Comment Re:I sense. I sense... (Score 1) 252
Not 99! You'll destroy the world, you fool!
Comment MPU Re:Better idea: take a research methods class (Score 1) 46
Thank you for saying this. IRBs exist for a reason and it's concerning to see an article like this essentially saying "Hey kids! Go do some human experimentation!"
Comment Re:Racism (mod parent up) (Score 1) 244
Thank you for saying this better than I would have.
Comment Re:Comebine this with (Score 1) 150
You read piano music off a Zaurus?
How Wolfram Alpha's Copyright Claims Could Change Software 258
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister suggests that Wolfram Research's claim to copyright of results returned by the Wolfram Alpha engine could have significant ramifications for the software industry. 'While software companies routinely retain sole ownership of their software and license it to users, Wolfram Research has taken the additional step of claiming ownership of the output of the software itself,' McAllister writes, pointing out that it is 'at least theoretically possible to copyright works generated by machines.' And, under current copyright law, if any Wolfram claim to authorship of the output of its engine is upheld, by extension the same rules will apply to other information services in similar cases as well. In other words, 'If unique presentations based on software-based manipulation of mundane data are copyrightable, who retains what rights to the resulting works?'"
Comment Re:Sometimes Apple still thinks too much like a... (Score 1) 841
I am sorry but you are wrong. The iTunes music store launched in 2003. At the time the iPod was firewire and Mac only. It wasn't until after the music store launched and the 3rd gen of iPod was launched that also supported windows that iPods became "wildly popular."
Comment Re:Pedantry (Score 1) 173
I assumed that the Russians wrote Tsar in their Cyrillic alphabet and both Czar and Tsar are transliterations.
Comment Re:Oh please (Score 3, Insightful) 1079
Still the reason why cop abuse stories hit the news so hard is because it isn't commonplace
That, plus police are in a position of strong public trust. When a cop does wrong, people feel extra-betrayed (as well they should). That goes double when it's someone high-ranking, and triple when that person is or appears to be covering for his or her underlings' misbehavior. Police are held to a higher standard by the public; they should be held to that standard by law and practice, but often are not, which fuels discontent.
In addition, we never see any cops condemn poor behavior by other cops. And by "poor behavior" I mean tasing kids to death and rank corruption. I believe that 95% of cops are good people, but it would be a lot easier if PDs ever gave any impression that they knew it was possible for cops to screw up.
Comment Re:Publish the invention (Score 1) 233
This is why back in the day AT&T and IBM (still today) have publications like The Bell System Technical Journal, IBM Systems Journal, etc. It gives them platforms to publish the inventions that they don't wish to patent, but still show prior art.
Comment Re:Android vs. Apple? (Score 1) 315
Did we forget that Motorola is the ultimate power in the cell phone industry because they make the best selling phone the RAZR.....oh wait...
Comment Why the LHC scares me (Score 2) 672
The way I remember the sequence of events last fall is this:
- CERN starts the LHC.
- Lehman Brothers announces that all of their money disappeared.
- CERN shuts down the LHC because of a malfunction.
Isn't it obvious? All of Lehman Brothers assets got sucked up in a black hole created by the LHC!
Comment Re:Anything on the web is available for access (Score 1) 680
Ghost:
So what you're saying is, when you take candy from a little bitty baby -
Zorak:
I'm doing him a favor, for cryin' out loud!
http://www.c4vct.com/kym/sg/scripts/njcandy.htm
Slashdot's Disagree Mail 206
Being in a relationship is not easy, more than half of all first marriages fail in this country. That statistic doesn't improve if you spend most of your time reading your favorite website and not tending to the needs of your family. Instead of asking me to help fix your relationship maybe you should try playing with your kids, talking to your wife, and not staring at a computer screen all day. You should realize that the help link doesn't provide help with your life. It's mostly for getting passwords and stuff. Below you'll find a collection of people that should have reached out to Dr. Phil and not Dr. Sam.
Submission + - Star Simpson speaks to BoingBoing about LED arrest (boingboing.net)
cnoocy writes: Star Simpson, the MIT student arrested for wearing an LED board at Boston's Logan airport last year, has given her first interview about the incident to BoingBoing TV.
Submission + - Star Simpson speaks out (boston.com)
Reverberant writes: "Star Simpson, the MIT student arrested in Boston for wearing a "hoax device" at Boston's Logan Airport, speaks to Boing Boingabout hear yearlong ordeal."
