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ahw  ·  2984 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Internet of Things security is so bad, there’s a search engine for sleeping kids

That doesn't surprise me. It seems there's no upper limit for scary stories about people running insecure software. Maybe they might be more motivated when people keep turning their lightbulbs on and off.

ahw  ·  2984 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Internet of Things security is so bad, there’s a search engine for sleeping kids

The internet of things is a little bit of a pervasive security nightmare. I feel like in a few years we're going to be back in a state similar to the early days of the internet with regard to IoT. If people are slow to patch web servers and mobile apps imagine how slow they will be to patch lightbulbs, cameras, door locks etc.

They might be more a problem with consumer grade 'out-of-the-box' type products where ease-of-use is a massive priority, I imagine that use of IoT in corporate or industrial setting might be better. My company's head of technology frequently talks about IoT with massive enthusiasm and optimism, but that just scares me.

ahw  ·  3002 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Rift is $599, launch details released as pre-orders start

Although I had both expected and hoped the cost to be lower, in my mind it's not entirely unfounded or outrageous. A high end television or smart phone will cost you similarly. It does mean that for a while VR will be beyond the reach of many average consumers, especially those who don't already own a capable gaming PC.

Personally I'm excited to just sit down and play some games, but the loftier goals leveraging VR for social applications are likely to be something that will take a few years and component price drops to be achievable.

ahw  ·  3080 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 21, 2015

I am lucky enough to be in Krakow for work this week. It's a beautiful city and some of my colleagues over here are taking me out for beer tonight. I wish I could stay a little longer.

https://instagram.com/p/9B8SmYgVxJ/

ahw  ·  3093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What the donate button ISN'T and IS --and a bonus question for the newbies

Wait there's (or was) a snail in space? Maybe we could add it to the animals in space wikipedia page.

ahw  ·  3093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Religious Freedom - HELP ME

I'll admit to twisting the phrasing bit to fit the analogy. What wanted to tie into was: participating in a freedom should 'keep people out' of the freedoms they are attempting to participate in, such as marriage or access to healthcare. There are a couple of 'impasses' where it gets conflicted, the government can't compel you to do anything in regards to private association or property, but for businesses or public services I think their is an obligation to certain behavior and to certain codes of conduct

ahw  ·  3093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Religious Freedom - HELP ME

I believe there is a basic or 'golden' rule when it comes down to rights. You are entitled to your rights up until the point where they infringe on others. Any religious rights must be weighed against other's rights to to be free from discrimination or persecution. I can't practise or exercise any religious beliefs that might cause anyone else to be denied of their rights.

If I were bus driver would it be reasonable to to deny black people access to the bus I drive because integration is against my religious beliefs? This scenario is functionally no different than a photographer discriminating against people because of their beliefs.

I can't speak for the US but in the UK it would be illegal to force someone as part of their job to do something against their beliefs (not just religious, this could apply to vegetarianism for example). The notable exception to this is when what you are being asked to do would be reasonably expected of a person in your job.

In your analogy. You can play the game of basketball you want. No one can deny you from playing or setting the rules you agree. But you can't play all the time. Sometimes you need to let someone else use the court.

ahw  ·  3093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Update: Donations

After mousing over the payment provider link to Stripe (and having a peek at the page source), I felt confident in using it myself but that might not work for everyone. Just my feelings.

ahw  ·  3093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Update: Donations

I noticed that Stripe is Hubski's payment provider. Do you think people would be more willing to use the payment form if it used Stripe's embedded checkout form, rather than it's current custom form?

It's primarily a phycological affair but when I look at the current barebones payment form it definitely evokes a slightly awkward feeling that might put some people off.

ahw  ·  3154 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Happened to The London Stone?

I can go have a look tomorrow and see what I can find.

ahw  ·  3164 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 'Impossible' rocket drive works and could get to Moon in four hours

I'm not qualified to speak to the science behind this drive but I can mention something about the mathematics it (supposedly) violates. The conservation of momentum is a mathematical model, and one that so far everything appears to follow, much like Euclidean geometry, which held right up until we discovered relativity. However unlike Euclidean geometry or Newtonian physics, which the conservation of momentum is implied within, momentum is still conserved (in a generalised, linear sense) in quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Which means one of two things must be the case, either the model no longer applies in this instance, or this does not actually have a closed system the most theorists would assume (this is touched with "it could have something to do with the technology manipulating subatomic particles which constantly pop in and out of existence in empty space." but that is when I'm afraid I must defer to someone with a better understanding of subatomic particles than me)

ahw  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The future isn't robots replacing waiters, it's me replacing waiters

You're right the whole thing doesn't work well for rounds. There's no doubt that this isn't going after anything approaching high-end. Today's novelty will be tomorrow's convenience. Also if eateries want customers to be engaged then there needs to be some sort of demonstrated value added like a loyalty scheme.

ahw  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The future isn't robots replacing waiters, it's me replacing waiters

This is the teething stage where the design of the process is lagging behind the technology. In the ideal restaurant scenario you would have ordered your meal using your phone before you even sat down. With a text field for details like "no pickles". If you compare mobile website interfaces now to ten years ago, for example, ordering plane tickets was technologically not that different, but the design sensibilities are what's really changed between then and now.

The bar example sounds quite pleasant, because I'm used to getting up to go the bar anyway and digitising the process with quantitative payment seems appealing.

ahw  ·  3173 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: SpaceX failure was likely due to a faulty strut

Perhaps some classic Kerbal Space Program wisdom would have helped in this situation.

ahw  ·  3173 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Study: Unskilled male gamers more hostile to women than skilled players

I really like the concept of including data and including some source scripts on something like Github. It encourages you to examine things yourself and see if you can reproduce the authors' conclusions.

ahw  ·  3174 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: An investigation into the million-dollar business of video game cheating

I'd quite like to see a shadowban style system for dealing with cheaters where possible. If they just get banned or a particular piece of software gets blocked, then those users will soon be back with new accounts and new cheats. If you could match them with other cheaters, or start subtly altering their experience then it wouldn't be so easy to detect when you had been detected. More importantly you could keep them away from honest players.

For match-making games you could have a kind of "honesty ELO", that tries to match you with players of similar honesty ranking. Use wall-hacks and you'll play with other people using wall-hacks, then it's not even cheating anymore; you just get the game you deserve. Aim-bot and you'll get matched with other aim-boters etc.

As described in this article the only way to survive as a cheater in such an environment is to change your behaviour to just using 'information advantage' type cheats, at which point it becomes even harder to detect you've been 'shadowbanned' since the other cheating players you would be matched with are almost indistinguishable from just skilled opponents.

What do people think. I know there are systems like this for matching toxic players with each other, are there any for cheaters.

ahw  ·  3178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: First Close-Up Photos of Pluto Are Released by NASA

I'm highly entertained that part of Charon is informally called Mordor.

ahw  ·  3178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Echochamber.js, all of the commenting, none of the comments

This comes across as a mostly tongue-in-cheek app. I don't expect it would have any practical application or is likely to genuinely fool anyone; it's more a joke about getting internet users to host their own trenchant comments that don't contribute to discussion. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

ahw  ·  3178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: It's Official: No Kojima On Metal Gear Solid V's Box

I totally agree with that sentiment, and as it stands this still remains disrespectful to the creator. To anyone familiar with the series and Kojima, The Phantom Pain will be bear the label in spirit if not in name.

ahw  ·  3178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: It's Official: No Kojima On Metal Gear Solid V's Box

In my mind Platinum Games seems like a strong fit. They've already worked on a Metal Gear game so presumable they have some established connections with Kojima. Plus Platinum seems pretty into their weird and wonderful games.

ahw  ·  3178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: It's Official: No Kojima On Metal Gear Solid V's Box

It's been pointed out elsewhere but Kojima retaining the right to his own name (or at least the 'Kojima Productions' name) may have been his choice. He may have reached an agreement with Konami to be able to use 'Kojima Production' at his next venture, a consequence of this is the removal of his and his production company's name from future Konami products, not out of spite but in accordance with their agreement.

Obviously this is just speculation on mine and others parts, but at does present a situation that doesn't require you to assume malice on Konami's part.

ahw  ·  3179 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Artificial Neural Networks with Corvus: Part 1!

Thanks, I've used Torch as a framework. I probably wouldn't be able to produce anything more efficient myself. I'm currently still very much at the layperson stage and taking lots of learning materials and code from examples online but I've been really pleased with the results so far.

ahw  ·  3179 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Greece signs up to a painful, humiliating agreement with Europe

It seems to me that Greece played it's hand about as well as it could during negotiations. Giving a strong impression it was ready to leave the eurozone, democratically rejecting previous proposals, both through the election of Syriza and the referendum. Unfortunately it seems like it hasn't worked.

ahw  ·  3179 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My approach for a keyboard layout with 10 keys - Update!

Finally a keyboard for emacs users! But yeah, this is a nice demo. I managed to type 'www.facebook.com' in around 30 seconds. I would be curious to see if it can approach faster typing speeds after some learning and familiarisation. My gut feeling is that it won't because having to take all your fingers off the keys between letters. It might be faster if a chord is registered after a group of keys have been pressed but before they have been released.

Still, an interesting idea.

ahw  ·  3180 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Update: A funding experiment

Sounds like a very interesting experiment. I'll join in.

ahw  ·  3180 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Artificial Neural Networks with Corvus: Part 1!

Very interesting, I look forward to part 2. I recently started toying around with recurrent neural networks to generate text based on a pre-existing corpus, it's good to learn a little more about the theory behind machine learning.