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Comment Re:Happens all the time in California... (Score 2) 124

and some other tiny details, such as not having a handicapped shower open to the public

What kind of business is required to have showers?

...then got stung again a year later because even though he had plenty of handicapped parking... and he only had one handicapped spot...

You have an odd definition of "plenty".

He closed up shop, and now has an antique shop in rural Texas, and making far better cash there.

If his problem in CA was with the federal ADA, that law doesn't change in TX. (The various fringe theories of some Texans notwithstanding.)

Comment Re:All about tha Benjamins (Score 5, Insightful) 143

General skills, aka the ability to succeed in society without reverting to drug abuse, are considered when a company is hiring.

Chemcial tests can't tell whether a person is absuing drugs, only if they are using them. (It is a prohibitionist fiction that the use of certain drugs is inherently abuse.)

If the only way you can tell whether someone is using drugs is through chemical tests, ipso facto it is not affecting their performance on the job.

Comment Re:Big Data != toolset (Score 1) 100

Both Pointy Headed Bosses and Slashdot loooove talking about tools. As the posts generally show, both PHBs and Slashdoters have no clue about what Big Data is used for. It's all about the buzzwords and technology, not about use and utility. There are no references to any algorithms.

Heh. I've been doing big data since 2000. Fifteen years experience in a field that's five years old, I like to say. And let me say this: You nailed it. Your whole post, not just the part I quoted. I've used the tools, from Colt to R, and there is no substitute for the ability to analyze and match a business model, data system, algorithms, implementation, and business controls.

On the upside, give me (or, I'm guessing, you) a month or two to develop a big data strategy, and we'll generate large, measurable, improvement in the company's desired performance metric -- using whatever toolset the company is fawning over at the moment. It may not be what sells the PHBs, but it feeds the bulldog.

It is a shame, though, to see so many charlatans diverting so much revenue into ill-conceived projects. Alas.

Comment Re:More Bullshit (Score 1) 167

I guess they better crack down on paying anyone with beer/food as well.

If it really is pay - or in legal terms, "consideration" - then it is covered by this law exactly the same as money. What you do with your friends is neither pay nor consideration. You give them beer and sandwiches when they help you out for free.

If you claim you don't get the distinction, I believe you are being intentionally obtuse. A judge or magistrate would not be so.

Comment Re:Tiversa breached systems? (Score 4, Insightful) 65

LabMD may still have had a security problem worthy of investigation. But Tiversa's behavior is the subject of this criminal investigation. If Tiversa only blew the whistle on LabMD after they declined to purchase Tiversa's services, they are arguably engaged in racketeering, and should be prosecuted.

Comment Black Pipe Shotgun Videos? (Score 1) 312

After they outlaw disseminating the information on how to make an impractical, barely lethal 3D printed gun, are they going to try to stop videos about how to make highly lethal, highly effective, plumbing parts shotguns?

https://www.youtube.com/result...

Hammering plowshares into swords is almost as old as opposable thumbs.

Comment Lead Acid (Score 4, Interesting) 317

Lead acid batteries are still about half the price per kWh (look near the bottom, at the 48v x 400Ah bank), and come with the same 10 year warranty. Cars care about weight, houses don't.

The new thing here isn't battery storage of solar power, it's lithium-ion batteries instead of lead acid. The price performance for lithium-ion can't compete with lead acid yet, when weight isn't a factor.

Comment Re:The problem isn't the FBI ... (Score 5, Interesting) 174

Whistleblowers have been coming forward, the people have been loudly criticizing it, we elected the Presidential candidate who was most opposed to it in both of the last two elections (the second guy was distinctly more of a "lesser of two evils" than the first), and we've been taking them to court.

So, to recap, that's soap box, ballot box, and jury box that we've been using. To claim that we're letting them get away with it is to betray your ignorance of the facts. Short of revolution, we have done everything we can. This is the oligarchy ignoring the law and the will of the people.

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