Comments

Re: Transformer (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I mainly use my tablet in: on 2014-10-21 14:26 (#2TJ5)

I use my tablet (Galaxy Note 10.2) almost only to read eBooks (>90%). I always read in landscape mode if the format is epub. This way I have two pages open in almost the same size as when I read a normal paper pocket book. Of course, technical literature in pdf format I usually read in portrait mode. Whatever works best.

Btw...when I bought my tablet a few years ago, I tested quite a few readers. At that time cool reader was the best I found:
http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm
Maybe in the meantime a better one was released, but I am still happy enough with this one that I feel no pressure to search for
alternatives. One of the best features: It is open source.

Re: Not much to debate... (Score: 2, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Embryos Receive Parent-Specific Layers of Information on 2014-10-21 14:04 (#2TJ4)

I find this very interesting. I wonder when this is commercially used. Gene technology is widely frowned upon. Mostly by people with no sufficient knowledge to be able to have an informed stand is this matter, and mostly for the totally wrong reasons. So, what is epigenetics able to do? Could it be possible to 'gas' seeds with some chemicals and make them this way more resistant against pests? Fine tune the fat/meat ratio in a pig? Without changing the DNA itself? Could be a billion $ market.

Missing option: (Score: 2, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Methodology I use: on 2014-10-16 07:37 (#2TDF)

Whatever my customer wants me to use.

Re: MUD (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-10 09:58 (#2T74)

MUD was given up left and right around me... Not too much fun to play mud, if your are alone.

Re: Old Skool (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-10 09:57 (#2T73)

Haha... should I EVER play with an Atari again... it certainly won't be E.T.
I think I had this game, it was crap. But one thing the C64 could not do...
Play M.U.L.E with four joysticks.

Re: Old Skool (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-10 08:24 (#2T71)

That's a different Atari. ;-)

My very first computer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atari-400-Comp.jpg

Re: Old Skool (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-09 19:38 (#2T6S)

Pfffff.... C64. You poor sods. Everybody knows that back then only Atari was a viable selection. ;-D

Re: Curious thought (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Marriott fined $600,000 by FCC for interfering with customer WiFi hotspots on 2014-10-09 17:54 (#2T6P)

are they right about improving security?
More secure than ones own hotspot? Hardly.

Re: Forbid personal hotspots in Marriott hotels? (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Marriott fined $600,000 by FCC for interfering with customer WiFi hotspots on 2014-10-09 17:48 (#2T6M)

Wow... even more complicated than I thought. Thanks. I know... YANAL.... but sounds plausible.

Forbid personal hotspots in Marriott hotels? (Score: 3, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Marriott fined $600,000 by FCC for interfering with customer WiFi hotspots on 2014-10-09 16:37 (#2T6J)

I am wondering, is it possible for Marriott hotels to forbid the use of personal hotspots? Part of the ToS guests have to sign? Could they then use their Wi-Fi monitoring system not to disrupt the customers hotspots, but to identify them and then fine the customer?

Ok, being able to send "de-authorization" packets does not mean to be able to identify or localize the hotspot. And doing this in the open is surely not a way to get more guests. So this is more a theoretical question.

Re: MUD (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-09 13:31 (#2T6G)

Lost my love ~25 years ago. :-D

Re: Not tech or science related (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in 'Aunt Jemima' relatives suing pancake company for $2B on 2014-10-08 18:05 (#2T69)

True, but we also have a 'legal' section here.
Not that much different:
http://pipedot.org/story/2014-08-13/judge-rejects-apple-google-intel-etc-settlement-says-parties-need-to-pay-more

But I don't care, so no vote from me.

Re: What? (Score: 2, Informative)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-08 13:49 (#2T66)

The Qt mirror project was also removed from GitHub. Ok, might not have something to do with GG. They moved to the Qt Company. But if it were because of GG and I would be responsible for this move, I would not announce it. Because there definitely is harassment around GG... and it does not come from the GG side.

Re: Balderdash (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Offspring can resemble a mother’s previous mate on 2014-10-08 13:34 (#2T65)

Why does evolution matter so much to creationists? Too many people cannot distinguish between pure scientific facts and possible social and cultural reactions to scientific findings.

Though he is not totally wrong. This article is sensationalistic. The leap from 'fruit flies have the size of a former mate' and possible similar mechanisms in mammals is gigantic. First they should research the exact mechanism for the effect in fruit flies. Especially if there is DNA in any way involved. For all I care they can already start similar experiments with mice. But to speculate at this point about humans... too early.

But then again... often a huge gap between what scientists say and what journalists hear.

Re: Hard to answer when two stories are mixed. (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Offspring can resemble a mother’s previous mate on 2014-10-07 03:04 (#2T5P)

Not really mixed. But your answer in "Large Storms..."
"Earthquake weather" has been dismissed by scientists repeatedly. And the story right above this one is that telegony, roundly
"Earthquake weather" and telegony confused me a bit. Way beyond my bed time... But have to stay awake and kill time. :-D

Hard to answer when two stories are mixed. (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Offspring can resemble a mother’s previous mate on 2014-10-07 02:54 (#2T5M)

And the story right above this one is that telegony, roundly denounced by prevailing scientific wisdom for over a century, may actually be true.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I am very skeptical with this one. Not my field of expertise, so what I do here is nothing more as speculation. However, I suppose some scientific papers have been misinterpreted and/or to much dumbed down by journalists. Would not be the first time.
Various non-genetic inheritance mechanisms make it possible for environmental factors to influence characteristics of a child.
Sure, changes through the environment may make children stronger, weaker, taller, smaller, may influence the immune system. No doubt about that. Question is what is meant with 'resemble'? In a human context it would mean something like hair colour, eye colour, facial features...the usual stuff when people say 'this kid resembles his mother/father/grand parents, etc. But those traits are encoded in DNA. I don't see a way how these traits can be passed without DNA just by some chemicals in the males sperm. Not saying this is impossible. And maybe there is DNA involved in some unknown way. However... as I initially said: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Re: It is bad style to say: Not surprising (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Large storms may be strong enough to prompt tremors on 2014-10-07 02:27 (#2T5J)

Wrong story? ;-)

Re: Being a gamer..... (Score: 2, Informative)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-07 02:11 (#2T5G)

Perhaps you should do some research first. Gender/sex/psych? Not so much in GamerGate.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/25/gamergate-an-issue-with-2-sides/
Ok, not totally without gender, but instrumentalized on purpose to distract from what initially caused GG.

Re: Balderdash (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Offspring can resemble a mother’s previous mate on 2014-10-06 23:08 (#2T5E)

You say this based on which insights? Epigenetic effects are known for quite some time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
Knowing that and from the article:
The researchers propose that the effect is due to molecules in the semen of the first mate being absorbed by the female's immature eggs where they influence future offspring.
Not much of a stretch.
And I think it is only natural, that when such a mechanism is found in one species, to look if the same mechanism can be found in other species, too.

Re: Being a gamer..... (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-06 22:25 (#2T5C)

I had the feeling you were a bit annoyed about the GamerGate stuff here in the other story. You know... "News at 11?". And now you drag it in this one? Does not seem to be that uninteresting. :-)

It is bad style to say: Not surprising (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Large storms may be strong enough to prompt tremors on 2014-10-06 21:57 (#2T58)

But: Not surprising. Large hurricanes generate and can be identified through their seismic signals.
If they can, why shouldn't they be able to trigger an earthquake? Before an earthquake there is pressure. Not sure if one can say that the system is in a meta stable state. For many meta stable systems very little energy is needed to trigger the boom. When a hurricane really registers on a seismograph, its energy is cannot be that little.

Why bad style? Even if it makes perfectly sense, it has to be researched and quantified. Just saying: 'Not surprising' is definitely not enough. :-)

Being a gamer..... (Score: 2, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in I'm a gamer and I enjoy (click all that apply) on 2014-10-06 21:37 (#2T57)

...is nowadays almost a political question.
Am I one? No idea. Probably not. You decide. At best I play every six month a game. Never online.
When it gets me, it is almost 24/7 for two or three weeks... little exaggeration here. ;-)

Last two games I played:
Skyrim... When I played this, it was: Wow... hard to top this one. It is just great. Can't get any better. But then...
Dishonored... Erm... Skyrim? Hmm... nice game, but nothing special. :-D

I have yet to find another game, which comes even close to Dishonored.
Of course... very personal taste here and very IMHO.

Re: What? (Score: 2, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-06 00:37 (#2T4C)

Yes, exactly, so again, why in the world would you trust something important to a 'free' service that has zero contractual obligation to you?
Something important? Who said something about something important? When you say 'important' or 'all its eggs in one basket' again a notion of data loss sneaks in. I tried to explain already, that this is the least concern. And if it is really important in terms of valuable trade secrets a service like GitHub, regardless if free or with a paid plan, is out of the question anyways. Services like GitHub are convenient, if they are reliable. An example use case? For instance to fulfill GPL or LGPL obligations. There are plenty of non-profit projects, some quite large, which are required to release source code, because they build upon the GPL software. I have a such a project on Gitorious. It is a hobby project. I don't make money with it. I am happy to share the code. Open source projects helped me tremendously to improve my coding skills. If I can give back to the open source community, I gladly do so. But I certainly don't want to pay for this privilege.

For uses like that you don't need "a legal leg to stand on". And: "don't rely on the thing". If you mean with "rely" something like a guaranteed availability, you are right. But I doubt anyone does this. Even GamerGate apparently was able to move their project in a very short time to Gitorious. Does not sound like they put all their eggs in one basket and everything was lost when GitHub closed their gates for them.

So, for the users of the free service, stunts like that are only inconvenient. They may lose a backup. They might to have to change their websites. READMEs in downloaded code might suddenly point to dead repositories. There will be support requests of users, who are not experienced enough to switch from one git repo to another. Nothing of this is really a disaster. It is mostly annoying.

The question is, what is it for GitHub? Why do you think they offer the free service? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Hardly. So, how do they make money with it? Could it be that they speculate that groups, which are used to use free GitHub hosting, might change someday to a paid plan? That maybe someone who had a good experience with free GitHub might propose to use GitHub when his company evaluates possible hosting solutions?
This certainly will not happen when someone got burned by purely political decisions like in this GamerGate case. Maybe they have shot themselves in the foot with it. And to be honest... I really hope so.

Re: What? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-05 18:27 (#2T46)

Getting the data back isn't the point and even less the problem. GitHub comes from 'git', which is a a distributed revision control and source code management system. So if you are a developer and use git, chances are high, that you have the complete source tree on your local machine anyways. But for a single developer using GitHub is almost a bit overkill. Its real value comes as central repository for developer teams. Especially in self organized open source teams. Being forced to move somewhere else can cost money, e.g. if a website has to be adjusted to point to the new repository. I might break 3rd party links, which makes documents harder to find. The larger the team, the higher the logistic efforts till normal work can continue as usual.

Definitely not a non issue.

Re: What? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-05 15:35 (#2T41)

Where did I or anyone else here say that GitHub or pipedot owes me/us anything? I thought I made clear that both sites would be totally in the right to ban whomever for whatsoever reason they want. And who complains that a free lunch ends? I doubt that anyone would have said anything, if GitHub would have announced: Sorry guys, our business model is not profitable enough, therefore we close our services in a week from now. Please, get all the stuff you need from our servers before that date. This is not what happened. They closed a project, which did not in any way violate their TOS. They did it for purely political reasons. I want to stress it again: Totally within their rights to do. But doing it this way and for the given reason clearly makes it news. Especially on an IT site like pipedot. Sites like GitHub partly live from the trust of their users. May I quote another A.C.:
We need to know which solutions we can trust with our data, and which we cannot.

If a public repo can be removed in such a manner, apparently without any sort of due process, then it could very well happen to a private one.
Exactly. But not only that. Some of us, me inclusive, also have our political views. And also rightfully so. With its actions GitHub needlessly chose a side and now has to live with the consequences. In my personal view GitHub chose the wrong side. You might not believe me, but: No hard feelings about that, it really is GitHub's decision to make. However, no hard feelings does not mean that I want to support them further in any way. Fortunately not much of a decision for me to make, I have a GitHub account, because I once helped in a project, which is hosted there, but I have no project of my own on GitHub. If I had, I would now migrate to Gitorious. And this would be my decision. An informed decision I can only make because it is here and on other sites discussed and not just waved away as:
So... "free service refuses service to someone." News at 11?

Re: What? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-05 09:33 (#2T3V)

GitHub was hosting a public repo that they didn't want to host, so they nuked it. So... "free service refuses service to someone." News at 11?
You are totally right. GitHub is a private company and can host whatever it wants. GitHub can be biased. GitHub can play it save. GitHub can pamper PC. GitHub can pull whatever it wants. TOS violation or not. But just wave this away with "News at 11"?

pipdedot is a privately funded public discussion website. It is totally withing the rights of the maintainer to ban the user kwerle, even though he did not anything wrong, did not violate pipedot's TOS in any way. But... the owners here have any right to be biased. If they want you gone, they can ban you on a whim. If this happens.... News at 12?

Re: Github support responce (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-05 01:31 (#2T3K)

Ah yes. As usual: All animals are equal.. erm... wrong.... All hate campaigns are equal, but some hate campaigns are more equal than others.

Re: Will other GitHub employees make a stink about this? (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Github staff Jake Boxer disables #GamerGate operation disrespectful nod repository on 2014-10-04 22:54 (#2T3D)

I hope that other GitHub employees take offense to this action, and publicly decry it.
Only if they have a death wish. Dangerous to publicly act against the interests of scientologists, feminists, islamists... more or less against all *ists.

I cannot say that I understand the problem (Score: 2, Interesting)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in "Boycott Systemd" movement takes shape on 2014-10-04 16:52 (#2T36)

I am software developer. I develop mostly under Linux. I usually compile my own development tools. Compiler, IDE, non-standard libs. This is not always necessary, sometimes even overkill, but at least this way I know how the stuff is compiled and what the dependencies are. And I rarely get nasty surprises when I do an update/upgrade. So my work stuff is somewhat insulated from the rest of the Linux. Apart from developing stuff I do almost everything with Linux (Debian). I surf, watch movies, print. Linux is my main system. And it works. No problems at all. So I don't really care what kind of init system is used. Maybe I would think different, if I develop for Linux itself. Maybe systemd has problems, which really bite developers, who have to work with it directly or indirectly. However, when I see the noise because of systemd... are there really that many developers, which work on that level? I have the feeling something might be a bit blown out of proportion.

Re: Qt, not QT (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org in Qt is about to be independent again on 2014-09-20 18:26 (#2SNN)

The old trolls called it 'cute', but it never really caught on. Fortunately. I hate 'cute'. You can say 'I am a C++ guy', 'I am a GTK+ guy', 'I am a JAVA guy'... but how does 'I am a cute guy' sound? :-D
12345