The NCAA just went away from an algorithm and to a human selection system that will determine the entrants of a two game playoff to determine the champion.

Some of the comments have been about how the BCS (the algo) didn't factor in if the field was muddy, if a player was injured (some do), experience and maturity of players, and could not determine when margin of victory mattered. Humans, however, have no issue being able to dynamically add a factor to the algorithm. Humans can easily tweak how much weight you give to various factors. Humans also have bias.

I guess my point is this stuff gets pretty complicated, especially when it involves humans and our inconsistent, illogical emotions, feelings and actions. If it was easy nerds would have figured out the perfect horse-betting-algo and woman-getting-algo.

Mod up parent. That is a beautiful way of explaining the current "gamer" profile. +1 if I had it.

I once worked with a Brit that used an electric kettle here at work all the time. I can't say I remember anything specific about the kettle, other than him not understanding why we all don't have one (and why we don't drink tea). He also quite often talked about the 240V electricity. I am sure the two topics intersected at some point.

In reality 20 amp is common and 30 amp is certainly not unheard of here in the US. I have a dedicated 20 amp circuit running to my kitchen island (at 125V), so it could pull 2400 watts.

Yeah, but isn't it pretty creepy that it could be relatively soon when your nosy neighbor (and by that I mean anyone that knows your address) will be able to stalk you from their basement? In 75 years we have gone from the first satellite images to them being commercially available and nearly real time (at least daily). In another 75 years, it seems plausible that there will be near real time video of most of the populated world. It's going to happen for military purposes, so we might as well accept it into society. That's a bit unsettling. Nearly everyone is pissing off somebody at any given time. We're all gonna have to chill out a bit.

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You are very correct. Look at personality types to confirm this. How many people want to open a business? How many just want a steady job? How many people are more than willing to follow along after a strong personality?

The fact is that humans are born to seek safety. In fact all living beings are programmed that way. And if you think following another, or following the majority is the safest route, there is a good chance that's whats going to happen.

Maybe? I don't think there is any chance the government could hide something like Area 51 in 2014. Watergate would have been revealed as quickly as Bridgegate. Secretes that would have previously taken decades to get out now take hours, days and weeks. Secrets that could have been squelched just a decade ago are now easily retrievable from computer storage and backups and surveillance and the ease of communicating not just messages, but evidence such as video, audio and pictures.

Without a doubt, the governments of the past were able to keep more secrets. This is why the Arab Spring happened. Information is easily transferred and stored thanks to technology that has become mainstream in the past 5 - 10 - 15 years.

I see your point that FOIA was designed for specific requests. But in this case the question is if he ever reported this to superiors. It could have been in person, but he probably would have covered himself and sent it in email. The only way to see if he ever sent emails reporting the issues is to see all emails. That request would mean a full release of his emails.

Of course, the reality is that this would have been one or two carefully crated emails. Taking 2-4 emails out of an archive with a daily average of 50 for a tech worker (pulled out my ass), would be unnoticeable. So the whole thing is pointless unless Snowden himself can show undeniable proof of these emails, and for bonus points a response.

Yeah, I think that helps. Thanks. I will be printing a few.

At this point, there are numerous things happening such as laws, inquiries, public debate, and policy changes that are all due to Snowden's release of information. I feel that he has brought to the forefront an important issue and revealed things that the public needed to know. I can understand to some degree that people don't like how he did it, but given the machine that is the government, I don't doubt that this was the only way to bring about such changes (or at least debate and knowledge).

After a bit of a cool down period, I don't hear nearly as much hate for Snowden. Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats and all other flavors should want a more open government. The government does also need to keep some things secret. This gives them a reason, the means, and a public grant of power to keep things from public knowledge. Some times the only way to circumvent that power is through a leak/whistle blower.

As far as this story, the public needs to pressure the government to keep no more secrets about Snowden. The cover of endangering certain sources or resources is no longer being accepted as we have seen little damage and much good from the release. It's time the US Government come clean and it's time we tell them that we demand it.

Looks like ".Snowden" at first glance. Reduce the space between the i and the dot.

Well does light ALWAYS travel in this manner over long distances? If so, then we do need to adjust it. Otherwise it sounds like car manufacturers that measure MPG in perfect conditions in a wind tunnel and ignores the realities of wind resistance in the real world while the gas pump cares not what the window said when you bought it.

This is about whether AP Stats classes in high school might get more girls interested in, and headed down the path of CS. Not about Stats being the be-all, end-all of CS education.

BTW, how do you determine if your algorithm is performing more or less efficient if not through the use of statistics?

What you describe is a Program/Project Manager. But the same principles apply to a Business Analyst. In fact in my time in IT I have found that I end up doing more Business Analyst work because I understand the business, know SQL and programming so I can get the data I need, and I can process the data into something employees and managers can make decisions on. Often this is presented either as a web page or in Excel depending on needs.

I think the most important skills for my success in both IT and business roles has been my understanding of data, data sets, basic statistics, and SQL. If there is one language/skill that will make you a valuable employee to any business/department/project... I think it is the ability to query data with SQL. But to do that you need to understand the underlying details of how data is stored and retrieved. That requires database, SQL, software-specific and business-specific knowledge.

See, you can't outsource the last two of those requirements as they are not generic skills (and sometimes very hard to obtain depending on the software and business). If you know data, databases, and SQL; know a specific industry such as marketing or manufacturing; and can quickly learn the specifics of new software systems, you are nearly guaranteed employment.

So what should we be teaching... I think it's all about CRUA. Create, Retrieve, Update, Analyze data. Hard drives are cheap.. don't worry about delete.

I have personally witnessed "content creation" once on an iPad. Just once, so far in their existance.

And you know what... the "sales engineer" looked like a complete retard typing on the thing. Couldn't believe he worked in a development shop because it was like watching a car mechanic type up your invoice details after some repairs; painful. I really wanted to hand him my laptop and ask him to switch to it.

There may be some content being created on tablets, but by and far, it is used for consumption. We have a long way to go before there is going to be vast content created from a tablet (note that a tablet with a kickstand and keyboard don't count). So chastising isn't in order.