Comment Re:Time to appeal (Score 2) 511
It has been "leaked" several years earlier, by Russ Tice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6m1XbWOfVk
Comment Re:Subject (Score 4, Informative) 262
Which is all nice and good except this implies your data structure was mostly pointers to begin with
And that's exactly the case of scripting languages, where every structure (say, a Python object) is a collection of pointers to methods and data.
Comment Re:Dates (Score 1) 34
I feel a disturbance in the Force, like if a thousand hypocrites screamed their lies with the full force of their lungs... Oh, wait! It's just old cold fjord. Nevermind!
Justine Sacco, Internet Justice, and the Dangers of a Righteous Mob 399
An anonymous reader writes "So what exactly was the injustice that everyone was fighting against here? There were no pro-Sacco factions, nobody thought her comment was funny, and it became clear early on that her employers were not going to put up with this. It was quite easy for groups to unite against her precisely because it was such an obviously idiotic comment to make. By the time Valleywag had posted her tweet, the damage to her career was already done; there wasn't any 'need' for further action by anyone. The answer is a bit darker – this wasn't really about fairness, it was about entertainment."
Comment Re:On a less humorous note (Score 1) 283
Things that'd be considered weaknesses or defects in other weapons systems are some of the very things that are considered strengths in the Kalashnikov rifles.
Can you explain what you mean by that?
Comment Re:Classic... (Score 5, Interesting) 85
I just want to point out one counterexample: Blender. The work done in the 2.5 version was huge, but it allowed lots of improvements later. Totally worth it.
Comment Re:American Revolution 2? (Score 3, Insightful) 183
Except, duh, it was your vaunted military
Not mine, I'm not American.
which was fought to a sandstill and is running out with its tail between its legs, having failed abjectly.
Failed? That's a matter of perspective. Dick Cheney and Halliburton would certainly disagree with you. Oh wait, did you think the war was about weapons of mass destruction, and bringing democracy to the region? Yeah, sure...
Comment Re:illegal (Score 2) 183
[...] copyright because they don't have it. That doesn't prevent them from making an exclusive-licensing deal [...]
See that beautiful house with the huge garden? It is not mine! But I'm going to rent it anyway, for your exclusive use.
Comment Re:American Revolution 2? (Score 2) 183
You're really naive if you think you stand a change in a fight with the military that consumes most money in the world (almost 700 billion dollars annually, compare that the second place, China, around 200 billion).
And even if you could, violence is not the best way. This is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Take money out of politics: http://www.wolf-pac.com/
Comment illegal (Score 2) 183
Considering that all output from the US government is, by law, ineligible for copyright, this deal is illegal.
FTFY.
Comment Re:An opthalmologist's view (Score 1) 41
There is a difference between giving vision to someone who never had it and changing the input to a functioning visual cortex.
Yep, so far you can't give vision to someone who never had it, due to how the brain develops.
There was some guy who did an experiment where he made "inverting glasses" that turned his visual field upside-down and it only took him a few days to get used to it. So I expect that this technique could be used effectively for folks who have damaged retinas
Nopz, that experiment does not deal with the first levels of processing... locally (i.e. in the neighborhood of a photoreceptor) the signal has the same properties as before.
But I know another experiment that is closer to what you had in mind: a geneticist developed a viral therapy to introduce the genes that express the rhodopsin variant that enables UV-vision. After applying to monkeys, they indeed adapted and were able to distinguish UV radiant surfaces. But again I would argue that this didn't create a new signal, just changed the previous one (all the "wiring" that responded to red or green color) to respond to UV.
Comment Re:An opthalmologist's view (Score 3, Interesting) 41
Even if it gets wired somehow, the visual cortex would has to adapt to the new signal... something that doesn't normally happen in adults. Oliver Sacks wrote about one patient that had some visual impairment fixed (cataract, IIRC) after being effectively blind for 40 years. After the surgery he was overwhelmed by the unexpected (to the brain) flow of visual information, which he couldn't make sense of, and regretted the decision to have his eyes fixed.
Comment Re:Oh NSA (Score 1) 504
Had he done that he could be protesting, engaging in the political process
...and changing absolutely nothing, while the world would continue to know nothing about the crimes he tried to bring to justice.
and working through the media to express his views.
That's exactly what he did, after the "legitimate" methods didn't work. Too bad he wasn't careful enough to protect his identity.
Comment Re:Oh NSA (Score 3, Insightful) 504
And approaching supervisors worked pretty well for Manning... [/sarcasm]
Comment kernel (Score 2) 208
I heard they have tons of kernel patches as well, so soon they'll start a new in-house project, called Hurd!
(Still) Ubuntu user here, but couldn't resist.
