sea · · Score: 1

    that's very easy. dump chemicals around the the whole thing as needed

    He he, I know you're kidding... but that would be remarkably stupid thing to do in a high current area :)

  24. Re:A working automated vehicle on What Will It Take To Make Automated Vehicles Legal In the US? · · Score: 1

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G... Gives accuracy down to 1m... Anyways, most likely first automatic cars will allow you to drive manually too... For corner cases like that.

  25. Re: Not even close. on UN Climate Change Panel: It's Happening, and It's Almost Entirely Man's Fault · · Score: 2

    U do realize that most r&d in this arena originated in america. Right? And that america continues to outspend both Europe and China on it?

    [Citation needed], CNN certainly says otherwise: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/12/...
    Also what political commitments have you been making? I haven't heard any, that are even remotely as impressive as the Europeans.