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Submission + - No big bang after all (phys.org)

Submitted by cyberspittle
cyberspittle writes: "The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein's theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple problems at once."

Submission + - $10K Ethernet Cable Claims Audio Fidelity, If You're Stupid Enough To Buy It (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: There are few markets that are quite as loaded-up with "snake oil" products as the audio/video arena. You may have immediately thought of "Monster" cables as one of the most infamous offenders. But believe it or not, there are some vendors that push the envelope so far that Monster's $100 HDMI cables sound like a bargain by comparison. Take AudioQuest's high-end Ethernet cable, for example. Called "Diamond," AudioQuest is promising the world with this $10,500 Ethernet cable. If you, for some reason, believe that an Ethernet cable is completely irrelevant for audio, guess again. According to their claim: "AudioQuest's Diamond RJ/E is a directional Ethernet cable made with the same hallmark materials, philosophy, care and attention that is applied to all their interconnects, whether it's an entry level introduction to Hi-Fi or a died-in-the-wool music connoisseur. Another upgrade with Diamond is a complete plug redesign, opting for an ultra-performance RJ45 connector made from silver with tabs that are virtually unbreakable. The plug comes with added strain relief and firmly lock into place ensuring no critical data is lost." It's too bad AudioQuest limits itself to just audio, because descriptions like that would prove a welcome sight in other markets. Just imagine how tempting it would be to own 100% solid paper clips made with uncompromising materials that take a no-nonsense approach to holding paper together. Unfortunately, in this case, there's the issue of digital data being, well, digital. But hey, a 1 or a 0 could arrive at its destination so much cleaner, right?

Submission + - Recursion - Love it or Hate It?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Yet another example of how AP exams are loaded with poor coding practices," quipped Alfred Thompson, referring to a recursive code example that prints the numbers 0 to 6, which was posted to the (closed) AP Computer Science Facebook group. "We are often forced to use code examples that are not ideal coding practice," Thompson notes. "We do that to make things clear and to demonstrate specific concepts in a sort of isolation that we might not normally use. We seem to do that a lot with recursion because the examples that require recursion tend to be fairly complex." So, while asking students to use recursion instead of a loop to print '0123456' serves the purpose of teaching recursion, Thompson opines that it's also a poor example of code practice. "Someone raised on functional programming where recursion is a pretty standard way of doing looping might disagree of course," he adds. "There is a saying that when all you have is a hammer all your problems look like nails. This seems, in a way, to be the case with recursion and loops. If your first tool of choice (or what you have learned first) for iteration is loops you tend not to think of recursion as a solution. Similarly if you start with recursion (as is common with functional programming) you are a lot more likely to look at recursion as a tool for iteration." So, do you tend to embrace or eschew recursion in your programming?

Submission + - RMS Objects To GNU Emacs Having Support For LLVM's Debugger (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Richard Stallman is in a tizzy over the prospects of GNU Emac's Gud.el supporting LLVM's LLDB debugger. Stallman says it looks like there is a systematic effort to attack GNU packages and calls for the GNU to respond strategically. He wrote his concerns to the mailing list after a patch emerged that would optionally support LLDB alongside GDB as an alternative debugger for Emacs. Other Emacs developers discounted RMS' claims by saying Emacs supports Windows and OS X, so why not support a BSD-licensed compiler/debugger? The Emacs maintainer has called the statements irrelevant and won't affect their decision to merge the LLDB support.

Submission + - CrunchBang Linux Development Stopped (crunchbang.org)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The main developer of the small but popular CrunchBang Linux distribution — Philip Newborough — has decided to end developing the project. It has not been an easy decision to make and he has been putting it off for months. In a lengthy forum post he explains that times in the Linux scene have greatly changed and that CrunchBang simply does not hold value anymore. The discussion forum will remain online.

Comment That's been the thing all along (Score 1) 379

by Gazzonyx (#48986073) Attached to: Confirmed: FCC Will Try To Regulate Internet Under Title II
It means "hate speech" will be illegal (pretty sure it already is) and any site with hate speech will be blocked. The definition of "hate speech" will become "things we don't want people saying; think of the children". Oh, also, streaming sites. They're gone. Podcasts? You betcha'.

You'll notice that they've been using this wording for a LONG time. All of the proposals have featured "lawful content" and I'm sure that's not an accident.

Submission + - Hells Angels Are Old Pros at Encryption

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Kate Knibbs reports at Gizmodo that the Silk Road trial is now focused on Dread Pirate Roberts' interactions with the Hells Angels, who he allegedly hired to kill a rogue drug vendor. Pretrial materials revealed that the Dread Pirate Roberts encouraged members of the Hells Angels to assassinate a drug dealer named FriendlyChemist, who owed the Hells Angels money. It's not clear whether FriendlyChemist was actually killed (or who killed him, if so) and it hasn't been confirmed that Ross Ulbricht ordered this hit as the vindictive (though polite) Dread Pirate. What we do know is that the self-identifying Hells Angels do not appreciate getting talked down to about encryption best practices. "We are familiar with PGP as we have been using it for years via email linked to our smartphones." reported Sara Jeong who has been reporting on the trial for Forbes. "Of course, in a case that rests on whether a digital identity can be definitively proven, it's not a guarantee that the "Hells Angels" that Dread Pirate Roberts spoke to were even recognized members of the storied crime organization," writes Knibbs. "This could've been a particularly intense catfish. "

Comment The problem is synthetic tests are useless (Score 1) 198

by Gazzonyx (#48966433) Attached to: Can Students Have Too Much Tech?

I don't agree. The problem with grades is that they actually don't mean anything. They indicate nothing about a student other than how they responded to questions, at an arbitrary date and time, against how an arbitrary instructor graded those responses. For everyone who understood the game, it didn't matter. For everyone who doesn't understand the game, it probably doesn't matter.

After education, there is a world of "pass/fail" tests where sometimes passing or failing doesn't matter and the rules are foggy. Some people become well adjusted, productive, members of society and their community and some don't with many shades in between. But those aren't things that can always be taught let alone graded. You can maybe grade yourself (if you have the maturity to do so objectively) and your boss and peers may grade you, as may your SO/spouse, but those scores are have real world value and are based on real world criteria. That criteria can't be prepped for and forgotten next week, but has to be part of who you are. If you're passing those tests, you're doing something right, if not, you need to adjust. No amount of schooling (I specifically didn't use "education" there) adequately prepares you for that. Experience and introspection does.

Comment Re:Excellent idea (Score 1) 779

by Gazzonyx (#48964279) Attached to: WA Bill Takes Aim at Boys' Dominance In Computer Classes

What happened to merit? It was re-labeled "privilege". You don't think you actually earned your accompilshments, do you?

... but, I did. Through a lot of hard work and solo night sessions coding. I'm not saying the world owes me anything for that, but I think it raises my value against those that spent their time differently, all other things being equal. That is, if I have thousands of hours more doing one thing (and, humbly, I believe I have a bit of natural talent - but I really can't be sure of that) at the expense of something else, have I not earned something in one area and potentially lost experience in another?

Once again, I'm not saying the world owes me a job, just that I've done things that put me in a better position to get and stay at one.

Submission + - There is no "you" in a parallel Universe

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Ever since quantum mechanics first came along, we’ve recognized how tenuous our perception of reality is, and how — in many ways — what we perceive is just a very small subset of what’s going on at the quantum level in our Universe. Then, along came cosmic inflation, teaching us that our observable Universe is just a tiny, tiny fraction of the matter-and-radiation filled space out there, with possibilities including Universes with different fundamental laws and constants, differing quantum outcomes existing in disconnected regions of space, and even the fantastic one of parallel Universes and alternate versions of you and me. But is that last one really admissible? The best modern evidence teaches us that even with all the Universes that inflation creates, it's still a finite number, and an insufficiently large number to contain all the possibilities that a 13.8 billion year old Universe with 10^90 particles admits.

Submission + - 150 years of Maxwell's Equations (ieee.org)

Submitted by justaguy516
justaguy516 writes: Maxwell's equations are one of the most stunning discoveries in the history of human science. Its a unique story, both as a climax for a century of scientific observation as well as a compelling story of how scientific theory and practical application went hand-in-hand in building the edifice on which the entire world of 2015 as we know it exists. While most people think of Faraday, Gauss, Ampere and Maxwell, my favourite has always been Oliver Heaviside, that unsung self-taught engineer who made so many fundamental contributions to this field.

Submission + - Mystery of why galaxies always appear dustier on one side solved

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: If you look at a spiral galaxy face-on, the sweeping spiral arms and the central massive bulge are usually the most prominent features. But if you look at one tilted at an angle to us, dust lanes appear prominently. You might expect that the dust lanes should appear equally on both sides of the galaxy, but they don't. Even more puzzlingly, the dust actually does live in the middle of the disk, so you might think there's no excuse for this! We had a theory as to why this works for a while, but recent Hubble observations have confirmed this picture, and we've finally got our answer!

Submission + - 13 Things We Learned About Programmers In 2014 (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: It seems these days like anyone and everyone can call themselves a programmer. But true software engineers remain a somewhat mysterious and exotic breed of tech worker. Here's a sampling of things we learned about them in 2014: Programmers from state schools get the best ROI on college, Alan Turing is the most important programmer of all time, and while Clojure programmers are the happiest, Java programmers earn the most.

Comment Re:Federal Sentencing Guidelines (Score 1) 219

by Gazzonyx (#48472683) Attached to: Hacker Threatened With 44 Felony Charges Escapes With Misdemeanor

Federal sentencing guidelines almost never ask for "fully stacked" sentences. The term you're looking for is "consecutively." Most of the time, all sentences are served "concurrently," or at the same time. On rare occasions, as you write, a judge will specify that the sentences be served consecutively, to keep an exceptionally bad felon behind bars for as long as possible. Of course, the prosecutor can always threaten to ask for consecutive sentences to bulldoze the defendant into accepting a plea.

I've never considered this before, but isn't that a bit of "the law of unintended consequences"? For instance, if I know that I can commit a single crime now and pay the full rate or commit multiple crimes and pay them off in parallel, why deterrent is there for me to limit my activities?

I've always hated a law that I've heard of (this is strictly hearsay, I've never actually verified it) where in some parts of the US, if you involve a gun in a robbery there's an automatic minimum sentence which is in line with the sentence for having a gun and committing assault; just by having the gun you're already in as much trouble as if you used it, so there really isn't any incentive to not use it if you think doing so could allow you to avoid capture and prosecution. If you're going to be charged for attempted homicide, it's not like taking a hostage is going to add to your sentence at the end of the day and it has the most narrow chance of getting you off the hook.

My SO is a paralegal and I'm always amazed at the perverse incentives that are built into the legal system since you always seem to be in for a pound when you're in for a penny. No doubt legislation passed by someone "tough on crime", but the public seems to support it. I've always thought that putting someone in a place where they stand to lose nothing is a rather poor position to put them in.

<rambling>
For instance, I had lost my license due to unpaid tickets (I thought I had paid them all off, but I must have missed a payment) and I was pulled over for a taillight being out. At this point I now had a suspended license for driving on a suspended license (aka, strike two before they pull it for 5 years in the state I was then living). I went to a concert with some friends and they all hit the booze a bit hard and when it came time to drive home and they were all too drunk, we let the least drunk guy drive. It was more dangerous than the sober guy driving, obviously, but we reasoned that if we got pulled over the law would take it easier on a guy with a first DUI, a wife and a kid than a guy with a third violation for driving on a suspended license. The math was easy; I got "caught" (I didn't know I was doing anything wrong) a second time and they took my license for a year for the second infraction; your first DUI infraction is an automatic 1 month suspension or so. We knew which crime was "worse" in this case by what would have happened to myself versus what would have happened to the drunk guy that drove us home. We also knew which was safer, but it's not like the cops would have taken that into account, so it wasn't really a consideration in our assessment of the situation.
</rambling>

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