Forgot your password?

Comment: Re:Evolution? (Score 2) 56

by Qwertie (#46431295) Attached to: First Study of the Evolution of Memes On Facebook
Like many /. summaries, this one strikes me as attempting to grab eyeballs by digging up unjustified connotations. The "Yule Process" is little more than the well-known idea that the "rich get richer", though there's a particular formula associated with it. So it would be easier to understand and far more precise to say simply "popular memes tend to get more popular". So while the summary says meme evolution "follows the same mathematical evolution that genes follow", it would be more informative but less headline-friendly to say "memes multiply like rabbits" or "memes compete like bacteria growing in a dish", and then we wouldn't be snickering about creationism again. Yes, the researchers studied mutation too--but the "Yule Process" has nothing to do with mutation or evolution (except in the sense that population growth is "evolution" of the population size).

It isn't news that macroscopic processes sometimes resemble microscopic ones. Electrons orbit atoms--just like planets orbit the sun! Photons bounce off mirrors--just like basketballs bounce off floors! Memes mutate--just like genes, but, er, with differences! Question: so what?

Comment: Re:As Frontalot says (Score 5, Insightful) 631

by Qwertie (#46353091) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Do You Still Trust Bitcoin?
The mathematics of bitcoin are sound enough. The issue I have with it is the possibility of hacks.

We all know that most computer systems are insecure. In the past, cracking a computer could only yield things like names, addresses, passwords (hashed and salted, one hopes), confidential files... in short, information. But with Bitcoin, crackers now enjoy the tantalizing possibility of stealing money! That makes Bitcoin exchanges (and, if bitcoin becomes popular, all ordinary PCs with bitcoin wallets) highly attractive hacking targets. So how can we be sure that an exchange won't be hacked? How can we be sure that our PCs won't be hacked? This issue--my inability to know that my coins are secure--has made me reluctant to buy them in the past.

Also, what regulations exist to ensure exchanges are secure? What incentives exist to encourage exchanges to be bulletproof against against hacks (or scams / social engineering)? And finally, how can we know that the exchange itself is entirely legitimate?

And by the way, I'm sure conventional large banks and financial institutions occasionally have hacks too, which reminds me of another difference between bitcoin and traditional money management. The difference is that you can mostly trust traditional institutions to compensate customers for any funds stolen from customer accounts (as long as it wasn't blatantly the customer's fault). To what extent is this assurance available in the bitcoin world?

You Might Rent Features & Options On Cars In the Future 437

Posted by Soulskill
from the transportation-as-a-service dept.

Comment: You got it. (Score 1) 262

by Qwertie (#45779001) Attached to: Linux x32 ABI Not Catching Wind

Some people don't see the ABI as being worthwhile when it still requires 64-bit processors

There's your answer. If I'm writing a program that won't need over 2GB, the decision is obvious: target x86. How many developers even know about x32? Of those, how many need what it offers? That little fraction will be the number of users.

Comment: "how to exploit it"? (Score 1) 504

by Qwertie (#45717671) Attached to: CBS 60 Minutes: NSA Speaks Out On Snowden, Spying

foreign nations would know what the US does and doesn't know, and how to exploit it.

How does it help "foreign nations" to know how much the U.S. is or is not spying on its own citizens? How can foreign nations "exploit" a lack of domestic spying? How can foreign nations even "exploit" knowledge about international spying by the U.S. government?

What a backwards comment. Ed Snowden didn't release this information to harm the U.S., he did it to inform U.S. citizens about what their tax dollars were buying without their knowledge. This is stuff citizens should have a right to know.

If World War III were going on, you might have a point about keeping spying ops secret. But in peacetime (and this is peacetime, notwithstanding a couple of US-lead skirmishes), there should be less spying and much more transparency.


DRM Has Always Been a Horrible Idea 281

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the except-when-gabe-does-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "For years, the reaction of the big entertainment companies to digital disruption has been to try and restrict and control, a wrong-headed approach that was bound to backfire. But the entertainment companies were never known for being forward thinking whether it was radio in the 20s or cassette tapes in the 70s or VCRs in the 80s or Napster in the 90s. The reaction was the always the same. Take a defensive position and try to battle the disruptive force. And it never worked. And DRM was perhaps the worst reaction of all, place restrictions on your content that punish the very people who were willing to pay for it, while others were free to use it without restriction. It was an approach that never made much sense, and it's good to know that mounting evidence proves that's the case."


Posted by samzenpus
from the naughty-list dept.

Supreme Court Refuses To Hear EPIC Challenge To NSA Surveillance 227

Posted by samzenpus
from the we're-not-listening-to-you dept.

Comment: Don't hide half of each post (Score 1) 1191

by Qwertie (#45009833) Attached to: Come Try Out Slashdot's New Design (In Beta)
Yuck! Most articles used to fit entirely on the front page. In fact whenever I was about to go on vacation, I would download a couple of pages of Slashdot to read offline. With half of each (already condensed) article hidden, I can no longer do that. I will not put up with having to click-through to read every article.

It's hard to evaluate the comment section as it's clearly messed up in my Chrome browser. This is a test: is Unicode is still not úppórtèd?

Comment: Re:A question of cost. (Score 1) 91

by Qwertie (#44717455) Attached to: Raspberry Pi, Smart Highways Win World's Biggest Design Prize
It says here that 40 sheets cost $25 (62 cents). At that price, I don't think folks that can't afford refrigeration will be eager to buy it.

I was curious how it can keep food fresh without actually touching the food, so I looked at their web site. Here's what it says under "How it works":
  • Take out one sheet of FreshPaper
  • Toss in fridge drawer or anywhere you keep produce (fruit bowl, carton, bag)
  • Enjoy fresh produce for 2-4 times longer!

Thanks for nothing, web site! Well, their FAQ says this:

How does FreshPaper work?
FreshPaper is infused with organic spices that inhibit bacterial & fungal growth, as well as enzymes that cause over-ripening. FreshPaper is a safe, remarkably effective, organic solution to spoilage.

Comment: Re:If you want to donate, just donate (Score 2) 301

by Qwertie (#44687965) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Get Open Source Projects To Take Our Money?
Wouldn't it be legit if you ask the open-source projects to do something for you? Select some feature(s) or bug fix(es) you'd like in a future version, and pay the lead developers to do it for you. Or, some open source projects have lousy manuals--pay them to improve their documentation.

It's not illegal to pay in advance, is it? Just write the contract in advance.

Comment: Re:The death penalty is a little different there (Score 1) 200

by Qwertie (#44621131) Attached to: China Plans To Stop Harvesting Organs From Executed Prisoners
For more information about the organ-harvesting program, watch this.

[Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D, Director of Medical Ethics, NYU Langone Medical Center:] If you're going to go to China and you're going to get a liver transplant during the three weeks you are there, then that means someone is going to go schedule an execution, blood type and tissue type the potential executee, and have them ready to go before you need to leave.

[Damon Noto, MD, Spokesman, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting:] Starting at the end of 1999 the number of transplants taking place just exploded.

China carries out more organ transplant surgeries than any country besides the United States. But unlike other countries, China has no effective organ donation program. That is because culturally, Chinese people believe the body must stay intact even after death.

China's Deputy Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu has suggested that there are 7,000 transplants every year from the deceased. And that more than 90% come from executed prisoners.The number of criminal executions in China is classified as a state secret, but Amnesty International's estimate is about 1,700.
[Damon Noto, MD, Spokesman, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting] The numbers just didn't add up. It's just too large of a discrepancy there.

With only 1,700 executed criminals and no effective donation system, where do the rest of the organs come from?

Comment: Re:I still want to know why (Score 4, Informative) 496

by Qwertie (#44576743) Attached to: Bradley Manning Says He's Sorry
Bradley Manning didn't dump everything. His most famous leak, the 250,000 diplomatic cables, were not simply released. According to Wikipedia, at first Wikileaks itself released just a couple of cables. Next, it partnered with some news outlets to select specific cables to leak (with redactions to prevent harm to individuals). They released 220 cables at first, and a few thousand more later. Granted, the whole set of 250,000 were fully accessible to specific journalists, but it's not at all the same as a "data dump".

Some months later, a boneheaded journalist published the actual password for decrypting the original cables; later, a backup of the encrypted cables somehow became available as a torrent, so the full set of cables could be decrypted. But this was unintentional and of course, neither of these mistakes was made by Manning himself.

I myself question the wisdom of Manning's release of these cables (I respect him mainly for leaking the Collateral Murder video) but the idea that he "dumped everything" is plainly false.

Comment: Re:Yeah but it makes a good story (Score 1) 213

by Qwertie (#44268951) Attached to: Gladwell's <em>Culture &amp; Air Crashes</em> Analysis Badly Flawed
After reading TFA, my faith in Gladwell was shaken. But after reading this and some of the articles that the S.H.A.M.E. page links to...

In 1999, Gladwell wrote a New Yorker article defending the explosion of ADHD amphetamine prescriptions to children against criticism from media and public figures. Gladwell's response: "...are too many children taking the drug--or too few?"

Later that same year, Gladwell published a New Yorker piece that blamed skyrocketing prescription drug prices on users of prescription drugs, not on pharmaceutical companies. New Yorker readers responded angrily, tipping off Slate.com columnist Jack Schafer that Gladwell took "speaking fees from corporations and trade associations" that he covered in print, forcing Gladwell to publicly admit that he had had indeed taken money from the pharmaceutical industry: "Have I given paid speeches to companies or industries mentioned or affected by that article? Yes I have."

By ignoring the slander and actually following the links (including Gladwell's article about drug prices), I find myself admiring Gladwell almost as much as I did before reading TFA. Okay, so he makes some mistakes sometimes, but a corporate shill? No.


USB SuperSpeed Power Spec To Leap From 10W To 100W 242

Posted by samzenpus
from the power-up dept.
