Comment "they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at (Score 1) 278
NO REALLY?
Comment Of all the things to fix... (Score 1) 230
I'd have thought the horrible global function namespace would have been a top priority.
Seriously, what is this, C?
Comment Evolution Surprisingly Still Works (Score 1) 259
More on this unexpected development later.
Comment Re:How? (Score 1) 320
cooperation of the target country
Sure, countries LOVE getting spied on.
Comment Awesome (Score 1) 10
The prison system is completely failing at rehabilitation, and instead solely providing some measure of containment thanks to an unhealthy obsession with punishment that turns prisoners into life-long criminals.
What do they come up with? Take away the containment aspect completely, and instead turn up the dial on "punishment" to the point where every prisoner instantly goes insane.
Comment Woah!! (Score 1) 138
... aw, still not a planet.
Comment Hmmm... let me think. (Score 1) 183
Is it safe to electrocute your own brain?
This is going to be a bit of a puzzler.
Comment ... but IS IT STILL A PLANET? (Score 1) 58
That's the important question.
We don't want a repeat of the Pluto incident. The solar system is already 11% gone, who knows how much we'll lose.
Comment everybody going to one site is just weird (Score 1) 260
I know, right? I just went to Google to find another example, but nothing came up.
Comment "nanoparticles of vanadium dioxide" (Score 1) 35
You mean nanoparticles of a substance called "vanadium dioxide" , don't you?
Comment Put Nate Silver on this (Score 1) 64
"Flu virus predicted to take US congress in 2014 with 96.34% certainty."
Comment Re:More questions (Score 5, Funny) 129
Comment Re:importance of being popular (Score 4, Funny) 129
Exactly, he's just trading on his name. He would never have gained that many readers if he hadn't already been famous for... er... I'll get back to you.
Google Flu Trends Gets It Wrong Three Years Running 64
wabrandsma writes with this story from NewScientist: "Google may be a master at data wrangling, but one of its products has been making bogus data-driven predictions. A study of Google's much-hyped flu tracker has consistently overestimated flu cases in the US for years. It's a failure that highlights the danger of relying on big data technologies.
Evan Selinger, a technology ethicist at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, says Google Flu's failures hint at a larger problem with the algorithmic approach taken by technology companies to deliver services we all want to use. The problem is with the assumption that either the data that is gathered about us, or the algorithms used to process it, are neutral. Google Flu Trends has been discussed at slashdot before: When Google Got Flu Wrong."
Evan Selinger, a technology ethicist at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, says Google Flu's failures hint at a larger problem with the algorithmic approach taken by technology companies to deliver services we all want to use. The problem is with the assumption that either the data that is gathered about us, or the algorithms used to process it, are neutral. Google Flu Trends has been discussed at slashdot before: When Google Got Flu Wrong."
Comment Looking up what "hacker" means (Score 1) 479
Might be a good first step to become qualified to write about technology.
That kind of competence is what is supposed to distinguish an op-ed writer from an amateur blogger.
