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Comment Re:Zim (Score 2) 187

I started using Zim 10 years back and I keep coming back to it, after trying out several solutions: OneNote, Obsidian, Emacs org-mode, Evernote, and then some. The stability that Zim has is amazing. Its developer is conscientious, and has taken the path of gradual and slow development rather than trying to tackle every problem in a single shot.

Comment Same answer in every era (Score 1) 96

If this question was asked in the 1970s (50 years back), the highest-voted answer would still have been 50 years. I think this answer would remain constant with time. Forever. Hence, my answer is NEVER. Machines would never be able to "feel" the same as we do. That is why they struggle with the most uniquely human tasks like language. It is that emotion that we feel which has in fact led us to solve the most challenging scientific and mathematical problems. We possess a certain "aesthetic" ability which had led us to the right directions when solving mathematical problems. Uniquely human innovation is only possible through those human traits. No matter how much we nail it down the silicon, it will never be able to produce something uniquely human.

Comment Fake news (Score 2) 172

I just tried 2 ISPs to check this: BSNL (government ISP) and Reliance Jio (private). Slashdot is working smooth on both. Other users also report the same. As of last Friday 25th August, perhaps your Internet usage quota has got exhausted. Get it recharged. And quit spreading fake news.
Android

Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Switch Programming Languages? 331

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: I always see a lot of different opinions about programming languages, but how much choice do you really get to have over which language to use? If you want to develop for Android, then you're probably using Java...and if you're developing for iOS, then you've probably been using Swift or Objective-C. Even when looking for a job, all your most recent job experience is usually tied up in whatever language your current employer insisted on using. (Unless people are routinely getting hired to work on projects in an entirely different language than the one that they're using now...)

Maybe the question I really want to ask is how often do you really get to choose your programming languages... Does it happen when you're swayed by the available development environment or intrigued by the community's stellar reputation, or that buzz of excitement that keeps building up around one particular language? Or are programming languages just something that you eventually just fall into by default?

Leave your answers in the comments. How often do you switch programming languages?

Comment Re:Perhaps, not that bad of a decision... (Score 1) 205

Thank goodness it has not had that effect on the other 299,999,999 people in the US who have looked at porn

I agree that Ted Bundy argument is not a very strong one. Perhaps he was "born" with such tendencies. The point here to understand is that not everyone will have such tendencies. But a certain section of the society who is either "born" with it or is sexually deprived can be motivated by pornography.

If it's correct, we should be in a Mad Max sort of world with rapists and crossbows everywhere. I'm looking out my window and...

It's indeed a Mad Max sort of world here in New Delhi. I'm also loooking out my window and...

In Northern India, where the sex ratio is around 900:1000 (M:F), magnify this over millions of people, and you'll see how many unsatisfied men are prowling on the streets. New Delhi is not a safe region. Over the past few years, it has seen some really dreaded cases of rapes. Bottles inserted in kids' vaginas and such (cases which never happened before frequently).

And if some say that the research I've quoted is of the 80s and pretty old, then here is a more modern perspective on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... (a TED talk by Ran Gavrieli on "Why I stopped watching porn").

Besides all this, I am also not sure if porn really is bad in the sense that it induces violence. More research needs to be done by social psychologists. But one thing is for sure, it does mess up your sexual enjoyment of real sex.

Comment Perhaps, not that bad of a decision... (Score 1) 205

One can never expect any praise for such steps here on Slashdot. But allow me to put my cents in favor of this ban. First, you could look at Ted Bundy's last interview where he confesses that his career as the America's most dreaded serial killer kicked off due to pornography. And he witnessed the same in many other inmates of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Now, Ted Bundy was no social psychologist. So, here is one study done on the effects of pornography: http://www.sciencedirect.com/s... So, blatantly saying that porn has no side effects and it doesn't mess with your brain is stupid. It is the first time in human history that pornographic material is so readily accessible to us. We don't yet know what harmful effects it can have in future. Besides inducing violence, it is a known fact that pornography also messes up the sexual preferences and real sex doesn't remain that beautiful.

Comment Re:Other (Score 1) 286

Not everything depends on genetics. I've seen brothers 10 years apart in age where the older one looks younger only because he leads an active lifestyle while the other a sedentary one. Where is the genetics now?
China

China Secretly Clones Austrian Village 329

Hugh Pickens writes "A scenic mountain village in Austria called Hallstatt has been copied, down to the statues, by a Chinese developer. Residents of the original Hallstatt attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project, but were still miffed about how the company did it. 'They should have asked the owners of the hotel and the other buildings if we agree with the idea to rebuild Hallstatt in China, and they did not,' says hotel owner Monika Wenger. People in Hallstatt first learned a year ago of the plan when a Chinese guest at Wenger's hotel who was involved with the project inadvertently spilled the beans. Minmetals staff had been taking photos and gathering data while mingling with tourists, raising suspicions among villagers. The original village is a centuries-old village of 900 and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a $940 million housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a country famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. 'The moment I stepped into here, I felt I was in Europe,' says 22-year-old Zhu Bin, a Huizhou resident. 'The security guards wear nice costumes. All the houses are built in European style.' This isn't the first time a Chinese firm has used a European place as inspiration. The Chinese city of Anting, some 30 kilometers from Shanghai, created a district designed to accommodate 20,000 residents called 'German Town Anting' and in 2005 Chengdu British Town was modeled on the English town of Dorchester."

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