Comment Hip, hip ... (Score 3, Interesting) 111
I am proud to say that Debian has been my distro of choice for 20 of those 25 years.
Happy, happy birthday, Debian! Here's to 25 more!
Comment Re:Holy Clickbait Headline (Score 1) 275
It is not the same thing. More men die from heart attacks, yes, but that number is not affected by the doctor's gender. It is only the female mortality figure from heart attack that is affected by the doctor's gender.
Comment Bring on the robots? (Score 1, Funny) 275
But I guess we'll have to make sure that they're not learning from predominantly male diagnosticians.
Comment Switch off. Or don't. (Score 0) 1159
While it is true that coal powered electricity generation is a substantial problem, a turn around will require a lot more drastic action than getting rid of coal powered energy plants, in my opinion.
Every single one of us needs to switch off our computers, go outside, plant some beans and chard, and start living off what we can produce through the expenditure of our own labour and energy, instead of by means of machines that use energy that never belonged to us in the first place and that we never paid for; not the real price of it, anyway, because that energy should be unaffordably expensive, that is how valuable it really is. Instead, the modern, developed world treats it like a human right.
And of course we need to hope and pray that every one else will do the same thing and switch off. I'm afraid that anything less than that will simply have too small a positive effect.
We're all guilty. Do you use an internal combustion engine daily? Guilty. Do you fly in aeroplanes with some regularity Guilty. Do you have electricity in your home? Guilty. And so on.
Members of developed societies are using more resources of every kind, especially energy, than they have a right to. They aren't paying the full price for it. Someone else is paying by NOT having access to the same technology and energy.
Switch off. Or don't. I doubt anyone else will.
Comment Machine learning ... seriously? (Score 1) 277
I don't believe that machine learning has a snowball's chance of assisting in something as chaotic as user behaviour. My routine can stay the same for extended periods and then suddenly change because of an urgent deadline or another emergency. No amount of learning can equip a machine to know that. The update is almost guaranteed to occur when I can least afford it, i.e. when I am not working to my usual schedule.
Comment Hmm ... (Score 1) 194
... I can see this fueling anti-Irish sentiment
Submission + - TSA screeners win immunity from flier abuse claims: U.S. appeals court (reuters.com)
Mr.Intel writes: Fliers may have a tough time recovering damages for invasive screenings at U.S. airport security checkpoints, after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said screeners are immune from claims under a federal law governing assaults, false arrests and other abuses. In a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are shielded by government sovereign immunity from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act because they do not function as “investigative or law enforcement officers.”
The decision, the first on the issue by a federal appeals court, was a defeat for Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Florida. She and her husband had sued for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution over a July 2006 altercation at Philadelphia International Airport. According to court papers, Pellegrino had been randomly selected for additional screening at the Philadelphia airport before boarding a US Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pellegrino, then 57, objected to the invasiveness of the search, but conditions deteriorated and she was later jailed for about 18 hours, the papers show. Criminal charges were filed, and Pellegrino was acquitted at a March 2008 trial.
The decision, the first on the issue by a federal appeals court, was a defeat for Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Florida. She and her husband had sued for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution over a July 2006 altercation at Philadelphia International Airport. According to court papers, Pellegrino had been randomly selected for additional screening at the Philadelphia airport before boarding a US Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pellegrino, then 57, objected to the invasiveness of the search, but conditions deteriorated and she was later jailed for about 18 hours, the papers show. Criminal charges were filed, and Pellegrino was acquitted at a March 2008 trial.
Submission + - ARM's own employees complain about anti-RISCV website (theregister.co.uk)
lkcl writes: Phoronix and The Register have an insightful look into an effort by ARM that is reminiscent of Microsoft's "Get The Facts" campaign. RISC-V's design is a revamp of the RISC concept that is intended from the ground up to fix the mistakes and learn from the lessons of the past 30 years. Power efficiency is 40% better than ARM or Intel. Compressed instructions reduce I-cache misses by 20-25%, which is roughly comparable to the same performance that would be achieved by doubling the Instruction Cache size. Yet despite El Reg's insightful analysis,
all is not as it seems: on further investigation, some of ARM's criticism has merit, whilst some of it is clear out-and-out FUD from ARM that, being so critically dependent on free software, had its own employees complain so much that the site was pulled.
Also we cannot help but wonder which "Big Chip" company offered seven-figure salaries to try to shut down the IIT Madras Shakti Project. Most interesting however is the fact that ARM — a $40 billion dollar company — is rattled by RISC-V enough to use underhanded tactics, whilst Intel on the other hand is actually investing.
all is not as it seems: on further investigation, some of ARM's criticism has merit, whilst some of it is clear out-and-out FUD from ARM that, being so critically dependent on free software, had its own employees complain so much that the site was pulled.
Also we cannot help but wonder which "Big Chip" company offered seven-figure salaries to try to shut down the IIT Madras Shakti Project. Most interesting however is the fact that ARM — a $40 billion dollar company — is rattled by RISC-V enough to use underhanded tactics, whilst Intel on the other hand is actually investing.
Submission + - Malls in California are sending license plate information to ICE
Presto Vivace writes: Malls in California are sending license plate information to ICE
Surveillance systems at more than 46 malls in California are capturing license plate information that is fed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported Tuesday
... ... One company, Irvine Company Retail Properties, operates malls all over the state using a security network called Vigilant Solutions. Vigilant shares data with hundreds of law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, and debt collectors — including ICE, which signed a contract with the security company earlier this year, reports The Verge.
And they wonder why some of us prefer to shop online.
Submission + - DOJ settles with Defense Distributed: CAD files for guns are not weapons
He Who Has No Name writes: Those who remember Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed — the self-described cryptoanarchist and his organization that published plans for 3D printable firearm parts, respectively — also remember that not long after the plans for the printable Liberator single-shot pistol hit the web, the Department of State seized the Defense Distributed website and prohibited Wilson from publishing 3D printable firearm plans, claiming violations of ITAR — the International Traffic in Arms Regulation, a US law taxing and restricting the distribution of a wide variety of physical goods listed as having military value. Slashdot covered the website seizure here (the Dept of Defense was initially misreported in sources to have been the agency responsible).
In both a 1st and 2nd Amendment win, the Second Amendment Foundation has settled with the Department of State after suing on behalf of Defense Distributed. From the article: "Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.
Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber – including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms – are not inherently military. "
In both a 1st and 2nd Amendment win, the Second Amendment Foundation has settled with the Department of State after suing on behalf of Defense Distributed. From the article: "Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.
Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to
Submission + - DOD Seeks Classification 'Clippy' To Help Classify Data, Control Access (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The DOD has issued a request for information (RFI) from industry in a quest for technology that will prevent the mislabeling and accidental (or deliberate) access and sharing of sensitive documents and data. In an announcement posted in May by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the Pentagon stated that the DOD CIO's office—part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense—is "investigating the use of commercial solutions for labeling and controlling access to sensitive information." Defense IT officials are seeking software that "must be able to make real-time decisions about the classification level of the information and an individual's ability to access, change, delete, receive, or forward the information based on the credentials of the sending and/or receiving individual, facility, and system." In other words, the DOD is looking for a classification Clippy. In a response to questions regarding the RFI issued in late June, DOD officials said that the system should be able to ideally protect "any file type on a Microsoft operating system (OS) file system and active directory domain."
Submission + - PayPal Told Customer Her Death Breached Its Rules (bbc.com) 2
dryriver writes: The BBC reports: "PayPal wrote to a woman who had died of cancer saying her death had breached its rules and that it might take legal action as a consequence. The firm has since acknowledged that the letter was 'insensitive', apologised to her widower, and begun an inquiry into how it came to be sent. Lindsay Durdle died on 31 May aged 37. She had been first diagnosed with breast cancer about a year-and-a-half earlier. The disease had later spread to her lungs and brain. PayPal was informed of Mrs Durdle's death three weeks ago by her husband Howard Durdle. He provided the online payments service with copies of her death certificate, her will and his ID, as requested. He has now received a letter addressed in her name, sent to his home in Bucklebury, West Berkshire. It was headlined: 'Important: You should read this notice carefully.' It said that Mrs Durdle owed the company about £3,200 and went on to say: 'You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased... this breach is not capable of remedy.' "
Submission + - Browser benchmark Battle July 2018: Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge
An anonymous reader writes: It’s been more than 20 months since our last browser benchmark battle, and we really wanted to avoid letting two years elapse before getting a fresh set of a results. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge have all improved significantly over the past year and a half, and as I’ve argued before, the browser wars are back. You can click on the individual test to see the results:
Submission + - Australian experiment wipes out over 80% of disease-carrying mosquitoes (cnn.com)
schwit1 writes: In an experiment with global implications, Australian scientists have successfully wiped out more than 80% of disease-carrying mosquitoes in trial locations across north Queensland.
The experiment, conducted by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and James Cook University (JCU), targeted Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread deadly diseases such as dengue fever and Zika.
In JCU laboratories, researchers bred almost 20 million mosquitoes, infecting males with bacteria that made them sterile. Then, last summer, they released over three million of them in three towns on the Cassowary Coast.
The sterile male mosquitoes didn't bite or spread disease, but when they mated with wild females, the resulting eggs didn't hatch, and the population crashed.
The experiment, conducted by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and James Cook University (JCU), targeted Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread deadly diseases such as dengue fever and Zika.
In JCU laboratories, researchers bred almost 20 million mosquitoes, infecting males with bacteria that made them sterile. Then, last summer, they released over three million of them in three towns on the Cassowary Coast.
The sterile male mosquitoes didn't bite or spread disease, but when they mated with wild females, the resulting eggs didn't hatch, and the population crashed.
Submission + - Scientists Synthesized Metallic Nitrogen (eurekalert.org)
hackingbear writes: A team of scientists from China, US, and UK successfully turned nitrogen, the dominant gas in Earth's atmosphere, into a metallic fluid when subjected to the extreme pressure and temperature conditions found deep inside the Earth and other planets. Their findings are published by Nature Communications . "Our findings could inform the efforts to create forms of energetic nitrogen polymers as well as superconducting, metallic states of a sister diatomic molecule, hydrogen or H2, which could revolutionize the energy sector if reliably synthesized,” according to team member Nicholas Holtgrewe. The project was funded by by the (US) National Science Foundation, the (US) Army Research Office, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Science, the British Council Researcher Links Programme, and other sources.
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Can't open /usr/games/lib/fortunes.dat.
