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Comment Re:Targeted Ads at their best (Score 1) 284

To be fair, Mitnick's Security Awareness Training is directed at IT people & management, & so is part of Schneier's solution of helping us keep the user out of these situations in the first place. It is the sort of thing that helps us as IT professionals avoid these situations, and it's engaging. I got a quickie session, and it was very informative, and a hoot as well.

Comment Good Samaritan Laws (Score 5, Insightful) 467

My main concern is this: If the manufacturer gets punished for failing to properly support out of warranty hardware, they'll just stop altogether. Too many manufacturers will already refuse to talk to you about out of warranty equipment.

Since they tried to help, I'd prefer not to see them punished for this mistake. Think of it like good samaritan laws: They protect a person who stops to offer aid to the injured, from being sued.

My other thought is that perhaps there was some hidden problem that something in the update triggered. Updates often have new functionality, or may write to memory not used before, so it isn't too hard to imagine them tickling an existing bug. For a car analogy, imagine you bought a used car from a friend and complained that it shook horribly at 75, but since your friend never went over 65 he never noticed when the tires and alignment deteriorated to that point.

Finally, I'm appalled that they don't make old firmware versions available. That would be the appropriate response to your problem. Hopefully you can find someone helpful who has the old firmware around, either inside or outside the companies. Definitely appropriate for people to be warned that these updates can cause problems.

Comment Working Interview, crazy environment (Score 1) 232

Awhile ago, I answered an ad and took an online test for a position where I'd be sole sysadmin and support person for a camp in the mountains. Terms were $20 per hour and room and board, but I'd get snowed in reguarly. I aced the online test, and went up for my interview. On arrival, I was told to be subtle, as the person I was replacing was still working there, and didn't know he was leaving. Welcome!

After the interview with the owner (old lesson: Sole Proprietors are crazy) I met with various high level users, to discuss their problems. In each case, I suggested a solutions, some of which were implemented then and there.

Not a place I was eager to work, but I'd been out of work for a long time, and they were eager to have me. Fortunately, I took a position which payed a great deal more, wasn't an insane environment, and I never looked back. The camp did hold the position for me for quite some time, in case the other job didn't work out. Just a data point about the "working interview."

Comment Pschiatry for depression saves lives (Score 1) 213

Still nonsense. Psychiatry for depression saves lives. Not a scam. This matters.

Psychiatrists are not frauds (which is exactly what the word "scam" implies.) Tom Cruise is "not right about this too." Psychiatric treadment for major depression saves lives.

Tom Cruise is Jenny McCarthy to depressives. Tom Cruise claims his religion works better that medicine. Medicine that helps people with major depression (which you ignore) to not commit suicide. Suicide: 10th leading cause of death worldwide.

It is unfortunate that SSRIs appear to be overprescribed. Having personally known people for whom they seem to have worked, I certainly can see how psychiatrists (whom you have characterized as scammers) might sincerely disagree with you.

If you don't mean do support Scientology, stop mischaracterizing a treatment that saves lives as a scam. Stop claiming that "Tom Cruise is right".

Comment Re:If you sleep with a dog, you get fleas (Score 1) 213

Nonsense. Assuming your quoted study is valid, there is much more to psychiatry that works, and well.

You've pointed out one limited mistake, but the fact is that even granting that, we know for certain that other antidepressants save lives in severely depressed people. The referenced study is very limited (only addresses moderately depressed people, only SSRIs.) That's not where antidepressants are most important. Severly depressed people tend to kill themselves, and antidepressants help prevent this. Calling all of psychiatry a scam because some popular methods are flawed, is a far worse error than your accusation against psychiatry.

Like a lot of medicine, it doesn't work as well as we'd like, but it's much better than anything else out there. Psychiatry includes other methods of treatment besides drugs as well. Scientology doesn't. You aren't allowed to use any treatment they don't approve of, including proven psychiatric drugs.

Comment Not an incentive problem (Score 0) 468

This is a management problem, not an incentive problem. Deal with these people as individuals. Some aren't pulling their weight? The manager should probably convey that to them, and that their behavior is unfairly causing others to have to work harder. Just remember that slacking off when things are quiet is its own incentive, and be sure you're not just asking people to look busy.

Comment conservatives oppose testable results (Score 1) 734

Outcome Based Education means only having testable results, and promoting based on achievement, not on what has been thrown at the students. Look it up yourself in Wikipedia, that's what I did. You can call names all you want, but the article is very clear on that. This is how education traditionally worked, not the "social promotion" and other programs that aren't serving us well now.

From Wikipedia:
"OBE in itself does not specify or require any particular style of teaching or learning. Instead, it requires that students demonstrate that they have learned the required skills and content."

Now, the article goes on to make unsupported claims about how OBE is praticed, but in principle, you're opposing testable results.

You need to improve your critical thinking skills.

Comment likely MUCH more common (orders of magnitude) (Score 1) 274

This appears in the human population at a much higher rate than that, according to one study that found a significant number 13% of Alzheimer's patients were misdiagnosed Creuzfeld Jacob Disease patients. Note that this was a small study, and behind a paywall so the original material isn't easily available. I'll be looking for the original.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=2545230&dopt=abstractplus

Add to this that the disease takes a decade to produce symptoms in people, and it becomes apparent that our testing of cows isn't likely to find anything.

 

Comment Re:Licensed through ASCAP (Score 1) 452

There's no indication whether or not the song is paid for through the standard licensing. To assume it is, is as unjustified as to assume it isn't. Politicians tend to assume everything they do is fair use as in http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/01/29/2015203/romney-invokes-fair-use-in-dispute-with-nbc-over-campaign-ad. Unfortunately, without that information, the article is pointless.

Artist with existing contract doesn't like what happened to his song, with no information about existing contract.

Comment Re:Password manager? (Score 1) 339

https://pip.verisignlabs.com/
Passwords can be stored encrypted and online with 2-factor for access with Symantec Personal Identity Portal. The 2-factor was the point at which I became willing to store the passwords online. Sorry if it's spammy, but it's a free product that works well for me. Online encrypted storage, second factor token software.

I don't necessarily trust Symantec, and half expect them to discontinue this in the most inconvenient way possible, but it works for me for now.

Iphone

Submission + - iOS App Acoustically Measures Distances Up To 25 m (wordpress.com)

n01 writes: A recently published app for the iOS platform uses the propagation of sound waves to measure distances of up to 25 meters in a dual device mode. The technique works through repeatedly sending a chirp signal from the master device to which the other ("reflector") device synchronizes itself and then replies in a similar fashion. A novel combination of techniques has been engineered to enhance the robustness in noisy environments, such as using an optimum-autocorrelation-signal and semi-automatic frequency calibration together with an averaging over multiple cycles. Disclaimer: I'm the developer and will be available to answer your questions.

Note: I'm resubmitting this, because the earlier version had the headline truncated. Please remove this last paragraph before publishing. Thank you!

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