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Comment WTF is this noise? (Score 2, Insightful) 464

by KillerCow (#34656552) Attached to: Scientifically, You Are Likely In the Slowest Line

FIRST... no he dose not prove that you are in the SLOWEST line. He demonstrates that it's most likely that you are NOT IN THE FASTEST LINE. The exact same argument can be used to show that you are likely NOT IN THE SLOWEST line [of course, Slashdot editors and readers have never written any kind of mathematical proof, so the concept of "similarly" is foreign to them].

SECOND... this is elementary probability... barely even high-school level.

Given 3 lines
WLOG, randomly choose one
there is 1/3 probability that your line is the fastest
therefore there is 2/3 probability that your line is not fastest
therefore it is more likely that you are not in the fastest line

THIRD... there is nothing ironic about the single queue being fastest. This is obvious to anyone who has even set next to someone who's brother's dog licked someone who accidentally clicked on the wiki page for queuing theory.

I cannot believe that this drivel got posted. Apparently, Slashdot is now for remedial math. AND the poster (and editors) didn't even get it right! Slashdot editors fail remedial math.

I know this site went to shit about 7 or 8 years ago, but all nerd cred is forever lost in my eyes. It is now just for 12 year old mouth breathers who have no idea what they are talking about.

Logging into my account that I created when I officially gave up on this website. I am not going back to routing *.slashdot.org to 0.0.0.0 so that I am never tempted to return here on a lark.
Privacy

Submission + - The iPhone Meets the Fourth Amendment (ssrn.com) 3

Submitted by background image
background image writes: According to Alan M Gershowitz, the doctrine of "search incident to arrest" may allow devices such as mobile phones, pdas and laptops to be thoroughly searched without either probable cause or warrants, and incriminating evidence found in such searches may be used against you whether or not it is germane to the reason for the original arrest.

Imagine that police arrest an individual for a simple traffic infraction, such as running a stop sign. Under the search incident to arrest doctrine, officers are entitled to search the body of the person they are arresting to ensure that he does not have any weapons or will not destroy any evidence. The search incident to an arrest is automatic and allows officers to open containers on the person, even if there is no probable cause to believe there is anything illegal inside of those containers. What happens, however, when the arrestee is carrying an iPhone in his pocket? May the police search the iPhone's call history, cell phone contacts, emails, pictures, movies, calendar entries and, perhaps most significantly, the browsing history from recent internet use? Under longstanding Supreme Court precedent decided well before handheld technology was even contemplated, the answer appears to be yes.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Chuck Norris sues, says his tears no cancer cure (reuters.com) 2

Submitted by Google85
Google85 writes: Chuck Norris sued publisher Penguin on Friday over a book he claims unfairly exploits his famous name, based on a satirical Internet list of "mythical facts" about him.
The book capitalizes on "mythical facts" that have been circulating on the Internet since 2005 that poke fun at Norris' tough-guy image and super-human abilities, the suit said.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Via Unveils 1-Watt x86 CPU

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Taiwanese chip and board vendor Via Technologies has introduced a new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor aimed at industrial, commercial, and ultra-mobile applications. Touted as the world's most power-efficient x86-compatible CPU, the 500MHz 'Eden ULV 500' processor debuted at an Embedded Systems Conference in Taipei this week. Via says its chip draws a minimum of 0.1 Watts, when idle, and a maximum of 1 Watt, making it a great candidate for consumer electronics devices such as UMPCs, PVRs, and such.
Patents

Submission + - Wordlogic Patented Predictive Interface 1

Submitted by
Packetl055
Packetl055 writes: "Have any of you heard anything about this new high tech company (Wordlogic) with a soon to be granted/issued patent with 117 claims for predictability software? They recently received the patent approval/allowance letter from the U.S. Patent Office see link. Their patent application was submitted in March 2000. If I read this correctly any software that gives you any prediction after you type something is infringing on their patent (e.g. vehicle navigation systems, cellular telephones, PDA's, Google with their "Did You Mean" when using Google for a search, the new Apple I-Phone, Blackberry, Sony Playstation-3, etc. etc.). If true, this is going to be huge. Lawsuits after lawsuits because of infringements."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Sony to add TV tuner, DVR to PS3

Submitted by pjhenley
pjhenley writes: Sony has announced that they will add digital TV and DVR capabilities to the PS3 in Europe. TV can also be watched on a PSP using "remote play" over WiFi or via downloaded recordings. You can read the press release on the semi-official Sony UK blog. Engadget has some details as well.
The Internet

Submission + - IP holders press for access to WHOIS data

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The seven-year-old battle over access to WHOIS data — the names, street addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of those who have registered Internet domains — remains a stalemate this week, leaving reforms undone.

The conflict pits individuals and groups that favor privacy protections against organizations and law enforcement agencies that favor data access to police intellectual property and to curtail cybercrime. Caught in the middle are Internet domain registrars that have to balance customer data protection with data access requirements mandated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names' (ICANN) Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).
Space

Submission + - Study: Martian Soil Has Signs of Life (geoffrobinson.net)

Submitted by
geoffrobinson
geoffrobinson writes: "Reuters is reporting that a scientist from Germany believes Viking probe data shows signs of life. From the article: "But Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said on Friday the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface. His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin." Houtkooper adds

We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes. It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.
"
Robotics

Submission + - DARPA Semifinalists Selected

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: DARPA has selected thirty-six teams as Urban Challenge semifinalists to participate in the National Qualification Event. Both the webcast and press release can be found on the official site: here. Dr. Tony Tether reports that only 1 of the top 5 previous teams was rated in the top 5 of teams this year and 3 of the top 5 were not in the challenge finals last year.
NASA

Submission + - Blogger finds Y2K bug in NASA global warming study 11

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to the article at http://www.dailytech.com/Blogger+finds+Y2K+bug+in+ NASA+Climate+Data/article8383.htm a blogger has discovered a Y2K bug in a NASA climate study by the same writer who accused the Bush administration of trying to censor him on the issue of global warming. The authors have acknowledged the problem and released corrected data. Now the study shows the warmest year on record as being 1934, not 1998 as previously reported in the media. In fact, the corrected study shows that half of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before World War II.
United States

Submission + - Forensics Expert says Al-Qaeda Images Altered

Submitted by WerewolfOfVulcan
WerewolfOfVulcan writes: Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some veeeeeery interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images that our government loves to show off.

From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - 37th and final Independent game review panel (gametunnel.com)

Submitted by
cyrus_zuo
cyrus_zuo writes: " Game Tunnel 's monthly Indie game review panel is no more. This month's panel, posted July 31st, will be the final panel reviewing what's new in Independent games. The monthly review panel has run just over 3 years with the July panel marking the 37th panel. Having reviewed 468 games over its life, the panel has had a variety of writers giving a plethora of opinions about what has been great and what hasn't been so great in the world of Indie games. The final panel features Derek Yu from TIGSource (and IGF winner Aquaria fame), Greg Costikyan from Manifesto Games, John Bardinelli from Joystiq, and Caspian Prince from Puppygames."

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