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User: neoptik

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Comments · 47

  1. Re:People on Blog Torrent: Downhill Battle Interview · · Score: 1

    I take it you've never heard of Stravinsky, Bartok, Part, Adams, Glass, Golijov, Kirchner, need I go on? Sure, you won't hear it on "top 40 classical hits" radio stations, but its real "classical" music, and its wonderful. Go to your library and borrow some CDs/scores.

  2. Re:thats a bit low on Dell Offers $100 For Old iPods · · Score: 1

    You don't work for a glucometer company, do you? Fess up, which brand is it!

  3. Re:No way! on Should Companies Expense Stock Options? · · Score: 1

    The reason why executive options don't have a clear value is because they are not publically traded. Once an executive is granted options, he or she can't immediately sell them back on the market. In fact, he or she must remain with the company for X years, otherwise they lose the options, and the maturity of these options is huge. Black Scholes does not necessarily value options with these properties in the right manner.

    It is true that they are worth something: what is not true, is that everyone (including the SEC) agrees on some arbitrage-free way of valuing them.

  4. Re:Fiduciary responsibility incentives? on Should Companies Expense Stock Options? · · Score: 1

    Except executive options are hardly temporary: think 5-10 year vesting period, followed by 5-10 year maturity. These are not the call options you see traded in Chicago. No gambling here, really.

  5. Re:Mods, please mod parent up.What, no Tux? (Happi on The Subtle Tyranny Of Spreadsheets · · Score: 1

    Hah, I've got a similar story. I took a discrete mathematics course from a guy so entrhalled with Spreadsheets that practically EVERY homework assignment required spreadsheets in some bizarre manner. Imagine implementing basic public key cryptography on an Excell spreadsheet...oooh yes I did. It was awful.

  6. Re:Reminds me of a poem on Symantec Says No To Pro-Gun Sites · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Good job leaving out the line about coming for the jews. Anti-semetic jerk.

  7. Re:Hrmmm on MIT Introductory EE Goes Hands-On · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can pretty much guarantee you that theory is not taking a backseat. I know people who took the class this semester (6.002x) and the regular version (6.002) and I believe that the finals were the same, and exactly the same content was covered. Some other MIT undergrad correct me if I am wrong. Also, in case you were wondering, 6.002 is a very very hard class. Drives most people away from course 6 (EE&CS).

  8. Re:Problem of autoimmune destruction not solved on Diabetes "Cured" In Mice With Virus Therapy · · Score: 1
    Well, the eventual idea would be to use islet cells grown from your own stem cells. That is, if the government ever lets us. I am diabetic as well, and waiting for treatment sucks. Guess it'll be 7 shots a day for a while now. On the other hand, research in oral insulin (www.emisphere.com) looks promising.


    Thom

  9. A similar thing happened in Iceland... on Microsoft Forced To Translate Office Into Nynorsk · · Score: 2, Informative
    I seem to recall a few years back that the Icelandic governement had petitioned Microsoft to translate Office, IE, and Windows into Icelandic and that Microsoft basically didn't give a hoot. This doesn't really surprise me, because the population of Iceland is under 300,000. In response to the lack of action taken by Microsoft, I think the KDE team went ahead and translated most of KDE and the KApps into Icelandic.


    Here's the first google result on the Microsoft refusal to translate:
    http://www.informationcity.org/telecom -cities/arch ive/old/0885.html

  10. Re:so many diabetics! on Tattoo To Monitor Diabetes · · Score: 1

    I think the general reasoning behind that would be to ensure that all diabetics are seeing endocrinologists on a regular basis. People's needs can change, and often, it takes a real endocrinologist to figure out how to deal with those changes. Just a thought. Anyway, if you all e-mail me regarding such a forum, I might be able to put one together on one of the freebie hosting sites.

    -Thom

  11. so many diabetics! on Tattoo To Monitor Diabetes · · Score: 1

    Wow, so many type-1 diabetics. Is there a forum somewhere for type-1 diabetics who are interested in /.-y things? I'd be interested in joining one if such a thing existed.

    -Thom Covert
    thomc@nospam.mit.edu

  12. Re:Would these actually create an entry/exit wound on Do Strangelets Pass Through Earth? · · Score: 1

    No you dumbass, F != 1/2mv^2. F = ma = dp/dt, etc.
    Now, kinetic energy on the other hand = 1/2mv^2

  13. Why this is especially funny on The Teddy Borg is Alive! · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...is because MIT/IS does not allow switches on the network. All you are allowed to do is plug cat5 directly into a port. If you need more ports, you gotta tell IS to give you more. This incredibly public advertising is a good way for the admins to take away your connectivity :)

  14. Re:A bit on the MIT bust... on Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies · · Score: 1

    Yes, that is what I meant. 8-20 Mbit/sec a day.

  15. Re:8-20 MB? on Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies · · Score: 2

    20 megabits of bandwidth. I.E., like, 7 t-1s worth of bandwidth. Lots of money.

  16. A bit on the MIT bust... on Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Turns out it was a sys-admin in the economics department here. He was a student at another Boston area university, working for the MIT department of Economics, and he also happened to be second in command of a rather large warez ring.


    Anyway, the details. He had around 10 machines just sitting underneath a table in the server room, with a combined storage of 2 terabytes. Apparantly, he was eating up 8-20 megabits of MIT's bandwidth a day. Needless to say, he is no longer employed by the institute...

  17. Re:The Emacs Zen... on GNU Emacs 21 · · Score: 1

    What other EMACS are there besides GNU EMACS? Are there commercial variants or something?

  18. Re:Get a grip! on Clark Withholds $60 Million Pledge to Stanford · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    14 != several trillion


    That is to say that the 14 cells that comprise the stem cell bundle taken from an embryo is not the same as a fully developed human being.


    Don't be a dumbass

  19. Re:Huh? on Clark Withholds $60 Million Pledge to Stanford · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hey, I have an idea. You are opposed to stem cell research?


    Alright. You start taking insulin shots in the stomach. 3-7 times a day. Oh, you also have to prick your fingers every time you want to eat. While you are at it, get Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis.


    Then you can tell me that the moral grounds are wrong.

  20. Re:Quick question on Stem Cell Research Moves Forward In The US · · Score: 1

    They don't last forever. No currently known cell lines do. What GW did was say NO while getting the PR for yes.

  21. Re:Disruptive actions on US Won't Drop Charges Against Sklyarov - More Protests Planned · · Score: 1

    Wow, all that I can say is that this is a f-cking awesome idea. You are a very cool person. Thank you for giving us your creative thought. Regardless of whether or not this is implemented in this one scenario, I'm sure it will be someday.

  22. Re:Good movie- Bad ending(SPOILER)... on Review: A.I. · · Score: 1

    they aren't aliens at the end; they are super-futuristic androids. Or, at least that is what I drew from the movie. BTW, I thought the movie was incredible. I absolutely loved how bizarre it was.

  23. You want real tech support? on Blow-by-Blow Account of the OSDN Outage · · Score: 1
    There is this medical devices compny called Minimed. They make insulin pumps - devices designed for the constant delivery of insulin to diabetics. Basically, insulin pumps are the replacement for several insulin shots a day. I am a diabetic and I have one.

    Now, let me tell you about Minimed tech support. They are unbelievable. The most I have ever had to wait for assistance with my pump is 3 minutes, and this is several calls at random hours (3 am, 2 pm, 11:30 am, etc, all hours, no matter what). The tech support people know the minimed pump product better than anything.

    But the real reason is that they have to. Sure, Cisco and Arrowpoint have big $$ contracts with their customers to keep routers and such in order. But if a router goes down for a few hours, it doesn't mean the death of the customer. If a Minimed insulin pump stops working for even a few hours, and the user doesn't realize it, they can go into diabetic keto-acidosis and potentially die. Now, this hasn't ever happened, to my knowlege, but the possibility is still present. Therefor, to avoid the unbelievable criminal lawsuits, Minimed has what I would expect to be the best tech support in the world.

  24. Re:28.8kbps Is Generous on Telstra Says Freedom (Plan) Has Its Limits · · Score: 1

    Explain how this is wrong? The ISP is clearly explaining exactly what they can offer at a particular price, and they offer it. The unlimited bandwidth offers only work on networks that have no bandwidth hogs like you and me. It makes perfect sense to charge people for what they consume. And furthermore, to say that these users are getting 9.7 kbps all the time is absurd. They can obviously peak at far more than that, its just that if they stupidly decided to spread out their 3 gigs over every second in the month, they would be downloading at a very low speed. ITs a stupid choice by them. What exactly is your point?

  25. Re:The DEATH of BSD on Is BSD Dying? · · Score: 1
    Not one of those 50 best uptimes are for servers that appear to get hit very much at all. Just food for thought.