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Comment What is this ? Keep asking the same question (Score 1) 291

Until you get the answer you want ?

Why not, why don't we teach everyone electronics engineering ?
Why don't we teach everyone sales and marketing ?
Why don't we teach everyone the law ?

Arguably the above would all be more useful for people to know in a non professional fashion than how to code.

Comment Re:Climate models (Score 0, Troll) 264

But that isn't science. Here is how science works I have learned this from the warming people.

1. Make predictions that are only testable after you retire
2. Look at predictions and complain that people are destroying the world.
3. When your predictions fail, let a new generation make new predictions and tell everyone this is how science works.
3A. If someone questions your process label them a denier and call them anti science.

Submission + - Linux-based Mobile Manipulation Robots Due Soon (linuxgizmos.com)

__aajbyc7391 writes: Silicon Valley startup Fetch Robotics, which just announced $3 million in VC funding, plans to ship two mobile manipulation robots running ROS on Linux in the second quarter, targeting logistics and light industrial applications. The company, whose core team hails from seemingly-defunct Willow Garage spinoff Unbounded Robotics, was originally named FYS (Fetch Your Stuff), hinting that the company intends to compete with the Kiva robots that currently speed-up human workers at Amazon's fulfillment centers.

Submission + - The Mathematical Case for Buying a Powerball Ticket 4

HughPickens.com writes: Neil Irwin writes at the NYT that financially literate people like to complain that buying lottery tickets is among the silliest decisions a person could make but there are a couple of dimensions that these tut-tutted warnings miss, perhaps fueled by a class divide between those who commonly buy lottery tickets and those who choose to throw away money on other things like expensive wine or mansions. According to Irwin, as long as you think about the purchase of lottery tickets the right way — purely a consumption good, not an investment — it can be a completely rational decision. "Fantasizing about what you would do if you suddenly encountered great wealth is fun, and it is more fun if there some chance, however minuscule, that it could happen," says Irwin. "The $2 price for a ticket is a relatively small one to pay for the enjoyment of thinking through how you might organize your life differently if you had all those millions."

Right now the Multi-State Lottery Association estimates the chances of winning the grand prize at about 1 in 175 million, and the cash value of the prize at $337.8 million. The simplest math points to that $2 ticket having an expected value of about $1.93 so while you are still throwing away money when buying a lottery ticket, you are throwing away less in strictly economic terms when you buy into an unusually large Powerball jackpot. "I am the type of financial decision-maker who tracks bond and currency markets and builds elaborate spreadsheets to simulate outcomes of various retirement savings strategies," says Irwin. "I can easily afford to spend a few dollars on a Powerball ticket. Time to head to the convenience store and do just that."

Submission + - Inside the Internet's hidden science factory (pbs.org)

tcd004 writes: Sarah Marshall has completed roughly 20,000 academic surveys. Clay Hamilton has finished about 40,000. Marshall and Hamilton are part of a small but highly-active community of paid online study participants who generate data at break-neck speed to fuel modern scientific research. But can a person who's completed thousands of surveys still provide good data? Here's a look at the humans feeding science from inside the machine.

Submission + - Tindie Biz, the Yelp for electronics manufacturers (hackaday.com)

Theoxenmooving writes: Emile Petrone, founder Tindie, sometimes called the 'Etsy of electronics' has launched a new tool to help tinkerers and product designers find the right manufacturers. It's called Tindie Biz, and it's basically Yelp for the maker community.

Comment Game reviewers scores ? seriously (Score 1) 135

As far as I can see the reviewers are little more than lying shills that make up the numbers anyway.

Here is the title of a review column I saw on a popular site

So You Don’t Like TSW? I Don’t Care (if you want to read it google for it, I have no intention of driving traffic there)

Turns out the "Reviewer" was working hand in glove with games community management, they might as well have just taken out the scores and put up a dollar sign with how much they charged for the review.

Submission + - Russia seeking to ban Tor, VPNs and other anonymising tools (thestack.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Three separate Russian authorities have spoken out in favour of banning online anonymising tools since February 5th, with particular emphasis on Tor, which — despite its popularity with whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowden and with online activists — Russia's Safe Internet League describes as an 'Anonymous network used primarily to commit crimes'. The three authorities involved are the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, powerful Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor and the Safe Internet League, comprising the country's top three network providers, including state telecoms provider Rostelecom. Roskomnadzor's press secretary Vadim Roskomnadzora Ampelonsky describes the obstacles to identifying and blocking Tor and VPN traffic as 'difficult, but solvable'.

Submission + - The blind spots in the nuclear test monitoring system (thebulletin.org)

Lasrick writes: The International Monitoring System managed by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization relies on detecting one or more of four distinct signatures from a nuclear explosion. Seismic detectors continuously listen for the shock waves passing through the earth from underground nuclear tests. Hydro-acoustic monitors listen for sound waves in the oceans from underwater tests. Infrasound detectors scan for pressure waves in the atmosphere. The fourth kind of signal involves radioactive gases generated by a nuclear explosion and released into the atmosphere. Ulrich Kuhn and Michael Schoeppner describe the system in detail, and point out that there are blind spots, particularly in the area of noble gas detection: 'Our research has found that the noble gas detection part of the International Monitoring System is unlikely to work as it should because of the limited distribution of noble gas stations, neglect of important meteorological patterns in some areas, and the radionuclide background from emissions from the commercial production of medical isotopes.' Kuhn and Schoeppner go on to describe possible fixes, and call on the 183 states that have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the CTBTO to provide the resources to build extra monitoring stations where they are required and to curb activities that might limit the global capability to monitor possible nuclear tests.

Submission + - Are there quality but affordable large HD/UHD/4K "stupid" screens? 1

LOGINS SUC writes: Truly in the first-world problems category, I've been looking for large format (>55") HD/UHD screens for home entertainment. In light of the recent Samsung big-brother monitoring and advertisement injection concerns, does any reputable manufacturer still make "stupid" TVs? I don't want to pay for all the WiFi, apps, cameras, or microphones. I don't need it to have speakers. And at this point, I don't even care if it has the TV receiver functionality. All this stuff leads to vendor lock-in or is well on the path to obsolescence by the time I purchase the device. I prefer all of this non-visual functionality be handled by devices better suited to the purpose and I don't want to pay for screens including these widgets I have no intention of ever using, at all.

I've searched all the normal retail outlets. If I find anything, they are wildly expensive. "Computer monitors" fit the bill but are almost all 55") LCDs in the sub-$3,000 range anymore? Are projectors the last bastion of visual purity for home entertainment?

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