afeeney - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Data mining (Score 1) 70

by afeeney on Thursday May 20, 2010 @01:39PM (#32282148) Attached to: Google Launches a Data Prediction API

I prefer the more direct: "Numbers are like people. Torture them enough and they'll say whatever you want to hear."

More seriously, though, a solid predictive system usually needs both the qualitative and the quantitative analyses. These tools can inform decision-making, but can't make the decisions for anybody, unless the decisions are in the same discrete closed system. There aren't that many entirely closed systems in the world.

Thailand Cracks Down On Twitter, Facebook, Etc. 130

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 14, 2010 @04:22PM from the and-everybody-loves-the-king dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The ongoing poitical turmoil in Thailand has inspired the country's Ministry of Information, Computers, and Telecommunications to issue a stern warning that all users of the Internet in Thailand must 'use the internet in the right way or with appropriate purpose and avoid disseminating information that could create misunderstanding or instigate violent actions among the public', that 'all popular websites and social networks such as facebook, twitter, hi5 and my space [sic] will be under thorough watch,' and that 'Violators will be prosecuted by law with no compromise.' Thailand has draconian anti-lèse majesté laws which are routinely abused in order to settle political scores and silence dissent, and recently implemented a so-called 'Computer Crimes Act' which appears to be almost solely focused on thoughtcrimes and censorship, rather than dealing with, you know, actual crime. Several Web forums have recently been shut down, their operators charged because they failed to delete 'harmful posts' quickly enough to suit the Thai authorities."

Library of Congress To Archive All Public Tweets 171

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 14, 2010 @03:19PM from the he-ain't-heavy-he's-less-than-140-chars dept.

After the recent announcement that Groklaw will be archived at the Library of Congress, mjn writes with word that the push to archive more digital content continues: "The US Library of Congress announced a deal with Twitter to archive all public tweets, dating back to Twitter's inception in March 2006. More details at their blog. No word yet on precisely what will be done with the collection, but besides entering your friends' important updates on the quality of breakfast into the permanent archival record, the deal may improve access for researchers wanting to analyze and mine Twitter's giant database."

Submission + - Asteroid named after Takei (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

afeeney

on Tuesday October 02, 2007 @10:26PM

afeeney writes: "Many actors are stars, but George Takei is now an asteroid. The International Astronomical Union renamed 1994 GT9 to the 7307 Takei. Nichelle Nichols and Gene Roddenberry also have asteroids named after them."

Comment Re:Super-Secret Uber Hacking Thing-a-ma-whatsit (Score 1) 482

by afeeney on Wednesday March 07, 2007 @12:31PM (#18263044) Attached to: Turkey Censors YouTube

Mustafa Kemal Attaturk (literally, "Father of Turkey") is revered deeply in Turkey. On the anniversary and time of his death, everything stops for a minute of observance. Insulting him is the equivalent of insulting the king or royal family in Thailand, not only a legal offense but a very deep insult.

He's credited with the rebirth of Turkey as a viable state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and with making it a thoroughly secular political system within a deeply Muslim society.

When I was last in Istanbul, I was chatting with a Turkish gentleman who hypothesized that Turkey is so sensitive to "insulting Turkishness" because it was such a great empire for so long.

Not that this excuses either this or any other of their attempts of censorship, but it is an interesting background.

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