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Comment Very very very poor multi-tab open (Score 3, Interesting) 240

Chrome is truly awful at opening multiple tabs at once on my mac. unbelievably slow loading times compared to Safari. And when a page is loading in one tab, other tabs don't continue to update swiftly. I find this really a weirds because chrome uses a separate process for each tab so one would think they would not step on each other. My guess, wild, is that tabs are contending for some resource like network or GPU and actually slowing each other down. In general I much prefer safari or firefox, but I use chrome because I also own a chromebook and I can't run safari on that. Basically, google is doing the same thing microsoft did to make IE dominant by not allowing other browsers on their platform.

Comment Re:And then, go after the USPTO (Score 1) 104

Why the hell should companies, including tax payers (costs of running courts & all) have to pay for the USPTO's fuckups?

There are two different issues here.

For the USPTO to vet patents properly would require a substantially higher cost per patent. The tax payers through their elected representative did not allow for patent fees to go high enough to cover that cost nor subsidies to cover that cost. They are the most responsible party for the policies.

As for companies. Companies don't have to pay for the USPTO. What they do have is a situation where their patents are registered but unvetted. They have to understand what they bought. They didn't buy much more than a filing.

Either the USPTO didn't do their job right (incompetence gets you fired in the real world, but not if you're a bureaucrat apparently)

In the "real world" offering a lower quality product at a much better price is applauded. It doesn't get you fired it makes you rich.

#1 Richest man Bill Gates got their for cutting the cost of desktop software.
#2 Warren Buffet got their for cutting the cost of running insurance companies
#3 Larry Ellison got their for reducing administrative expenses

etc...

What does often get people fired in the real world is blaming others rather than owning your mistakes. If people want a better patent system where the USPTO vets patents rather than registers them, they should pay for that system and stop pretend the reason they aren't getting such a system for 95% off is because patent examiners are being lazy.

Comment Re:Error in headline (Score 2, Insightful) 301

I am wondering if this is a case where authors should be omitted in the submissions, and instead have the review based on content and quality of citations? Beyond the gender aspect, it would also ensure that there is no preferential treatment given to a 'buddy' or someone with a certain reputation.

Comment Re:Disposal (Score 4, Informative) 514

You recycle them. They contain some lithium, a transition metal like cobalt or equivalent, and various anions (PF6, BF4, BPh4) that make up the electrolyte.

You can separate out and recover all of the materials you used to make the battery and make another one.

Lithium ion batteries also don't contain rare earth metals.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 5, Informative) 108

There wasn't enough fuel to sustain orbit. The team responsible for this went to heroic lengths to keep it in orbit --- including at one point venting the spacecraft's helium to give it a final boost. This was all done so the probe could keep sending back data, which it did happily. In the end we got approximately four times the expected data we wanted from the probe.

Not bad for government contractors.

Comment hiptards (Score 2) 403

I heard it doesn't work through bandaids either.

from apple's website:

What else affects your reading?
Many factors can affect the performance of the Apple Watch heart rate sensor. Skin perfusion is one. A fancy way of describing how much blood flows through your skin, skin perfusion varies significantly from person to person and can also be impacted by the environment. If you’re exercising in the cold, for example, the skin perfusion in your wrist may be too low for the heart rate sensor to get a reading.
Motion is another factor that can affect the heart rate sensor. Rhythmic movements, such as running or cycling, give better results compared to irregular movements, like tennis or boxing.
Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance. The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.
If you’re not able to get a consistent reading because of any of these factors, you can connect your Apple Watch wirelessly to external heart rate monitors such as Bluetooth chest straps.
Heart rate is just one of many factors that Apple Watch uses to measure your activity and exercise. Depending on your workout, it selects the most appropriate inputs for that activity. For example, when you’re running indoors, it also uses the accelerometer. When you’re cycling outdoors, it uses the GPS in your iPhone. And even when you’re not in a dedicated workout, it tracks how much you move each day. So Apple Watch can give you the information — and the motivation — to improve your fitness and your health.

https://support.apple.com/en-u...

Comment Re:Seems he has more of a clue (Score 1) 703

Except that he is a creationist. He is claiming God created and guides evolution. Why would you say that he's not a creationist? He clearly states that our origins and evolution itself REQUIRE a divine creator. Is it because he isn't insisting on the world being 6000 years old? Was that the only flaw in the creationist theory? The original poster I replied to tried to compare skeptic beliefs to religious beliefs, but the guy he's supporting clearly isn't all that strong of a "grounded in science" facts guy, is he?

Comment Is this the ob luddite post of the day? (Score 1) 109

First, to criticize the computer marking of exams one has understand the human process. In the human process readers are trained to use a rubric to award points for the presence of certain attributes. On objective subjects like maths and science, the readers will generally train until everyone gets the same score for the same work. On less objective tests, some variation is tolerated. For instance on my GRE essay, I receive two different scores that were averaged. It was the same essay, and from an assessment point of view the variation in grade is purely attributed to the personal preference of the reader.

Therefore the only task of those who write software to grade essays is that the variation of the machine is no worse that the variations of the humans. There is some success in this. Edx has a module that will grade essays. As far as I know the value in this is quicker and more uniform feedback for practice essays. Of course humanities majors, who have generally have minimal understanding of advanced technology, hate it. This, of course, includes journalists.

This is not to say that computer graded essays are going to be as good of an assessment as human graded essays. However, it may be good enough, and better than other objective measures, such as fill in the bubble tests. In fact anything that minimizes the cost of open ended free response assessment is going to benefit anyone. Securing multiple guess test is very expensive, and the value of them are highly questionable. They tend to overestimate the value of student how have vague passive knowledge, and underestimate the value of those who have an ability to actively apply knowledge.

Comment Re:Seems he has more of a clue (Score 0) 703

Okay, I get itthe pope is right, because he's pitching in his support for climate changedespite the fact that he's a creationist, so anyone defending him gets modded up, and anyone pointing out that he's more about belief than he is about science gets modded downso let's throw you SJW's a curve ball then. The pope is against gay marriage: http://www.breitbart.com/natio... So is he right or wrong on this one?

Comment Re:Seems he has more of a clue (Score 1) 703

And in the end, the "solution" to climate change will be.taxes. And CO2 will continue to rise, and the planet will continue to not die. And the foolish citizens will continue to pay more and more for less and less, while Republicans and Democrats fundraise, live lavishly on taxpayer funded expense accounts, take bribes from lobbyists and foreign interests, hire friends and family, steer government contracts to organizations that will continue to line the politicians' pockets.

Comment Re:flashy, but risky too. (Score 1) 83

There is a lot of counterfeiting as well. While insurance, if Uber has it, will protect the consumer and vendor, the consumer will not be protected from counterfeit bags.

I even doubt there will be suitable insurance or bonding, as one reason Uber can be so cheap is because they externalize most costs to the driver, which means consumer do not have the protection they normally expect. I mean if something happens on the trip, or to a product, who are you going to sue? The driver who doesn't even hold the title to the car? The driver's insurance company that specifically is not going to cover commercial activities?

Even with proper insurance and bonding, it still leaves the consumer open to receiving counterfeit property. The driver substitutes the counterfeit for the original, gives the authenticity card to the customer, and end up with an authentic $2500 bag for the costs of counterfeit.

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