Author: Leon

Categories
Psychology Science

Dogs do not naturally distinguish objects by shape

Humans tend to classify objects by shape first and then use other aspects to further specify them and turn them into abstract concepts. Dogs start with size and then rely on texture. You and I see a marble and a basketball as two examples of balls. A dog would consider the marble to be more like a small, smooth coin. It would be hilarious to have a philosophical conversation with a dog with human-level consciousness.

Fetch! First clear evidence that dogs do not naturally distinguish objects by shape

Researchers have provided the first empirical evidence that the way in which dogs relate words to objects is fundamentally different to humans.

Categories
Freedom

Germany outlawing Darknets

Increasingly, people are using darknets to hide their communication from prying eyes. It looks like Germany is moving to try to punish those people. Note that in Germany, someone who unwittingly passes on a copyrighted file can be held responsible. That’s not true in the U.S.

“Anonymous” File-Sharing Darknet Ruled Illegal by German Court | TorrentFreak

A court in Hamburg, Germany, has granted an injunction against a user of the anonymous and encrypted file-sharing network RetroShare . RetroShare users exchange data through encrypted transfers and the network setup ensures that the true sender of the file is always obfuscated. The court, however, has now ruled that RetroShare users who act as an exit node are liable for the encrypted traffic that’s sent by others.

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Categories
Programming

PHP library for database version control

DBV is a library for PHP that helps manage changes to your database. Various open source projects do this in different ways. You can go the simple route of manually keeping a series of SQL files that must be executed in order. One big downside is needing to remember the conventions and following them. Plus, you must keep track of which patches have been applied.

You can automate updates and tie them to release numbers. This is how Expression Engine does it. You just need to manage your release numbers.

Another way to do it is to write a PHP script that detects the database state and executes ALTER statements as necessary. I made a solution like that from scratch before.

It looks like DBV is more sophisticated than any of these solutions.

dbv.php: Database version control, made easy!

Make sure you and your team always have the same schema structure for tables, views, procedures, etc.

Create changeset scripts and queries, commit them to your source control system, and share them with your team.

New changeset scripts are highlighted, so you know your database is in need of an update.

Something wrong with a changeset script? Fix it directly in the application interface.

Not using MySQL, or any other of the bundled DBMS adapters? Writing your own is as easy as pie!

Categories
Entertainment

Chevy Chase gone from Community

The writing has been great on this show, but it’s probably run its course.

Chevy Chase is off Community, effective immediately

While reports say that the decision was mutual, Chevy Chase has made a deal with NBC to leave Community and never come back. Chase had filmed the majority of the fourth season’s episodes, but there is no word yet on how the absence of his character, Pierce Hawthorne, will be addressed. Everyone who enjoyed his voicemails and borderline racist behavior will miss him dearly. (via Deadline)

Categories
News

Big piracy clampdown coming

Sounds like a backdoor version of SOPA. So, can we expect a retaliation from Anonymous?

One week left before US faces clamp down on piracy • The Register

As Americans settle in for the Thanksgiving weekend of food and family, filesharing traffic traditionally shows a modest rise. But those downloading content may look back on this holiday as the last golden weekend of piracy if the major ISPs have anything to do with it.

Next week AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon will be signing up to a monitoring system run by the Center for Copyright Information (CCI). This organization will check for the IP addresses engaged in peer to peer or torrent downloading of copyrighted material and alert ISPs.