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Comment Re:it's true (Score 3, Insightful) 253

I also agree TBBT has blackface or 'coon show' qualities.

And it seems like the more scientific / theoretical the character's field is, the more antisocial they are. The closer they are to engineering, the more socially redeeming qualities and access to romantic partners they have. I mean, they made Sheldon downright asexual.

The show is an exercise in anti-intellectualism, and there are no countervailing examples in TV fiction AFAIK. (And, no, I would not consider the scientists who make the heros strong and weapon-encrusted as intellectual even though there are scads of Bond/Q characters.)
The Internet

How the FCC Plans To Save the Internet By Destroying It 217

Posted by Soulskill from the just-don't-trip-over-the-power-cord-and-we'll-be-happy dept.
New submitter dislikes_corruption writes: "Stopping the recently announced plan by the FCC to end net neutrality is going to require a significant outcry by the public at large, a public that isn't particularly well versed on the issue or why they should care. Ryan Singel, a former editor at Wired, has written a thorough and easy to understand primer on the FCC's plan, the history behind it, and how it will impact the Internet should it come to pass. It's suitable for your neophyte parent, spouse, or sibling. In the meantime, the FCC has opened a new inbox (openinternet@fcc.gov) for public comments on the decision, there's a petition to sign at whitehouse.gov, and you can (and should) contact your congressmen."

Comment Re:No. (Score 1) 452

by Burz (#46730325) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Start With Linux In the Workplace?

Its very typical in FOSS to think UI design goes no further than the 'doorknob' level. That's a big part of the problem right there. Y'all don't get it.

I do 'like' KDE. But as a SuSE and Xandros veteran, I can say that the more finely you tune the surface looks to Windows, the more the user will later feel dismay when they should have their curiosity piqued instead. The default KDE look isn't too bad in that regard.

The irony here is that KDE also lets you get closer to OS X look and behavior than Gnome will. Unity, however, comes pretty close in its default config.

What makes Unity a better OSX than heavily tweaked KDE is at being Windows-like is that Canonical actually does pay close attention to how well these cutesy graphical details line up with the vertical integrations they provide (and with each other). Xandros (around versions 3/4) could probably lay claim to an equivalent level of excellence, except that was achieved with a bunch of proprietary components.

Comment Unity is actually very nice. Its Dash that sucks. (Score 1) 53

by Burz (#46700099) Attached to: A Conversation with Ubuntu's Jono Bacon (Video)

Removing Dash/shopping and adding Classicmenu makes for a system that's easy to navigate.

Having people text-search for everything all at once--when all they want is that banking or other occasional tool they run occasionally (what's the name?)--and getting tons of cruft in the results just isn't working.

Comment This is risible! (Score 2) 312

by Burz (#46681113) Attached to: Why No Executive Order To Stop NSA Metadata Collection?

Sites like Salon and The Guardian broke the Snowden story, and they keep running with it. There is a very long list of left-leaning sites that keep the issue highly visible, including HuffPo, DKos, Raw Story, TruthOut, DemocracyNow! and I dare even list Ars Technica in that group. Yes, there are Obama-worshippers who try to paint anti-NSA info and sentiment as fifth-column betrayal, but overall if you sample the comments in places like DKos and DU, you'll see some skirmishes over the issue of party loyalty (and accusations of racism) with the anti-NSA crowd handily coming out on top.

As for the lack of protest, lets just say the story was still developing in the fall and its been one heck of a winter.
Android

Illustrating the Socioeconomic Divide With iOS and Android 161

Posted by Soulskill from the your-phone-is-your-class-marker dept.
An anonymous reader writes: "Android has a huge market share advantage over iOS these days, but it hasn't had as much success at following the money. iOS continues to win over many app developers and businesses who want to maximize their earnings. Now, an article at Slate goes over some of the statistics demonstrating this trend. A map of geo-located Tweets show that in Manhattan, a generally affluent area, most of the Tweets come from iPhones. Meanwhile, in nearby Newark, which is a poorer area, most Tweets come from Android devices. In other tests, traffic data shows 87% of visits to e-commerce websites from tablets come from iPads, and the average value of an order from an iPad is $155, compared to $110 from Android tablets. (Android fairs a bit better on phones). Android shows a huge market share advantage in poorer countries, as well. Not all devs and business are just chasing the money, though. Twitter developer Cennydd Bowles said, 'I do hope, given tech's rhetoric about changing the world and disrupting outdated hierarchies, that we don't really think only those with revenue potential are worth our attention. A designer has a duty to be empathetic; to understand and embrace people not like him/herself. A group owning different devices to the design elite is not a valid reason to neglect their needs.'"
Space

How Many People Does It Take To Colonize Another Star System? 392

Posted by Soulskill from the i'll-volunteer-everyone-in-california dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "The nearest star systems — such as our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light-years from home — are so far away, reaching them would require a generational starship. Entire generations of people would be born, live, and die before the ship reached its destination. This brings up the question of how many people you need to send on a hypothetical interstellar mission to sustain sufficient genetic diversity. Anthropologist Cameron Smith has calculated how many people would be required to maintain genetic diversity and secure the success of the endeavor. William Gardner-O'Kearney helped Smith build the MATLAB simulations to calculate how many different scenarios would play out during interstellar travel and ran some simulations specially to show why the success of an interstellar mission depends crucially on the starting population size. Gardner-O'Kearny calculated each population's possible trajectory over 300 years, or 30 generations. Because there are a lot of random variables to consider, he calculated the trajectory of each population 10 times, then averaged the results.

A population of 150 people, proposed by John Moore in 2002, is not nearly high enough to maintain genetic variation. Over many generations, inbreeding leads to the loss of more than 80 percent of the original diversity found within the hypothetical gene. A population of 500 people would not be sufficient either, Smith says. "Five hundred people picked at random today from the human population would not probably represent all of human genetic diversity . . . If you're going to seed a planet for its entire future, you want to have as much genetic diversity as possible, because that diversity is your insurance policy for adaptation to new conditions." A starting population of 40,000 people maintains 100 percent of its variation, while the 10,000-person scenario stays relatively stable too. So, Smith concludes that a number between 10,000 and 40,000 is a pretty safe bet when it comes to preserving genetic variation. Luckily, tens of thousands of pioneers wouldn't have to be housed all in one starship. Spreading people out among multiple ships also spreads out the risk. Modular ships could dock together for trade and social gatherings, but travel separately so that disaster for one wouldn't spell disaster for all. 'With 10,000,' Smith says, 'you can set off with good amount of human genetic diversity, survive even a bad disease sweep, and arrive in numbers, perhaps, and diversity sufficient to make a good go at Humanity 2.0.'"

Comment Is all the firmware open? (Score 1) 88

by Burz (#46646583) Attached to: Bunnie Huang's Novena Open Source Laptop Launches Via Crowd Supply

I have toyed with the idea of installing CoreBoot on my Thinkpad as a way to enhance security. The Noveena doesn't appear to have a BIOS, however, and there is little mention about firmware in their pitch... I'm more concerned about this than who designed the motherboard traces.

I'm not much of a hacker, but I do love the overall concept here. Hopefully they will divulge more details as the time progresses.
Communications

WSJ: Prepare To Hang Up the Phone — Forever 449

Posted by Soulskill from the rotary-phones-won't-breed-in-captivity dept.
retroworks writes: "Telecom giants AT&T and Verizon Communications are lobbying states, one by one, to hang up the plain, old telephone system, what the industry now calls POTS — the copper-wired landline phone system whose reliability and reach made the U.S. a communications powerhouse for more than 100 years. Is landline obsolete, and should be immune from grandparents-era social protection? The article continues, 'Last week, Michigan joined more than 30 other states that have passed or are considering laws that restrict state-government oversight and eliminate "carrier of last resort" mandates, effectively ending the universal-service guarantee that gives every U.S. resident access to local-exchange wireline telephone service, the POTS. (There are no federal regulations guaranteeing Internet access.) ... In Mantoloking, N.J., Verizon wants to replace the landline system, which Hurricane Sandy wiped out, with its wireless Voice Link. That would make it the first entire town to go landline-less, a move that isn't sitting well with all residents."

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