Comment No, thanks. (Score 1) 124
I'm good with Star Wars (1977), its prequel Rogue One (2016), and the latter's prequel TV series Andor (2022-2205).
Submission + - Musk's Reports of Social Security Payments to the Dead Are Greatly Exaggerated 1
theodp writes: While Doge.gov still vows to get to the bottom of an Elon Musk tweet claiming that "there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," the AP and others are reporting that Musk's reports of social security payments being made to dead people are greatly exaggerated.
"The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments," reports the AP. "It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data. [...] A series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits. The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million."
"Know Thy Data," AnnMaria De Mars wrote in a 2016 blog post, "[is] the most important commandment in statistics. [...] It is crucial to understand how your data are coded before you go making stupid statements like the average mother is 3 months old." While it was offered for the likes of her epidemiology students, De Mars' advice would also be well-heeded by the richest person in the world as plays data scientist with the nation's data.
"The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments," reports the AP. "It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data. [...] A series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits. The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million."
"Know Thy Data," AnnMaria De Mars wrote in a 2016 blog post, "[is] the most important commandment in statistics. [...] It is crucial to understand how your data are coded before you go making stupid statements like the average mother is 3 months old." While it was offered for the likes of her epidemiology students, De Mars' advice would also be well-heeded by the richest person in the world as plays data scientist with the nation's data.
Submission + - NOAA scientists need permission to speak to external colleagues now (www.cbc.ca)
sandbagger writes: Travelling for international meetings or even joining a call with Canadian counterparts has become impossible for some U.S. government scientists, under new directives since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.
Comment Too little, too late for me (Score 1) 217
I've already switched back to Linux. I'm done paying twice the price for mediocre hardware.
Sure, the Mac experience can be nice, but it's not *that* nice.
Comment Re:Apple only a consumer-level gadget company now. (Score 2) 525
I'm getting away from Mac, too, having run exclusively them since Mac OS X 10.1 was released. Before that, I ran Linux, and recently I've begun the process of transferring back. I recently built myself a nice 8th-gen i5 system and loaded Manjaro Linux on it. Life's good!
Comment It's the commercials (Score 5, Insightful) 209
I'll never, ever pay to watch commercials.
If you must have commercials in your content, make it free to stream.
If you must ask me to pay for your content, don't put commercials in it.
This is non-negotiable. I will do without rather than pay for commercials.
Comment Not mine (Score 1) 46
I'm blocking all HTTPS traffic. I don't trust it. What are they trying to hide?
Netflix To Re-Encode Entire 1 Petabyte Video Catalogue In 2016 To Save Bandwidth (variety.com) 285
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix has spent four years developing a new and more efficient video-encoding process that can shave off 20% in terms of space and bandwidth without reducing the quality of streamed video. With streaming video accounting for 70% of broadband use, the saving is much-needed, although the advent of 4K streaming, higher frame rates and HDR are likely to account for it all soon after. Netflix video algorithms manager Anne Aaron explained to Variety that certain types of video benefit little from the one-size-fits-all compression approach that Netflix has been using until now: "You shouldn't allocate the same amount of bits for My Little Pony as for The Avengers."
Comment Re:Why not just do it right? (Score 1) 307
To me, it's sci-fi in the sense that the premise is that a scientist, decades ago, made multiple clones of someone. And also that, today, there is at least one group which can do custom gene splicing in adults to merge species' characteristics. That sort of thing.
Comment Re:Why not just do it right? (Score 1) 307
One more for the sci-fi that's out right now: Orphan Black. I've been enjoying that one.
(As for Continuum, I thought it got much better after season 1. Too bad it's been cancelled, but at least they were given enough notice that they could plan the last season around that fact.)
Comment Re:His first mistake was changing his lifestyle (Score 1) 842
The idea of making changes incrementally is a good one. It reminds me of the advice I heard from someone who was able to retire in his early 50s. He quickly learned that, when people he meets ask him what he does for a living, he shouldn't say "I'm retired." People get jealous, react negatively, etc. So he started telling people he's taking a sabbatical, and that's worked much better for him.
Comment Re:Game design tools? (Score 1) 111
Ah, I see. I couldn't quite tell based on what he'd written. Thanks for the clarification!
Comment Re:Game design tools? (Score 1) 111
Are you aware that Steve Jackson designs tabletop games, not computer games?
Comment Re:why are we still doing this (Score 2) 332
Sounds like you want to own what you buy.
What are you, some kind of socialist?
Comment Atari 800 (Score 2) 702
My Atari 800 home computer is my longest-lasting, hardest-working electronics device. It was built like a tank (the metal shielding alone weighs several pounds).
Other than that, I suppose my alarm clock. I've had it since 1988 and it just keeps going. Nothing fancy - LED display, just a clock with alarm, no radio functionality or anything like that.
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The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory emancipated from the order of space and time. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
