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NolF

370 karma · joined November 10, 2010

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NolF··on Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure
Use rules and labels to bypass your inbox. I use it in the same manner as you and it has come useful to recover their passwords.
NolF··on Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure
They send emails to the alternate account.
NolF··on Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone
You are forgetting taxes which puts it to $981AUD, and the cost of customer protection requirements (warranty periods etc) which are more onerous in Australia than US.
NolF··on Google Allo – First Impression
I use an app that backs up all my SMS/MMS onto Gmail (SMS Backup+). It labels them accordingly and separates them by contact. The downside is that MMS are put on a separate conversation and conversations are limited to 100 messages. But the import process puts them all neatly back onto the phone (except MMS). I don't often have to check for old emails so I don't re-import all the texts when I switch phones, the web interface suffices.

It also puts all calls as a calendar event (including length) and entry in the conversations. I find this feature very useful.

NolF··on Weirdly broken Wi-Fi access points
I'll have to give that a go. My MBP performs poorly on dual-channel WiFi
NolF··on California bans ITT tech from accepting new students
Many smoke detectors/alarms still use it. In Australia smoke detectors now have to be wired to the house but have a backup battery in case of a power failure.
NolF··on What Is Knot Theory? Why Is It in Mathematics? [pdf]
There are fewer desired unknot states to your cable than there are tangled and knotted states to them. There also is some confirmation bias as you are less likely to noticed the desired state versus having to battle through the knots for 5 minutes.
NolF··on Missouri State Public Defender: Letter to Governor [pdf]
I followed up on Digory's comment and found prosecution budget has an additional 43.8m from county budgets. And that doesn't account for the efficiencies of the PD doing the investigation work for them... a 1:2 ratio hardly seems just
NolF··on Missouri State Public Defender: Letter to Governor [pdf]
That's very informative. I had a quick look online and found a tabulated by county for 2015 prosecution budgets 43.8m at the county level [0]. Which basically prosecution would have double the budget plus the work of the local PDs etc.

[0] https://fusiontables.google.com/DataSource?docid=1NURUkUA8qQ...

NolF··on Missouri State Public Defender: Letter to Governor [pdf]
I had a quick look at the budget [0] and it would seem the public defender office has a larger budget [2016 $40m] than prosecution [2016 $35m]. Wouldn't a fair defence system have a similar budget to the prosecution? It would seem that they use about 157 FTEs more in the defence than prosecution.

Granted I don't exactly know how these departments are layout but I thought that without a prosecutor you don't need a defence. So a 1:1 ratio would seem about fair, and being overwhelmed would be a case of inefficiencies in one department compared to another.

[0] https://oa.mo.gov/sites/default/files/FY_2016_Executive_Budg...

NolF··on Not Saying Winter Is Coming, but Where’s Your Coat?
It's about A$1 per cigarette in Australia, or about US$19 per pack of 25.
NolF··on Breakthrough in Silicene Production
Interesting, though it doesn't seem to discuss much of the actual benefits of Silicene. Not sure how easy it's compared to other material production but this technique requires * ultrahigh vacuum conditions * Injecting Oxygen molecules at 200C to cut the Silicene from the substrate using a scanning tunnelling microscope * A gold substrate (the picture is wrong)
NolF··on China has built an elevated bus that travels above car traffic
Wouldn't it be like driving through a tunnel? Granted it would be a bit weird that it moves (you can overtake it and vice-versa) but given it short length, you can easily focus on the road and compensate.

I think they might add a vanity panel so you can't see the tyres and trusses making hitting the thing less tangling and perhaps even add flashing warnings if you are veering too close to the thing. Given the width and height of the TEB it looks rather stable.

NolF··on Is cursive handwriting making a comeback?
This is something I don't quite understand. I have a hypothesis (based on observational anecdata) that left handed people generally don't use a dynamic tripod pencil grip, often times there is a fair bit of flexion at the wrist which result in the palm going over the wet ink. Otherwise how are RTL scripts (like Arabic and Persian) not encountering similar issues on right handed people? In fact those scripts require joining, and their calligraphy can get incredibly floral.
NolF··on The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields
Isn't that what the "I forgot my password" feature is for?
NolF··on Walmart Canada stops accepting Visa cards
The way I do it is my salary goes to a online savings account (~2% interest) that's not linked to any cards. I have a debit card I move money over to when I need cash out or to use it (simple with the bank's app). Then I have a CC (used for utilities etc) which I pay every billing period from the savings account.

Works well.

NolF··on It's time to dispel the myths about nuclear power
You do know that most places don't have the geothermal energy close enough to the surface to make that happen? Also you'll need to provide a source to show that nuclear is "not economical" and "the worlds most expensive way to boil water". All the evidence indicates some of the renewables are it [1]. About 77% of France's energy is nuclear, so I'm not sure what you mean it doesn't work on a large scale...[2]

Fun fact a lot of aluminium is made in Iceland because of the cheap energy [3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_France

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland#Aluminium

NolF··on Airbus thinks it has found a way to alleviate jet lag
I did that flight to Haneda last year. Slept most of the way there. Had a bit of caffeine and generally kept mobilising. I was in Tokyo time on Day 2. Fantastic flight.
NolF··on A Basic Income Is Smarter Than a Minimum Wage
Note that there are "only" 209m Americans over the age of 18 [1]. Not that it makes it much more affordable. Without including medical, it looks the government spends about 1.5T already (including SS) [2]

1 http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/demographic.html 2 http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2016USbn_1...

NolF··on Lee Sedol Beats AlphaGo in Game 4
They stated before game 3 that AG had been locked down a while before these games to test the code for bugs and issues. I also think they don't want some of the implications associated with DeepBlue where people modified code even during the games.
NolF··on AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol 3-0 [video]
Well the same thing was mentioned about Kos and game three showed that AlphaGo was very effective by both having few Ko threats and playing them when imperative. It also demonstrated effective gameplay as black with 4.4 & 4.3 opening.

Considering the large training data set, handicap games would certainly be included. It's a great way to test aggressiveness and the effectiveness to reduce the opponents' territory whilst building your own.

As an amateur, handicap games where you try to overcome 3 or 4 stones are some of the most educational experiences. It requires a lot more creative thinking and perseverance to come back from such a disadvantage.

NolF··on Apple VP: The FBI wants to roll back safeguards that keep us ahead of criminals
Once Apple does it for the USA, what's stopping from the UAE and China to request the same?

If a government can compel to break into your own device, what will happen later on when you close those backdoors? What's stopping the governments from demanding you leave a backdoor by pointing "hey but you could do it before"?

NolF··on Millions of Children at Risk as War on Lead Paint Stalls
Probably you don't want to scratch that new toy only to find no lead in it.
NolF··on The Unsuitability of English (2015)
In Spanish culture correcting someone miss-pronunciation is quite common. It's one of the reasons why it can be quicker to master the language by immersion that in an ultra-polite society found in English speaking languages.

The best way to work on your accent is to record yourself and listen to it. Ideally you would have a native say it in a native manner. Movies, TV shows, and particularly audiobooks (with the printed copy) can be a great sources to work on it.

I have encouraged my co-workers to correct my English lately (12 years in Australia). They've been teaching me some of the local sayings, and correcting my pronunciation etc... Things that in Spain would have been picked up and addressed much sooner.

NolF··on Google achieves AI 'breakthrough' by beating Go champion
You are forgetting KOs and super-KOs, as well as newly created spaces from captures.
NolF··on Scientists struggle to stay grounded after possible gravitational wave signal
As I understand it, time only "slows" from the BH frame. From an observer POV it would happen as described.
NolF··on Elegance, illustrated: heliocentrism vs. geocentrism
Most of them are not that elliptical. When put to scale, they difference is almost negligible. For example Mercury has a 23.8Gm difference (51.7%) which sounds like a lot but that's 4 times less than Neptune's 80Gm difference (1.79%) and only 0.5% of Neptune's distance.

* Mercury max 69.8 Gm :: 46.0 Gm :: 51.7%

* Venus max 108.9 Gm :: min 107.5 Gm :: 1.30%

* Earth max 152.1 Gm :: min 147.1 Gm :: 3.40%

* Mars max 249.2 Gm :: min 206.7 Gm :: 20.6%

* Jupiter max 816.0 Gm :: min 740.6 Gm :: 10.2%

* Saturn max 1,509 Gm :: min 1,350 Gm :: 11.8%

* Uranus max 3,008 Gm :: min 2,742 Gm :: 9.70%

* Neptune max 4,540 Gm :: min 4,460 Gm :: 1.79%

NolF··on Why nuclear energy is our best option at the moment
The design and safe construction does.
NolF··on Apple tells U.S. judge 'impossible' to unlock new iPhones
They digitally scanned my finger print for my EU passport. I wouldn't doubt they could print it and use it to unlock a device. At the speed and multitude of angles fingerprint sensors seem to work, I'm sure it forgives a lot of error/blurriness for the sake of user friendliness.
NolF··on How a small streaming site became the Netflix for indie film
The producers likely have distribution agreements on a by-country basis. So, for example WB cannot distribute <movie> in Germany because GEMA has the rights. But GEMA didn't buy the rights for the English subtitles. I imagine technically WB could then sell subtitles rights for <movie> in Germany but it would be a pain because maybe those subtitles were done by <subcompany> for licence in America and Oceania... etc.
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