Comment Redshift = far away? (Score 1) 75
Are we sure that redshift is caused by velocity, and not that the universe is losing mass?
Wouldn't explain why the "early" universe is so dense/large. (It started off as uniform/infinite.)
Comment Re:Safety is between the ears ... is BS (Score 1) 110
I wrote an embedded project in Forth once.
In Forth you manually manage the stack.... which really sucks. (Every return must always clean stack properly)
10 years ago it occurred to me: Why on earth would c/c++ do it 1/2 way; Why would the compiler automatically handle the stack but not the heap???
Recently as a developer maintaining an older database/application I've come to realize 2 things:
- Humans are very inaccurate: At 4% error rates, you must encode error correction into your dialogue with humans.
- Programmers are humans too.
Comment Is it just me? (Score 4, Insightful) 44
Or does having a third party "hold onto your passwords for you" sound like pure unmitigated stupidity?
Comment AI features (Score 1) 286
Why aren't individual features grown organically?
Each feature can be previewed & voted on by a subset of the users. If a feature gets high marks, roll it out to the rest of the users.
We have all these tools designed to feed us the content we want based on likes/dislikes (youtube, facebook, etc etc) why can't we use these same features to direct software development?
Comment Actually (Score 2) 299
The explanation is that it works by Swimming through Spacetime.
Comment DSP (Score 2) 291
A GPU is no longer a Graphics Processing Unit, it's a general purpose DSP usable for tasks that have simple logic that must done in a massively parallel fashion. No, I'm actually not talking about mining bitcoins or specialty stuff, I'm talking about things like physics engines.
On the other hand, they are still WAY behind the curve measured by the "My screen isn't 4xAA RAYTRACED yet" crowd.
Comment Refuse Receipt? (Score 1) 162
Is it possible to refuse to accept any bitcoins that were seized? If so then management becomes like the spam blocking lists.
Comment Re:lol @ escape velocity (Score 1) 104
Go play Kerbal Space Program. It's fun and (sshh don't tell anyone:) educational. You will learn about escape velocity, Isp, Periapsis, Apoapsis, Orbital intercepts, aerobraking, etc. Oh and don't kill too many Kerbals while you're at it
Comment Steam Baloon (Score 1) 72
Would a coating like this help lower the weight of water clinging to the inside of an insulated steam balloon?
Submission + - i-Snake, a new robotic surgeon
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Several newspapers in the UK have published today very short articles about the i-Snake, a new surgical robot which will be developed at the Imperial College London (ICL). For example, The Times of London writes that the ICL team has won a £2.1 million grant (2.84 million or US$4.2 million) to design this surgical robot over the next four or five years. This highly flexible robot 'could allow coronary bypass operations to be performed without the need for open-heart surgery.' And it would help heal your heart after travelling through blood vessels. The research team thinks that the i-Snake could also be used as a diagnosis tool replacing the eyes of a surgeon when looking inside us. But read more for many additional details."
Submission + - Office 2003SP3: Old file formats, now unavailable! 3
time961 writes: "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft has disabled support for many older file formats, so if you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are "less secure", which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source.
Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.
One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.
This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."
Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.
One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.
This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."
Submission + - Convincing the Military to Embrace Open Source (linuxinsider.com)
drewmoney writes: Misconceptions about open source software have made many U.S. Defense Department sectors reluctant to employ this technology. Although a 2003 department policy allows its use, many still believe that open source software poses an increased security risk to networks and that it is not supported as well as commercial products.
Submission + - Grid computing saves cancer researchers 162 years (itnews.com.au)
Stony Stevenson writes: Canadian researchers have promised to squeeze "decades" of cancer research into just two years by harnessing the power of a global PC grid. The scientists are the first from Canada to use IBM's World Community Grid network of PCs and laptops with the power equivalent to one of the globe's top five fastest supercomputers. The team will use the grid to analyse the results of experiments on proteins using data collected by scientists at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute in Buffalo, New York. The researchers estimate that this analysis would take conventional computer systems 162 years to complete.
Submission + - Bill to require Open Access to Scientific Papers 2
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Congress is expected to vote this week on a bill requiring investigators funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to publish research papers only in journals that are made freely available within one year of publication. Until now, repeated efforts to legislate such a mandate have failed under pressure from the well-heeled journal publishing industry and some nonprofit scientific societies whose educational activities are supported by the profits from journals that they publish. Scientists assert that open access will speed innovation by making it easier for them to share and build on each other's findings. The measure is contained in a spending bill that boosts the biomedical agency's effective budget by 3.1%, to $29.8 billion in 2008. The open-access requirement in the bill would apply only during fiscal year 2008; it would need to be renewed in yearly spending bills in the future."
Submission + - First RIAA case victim finally speaks out. (p2pnet.net)
An anonymous reader writes: It’s, “no secret
that
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to
the growth of online file sharing with a wave of copyright infringement
litigation,” wrote James Alonso, Marc Friedenberg, Michael
Nguyen,
Shawn Oakley and Sarah Calvert from The Columbia Science &
Technology Law Review.
“Often, the individuals targeted by the RIAA fear the overwhelming costs of defending themselves in court, and many have agreed to pay large settlements.”
Often, but not always.
Now, inspired by the examples of people such as the five very reluctant heroines mentioned below, increasing numbers of victims are deciding not to let themselves be terrorised into settling.
The five, courageous in every sense of the word, are:
But it’s Thomas, the first of the American RIAA victims to actually appear in court, who’s caught the attention of the international mainstream media for more than just a day or two.
Horrified by the negative (for them) PR the case has been generating, using their connections, political power and influence, the labels are doing their best to distort facts and spin Thomas as a cold schemer whose depredations forced the RIAA to take her to court.
Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, said he was “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial” when in fact, the organisation has done everything it can to stop any of these cases actually reaching a judge and jury.
Thomas has also achieved two other firsts:
As far as I know, she’s the first to launch her own forum, and for the first time since she was forced into the limelight, she’s telling her own story, in her own words.
One of the subjects she touches on was that it wasn't her decision to replace the harddrive. This fact was a major decision in her persecution.
also never dreamt how large of a story my case would become. Before I went to court, no one except those close to me knew of this situation I was dealing with. Now, I can Google my name and read articles about me. A very odd and surreal feeling for me as I never wanted this much notoriety, ever. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles I’ve read are full of half-truths, conjectures, and right out lies. I can understand media outlets having a deadline to meet, but I cannot understand media outlets filling the holes in their stories with incorrect information.
‘Best Buy made the decision to replace the hard drive’
I would like to now talk about some of that incorrect information which has plagued news articles and comments. First, I will finally set straight the issue with my computer hard drive, when it was replaced, why it was replaced, who replaced it and what might have happened to the old drive. I have read many comments and articles that I had my hard drive replaced after I learned of my suit. This could not be further from the truth. What most people don’t know, if I did have my hard drive replaced after I was served the initial complaint to this suit, that would be considered spoliation of evidence, which is a criminally prosecutable offense. All the following dates, keep in mind so you can see the timeline yourself.
“Often, the individuals targeted by the RIAA fear the overwhelming costs of defending themselves in court, and many have agreed to pay large settlements.”
Often, but not always.
Now, inspired by the examples of people such as the five very reluctant heroines mentioned below, increasing numbers of victims are deciding not to let themselves be terrorised into settling.
The five, courageous in every sense of the word, are:
- Patti Santangelo, a New York mother of five children, two of whom have now become RIAA targets
- Rae-Jay Schwartz, another mother, bound to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, the terrible central nervous system disease
- Marie Lindor, a 57-year-old home health aid whose knowledge of computers and computer systems is zero
- Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living off a disability pension
- Jammie Thomas, a young mother of two from Minnesota
But it’s Thomas, the first of the American RIAA victims to actually appear in court, who’s caught the attention of the international mainstream media for more than just a day or two.
Horrified by the negative (for them) PR the case has been generating, using their connections, political power and influence, the labels are doing their best to distort facts and spin Thomas as a cold schemer whose depredations forced the RIAA to take her to court.
Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, said he was “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial” when in fact, the organisation has done everything it can to stop any of these cases actually reaching a judge and jury.
Thomas has also achieved two other firsts:
As far as I know, she’s the first to launch her own forum, and for the first time since she was forced into the limelight, she’s telling her own story, in her own words.
One of the subjects she touches on was that it wasn't her decision to replace the harddrive. This fact was a major decision in her persecution.
also never dreamt how large of a story my case would become. Before I went to court, no one except those close to me knew of this situation I was dealing with. Now, I can Google my name and read articles about me. A very odd and surreal feeling for me as I never wanted this much notoriety, ever. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles I’ve read are full of half-truths, conjectures, and right out lies. I can understand media outlets having a deadline to meet, but I cannot understand media outlets filling the holes in their stories with incorrect information.
‘Best Buy made the decision to replace the hard drive’
I would like to now talk about some of that incorrect information which has plagued news articles and comments. First, I will finally set straight the issue with my computer hard drive, when it was replaced, why it was replaced, who replaced it and what might have happened to the old drive. I have read many comments and articles that I had my hard drive replaced after I learned of my suit. This could not be further from the truth. What most people don’t know, if I did have my hard drive replaced after I was served the initial complaint to this suit, that would be considered spoliation of evidence, which is a criminally prosecutable offense. All the following dates, keep in mind so you can see the timeline yourself.
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