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User: EJB

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Comments · 191

  1. Re: what is dpc on Facebook Faces PRISM Data Investigation In Ireland · · Score: 2

    RTFA

  2. Re:How t f on Canadian Couple Charged $5k For Finding 400-Year-Old Skeleton · · Score: 1

    You're kidding right? Of course when you were a bit unsure about a term you found on the Internet, you used the Internet to look it up because it only takes seconds, and you're only posting this here to yank our legs right?

    "1. being the first or earliest known of its kind present in a region "
    ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aboriginal )

    "1. Having existed in a region from the beginning: aboriginal forests. See Synonyms at native."
    ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/aboriginal )

  3. Train him on Ask Slashdot: How To (or How NOT To) Train Your Job Replacement? · · Score: 1

    If you have the time, why not train him? You say you have enough other customers for now, so you don't have to worry about the short term, and when the economy gets better, you did a good service to a customer and they'll think of you again.

    Plus...

    You learn training skills, which is quite marketable.

    If your replacement is really good, he'll probably be a good addition to your network. He'll remember that you trained him, and he'll move on to other positions where he can recommend you. And when he moves on, the company will need you again as well.

    If he's not good, make sure that people can see that you tried. Powerpoints, handouts, recommended books, hours spent pair programming, etc. They'll need you again, make sure they understand that you tried to help them.

  4. Re:There is only one speed: c on Mathematicians Extend Einstein's Special Relativity Beyond Speed of Light · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, photos do have an effective mass (=relativistic mass). You could say that they have no rest-mass, though.
    Photos are affected by gravity - light bends around heavy stars, for example: the gravity lens effect.

    http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/photon_mass.html

  5. Not all authors are reliable sources on When a Primary Source Isn't Good Enough: Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    I understand why the author got upset, but.. I still think Wikipedia policy is reasonable.
    In this case, everyone seems to agree that the author is reasonable, psychologically stable enough to know his inspiration, and not likely to lie for whatever reason. Nobody seems to dispute his statements about the inspiration for his story.

    That's not the case for every author. There are plenty authors who would lie to generate publicity, or think it is cool post-modernist or whatever to lie about it, or have such mental issues that discussions about their inspirations are best left to professionals.

    It's probably best that they don't get the last say about their Wikipedia pages.

  6. Can't be good for the outsourcing industry on More Fuel For Facebook Censorship Advocates In India · · Score: 1

    If this results in Internet censorship or another great firewall, that can't be too good for the Indian outsourcing industry.
    Would you let a team of outsourced programmers work on your code if they cannot access the websites they need to do their jobs? Or of they can't communicate with your on-site developers using the same sites that everybody else uses?
    Or if they can't access the website that you're developing as a company?

    Don't think so. They're just shooting themselves in the foot over there.

  7. Re:At last... on Australian Greens Demand Public Access To Cloak and Dagger Anti-Piracy Meetings · · Score: 4, Informative

    Liberalism and liberterianism are not the same, and liberals in countries with proportional voting systems are definitely not the same as libertarians in the U.S.

    Most liberals want to government to give people equal chances in life, while most libertarians want to either abolish government or keep it as small as possible.

    Let me Wikipedia that for you...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism

    Actually liberal parties in Europe have quite a lot in common with the democratic party in the US, in terms of what they want to achieve. Except they're typically considered right of the center in Europe.

  8. Re:Scary on Sweden Moving Towards Cashless Economy · · Score: 1

    You'll have to switch to small pieces of gold for these cases. Maybe some organization will even standardize the size of these pieces of gold and stamp them with its mark. And possibly a number indicating how valuable it is.

    Now that will be something completely novel.

  9. Re:WTF? on Sexually Rejected Flies Turn To Booze · · Score: 1

    It's useful research. If we can get them to booze *before* having sex, we'll have less food spoilage due to fruit fly maggots...

  10. Re:Aren't they actual goods per law? on Dutch Supreme Court Sees Game Objects As Goods · · Score: 2

    One of the really interesting things in this verdict is that the judge explicitly said that forcing something to give you "software, computer data or a PIN code" cannot be seen as theft, because it doesn't leave the 'power of disposal' of the original owner, but instead also becomes at the disposal of somebody else in an unwanted manner. There are other laws that deal with that though.

    So in in this verdict the judge explicitly said that illegal copying is *not* theft, because for theft something needs to be taken away from somebody, and that doesn't happen when something is copied.

    In interesting argument that organizations like RIAA and MPAA that throw around extremely harsh words such as 'piracy' and 'theft' as if it was candy, probably do not want to hear.

  11. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN... oops, it's the story on Dutch Supreme Court Sees Game Objects As Goods · · Score: 1

    The question that the judges answered in the ruling was, whether the crime of "theft" was committed by defendant.
    That's article 310 of the Dutch penal code, translated (IANAL) as "He who takes a good that belongs wholly of partly to another person, with the intent to appropriate it in an illegal manner, will be, as being guilty of "theft", punished with a prison term of at most 4 years or a monetary fine of the fourth category"

    His defense argued that what was 'stolen' could not be seen as 'goods' as defined by article 310. Also important to note is that if something is a 'good' under that article does not necessarily mean that it is also a 'good' for any other law or purpose.

    The Dutch highest court does not look at the entire case again, it will only look at certain aspects of it (questions of law) and not of fact.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_Netherlands

    A lower court already concluded that the defendant was guilty of articles 310 and 312 (theft accompanied by violence --> robbery).

    So since the high court concluded that the in-game possessions were goods according to the law, it automatically had to conclude that theft and theft accompanied with violence were committed. And I personally don't see why not, as this is clearly a robbery.

    Luckily we don't have mandatory minimum sentences in Holland so judges have a lot of freedom to look at the circumstances when considering the punishments.
    Things like how much or what kind of violence was used, how old the defendant was, whether he is a repeat offender, etc.

    We don't actually have to twist to meaning of the word "robbery" and call it something else when the minimum punishment seems too high, because some politician who can't stick to his own business forced judges to ignore the circumstances.

  12. Not a user-centric way of measuring "success rate" on Bing More Effective Than Google? · · Score: 1

    The definition of success-rate is not user-centric.
    'The market watcher defines "success rate" as the percentage of search queries that result in a visit to a website.'

    How do we know this matches what a user finds interesting? As someone mentioned, typically with Google you don't even need to go to a website, the answer you're looking for is already shown in the search results. That may not sit well with the website owner, and this study is clearly measuring success from the perspective from the website owner.

    But who cares about that when you want to find something? Clearly the users are voting with their feet.

    Another interesting thing: what if, after a Google search, you're happy with the first search result. That's one hit. But if you go to Bing, say the first result is not relevant and you need to visit the first 5 links. Will that make Bing 5 times as "successful"?
    Certainly from the perspective of the website owner or advertiser, but surely not from the user.

    So I don't think the way Experian Hitwise measures has a lot of bearing on "success" from the perspective of a user. And that is what makes things popular, not whether it satisfies the advertiser.

  13. Re:Their defense is... interesting on Norwegian Day Traders Convicted For Manipulating Computer Trading System · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sorry to say, but this comparison is nonsense.

    A stock trader is a free actor. It has choices that it can make. For one, the choice to employ an automated system without human supervision, And even the automated system could respond in any way it liked, and was not obliged to respond in the way that these two stock traders envisioned.

    A head being subjected to an entering bullet has no choice. It can only follow the laws of physics.
    In that case, it is not the head that is responsible for what happens to it, but the last person or entity who had a choice in which action to take.

  14. Re:Buying ARM for a leg? on Apple To Buy ARM? · · Score: 0, Troll

    And I can't possibly see that threat as a good thing, even in the eyes of the most hard-core Apple cheerleader/fanatic.

    I think you're much too kind here to your average apple fanboy, or you are not reading sites like MacRumors. Here's an example that is coherently written (a big plus among posts from people who would like to see Apple buy ARM)

  15. Re:Marriages Made in Haste.. Oft Leave a Bad Taste on GM Is Selling Saab To Spyker Cars · · Score: 1

    It will give Saab employees a little bit more time to search for a new job.
    That's all.

  16. Positive feedback only on Getting Company Owners To Follow Their Own Rules? · · Score: 1

    If you want to do anything, do it in a positive way. Offer to back up their laptop when they have a long meeting in which they don't need it, or give them the tools to do it themselves, or something of that sort. It doesn't matter. Accept it if they decline. That is a positive move.

    If there is no such way, don't point them to the policy unless you are a very tactful person. They know about the policy but it somehow hampers them. They probably figure it costs them more in time and business to follow that policy then not.

    Are you responsible for policy enforcement? Probably not if you have to ask this question here. Inform someone who is responsible and let it be, unless you can do it in a positive way and not focused not rules.

  17. Re:These are useless as transport on The Year of the E-Bicycle · · Score: 1

    Same problem here with the lack of caffeine. Hmm. It almost seems these figures are a factor 10 too high, but then the numbers get too low again.
    And they don't factor in the wind-drag which is proportionate to the square of your speed, as the article mentions later.

    Don't know. I guess the wikipedia article needs more references; I don't think you can say "Generally used figures" and then not provide a source.

  18. Re:These are useless as transport on The Year of the E-Bicycle · · Score: 2, Informative

    The average in-shape 70kg person can produce 200W for a more than an hour on a bicycle (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance)
    Ever sat on a bicycle in a gym with a wattage meter? It is actually very hard to only produce 125W on a bicycle. On the road you'd go very slow and risk falling over, and in the gym the pedals almost spin faster than your legs.

    And of course Lance Armstrong can do that. I am a "recreational" amateur cyclist who does no more than 2500 km/year and can maintain more than 250W for hours. It's not difficult.

  19. Re:Why -- anonymity on Dutch Commission Deals Blow To Electronic Voting · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can tell you why: anonymity
    In stock trading systems, bank transactions, etc., all parties are known in one way or another. Depending on the techniques used, if something goes wrong, the party that's wronged can prove who they are and that something didn't go as they directed.

    That doesn't work with electronic voting, since it is supposed to be anonymous. There are many reasons for that: full freedom in casting your vote (no employers, governments etc looking over you shoulder to check that you voted 'correctly'), and also not being able to prove what you voted for, to avoid vote-buying (you can pay for a vote but you'll never know what you paid for)
    It is very hard to build anonymity into an electronic voting system, and still have the same degree of tamper-proofness as a paper ballot.

    It should be noted that in the Netherlands, you have to color a circle of approx 1 cm diameter red. It is easier to see what the intention of the voter was than with hanging chads.

    Erwin

  20. Re:What's the big deal adding a paper trail? on Voting Machines Banned by Dutch Minister · · Score: 1

    Two big problems with that.

    The first problem is with giving a receipt. One of important reasons for keeping votes secret, is that vote-buying is made very difficult, since the buyer can never check that you actually voted as you say. Any kind of receipt that you take with you voids this, and vote-buying is a common problem with elections, especially in poorer countries.

    Second problem: how do you know that the barcode is really random? A hacker could hack the code of the machine and give you a barcode that is actually an encoding of your name or something. Admittedly, that is less of a problem, since if someone could hack the voting computer into doing that, it can also log who is voting what.

    - Erwin

  21. Re:Funny! on The NYT's OS-Restrictive Video Policies · · Score: 1

    Now that's funny. I've got a browser here from a really big software firm that claims in its UA string that it is actually its primary competitor.

    User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1 .4322)

    So you are saying that they could be prosecuted in some jurisdictions? :-)

    Erwin

  22. Re:Advantages? on Under the Hood of Quantum Computing · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not to mention Darwin's apple or Rembrandt's Mona Lisa. ;-)

    (Try "Schrodinger's cat" or the "Heisenberg uncertainty principle")

  23. Re:Americans in France! on High Tech Tour de France · · Score: 1

    Maybe, maybe not. Maybe (and of course that hasn't been proven yet) the above four did use illegal substances. If so, they gambled and lost, and Landis made a better bet. The Tour is as much about tactics as it is about riding your bicycle very fast.

    - Erwin

  24. Re:Since when ? on NPR Looks to Technological Singularity · · Score: 1

    You mean like Jules Verne? Or Leonardo da Vinci? It's not futurism that is the problem, it's just that the current futurists are doing a lousy job at it.

    - Erwin

  25. Re:Hmm on Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat · · Score: 1

    It's a big organisation. How are they different than any other big multinational organisation? I guess it's one of the limitations of us humans when we're in big groups.