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Comment Re:Problem? (Score 5, Insightful) 274

by space_in_your_face (#40602099) Attached to: Algorithmic Pricing On Amazon 'Could Spark Flash Crash'
From TFA: Jack Sheng of eForCity, which sells electronics on Amazon, warned of the dangerous impact algorithmic pricing could have on the retailer’s prices: “If something is mispriced down to $1, your inventory can be cleaned out in no time.”
I hope you put a minimum price on every item for which an algorithm decides the price. If so, I don't see the problem if someone "clean out your inventory". It means a lot of sales at a price you agreed...
OTOH, if you didn't put a minimum price, you just get what you deserve.

Submission + - Gaddafi killed as Libya's revolt claims hometown (reuters.com)

Submitted by syngularyx
syngularyx writes: Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown Sirte, Libya's interim rulers said.

His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen.
Cellphones

Submission + - "SMS of Death" Could Crash Many Mobile Phones (technologyreview.com) 1

Submitted by space_in_your_face
space_in_your_face writes: A research presented at a conference in Germany last week shows that phones don't even have to be smart to be vulnerable to hackers. Using only Short Message Service (SMS) communications a pair of security researchers were able to force low-end phones to shut down abruptly and knock them off a cellular network. The trick works for handsets made by Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Micromax, a popular Indian cell-phone manufacturer.
Google

Submission + - Google buys reCAPTCHA for better book scanning (cio.com.au)

Submitted by TimmyC
TimmyC writes: This story may interest the Slashdot folk, many of whom use the reCAPTCHA anti-spam service. Well, reCAPTCHA is now owned by Google. Apparently, what attracted Google to ReCAPTCHA is that the company has linked its core authentication service with efforts to digitize print books and periodicals. The search giant has a massive (and controversial) effort underway in that area for its Google Books and Google News Archive services. Every time people solve a CAPTCHA from the company, they are also, as a byproduct, helping to turn scanned words into plain text that can be indexed and made searchable by search engines. Interesting times indeed.
Spam

Submission + - Cheating the App Store (mobilecrunch.com)

Submitted by space_in_your_face
space_in_your_face writes: Want to boost the popularity of your latest iphone app? Ask Reverb Communications! "When it comes to winning in the App Store, this PR firm has discovered a dynamite strategy: throw ethics out the window. Reverb Communications, a PR firm that represents dozens of game publishers and developers, has managed to find astounding success on Apple's App Store for its clients. Among its various tactics? It hires a team of interns to trawl iTunes and other community forums posing as real users, and has them write positive reviews for their client's applications."

Comment Just tell the truth (Score 1) 365

by space_in_your_face (#28780905) Attached to: Visualizing False Positives In Broad Screening
Instead of giving a binary answer ("You are (not) a terrorist"), just communicate the probability ("There's one chance in three hundred that you are a terrorist. As this is higher than in the general population, we will investigate further to know for sure."). The same apply for medical exams. You can tell someone "The test tells us you have one chance in one hundred to have lupus. It's low, but higher than normal. We need to do more tests to know for sure".

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