I think Amarok has a fantastic user interface and helps me manage my files well. My only complaint is that it crashes about 50% of the time if I ask it to actually play music. Apart from that its great.

Strangely, the interface that Apple designed for Windows-based systems is orders of magnitude stupider than the one they designed for MacOS. Its almost like they didn't like Microsoft or something. I'm sure its a coincidence.

Of course their interface for Linux is "use our crappy window manager or die", so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Alt Headline: Pedophiles Fail Turing Test.

That was the quote that grabbed my eye too. And while I agree with your interpretation, I can't help but also note that this is scientiffic evidence that achievement in our education system is not highly correlated with understanding of the subject materials...

...because he is as dumb as a box of hammers.

What? We didn't say we'd tell you _how_ he was wrong, just _why_.

Truth (but alas, no mod points.) Though the close correspondence between the two in the research would seem to initially imply that there are a minimal number of confounding factors. If you tell me there is a statistically significant link between scores on test A and trait B, the simplest conclusion is that test A tests for trait B. Doesn't make it true; just the simplest answer. Any longer train of logic requires more assumptions and/or discrepancies to explain away. Case in point; if we assume IQ tests measure pattern matching and noise filtering and X, then we have to explain why we don't (if we don't) have a bunch of people who are lousy at pattern matching, but score high on IQ tests anyways (because they're good at X). There are lots of perfectly sensible answers for that, but we'd better go find one.

Of course, if we _do_ have a bunch of people like that that need explaining, then its good evidence for the existence of one or more X's...

That's a high 6 3/8ths, Imperial.

The goal of a user interface is to make it easy for a user to do _what they want_. If the thing you made it easy to do is what they wanted done, then it isn't possible for it to be too good. If you made it easy for them to do something they didn't want done by mistake, then its not "too good", its not good enough.

'The relationship between IQ and motion suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence'

Or, IQ tests don't test anything but pattern matching / the ability to filter noise in the first place.

UUnfortunately the site was crashed 20 minutes later by illiterate 16-year-olds shouting "For the Emperor!"... and then served by lawyers from GW 20 minutes after that.

Nah; smart people are generally mad.

(The voices in my head told me so.)

So depressed people with god feel better when they talk to someone who isn't a priest for a change.

And that's just when they have a nice chat with someone with a degree in pseudo-scientiffic mumbo-jumbo - imagine how much better they'd feel if they talked to a real scientist!

We're on a mission from God.

Thats a joke, right? Disney has been the go-to standard for megacorp entertainment since before my father was born. And I'm _old_. They're famous for animation sweatshops, bombproof contracts to retain control and leave the artists with nothing, draconian limits on the rights of their employees, and building enormous theme parks to sell toys of characters from 20-minute shorts. Heck, Disney lobbyists almost single-handedly rewrote American copyright law to keep their iron grip on Bigears McMoneymill.

They're just doing their jobs - making money for their shareholders - so I don't actually blame them for any of it... but I sure as heck wouldn't hold them up as an example of a "smallish moderate corporation" that was in any way acting differently if they tried to "cash in" on Star Wars.

Its not that terrible of a timeline... if you've already got a good story to tell.

I'm a bit concerned by the fact that the first thing I've heard about the movies is their release schedule. Probably they're just keeping things mostly under their hats for the moment, but it still reeks a bit of a mismatch of priorities. Like the freshman in college who proudly states they want to get married before they're 25... and doesn't have a girl/boyfriend.