Comment Re:IT locking down the PC... (Score 1) 523
Oops, logging in first would have been wise; I claim the above... karma punishment or reward as appropriate.
Clearly I 'don't know' very much myself!
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jak.
Comment Re:Unfortunately... (Score 1) 127
Mostly true, but digital devices almost certainly would not suffer inattentional blindness/deafness; so are more trustworthy when any chance of having an invisible gorilla moment is unacceptable.
Just my $0.02,
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D.
Comment Re:So...what's the next stage? (Score 1) 154
The conundrum:
Current government is incredibly totalitarian in its data retention and censorship policies, but is funding the rollout of a national fibre broadband network... making the task of achieving their former policies definately non trivial and probably impossible...
Other side is lead by a foaming at the mouth christian but we dont quite know where they sit on censorship and data retention (although we can perhaps add one and one there...), but they will cancel the funding of the national broadband network... making sure we get stuck wandering around with out pants around our ankles as the former state owned monopoly continue to monopolise telecommunications and, coincidentally, make sure it is slightly less impossible to implement a totalitarian information dictatorship.
The real question; is a giant cluster of fat glass pipes enough sugar to make me eat a guaranteed dose of big brother or risk a possible dose of bush scale christian extremism along with the bigbrotherness that accompanies it... or are there other issues to decide this election on (we haven't seen them roll out this terms big wedge issue yet, although there are a few hints).
Perhaps we could use a third party?? No, USA, we dont want to borrow Nader!
Damn democracy, pity all the alternatives are even crapper!
just my $0.02.
err!
jak.
Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times 106
Geoffrey.landis writes "Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star — a Street View star!"
Professor Says UFO Studies Should Be Taught At Universities 311
New York anthropology professor Philip Haseley wants young people to get the best education possible, and part of that education, he says, should be about UFOs. Haseley thinks universities should offer classes on UFOs and other unexplained phenomena from space. "[A sighting] happens to millions of people [around the world]. It's about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study. It's important that the whole subject be brought out in the open and investigated," he said. I want to believe the truth is out there in 500 words or less.
Comment Re:Bwahahaha! (Score 1) 409
Indeed... If a person placed a note under my door threatening my family in the middle of the night would be cause for concern regarding the behavior of deranged and possibly violent people who stalk my house. I just do not see what this has to do with gamers. I can't think of any way in which the alleged commission of any crime can be caused by your enjoying video games.
I mean, they arrested a shotgun wielding bandit in Adelaide recently and he had a drivers license and lived in a house... so are we to be scared of drivers and people who aren't homeless now because they will all shoot us in the face with a shotgun??? or should we perhaps reserve that particular fear for shotgun wielding bandits regardless of their hobbies?
It is a gross overstatement to tar all people who share a hobby with the acts of a single individual who claims to share that hobby but cannot prove it.
I could go on to discuss the base rate fallacy in this context but I feel my point is made.
err!
jak.
Comment Website idea is good... avoid endorsement by... (Score 1) 332
Simply listing ALL software that is used, the vendor and the cost. This is then not an endorsement, simply informing the public.
If it happens that alot of the software is open source and cheap, then that is just fact; not endorsement.
Just my $0.02
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jak.
Comment Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score 1) 323
yep. my main is 12", so >=10" does not a netbook make.
Spot on... if the form factor of the netbook is much larger than my moleskin then I cant carry them both in the same hand and will have to start encumbering myself with bags and crap. 9" is ideal, 10" is acceptable... 12" is approaching the size of my huge arse slate... just not readily portable unaided and regular notebooks already well serve this portion of the marketplace.
just my $0.02
err!
jak.
Comment Re:Its a population crunch (Score 1) 452
1) as people get wealthier they don't need as many children to "run the farm", so to speak. They in fact become an economic liability.
Actually, it is as excess agricultural production increases labour is freed up from the demands of subsistence and can now be deployed to other activities. This eventually leads to the creation of 'wealth' by trading that excess labour created by excess food. The rest, health care, sanitation etc; these are just engineering solutions to maximising the effectiveness of urbanisation.
Well, that is a gross simplification; still... economies have grown on this basis for at least 3,000 years.
The problem is we don't have another paradigm... and if climate change (man made or otherwise), population growth (well, this has to be man made) or some other factor starts to reduce the excess agricultural production; well, then, those of us who aren't farmers will no longer be able to get the food required to keep us off the farm and being useful in other areas...
Scary, neh?
Just my $0.02
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jak.
Comment Interesting! but... (Score 1) 452
...the map is not the landscape.
This is a compelling model in that it significantly differs from the form of modelling used in Macro economic forecasting, which makes it useful for debate.
This is still, however, a process model that grossly simplifies the system and is therefore subject to the same limitations as all models; that they are not reality. You can use them to determine relative weightings between different situations but cannot use them to predict the future.
I applaud the concept of introducing different modelling techniques into economic (indeed any) debate; but do not make the mistake of drawing long term conclusions from the results of any one technique, no matter how appealing.
The sad thing is that Academic publication is so insular that a paper such as this did not get play in economic journals... in the same way that an economists take on super symmetry would never get published in a physics journal. The mono-disciplinary goggles that most journals apply is the real danger to progress in almost every field of science. It is more important that we consider the merits of the views and arguments of those who disagree with us than wrap ourselves in a comforting blanket of people who agree with us completely, as they do not inform us.
Just my $0.02.
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jak.
Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Comment Delete the word 'software' from TFA title (Score 1) 260
and the sentiment is no less true.
My observation is that we shaven monkeys that make up the human race are fundamentally incapable of maintenance in any sense. Rather than maintain something in as-new functional condition (maintenance) so it does not fail, we choose to either fix it (fixenance) or replace it (buyenance) when it does.
A factory that makes plastic widgets is just as likely to make these same mistakes in relation to their machinery.
Just my $0.02
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jak.
Comment how MANY did pay?? (Score 1) 762
The key point missing here is how many actual transactions that 20% of non pirates represents. That such a large proportion pirated it is interesting, but is there any harm? is there sales diversion (I think we may safely assume that someone who is willing to circumvent a fee of $3; $2 now apparently; can never be considered a lost sale; granted there may be a small subset who live in a region it isnt offered for sale or do not have a means of payment acceptable to iTunes.)? or is this noise obscuring the real signal, did the effort of developing the app and submitting it to iTunes store pay off?
It might be that an 80% piracy rate is a broadly unavoidable part of the system; are the two even comparable sets of data or do 100% of people who have heard about it and are willing to pay for stuff buy it and 100% of idiots who have heard of it and like to fill their phone with a bazillion things for no useful reason pirate it. The real question should be does it impact profits and return on investment and are the costs of preventing it ever going to be recouped with additional sales?
Personally I am firmly in the category where I would shell out $3 on the strength of a few screenshots without a demo, it just isn't expensive enough to worry about for me. Hell, I shell out much more than that on steam pre-orders just on the strength of who is developing a game. The question remains is this level of piracy even causing a problem?
I am not going to attack the morals or ethics here, you make your choices and takes your chances; Personally I am of the view that piracy can not be justified; it is something you do as a child before you have finished learning right from wrong. You want to make a free software stand, then do not use commercial software. You want something, buy it, build it or trade for it; not willing to do that, live without it. Sure, current business models may be broken and I am sick of being treated like a fscking criminal by every game publisher who isn't stardock, but that doesnt change my view.
Just my $0.02
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jak.
Comment Tim Flannery and Dr. KArl (Score 3, Informative) 799
Dr. Tim Flannery is someone whose work I have introduced all of my young relatives too. He may not be as well recognised outside of Australian and I can honestly say I don't always share his viewpoint; but he conveys the points well and with great passion.
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki has been doing a scientifically credible, entertaining and honest version of what the mythbuster's do on radio in Australia for donkeys years and is pure gold when it comes to making science fun and accessible.
err!
Jak.
