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Comment: Re:Per ton? Also: water used up. Gone forever. (Score 1) 543

by niftymitch (#46469317) Attached to: Meat Makes Our Planet Thirsty

Not more dense than sugar beets though, which take less than 1% of the water per ton.

But what is the growing season and temperature requirements
for sugar beets. We are talking about California and WP
reminds me: "In warmer climates, such as in California's Imperial Valley,
sugar beets are a winter crop, planted in the autumn and harvested in the spring."

Comment: Re:"Exporting" water? (Score 1) 543

by niftymitch (#46469085) Attached to: Meat Makes Our Planet Thirsty

I though most of it came from snow melt on the western half of the continental divide.


Geography lesson please....

The big agricultural belts of California involve big long valleys with
very limited outflow to the ocean. While not as extreme as Death Valley
and Panamint Valley they would be dry empty and almost non-productive
arid expanses most of the year without irrigation.

One nasty side effect of irrigation and the draw down of the water table
is the build up of toxic salts that are not diluted and do not dribble away
as they once did. Birds migrating through the area visit these
toxic marshes and die from selenium poisoning and more.

An aside is that broccoli grown in the Calif Central valley is special
because it is high in selenium. Like many things in moderation
a little can be necessary and good but a lot is nasty.

Comment: Re:Message from a farm in Somerset, UK.... (Score 1) 543

by niftymitch (#46468877) Attached to: Meat Makes Our Planet Thirsty

It's easy to move water.

They ship it inside of alfalfa.

Not just alfalfa....
California imports water via lettuce from Mexico
apples from South America.

It is important to know that there is two way water commerce
going on.

Beef is interesting because in much of the world beef eat grass
where grass is the most productive crop. Cows can digest grass
but not so much people. Grass fed beef is often finished in
feedlots to add fat and marble the meat. In addition the yellowish
grass fed fat changes color and flavor to a more marketable white.

Corn and corn stalk silage permit local production but the corn has
a terrible pH impact on the animal and antibiotics are often used to
keep them healthy.

A lot of food and feedstock does not ship well and we demand much
of it year round in contrast to seasonal local production.

The pH impact of corn on the gut of a cow is a lesson for humans.
We eat a lot of things but not the variety or seasonal diet of our
ancestors. Our health might improve by moving to a local seasonal
diet and only supplement that daily diet with modest imports.

We also need to eat more than just the "choice" cuts of meat.
Many organs and even the skin of some animals contain vitamins
and minerals in abundance but are shunned for marketing, silly or
cultural reasons.

I recommend reading the book "Gulp" by Mary Roach.
She touches on this topic in an eye opening easy going
style. Support and check your local library or just buy it.

Comment: That reminds me.... (Score 1) 1

by niftymitch (#46461441) Attached to: Google to replace GTK+ with its own Aura in Chrome

This reminds me that some early AT&T/Samstung phones did not
ever take advantage of the GPU. Some phones do not use
multi core hardware well if at all.... there are many places
where the hardware capabilities far exceed software development
and battery life.

The dumbest choice I see hardware vendors of smart devices
is battery life. A device with a dead battery is not even a
good paperweight.

Those that care about user experience need to control this stuff.
It seems that Google is making it clear at many levels that graphics
API and ABI design is important....

At one obvious level the need to use and manage the GPU is
glaringly important and under appreciated.

I think this is important and valuable work... .but the proof is
in the doing. Many good ideas fall flat.... some have legs.
Some more importantly kick the stubborn in the back end
and stuck projects move again.

Time will tell.
The sad point is this will not be soup in time for my
next hardware selections... One can hope that vendors
will have honest bake offs and good will win out and software
refreshes will bring improvements to my devices.

Comment: Aha... a plant.... not a green one. (Score 1) 1

One needs to look hard...
Tactics like this could be orchestrated
by one or more TLA to expand their budget.
And also expand their program.

One ruling the court should append to this is restrictions
and segregation of data retained by the court from data
amassed by the TLAs involved. Not a simple access
control list entry but physical partitioning etc.

One very real problem with this brave new world is
the vast volumes of the data make it difficult to impossible
for the courts to mine the data for violations. They do
not have the hardware or the technical experts to make a

This lack of experts is apparent in the acceptance of assertions
that "it is only meta data". Meta data is perhaps the most
valuable pile of data in all of this and I would assert() that
meta data connections are the sole evidence for ordering some
drone strikes.

Comment: Re:no surprise (Score 1) 256

Here, you should RTFL:


Whoever willfully photographs, videotapes or electronically surveils another person who is nude or partially nude, with the intent to secretly conduct or hide such activity, when the other person in such place and circumstance would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in not being so photographed, videotaped or electronically surveilled, and without that person’s knowledge and consent, shall be punished by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than 21/2 years or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

I really hope that "21/2 years" is a typo on the Mass. legislature's website, and not the actual text of the law.

Please define partially nude!

Please define knowledge and consent.

Consider a celebrity at a photo shoot but your angle was
not expected.
Consider a celebrity photo of an individual found not to have
undergarments under a gown. All photos would have been of
an individual partially nude just not demonstrating this nudity.

Almost all paparazzi activity is covered by this....
The intent of paparazzi is exactly this...

21/2 is 10.5 years... or is it 2.5 years?

Comment: Why yes it can... (Score 1) 497

by niftymitch (#46436103) Attached to: Can Science Ever Be "Settled?"

Some day in the future "He" will come down and
let us all know how foolish or clever we have been.

Until that day -- settled science might be settled in the context
of known data. Add a body of "new" knowledge and data
then revisit what is known.

Newtonian physics is a good example. It solved most if not all of the
problems at hand within the reach of instrumentation of the day. There
were however a number of later measurements that were unexplained as
methods improved. Orbit of Mercury was one IIRC... at which
point Albert and friends explored new solutions.

Today... with the exception of dark matter and dark energy there are
rare examples of unexplained data. Some particle physics research
has taken a different approach and by the exploration of a model attempt
to discover something that has yet to be observed.

Molecular biology is odd in that we know that we do not know very much at all.

Comment: Re:Considering that the story is apparently wrong (Score 1) 276

by niftymitch (#46425917) Attached to: Should Newsweek Have Outed Satoshi Nakamoto's Personal Details?

Considering that apparently they didn't actually discover the "real" Satoshi Nakamoto after all, I'd have to go with "no, they shouldn't have revealed anything."

Bingo and there are liabilities here.

Freedom of speech only goes so far. We all know that shouting fire
when there is none can get you in a raft of trouble. Should someone
die in the crush to exit murder becomes one of the long list of charges.

Newsweek has responsibility and owns much of the consequences
for their actions. Should there be inconveniences I can see a tort.
Should there be damages I can see civil and criminal actions.
Should there be bodily harm... jail time for all in the decision process
and serious financial penalty for Newsweek the company.

Comment: Re:How efficient is WiFi when crowded? (Score 2) 43

by niftymitch (#46425879) Attached to: Stanford Team Tries For Better Wi-Fi In Crowded Buildings

Let's say you live in an apartment building and you can see 16 different SSIDs. Is it slow because .....snip...

Someone needs to make a reference to the Aloha Protocol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet).
Multiple routers and multiple end points sharing a limited bandwidth shared commons
is just darn difficult.

I do hope Stanford makes this work because dense living just happens.

More and more work places are getting to be "dorm living" on caffeine.
Old folks homes and retirement communities are just around the corner
for lots of us and the bandwidth needed for Gramps and Gma to browse
all the photos and videos of kids and food boggles the mind.

Comment: Re:A new law in not what is needed (Score 1) 517

by niftymitch (#46424595) Attached to: Massachusetts Court Says 'Upskirt' Photos Are Legal

The judges simple pointed out that under current law taking these pictures is legal. That is their job. What is needed is for the appropriate laws to be rewritten.

Yep... if the ruling was a comment on this /. I would mod it as insightful.

He noted that the gal was "dressed" to socially acceptable standards
and as such was not in a state of undress when photographed.

At issue is a dress code that can be immodest in common situations.
But in fact it is not immodest because she and a gazillion others dress
the same way. To solve it one solution would be the burka but
I have no clue what is up skirt of a burka so that may prove less
modest. There there is the Irish/Scottish kilt...

Perhaps Moms need a skirt check no different than the baseball
cup check ethic.

Comment: Re:Yes they did. (Score 1) 569

I wonder what the company would say if an unscrupulous network admin steals the bank information from a bunch of employees and robs them?

I'm not sure "my system, my rules" would go very far in court.

Yes and.... the problem with man in the middle attacks is that the stolen information is
stolen in a very stealthy way.

Stolen data from a dozen employees can be used to push data into another employees
account then to another and then to some island nation accessed by another
pile of stolen employee information.

With enough stolen data tracking some of this down is difficult especially
if some of the data stolen belongs to folk in IT.

Hang on to your tin foil hat.

Comment: Re:Yes they did. (Score 1) 569

In the US, this is totally legal, although there may be disclosure requirements (I'm not sure). The "my system, my rules" argument wins. My workplace does this, and they informed me that they do this when I was hired.

Yes but....
OK, Their system their rules.
First, keep all your stuff off company hardware.

But there are places where things overlap.
Companies have interactions with your bank and expect you to interact with
your bank, some credit cards, retirement accounts and any seen
passwords not specific to the company incur a liability on the company.....

One important thing to do is draft up a letter to the CTO that you do
not indemnify them from data breaches involving your personal data that costs
you and do not relinquish any rights you have under the law. Acknowledge that they
have rights to protect their property but you feel that some tools
that implement "Man in the Middle" methods are problematic because
they impersonate ostensibly secure sites (plural) and should their
tools be hacked you do not wish to be a victim as well.

Have it sent by your attorney.
If they object have them object in writing and keep on working.

I might note that data breaches like Target can be achieved
in many ways. If the internal MITM tool intercepted credentials for
anyone and then were abused to attack the system it would
be almost impossible to prove that the MITM audit tools were
the root cause.

Of interest this is implicit in any expense report procedure and tax law.
There are tax return deductions an individual can take if and only if
the company denies them. Many managers forget that they
have a responsibility to both you and the company. If the company
policy is no, say so in writing so you can act within the law
on your own tax return (not a global thing for sure).

Comment: Re:I have your conversion right here... (Score 1) 857

by niftymitch (#46423499) Attached to: Microsoft's Attempt To Convert Users From Windows XP Backfires


Get her a second computer and air-gap the old and the new.
For sure invest in a smart router/ NAT box. With the new
AC networking hardware surfacing the previous generation boxes are selling
for very attractive prices.

If she only runs the greeting card software on the old box she should
do OK for a while. She can do "other stuff" on the new
box you get her.

Comment: Re:Troll (Score 1) 451

by niftymitch (#46423261) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do I Change Tech Careers At 30?

Back to school sort of.
Stanford has a number of computer science class lectures that are available to view
via iTunes.

Spend a couple hours a night viewing them and see where it takes you.
Yes do the exercises....

If you find them to be a gentle review you can go and do anything.
If you find them to be impossible go back to school and begin with a
modern computer science 101 class.

A quality programmer will discover that the language used to discuss
programming has changed while the principles have not changed much
in the last 40 years. Without a modern vocabulary you will not be
able to interview well in many contexts.

An old hand with a modern vocabulary can do, mentor, teach and more.

The interesting bit is most schools are more than ten years behind
the curve in terms of computer science and do not know it.

All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.