Recent Posts

5501

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics and Responsibility Question

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 08:56 PM »

I don't think that you're really asking a question about professional ethics. The question seems broader than that to me.

Graphic: Ethics? In a financial institution?

Longer explanation of fraud in finance...

I have a rather long series on the topic of fractional reserve banking that illustrates exactly how and why it is fraud.

http://cynic.me/2012...-reserve-banking-1-6
http://cynic.me/2012...ve-what-is-money-2-6
http://cynic.me/2012...it-is-fraudulent-3-6
http://cynic.me/2012...un-on-the-people-4-6
http://cynic.me/2012...nvisible-slavery-5-6
http://cynic.me/2012...tional-resources-6-6

Part 3 has the "punch".

So, it's pretty much a given that they are criminal enterprises that have managed to make their crimes "legal".

How could it be any wonder that they're involved in criminal activity elsewhere? They're corrupt from the get go.

But practically, would reporting lead to a prosecution? It's second-hand information, so, that's debatable. It might be an idea for the hypothetical consultant to have a hypothetical conversation with the district (or crown) prosecutor.

It would be easier for the prosecutor to take things forward if they had some kind of evidence (files, etc.) drop into their laps, even if it were from an anonymous source. But they really do need something to start taking action.

The reality is that illegal activity is par for the course in business now because it's just a cost of business. If you can make more money than you'll get fined, then it's "ok". e.g. Vioxx made $12 billion, but incurred fines and penalties of almost $1 billion, making the almost 30,000 deaths that it caused well worth it.  

I suppose that the question is whether or the hypothetical consultant believes that he/she can make a difference. If yes, then there's a pretty compelling moral/ethical case to do something.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

Commonly: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

-Edmund Burke

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

-Mahatma Gandhi

However...

Motivational graphic

5502

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... the whys and wherefores of NoSQL

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 12:09 PM »

Maybe I can help dumb this down some more. (As I'm the first to need it...)

If you know that you will break your RDBMS at some point, then look at NOSQL. If you won't break your RDBMS, then forget it.

NOSQL is for MASSIVE systems. That's all. There's no reason to use it or even look at it for most purposes. You're far better off going with standard stuff like MySQL, SQL Server, etc. There's more information on them and they're easier to use because of the rich toolkits for them.

5503

Living Room / Re: Microsoft's New Surface Tablet Hybrid

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 11:42 AM »

Sigh... yes... want it...

Despite my new-found loathing of the company Microsoft, I do like a lot of what they do...

5504

Living Room / Re: Microsoft's New Surface Tablet Hybrid

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 10:06 AM »

It looks really nice but if the pricing is $500+ it will take much more than that. For the general public and market share.

-rgdot (June 19, 2012, 10:02 AM)

It does have a keyboard, which adds $100 (around) to the perceived value...

5505

Living Room / Re: Microsoft's New Surface Tablet Hybrid

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 09:57 AM »

It does have the potential to be a great thing, if Microsoft avoids doing the kind of nasty things that Apple does -- like making it so hard to get files/applications on and off the device and let's us have control of our own device.

-mouser (June 19, 2012, 09:27 AM)

Not sure if I see that happening... But anyways...

It does look very nice. The full-sized Surface is very cool, so I'm wondering if they'll have that same "real" multi-touch on it. Just curious really.

5506

Living Room / Re: Computer Hardware Chart

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 06:22 AM »

That picture makes me want to cry.

5507

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 06:18 AM »

Not even worth buying an extra one to extort more money from Renegade since he's would arrive three weeks later anyway 

-4wd (June 19, 2012, 05:06 AM)

Was that going to be $10 a week?

I would have registered a while back if I knew that they were this hard to get. Yikes. I figured that I would be able to just go out and get one whenever I felt like. But this works too -- gives me some time to contemplate what wonderful things I'll accomplish with it~!

5508

Living Room / Re: Techie News Roundup

« Last post by Renegade on June 19, 2012, 01:42 AM »

Regarding the little girl's blog... Anytime you need to stop taking pictures, there's something to hide.

Nice round up~!

-Renegade (June 15, 2012, 08:25 AM)

Let's play the next round of our game Renegade!

Let's see what the cards/game pieces are.
1. Are school lunches "licensed" to students (??!) so that students don't even get all rights to the meal, just a "license to eat it" but not the right to take pictures? So is that a patent violation on the cooking process to make the lunch, or a copyright violation since there should only be one instance of the lunch on the student's tray? What happens if that license is revoked?
2. Free Speech: in the process of taking down the blog, they prevented her from posting her scientific data on how many bites it took to chew the lunch! That could be the basis for a nutritional science fair project!
3. Won't Someone Think of the Children? In this case, no.

-TaoPhoenix (June 15, 2012, 10:16 AM)

Hahahaha~!

Yes~! Let the slaughter-rantfest begin~!

1. Copyright. And Patent. The end product is copyrighted by the cafeteria. It is not copyright by the cooks because it's a work for hire. It is also patented because they're likely using GMOs owned by Monsanto or Synergenta or some other bio-weapons manufacturer. Also, sharing food could be construed as a licensing infringement... If the license is revoked, the little girl's shit and piss must be returned.

2. Free speech does not apply. She has no right to her lunches, because they are owned entirely through patent and copyright rights. This little girl is a criminal. She has libeled the cafeteria, the staff, hamburgers in general, human hair (which also infringes of patents of other corporations that stand to lose immense amounts thanks to this horrible little wench (patents on human genes)), and god only knows what else! So not merely is she cupable for criminal offenses, but she's also libel for untold civil damages. No punishment can be too severe!

3. We are thinking of the children~! It is offensive to think that we are not~! The children MUST BE STOPPED! They have caused enough panic, terror and mayhem to last a thousand generations! We must eliminate all the children NOW before it's too late~! Perhaps if we adopted policies like USAID where they forcibly sterilize women in Uzbekistan (one of many sources, Wikipedia general entry, this goes on in many places), then we could finally rest assured that there will be no more children to terrorize teachers, cafeteria staff, and most importantly, cafeteria owners whose profits suffer because of them! The soft-kill from toxic food isn't fast enough to solve this epidemic problem. Faster solutions are needed yesterday! ACT NOW! Kill the children for our futures~!

5509

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by Renegade on June 18, 2012, 10:51 PM »

Don't know if anyone cares, but the Rasberry Pi community has their own monthly e-magazine. Called The MagPi, it's now up to the second issue and may be downloaded here.

-40hz (June 18, 2012, 05:17 PM)

This is only looking better and better! Thanks for the heads up!

5510

Living Room / Re: Apple...Just ever so slightly paranoid?

« Last post by Renegade on June 18, 2012, 03:50 PM »

Actually one thing you can be certain of - if iTunes was used to create a WMD it would never get to its target without Apple getting its cut of the development costs (and even then it would probably crash before it got there).

-Carol Haynes (June 18, 2012, 03:27 PM)

+1

Also, if Apple were creating WMDs, they'd be trendy, fashionable, and there would be no reason to invade Iran because then they could be cool too -- provided they bought their WMDs from Apple, otherwise that would be some kind of infringement, and they'd need to be nuked real quick~!

5511

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Duplicate Photo Finder

« Last post by Renegade on June 18, 2012, 02:57 PM »

In case you don't already know, it looks like there's a similar program with the same name - Duplicate Photo Finder.  It looks to be US$49.90 at full price, but they make the price very hard to find (bottom of the Upgrade page).

-rjbull (November 14, 2011, 04:14 PM)

-right now it is merely $10: http://www.duplicate...r.com/uninstall.html for 1 year's free upgrade (if any!), and $20 for 2 years. I tested it, and did not purchase a key! because the included "similarity finder" is too imaginative...

-Curt (June 18, 2012, 10:06 AM)

I looked into that functionality before, and it's very difficult to get done right. At the end of the day, computers fail the Turing test.

5512

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on June 18, 2012, 10:17 AM »

Bwahahahahah~!

5513

General Software Discussion / Re: Linus Torvalds calls NVIDIA the worst company ever

« Last post by Renegade on June 17, 2012, 12:03 PM »

zridling beat you to the punch, but 100% thanks for posting!

https://www.donation....msg291117#msg291117

Last time I buy NVIDIA period. Just don't care anymore. They want to **** with freedom, well, my free cash won't bother ****ing around with them.

5514

General Software Discussion / Re: DropBox to drop support for Public folder (no more direct links)

« Last post by Renegade on June 17, 2012, 12:00 AM »

No, Tuxman is correct. The link states that users can continue to link to files, they just won't have a dedicated folder for that anymore. So basically what I said.

-Tuxman (June 16, 2012, 11:37 PM)

I'm not sure where I went wrong there... From the link, it looks like they're talking about their API.

We wanted to let our developers know about an upcoming change to the Public folder for all user accounts.

And:

As indicated in the email, this is a decision that we're going with moving forward. All current users retain their Dropbox Public folder, and it's function continues. Many people have commented on the duplication of function between Public and shared files, and most people (the users of this forum aside) use Public fairly rarely. Since the Public folder won't be in new accounts, relying on it for App functions is a bad idea.

What that sounds like to me is that if you create a new account, download an old application that relies on the Public folder, then use the Public folder in some way in the application, and if there isn't any error checking, you'll end up with an error being thrown, and perhaps a crash.

5515

General Software Discussion / Re: DropBox to drop support for Public folder (no more direct links)

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 11:31 PM »

No. They added direct linking to all files a while ago, so the public folder has no real additional value anymore.

-Tuxman (June 16, 2012, 10:44 PM)

Tuxman is correct. Check here from the link:

We wanted to let our developers know about an upcoming change to the Public folder for all user accounts. In April, we launched the ability to share any file or folder in your Dropbox with a simple link. This new sharing mechanism is a more generalized, scalable way to support many of the same use cases as the Public folder.

After July 31, we will no longer create Public folders in any new Dropbox accounts. If your app depends on Public folders, we recommend switching to the /shares API call. Public folders in existing accounts, however, will continue to function as before.

This is for their public API, so it's not the same thing as what end users need to know.

They're not creating a specific folder. However, you can change the permissions on a file or folder, which as they say, is a more general case. They are EXPANDING the functionality. Not contracting it. You will be able to do exactly what you could before and MORE.

The problem here is for developers writing against the older API. If they didn't do any error checking for the existence of the Public folder, then they're in for trouble with new accounts. So end users have no worries. This is entirely an issue for developers with existing applications written against the older API and how it impacts future Dropbox users, not exising Dropbox users.

5516

General Software Discussion / Re: Linus Torvalds on NVIDIA -- "F**k you!"

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 11:22 PM »

BEAUTIFUL~! I love it~!  

I'll remember that the next time I need to buy a video card.

5517

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 10:27 PM »

Bought a few to scalp on ebay. Pay up or wait months.

3x the price? Good grief!

5518

Living Room / Re: Science News Roundup

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 01:40 PM »

-maybe also study Quackwatch? 

---------

http://answers.yahoo...0080622163618AAiTEMH

-Curt (June 16, 2012, 01:09 PM)

Uhhh...

Bottom line is, 'alternative' in this context is simply another word for 'unproven'. Conventional treatments have been rigourously tested and proven in double-blind, peer-reviewed clinical trials. No alternative medicine has been proven in this way - if it had, it would no longer be alternative medicine, it would just be medicine.

Right... And when you actually look at the evidence for these "rigourously tested and proven in double-blind, peer-reviewed clinical trial" methods, i.e. chemo, you find that you stand a better chance of survival and having your cancer cured by NOT taking chemo. Like seriously... WTF?!?

The cancer industry is a complete scam. They're criminally irresponsible. One need only look at Burzynski's results and compare them to chemo. Here's a documentary on the topic:

As for the grape diet, well, just sounds like a bunch of nonsense.

To be certain, there are a lot of quacks out there. But you find most of them in the oncology departments...

5519

Living Room / Re: Science News Roundup

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 11:53 AM »

This sentence bugs me... Cancer itself has NOT been cured, as Cancer is a very vague term. There are more than 200 different types of Cancer.  All of which have to be treated in different ways.

-Stephen66515 (June 16, 2012, 11:48 AM)

I've lost track of how many doctors have reported on various cures. Check out Burzynski. He's just one of many.

The real cancer now is the medical/pharmaceutical industry that is covering up the various cures.

5520

Living Room / Re: Ads in Skype

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 10:40 AM »

Just wait until they start analysing the audio content of your conversation and then start interrupting with their synthesised audio ads; you know that's got to be on the drawing board.

-nudone (June 16, 2012, 10:19 AM)

Audio analysis is already being done. It's just a matter of time before it's monetized. At the moment it's only to snoop on you.

5521

Living Room / Re: Science News Roundup

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 03:36 AM »

Some interesting stuff there.

This one:

Cancer's Next Magic Bullet May Be Magic Shotgun

Irked me... They're missing the point. Cancer has already been cured... More than once. Different ways. And always ignored because it's not patentable... (I've probably done too much reading on the topic.) For a great site on cancer, see:

http://cancertutor.org/

It's a deep site with a huge amount of information.

5522

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 03:30 AM »

Ok, here's a concept for everyone that understands the technologies to laugh over...

1) Accept voice input
2) Recognize voice input in speech to text
3) Machine translation to another language
4) Output original voice input in another language

Just how mangled could that get?

5523

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 02:53 AM »

5524

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 02:43 AM »

5525

Living Room / Re: Icann reveals new internet top-level domain name claims

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2012, 12:44 AM »

From the hotlinked page - Linking to here with more $$$ designs. Unfortunately, not a single one of them is actually a US note. They're all unmarked or private bank notes.

http://richardsmith....poll-who-should-win/

But some good designs there! Some serious effort and talent!