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Comment Re:This doesn't prove anything (Score 1) 437

Likeliness calculated off of some random model -- now that there's "science". Yee-haw!

It's idiocy to compare test anomalies as a deviance from a *random* model. Intelligence itself is a deviance from a random model.

Understanding, and even mis-understanding of subject matter or test wording in a classroom by students can be highly correlated or somewhat clustered or not. Even those poor student that choose some answers randomly may subconsciously use the same patterns to do so. Small clusters outside a large "baseline" correlation are conclusive proof of cheating only to an ignoramus, or to someone who's selling you something.

So all it takes is two like-minded thinkers to coincide in their understanding and mis-understanding on some number of answers and they're branded cheaters?

Comment Solution perhaps to SPAM, but not piracy. (Score 1) 421

Applying this to pirate content is kind of lame, since payments aren't what drives that. BUT I've always thought the Visa+Mastercard collectively have always had the power to end 90% of all spam, and could do it in a matter of weeks.

All it would take is:

  1) terms of service forbidding UCE for products.

  2) a few effectively placed honeypot/canary accounts

  3) a couple tiger teams to place orders for the products that get spammed, and

  4) kick the plug on the commercial accounts that deposit the money.

I would venture to guess that the financial services sector spends more overall on anti-spam/excess bandwidth/malware removal for their own infrastructure than they make from those few stinking transactions.

Comment N.H.S. Pinafore (Score 3, Interesting) 572

I've seen that N.H.S. Pinafore show before. I can even still hum some of the snappy lyrics.

I hold when diagnosing a disease,
The expression, "if you please",
A particularly gentlemanly tone implants.
And so do my sisters, and my cousins, and my aunts!

Stick close to your desk
And never check a pulse
and you may all be rulers
of our hospitals.

or something like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-ZZRXBEcM with "please" goodness at 4:00 and 5:40

Just who does this Doctor Dick Deadeye think he is? Doesn't he know that a British lab technician is any man's equal, (excepting, of course, mine).

Comment My Trifecta. (Score 1) 716

Sorry to hear that. I'd like to chime in on this one.

I have 3 lovely, well adjusted, funny, principled, intelligent daughters. I do not deserve them.

All 3 were valedictorians of their HS, without pushing by us.

Anecdotal? Perhaps, but harder to argue with results * 3.

I've never before shared this much info about what we did. FWIW, YMMV, etc.

1) Give them the gift of self esteem. Demonstrate your believe in their intrinsic worth, and act out of love only. This does not mean giving them every toy they want, but it does mean make sacrifices when you can for the best aspirations of your kids, and constantly showing them how much you appreciate them. Be sentimental and approachable. I think my kids knew I would have been no less their fan if they were D students.

2) They need you, give them all of you. Don't hold back and don't ever fake it with them. They know you; no double standards! If that movie is bad for your kids, parents can do without watching it. Schedule regular whole-family time and 1:1 time. Family dinners together are important.

3) Humor and curiosity are some of the best tools. Demonstrate them. Memorize funny poems, make music together, show how to take things apart, and keep it all upbeat, even crazy.

4) Don't let anyone else raise your kids. That includes daycare and school systems. I lean toward public school system over homeschooling, and it worked out for us, but that depended on what the system had to work with. Social development and problem solving is important. So are friends. Be involved parents, room mothers, etc. Know the kids in their K-6 classes; they end up on your doorstep asking for dates. Here's the tough part, but it proved extremely important: I barely made a living wage and my wife made more than me when we decided one would stay home. It was her call who would. I don't know if I would be able to look my kids in the eyes if we hadn't sacrificed.

5) Money incentives? Oh ya. Make cash match effort was my philosophy. They got a pittance for base allowances but kept job-journals as they learned to write and were richly rewarded for finding new ways to help. In school, the first A is the easiest, even hard not to get. That last A is a bear, it's the subject they don't like. My kids got $1 for the first A, and the pay doubled for each additional A. They nearly bankrupted me. Long term, the investment works out. The youngest just took her MCAT.

Comment My Summary of the Article (Score 1) 626

Since I see little evidence that timothy or Mr. Chapman read the article, I'll do them a favor so they don't have to click:

< article paycheck="undeserved" >

Hi I'm Agam Shah and I'm writing an article about multicore processors, but these concepts are so new to me that I'm putting quotees around "race conditions" like it's frickin' sharks with lasers.

So then I did a Google search on "parallel programming tools" and it help me get another paragraph out of the way.

Oh, and I quote some lamer analyst who has never heard of NUMA or libhoard, so I'll try to fabricate some crisis that the problems they address might never be solved.

Parallel programming is hard, WAH! WAH!

Oh, except when it's not, as in that trivial application named Photoshop. I'll write one of those next weekend.

Comment Better Criteria (Score 1) 347

It seems the article and the report casts the net too wide.

Some mega-corps (like Coca-Cola and Cisco) actually do business everywhere, and even though they show considerable numbers of businesses in tax havens, those are a small fraction (10%) of the total number of countries in which they have offices. For companies like that, I'd be surprised to find a country where they are *not* operating.

Others, like Chevron and Goldman Sachs, show over half of their foreign operations in tax-haven locales. To me, that sounds very slimy.

Others are somewhere in between, probably representing a somewhat disproportionate presence in tax havens.

What else would you expect? Corporations do behave like psychopaths.

United States

Submission + - Font Freedom Day (trumpetpower.com)

TrumpetPower! writes: "On September 29, 1988, the Library of Congress Copyright Office issued a notice of policy decision (4 Mbyte coralized PDF) in the Federal Register “to inform the public that the Copyright Office has decided that digitized representations of typeface designs are not registrable under the Copyright Act because they do not constitute original works of authorship.” In observance of Font Freedom day, go ahead and share some of your favorite fonts with your friends — and do so entirely guilt-free!"
Portables

Submission + - ACER Sent me back my Tablet damaged and NONworking

iv_vi writes: Hi, At the beginning of this month I sent my Acer Tablet to be repaired because I had problems with my optical drive (two times in the last 4 months) and FLASHING screen (very annoying! on 14"). When I got it back a week later it appeared that the latch did not work, there was a dent on the cover and the most important thing — it was NOT working at all. After I talked with a supervisor from Acer Support, at least I was told he was one, he said that they will accept the tablet back and I should not pay for sending it to them (very nice of them!) and he promised that they will extend my warranty. Once I receive it back two days ago I noticed that they had fix the latch and the tablet was working. BUT the keys for launching wireless and bluetooth do not work, the space bar is not working most of the time, the dent was still here and ... the screen is FLASHING again (they claim they replaced the inverter). I talked with Costumer Service immediately — they refuse to fix the dent, they wanted me to pay for the shipping (flashing screen is a problem that appeared two times in the same month and by all means should be their responsibility) and finally almost at the very end of the conversation they agreed to cover this expense, and they say they DO NOT have a record for extending my warranty, no word why my screen is still having the same problem. Sending them working Tablet and receiving not working one?!? My questions are: What can I do? What should I do? (You think about the quality of the product!)
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Silences Criticism in New Terms of Servic (bellsouth.net) 1

marco13185 writes: AT&T's new Terms of Service give AT&T the right to suspend your account and all service "for conduct that AT&T believes"..."(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." After cooperating with the government's violations of privacy and liberties, I guess AT&T wants their fair share. AT&T users may want to think twice about commenting if they value their internet service.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Satellite images show Myanmar abuses (msn.com) 1

Lucas123 writes: "Satellite images that resulted from a year-long study just released by The American Association for the Advancement of Science, human rights campaigners and commercial satellite providers show evidence from above that Burma's military-led government has engaged in a long campaign of destroying villages and relocating villagers. "Human-rights groups say that more than 3,000 villages have been destroyed in an effort to crush opposition to the junta. Civil unrest in Myanmar has created 1.5 million refugees and 500,000 internally displaced people, and 1,300 political prisoners are in jail, according to human-rights reports.""
United States

Submission + - Texas Lawmakers Steal Votes (youtube.com) 4

absentmindedjwc writes: "It appears lawmakers in Texas frequently walk around the house floor casting votes for members who are not at their seat. Some members are seen on video casting as many as 4 votes. One member goes on camera to justify this practice as necessary in order to allow fellow house members time for lunch and personal time.

Watch the video and determine for yourself if you think these people are doing this as a "favor" for their colleagues, or if they might just be stealing votes."

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