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Comment Re:Lots of people criticize this for its obviousne (Score 1) 182

You mean the gigantic[citation needed] on the summary/headline?

So, I did a cursory search on Google and what I've found was that the lowest priced filter was around 1500 RMB*. Now, according to that table, it is easy to see that the pricier ones perform better and can handle larger amounts of air. There seems to be an issue with formaldehyde (HCHO), which the pricier ones seem to remove more than the cheaper ones. Wikipedia seems to think that HCHO is harmful to human health, but I'm no expert and we all know how reliable wikipedia is for facts (it suffices, though).

So, no. Not all air purifiers are 1000$. However, the ones that provide around 96% (which seems consistent with what would be a HEPA filter) and also filteer for that formaldehyde at a similar rate are the more expensive ones.

What this does show is that the summary is lacking information and we are being fed an apple to oranges comparison. Smart Air's website seems more sensible than the summary (what was I thinking, this is slashdot), at least mentioning that the filter is an alternative only if your only concern is particle pollution.

Also, I need to stop taking the summary at face value.

* other articles found in the search suggest that those values are not false

Comment Re:Bullshit.... (Score 1) 133

Why generate a score in the first place, when you can just provide compression ratio, compression speed, or in the case of the card: fps (at settings), energy used, consistency of the fps (at settings), along with any other characteristic you know or can test that doesn't combine two other things and let the user decide which of those things are better instead of trying to boil it all down to a single number?

Comment Re:More the economics of publishing (Score 1) 192

I'm inclined to agree with you. As somebody who hopes to one day write a novel (or anything worthwhile, really), I would like to be published by the traditional route as it would be a validation that my book is "good". Of course, I am not dismissing self-publishing. It is a valid strategy if you believe you are good enough. I just know that a publishing house isn't going to pick my book just because. It is going to pick it because it is has chances to sell, which means it is probably better than the average produced by humanity.

Comment Nothing changes until US loses political power (Score 1) 749

At most, we'll see a US version of every company with the sole objective of ensuring that the only information available is that of US citizens. That is, assuming anybody cares to do anything at all to protect the information of non-US costumers from US government.

Back on topic, yeah, this doesn't surprise me. And nobody will have the guts to say: "You know what, fuck you. We are out of here". Hell, if I were in their position, I'm not sure I would do that either.

Comment Re:this is a good thing (Score 1) 230

It's not. Perhaps I should have made it clear which attitude I was referring to. I mean that we shouldn't (and I think it's bad) hate people who make something of themselves (or, more specifically, who make a lot of money), and that that attitude is not something you want in your area, or anywhere.

Comment Re:Platforms with policies against amateurism (Score 1) 608

There is one thing. I own a computer. I can download Python. Python has tutorials and documentation that can allow me how to do stuff in python. The thing is, unless I want to do anything beyond Read File, do some regex magic, write file, I'm going to have to spend some time learning. Doing what I just described is the equivalent of composing music at an amateur level: I can put together some chords, add a "simple" melody and be done with it. I probably don't need to learn much to do it. Of course, in the case of music, you are expected to know how to use the instrument (tool). In the case of programming, I'm learning Python (the tool itself) and what I can do with it (the chord) at the same time.

I think we can all agree that knowing Python (both the tool and what I can do with it) is about as hard as knowing how to play the guitar very well, which is in both cases beyond the scope of an amateur and tends towards the professional side.

Perhaps, the biggest issue is one of perception: writing a simple piece of software that reads a file, does something, and writes the result is usually not considered programming, but that's probably one of the most basic tasks you can do. And, given instructions/documentation/tutorials, you can pick it up really fast.

Disclaimer: I say this as somebody who can't do programming beyond what's specified, nor compose anything worth listening, and whose ability with musical instruments is not worth of mention.

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