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Comment Re:Cut off your nose to spite your face (Score 1) 45

Used as an editor, it's actually rather awesome. Make this sentence more concise: [ long rambling paragraph here ], typically produces an improved version that you can add some slight clarifications to. If you think you need "Make this sentence more scientificity" it also works, I suppose.

Comment Re:Always wondered what this was (Score 1) 347

I think it's the 3D post processing that primarily kills the lightning in the movies - and especially in a film like Hobbit that you need cram in as much light as possible due to a higher framerate, bizarre amount of cgi, and the need to post process the shit out of any remnants of a subtle dynamic range so it can be shown with those shitty glasses.

The last film I really noticed the lightning was Michael Clayton - it had a nice feeling, I'm pretty sure they used some older lenses.

Comment Re:How sad (Score 2) 167

OK, for your benefit.

My first experience with Linux was Slackware in 1993, when I was 19. I had to ask a mate to download 25 or so 3.5" disks for me because he had access to internet at the university, and the rest of the world did not. Since the disks where shitty and/or demagnetized by the train ride, it took a couple of weeks to get all 25 disks in a readable state. Fun autumn :-)

  I never even looked at Mandrake/Mandriva. I think I switched to Debian in 95 or so, when it got dpkg which was just really nice, and I saw no reason to change.

Comment Re:F/OSS reality (Score 2) 167

I don't think that say Ubuntu is particularly more of a headfuck than Windows 8... Windows try really hard to hide some pretty fundamental facts from the user,
just to look simpler to use, with the result that it's *harder* to use the system since a lot of behavior is just inexplicable without the underlying metaphors.

Like the file system in windows for instance. Where are my files? Is the file system root the desktop? Or My Documents, or C:/ or my network drive?

(The driver support on Linux is a bit crappier though, since very few vendors spend time or money on linux drivers for their consumer-class stuff, especially l

Comment Re:A.I.? (Score 1) 403

No, I don't think so.

We have improved our understanding of "the problem."

A lot of things that we thought was hard, was based on the fact that it's hard for a human.
There are a lot of progress on the things that we think is "simple", such as looking at a spoon,
and classifying it as a spoon, moving and navigating, etc, but it's almost nothing compared to
the simplest animal, even insects.

As an example: The ratslam algorithm is really interesting, and a rather neat and surprisingly simple algorithm for location awareness
based on biological processes. Still not good enough for vacuuming my house though.

Pure "logic" in a box is "solved" but useless since in reality we need fuzzy-logic and semantics and human-like analysis to clean up the data before it's analysed -which is hard. I think that Watson and other expert systems are getting fuzzier, but there is along way to go there.

Comment Re:truly an inspiration. (Score 5, Insightful) 494

If you don't care for what other people think or their interests, why would they care about your ideas and interest?

Really intelligent people - those who are smart over the whole range, not just the logic puzzle part, are normally a delight to talk with.
And although they might be smarter than you, and know more about the world, they generally do no tell you so.

Comment Re:Forensic evidence should not be subjective (Score 4, Interesting) 173

I think that that's actually how it works here in Sweden.

I seem to remember that it's also not always good. Since they only answer questions, more open ended searches are seldom performed.
In one case where an elk killed a woman (unique case, apparently) the police got hung up on her husbands lawn mower (!) which happened to have traces
of blood on the blades (which in fact could have been rust combined with other biological material ) and spent a year or so trying to convict him for murder,
until someone actually saw a YouTube clip of an elk-attack and asked the lab if it could have in fact been an elk. Answer: Yes. Most likely.

Comment Re:Mamangement (Score 1) 290

Because a sense of humor is what saves the world.

Dictators, repressive governments and religious despots share a lack of humor. As do certain companies, lawmakers and enforcers, as well as some public servants in otherwise reasonable states. Some people take themselves too seriously, and then things get dangerous. That's how simple it is.

If you pull the plug on a whole product line just because a few developers made a silly message, then you are probably doing it wrong.

Comment Re:The Web of trust only works (Score 3, Interesting) 139

It's a bit of a scam from the beginning. I remember almost 20 years ago I asked where the safety was in that we had to shell up a relatively large sum of money to some unknown company on the other side of the world, so that they could "verify" our identity (how exactly?) - just because they had bought (?) a place in Netscape's or Internet Explorer's root CA list.

Since there are so many certificate authorities it's safe to assume that too many are compromised by- or under the influence of- criminal organisations or non-democratic and/or corrupt governments. (Ignoring the just-for-lulz hackers, I'm not that worried about them.)

I really wished PGP/GPG-style trust chain model worked in real life, but it's a hassle even for techies.

One idea would be to utilize the existing social networks + phones for something, but I doubt it would be possible to build something that is idiot-proof enough.
(Especially since a lot of people seems to have no idea who some of their contacts actually are...)

It could potentially solve email too though.

Comment Re:Sounds reasonable (Score 1) 243

Aftermatch: Nothing.

The other informed in leading roles, including other ministers indicated that this was vetted by the ministry of foreign affairs and ultimately the minister.

Coincidentally and very unfortunate, she had been murdered by a madman when the story broke, and I think that took the edge out of any public or criminal investigation.

I think a lot of people hid behind this unfortunate event - she was definitely informed, but since the gentlemen in question where allegedly two very dangerous terrorist suspects, it's hard to tell how the details where presented. The swedish ambassador made some effort to ensure a due legal process in Egypt, but I think in retrospect, everyone can agree that it's was a naïve approach.

Comment Re:motion sickness (Score 2) 286

I think there is little difference on the vomit-factor.

However, I won't fly in a windowless or driverless airplane. I like the windows because I think I am entitled to some minimal situational awareness.

Besides, I don't think it will happen, since it will make quite a few people too uncomfortable.

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