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  1. ... and Asimov by at least 15 years on How Cyborg Tech Could Link the Minds of the World · · Score: 1

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(Foundation_universe)#Galaxia

    However Gaia extends the concept to the whole planet, linking in the collective consciousness also inanimate matter. Due to it's size, Gaia has no written records and memories of individuals are stored forever in the global consciousness. Gaia is created to be the precursor of Galaxia, which will include also stars, unhabitated planets and any galactic object, enhancing the mentalic effects that are usually limited by speed of light.

  2. Re:Could it be something else? on Cell Phone Use Tied To Changes In Brain Activity · · Score: 2

    it seems entirely possible that it was affected by the heat ahone generates in a 50 minute phone call [...] they should redo the experiment, actually do something where the antenna is seperate from the phone body and next to the brain.

    The problem would then be that the microwaves themselves will generate heat in the brain, leading to some metabolic perturbation.

    Supposing our body does not contain "rectifying" biological structures (an "organic diode") able to work at nanosecond time constants, can we please stop discovering dielectric heating and investigate whether the heating itself affects our brain?

  3. Re:WTF on Bandwidth Being Throttled In Bahrain? · · Score: 1

    It's unbelievable it always has to get to that point, for people's minds to be awaken.

    Shouldn't this be different in the internet era?

    Oh, right, lolcats.

  4. Re:Its really on New Mega-Leak Reveals Middle East Peace Process · · Score: 1

    It's not that I find it hard to believe.

    But every time someone mentions "basic proven science", I've got this [citation needed] thing bothering me...

  5. Re:Any need for this? on Cosmological Constant Not Fine Tuned For Life · · Score: 2

    Is the universe tuned to us or it's us tuned to the universe?...

  6. Re:Not an SSH tunnel ! on Man Tunnels Into GameStop, Steals Games · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who thought of quantum physics?

  7. Re:a new personality! on Stars Remain In Their Usual Places; People Panic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Shouldn't just matter how stars *were* aligned when I was born? If signs change, they do for newborns...

    Ok, I will stop being rational about this...

  8. Re:Actually, there was one idea I liked... on Russia Moves To Universal ID Card · · Score: 1

    And then, once everyone knows there is a decoy pin, they will threaten to hold you hostage to be sure you didn't enter it.

    Will you enter the regular pin and lose 250$ or will you enter the decoy one and lose much more?

  9. Re:Status Bar??? on Firefox 4 Beta 9 Out, Now With IndexedDB and Tabs On Titlebar · · Score: 1

    Because most 13" and 14" laptops have 768 vertical pixel, because in Windows 7 everything is just a tad bigger to be "touch compatible" and today I can see half of the drop down menu items I was seeing 10 years ago, because people don't seem to care, and because manufacturers care even less.

  10. Re:Expensive cheats on Catching Exam Cheats With a Spectrum Analyzer · · Score: 1

    This is common practice also in Italy. Police is usually monitoring RF channels even during driving license written tests.

    However it's still beyond me why someone should try to cheat in such a test: you're likely to spend more time/money cheating than studying. Maybe it's just because someone believes having been able to cheat makes you cool...

  11. Re:Prepaid SIMs on Vodafone Customer Database Breached · · Score: 1

    In some countries, identification of phone number owner is mandatory (e.g., Italy).

  12. Re:Data over power lines? on California County Bans SmartMeter Installations · · Score: 1

    This is exactly what happens with the 30M smart meters that ENEL already deployed in Italy, which communicate monthly reads and are managed remotely thru PLC (power line communication).

    Also, regarding power consumption, an engineer who worked on the smart meters design referred to me that the energy provider is spending about 1 euro/year to power one meter. Assuming an energy price of 0.05 euro/kWh (probably quite conservative), the consumption of a meter should be around 2 W. With 30 million meters this is not negligible, but if you consider that (in the US) the power distribution loss is about 6%, if you are consuming more than 60 W for 12 h/day you would be better off searching for a way to reduce joule heating rather than relying on mechanical meters.

  13. Is this news? on Houston We Have a Problem · · Score: 4, Informative

    Transcripts and audio files have been available forever at http://history.nasa.gov/afj/ (even if they actually miss Apollo 13).

    Also, probably not everyone knows that in that speech Houston is not the city in Texas hosting the JSC, but the CAPCOM (no, not the company) callsign.

  14. Re:Coral Cache Link on Double Eclipse Photographed, Sun, Moon, and ISS · · Score: 1
  15. Re:Room size on Kinect Creators To Make PC Controller · · Score: 1

    Just use optics. Kinect is just a LIDAR, no reason why the thing couldn't be adapted for different ranges (except for price, maybe).

    Actually I'm quite surprised nobody has already tired it. But I often foget this is the digital era, things are now done just by pushing buttons...

  16. Re:Ubisofts DRM on Ubisoft's Draconian DRM Patched? · · Score: 1

    I hated companies that made my old 1541 disk drive hammer itself into oblivion with their crap copy protection.

    No need to go so far back in time. StarForce has been doing the same with optical disk drives in recent years.

  17. Re:Well that was the intention of the virus on Did Stuxnet Take Out 1,000 Centrifuges At Natanz? · · Score: 2

    And finally... Why the heck are our friends at Siemens selling systems to the Iranians?

    Because otherwise the Russians would.

    And then, good luck getting right the cyrillic encoding for the default password.

  18. Re:Maybe we will know in the future. on Did Stuxnet Take Out 1,000 Centrifuges At Natanz? · · Score: 1

    I wonder how cyber defense will counter it.

    Changing the default password in network-enabled Siemens PLCs.

  19. Re:AnonOps part of the problem, not the solution on Spamhaus Under DDoS Over Wikileaks.info · · Score: 1

    For SSL certs, have a look at gandi.net. They got famous some years ago being the only registrar guaranteeing domain ownership to the registrant. They now also sell certificates, most likely with the same honesty, and are located in France, which at least is known for its radical positions regarding international cooperation (see European constitution or the various extradiction issues they created in the past).

  20. Re:42 on Google Seeking "Search Without Search" · · Score: 1

    Use Greasemonkey. Because it's your web.

    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/89694

  21. Unreadable CD/DVD on Stunts, Idiocy, and Hero Hacks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Look for scratches on the bottom side, brush with toothpaste (the plain one, no additional abrasive ingredients), rinse, read.

  22. Re:Temporary solution? on Diabetic Men May Be Able To Grow Their Own Insulin-Producing Cells · · Score: 1

    Thanks for clarifying, I am type 1 too. Let's hope for this to lead to an available solution soon, not in 20 years.

  23. Re:Controllers were analog before they were digita on All-Analog DIY Segway Project · · Score: 1

    Good luck automatically tuning the analog loop for driver's weight, handlebar bags, quick temperature changes, etc. That's where digital systems show their flexibility.

    Still, this makes for one hell of a learning project.

  24. Re:This Is Real Hacktivism on Stuxnet Still Out of Control At Iran Nuclear Sites · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure whether you need a precise speed or not, probably the faster the better (but not too much, since the outer wall of the rotor already spins over mach 1).

    What's for sure is that if you spin a centrifuge down and nobody notices, you are going to mess up the whole downstream process, ending up with far less enriched uranium at the end of the chain.

  25. Re:That's one heck of a "long goodbye" on Goodbye, VGA · · Score: 2

    USB is actually inferior to PS/2 for keyboards (see n-key rollover).