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Submission + - Our Brains Could Be Datamined

Jason Koebler writes: Brainwave-tracking is becoming increasingly common in the consumer market, with the gaming industry at the forefront of the trend. “Neurogames” use brain-computer interfaces and electroencephalographic (EEG) gadgets like the Emotiv headset to read brain signals and map them to in-game actions, basically giving the player virtual psychic superpowers.
EEG data “high-dimensional,” meaning a single signal can reveal a lot of information about you: if you have a mental illness, are prone to addiction, your emotions, mood, and taste. If that data from gaming was collected and mined, it could theoretically be matched with other datasets culled from online data mining to create a complete profile of an individual that goes far beyond what they divulge through social media posts and emails alone. That's led some to develop privacy systems that protect your thoughts from hackers.

Submission + - No, Oreos Aren't as Addictive as Cocaine (vice.com)

Daniel_Stuckey writes: Students at Connecticut College opted for the second option, and the consequences that ensued were much more annoying than making some arts and crafts with a darn mouse. Fox News reported that a "College study finds Oreo cookies are as addictive as drugs," Forbes explained "Why Your Brain Treats Oreos Like a Drug," and a ton of other sites ran with the story as well.

Here's how the experiment, which has not been peer reviewed and has not been presented yet, went down. Mice were placed in a maze, with one end holding an Oreo and the other end holding a rice cake. The mice, without fail, decided to eat the Oreo over the rice cake, proving once and for all that mice like cookies better than tasteless discs with a styrofoamy texture.

Submission + - Blizzard Entertainment wins legal battle with a small WoW bot company (ceilingfansoftware.com)

gamersunited writes: After more than 2 years of legal battles with Blizzard Entertainment to both pursue Ceiling Fan Software's right to operate and their customer’s right to play WoW as they choose, Ceiling Fan Software did not prevail in the suit and have been ordered by the United States District Court in California to cease their operations. A link to the ruling is here.

Comment Re:0.001km = 0.01hm = 1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm (Score 2) 909

1 mm is roughly 1/32 Inches - so right off the bat there you've got have the accuracy that you asked for.

1/32 is approximately 26% smaller than 1mm. How is that even remotely accurate?

Consider, if you want a 3ft shelf and you estimate it using your method you would want a 1153mm shelf when what you really want is one approximately 914mm. That's a pretty big difference. Nevermind how that would scale to anything larger.

Comment Re:0.001km = 0.01hm = 1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm (Score 2) 909

10mm of rain falls over a 1km^2 drainage area. How much volume does the drainage system have to dispose of?

Now do it for imperial with inches of rain and acres of area. Oh, and did you choose gallons or cu ft?

Proper measurement of rainfall like that would be acre-ft. So neither gallons or cu-ft would be appropriate.

Comment Missing Metrics (Score 1) 345

Seems to me that this program is missing some critical metrics of driving safety. As an app it has the potential to monitor other phone activities while driving. I think that beyond the basic GPS based speed / location measurements and the accelerometer data they should be interested in how distracted the driver is by their mobile.

Say they're texting or browsing the web while driving but still doing the speed limit. The way this program is being described there would be no penalty. In reality the driver is by far more of a hazard to those around them and should pay a higher premium as they are more likely to be involved in an incident.

Comment Re:Glad someone is challenging this (Score 1) 566

I understand that speed limits are too low, but you're comlaining about getting a ticket for doing something illegal, because the exact extent to which you were violating the law was off by a fraction?

The thing is with speeding tickets magnitude matters. There is a graduated scale for the fines with larger fines and more points for exceeding the speed limit by more. So yes it makes sense to challenge the magnitude. If you get a ticket for 12 mph over the limit the fine is say $150 plus 2 points (numbers I'm pulling out of my ass but are fairly representative), now if the automated camera is adding 4 mph more on top that puts you at 16 mph over which would then put you at a $225 fine and 3 points. This is a nontrivial difference.

On a side note, as a designer of roads and bridges I can say that the speed limits are influenced by the geometry of the road and the location (i.e. while it may be geometrically possible it is a bad idea to have a residential street posted for 50 mph). There are some cases where unscrupulous towns/villages/cities will post a lower speed limit than the surrounding areas as a way to increase revenue. This is can be challenged court and is frequently overturned. Also in areas where there are lower posted speed limits for things like curves (black on yellow) and construction areas (black on orange) the lower limits per MUTCD are not enforceable as those signs particularly the black on yellow are just suggestions. To lower the posted limit the signs must be the standard regulatory black letters on white they can only jump 10 mph at a time (i.e. you can't go from a 45 to a 25 in one jump) and there must be advance warning signs "reduced speed ahead". When in doubt about a speed limit or regulatory sign or even a traffic light timing consult a good highway engineering text and the MUTCD.

Comment Re:Use aliases. (Score 1) 323

recieving one rejection letter after another

Whoa, you mean people still send out rejection letters? Generally I never hear back from prospective employers (I've applied to probably 12 different companies over the last year heard back from 1), even when I try to follow up myself I get nowhere. After enough time passes I just give up hope completely.

Comment Re:The smart phone got him off? (Score 1) 254

Plus, they have the incentive of getting a day's pay for just sitting around in court surfing the web on their laptops until the case comes up and gets dismissed.

As a side note, police districts typically pay officers time-and-a-half or double-time for Court time.

Having been involved first hand with several Law Enforcement Agencies and actually knowing people in the courts who are the traffic clerks (they process all those tickets etc.) I can say that at least in my small end of PA the LEO's are not on overtime of any sort while in court. Typically the court block schedules the officers hearings (may attend several hearings back to back) on a day he is on his regularly scheduled shift. The officer then goes "out" at the court, meaning that he is occupied and will not be responding to other calls. After the hearing(s) the officer will then go back "in" and continue responding to incidents as needed. If he is off duty, he comes in on his own accord, most officers will not do that, on extremely rare occasions if you did something crazy or the officer has a bug up his ass will you see them not on a regular shift. If the prosecuting officer cannot attend because they are occupied with another incident or they are off the case is dismissed.

Comment Is it possible (Score 1) 312

to create an alternate to PSN that people with hacked/homebrew systems can access? I see no problem Sony wants to lock you out from their network to preserve the playability/integrity of it, in fact that kinda makes sense to me. Just develop and manage a network just for the people who want to cheat/exploit and then everybody can still play. Access to the alternate network would probably require you to install some sort of patch redirecting your connection there which should be easy enough if the system is already rooted.

That's just my $0.02 if somebody wants to explain I'm more than happy to learn something new.

**Disclaimer** I am not a gamer and know nothing about the PS3

Comment Re:computerandvideogames.com comments (Score 1) 218

Would you accept a locked-down device that offers a cheaper product, or is it 100% about the principle? For example, armed with the knowledge that Amazon can pretty much delete any book they want from your device at their whim, is there a price low enough that you'd be willing to pay? $1 / book, $20 for the device itself, for example.

Sure we all have our price. For the device if it is a locked down single purpose device I can't see paying more than the cost of the actual plastic and silicon it's made from plus maybe 10% for profit after all they did develop this wonderful device. For something open I'm willing to be more reasonable and I'll pay what would be expected, with the exception of if you are charging me 100% markup above materials, but that's not really reasonable anyway.

For media that I cannot control I would be willing to pay up to and no more than absolutely nothing. If I paid for it and you can take it away, I may as well not have paid for it because I sure as hell will NOT pay for it again. Give me a product that I can control and use the way I want to and I'm willing to pay a fair price for it whatever that may be $0.75/song $15-$20/book etc.

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