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+ - Google launches new service called Google Nose->

Submitted by
tkalfigo
tkalfigo writes "Google pulled a nice April fool's day by launching it's new product Nose. As their launch page explains:

        Google NoseBETA leverages new and existing technologies to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available:
        Street Sense vehicles have inhaled and indexed millions of atmospheric miles.
        Android Ambient Odor Detection collects smells via the world's most sensible mobile operating system.
        SMELLCD 1.8+ high-resolution compatible for precise and controlled odors."

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Comment: Winmodem all over again? (Score 1) 201

by tkalfigo (#43272911) Attached to: A Glimpse of a Truly Elastic Cloud
I remember when "they" decided to replace modems for win-modems. Linux users probably remember the frustration and dead ends of trying to make a software modem work under Linux. Hardware is very good at doing its job; at least a lot better than software. Whenever the latter tries to replace the former...we'll probably see a new IT specialty in the horizon soon.

Comment: Re:postgresql (Score 1) 287

by tkalfigo (#42136599) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Which OSS Database Project To Help?
I'm not quite that sure that nowadays Postgres has that many fewer job opportunities than Mysql. I'd say that this is more of a belief from the earlier half of the past decade. And by job opportunity I don't mean "oh! we have a project (i.e. website) that uses MySQL as a backend". Job opportunity should translate to "we have someone to run the thing". And given that Mysql behaves as a DBMS for very loose use of the term (i mean so loose, you wouldn't believe it was a DBMS not even on Xmas eve), you are probably closer to getting it done "quick and dirty" with Postgres exactly because it does it "the right way". Now with respect to the OP's question: Pg is an easy pick over Mysql contribution-wise. If you do indeed have a DB theory background, then barely using each one of the two for a couple of weeks should be more than enough for you understand the difference in quality (features and implementation).

Comment: Re:Please tell that to Hillary Clinton (Score 1) 263

by tkalfigo (#40888473) Attached to: Overconfidence May Be a Result of Social Politeness
I agree with that. Speaking 4 foreign languages, I have the utmost appreciation for people who gladly assume the role of correcting me in real-time and in real-life conditions. Unfortunately, as the OP states, usually it's just the girlfriend that assumes this role consistently and that only after I make it clear multiple times that "I am not offended by it. If you really want to help me improve, please correct me all the time". And yes, the girlfriend is real and doesn't get paid for it or other services rendered.

Comment: Re:Correlation != causation (Score 1) 252

by tkalfigo (#40598233) Attached to: Cat Parasite May Increase Risk of Suicide In Humans
Could be right, but then again McD's doesn't gain anything clogging a junkeater's arteries. It doesn't increase their chances of more revenues; on the contrary it kills a good customer. Whereas the parasite makes the rat go where it shouldn't want to, because in the long run it increases the parasite's chances of reproduction. If only McD's could find a way to make a small commission our of each one they send to the hospital/morgue, it would all make so much more sense.

Comment: Re:It's the cold and Isolation (Score 1) 159

by tkalfigo (#40312833) Attached to: Russian Programmers Dominate At Google Code Jam

Your way of thinking probably explains as well why the US is #1 in prisoners-per-capita.

Imprisonment removes your freedom. This should be punishment enough. Once you are in there, the idea is not to get you even more agitated or depressed. Rehabilitation comes with providing perhaps even things to which you didn't have access in the first place and led you to crime.

Of course in theory it's easy to generalize and philosofize. But still, trying to make a troubled individual's environment troubling, really has poor chances of solving the trouble.

Comment: Re:Mandatory (Score 1) 155

by tkalfigo (#39903347) Attached to: European e-ID Announced
You are joking, right? Just because you don't see marching tanks in the streets, doesn't mean it's not a form of war. Let alone Germany that would under no circumstances allow it's name be blemished with YAW. But don't kid yourself; that's the new form of warfare: absolute and transparent financial control.

Comment: Re:astounding ! (Score 1) 181

by tkalfigo (#34980266) Attached to: Wikileaks Movie Coming To the Big Screen
Why expect from an exceptional person to be modest? If a big ego is the price to pay for enjoying the works of a genius, so be it. The point is that J is maintaining a balance. And that's priceless regardless of which of the two sides you support. If your subjectivity gets in the way of understanding that balance in more important than right&wrong per se (which only exist in your mind anyway) then it's understandable that J's ego is a problem and not an insignificant side-effect.

Comment: Re:attorneys (Score 1) 973

by tkalfigo (#34844206) Attached to: Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay

We're leaving a lot more up to the Iraqis than we did with, say, Japan after WWII. Japan is actually a very respectable part of the world community today, despite the kind of atrocities they were committing during WWII. We used a heavy hand in the aftermath. We're using a much lighter hand in post-war Iraq.

We'll have to see if that pays off.

It's convenient to rationalise the destruction caused by the iraq war on the basis of we-are-leaving-so-many-things-behind, when in reality:

  1. you are leaving more than you left to Japan because you didn't invade Japan for profit but to experiment with a new WMD
  2. you are not leaving anything behind in Iraq, because you simply invaded with the intention to colonise
  3. the term "free elections" can only be used loosely in a country under foreign occupation; i'm guessing you feel fine using it because you compare to what they had under Saddam

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