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Comment Excellent news! (Score 1) 139

This is great news but I hope these laws apply to software diagnostic tools as well where manufacturers find ways to ensure that only those service centers who are purchasing a VERY EXPENSIVE license for the maintenance software are allowed access to the hardware through license keys etc.

Comment Twitter being served its just desserts (Score 2) 48

The rise of the totalitarian Modi govt is because of sites like Twitter, FB etc giving these right wing elements full sway over their networks while restricting the voices of the opposition, human rights workers etc - Twitter didn't count on these same forces getting big enough to the point where they can exert pressure on these networks.

Comment Re:Not "Molding" but "3D Printing"/Better Link? (Score 1) 41

It was initially available only through 3D printing but the researchers have figured out how to do injection molding as well.

From the article:

The scientists created a printable powder by mixing silica nanoparticles with a polymer that could be cured with ultraviolet (UV) light. After printing the shapes they wanted, they cured the polymer with UV light so it would hold its shape. They then fired the mix in an oven to burn off the polymer and fuse the silica particles into a continuous glass structure.

And later:

To speed things up, Kotz and his colleagues have now extended their nanocomposite approach to work with injection molding, a process used to mass produce plastic parts like toys and car bumpers by the ton. The researchers again started with tiny silica particles. The team then mixed the silica with two polymers, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB). The mixture created a dry powder with the consistency of toothpaste. The team fed the paste into an extruder that pressed it into a preformed mold with shapes such as a disc or tiny gear.

Comment Re:Success! (Score 1) 85

What took MS down a notch wasn't ActiveX vs the web, but the fact that more and more apps simply became websites and escaped the stranglehold of the Windows Ecosystem and anyone - no matter what OS, could use these web applications.

The fact that apps like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Google Docs, Google Sheet etc became a reality and you could do most of your email work, word processing, spreadsheet work, calendaring etc without buying Windows and office licenses reduced MS's grip on the market.

Comment Re:Population levels and social media (Score 3, Informative) 245

As someone who used to battle suicidal thoughts for years let me offer some perspective.

For a long time there was a single thought that would go through my mind - almost constantly, even when I wasn't really *feeling* depressed. The thought was of stabbing myself in the chest or stomach with a large kitchen knife or cutting myself in a way which would kill me.

The reason I am putting an * around the word feeling is because I wasn't always self-aware of my deeply depressed state.. Actually, there were times I would even feel euphoric but yet that thought of inflicting such injuries upon myself would constantly go through my mind. By constantly, I mean every few minutes (if not every few seconds).

The thought was that this act would release me - that it would give me a sense of relief. I am not surprised that some people give in to this senseless feeling.

For myself, I escaped because I turned to religion. Those thoughts don't cross my mind anymore and haven't anymore. I recognise now that there are forces out there which don't want me alive and that there is also a benevolent personality out there (God) who wants me to live and thrive.

I realise that this thought may be scorned or mocked on this site and others. But for me it saved my life.

Comment Re:Slashdot has changed over the 20 years (Score 1) 726

Yes, I agree. Many of us still visit the site but it has gradually become less and less relevant to the geeks and the nerds. These days I find better news articles in other sites such as news.ycombinator.com but the comment section there is an absolute eyesore. Slashdot has the best comments system by far, but I wish the corporate overlords would post the right stories. I have submitted stories which may have been of interest to people like me and many of those have never hit the site but on the same day I would see stories on slashdot which are pure clickbait and which are only very, very remotely related to tech. The site has started posting more and more stories which arepolitical in nature rather than technical in nature.

Something else which I have noticed is that stories have very few comments these days - often less than 100, and that is a far cry from the glory days when it wasn't unusual to have multiple stories with 1000+ comments on the same day.

One more thing: I do see the occasional comments from people like Bruce Schnier and other experts on this stie, but those are very, very rare these days - and not like during Slashdot's heydays. So am seeing less and less value in the comments section.

Comment Re:Why Java? (Score 2) 179

Java is excellent for some scenarios such as the development of server-side applications, webservices and so on. For stuff such as desktop GUI development, C/C++/.NET etc may be better options.

Apart from that, Jave has the following advantages:
Excellent portability
Automatic garbage collection
Huge collection of excellent libraries accessible via well-organized central repositories via build tools such as maven, gradle and so on
Dependency management is lot easier if you use build tools such as maven/gradle etc
Huge numbers of competent developers

Comment This is what India does as well (Score 1) 151

This is exactly the approach that the present Indian government is also using. Their intent is to use propaganda, lies and an army of trolls to control dissent, distract people from what is really happening and also to suppress any hint of an opposition.

One of the former members of this huge paid army even released a book on it:
http://www.amazon.in/Am-Troll-...

The Prime Minister Modi himself follows some of the worst members of this troll army who use rape threats, murder threats and whatever else against anyone engaging in any form of dissent.

The BJP party which is in power is the primary backers and the ones who run this troll army:
http://mashable.com/2016/12/27...

Comment Trojan horse? (Score 2) 436

I wonder if systemd, pulseaudio etc are trojan horses inserted into the Linux ecosystem for nothing else but screwing things up - they work, sort of, but not very well.. they are irritating enough to significantly reduce the adoption of Linux and also to slow down the overall development of the Linux ecosystem by focusing attention on problems which could have been easily avoided. There there is of course these security vulnerabilities which open up in the strangest of places.

Of course, I have no evidence for this, but it has been a nagging suspicion.

Comment Re:Why Yoga won't be more widely used (Score 1) 172

Why chat at all if it is supposed to be just exercise? Many of the mantras are invocations to Shiva, Ganesha etc. The deeper you go into yoga you get into things like Kundalini etc which is seen as a serpent kundalini resting in the base of the spine. If all of that isn't spooky and religious, what is?

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