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Submission + - An Evidence-Based Approach to Online Dating

HughPickens.com writes: Rachel Nuwer writes in the NYT that Dr. Sameer Chaudhry’s online dating persona was garnering no response from the women he reached out to so he synthesized 86 literature studies on the subject of online dating in the fields of psychology, sociology, and computer, behavioral, and neurocognitive sciences.in hopes of improving his odds. As it turns out, success begins with picking a user name. While men are drawn to names linked to physical traits (e.g., Cutie), the researchers found, women prefer ones that indicate intelligence (e.g., Cultured). Both sexes respond well to playful names (e.g. Fun2bwith) and shy away from ones with negative connotations (e.g., Bugg). User names that begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet do better than those from the latter half. “As human beings, we have a tendency to give things at the top of a pile more value,” says Khan. As for your profile photo, pick a photo with a genuine smile, one that crinkles the eyes, and with a slight head tilt (it’s linked to attractiveness). And if you’re looking for a male partner, go for that photo of you in siren red—a color that enhances men's attraction to women. "For those attracted to browse into the profile, a description of personal traits increased likeability when it: showed who the dater was and what they were looking for in a 70:30 ratio; stayed close to reality; and employed simple language with humor added. Invitations were most successful in obtaining a response from the potential date when they: were short personalized messages addressing a trait in their profile; rhymed with their screen name or headline message; and extended genuine compliments." And finally, don't wait too long before arranging a face to face meeting.

Submission + - US State Department Can't Get Rid of Email Hackers (wsj.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Three months after the State Department confirmed hackers breached its unclassified email system, the government still hasnt been able to evict them from the network, say three people familiar with the investigation. Government officials, assisted by outside contractors and the National Security Agency, have repeatedly scanned the network and taken some systems offline. But investigators still see signs of the hackers on State Department computers, the people familiar with the matter said. Each time investigators find a hacker tool and block it, these people said, the intruders tweak it slightly to attempt to sneak past defenses. It isn’t clear how much data the hackers have taken, the people said. They reaffirmed what the State Department said in November: that the hackers appear to have access only to unclassified email. Still, unclassified material can contain sensitive intelligence.

Submission + - The best—and worst—places to drive your electric car (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: For those tired of winter, you’re not alone. Electric cars hate the cold, too. Researchers have conducted the first investigation into how electric vehicles fare in different U.S. climates. The verdict: Electric car buyers in the chilly Midwest and sizzling Southwest get less bang for their buck, where poor energy efficiency and coal power plants unite to turn electric vehicles into bigger polluters.

Submission + - No Tech Bubble Here, Says CNN, "This Time It's different." (cnn.com)

ErichTheRed writes: I saw this on the Money page of CNN today. Apparently, various stock analysts have declared that this run-up in stock prices is different than the 1999 version. OK, we don't have the pets.com sock puppet, Webvan or theglobe.com anymore, but when Uber is given a valuation of $40 billion, can a crash be far behind?

Submission + - Rapid test for Ebola now available (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the first rapid diagnostic test for Ebola. The test needs no electricity, requires just a few drops of blood from a finger prick, and can return results in 15 minutes. That will be a huge help to health workers in remote areas. Current PCR-based tests require a blood sample taken by needle, secure transport of the blood to a properly equipped laboratory with trained staff, and at least several hours to return results. Depending on how far away a suspected case is from a testing laboratory, it can take more than a day to receive test results.

Submission + - Hackin' At The Car Wash, (Yeah) (darkreading.com)

PLAR writes: Those LaserWash automatic car washes can be easily hacked via the Internet to get a free car wash or to manipulate the machines that clean the cars, a security researcher has found. Billy Rios says these car washes have web interfaces with weak/default passwords that if obtained, could allow an attacker to telent in and use an HTTP GET request to control the machines. And this very likely isn't the only car wash brand that's vulnerable, according to Rios.

Submission + - Australian ISPs to introduce '3-strike' style anti-piracy scheme (computerworld.com.au)

angry tapir writes: Australian ISPs are considering a draft industry code, developed in response to government threats to step in and do it for them, that will implement a 'three notice' scheme for alleged copyright infringement. If an ISP customer gets three notices in 12 months, a rights holder can go to court to obtain their details and potentially take legal action against them. (The other part of the government's copyright crackdown is the introduction of a scheme to have pirate websites blocked — the government has yet to introduce the legislation for it, however.)

Comment Re:Might be interesting... (Score 1) 393

I am currently investigating alternative operating systems because I don't want systemd on my boxes.

I have been running Fedora for years and basically have no issue with "systemd" since there is a GUI and command line for control. Unless you can explain why systemd is bad what you have said would be a cause for ridicule in a decision making meeting.

As an "old guy" I don't have any issue with Unix in general or Linux for that matter, I learn what is appropriate and change accordingly. I don't think the server market considers Linux a toy either since it is very popular.

Comment Re:That clinches it. (Score 1) 393

The QA is missing. I don't use Linux because it is more buggy than Windows. Pretty simple really.

In what way is Linux more buggy than Windows? Sorry I call troll on that until you can come up with an explanation for that statement. Pretty simple really.

Comment Re: Indeed, BSD is already a popular desktop OS (Score 1) 393

Sony bases the PlayStation 3 and 4 OSes on FreeBSD. And the Xbox runs a variant of Windows.

Other than some Android-based handhelds and micro-consoles, there's next to no Linux in gaming consoles.

Both BSD and Linux are free however their licenses are different. The main reason that BSD is used in the PlayStation is it's license is very permissive and open while the license (GNU) for Linux is much more restrictive.

No Linux in gaming consoles? Ok I will agree with you if you are only considering Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles and/or hand-helds, however there are huge number of games for Android and IOS devices. Of course for consoles, hand-helds and smart phones/tablets there are some good games, not so good games and some that putting it politely "stink", however that is in the eyes of the gamer since a game that is liked by one group may not be liked by another group.

I would even go as far as saying that at any given time world wide there are more people playing games on Android and IOS devices than they are playing games on a console or PC. This is not to say I think console or PC games gaming is bad it is just that it is so much easier to play a game (simple or otherwise) on a portable than on a laptop or console handheld when you are commuting or even just waiting for something while you are away from your home or work.

Don't believe me get on a train or bus some time, if you don't do that then go to a food hall or restaurant or any place people are waiting and look at what they are doing with their Android or IOS devices. Ok you may find a few "talkers" or "rabid texters" but the majority will be playing a game of some sort.

Comment Re:That clinches it. (Score 1) 393

I've been using Linux (Fedora to be precise) for over sixteen years and for the last seven years have been using it as my primary desktop. As for dual booting, I found that if you really want a Linux desktop then forget it, since unless you are really serious you usually end up back on MS Windows. Of course if you are a gamer and play "Games for Windows" then you may as well stick with a Microsoft OS. Oh sure you could run Wine and/or Play for Sure but it is really simpler to just stick with a Microsoft OS. As for me I have no interest in PC gaming preferring console gaming instead.

If you work for a company that insists you need a PC with a Microsoft OS then you are pretty well stuck. Fortunately I was senior Electrical Engineer and could dictate what OS I wanted to run, however most people don't have that power and as for working with people in co-operative projects who used Microsoft apps I had no problems. For those apps that really did require Microsoft centric applications I could always fire up a virtual machine but in the majority of cases my Linux centric applications worked just fine. Did this annoy some managers? Yes it did but there was nothing they could do about it since I could always do what was required of me.

To recap, the year of the Linux desktop has been around for many years now, it is just that most people are normally stuck with the Microsoft Tax when they purchase a new machine and even at work most managers insist that people use a Microsoft OS so basically the ordinary person is pretty much convinced that MS Windows is the only OS for PC's that is available. Of course once you start to look at smart phones the shoe is on the other foot since Linux followed by IOS (based on BSD) dominate there. Are most people aware of this? Well no they are not and in the majority of cases they don't care as long as the "magic" :-) machine will do everything that is required of it.

Comment Re:Audiophile market (Score 1) 418

Are there people who really take this seriously?

In the audio chain people talk about sound waves affected by the cable.

As An Electrical Engineer this is news to me, Sound waves don't propagate down a speaker cable, electromagnetic waves almost at the speed of light do. The only time you will get sound is actually from the speaker not the amplifier or the cable connecting to the speaker.

In the digital audio chain people talk about jitter, temporally accurate rising and falling pulses, and transmission lines.

Maybe if the transmission line is very long and has a high impedance. Actually you can see something like this if you buy a HDMI 1.2 or less cable and try to display 1080p to your HDTV. You would be crazy not to have at the very least a HDMI 1.3 or better cable and cost wise you are only looking at a few dollars, any more than that and you are wasting your money.

In the power supply side people talk about shielding and noise from the power grid.

Yes it is possible to get 50Hz or 60 Hz "hum" (depends on your country) introduced into the audio equipment but any competent manufacture fixed that problem many years ago. Shielding your speaker cable is only advisable if you are next to a high power transmission line and if that is the case I suggest you move.

If anyone is contemplating getting a cable like this I would suggest a HDMI transmitter and receiver instead which IMHO is much more useful. I do think the article suggestion of "snake oil" is very appropriate, still you will find IMO suckers who will buy it.

Comment Re:not in my tank! (Score 3, Informative) 56

If we accept it's about cleaner air. And we assume that it burns X% cleaner. And we assume that we will burn X% more fuel over the same distance ... What have we gained? I have seen good arguments for using biodiesel but not ethanol.

I have a diesel car and I get excellent economy as well as producing less green house gas than an equivalent petrol engine. My car is able to take 5% bio-diesel (B5) as per manufacturers guidelines however in Sydney Australia I find it almost impossible to get B5 or any bio-diesel for that matter. Of course if I had a petrol car I can get 10% Ethanol (E10) which is normally cheaper (Government/Taxpayer subsidised) than diesel although because I get a better fuel economy the price evens out.

Actually even though many people will seen E10 as cheaper than diesel many are not aware (or don't care) that while a hike in petrol can be felt by the petrol consuming motorist a hike in the price of diesel is actually felt by everyone since all haulage in Australia and in the Americas is by trucks that normally have diesel engines. Even most fishing boats and smaller sea going craft use diesel mainly because it is economical and is a much safer fuel. As an example (don't do this at home) throw a lighted match into a can filled with petrol and you better have a decent fire extinguisher handy. Do the same with a can of diesel and it will most likely go out. Don't try this in an enclosed space since the resulting petrol fume explosion may be hazardous to your health.

It is possible and very economical to grow crops and even use animal fat for bio-diesel providing you have the land and Australia has the land which is not that much smaller tan the continental USA. However our government seems to prefer using ethanol in petrol possibly due to the lobbying of the sugar producers which I suppose could be likened to the corn lobbyists in the US.

I should point out that Australia has a fairly small population (approx 24 million) and a population density of approximately 3.2/square km compared to the USA which has a population density of 35/square km. It is even worse for smaller countries with larger population and even worse population density (see the following ).

The problem with growing crops for bio-fuel is that you need large areas of land and many countries with a large population density may should not attempt this or at least go for limited production. In the short term these countries may be ok but whether the long term growth and sustainability is feasible that remains to be seen.

It's all about corporate welfare.

I could not agree more.

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