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User: Panaflex

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Comments · 1,158

  1. Re:Anything that screws monsanto on Hidden Viral Gene Discovered In GMO Crops · · Score: 1

    I find it increasingly hard to believe that Monsanto® crops are the best crops out there based on the growing demand for pesticides. It seems to me that Monsanto crops are designed to sell more Monsanto chemicals. For many years GMO researchers showed great results with new crops that had better qualities. But steadily those programs have disappeared as Monsanto has pushed it's crops to farms using a loss-leader seed to get around pricing regulation, while adding cash incentive programs to pay distributors to up-sell chemicals for massive profits.

    Monsanto is a schmuck company that preys on farmers, researchers and government in order to maintain it's monopoly. Screw 'em.

  2. Re:having trouble finding it on Will "Group Hug" Commoditize the Hardware Market? · · Score: 1

    You might be thinking of Slot A/B mounted CPU's from AMD and Alpha Processor Inc. They were compatible slot designs where you could plug in Athlon or Alpha 21264 CPU's. AMD licensed the slot design from Alpha.

    Unfortunately, I don't think it ever made much of a dent in the market.

  3. Looks like... on What Did Google Earth Spot In the Chinese Desert? · · Score: 1

    A high energy laser testbed. The barrels of oil, the cooling pond, the coal electric generators, and the long straight area that would be used for measuring beam focus.

  4. Check out the Robowranglers... on 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Kicks Off · · Score: 1

    Out here the highschool team is pretty interesting and wins many competitions, though I haven't been out there. I know they have sponsorship from a couple of big engineering outfits, but it seems that they practice their work and learn quite a bit. http://www.robowranglers148.com/

    Taking a que from most all human endeavors (sports, music, etc), it would seem that testing, prototyping and practice are key elements. You need lots of time, material, and a coach that fosters talent from the whole team. Depending on a few key players will only lead to short-term glory and frustration.

  5. Re:its a lost cause on Ask Slashdot: How Can I Explain To a Coworker That He Writes Bad Code? · · Score: 1

    In SQL there are often no choices in the matter if you want decent working code. I avoid temp tables like the plague they are, but sometimes the evil is necessary.

  6. The real plot.... on Little Miss Sunshine Screenwriter Gets Nod For Star Wars: Episode VII · · Score: 2

    It will be about the sudden return of Darth Binks, who we all suspected was the *REAL* sith lord of evil within the films.

    After all,
    * He conveniently appears right after the Jedi manage to escape in Ep 1.
    * He manages to hand the republic into the hands of the "sith lord" with his vote on the Military Creation Act, having somehow gained the trust of Naboo after blundering his way as a General in the army.
    * He conveniently disappears for the final three films, letting both sides expend all their resources and war funds

    So obviously, for Ep 7 he will show up with the armada of left-over space battleships (which were, illogically, not used after the death star exploded again) to destroy the New Republic, first by assassinating Luke.

    "Issa gonna be MESSY, bishes!" BAM!

  7. Re:That's all well and good on Open Compute Wants To Make Biodegradable Servers · · Score: 1

    The glass can be bonded to a thin plexiglass layer - would be almost bulletproof.

  8. Re:That's all well and good on Open Compute Wants To Make Biodegradable Servers · · Score: 1

    I've worked on a project where we printed circuits on glass. It worked well, you could etch basic CPU's and CCD circuits right on the surface. The only problems are keeping it clean, heat dissipation, and through-hole contacts. I see glass as the right way moving forward. Etching numerous redundancies can be cleaned up at testing as you have an enormous amount of space unlike silicone. We've already got experience in LCD tech here, why not build the whole thing on glass?

  9. What you need... on Ask Slashdot: Extreme Cable Management? · · Score: 1

    Split cable tubing is what you seek. Seriously, gather all your device related wires into the tube and you'll be much happier. Everything else, use velcro tape (e.g. network and display cables).

    Also, consider getting shorter cables that are the correct length. You don't need a 15m ethernet cable that only goes 1m!! You can get decent cables on eBay usually, or just about anywhere these days. Make sure you use shielded network and display cables - you might have some signal issues running next to AC power otherwise.

  10. Not for the kids... on iPad Mini Costs $24 More To Make Than Kindle Fire HD · · Score: 1

    I feel that Amazon did their homework here, I really like the iPad, but not $100+ more. Seriously, I expected a price of $249.

    I do feel that some Apple hardware is worth the "premium" price for the good experience, fewer problems (overall) and quality materials. I like the store support and warranty also. But the Kindle Fire is a good enough product, sturdy and simple. A bit bulkier but overall a nice experience.

    The iPad mini has about the same screen, about the same CPU, and slightly better wireless and better package.

    I've got two Kindle Fires, and I'm pretty happy with them. Sorry Apple, price matters and I can't justify your luxury iPad prices.

  11. Just clone the drive... on Ask Slashdot: Finding Legacy UnixWare Installation Media? · · Score: 1

    I've installed Unixware 2.1.2 a few times, the license was straightforward. You're license to operate one copy of the media on a single machine, generally limited to two CPU's (SMP style). Unisys as a reseller didn't retain any copyrights, IIRC.

    So clone that drive and fire it up. The original media did have a BIOS check, but only at installation. I remember booting up Unixware on other motherboards without any issue, as long as the specs were pretty close.

    Other than that, if you want to continue with the media option, post a wanted ad on ebay and perhaps you'll get lucky.

  12. Re:Pilot V5 on Ask Slashdot: The Search For the Ultimate Engineer's Pen · · Score: 1

    Prefer the V7 myself - I like the flow of the ink better. I've used them since college. I live the feel of the 0.7 best, works great on my drafting notebooks, but the 0.5 size is good also.

  13. Re:last post on Sandy Sinks HMS Bounty, Knocks Off Gawker Websites · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to news reports, the engine broke down and they were not able to repair in time.

  14. Re:Hypocracy at it's bestest on Texas Attorney General Warns International Election Observers · · Score: 1

    Huh? Texas state polling laws have been in existence for many, many years. Their intent is to prevent voter fraud by preventing access to polling stations to ALL third-party organizations. This means you don't have Dem or Rep party members in polling stations, or "interested groups" or anyone BUT voters and election officials. In fact these laws were enacted to prevent vote fraud.

    Voter fraud is ridiculously low. You have a better chance of being hit by lightning than discovering an incident of polling place fraud.

    Why would we change that???

  15. Re:Well of course! on EXT4 Data Corruption Bug Hits Linux Kernel · · Score: 1

    All right, well fine. You have utterly destroyed my illusions of being quoted at the bottom of a slashdot page one day.

    I am such a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. Thus, I take my leave to wallow in my sophomoric caricature of a man, having ripened my soul under the blistering gaze of.... girlintraining.

  16. Well of course! on EXT4 Data Corruption Bug Hits Linux Kernel · · Score: 2

    They're mounting it wrong!

    When you mount your disks, you need to be sure of proper head alignment. Make sure she's spun up properly as well, otherwise the disks could be surprised and jump away causing a crash. Lastly, my geek friends, mounting too often can cause burning friction which can destroy data and cause irritation and discomfort.

  17. Re:So? on Alan Cox to NVIDIA: You Can't Use DMA-BUF · · Score: 2

    The patent system is broken. Those who strive for new ideas and create new designs never seen before are far overshadowed by people patenting variations on blinking cursors, linked lists and sorting algorithms.

    The patent system has congressional oversight - which is broken also. The patent system is abused by large corporations who push through hundreds of patents a year knowing that not all of them are truly unique.

  18. Take THIS England! on UK Man Arrested For Offensive Joke Posted On Facebook · · Score: 1

    Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmnOpoGAPw

  19. Re:Why don't they just condense it down... on Electric Car Environmental Impact: Power Source Matters · · Score: 1

    I think I mean:

    >The facts remain that the tech and investment necessary to keep moving us all forward to a renewable energy economy necessitates a market shift towards electric vehicles.

    Why do I say this? It is because battery and car tech have the ability to improve far faster in response to market pressure than energy production. The price of nonrenewables has no where to go but up, pending any unknown new sources of energy or massive improvements in energy production. People buy cars every few years, whereas energy plants are capitalized for 50 years. They will be there a long, long time.

    I also think it means that the study paints a far rosier picture than reality. The reality is that electric cars can and public transportation can improve, however power plants are above 90% efficiency, there's little room for improvement.

  20. Re:Why don't they just condense it down... on Electric Car Environmental Impact: Power Source Matters · · Score: 1

    Be careful - the europeans will mod you down for such heresies! Allah forbid that we have informed facts. I learned that while living in France while attending HEC and UParis...

    Oops I did it again... darn.

  21. Why don't they just condense it down... on Electric Car Environmental Impact: Power Source Matters · · Score: 0

    Oy vey.. can't they just get it out? Europe GOOD, America BAD.

    But I counter that lots of places in Europe have a very low percentage of renewable energy sources, there are many gaps in production. France and Germany still utilize quite a bit of nuclear energy, Italy is 90% non-renewable, and most of the biomass/biofuel systems still require a lot of non-renewable energy (even though they are counted as 100% renewable in such studies just like corn ethanol is promoted in the USA). They also ignore the enormous amount of energy and waste used to produce wind and solar generators.

    Same is certainly true in the USA - being a far larger landmass it will take far longer to develop such programs.

    So certainly it's a step in the right direction, but I wouldn't let such a study inform my decision-making process. The facts remain that the tech and investment necessary to keep moving us all forward to a renewable energy economy necessitates a market shift towards electric vehicles.

  22. Re:Very good on Lenovo Building Manufacturing Plant in North Carolina · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oddly enough, the most likely reason they're putting in a plant in the USA is...... (wait for it).... to sell into DOD. You get an instant +5 karma by manufacturing in the USA for contract win purposes.

  23. Lots of great pro features! on FFmpeg 1.0 MultiMedia Library Released · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ffmpeg supports both Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes codecs, REDCODE decode, EXR, DPX, and all the best unencumbered formats as well. This means that most pro video and film production can integrate into OSS with much more ease than ever before. It also means that proprietary data lock-in is on the way out.

    Way to go ffmpeg!

  24. Re:Who knew? on Data Breach Reveals 100k IEEE.org Members' Plaintext Passwords · · Score: 1

    Ah, that makes good sense! Thanks for the clarification.

  25. Huh? on iPhone 5 A6 SoC Teardown: ARM Cores Appear To Be Laid Out By Hand · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not surprising at all, as PA SEMI was founded by Daniel W. Dobberpuhl.

    Daniel Dobberpuhl had his hand in StrongARM and DEC Alpha design - both hand-drawn cores which to this day command some respect in chip design circles I'm told.

    Anyway,