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Comment Against it (Score 4, Insightful) 613

by ATMAvatar (#48289701) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Stand on Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight Saving Time is an awful idea, compounded by the fact that the rules change from location to location and can change from year to year. In computer systems, it gets even worse when you consider that different systems have different rules still, and talking to two of them at the same time can lead to irreconcilable differences which cause all kinds of headaches.

Comment Re:Really? (Score 5, Insightful) 275

by ATMAvatar (#48228919) Attached to: CHP Officers Steal, Forward Nude Pictures From Arrestee Smartphones

What the hell is wrong with these cops?

Some people become cops because of the power trip it gives. This is perfectly in-line with that personality type. The real tragedy is that it's likely very little (if anything) will be done to the officers perpetrating the acts, which will only feed into the power trip.

Comment Re:Puffery (Score 1) 95

by ATMAvatar (#48208767) Attached to: Judge Says EA Battlefield 4 Execs Engaged In "Puffery," Not Fraud

For the courts to reward the customers who believe the claims and not those who didn't would be to reward the people who are gullible--or at least those who claim to be gullible.

While I hate rewarding people for being gullible (perhaps deliberately so), it would be a good way to end all the exaggeration and misrepresentation done to sell goods. The world would be a better place if corporations had to be objective and stick to the facts when advertising their goods.

Submission + - How Nigeria Stopped Ebola

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Pamela Engel writes that Americans need only look to Nigeria to calm their fears about an Ebola outbreak in the US. Nigeria is much closer to the West Africa outbreak than the US is, yet even after Ebola entered the country in the most terrifying way possible — via a visibly sick passenger on a commercial flight — officials successfully shut down the disease and prevented widespread transmission. If there are still no new cases on October 20, the World Health Organization will officially declare the country "Ebola-free." Here's how Nigeria did it.

The first person to bring Ebola to Nigeria was Patrick Sawyer, who left a hospital in Liberia against the wishes of the medical staff and flew to Nigeria. Once Sawyer arrived, it became obvious that he was ill when he passed out in the Lagos airport, and he was taken to a hospital in the densely packed city of 20 million. Once the country's first Ebola case was confirmed, Port Health Services in Nigeria started a process called contact tracing to limit the spread of the disease and created an emergency operations center to coordinate and oversee the national response. Health officials used a variety of resources, including phone records and flight manifests, to track down nearly 900 people who might have been exposed to the virus via Sawyer or the people he infected. As soon as people developed symptoms suggestive of Ebola, they were isolated in Ebola treatment facilities. Without waiting to see whether a "suspected" case tested positive, Nigeria's contact tracing team tracked down everyone who had had contact with that patient since the onset of symptoms making a staggering 18,500 face-to-face visits. The US has many of these same procedures in place for containing Ebola, making the risk of an outbreak here very low. Contact tracing is exactly what is happening in Dallas right now; if any one of Thomas Eric Duncan's contacts shows symptoms, that person will be immediately isolated and tested. “That experience shows us that even in the case in Nigeria, when we found out later in the timeline that this patient had Ebola, that Nigeria was able to identify contacts, institute strict infection control procedures and basically bring their outbreak to a close,” says Dr. Tom Inglesby. “They did a good job in and of themselves. They worked closely with the U.S. CDC. If we can succeed in Nigeria I do believe we will stop it here.”

Submission + - In 2001 the tech industry employed 6.5 million, today it's at 6.3 million (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: In 2001, the tech industry employed 6.5 million people. That year remains the tech industry's employment peak. Tech industry employment reached 6.3 million in the first half of this year, a gain of 118,800 jobs, up 1.9% compared to the first half of 2013. That's below the 3.7% growth rate overall for private-sector employers, according to new data from TechAmerica Foundation.

Submission + - Anonabox Accused Of Lying About Its Product Being Open-Source On Kickstarter

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: The 'anonabox' has raised more than $550,000 on Kickstarter in only three days. But some believe the company's claims that the router-like device, which is said to automatically route users' Internet traffic through Tor, is entirely open-source are false.

Anonabox developer August Germar tells the Daily Dot, however, that the device was commissioned specifically to run their code.

Comment Re:Just tell me (Score 2) 463

by ATMAvatar (#48148967) Attached to: Positive Ebola Test In Second Texas Health Worker

If you are panicked about Ebola then you should be running down the street screaming about the flu. (Hopefully running down the street to get your flu shot.)

I see you are new to this planet. Let me help you. Humans do not panic over the things most likely to kill them (heart disease, cancer, etc.). They panic over the things least likely to kill them (ebola, terrorism, sharks in tornadoes, etc.).

Comment Re:Sounds like a planned PR stunt to me. (Score 2) 622

by ATMAvatar (#48135985) Attached to: The Correct Response To Photo Hack Victim-Blamers

The same reason it is important to call copyright infringement as it is instead of theft. Re-labeling hacking a server and unauthorized distribution of images as a sex crime is unnecessary, and the purpose of doing so is merely to illicit a greater emotional response. Many (most?) people conflate "sex crime" with pedophilia and rape.

None of this pedantry makes the affected individuals any less of a victim, mind you.

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