Comment It's depressing (Score 1) 468
To know with certainty so many of the comments here would be exactly reversed if it was Jared Kushner's laptop.
Comment coercion (Score 2) 313
If the coercion aspect is true, it doesn't matter what the contracts said. Coerced contracts are generally not enforcable.
So that's the key point in these cases.
Comment Yeah, none of this is going to happen... (Score 0) 395
And they know that.
So what's the point, really? What are they really doing with this?
Comment Time to put up, then (Score 1) 164
He should donate all the money he made from the rage-fest that is Reddit, then. I'd suggest a charity that assists victims of the poison reddit has spread.
Comment Of all the the attacks on bitcoin (Score -1, Troll) 172
The pretend alarm over its energy usage is the most amusing.
Comment I have a strong preference (Score 1) 370
For platforms being platforms and interfering with their users as little as possible.
Comment Remember (Score 5, Insightful) 260
Keep your opinions to yourself if you don't want to be targeted.
Comment Re:160 million copies!? (Score 2, Informative) 203
Your Rowling figure is off by a considerable amount. Last estimate was 400+ million copies.
Comment Re:fork it (Score 1) 439
Yep. Forking is clearly the right response to this.
And watching the fork pass the original.
Comment Re:not smart (Score 2, Insightful) 439
Absolutely.
Any such system will kill Wikipedia dead.
It's like they don't understand why they are successful.
Ah well, someone else will it right while they fail.
Submission + - MIT's SAT Math Error
theodp writes: "The Wall Street Journal reports that for years now, MIT wasn't properly calculating the average freshmen SAT scores (reg.) used to determine U.S. News & World Report's influential annual rankings. In response to an inquiry made by The Tech regarding the school's recent drop in the rankings, MIT revealed that in past years it had excluded the test scores of foreign students as well as those who fared better on the ACT than the SAT, both violations of the U.S. News rules. MIT's reported first-quartile SAT verbal and math scores for the 2006 incoming class totaled 1380, a drop of 50 points from 2005."
Submission + - Soliders Bond With Bots, Take Them Fishing
HarryCaul writes: Soldiers are finding themselves becoming more and more attached to their robotic helpers. During one test of a mine clearing robot, "every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield." The man in charge halted the test, though- "He just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg. This test, he charged, was inhumane." Sometimes the soldiers even take their metallic companions fishing.
Is there more sympathy for Robot Rights than previously suspected?
Submission + - Digital Media Archiving Challenges Hollywood
HarryCaul writes: Movies are moving to digital, but what about long-term archiving of the master source materials? Turns out it's harder for digital media than for contemporary analog. Data is being lost, and studios have to learn to cope. Phil Feiner of the AMPAS sci-tech division says "when he worked on studio feature films he found missing frames or corrupted data on 40% of the data tapes that came in from digital intermediate houses" How to deal with it? Regular migration from old media to new media. Grover Crisp, says Sony has put in a program of migrating every two to three years. Other studios are following suit, but wht about indie features? Will we lose films like we lost the orignals of the 20s?
Submission + - The Math of Text Readability
An anonymous reader writes: Wired magazine has an article that explains The Law of Optical Volumes, a formula for spacing the letters on a printed page that results in maximum readability. Wired's new logo (did anyone notice?) obeys the law. Unfortunately, Web fonts don't allow custom kerning pairs, so you can't work the same magic online as in print. Could this be why some people still prefer newspapers and magazines to the Web?
Submission + - FTC To Investiage 'Viral Marketing' Practices
mcflaherty writes: The Federal Trade Commission(FTC)is going to investigate the use of so called 'Viral Marketing' by corporations. This is the type of advertising that seeks to start a word of mouth campaign for the product via consumers themselves. Previously, consumers themselves set the buzz. But lately advertisement firms are stepping up to the plate themselves, seeding the market with buzz that looks independent of the company, but is in fact funded by them. The crew at Penny Arcade contend that corporate generated buzz is not Viral Marketing, and perhaps Guerilla Marketing would be a more apt term. Either way, it appears to be a profitable advertising model.
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"Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea, even one which cannot be justified on any other grounds." -- J. Finnegan, USC.
