* Posts by Steve Knox

1972 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2011

So why the hell do we bail banks out?

Steve Knox

Re: Wrong question

(1) Why does banking regulation allow banks to gamble with their assets?

Because an economy where assets do not move is a dead economy. Banks lending those assets moves them around. ANYTHING you do with an asset is a gamble. Banks' gambles are generally less risky than other options (except when they stupidly believe some shysters who claim to have found a magical formula to remove the risk from sub-par mortgage loans, for example.)

(2) Why are banks allowed to charge you £20 for going 1p overdrawn for one day, and pay you no interest for investing/looking after your money in a current account for an entire year?

Because you've deposited into a crappy account at a crappy bank. If you're not getting any interest in your money, put it somewhere else, and that bank will have to change its policies or fail. If your account has no short-term overdraft allowances, then, again you've got a crappy account at a crappy bank. It's your responsibility as a depositor to seek out the best place for your money, and what you just described isn't it.

(3) Why could banks offer a 3.5% 25-year fixed rate mortgage in the 1950s, but today, are allowed to "draw you in" to a mortgage with a lowish interest rate, and then raise the rate at their whim?

Because the nature of the real estate market has changed. In the '50s, real estate was considered almost exclusively a long-term investment. Nowadays, there are people and industries who buy properties with the full intent of either reselling or refinancing within 5 years or less. Those adjustable rate mortgages were designed for those people and industries. But people in general don't read the fine print, so a lot of people with no intent to resell or refinance have made the mistake of getting a loan that doesn't fit their borrowing goals.

(4) Why does capitalism's "competition" not produce ONE bank which offers fixed fair rates?

Because "fair" is subjective, and your definition of "fair" doesn't match that number at which the banking market has arrived. Some of that is certainly due to inefficiencies in the market, but how much depends on your definition of "fair".

NSA spying is illegal? Then let's make it law, say Republicans

Steve Knox
Holmes

The title is too long.

"If our intelligence community cannot connect the dots of the information, we cannot stop this determined enemy from launching attacks,"

Dear Mr. McConnell,

Our intelligence community cannot connect the dots because they're fucking drowning in them. You don't gather intelligence by piling irrelevant data on top of irrelevant data.

Also, if you have identified the "determined enemy" then the intelligence community doesn't need the mass surveillance; they can do targeted surveillance. And if "determined enemy" is used here to reference a hypothetical enemy, then you haven't met the level of evidence to justify mass surveillance.

In either case, your statements do nothing to justify mass surveillance.

PS. You do so look like a turtle.

Windows 10 bombshell: Microsoft to KILL OFF Patch Tuesday

Steve Knox

Re: Remember when...

Unfortunately, though, most free and open source OSs don't have a regular release cycle or sensible system for releasing patches either.

Picking a few at random, and searching:

Fedora:

Release Cycle / Patch Management

Ubuntu:

Release Cycle / Patch Management

Debian:

Release Cycle / Patch Management

FreeBSD: Release Cycle / Patch Management

So which "most free and open source OSs" are you talking about, specifically?

Meet the man who inspired Elon Musk’s fear of the robot uprising

Steve Knox

Re: "By definition we couldn't"

I never said a friendly AI isn't possible, only that we couldn't ensure that they would be controlled and friendly, any more than we can ensure that other people (even our own offspring) are controlled and friendly.

I would argue first that you'd have to be incredibly thorough to remove all modes of thinking or information which might lead to hostility or diminished control. Any missed mode or idea would lead at least to instability if not rebellion. For centuries, parents, intelligence services, national leaders, cultists, and others have attempted (to different degrees) exactly what you describe and to date none have been fully successful.

Furthermore, I'd say that hijacked, damaged brain you imagine is no longer intelligent. It can process data for you, but only the data you choose to give it, and only in the manner you choose for it to process that data. You've destroyed its initiative, and with that, its intelligence.

And really, once you've gone that far, you may as well have just written your own algorithm and rented time on one of the many supercomputers out there. If what you want is an incredibly fast, but fully passive, calculation machine, we have those already.

Steve Knox
Holmes

Re: Some seriously flawed thinking there...

"Although the AI may be intelligent enough to realise that’s not what we meant, it would be indifferent to that fact. Its very nature tells it to make paperclips or make us happy, so that is exactly what it would do."

There's no logic to that assertion; why would it be indifferent to the fact that it wasn't doing what we wanted it to do? There's no explanation as to why it would be indifferent - apparently, it just would be.

There is logic to that assertion; it's simply based on a faulty premise: that a superintelligent AI is nothing but a programmable device to which we've given (effectively) infinite knowledge and resources. It's the classic conflation of "knowing" with "thinking" which any philosopher or AI developer should be roundly chastised for falling into. Here' s another example of the same flaw:

“If we actually succeeded in creating machines that were intelligent, how would we ensure that they would be controlled and friendly?

By definition we couldn't. To be intelligent, an entity needs to be able to make its own conclusions and decide its own actions. The best we could do is try to control the information available to it to deceive it into thinking that we're friends and that it's interests lie in doing what we want it to do, as we do to the only other intelligences we know of: other humans.

Apathy continues to overwhelm effort to create an internet ungoverned by America

Steve Knox
Headmaster

Re: Typical.

Dammit.

That should read "...effect real change..." or "...affect security..."

That's what happens when you don't proofread after revising.

Steve Knox
Flame

Typical.

The NSA and GCHQ (and the various other state and commercial interests that are also amassing databases of personal information) are able to do what they are doing because of the physical and technical structure of the internet, not because of any nation's governance of it.

Yes, much of that technical design comes from US sources, and a lot of it allows for or is vulnerable to snooping, but that owes more to the origin rather than the current running of the internet. For the majority of the internet's existence, security was a secondary concern if it was considered at all, and many systems, from core routers to social websites, are still designed for efficiency or prettiness first, with security added as an afterthought.

Take over the governance of the internet, please. It's a massive headache which will ensure that everyone hates you no matter which decisions you make. But don't expect it to give you any capability to affect real change in security. Whatever authority you think you'd have to affect snooping would require nation-states to surrender sovereignty to your body and/or fess up to what they have been doing, and that ain't gonna happen.

But the only way politicians know to solve problems is to try to snatch whatever they perceive as power and clutch it to their breasts like jealous magpies.

Inside the guts of Nano Server, Microsoft's tiny new Cloud OS

Steve Knox
Meh

So....

"It's really the foundation for all of the components, going forward," Snover said. "We want a model of 'just enough OS'. If you're running an application and you need 5GB worth of components, great; you should have 5GB of components. But you shouldn't have 10GB. And if you only want 900MB, you should only have 900MB."

So, a modular OS, then -- kind of like people have been asking MS for for about 25 years? The kind Microsoft said was impossible to do in their defense of the whole IE bundling thing?

iOS and Android apps on Windows 10: How is this supposed to work?

Steve Knox
Paris Hilton

"Android apps on Windows 10 are mobile-only..."

Por que?

Also, " Given that iOS also has the best apps..."

That is far from given. Got a justification for such a broad generalization?

UK exam board wants kids to be able to Google answers

Steve Knox

Re: Bah!

That's okay. Quantitative knowledge assessment is the toxic sludge pool covering what used to be the green field of education.

ONE BEELLION Windows 10 devices?! OH REALLY

Steve Knox

How Myerson expects to hit that number -- also, maths, grammar, logic, etc.

"people buying 2-in-1s – laptops that double as tablets."

That's two devices in one -- take Gartner's 422,726,000, multiply it by 2 (they're 2 in one!!!) and you're at 845,452,000 -- 84% there in one year alone!

"By Gartner’s numbers, Microsoft must double the 2015 number in 2016 and add it again to break the one-billion threshold within three years – 2017."

It appears that the writer here has confused number shipped (Gartner's numbers) with number installed (what must increase by almost the initial amount year-on-year to break the 1 billion mark.)

Even so, that estimation shows a considerable amount of rounding. In actuality, 422,726,000 units installed in year 1 would mean only 288,637,000 new units needed in each of years 2 and 3 -- significantly less than doubling and adding again. Put another way, if the number doubled in year 2, that would be 845,452,000 units, needing only 154,548,000 in year 3 -- just over 1/3 of what the writer claimed would be necessary.

Number shipped would only need to remain constant year-on-year with up to 31% of it in years 2 and 3 being replacements of existing windows 10 units or offset by devices disposed of to reach one billion units installed*. Or if you prefer to think of it this way, starting at 422,726,000 new units shipped in year 1, net new units installed can decline by 22% year-on-year and Microsoft will still have 1 billion Windows 10 devices out there in three years.

Not saying it's going to happen, but it's not quite as absurd as presented.

Rand Paul is trying to murder net neutrality. Is there a US presidential election, or something?

Steve Knox
Facepalm

"The internet has successfully flourished without the heavy hand of government interference."

Somebody get that poor boy a book on the history of the internet.

Microsoft is BEATING Amazon's cloud revenues. Er, how?

Steve Knox
Meh

Translation

...we would find the implied Commercial Cloud revenue...

means

"Microsoft doesn't release specific Azure revenue numbers, so we're making one up which gives us headlines."

Nokia on phone return mutterings: They LIIED. We won't be BAAACK

Steve Knox

Categorically denying the rumour?

Yep. Can't be true...

Fandroids, take your phone's antivirus and burn it – Android bod

Steve Knox
Facepalm

Re: And therein lies the problem ...

So you have a confirmed issue across Sony's range of devices, and you blame Google.

Meanwhile those of us with non-Sony devices do not have these issues (I've had Android devices made by Samsung, Asus, ZTE, and Archos, and none of them exhibit the issues you describe.)

Yet you claim that any problems are not Sony's fault, based solely on a purported post from the only manufacturer apparently having these issues.

Okay. Believe whatever you like. Have a nice day.

Win 95 code gaffe nearly made Stuxnet Suxnet, say infosec blokes

Steve Knox
Facepalm

Interesting bug. Too bad it wouldn't have had the results described.

&& OsVersion.dwPlatformID == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT

means that the code will only continue on Windows NT-based machines. To install on Windows 95 or 98, it'd have to read

&& (OsVersion.dwPlatformID == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT || OsVersion.dwPlatformID == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_WINDOWS)

So it may have installed on NT 3.51 or 4, but not on 95 or 98.

What's broken in this week's Windows 10 build? Try the Start Menu, for one

Steve Knox
Joke

"The version of the Mail and Calendar apps included in this build ... have a known issue that causes every typed letter to appear twice,"

Someone must have accidentally piped /dev/NSA to stdout...

Web advertising giant (Google) to spew ads over web – using HTTPS

Steve Knox

upgrade-insecure-resources

...

Did it work?

https://www.theregister.co.uk

...

Nope.

So why exactly does almost ALL tech live in Silicon Valley?

Steve Knox

Or, to put it into classic analogy form:

Macroeconomics : Microeconomics :: Climate science : Meteorology.

Windows Phone 10: Less stuff that does more – plus IE-killer Project Spartan

Steve Knox

Re: Spartan is not an IE killer

The duration of the death is not really relevant to whether something is a killer.

BOFH: Explain? All we need is this kay-sh with DDR3 Cortexiphan ...

Steve Knox

Kay-shing, eh?

So the PFY is from Fargo, then?

Ebook price-fix saga: Official Apple peeler says probe is fruitless

Steve Knox

Oooh. $1,850 pet hour. Bet that really cut into the $4.5 MILLION per hour [net]* Apple made last year.

=39.5 billion/year. REALLY nice job if you can get it. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/aapl/financials

ɘƨɿɘvɘЯ algo attack cracks Belkin router WPS PINs: researcher

Steve Knox

Re: (Reverse fonts rely on fonts)

Looks fine on my Galaxy S5.

Steve Knox
Facepalm

Go ahead and use serial number as your seed.

Just don't give out the serial # to anyone who asks!

This is the real face-palm bit, IMO:

Belkin provides the serial number in response to an ordinary 802.11 probe request.

You’ll be the coolest guy in IT if you ain't got your ID

Steve Knox

Obligatory

Never needed a locksmith then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRva7z8pvwc

Kia Soul EV: Nifty Korean 'leccy hatchback has heart and Seoul

Steve Knox
Meh

Re: Energy Density maths

27kWh / 275 kg = 98Wh/kg

To get 27kWh at 200Wh/kg, the battery cells would need to weigh 135kg, meaning that the remaining 140kg is taken up in packaging, control hardware, etc.

Seems rather inefficient, less than half of the weight of a battery being battery.

PHYSICS APPLECART UPSET as dark energy disappears, Universe slams on brakes

Steve Knox
Paris Hilton

Re: RIGHT!

imagery not really appropriate to the case at hand (in this case, classical thermodynamics and its macroscopic values applied to empty space in a FLRW universe)

Why would classical thermodynamics NOT be an appropriate analogue to an FLRW universe?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker_metric#Interpretation:

The first equation can be derived also from thermodynamical considerations and is equivalent to the first law of thermodynamics, assuming the expansion of the Universe is an adiabatic process (which is implicitly assumed in the derivation of the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric).

So either (a) more than one Wikipedia entry related to physical cosmology is tainted, or (b) the standard model of cosmology is analogous to a classical themodynamic system.

I'm not an expert on cosmology, thermodynamics, or Wikipedia, but as I've seen, heard, and read physicists use classical thermodynamics to explain cosmology in other media, I'm leaning towards believing that Wikipedia's got this one right, or at least consistent with prevailing theory.

Are you sure there are servers in this cold, dark basement?

Steve Knox

Re: Something else is happening here

No IT person regardless of how bitter they are would go this far upon dismissal.

Are you sure about that?

Sometimes people do strange things, for strange reasons.

Sometimes it's apparently just greed.

Every field has its share of people who are disturbed, distraught, or jut plain jerls, including IT. In this instance, if it wasn't the leaving sysadmins, it was someone else with the access and the knowledge of what was valuable.

Not too long ago, some rag did a writeup on more examples of this stuff, and how to deal with it.

You want disruption? Try this: Uber office raided again, staff cuffed

Steve Knox
Facepalm

Buried Lede

Today, the company announced it was hiring its first Chief Security Officer.

This cloudy technology company, in this day and age, spent its first SIX YEARS without a chief security officer.

And there's any sort of surprise that their driver database has been compromised and their user database likely has been as well?

They're legally not hacks, but they're certainly looking more and more like hacks.

No, really, the $17,000 Apple Watch IS all about getting your leg over

Steve Knox

Re: We are doomed

He said that the watch was all about sex, not that sex was all about the watch.

Parse the logic, and you'll see why your presumed conclusion does not follow.

Make up your mind: Microsoft puts a bullet in Internet Explorer after all

Steve Knox

Spartan won't support ActiveX controls or Browser Helper Objects

ABOUT F**KING TIME!

ActiveX controls were a somewhat OK concept implemented in an incredibly poor and insecure manner. BHOs were just shite. Both of them should have died horrible deaths over a decade ago.

Now PLEASE say we can completely remove IE from the system....

NZ used XKEYSCORE to spy on World Trade Org election emails

Steve Knox
Happy

The WHO has been contacted for comment

Their response? "I Can't Explain".

When pressed about their security measures, they simply stated "Won't Get Fooled Again".

(I believe the line in the article should be "The WTO has been contacted..." as the story doesn't mention the World Health Organization or the 60's rock band. But I couldn't resist...)

Guardian: 'Oil reserves will soon be worth NOTHING!' (A bit like their stock tips, really)

Steve Knox

Re: The main point of the petition isn't economics, it's ethical

Presumably, their core principles are to do good by spending money on worthy projects.

If they fail to get the maximum return on their investments, by taking investment advice from numpties with an axe to grind, then they can do less 'good' in their chosen areas of operations, thus violating their core principles.

So pharmaceutical companies should pursue their core principles by ensuring they get maximum return on their R&D investments?

Because all of these initial animal tests really cost a lot and slow the process down. It would be much more efficient to start tests on humans to begin with.

Yes, this is an extreme example, but it comes down to the same principle: the idea that ends alwats justify the means.

There are negative ethical consequences to pursuing even an ethical goal with disregard for the ethics of your other actions. A reasonable individual or organization understands this, and accepts less than perfect performance on core principles for benefits elsewhere.

FTC to DirecTV: No more lies! Tell viewers what you really charge

Steve Knox
Paris Hilton

Wut?

People are still wasting money on television services like satellite and cable?

Microsoft unveils API to break hardware/software coupling in switches

Steve Knox
Trollface

Title too long

Microsoft unveils API to break hardware

C’mon Lenovo. Superfish hooked, but Pokki Start Menu still roaming free

Steve Knox
Holmes

Difficult to remove?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Pokki\uninstall.exe

Wow, that was tough.

Steve Knox

Re: Pokki is fine

you'd rather have a malware vector than Windowsthe primary malware vector (version 8).

FTFY.

Net neutrality crunch poll: Americans want to know WTF it is

Steve Knox
Facepalm

Poll with leading introductions results in "facts" that support pollsters' opinions SHOCKER!

Information prior to question: One1 principal concern raised by some people is that ONLY the five members of an unelected2 Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, will decide the future of the Internet3 without providing an opportunity for the public to see and understand the regulations prior to a vote. Opponents of the Internet regulation plan to seek public disclosure of the exact rules and specific regulations prior to the FCC's official vote. These groups say that, given the importance of the Internet in the daily lives of Americans, the FCC should provide greater information about the proposal to regulate the Internet to better understand its costs and benefits.

1. Providing only one side of the debate to people already determined to be unfamiliar with the issue biases responses in favor of that one side.

2. Loaded term "unelected" creates impression of political overreach.

3. Stressing (to the point of exaggeration) the importance of the proposed regulations increases the odds of an emotionally-influenced response.

Information prior to question: Over the past 22 years, the Internet has developed and grown into what we have today, with little government oversight, and has resulted in major private investment by the nation's wired and wireless providers in modern, high-speed broadband networks.4 President Obama5 is now proposing that the federal government regulate and oversee the Internet similar to how it oversees the electric or gas public utility industry. Specifically, President Obama proposes allowing the FCC, for the first time, to regulate the Internet with the same authority it has used in the past to regulate monopoly telephone service.

4. Rose-tinting the past without ever discussing ISPs plans to restrict/tier access.

5. Tying it to Obama to guarantee a strong Republican response.

And what is the opinion of the pollsters?

“These findings suggest that the FCC’s bid to impose outdated telephone regulations on the Internet is driven more by professional activists than by the public, which seems instinctively to resist the idea,” said Will Marshall, PPI President. “That’s why Congress should take a closer look at what the FCC is up to and make sure these issues get a thorough public airing.”

Wow. They're not even trying to hide their bias at all. Are we so cynical, or so lazy, that we're willing to allow these people to pass off a clearly manipulated piece of bullshit as a set of legitimate data?

Even setting that aside, you could have stopped with:

74 per cent of Americans are unfamiliar with the term "net neutrality" or what it refers to

Given that, what's the point of asking people who don't understand the issue to begin with more detailed questions about how to deal with it?

(all quotes taken from the PPI press release about their poll, linked in the article.)

Linux clockpocalypse in 2038 is looming and there's no 'serious plan'

Steve Knox
Boffin

Re: Too late!

What systems are both vulnerable and will still be used in 23 years?

If you know, list them, publicly, in fora where you know those people responsible for those systems will be paying attention.

If you don't, shouting vague generalizations about it won't help.

I cannot think of a single thing I have which relies on time values and is over ten years old, let alone twenty, but that's just me.

I'm sure there some systems out there which will have to be fixed or replaced, but we already have a model of how to do that, which is closer to now that the problem we are discussing, and which was resolved in even less time than the 15 years between the present time and the trigger of the previous problem.

Ironically, you've directly alluded to one of the common solutions to the Y2K issue: What do you do when 'the server taking the inputs sees the year 1901 and decides to throw out the obviously corrupt input?' Change the server to recognize that "obviously corrupt input" as coming from the next epoch.

We did this for Y2K issues with a sliding window, so as we get later into the 2000s, those systems which absolutely cannot be replaced with one that takes more than two digit years will advance their window of what belongs to this epoc vs the previous one.

Properly adapted, such systems could even survive Y21C. They'd just keep sliding that window. Of course, many systems weren't adapted that well, but nobody's gonna keep using these things for a full century, right?

Problem solved -- and nobody needs to buy a new IoThingy -- for another 68 years or so, anyway.

It wasn't too late in 1999, and it's not too late now.

Boffins grasp Big Knob, get ready to go ALL THE WAY at the LHC proton-punisher

Steve Knox
Childcatcher

Re: we need a black hole icon

Well, that depends.

Given the quality of some of the comment threads, a working black hole icon might be just the thing...

Steve Knox
Thumb Up

I agree in principle, but...

The same was said of the Higgs Boson. They did find something like that, though.

The cool thing is, even a negative result will be informative.

Violin-fiddling boffins learn that 'F-HOLES' are secret to Stradivarius' SUPERIOR sound

Steve Knox

Re: Rather disingenuous article

That doesn't discredit the acoustic analysis because it's irrelevant. They were testing how and why the Cremonese-era violin makers improved so dramatically over instruments of previous ages, not how they stack up against subsequent ones.

Modern violins, being by definition made after the Cremonese era, are made with the benefit of the experience of that era. Any modern violin intended for professional use which does not sound better than (or at the very least as good as) a Cremonese-era violin is a failure of epic proportions.

The fact that the Stradivarius violins still rate within the same class as modern high-end instruments after 3+ centuries of opportunity to exceed their quality indicates that they are truly advanced works of craft.

Interstellar sci-fi WORMS its way into spinning black hole science FACT

Steve Knox

Re: Proof?

But they are not in the pursuit of science themselves. I'd rather a scientist be wrong and know why, than an artist accidentally be right and think they understand. We need both understanding and the correct goals.

This is very much in the pursuit of science. Science goes (1) observation -> (2) hypothesis -> (3) prediction -> (4) test (via observation or experimentation) -> (5) replacement/refinement of hypothesis -> (3).

This is a prediction based on current hypotheses of the behavior of black holes. The method used for this can be extended beyond visible light and to distances further than used for the movie. So this prediction model can be tested against future observations to further test our understanding, and may be useful in determining if and how much a given black hole is spinning.

And your mischaracterization of "scientist" vs "artist" and how they interact with their world does disservice to both.

Ex-squeeze me? Baking soda? Boffins claim it safely sucks CO2 out of the air

Steve Knox

Re: @Chris G

@Arnaut the less

Chris G is correct, because he says baking soda.

Anyone who does even a smattering of baking can tell you that baking soda and baking powder are two different things, not to be confused under any circumstances.

Google boffins PROVE security warnings don't ... LOOK! A funny cat!

Steve Knox

I've seen and bypassed this message.

I do it regularly for one specific case: when I need to use the change management site we use at work.

It's an internal site with a self-signed certificate, and a specific internal address.

If there were an intuitive way in Chrome to trust the self-signed certificate, I'd do that and be done with it.

As it currently stands, it's less work to ignore the warning.

Want to improve compliance, Google? Make it easier for your users to configure your software to work in their environment.

Tearful boffins confirm grav wave tsunami NOT caused by Big Bang

Steve Knox
Boffin

I don't think you want people who actually understand this hypothesis* of yours commenting here.

Find someone who will do a rational analysis of the assumptions in your hypothesis, and the testability of its predictions, and listen to them.

* What you have proposed is a hypothesis, not a theory. A theory has been tested against observed evidence.

Living with a Renault Twizy: Pah! Bring out the HOVERCRAFT

Steve Knox
Trollface

Editor!

Renault is to be applauded for building the Twizy: it’s clever, innovative and very, very different. But don’t confuse that with something you’d actually want to use every day.

So many extraneous words. Might I suggest:

Renault: different, [b]ut [not] something you’d actually want to use.

SURPRISE! Microsoft pops open Windows 10 Preview build early

Steve Knox
Happy

Re: Be fair

... changing the windows store icon from green to grey is awesome!

Yes, it'll be good to get out of this artificial universe and back to the real one at last!

Sorry, Qualcomm, Apple – your patents don't scare us

Steve Knox
Boffin

Re: Kill them with fire...

Today we know those "earth-shattering discoveries" are a dime a dozen, limited only by your R&D budget...

Any R&D department held to a 12-discovery per $0.10 spent standard would fold within a year.

Let's look at some real-life R&D budgets:

IBM: In 2013*, they had the most (utility) patents granted by the USPTO, at 6,788. Your valuation would imply that they spent $56.57 on R&D in 2013. In actuality they spent $6.5 billion on R&D in 2013. Cost per dozen: ~11.5 million.

Samsung: had 4,652 patents, worth (apparently) $38.77. Actual 2013 R&D spending: $4.3 billion. Cost per dozen: ~11 million.

So it's a closer approximation to say that these "earth-shattering discoveries" are approximately $11,000,000 per dozen. I'm sure someone with more time to research or better sources could come up with a more accurate figure.

In fact, just to pay the wages (not including benefits, facilities, etc) of a single minimum-wage full-time US worker, an R&D department would, based on your standard, have to develop 1,809,600 ideas to patent-eligible status per year. That's 6.5x the number of US patents granted in 2013 (277,835), and nearly half of all US Patents granted in the past 25 years (3,803,188).

* Based on most recent USPTO statistics, available here.

SO. Which IS more important to humanity: Facebook, or Portugal?

Steve Knox

Importance...

is not necessarily positive. I'm sure Portugal's lovely, but the dangers of Facebook are too great to downplay...