Slashdot Mirror


User: SmilingSalmon

SmilingSalmon's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
27
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 27

  1. Re:From a buffoon on Diesel-Like Engine Could Boost Fuel Economy By 50% · · Score: 1

    In my state (Texas) at-the-pump taxes on Diesel are 6 cents per gallon higher than gasoline taxes. Yet the cost of diesel is 30 cents higher than gasoline. So only 20% of the difference in price is due to taxes at the pump and 80% is due to other factors. Of course, there may be some other taxes in the manufacturing and supply chain that this doesn't account for.

  2. Re:Monitor performance? on Samsung Plants Keyloggers On Laptops · · Score: 1

    Could I have a car analogy, please?

  3. Re:Legality? on AT&T Cracking Down On Unofficial iPhone Tethering · · Score: 1

    If I interpret those AT&T terms of service literally then the Nike iPhone app violates those terms. It uses "equipment for any other purpose" and "without limitation" using "BLUETOOTH" to send data to the iPhone where the Nike app is running which then forwards the data on via the internet. Sounds an awful lot like what a tethering app does.

  4. Re:Really lost? on Preserving Great Tech For Posterity — the 6502 · · Score: 1

    There is an interesting discussion in Matt Ridley's new book, The Rational Optimist about some cultures losing technology over time. One of the reasons he gave was that their society was too small -- not enough individual members and they were cut off from others by geopgraphy so they couldn't trade with a wider circle of people. He posits that you need enough members in your society so that you have enough people to specialize in all the needed arts. You also need more than one person practicing each art. You wouldn't want your only knowledgable glass blower to die by accident and leave you with no one who knew how to blow glass.

    I'm not sure if a "few thousand" individuals would be enough to support even a radio-level of technology. Remember, you need people to grow food, make shoes, sew clothes, prepare meals, collect trash, raise the next generation, and hundreds of other activities that aren't considered high-tech but are needed to support the circuit designers, light bulb makers, wire drawers, and other high-tech practitioners.

  5. Re:Imagine if you had to Hack Windows to run on a on The Hackintosh Guide · · Score: 1

    Sure, but that was just Bill Gates demonstrating to Intel how he could bring down the sales of Intel chips by offering his OS for other chips like PPC or DEC Alpha. All because Intel said they were interested in supporting Java in hardware. When Intel backed down (see page 14), suddenly Microsoft lost interest in other chip architectures.

  6. What I want... on UK's Royal Mail Launches First Intelligent Stamps · · Score: 1

    ...is to pay for postage online, print out the stamp/code/whatever, affix it to my letter, drop it in the mail. I don't know if such a service is available in other countries, but here in the USA it's only available (AFAIK) from outfits like stamps.com where you have to pay $15.99 a month before you pay for any postage. The postal service does offer Click-N-Ship, which is about what I want, but it's only available for Priority Service, not First Class or parcel service. So, what is so hard about online postage?

  7. Re:How long will that last? on Industrial Marijuana Farming Approved In Oakland · · Score: 1

    But guess what? If you don't sell it, it isn't commerce.

    You would think that, but you'd be wrong. The landmark case on the topic is Wickard v. Filburn, where the SC ruled that Filburn's wheat he had grown and consumed on his own land was subject to regulation under the Commerce Clause.

    It's a horrible and illogical ruling because, according to the Court's logic, any activity can be classified as interstate commerce. Yet it is clear that the framers meant that only certain kinds of commerce fell into congressional jurisdiction. That's why they added the adjective "interstate" in front of the word "commerce".

  8. Re:Put that in yer pipe and smoke it! on Industrial Marijuana Farming Approved In Oakland · · Score: 1

    The overreaching interpretation of the commerce clause is probably one of the SC decisions that it most obviously far from the framers intentions.

    Brilliantly insightful.

    The beginning of the evil was Wickard v. Filburn, a most logically twisted ruling. Every Commerce Cluase case since then cites this grand daddy of all Commerce Clause cases. Thanks for packing the court with your patsey judges FDR.

  9. Re:Didn't even check if evidence existed on New Photos Show 'Devastating' Ice Loss On Everest · · Score: 1, Troll

    Here is a list of many studies showing evidence of MWP around the globe. The wikipedia article you cite is biased toward Mann. It even prominently displays the MBH hockey stick graph! See this for an explanation of what's wrong with the hockey stick graph.

  10. Re:Personally I'd rather you were honest with me on When Do You Fire a Headhunter? · · Score: 1

    If your boss demands loyalty give him integrity, but if he demands integrity give him loyalty. -- Colonel John Boyd

  11. Re:makes sense on The Fresca Rebellion · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not like the right isn't offering any positive ideas, they're just being ignored by the left. Senator Baucus's panel took up 61 amendments this week. They accepted 4 from Republicans and rejected 28. They accepted 20 from Democrats and rejected 1. source

    The reason you don't hear much about this is obvious to me. If you're a news director or editor, which do you think will play better among your news consumers -- "DEATH PANELS" or a list of 28 rejected Republican amendments?

  12. Re:anti-solar prejuices, prior neglect on Surprise Discovery In Earth's Upper Atmosphere · · Score: 1

    The page you refer to does not seem to answer the complaint raised in the random, trendless data simulations. It talks mostly about the data used for a "training period." That was something I had not heard either side discuss before. There is one or two sentences at the end of the page you cite which talks about the random data, but just acknowledges its existence and concludes with a dismissive "who has the patience?"

    I'm not a climate scientist or or any other kind of scientist, so I'll admit maybe I just don't "grok" it, but the page you referenced in answer to my Monte Carlo query seems almost off-topic. You've been kind in your responses, so maybe you can indulge a non-scientist just a bit more.

  13. Re:anti-solar prejuices, prior neglect on Surprise Discovery In Earth's Upper Atmosphere · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the link (in Point 5, Part II). I also read in point 8 that "If you use the MM05 convention and include all the significant PCs, you get the same answer. If you don't use any PCA at all, you get the same answer. If you use a completely different methodology (i.e. Rutherford et al, 2005), you get basically the same answer."

    It is asserted that if you use random, trendless data, you also get the same answer. See the graph near mid-page at http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/trc.archive.html.

    Do you have any comment on the link I gave regarding the Nature correction?

  14. Re:anti-solar prejuices, prior neglect on Surprise Discovery In Earth's Upper Atmosphere · · Score: 1

    But it's ludicrous to suggest that the scientific community as a whole is somehow unaware of these issues or engaged in a massive conspiracy to suppress them.

    Then why Nature's soft-pedaling of the correction to Mann? McKitrick and McIntyre detail their experience of trying to deal with Nature to get a correction here. Interesting reading.

    And the referees throwing up their hands and saying "this is too complicated for us to evaluate in 2 weeks" shows a weakness in the process.

  15. Re:And yet... on How Apple's App Review Is Sabotaging the iPhone · · Score: 1

    I work for a company that submits lots of eBooks to the Apple store. We get a lot of rejections and we get a lot of acceptances. We can't figure out any pattern. It appears completely random to us. These are all mainstream books from mainstream publishers such as you would find at a book store like Borders or Barnes & Noble. The rejected books don't have more violence, harsher language, more sex, or anything else that we can detect. The code wrapper we use is the same for all our books. Apple's rejection notices are completely unrevealing and you can't talk to real person there. Often we just repackage the app with the same content and resubmit it and it will get accepted. We waste a lot of money on this activity so, believe me, if we knew what Apple's criteria was we could modify our process to fit them. Like I said, our only conclusion is that it is completely random.

  16. A History of PI on Mathematics Reading List For High School Students? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A History of PI by Petr Beckmann is a great book for that age group. It has lots of historical information about PI and its calculation by various historical figures and cultures. The writing style is engaging and even moving. Another plus for that age group - it's less than 200 pages long.

    I second a previous poster's suggestion of Simon Singh's The Code Book.

  17. Re:Wireless = less secure on D.I.Y. Home Security · · Score: 1

    Those stupid shows on cable showing "professional" thieves stealing fucking chandeliers and furniture are over exaggerated nonsense.

    Over exaggerated? So, what's the right amount of exaggeration?

  18. Border Agent attack on Encrypted Images Vulnerable To New Attack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lots of people here are talking about users backing up their own data, but what about a border agent backing up your data? There's some real danger. Let's say you regularly pass through an international border where the country has a policy of making back ups of your laptop drives. Many corporate travelers are in this situation. The border agent takes a quick snapshot of your drive on Monday morning. You leave the country on Friday, but return the following Monday. When you return next Monday, they take another snapshot. Bingo. If any of your files have changed but the drive key is the same, they've got the backup they need to prove you have a hidden drive and even find the vulnerable images.

  19. Re:Mean-spirited? on FSF's "Defective By Design" Targets Apple Genius Bars · · Score: 1

    How about tortuous interference?

  20. SDK's missing features on IPhone 3G Jailbreak Released, Paves Way For Open Source Apps · · Score: 1

    What I don't understand is why some of the most exciting features you see in Apple's iPhone apps are not part of the SDK and therefore available to every app. Two obvious features are automatic screen flipping from portrait to landscape mode, and pinching in / stretching out. Apple's MobileSafari, photo viewer, and iPod apps do it. Why can't these features be part of the base classes so that any app can inherit these behaviors? It would certainly distinguish iPhone as a platform.

    And don't get me started on the glaring hole that is copy and paste. When it finally appears in some Apple apps will it also be a proprietary implementation so that no other third party apps can have the feature?

  21. Re:an annoyed Apple customer on What Bugs Apple Fans About Apple · · Score: 1

    I've been at Macs a long, long time. Started with the Mac 512k, two external 400k floppies.

    Oh you spoiled kids and your 512K Macs with two external 400K floppies. So you had three floppy drives total??!. How about those of us who suffered with a 128K Mac and one floppy drive with the first version of the Finder where you had to shuffle floppies back and forth a couple dozen times to copy a file? Better wrist exercise than wanking.

    And get the hell off my lawn!
  22. Pu-leeze on Star Trek Home Theater · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Apparently, all you need to be "Named the best theme theater installation at CEDIA 2007" is to be decently skilled with PhotoShop. Does anyone else think the award should be named "best theme theater idea"? Or maybe "best theme theatre PhotoShop" would be even better.

    Hmmm, an award for an idea -- just like the patent office!!

  23. Re:NYT piece on IBM's move on IBM Challenges Microsoft with Free Office Suite · · Score: 1

    35 FT developers on OOO can't be a bad thing

    Unless you get in their way. A 35 FT developer could crush your house!

  24. Re:OS X Graphing Utility on Effective Use of Technology In the Classroom? · · Score: 1

    Try the Graphing Calculator. It's awesome. Try the demo/tour.

    http://www.pacifict.com/

  25. Prediction: IRS woes ahead on US Teen Trades Hacked iPhone for Nissan 350Z · · Score: 1

    How's he going to pay the income tax on that $40,000 car? He should have taken at least part of the deal in cash.