sabik

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• Commented on DRM versus innovation
  I think there are two fundamental issues here. (1) Is DRM good or bad, all things considered? and (2) Do content creators have the right to use DRM if they wish? I'm not an expert on the consequences of DRM,...
• Commented on How Britain's Pirate Finder General is trying to save the Analog Economy at the Digital Economy's expense
  Well, yes. However, I'm willing to concede that on a time-scale of 50-500 years, we might invent something that we can't even imagine now. (Apart from the analog weakness, even the purely digital parts of the mechanism have problems, because...
• Commented on How Britain's Pirate Finder General is trying to save the Analog Economy at the Digital Economy's expense
  a) better copy protection will emerge that will prevent people from pirating, For completeness, the problem with this idea is that there's not even a theoretical hint as to how this might work technologically. That doesn't mean that it's impossible,...
• Commented on Glowing bacteria that finds landmines
  I'm pretty sure the primary goal here is to clear existing mine-fields in areas long since not under contention. There's a lot of those around the world, and nobody really wants them to be there any more, but clearing them...
• Commented on $50k novel advance == "almost qualify for foodstamps"
  I don't think I know *any* writers who just sit in a garret and write a book each year, sliding it under the door for delivery to the agent's office. To be fair, though, there could be a sampling bias....
• Commented on Viacom's top lawyer thinks lawsuits were "terrorism" - but he's learned nothing from the experience
  I mean for example, MGM cant just spend tens of millions to produce the next Bond film just to post it somewhere for free. Nor can most independent studios afford to produce a work of that scale. Unfortunately, the answer...
• Commented on David Moles's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom"
  Also "I, Row-Boat"?...
• Commented on Labels may be losing money, but artists are making more than ever
  Why are artists making so much money from the live shows these days? It's because they scalp their own tickets. I'm not sure it's really "scalping" if you do it to your own tickets. Selling tickets for what the market...
• Commented on "Sixth Sense Technology" Will Be Open Source
  Hmm, didn't Bruce Sterling once say that any design that begins, "the device hangs around the users neck" is likely to be bad design? @RevEng, the GPL (both v2 and v3) just means that companies can't appropriate the work of...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  Thanks, Sabik. I will take that as confirmation, along with the same point made by CANTFIGHTTHEDITE, that no other system of medicine in the world has such a high rate of negative side effects as western medicine. In other words,...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  My question is, can you think of any system of treatment around the world that has a higher adverse, unintended side effect rate that western, allopathic pharmaceuticals? Yes, yes I can. With adverse unintended side effects one should count cases...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  "1) If you're immunized, in what way does someone else not getting immunized jeopardize you?" As others have written, general immunization covers people for whom the vaccine is ineffective (often a few percent), those who cannot take it for serious...
• Commented on Brit business secretary promises to punish accused file-sharers' families with Internet disconnection by 2011
  @tbr, I'm waiting for some MC on some public occasion taking three complaints from the audience, then disconnecting their microphone. "Well, if you declare under oath that you haven't violated these people's copyrights, we'll put you back on today's program...
• Commented on Tickling the Dragon: Nuclear accidents in the US and Russia
  Well, the equivalent thing for petroleum would be unexpected detonation / fire. I would suspect that we've had more than 60 cases of those in the last 70 years even if we exclude vehicle accidents, but I don't have the...
• Commented on On the literary and scholarly awesomeness of the timezone file
  Leap seconds are applied in the underlying UTC time tracking, at least on Unix-like systems, well before the timezone information is applied. For most practical purposes, of course, it doesn't matter, but standards like POSIX and programs and protocols like...
• Commented on Arizona Republic quotes psychics as experts on the future
  A last point, is that the psychics are actually giving good economic advice. ... being careful with money and saving as much as possible That's what's called a "cold reading", isn't it? Vague, likely-to-be-true statements that seem specific and personal...
• Commented on Type design experts, browser makers, take another crack at webfonts
  @Brainspore, the correct professional to consult for web design is a web designer, not a graphic designer who learned on paper. The web is not paper. The web is very much not paper. Attempting to use paper graphic design approaches...
• Commented on Tumors Can Grow Faster Than You Think
  we should be upgrading our minds to come up with more sophisticated understanding of the immune response so that we could find ways other than vaccinations Excellent! So you'll be dedicating the next couple of decades of your life to...
• Commented on A Doctor's Advice On How To Read Health News (And Know Whether It's Full of Crap)
  Another good rule is to occasionally read some articles about a subject that you're familiar with and judge them for (in)accuracy and (un)reliability... then guess a similar level of (in)accuracy and (un)reliability for other fields....
• Commented on Psychologists answer the question "What's the one nagging thing you still don't understand about yourself?"
  The scientists say the air is ionized positively before a storm, and positive ions make us feel depressed. After the storm, air's ionized negatively, with the opposite effect. Interestingly, in that context both "effect" and "affect" would be correct, appropriate...
• Commented on My recent money-related posts at Credit.com
  Hmm, another way out of the free-rider problem — which would probably work among 20 people — might be a system of mutual matching contributions (with ratios and caps). That is, each person says "I will contribute X% of the...
• Commented on Bletchley Park gets National Lottery preservation funds
  @valdis #13, the UK Lottery pays out lump sums, as do many others. The "advertise undiscounted sum of annuity" fraud seems to be a US thing....
• Commented on Bletchley Park gets National Lottery preservation funds
  Actually, under some circumstances it is in fact rational to gamble (and to get insurance, @Certhas #3/#4). The reason is that the utility of money is not linear. As one gets more and more rich or further and further into...
• Commented on American health care UI: snapshot
  @Guysmiley #55, the THERAC-25 system had a number of problems that contributed to those deaths and other injuries, but the UI wasn't one of them. No operator error was involved beyond continuing to use a system that was obviously cantankerous....
• Commented on Smokescreen privacy game uses fun missions to show kids how data on social services can be used against them
  So, a bit like http://xkcd.com/300 ? Mind you, if a boy who rather likes you takes the effort to learn something about your interests before hitting on you, I suspect it's not exactly the end of the world. Obviously, there's...
• Commented on If lotto tickets told the truth
  To be fair, the analysis isn't as simple as the post suggests, because the utility of money is not linear. That's why it's rational to buy insurance and that's why (depending on your net worth) it may be rational to...
• Commented on Dutch Schultz's secret buried treasure
  @EMJ, I get the impression that while he was shot in the bar bathroom, he died some time later in hospital (or some other such facility). Certainly an infection would take some time to set in....
• Commented on Normalcy is the future
  "The foreseeable future IS banal." That can mean two things, though, can't? It can mean that the future will be banal. But it can also mean that only some of the possible futures are banal, and those are the ones...
• Commented on Normalcy is the future
  @anonymous #2, I suspect the things you mention will also seem pretty much invisible. If you go to the dentist, he does stuff to your teeth, tells you to come back in two or three weeks while he sends stuff...
• Commented on Consumerist sued by Cash4Gold after critical blog posts
  Cash4Gold previously mentioned in February... http://boingboing.net/2009/02/03/rob-cockerham-writes.html...