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Comment Re:Berlin Wall (Score 1) 1698

by ytm (#30031222) Attached to: Landmark Health Insurance Bill Passes House

Let me put it this way. Have you seen the Berlin Wall? I have. In some places there were actually two walls, with a no-man's land in between. In that space were machine-gun towers, spaced so close that the guards could kill each other. And people were willing to sprint through a machine-gun killing ground, just to escape from communism.

I have lived on the other side of the wall. It wasn't so bad and, to stay on topic, health care was quite good and universal. Very important for societies growing from the ruins of WWII. The reasons for people sprinting through the killing ground in Berlin were much more complex than just communism. (Which hasn't been implemented anywhere in the pre-1989 socialist states of Europe anyway).

Comment Re:Bothered Slightly (Score 2, Interesting) 319

by ytm (#29547469) Attached to: Math Indicates Pollster Is Forging Results

i.e. if a boolean poll has 49% for one side (9) the other answer has to be 51% (1) The last digits (1 and 9) are completely dependent.

He could just as well pick the lowest number of the two and check distribution of 0-5 digits. I have a bigger problem with his analysis, from TFA:

I did not include "non-response responses" like "other" or "undecided", nor did I include a tally for third-party candidates in races beteween the two major parties.

Given the dependence between the possible outcomes of the poll, I'm more curious about results with this data included.

Comment Re:Handwaving math. (Score 1) 319

by ytm (#29547407) Attached to: Math Indicates Pollster Is Forging Results

I'll concede the numerical distributions where base 10 is important, e.g. your $10K tax cutoff, are not going to obey Benford's law.

If there are artificial constrains to the data, like $10K cutoff or some maximum level, the Benford's law is not the right tool. For example there is no point in applying that method to prices of single products. There are many goods at level x.99â. However, you could apply the Benford's law to the turnover.

Comment Re:laser pointer (Score 1) 208

by ytm (#28666185) Attached to: Stealing Data Via Electrical Outlet

very clever how hey grab info using a laser pointer and measuring the vibrations. i'm afraid you might notice the big red dot on your computer though. sienfield flash backs.

You might not notice if they move from proof of concept with laser pointer to a real device. Are you able to see infrared?
Software

Michael Meeks Says OO.o Project is "Profoundly Sick" 676

Posted by timothy from the important-alternative dept.
unassimilatible writes "Michael Meeks, who works full time developing OpenOffice, writes in his blog that the project is 'profoundly sick.' 'In a healthy project we would expect to see a large number of volunteer developers involved, in addition — we would expect to see a large number of peer companies contributing to the common code pool; we do not see this in OpenOffice.org. Indeed, quite the opposite we appear to have the lowest number of active developers on OO.o since records began: 24, this contrasts negatively with Linux's recent low of 160+. Even spun in the most positive way, OO.o is at best stagnating from a development perspective.'"
Windows

Configuring a Windows PC For a Senior Citizen? 823

Posted by kdawson from the keeping-it-simple dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I would like to know if there are any resources on the Web or elsewhere describing how to configure a Windows PC for an older parent not living in the same household. Assume little computer familiarity or aptitude. Some stuff is obvious, like using only a few large icons for favorite Web sites, or an icon perhaps for composing email and another for checking email. Other considerations are eliminating nuisance messages from Windows update and antivirus/firewall. What works and what doesn't? Can anyone who has worked/volunteered at a senior center offer some insights?"

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