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Comment Re:100 GBit isn't large (Score 1) 93

10 Mb/s upstream is not that unusual these days. And many botnets are way bigger than 10000 bots. Even if each bot has just 2 Mb/s upstream, you only need 50000 Bots. And botnets are not limited to infecting computers on home user connections. Infecting 100 servers on 1 Gbit/s connections is also enough.

Comment HEVC/H.265 BSD-licensed reference implementation (Score 1) 141

A BSD-licensed C++ reference implementation of both HEVC/H.265 encoding and decoding is available. This implementation is focused on research and features and not on speed. Especially the encoder is very slow, a few frames per minute is completely normal, even on good machines.
But many people have optimized the reference implementation by adding SIMD and parallelizing the decoder and have reached 4K real time decoding and >100fps for 1080p decoding, even on low end machines.
A C-based reimplementation is not really needed to get good speed, nor it is needed to have a open source implementation and they are not even saying anything about the speed of their decoder.

Comment Re:This woman is an idiot.... (Score 2) 1255

Uh, the article you are linking says Finland has a small number of private schools. And they are completely funded by the state. Finland is not forcing anyone into public school, instead their public schools are so good, that almost nobody wants to go to a private school, even when private schools are free.

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score 1) 535

As already said, for an example see Zen Buddhism, also see the theory of political religions. Some definitions of religion require a god, many definitions of religions do not require God or anything supernatural, e.g.:

Clifford Geertz: "Religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, persuasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in [people] by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."

Soviet Communism is clearly a religion under such a definition. It had all: a system of symbols, powerful motivations, a big theory about the general order of existence and last but not least it also did (4). The predictions done by the communist ideology were treated as completely proven facts.

Comment Re:Confusing religion with culture (Score 2) 535

There are many definitions of religion that do not involve supernatural beliefs, e.g.:

Clifford Geertz: "Religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, persuasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in [people] by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."

Schmidt, et al.: "Religions, then, are systems of meaning embodied in a pattern of life, a community of faith, and a worldview that articulate a view of the sacred and of what ultimately matters."

J. Miltion Yinger: "Religion is a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggle with the ultimate problem of human life."

Durkheim: "A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score 1) 535

Communism, as a philosophy, and what has actually been implemented in the real world, are very different things.

That is often claimed, but I'm not sure if that is really true. I do not think it is just a matter of bad luck that all real world attempts to implement communism ended in a horrible mess. Stuff like "Dictatorship of the proletariat" or "Class warfare" is right from Marx.

Communism does not ban the worship of God, god(s) or goddess(es), and the only place of proof is the communist manifesto, and I would have to cite the entire book to show it's not in there.

Communism as a philosophy contains far more than just the communist manifesto. All the other works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, Stalin, Trotsky, ....
You do not need to agree with them, but these works are still part of the philosophy of communism. There is not a single true version of Communism, but many different versions with different teachings and some of them are religions. What you are trying to do here, is the Communist version of the "True Christian" defense tactic. A Christian is still a Christian even if he does evil things, that are completely against your interpretation of what are a true Christian should do. And a Communist is still a Communist even if he, in your opinion, completely misunderstood Marx. Notice that I explicitly mention Marxism-Leninism and also Maoism in my last post. Sure, there is also a version of Communism that is just a economic system and nothing else. But Marxism-Leninism, Maoism and Stalinism are also versions of Communism and they are not just an economic system.

Atheist & Theism = religious systems

Atheism and Theism are not religious systems, but properties that can be part of religions and also non-religious world views.

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score 1) 535

Ever seen the roof of the sixtine chapel?

Yes. But I have also seen many physics textbooks, but I'm quite sure that most Physicists do not imagine electrons as middle sized dots or colorful bubbles. Humans are able of abstract thought. Just like you can not illustrate electrons exactly how they really look like, you can not illustrate god. The ban of images of god that exists in many religions is clear sign that people always have been aware of this. Banning images of god is way to deal with this problem, symbolic images like the ones in the sixtine chapel are a different way of dealing it.

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score 3, Interesting) 535

Economic systems are not religions.

Capitalism and Communism are economic systems.

I'm not going to argue about Capitalism here. But Communism is not just an economic system. Its most famous version, the Marxist–Leninist version, but also the maoist version, provide a full-fledged philosophical world view. They have unverifiable dogmas, their own version of heaven. (On Earth, after the communist revolution is completed) They have rituals that mirror Christians Rituals. They sing songs in groups to the honor of the party, just like Christian sing songs to honor god. They claim superhuman status for their leaders. So these versions of Communism are religions, at least under functional definitions of religion.
And these versions are also atheistic, because a important part of their world view is also atheism.

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score 0) 535

And the primarty atheistic religions of the 20th century - Soviet communism and American capitalism

Such ignorance I've only seen from A.C.s.

atheism n. - disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.

That's it. It's not a religion. It's not about ethics. It's not about economics. Fuck right off you simple minded slanderous twit.

That is not how your language works. In "atheistic religions" atheistic provides a qualification to the word religions. "atheistic religions" is just the subset of religions, that have "disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods" as a part of their teachings. Just like "red apple" refers to the subset of apples that is red. It does not say: all apples are red nor does it say all red things are apples. So Soviet communism is a atheistic religion because it is a religion and disbelief in the existence of god is a part of it. That does not say that every atheist is also a Soviet communist.

Comment Re:OK, it's moderately amusing, but... (Score -1, Troll) 535

Saying communism and capitalism are "atheistic religions" is a comment so far off the mark I don't even know where to begin.

Communism, at least in most versions of it, is a atheistic religion because it requires its followers to be atheists. Just like Christianity is a theistic religion because it requires it followers to be theists.

How in the world do atheists "worship" communism or capitalism?

Being an atheists does not make someone automatically a follower of communism or capitalism. Just like being a theist does not make someone a Christian or Muslim or worshipping the Christian God or Alah. Someone is an atheist if he or she does not believe in a theistic god, nothing else. Someone can still be an atheist, even if he or she believes in something that is structurally similar to traditional religious faith.

I've seen no evidence to suggest that, en masse, they think about religion from a philosophical point of view.

Can you then point me to any evidence that the "religious faithful", think about god in terms of a big guy on a cloud or something like that?

Comment Low IQ people will always follow the mainstream. (Score 1) 347

It is simply easier for a person to just believe the same things as most of his neighbors, family and friends. No arguing needed, no or only little amounts of justification for own world view are needed. If a person, however, has a world view that does not match the world view of most people around him, this person will always have to justify this world view to them. This needs more intelligence than just going with the mainstream. Low IQ people will therefor always go with the mainstream as this is the only thing that is possible for them.

As all these studies that compare individuals intelligence vs. atheism have been done in states such as the US where the mainstream is theism, they show no low IQ people who are atheists. These studies should be repeated in states where the mainstream is atheistic and anti-religious, e.g.: China or eastern Germany. They might show exactly the opposite trend: No low IQ people are religious.

Comment Re:A real shame (Score 1) 278

Buddhism is also often considered a philosophy and not a religion. But many strains of Buddhism also contain clearly supernatural beliefs and I would consider the concept of karma and rebirth, which is afaik shared by all strains, to be supernatural. At least current scientific theories do not provide any mechanisms for that.

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