Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Waste of money (Score 1) 254

Why?

1. Primary schools are biased against women in STEM.
2. Primary school funding/quality in the US is stupid lopsided against minorities & the poor.

Working to change High School programs is better than working to change college admissions criteria or setting hiring quotas, but until the primary school funding disparity is fixed, there is no such thing as equal opportunities.

We can't (and shouldn't) demonize or try to change cultural influences on how children are raised. If people want to raise their children in a way that is counterproductive to succeeding (financially) in a capitalist democratic society... that is their choice. Hippies can live in barns with the chickens... or whatever other stereotype you want to believe in. That is what being free is all about: making choices that other people think are stupid. Equal opportunities can only be considered upon, and must be limited to, what society has chosen the government to be responsible for: education, law, (health?), defense, water, power, etc.

It is just as absurd to think you can fix the race & sex disparity problem at the high school level as it is to think you can cure a cold by wiping your nose.

Comment Re:Seiki (Score 1) 330

Thanks for the tip about Seiki. I didn't know about them.

Also, I find it hilarious that one of the best options for a dumb TV is one that runs linux.

Wow I had no idea. The one I'm using at work is of course owned by my company. But now with the price sub $300 I think I'm going to pick one up for myself just to play around with it. Never been inside a monitor's guts before. :)

Comment Re:Seiki (Score 1) 330

work out of the box perfectly with the HDMI port on an Apple MacBookPro

Late 2013 or newer models only. Though I wouldn't say "perfect", unless you have excellent vision. OSX & most software definitely have issues scaling. You make the dock big enough on 4k, it takes 1/2 your screen when d/c. The top menu can't be resized except with the Accessibility zoom which means a scrolling desktop. Outlook... ugh. You can only change the font size for the reading pane & message list, not the folder, menu, or ribbons.

Still worth it.

Comment Seiki (Score 4, Informative) 330

Straight up, you get what you pay for. So don't expect some amazing TV. But I've been using a 39" Seiki 4k @ work and it is good enough. Cost a "whopping" $280.

Their 65" 4k (30hz @ 4k resolution) is now on Amazon for $999. The 39" has worked just fine for me, so I imagine the 65" is comparable in terms of quality. (It does have 4 stars on 600+ reviews)

Comment Re:They didn't drop number ratings... (Score 1) 135

My idea is the other side of the word of mouth coin. The reviewers can't know you, but you can know them.

Having reviewers announce what they're primarily interested in would allow you to choose the reviewer that best matches your own preferences. Then you can easily give that reviewer greater weight when reading reviews. If you don't want to or don't need to choose a reviewer, you can instead look at individual reviews for the specific points that best line up with your interests. If good networking functionality is very important to you, then you just skip over reviews that don't include it as a metric. If you see a metric, good or bad, appear in multiple reviews for the same game, then you know that feature really stood out and should probably be considered if it is even remotely interesting to you.

Comment They didn't drop number ratings... (Score 2) 135

They just changed it to a 3 number scale and gave them names.

games will be considered Recommended, Essential or Avoid.

Translated to a 1-10 scale, that is 5-8, 9+, and 1-4.
Translated to 5 stars, that is 3+, 4.5+, and 1-2.

Better is to find a specific reviewer that favors the same types of games that you favor and read what they have to say about a particular game. Reviewers themselves should be given scores in different genres to reflect their interest, and scores in different aspects of games that don't necessarily translate between genres and are not necessarily used on every game (perhaps each reviewer chooses 3 most important factors of a set list of say, 10 different areas); then have multiple reviewers on each game.

How should we score an excellent game with severe networking issues? A flawlessly polished game with a hackneyed design? A brilliantly tuned multiplayer experience with dreadful storytelling? If you expect the score to encompass every aspect of a game, the task becomes an exercise in futility. Add an inflated understanding of the scoring scale in many quarters - whereby 7/10 and even sometimes 8/10 are construed as disappointing scores - and you have a recipe for mixed messages.

Excellent game with networking issues:
"Mary the FPS guru" says:

Polish: 9.5/10 "It's pretty!"
Networking: 4/10 "Networking problems ruins everything."
Replayability: 8/10 "Single player scenarios keep me coming back."

"Matt Foley the puzzle champ" says:

Team Balance: 8/10 "Pick your army, its all about skill"
Networking: 6/10 "It's ok because I live in a trailer down by the river!"
Price: 10/10 "Freeware, freeware, freeware."

You get the idea. Sorry for the babbling. No time to reword this.

Comment Re:Wow ... (Score 3, Informative) 44

No, this article isn't a question of whether the NSA can spy on the UK (if we have the "national technical means", we can spy, if not, not), it's whether GCHQ can USE the take from NSA spying to get around BRITISH espionage laws. Answer: it CANNOT.

Incorrect. You have to get past the headline & read the article. The ruling was not that using the data was illegal. The ruling was that using the data without telling the public how you obtained it, was illegal. Now that they've explained how they got it, it is back to business as usual.

From the article:

The UK government issued a robust defence of GCHQ on Friday and said the judgment would not alter in any way the work of the monitoring agency. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said: “Overall, the judgment this morning is that the UK’s interception regime is fully lawful. That follows on from the courts clear rejection of accusations of mass surveillance in their December judgment and we welcome that.

emphasis mine.

Comment Re: Thanks (Score 1) 779

So would a law against armed robbery be considered racist if it disproportionately impacts poor minorities who, arrest records imply, are more likely to commit armed robbery. The law would equally apply to white millionaires, but 'we all know' that 'they' (rich white folks) aren't likely to commit armed robbery...

The effects are just one piece of the equation. The goal & motivation are also important. Who is protected by a law against armed robbery?

Slashdot Top Deals

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken

Working...