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khedoros commented on 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings   bbc.com/news/uk-38524566... · Posted by u/clouddrover
khedoros · 9 years ago
It sounds like they're sticking something in a small cavity and covering it. Like a filling. Minus the drilling.
khedoros commented on Knuth's Challenge: Analyze everything your computer does in one second   gaxun.net/commentary/knut... · Posted by u/gaxun
gaxun · 9 years ago
> simpler hardware that an individual could completely understand

Our hardware now is so much more complex, what has it gained us? The quick answer is performance, but is it true? What about correctness? Hard to prove either way, but my guess is we've gained a little bit on performance and lost on correctness.

khedoros · 9 years ago
My computer certainly does more than the one 27 years ago did, in the senses of operations it performs in a second, capacity of data storage, increased intercommunication options, increased selection of devices that I can interface with it, and so on. Some of these are just a change in magnitude, and the changes in the software are just as important as changes in the hardware.

There are more parts of the computer (again, both hardware and software) that are undocumented. Taken as a whole, the system is more capable, but closed hardware and software makes me wonder about capabilities in my computer that serve someone that isn't me.

khedoros commented on Saturated fats no longer the true enemy, experts say   theglobeandmail.com/life/... · Posted by u/okket
khedoros · 9 years ago
So, if the new advice is to avoid "processed foods", what set of characteristics about processed foods make them bad? Is there a specific pattern? High in triglycerides? Preservatives? Artificial colors and flavors? Out of whichever things are "bad", is it individually, or just in combination? What kinds of "badness scores" would each item/combination get? What kind of individual variability is there?
khedoros commented on Knuth's Challenge: Analyze everything your computer does in one second   gaxun.net/commentary/knut... · Posted by u/gaxun
khedoros · 9 years ago
The code running on the CPU isn't the only thing the computer is doing in that one second, the X86{,_64} opcodes we could capture aren't necessarily exactly what the CPU is doing, and code being run by extra controllers and processors isn't likely to be accessible to anyone but the manufacturer.

In 1989, we'd've also been looking at code running on a single core with a single-task or cooperative-multitasking OS (for most home computers, anyhow), with simpler hardware that an individual could completely understand, and it would run at a speed where analyzing a second of output wouldn't be completely beyond the pale.

I've analyzed CPU logs from DOS-era programs and NES games. I certainly haven't analyzed a full second of the code's execution; I'm usually focused on understanding some particular set of operations.

khedoros commented on Pokémon Go maker taken to court over players on beaches   theguardian.com/technolog... · Posted by u/dustinmoris
bargl · 9 years ago
I would agree if it was the case that Niantic was targeting this specific beach, but instead it's all beaches because the algorithm distributes Pokemon evenly throughout the world regardless of location (this isn't the actual case but it's still an algorithm that chooses most spawning of Pokemon).

Niantic created a game that incentives people to go to anywhere in the world and get Pokemon. They don't have to go to this beach, and if it's trespassing then it's still an illegal action. Very similar to driving while texting. Is that the driver's fault or the phones fault? What if the phone company could stop alerts if the phone is going over 60 mph?

My spin is Why should Niantic subsidize the players poor choices? Or why should Niantic subsidize the government more than it already does through tax revenue?

In this case, if I were running Niantic, I would remove the game from the country in question. My game is the way it is, if it is illegal to operate in your country that is perfectly fine. Let me know and I'll go somewhere else. That is all assuming one big thing, I can afford to be harsh about this. If so (which Niantic can) then that is probably what I'd do. It's perfectly fine for you to make laws that don't enable games like PokemonGo, and a verdict against Niantic could be interpreted like that. How could I know that I wouldn't be sued again in that country?

Of course Niantic will just black out this beach and problem solved, but hey that's what I'd do.

Edit: I appreciated your answer and perspective though. I just wanted to say thanks for the well thought out reply.

khedoros · 9 years ago
I don't think it's trespassing for the players to be at Kijkduin, just problematic to have people there in those numbers. The players may be making individually-acceptable choices, and it's just the collective behavior that's a problem. It's easy to say that people should have the judgement not to do some individually-harmful thing. It's harder to argue that individuals should have the judgement not to partake in a harmful collective behavior (humans just aren't generally good at considering things like that).

Niantic's algorithms are sending people around in a pattern that is causing damage. Since they've been made aware of that, and it's difficult to blame the individual players, it's reasonable to ask the company itself to make a change. Niantic's the only one in a position to solve the problem quickly and cheaply.

khedoros commented on Rosetta ends its mission   bbc.co.uk/news/live/scien... · Posted by u/pcrh
nf05papsjfVbc · 9 years ago
Or getting them to use a sensible way to state dates.
khedoros · 9 years ago
Agreed. Ditto for most of Europe. Everyone should standardize on YMD. Lexical sorting and least-to-most specific times make the most sense.
khedoros commented on A Commodore 64 Is Still Being Used to Run an Auto Shop in Poland   sploid.gizmodo.com/this-o... · Posted by u/Insanity
Keyframe · 9 years ago
Even Raspberry Pi is an overkill. Look at with what we did tasks in 90's and we had it all good. Now look at RPi3 specs for example.
khedoros · 9 years ago
I see people complain about the low power of the Pi3...then I think about how I went through college with a slower computer than that, and how the people over the previous 30 years had even slower machines to use (if they had their own personal machine at all).

What you can do with a couple MHz and a few hundred KB of memory is great, given a little ingenuity. Of course, you aren't going to do real-time face recognition on something like that, but 99% of what we need to do is just fine with 0.1% of the performance.

khedoros commented on Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent   shift.newco.co/lost-diamo... · Posted by u/nkurz
Teever · 9 years ago
I don't understand. none of those examples are 'self-made'
khedoros · 9 years ago
That's the point. They're saying that those 85% of self-made American millionaires aren't as "self-made" as they claim.

Like me: I could talk about starting with almost nothing in my bank accounts, getting a job, working through the ranks, buying a home, and working toward my first million... conveniently leaving out all the advantages that I've had to get me to this point (cultural expectation that I'd go to college instilled in me from a young age, a family well-off enough to support that financially, uninterrupted time to work on the hobbies that grew into a career, etc).

Quanticle seems to be relating the origins of Donald Trump and Bill Gates. Donald describes his fortune as self-made. Bill Gates has been described as self-made. It's true, if you only consider that their wealth is much greater than any gift they've ever received. It's false from the perspective that anyone could do it with enough hard work.

khedoros commented on You can now buy bare Snapdragon SoCs with 410E and 600E   semiaccurate.com/2016/09/... · Posted by u/protomyth
wolfgke · 9 years ago
But one cannot disable Intel ME. So

> Intel didn't force this upon the consumers

is wrong. I know that vendors producing servers want that Intel ME (because otherwise remote servicing servers would be much harder), but they surely did not require from Intel that Intel ME cannot be disabled.

khedoros · 9 years ago
But IME is distinct from "Intel TXT & UEFI Secure Boot" ("this"'s referent).

> Intel didn't force [Intel TXT & UEFI Secure Boot] upon the consumers

is true. Both of those things can be disabled on most hardware. In fact, I disabled them on the laptop the I just bought, because I wanted to install OSes that aren't SecureBoot signed.

khedoros commented on Pair Programming: give it a rest (2013)   peniwize.wordpress.com/20... · Posted by u/askafriend
prodigal_erik · 9 years ago
I find myself to be smarter and more capable of difficult design work when people nearby shut up and let me concentrate. How would two people constantly distracting each other always add up to one smart person?
khedoros · 9 years ago
It sounds like you operate how I usually do; the communication cost outweighs the benefits of collaboration, and it ends up being a tiring and frustrating experience.

I've seen pair teams working correctly, though. Each of them bounces ideas off the other one, and they progress faster than either would've alone. It's like racing two algorithms against each other, each searching a different part of the problem space, and using the first result that's returned. It lets them move on to the next problem quicker.

I don't usually do that very well, but I can't deny that if you've got the right pair of developers, it's a very powerful technique.

u/khedoros

KarmaCake day1031December 14, 2015View Original