Comment Mod Parent Up, Please! (Score 1) 145
Outstandingly informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your invaluable knowledge and experience!
Comment Re:On the desktop, perhaps (Score 0) 225
You must be new here.
Comment Possible benefits? (Score 1) 385
I'd like to see (or participate in) a study to determine whether Googling on everything but a specific focus area can help concentrate mental faculties on that area. Something like Joe Haldeman's excellent short story "None So Blind".
Comment Re:Old days? (Score 1) 209
Hanging would work well in this case if the English still had the balls to do that sort of thing. Just declare them both to be guilty and that they'll both be hanged. When they're on the gibbet with their necks in a noose the guilty one would probably speak up to spare his brother, and if not just hang them both anyway.
If I were the innocent brother and placed in this situation with no other alternative, I'd gladly confess so that my brother could go free, even knowing (as only I would) that he was the guilty one. I'd be a two thousand years too late to claim that it's my original idea, though.
Comment Crucial means CRUCIAL. (Score 1) 342
"Many scientists say that such material, ranging from reports by government agencies to respected research not published in scientific journals, is crucial to seeking a complete picture of the state of climate science."
If it's crucial, it should be peer-reviewed. If no one has time to peer-review the material, it shouldn't be part of the basis for multi-trillion-dollar policy decisions. How is that non-obvious?
Comment Re:Enough about malicious spam (Score 3, Funny) 211
And that's just the malicious spam! It doesn't count the dozens of helpful, well-meaning, altruistic spams I get every day from good people who care about whether I have enough hair, or I'm paying too much for prescription drugs, or my wife is completely satisfied. Bless all their hearts!
Oh, did you mean del.icio.us spam? No, I didn't think so.
Oh, did you mean del.icio.us spam? No, I didn't think so.
Comment Re:Business model (Score 2, Funny) 413
Fly indiana jones and have him leave a bag of peebles when taking the rocks.
Harrison Ford probably wouldn't be interested in the venture at this point in his life. Also, I doubt that Mario Van Peebles could be convinced to part with such a personal item.
Comment Re:OMG!!! (Score 3, Funny) 237
So as well as peak oil now we have to worry about peak universe?
Worrying isn't enough--it's time to ACT!
Assuming, of course, that this is anthropogenic entropy...
Comment Little technology (Score 4, Funny) 117
"...And the simplicity and success of the test demonstrated just how powerful social engineering can be and what little technology can actually do about it, security experts say."
Okay, I give up. What can little technology actually do about it? Is that like nanotechnology, but bigger?
Yes, I was bored. Back to work!
Comment Dibs on the name... (Score 3, Funny) 136
HumVTOL.
Comment Re:What's a "Sneaker Tech"? (Score 2, Funny) 414
Google doesn't have any relevant hits for this phrase (except this article).
Obviously you don't know how to search. I found a job posting for a sneaker tech right away.
Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242
likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Comment A modest proposal... (Score 1) 355
Develop a gatekeeper that, rather than asking for an age or birthdate, actually tests emotional maturity based on some signal criteria. If you test out as mature enough for the subject matter, you're in. If not, you get redirected to something appropriate for your maturity level.
PROS: Emotionally mature users would be admitted, and others blocked, regardless of age. Advanced tweens and stunted twenty-somethings could both be dealt with appropriately.
CONS: Where exactly do you draw the line? Chronological age may still need to be used as a deciding factor in borderline cases. Also, some sites might find it beneficial to develop a gatekeeper that identifies other factors not directly relevant to emotional maturity--high susceptibility to certain forms of advertising, for example.
Hey, it's just a thought.
PROS: Emotionally mature users would be admitted, and others blocked, regardless of age. Advanced tweens and stunted twenty-somethings could both be dealt with appropriately.
CONS: Where exactly do you draw the line? Chronological age may still need to be used as a deciding factor in borderline cases. Also, some sites might find it beneficial to develop a gatekeeper that identifies other factors not directly relevant to emotional maturity--high susceptibility to certain forms of advertising, for example.
Hey, it's just a thought.
Comment Re:AI needed? (Score 1) 111
Linked videos show testers taking photos of consumer products such as books and food items (a Tabasco label, for example). If Google Goggles can identify any small item I'm looking at using only my GPS coordinates and orientation, we should just surrender now and pray that Richard Brautigan wasn't being too optimistic.
Comment And the assumptions continue! (Score 3, Insightful) 312
When you're backpacking through South America, "at home" can mean anywhere in your country of origin or current residence. That covers anything from a $100/month blade server at a hosting company to a $30 dd-wrt router in a friend's basement. Either way, please keep the ad hominem attacks out of it, okay? We're all just trying to help here.
