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Submission + - Hotel in UK tries to stifle freedom of speach (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: A couple have been "fined" £100 by a Blackpool hotel for leaving critical comments on Trip Advisor. Not only unfair trading practices, but stifling freedom of speech, and a violation of privacy and illegally storing credit card details.

Comment The main problem... (Score 1) 249

by Bizzeh (#48083693) Attached to: Why Do Contextual Ads Fail?

Aside from lack of privacy, the main problem i have with contextual ads is: Say i go to Halfords website to buy a few things.. Later that day, i will be inundated with ads for those particular products, from halfords. Why am i being targeted for things i have just bought a hour ago? When the analytics script should catch from the checkout page that i bought these. Contextual ads are always too late for me, I am constantly seeing advertisements for things i have already bought, or have already done.

Submission + - Why Microsoft skipped Windows 9

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: Microsoft may not be everybody's favorite company, but they are the kings of backwards compatibility. When testing what was Windows 9 (and is now Windows 10). It seems like they came across some compatibility issues from the Windows 9x days. Mentioned by Mikko Hypponen on twitter (https://twitter.com/mikko/status/517358472715710465), quite a lot of products test the version string with "indexOf("windows 9")". Using searchcode, we can see what he means. https://searchcode.com/?q=if(v...

Submission + - Should developers fix bugs in their own time? 7

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: Today my boss came to me with what he thought to be a valid point and analogy. If a builder builds a wall, and a week later, bricks begin to fall out of the bottom, but he continues to build the wall higher, he would have to replace those lower bricks he did not place correctly at his own expense and in his own time. When a software developer writes a piece of software, when bugs are discovered, they are paid to fix them by the company and on the companies time. I didn't know how to refute the analogy at the time, but it did make me think, why are bugs in software treated differently in this way?

Submission + - Why statistics lie, even though they look correct

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: Why does it seem like everything gives you cancer these days? Well, it doesn’t, there is still very little that is known about what actually causes the mutation that brings on a cancerous tumour. The reason studies find that things like bacon, beef, soft drinks, chocolate and more or less anything that taste nice, can give you cancer is because, that is what the person conducting the study wants to find. To understand this, you first need to know how these studies work (for the most part). A questionnaire will be created 1. do you eat crisps, 2. do you eat chocolate, 3. do you drink soft drinks, and so on. These questionnaires will then be handed out to cancer patients, about 1000 or so to make the study "valid". Once all these have been completed, any question where more than 50% of people answered yes becomes a probable cause, more than 60% means "this gives you cancer", because all these people are doing this, and they all also have cancer. They then hand out the same questionnaire to the people who have gone into remission, or have been cured, or had a false positive result, and ask them the same questions, because most of them already believe this rubbish, they would have avoided most things on the list, so would answer no, and less than 50% of them would have answered yes, meaning the reverse test supports the original test, if you don’t have these things, you won’t have cancer. The problem with these tests is that the questions are very closed questions, designed to get you to answer yes, or no, not allowing an in-between number or a "maybe", restricting the number of points within the data to calculate, giving what seems to be a concrete result. The tests are designed this way, because whoever came up with the tests wants a positive or negative result for that particular thing based on their own like or dislike of that particular thing. This is why poor news outlets publish this rubbish, and real information is published in real scientific publications. So the next time somebody says "you can’t eat that" "you can’t do that" "because it gives you cancer", unless your licking a nuclear fuel rod or trying to eat a microwave, ask them to back up their statement with a scientific journal and then ask them to take a one way flight into the sun.

Submission + - Fusion milestone passed at US lab (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: The BBC reports that Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion. Harnessing fusion — the process that powers the Sun — could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.

But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive.

Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion

Submission + - Gaming for kids

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: At the moment, even social or party or just "fun" games such as angry birds, cut the rope and bad piggies all seem to aim for a set market, young adults, and casual gamers who dont usually spend every day gaming. There does not seem to be a set publisher or developer of games for the newly budding gamer of the 18+ month year old, i.e. improving motor skills and hand eye coordination, and there seem to be a VERY limited market for kids that actually know what they are doing with a games console (roughly 5yrs+), unless you go for one of these "tablets" made by one of the toy companies, which the kids dont want, they want your real tablet, your real laptop or your real pc, with their games on there. Where are these markets?

Comment A store cannot look like a store? (Score 1, Insightful) 272

by Bizzeh (#42744125) Attached to: Apple Granted Trademark For Its Stores

HMV, Game, Debenhams, JJB, DW, JD... just a few stores i can think of now that have the all glass front, the table and stool layout, currys use it, comet used to use it, asda use it in their electronics departments... seems prior art doesnt count for anything anymore, neither does "your patent cant be completely fucking retarded".

Comment problem (Score 1) 1388

by Bizzeh (#42535477) Attached to: Smart Guns To Stop Mass Killings

there is the small problem of the hundreds of millions of guns that already exist that do not already have this technology in them and convincing people their old guns arnt as good as the new guns

Comment Not entirely sure... (Score 1) 65

by Bizzeh (#42445453) Attached to: A Firecracker-Launching Slingshot: Start the New Year With a Bang

not entirely sure why you would need a slingshot to light something that you can usually buy with a rocket attached in any firework shop. just light the rocket and away you go. and as for "easily crashes through a card board box", the UK rockets will blow a hole through a window or blow the exhaust of a car.

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