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Comment Maybe it's a lack of creativity (Score 1) 1029

Slate magazine just ran a story about how most, if not all, Hollywood blockbusters are starting to follow a single format/structure:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/hollywood_and_blake_snyder_s_screenwriting_book_save_the_cat.single.html/

note - if you click the link at the end of the article you'll also see how the article is written in the same format! - how consistent!

Comment Why now? --- SHEILD! (Score 1) 78

by AKabral (#43731307) Attached to: Google Play Games Leaks Ahead of I/O
this update probably has a some relationship to Nvidia's handheld device Shield being able to play android games, especially because some of these features can be found on Steam and probably nvidia's own tegrazone. The question may then become is the 'syncing' among android apps and/or across these other platforms...

Submission + - Kenneth Appel Remembered For Four Color Theorem (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Kenneth Appel (1932-2013) together with Wolfgang Haken, proved the four color theorem and broke new ground in using a computer to complete the proof. For the first time a computer played a major role in proving a major mathematical theorem.This was not a proof that was liked by all mathematicians. The use of the computer resulted in a proof that could not be checked by an unaided human. It was a huge shock for many mathematicians at the time to have to move over and allow a computer to take part in mathematics. There was a feeling at the time, and perhaps there still is, that the proof was a temporary matter and soon a real mathematician would step up and provide a "real" proof. Even today many mathematicians have their reservations about the proof and there have been attempts to simplify it, but so far they all involve computers. Mathematicians are still searching for something that would look more like an elementary proof.
Appel and Haken's proof may be the most controversial in mathematics but it also put the computer into pure mathematics.
Kenneth Appel died on April 19, 2013 at the age of 80.

Submission + - Writer extols crowd sourced crime solving...while ignoring it's failure (cnn.com)

Submitted by dywolf
dywolf writes: Gary C. Kessler, a contributor to CNN Opinion, has written a piece in which he extols the virtues of crowdsourcing, and how it helped capture the Bostom bombers....except for that part where crowdsourcing failed to indentity the real suspects, and actually led to some false accusations. He then goes on to talk about the privacy issues involved in constant public surveillance. From the article: "The Boston Marathon bombing investigation made use of crowdsourcing to collect photos and video from cell phones and surveillance cameras at an unprecedented level. These pictures were made public a little more than 72 hours after the explosions and the second suspect was arrested 29 hours later.
[...]
The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly offer citizens a right of privacy, although many court decisions certainly support such an ideal. Indeed, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis is well known for his observation, 'The right to be left alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by a free people.'"

Submission + - Popular smartphone and free app used to get data from chip-enabled credit cards. (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CBC is reporting: Using a Samsung Galaxy SIII — one of the most popular smartphones available in Canada — and a free app downloaded from the Google Play store, CBC was able to read information such as a card number, expiry date and cardholder name simply holding the smartphone over a debit or credit card. And it could be done through wallets, pockets and purses.

Submission + - Smart Grid Power Analysis?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: BGE, my electric company has been rolling out their new smart grid meters for the past year and are providing some very interesting graphs on their site. Unfortunately, the graphs are very basic and don't allow for trend analysis. I'm looking for a tool or tools that could take the exported data (XML or CSV) and then allow for a more detailed analysis. There has to be a company or a developer who's built something to take data from other smart grid enabled power providers...

Submission + - The Dark Side of Antioxidants

Submitted by Kas Thomas
Kas Thomas writes: In a controversial blog at Big Think, we learn that over the years, thousands of people have died in vitamin trials designed to prevent cancer. One meta-analysis looked at 47 studies (covering the 1977 to 2006 time frame) and found that 15,366 study subjects (out of a total treatment population of 99,095 persons) died while taking vitamins E and/or A (and/or selenium), whereas 9,131 placebo-takers, in control groups totalling 81,843 persons, died in those same studies. The key finding is that if you're already healthy, these vitamins may make you more so, but if your body is harboring precancerous cells, the vitamins, by inhibiting normal apoptosis, actually spare the cancer cells and let them live when they shouldn't. More than one meta-study has confirmed the effect. Antioxidant vitamins are a double-edged sword; and one of the edges is very sharp.

Comment America's Test Kitchen - works as designed (Score 1) 204

by AKabral (#43248297) Attached to: An Instructo-Geek Reviews The 4-Hour Chef

That's why people should get on the America's Test Kitchen bandwagon. The recipes they put into their books and on their Public Television show (of the same name) are tested in their kitchen sometimes 20-60 times for the most "bulletproof" version. Check out this article for more about the magazine/movement.

I bought two of their books and record their show. Every recipe I've tried I've messed up a little bit and the dish still came out with rave reviews from myself, wife and party guests.

Comment Re:What a difference a few days makes (Score 1) 241

by AKabral (#41289241) Attached to: 90 Percent of Eligible Kansas City Neighborhoods Sign Up For Google Fiber
1. yeah, because having an internet connection is obviously a signal that one's household is an indicator of the people in that household either being productive or being on the brink of becoming productive... So now that these poor black folk have an internet connection they are going to become 'bankable (get bank accounts), good jobs and better education(al opportunities). I find it relatively stupid that people think signing up for broadband is supposed to bridge some 'digital divide'. Why don't we start focusing on the 'paycheck divide' which is probably a much more reliable indicator of opportunity being converted into economic reality... So let's applaud google's "get out the broadband effort" and forget about how Lilliputian of a distance that step gets one across the 'digital divide'... 2. I was just about to post the same article.

Comment Re:Okay, Okay It Was Me (Score 5, Insightful) 185

by AKabral (#40183851) Attached to: War and Nookd — eBook Regex Gone Haywire
Accidentally replacing nookd with kindled (or verse visa) is hilarious.

But...

When you intentionally mar a national treasure due to current political correctness:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/06/1555251/the-continued-censorship-of-huckleberry-finn/ - where they searched and replaced "ni99a" with "slave" from Huckleberry Finn...

Well that's just arrogant (demonstrates a belief in the superiority of current social mores over historical realities) spineless (so our genteel sexting children don't have to face the fact that some Americans enslaved and legislated the inferiority of a whole race) and impoverishing (robs people of the opportunity for a real authentic discussion of the troubled history of race in this country).

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