Video Don't Be a Server Hugger! (Video) 409
Comment Re:Removing gluten in the mash? (Score 2) 46
It's not part of the mashing process, but I've heard such claims made about chill haze reducing enzymes: http://www.whitelabs.com/other...
Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius 208
mpicpp sends in the story of Jason Padgett, a man who developed extraordinary mathematical abilities as the result of brain trauma when he was attacked outside a bar. "Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Wash., who had very little interest in academics, developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury, while devastating, seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have a mathematical structure 'I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life' — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science." "He describes his vision as 'discrete picture frames with a line connecting them, but still at real speed.' If you think of vision as the brain taking pictures all the time and smoothing them into a video, it's as though Padgett sees the frames without the smoothing. "
Comment Re:Accreditation and continuing education. (Score 2) 306
Eh, I've been both an IT guy and a lawyer, and honestly the bar exam isn't particularly hard or connected to what lawyers actually do. From what I've heard the higher-end certifications in IT do a decent job.
Bug Bounties Don't Help If Bugs Never Run Out 235
Bennett Haselton writes:
"I was an early advocate of companies offering cash prizes to researchers who found security holes in their products, so that the vulnerabilities can be fixed before the bad guys exploited them. I still believe that prize programs can make a product safer under certain conditions. But I had naively overlooked that under an alternate set of assumptions, you might find that not only do cash prizes not make the product any safer, but that nothing makes the product any safer — you might as well not bother fixing certain security holes at all, whether they were found through a prize program or not."
Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
Comment 3D printing?! (Score 1) 91
You mean you can print in 3D now? Why have you guys kept that so quiet for so long?
Comment not sure about fast, but cheap and can do working (Score 1) 370
Comment Re:beyond funny (Score 1) 117
Someone raised it on the questions thread, so if he's actually sane on climate change then great. I was really focusing on making fun of the "cool in battlefield situations" boasting.
Comment Re:beyond funny (Score 1) 117
He said he preferred the AR-15 because he was part of that culture; if he personally didn't think he possessed those attributes, he wouldn't have "leaned" towards it. Does anyone seriously doubt that he considers himself "cool under combat pressure"? He's been posturing like this online since the 1990's.
Comment Re:You keep using that word (Score 4, Insightful) 479
The commonly-accepted usage of words is determined by the majority. Whatever "hacker" used to mean, it now means someone who bypasses computer security systems to commit crimes.
Comment beyond funny (Score 4, Insightful) 117
I thought the funniest thing about this story was how they didn't ask any of the modded-up questions about his racism, climate denial, paranoid conspiracy theories, etc. Then I got to this:
"ESR: "Better battle rifle" depends on who you're equipping, and for what. I lean towards the AR-15 because I'm from a culture that readily produces people with good marksmanship, fire discipline, and steadiness onder combat pressure. The AR-15 is the better weapon to match those traits - it rewards skill in the shooter and you can actually use it at distance."
This is just beyond hilarious; ESR is the ultimate internet tough guy. What exactly in your middle-class suburban "culture" made you steady under "combat pressure"? Do you think this posturing impresses anybody, or makes any of us believe that you wouldn't immediately fold if you faced any danger whatsoever? You know how you can tell if you have "fire discipline" or "steadininess [u]nder pressure"? Actually be in a situation that requires it. Until then you just look ridiculous.
"ESR: "Better battle rifle" depends on who you're equipping, and for what. I lean towards the AR-15 because I'm from a culture that readily produces people with good marksmanship, fire discipline, and steadiness onder combat pressure. The AR-15 is the better weapon to match those traits - it rewards skill in the shooter and you can actually use it at distance."
This is just beyond hilarious; ESR is the ultimate internet tough guy. What exactly in your middle-class suburban "culture" made you steady under "combat pressure"? Do you think this posturing impresses anybody, or makes any of us believe that you wouldn't immediately fold if you faced any danger whatsoever? You know how you can tell if you have "fire discipline" or "steadininess [u]nder pressure"? Actually be in a situation that requires it. Until then you just look ridiculous.
Comment Re:ÂNational Institutes of Health? (Score 3) 111
I personally know many NIH-funded researchers who work on things big pharma doesn't care about. Like malaria vectors.
Comment Re:Good (Score 0) 111
"Physicians are human and are subject to the same bias and irrational thinking as the rest of us. Nothing can replace a well designed study where the results can be reproduced."
Yep. Most physicians also suffer from the serious flaw that they are terrified of appearing not to know something. When was the last time you heard a physician say "these symptoms are unusual in this combination; let me do a little research and get back to you"?
Yep. Most physicians also suffer from the serious flaw that they are terrified of appearing not to know something. When was the last time you heard a physician say "these symptoms are unusual in this combination; let me do a little research and get back to you"?
Comment Re:Not a subsidy? (Score 2) 126
Right, I'm saying that as a taxpayer I'm not going to get angry over that mistake because in the end NASA got a good deal.
Comment Re:Not a subsidy? (Score 2) 126
Eh, I was ready to be outraged but after glancing through the OIG report it doesn't look that bad. Apparently the Google dudes paid a market rate for the hangar space, and let NASA use one of their planes for free (that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars per flight hour). I would suspect that even taking into account the discounted fuel NASA came out ahead.
