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Comment Re:Premptive STFU to GPL haters (Score 1) 228

You've got to know and own the product you sell.

Ideally you would know your product that well. In practice often you don't. For example, our software line at work is protected by use of hardware dongles ; in theory we should know the detailed ins and outs of that product, but in practice we don't. It's a tool that we use, but we really don't care how it works in detail ; it's not our core business ; we're not interested in it ; if it stops working, we go and find a different supplier of a comparable product.

Submission + - Google 'Glass' to be banned while driving (stuff.tv)

RockDoctor writes: "Stuff" magazine, a "gadget" oriented mag, is reporting that the UK's Department for Transport is planning to ban drivers from using Google "Glass", using the same law (1988 Road Traffic Act) that is used to ban drivers from using hand-held mobile phones.

While there are obvious parallels between the distraction potential of the mobile phone and of "Glass", there are arguments in the other direction that the speech-control aspects of "Glass" could make it less distracting than, say, a touch-screen SatNav. So, to ban "Glass" driving or not?

Typical fines for using a mobile phone while driving are £60 cash plus three penalty points on the driving license ; the points expire 3 years after the offence and if you accumulate 12 points then you've lost your license. Repeat offenders may experience higher fines and/ or more points. Around a million people have received the penalty since the mobile phone ban was introduced in 2003.

Comment Re: North Korean Tech at it's best (Score 1, Insightful) 125

Since he only got to tinker with it in the shop, but didn't actually buy one, then he didn't get the chance to examine it's bowels closely. for example, he notes that he could see configuration files relevant to WiFi, but couldn't get it to work. So, hardly a forensic investigation, more a quick poke around during a fag break.

Comment Re:Quick! (Score 1) 187

What if this thing gets out of hand and plants start to become larger as they are fed more nitrogen. We could become overrun with weed type plants that we can't control.

The plants would grow bigger ... until they start to run short of the next limiting nutrient. As a "for instance", maybe phosphorus? There is a reason that the commonest type of fertilizer is described as "NPK" - because it provides nitrogen (possibly fixed here, if you like that sort of pun), phosphorus and potassium, all often limiting nutrients in intensive agriculture.

Comment Re: And you think they're the only one why? (Score 4, Informative) 234

Here you go

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57593426-92/debate-sparked-about-benchmark-for-intel-arm-chips/

Meh. That link basically says that there are different results from different benchmarks. It says that it's a "not uncommon assertion" that companies "have attempted in the past to "manipulate" benchmarks", but that's not the same as finding code that overclocks the chip specifically when it's running benchmark programs

Comment Re:If hacking is outlawed (Score 1) 254

Skoda and Seat, both selling cars aimed at the cheaper end.

And having driven from-new both a VW-era Skoda and a VW itself, in future I'd probably take the Skoda.

Then again, I fully expect to not have to worry about the question for at least 3 more years, possibly as many as 5, depending on how much mileage the wife clocks up. Or what she drives into.

Comment Not equations. Graphs. (Score 1) 385

The innumeracy of the public is at a lower level than that. This is like arguing about whether kids should be taught calculus in school when they're struggling with basic arithmetic.

What we need is not more equations in the press, but more graphs, tables, and diagrams. I can't count the number of times I've seen a journalist try to explain, say, changing poll results or the interplay between mortgage rates and foreclosures using text, plus a quote from an expert which they clearly don't understand, when all they need is a quick line chart.

I'm a college professor, and in my classes that require essays I insist that the students incorporate graphical charts, maps, and diagrams. Generally speaking, they're awful at it, but it gets them thinking about data.

Comment Principles are expensive (Score 1) 529

Punishment for breaking a formal oath is usually much harsher for the same act performed while not under an oath. A person's "word" should be taken seriously and should be punished if broken. Of course blind trust is pure stupidity, but the expectation that an individual should "keep his word" is not. It's called "having principles", but be warned, these so called "principles" are expensive. Snowden and Manning took an oath that (at the time) they believed did not conflict with other strong principles they already held. Ironically the conflicting principles can both be described as patriotic.

Outside of a court, an oath means nothing

If there's an independent witness then it's a solid verbal contract in most legal systems around the world. In this case we're talking about the military who have their own oaths, laws, courts, police, judges, and jails. A soldiers "pinky swear" is taken very seriously by that system, especially when it's broken. I've never been a soldier but the fact that you appear to believe a (wo)man's word means nothing outside a court of law indicates the principle of "integrity" is too expensive for your particular personality.

Comment Re:NSA doesn't like the system it created??? (Score 1) 529

The reason freedom of the press exists is so that you don't have to rely on the goodwill of the government to "do the right thing" when you tell them you have found out what they are doing. WL is a legitimate press organization, they released the manning stuff at the same time as three well established and respected newspapers they partnered with, Guardian, NYT and Der Speigel. The news people did what WL did not have the resources and expertise to do, redacted the names of informants. The result - WL cops all the flack from the spooks, while the release and the role of the established newspapers is ignored.

Freedom of the press does not mean individual publishers have to apply for a license to publish.

Disclaimer: I don't like either Rupert Murdoch or Julian Assange steering the views of the public, they both have lousy personalities that I wouldn't associate with unless absolutely necessary, but they most certainly have a right to their freedoms, and not the least of those is the freedom of the press.

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