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User: cfortin

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Comments · 45

  1. Re:Anybody else? on Teachers, Students Fight To Be Facebook Friends · · Score: 1

    "Actually i'm torn on this. Yes freedom of speech is great ..." ---- you can stop right there.

  2. Re:voted on Patriot Act Up For Renewal, Nobody Notices · · Score: 1

    Let me put a camera on you 24/7 for 8 years, and lets see what kind of 'best of' reel I can make. I hear a lot of sniping at Bush, but not a lot of considered and defended arguments in opposition to his opinions or actions. So, what has the empty suit in the white house done different from Bush that can be looked at and defended as a superior action? When he actually does anything, it turns out to be the same position Bush took. Otherwise, Obama's just a jaw wagging in time to a teleprompter.

  3. Re:Educational Problems on Union Boycotts LA Times Over Teacher Evaluation Disclosure · · Score: 1

    +insightful ... really? Lets be clear, these places were on the brink of bankruptcy, which means that those contractual promises would have gone away, legally. What Obama did was straight theft, from my family to the democrat-voting UAW.

  4. Re:phew on "Cumulative Voting" Method Gaining Attention · · Score: 1

    Well in that case, since the court knows who should have won, why are they bothering asking the subjects^H voters, just ennoble the candidate directly!

  5. Re:Go To Hell on DHS Wants To Monitor the Web For Terrorists · · Score: 0, Troll

    Absolutely. And it also shows how out-of-step with the current net these people are. Given the way people rejoice in their liberty on the net, there would be whole theater groups getting set up just to troll DHS.

    This, people, this right here is the natural result of electing a pile of leftist socialists, the smug 'we understand the social models, so we can make things better if we control everything' mindset. A aristocracy of arrogance. No understanding of the noise in the system, or the importance of having noise there.

  6. Re:No surprise, really on US Missile Defense Test Fails · · Score: 1

    Yawn, yea, its all a conspiracy ...

    Or perhaps, this kind of system is fscking *hard*, and getting it working would be a huge thing. Or is duck-and-cover good enough for you and your kids?

  7. Re:I am very sceptical... on The Limits To Skepticism · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think there is actually a very easy way to solve this problem...show us the code. Give out ALL the raw data, every little scrap, along with the source code for the programs they are using to manipulate it.

    This, right here. Scientists, real scientists, can support their findings even when others have access to the same inputs and methods as the scientist uses. If you hide data, you are no longer a scientist. If you 'correct' data with a certain result in mind, you are no longer a scientist.

    A real scientist is *happy* to let everyone look at their data, because a real scientist feels that pointing out an error to a colleague is one of the best favors you can perform. Having your peers look at your work in detail, and say "hey, that's some pretty good work" is the best.

    Hiding your data and still quoting the results removes you from the practice of science. Allowing, or encouraging people to make fundamental policy decisions on outcomes you are not willing to document and support is sinful.

    A core tenet of scientific study is that results should be independently reproduced. Real scientists hunt for people to reproduce their results.

      (IIAS, PhD in EE)

  8. Re:This may be slightly off-topic, but on Several Quantum Calculations Combined At NIST · · Score: 1

    Ya know, alot of these 'summaries' are not really helpful, so I'll take a shot :).

    QC for the most part can be thought of in the same fashion as convenetion computer
    science, qbits == bits, 'transistors', memory ... etc.

    The really cool part, and the part that makes it very interesting to many, is a certain property
    of the qbits. Normal bits are independent, each being calculated and contributing to further
    calculations on its own. In a QC, then qbits are 'entangled', which can result in one qbit
    being effected by the calculations being performed on another. Knowing this, you can
    design algorithms to perform certain types of math much much faster than a normal
    computer could. Notice that the speed up isn't in clock rate, or individual calculation rate,
    but rather in 'bang for the buck' in each calculation. This can change the calculation time for
    a big factorization, for example, from 'next millennia' to 'next week', and more inportantly,
    if you add a bit to the number you are factoring, the calculation time for a QC would raise
    to '1 week+1 minute', whereas a convention computer's calculation time would go from
    '1 millennia' to 'life of the universe'.

    For an example of such a QC algorithm, see

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor's_algorithm

  9. Well, on Vacuum Leaks Lead To Another LHC Delay · · Score: 1

    that sucks ...

  10. Rhetorical Question ... on Obama Calls For Nuke-Free World · · Score: 0, Troll

    Could this guy be any stupider?

  11. Re:Slashdot achievements on Slashdot Launches User Achievements · · Score: 1

    That's an achievement?

  12. Stick to Unix Basic on Which Computer Books For Prisoners? · · Score: 1

    Start them off with network protocols, in particular, The Story of Ping

    http://www.amazon.com/Story-About-Ping-Marjorie-Flack/dp/0140502416

  13. Re:Oh god find the red dot! on New Details For StarCraft 2's Zerg · · Score: 1

    I've set Thunderbird to use that half-second chirp as a you-got-mail
    indicator. I still jump whenever it goes off ....

  14. Re:This needs a "paranoia" tag. on Diebold Patch May Be Evidence of '02 Election Tampering · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You've got to be kidding me, this junk gets modded 'insightful'??

    "Believes he is appointed by God - check"
    Cite this ... you know, just give me a Bush quote that supports this in any way ...

    "Believes he is absolute ruler - check"
    See above. Also, just what has he ever got done without congress.

    "Declares war unanimously - check"
    Umm, please read the constitution. Grep 'declare war'. Now look at Iraq like an
    adult, rather than a sycophant.

    "Lifetime ruler - no"
    So. How would have Kerry ( or Obama ) handled Iraq, and how exactly would
    that have been better for the US's future? Should we ignore the problem represented
    by the *entire* mideast, till someone pops a nuke in an American city? Or
    anonymous dirty bombs start getting let off in our cities? Ignore a dictator
    who is taking shots at our planes, had agreed to demonstrate he disarmed
    himself, the reneged. You think Iraq 1 made Saddam our buddy?

    I've usually found ./ to be populated with people who are a step above the median
    in intellegence. Why don't we see many people taking the long term view,
    looking 20-50 years down the line, and the kind of world we want to live in
    then? You think a festering cesspool of little dictators with access to nukes
    or radiological bombs would be a bright place to live? If nothing else, Iraq 2
    has started to drain the swamp.

  15. Oh, for goodness sakes ... on Warning Future Generations About Nuclear Waste · · Score: 1

    A thousand years ago we were living in a totally non-technical world. If, in 10k years, we can't remote sense and easily remove/convert/toss-into-the-sun any nuclear waste lying around, then we deserve to fry. What do these idiots think we are going to be doing over the intervening years?

    Stick the nuclear waste in a safe spot ( I'm looking at you, Yukka ), guard it, and solve the problem at our convenience.

  16. XKCD, of course! on Computer Art For a CS Dept Office? · · Score: 1

    http://store.xkcd.com/

    At the bottom.

  17. Michael Yon with the best overview ... on 35 Articles of Impeachment Introduced Against Bush · · Score: 1

    Read, learn, cast off your ignorance.

    http://www.amazon.com/Moment-Truth-Iraq-Greatest-Generation/dp/0980076323

    For all you 'bush lied people died' ... catchy slogan, but ignorant.

    Of Course, when you are draining the swamp, you need to start somewhere ...

  18. Re:Texas, huh on Facebook Agrees To User Safety Plan · · Score: 1

    Heh, amen. Give us a couple more months of leftist/union hacks in the legislature and you'll be able to buy Rhode Island during our bankruptcy hearings.

    Estimated deficit at .5B and counting. The answer .... raise taxes! Businesses leaving the state, sales tax revenue in decline ... raise business taxes!! Average income declining ... raise taxes on THE RICH!!! State personnel costs monotonically increasing, unions getting free health care ( no, or almost no, copay ), teachers holding a knife to our kids trouts every Sept ( when they demand the contract renewals take place ), 60+ Providence police officers given cars (w/maintenance+gas) for their use, including one that lives 80 minutes from work ...

    Gotta love these idiots.

    Now we gotta also listen to our resident horseshoe maker ( Link Chaffee, check out his only job before stepping into his father's senate seat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Chafee ) bad mouth anyone who doesn't agree with his vacuous opinions.

    Ugh .. need to drink more, start a lonely Republican's club ...

  19. Re:This ain't a charity on Monsanto's Harvest of Fear · · Score: 1

    Hey, I heard this great song from the car next to mine this morning. So I recorded it, cleaned it up, and burnt it to a CD.

    I'm gunna be rich!

  20. Re:Cryptographic verification on Florida Election Ballots to be Printed On-Demand · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, no we don't.

    Its the verifiable & anonymous that's hard. Perhaps you have a point if you assume that the machines are working as intended, the programs written correctly, and the code running on the machines is the same that was certified.

    Maintaining formal control over evoting machines, given the number of district and varying forms uses, can't help but cost orders of magnitude more than just using paper votes with an electronic counter, like they do here in RI.

    Diabold shows what happens whenever cost-to-impliment-correctly is significantly more than cost-to-look-like-you-satisfied-the-contract.

  21. Re:I don't think you need NASA to say that on Mars Rovers Return to Exploration · · Score: 1

    Whew ....

  22. OMG! An old one! on Half-Squid, Half-Octopus Discovered Off of Hawaii · · Score: 3, Funny

    IE! IE! Microsoft fthagn!

  23. Comfort .. on Big Red Button Disasters? · · Score: 1

    I was working on a Sparc 5, billions of shells, editors open ... alone in this little lab. Got uncomfortable after a while, and took off my shoes. Boy that felt better, flexing my toes under the table. Guess where the power strip was.

  24. Re:Gnome 2.18 with performance improvements! on Gnome 2.18 Released · · Score: 1

    Zwwoooossshhhhhhh

  25. Re:Brilliant! on Anti-Missile Defenses For Commercial Jets · · Score: 1

    Um ... our warplanes are equipped with more options than sidewinders. I'd bet that radar guided missiles would be fine. And if all else fails, cut the jet in half with the cannon.