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Comments · 26

  1. Damages yet? on Form1 3D Printer and Kickstarter Get Sued For Patent Infringment · · Score: 1

    Preface with typical IANAL and whatnot. But with Formlabs not actually shipping anything yet, the best they can do is a cease and desist, right? That could screw them, but as others have mentioned they can seemingly get around the unexpired patents. Litigation costs are another issue of course. It could easily kill the kickstarter-sourced funding.

  2. If only HIV killed instantly.. on HIV Transmission Captured On Video · · Score: 1

    The "funny" thing about HIV is that, if it killed instantly (days or weeks) people would be MUCH more apt to be careful and NOT GET IT it because it's completely preventable aside from rape, unknowingly getting it through blood transfusions (rare) etc.

    Sell tomorrow to enjoy today.

  3. Re:The Volt is the least of GM's problems on GM Cornered Into Defending the Volt · · Score: 1

    ferrari = fiat bentley = VW

  4. Re:good. on Google Demands Higher Chip Temps From Intel · · Score: 1

    Higher temp does not equal more heat. Just thought you should know that.

  5. Mass Hysteria! on Emergency Alerts Via Text Messaging · · Score: 1
    This sounds like a terrible idea to me. Do we really need, for example, all 600,000 people in Boston to receive a simultaneous "PANIC!" message? I mean, look what happened when we had black boxes with blinking LEDs to contend with!

    So I think knowing what's going on is important, but is it logical to tell everyone at exactly the same time?

  6. Re:Other home dangers! on Questions Arising On Mercury In Compact Fluorescents · · Score: 1

    Exactly! I have more mercury in my mouth than probably 300 5mg bulbs. Happy about it? No.. panicking? No..

    Having your house tested for radon is probably a MUCH better deal than worrying about CFLs.

  7. Re:Rolling Timebombs? on Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars · · Score: 1

    Ok, so they own 20% but they control the rights in the US. The point was that someone owns a patent on large NiMH cells. Regardless of your feelings on their inferiority, I still feel that they are better. I'm ignoring your rant on corporate conspiracy ... I didn't say anything about a conspiracy.

    They're still cheaper, and nickel is less susceptible to a price spike than is lithium.
    What is your repeated reference to "safe, long-life" lithium ion? Lithium polymer?

  8. Re:Rolling Timebombs? on Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars · · Score: 1
  9. Re:Texaco owns the patent! on Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars · · Score: 1

    No, I'm sure it's purpose is so that texaco can rake in cash. By rake I mean vacuum, with one of those giant storm-drain-cleaning machines, and $1000 bills.

    --
    A++++++++++ WOULD DO BUSINESS AGAIN!!!!!

  10. Re:Rolling Timebombs? on Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wasn't that the point of him saying "How safe is that tank ..." ? Anyway - any technology that stores a lot of energy is going to have some potential (ha ha) for danger. There haven't been that many problems with LiIon batteries when you take into account the number of batteries that exist in the world.

    With that said, there's this problem of obtaining lithium which isn't nearly as abundant as nickel. I still like NiMH batteries for EVs, and I'm sure they will give lithium a run for the money (if not for weight). Even NiCd batteries are pretty good for electric cars, and the technology is practically antique. The issue with large NiMH cells (>10Ah) is that Texaco owns the patent.

  11. Re:20 billion is enough to screw the american peop on FCC's Spectrum Auction Approaches $20B in Bids · · Score: 1

    20 billion / 50 million = $400 per customer if they have, say, 50 million customers. Say they want to get their money back over 10 years or 120 months, that's $3.33 a month. Not bad. They won't have 50 million customers very quickly or easily though.

  12. Re:Why are we running out? on TV White Space & The Future of Wireless Broadband · · Score: 1

    3GHz is a fairly high frequency in the microwave region. It won't penetrate walls or the weather very well compared to frequencies 1GHz. This is why your cell phone operates closer to 1GHz.

    C-band downlinks, for example, operate between about 3.7 and 4.2 GHz. This is why you can get a satellite dish and point it around at different 'birds' to get different sets of channels. They're very directional. Higher frequencies don't really help you if you're trying to cover a wide area. There's plenty of spectrum "available". Look at a chart lately? There are hundreds of sections for aeronautical and maritime mobile, all over the chart.

  13. Re:RTFA on NYC Wants to Ban Geiger Counters · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just think how Planet of The Apes would have gone down if they had banned Apes first. It would have made the movie so much more boring. Banning apes and all.

    Get it? banning things preemptively ..

    oh never mind.

  14. Re:Netflix is different than Apple... on Netflix and iTunes Rentals Aiming At Different Crowds · · Score: 1

    Yes, and I didn't realize that it only worked on windows. I signed up recently after I read the "Netflix to allow unlimited streaming.." article here on Slashdot. Great, so my year-old Thinkpad (the only place I have windows) can't play flicker-free video because it requires the latest version of IE, and the latest version of Windows Media Player and it ends up using 100% CPU to PLAY A MOVIE.
    If I weren't so lazy I'd complain. Fortunately they probably don't care anyway.

  15. Re:Useful, but not new on Startup Offers Peltier-On-Chip · · Score: 2, Informative

    Cold-point compensation does not mean it actively heats or cools anything on the chip.
    Check the data sheet.
    http://www.analog.com/UploadedFiles/Data_Sheets/AD594_595.pdf

  16. Re:Target for Some Civil Disobedience on ID Tech May Mean an End to Anonymous Drinking · · Score: 1

    I think therein lies the key. The bouncer would probably just look at the date on your ID and accept it. Demagnetization happens all the time, and "how should I know" if my ID is demagnetized. There's no law that says I have to get it fixed either.

    ---

  17. Re:Good time.. on Many Analog TV Watchers Aren't Aware of Upcoming Switchover · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's why I stick to the 12" pizzas

  18. Well, you're not totally paranoid. on Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data Online · · Score: 1

    I'd be highly surprised if they could even decrypt triple-DES easily. (for very difficult values of easily).

    DES is singly the most researched encryption algorithm, and as such it shouldn't be written off yet, but I'd say it could be trusted in the form of triple DES.

    You make a good point that anything over 128 bits is uncrackable by brute force methods. There are other ways of reducing the effective number of bits, however; these are generally purely academic in nature (differential, linear cryptanalysis). And of course there's always the fact that at some point the data will be unencrypted in order to be useful, which brings about my favorite form of cryptanalysis: the "rubber hose" method. (credits to Bruce Schneier)

    Torture is the easiest form of cryptanalysis by far. Thugs are cheaper than PhDs.

    - MK

  19. Re:What do you expect from the "tube" guys? on Flawed Online Dating Bill Being Pushed in New Jersey · · Score: 1

    They know more about it than their parents did, I'm certain of it. And they know magnitudes more than their grandparents would have known. Most politicians are "grandparent age" right now.

  20. Re:What do you expect from the "tube" guys? on Flawed Online Dating Bill Being Pushed in New Jersey · · Score: 1

    You've made the fatal assertion that 12 year olds never grow up. Some don't, but must do.
    I obviously haven't, because I'm still posting on Slashdot.

  21. Re:Why turkey? on Turkey Day Chemistry in the Kitchen · · Score: 1

    Poor meat says you. You just have to know how to properly cook it

  22. Re:Duh. on Why Trolls and Flames Happen · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You're obviously a neo-fascist Hitler humper.

    QED

  23. Gene Simmons is a dolt (proof) on Gene Simmons Blames College Kids For Music Industry Woes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're unsure that Gene Simmons really isn't an idiot, read this transcript of his interview with Terry Gross on NPR:
    http://www.rof.net/wp/carriep/TERRYGRO.HTM

    Terry Gross: Are you trying to say to me that all that matters to you is money?

    Gene Simmons: I will contend, and you try to disprove it, that the most important thing as we know it on this planet, in this plane, is, in fact, money. Want me to prove it?

    Terry Gross: Go ahead.

    Gene Simmons: The first thing you need -- besides air, which so far is free, and by the way if you went scuba diving, you're paying for air -- the other thing besides that is food, it's what we need to survive. I don't know what other tool I would use besides money to buy it. Although, as a woman of course you have the ability to sell your body, then get the money, and then, with that, get food. But ultimately money is part of it. And so --

    Terry Gross: [laughs] You -- you -- you are weird.

    Gene Simmons: Really? How do you get food?

    Terry Gross: Well, not by selling my body. But --

    Gene Simmons: But that's a choice you have that I don't. But getting to the money part, money is the single most important thing on the planet, including the notion that uh, love gives you everything. That's a lot of hogwash. Because although I subscribe to the romantic notion of life --

    Terry Gross: Well, let's cut to the chase. How much -- how much money do you have?

    Gene Simmons: Gee, a lot more than NPR.

    Terry Gross: Oh, I know. I -- you're very defensive on money, aren't you?

    Gene Simmons: No, I'm not, I'm just trying to show you that there's a big world out there, and reading books is wonderful. I've certainly read, well, perhaps as many as you have, but there's a delusional kind of notion that runs rampant in --

    Terry Gross: Wait, wait, could we just get something straight?

    Gene Simmons: Of course.

    Terry Gross: I'm not here to prove that I'm smart --

    Gene Simmons: Not you --

  24. Peering on Vuze Petitions FCC To Restrict Traffic Throttling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would like to propose for a minute that if everyone has faster connections, and everyone uses p2p protocols to transfer some of their content, that bandwidth peering will go up, and ISPs won't really have to pay a lot more for the OC48s. I realize that a lot of that is in upkeep/exotic hardware.

    I guess what I'm saying is that this is a possibility, and a study should be done to see what the REAL effect of p2p is. If I'm connected to 10 other people in the Boston area on Comcast's network, would I REALLY be costing Comcast more money in bandwidth, aside from the fact that I'm using a lot of "last mile" throughput (which yes, I know, costs money to maintain).

    --
    I reserve the right to be completely wrong *shrug*

  25. Re:Encryption == Illegal Activity on Encrypted Torrents Growing Fast In the UK · · Score: 1

    You need something on both ends of the connection. A lot of people use webmail these days. It's easy to find secure webmail.
    All of the important web sites you go to are encrypted already (banks, other financial, sales, company sites)
    Other traffic can be sent through an SSH tunnel if you have a server outside of the consumer net (e.g. NOT comcast, verizon)

    ssh -N -D 9999 myserver.com
    (you can do this with Cygwin on Windows, ssh on OSX / nix)

    Point your web browser at a socks proxy on 127.0.0.1:9999 and your traffic is now encrypted at least to a point where you trust it. You can tunnel any other clients that support socks through this as well.
    Again there's really no point in tunneling to your buddy's box on Comcast, but if you have a colo server somewhere it probably has a free (as in speech) internet connection.

    -
    MK