Comment Re:Maxwell Equations (Score 1) 249
It does not help the original confusion to illustrate the point with a confusing analogy.
Comment Re:Maxwell Equations (Score 2, Funny) 249
or being below 0 degrees Farenheit is having negative thermal energy
And you just failed physics by confusing temperature and thermal energy. Congratulations!
Submission + - Winning Lottery Numbers Repeat in Bulgaria 1
pickens writes: "Reuters reports that Bulgarian Sports Minister Svilen Neikov has ordered an investigation after the numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were selected, in a different order on September 6 and 10 causing suspicions of manipulation. The lottery organizers say it is impossible to tamper with the lottery machine since the draws take place in the presence of a special committee and is broadcast live on national television. While the chance of the same six numbers coming up twice in two consecutive rounds was one in more than 4 million, it was not impossible, says mathematician Michail Konstantinov. "This is happening for the first time in the 52-year history of the lottery. We are absolutely stunned to see such a freak coincidence but it did happen," a spokeswoman says. During the first drawing nobody correctly chose all six balls however, when the balls were picked for a second time four days later, 18 people had to share the $138k jackpot after they had all predicted the winning combination. Professor of Gambling Studies Mark Griffiths says that from a psychological perspective, it "beggared belief" that these individuals would have chosen their six numbers simply because they had been lucky in the draw beforehand. "Because the chances of the same numbers coming up again are so small, there is no reason why a person would pick those same numbers again," says Griffiths . "In terms of choosing all the numbers — it beggars belief.""
Submission + - RIAA's elementary school copyright curriculum (arstechnica.com) 2
selven writes: In a blatant attempt devoid of any subtlety the RIAA is fighting for the hearts and minds of our chilldren with its Music Rules, a collection of education materials on how to respect copyright. It includes vocabulary such as "counterfeit recordings, DMCA notice, "Grokster" ruling, legal downloading, online piracy, peer-to-peer file sharing, pirate recordings, songlifting, and US copyright law." with no mention whatsoever of fair use. Compounding the bias, it includes insights such as that taking music without paying for it is "songlifting", and that making copies for personal use and then playing them while your friends come over is illegal. On the bright side, it includes math which shows that the total damages from copyright infringement by children in the US amount to a measly $7.8 million.
Comment Re:Shut up "New Atheists"? (Score 1) 899
The issue is, the experiment you suggest attempts to answer a valid question about the physical world. Independent of the likelihood of any reproducible results (which I think we agree it will be negligible), the question is valid within the realms of Science, because the effect this hypothetical scientist is trying to reproduce is measurable (water being splitted). Assuming there is no reproducible results, I see two explanations: (a), prayer has absolutely no effect on the behavior of water, or (b), there is some supernatural cause explaining the negative result (for example, God does not like being tested, has stage panic, or simply dislikes scientific rigor). Answer (b) "explains" some speculation by means of another speculation, in a regression which leads nowhere (not only within physics, also within logic). Therefore (b) has no place in a consistent explanation of the world, unless at some point it implies some falsifiable proposition (I believe this is similar to the case with String Theory). My argument is that, by Occam's razor one should stick with (a), and definitely not claim that there is a supernatural realm, the elements inside which sometimes interact with the physical world and sometimes don't, in an untestable way.
Comment Re:Shut up "New Atheists"? (Score 1) 899
Science does not say that there is no God. It doesn't give a damn.
Actually, I think proper, honest Science should care a lot. A Universe where causality and the laws of Physics can be suspended by praying, or by miracles, is quite different from a Universe where the laws are immutable. Only a God which does not intervene at all in the processes of the Universe would be separate from Science, otherwise, it has to enter one's assumptions at some point if we are really honest about our application of the scientific method, and not simply choosing to "enable scientific mode" for some things.
Submission + - Sam Ramji, Microsoft's Open Source Guru Moving On (typepad.com)
barking_at_airplanes writes: "Some called him crazy 3-1/2 years ago when he joined Microsoft to run the Open Source Software Lab but he endured and made real differences to how Microsoft treats Open Source and how open source people now view Microsoft. Sam Ramji is now heading back to Silicon Valley to join a Cloud Computing startup. Sam comments in his announcement:
46 months later, I am amazed at the changes that have occurred for the company, for the team I belonged to, and the sentiments of the industry.
It's a statement that 46 months ago few Slashdotters would have thought could come true! With Sam leaving, can Microsoft's positive momentum into Open Source continue successfully?"
46 months later, I am amazed at the changes that have occurred for the company, for the team I belonged to, and the sentiments of the industry.
It's a statement that 46 months ago few Slashdotters would have thought could come true! With Sam leaving, can Microsoft's positive momentum into Open Source continue successfully?"
Comment Re:Not really useful (Score 1) 256
Surely it is! Either you get it, or you don't.
Comment Re:Inconsistency? (Score 1) 554
Great! I'm going to use that as a footnote in my thesis!
Comment Re:Are you crazy? (Score 1) 691
That wasn't my point. I'm just trying to point to the fact that there is a saving associated with avoiding Microsoft products.
Comment Re:Are you crazy? (Score 1) 691
Does conficker get "installed" at all in non-Microsoft operating systems?
Submission + - Important Lessons for the Next Gen of Geeks?
MrAndrews writes: "My kids have had a fairly geeky upbringing so far, learning the evils of DRM at a young age, configuring new drives of anime for XBMC, and Creative Commons licensing their crayon drawings. But I feel like there's more education I could be doing, so I'm planning to create a series of short digi-fables that will prime them for life. I've already done DRM, patents, censorship and bullying, but there are probably lots of other topics out there that need covering, like net neutrality. Or SQL injection. Or... stuff. I've heard rumours that Slashdot is a fairly geeky place, so I put it to you: what are the most important lessons you can teach a geek-in-training?"
Submission + - How Do You Manage Your Home Directories? 1
digitalderbs writes: A problem plaguing most people with multiple computers is the arduous task of synchronizing files between them : documents, pictures, code, or data. Every one seems to have their own strategies, whether they involve usb drives, emailed attachments, rsync or a distributed management system, all of which have varying degrees of success in implementing fast synchronization, interoperability, redundancy and versioning, and encryption. Myself, I've used unison for file synchronization and rsnapshot for backups between two linux servers and a Mac OS X laptop. I've recently considered adding some sophistication by implementing a version control system like subversion, git or bazaar, but have found some shortcomings in automating commits and pushing updates to all systems. What system do you use to manage your home directories, and how have they worked for you for managing small files (dot config files) and large (gigabyte binaries of data) together?
Comment Re:Link to youtube videos (Score 1) 459
Ahh, the Hollywood disease. "This needs to be redone in english and better looking"
Comment Re:Star Wars colognes are next... (Score 1) 169
Whatever, but don't make me smell "Scent of Sietch Tabr"
