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User: mrsquid0

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Comments · 748

  1. Re:Dune was good, but still failed on Frank Herbert's Dune, 50 Years On · · Score: 1

    > It kinda lost me when the Harkonans, a powerful empire in their own right, had to melt down their artillery pieces because they needed the materials elsewhere.

    This was explained in the book, and the explanation was internally consistent with technology of the time. The magic shield technology had made artillery usless millennia earlier. It was just the unique conditions on Dune that made artillery tactically useful. Once the Harkonnens had won the artillery was no longer needed, and may not be needed again for centuries or longer.

  2. Re:First Book Is Still Solid on Frank Herbert's Dune, 50 Years On · · Score: 1

    > When Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson started writing Dune books, I tried to read House Atreides, but got disgusted with it halfway through and tossed it in the bin. It was one of the few books that I owned that I actually threw away, it was that bad.

    And House Atreides was, by far, the best of the Brian & Kevin books. I found that the best way to read their books is to treat them as second-rate fan fiction.

  3. Re:Huge waste of Resourses on First Human Colonies Should Be Among Venus' Clouds · · Score: 1

    The time scale for the Sun expanding after the core hydrogen runs out is about 2 billion years, most of that will occur in the last 100 million years or so. Any people (or whatever) living on each of the inner planets will have plenty of time to see the Sun coming to get them.

  4. Re:Good news everyone! on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, we are not.

  5. Re:So what you're saying is... on Google Releases Report On Autonomous Vehicle Accidents · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most driving is not fun. It is tedious and frustrating. How many people can honestly say that they enjoy their daily commute or look forward to driving Jr to and from hockey practice? If all driving was like traveling the Sea to Sky Highway on a light traffic day then self-driving cars would be removing something fun from life. But, in the real world, self-driving cars will alleviate one of the most boring tasks that many people face.

  6. Re:What about a bus? on New Study Suggests Flying Is Greener Than Driving · · Score: 1

    Shutting down a route temporarily to change all the buses that are running along that route, then starting up the route again will cause tremendous disruption, not to mention the loss of business while the route is not operating. The (very) few transit systems that do this use live vehicle swaps. That is, they replace one vehicle with another at an end point of the route. This avoids the need to shut down the route,a and means that passengers do not have to transfer from one bus to another.

  7. Re:What about a bus? on New Study Suggests Flying Is Greener Than Driving · · Score: 3, Informative

    This depends where you are. In many cities buses run full regardless of the time of day. Even when ridership does decrease the reason that bus companies do not switch to minivans is that the most expensive part of operating a bus is the driver. Switching to smaller vehicles does not save a transit authority enough money to justify the logistical nightmare involved in changing vehicles while a route is in operation.

  8. Re:Evidence indicates otherwise on California's Hot, Dry Winters Tied To Climate Change · · Score: 1

    No, the US and the Saudis are trying to put ISIL out of business. Most of ISIL's income comes from illegal oil sales. Flooding the market with cheap crude has pulled the rug out from under them.

  9. Re:True but on A Year On, What Flight Simulators Can't Prove About Flight MH370 · · Score: 1

    Of course the Japanese did not bomb Pearl Harbour. Teddy Roosevelt did it, after FDR released him from cryosleep.

  10. i'th Post on State Employees Say Rules Prevent Open "Climate Change" Discussion In Florida · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Grow up Florida.

  11. Re:fixed it for ya on 20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Explodes In Orbit · · Score: 3, Funny

    It takes a lot of energy to change the weather. Some of it must have leaked.

  12. Re:Canada on 20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Explodes In Orbit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aliens.

  13. Re:Alleged... on Neil Armstrong's Widow Discovers Moon Camera In Bag · · Score: 1

    Only a violent and deranged mind would participate in the fraud perpetuated upon the world by the people who pretend that the Moon landings did not happen.

  14. Re:Shame on SpaceX, US Air Force Settle Spy Sat Dispute · · Score: 2

    Military launches are where the money is. It would not surprise me if SpaceX's long-term goal has always been do business into the US department of defence with the talk of manned missions being primarily a way of getting media attention. Even if Elon Musk really does want to send people to Mars military launches are a good way to raise the funds to do so.

  15. Re:One of many on The Camera That Changed the Universe · · Score: 3, Informative

    NASA does not have the funds to build instruments, or to run them once they have been launched. One of the telescopes is being used for the WFIRST mission (http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/). The other is waiting for money.

  16. I Would Not Want to Be an NK Dev Just Now. on Sloppy File Permissions Make Red Star OS Vulnerable · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Someone found and posted a security home in the official North Korean OS? I suspect that one of the OS's developers (and his family) is about the receive a free lifetime stay at Klub Kim.

  17. Name that Song on What Isn't There an App For? · · Score: 2

    I would like to see a reliable app that identifies a piece of music from various forms of user input such as lyrics; whistling, humming, or bad singing; or other fuzzy information. Google does a reasonable job with partial lyrics, but it good luck identifying instrumental pieces.

  18. Re: App Store on What Isn't There an App For? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And Linux stole unix. Linux also stole all the command names from unix. They also stole much of the underlying mathematical concepts from boolean algebra.

  19. Re:And who will watch it? on South Korean Activist To Drop "The Interview" In North Korea Using Balloons · · Score: 1

    According the the CIA's Web site (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html) the literacy rate in North Korea is 100%. Dropping pamphlets would make much more sense than dropping DVDs & USB sticks. This seems to be a publicity stunt, or an ego trip, more than a real attempt to sow dissatisfaction within North Korea.

  20. Re:Missing information on Hubble Reveals a Previously Unknown Dwarf Galaxy Just 7 Million Light Years Away · · Score: 1

    Yes, the dec should be -73:30:51. Sorry about the cut-and-paste error. The southern sky seems to have all of the good galaxies.

  21. Re:Missing information on Hubble Reveals a Previously Unknown Dwarf Galaxy Just 7 Million Light Years Away · · Score: 4, Informative

    RA = 02:24:44.4
    Dec = 73:30:51

    Unfortunately it is a bit too far south to see from Canada.

  22. Re:good news on Study: Police Body-Cams Reduce Unacceptable Use of Force · · Score: 1, Troll

    Then why should the police care about violence against you?

  23. Re:It should be noted that... on Apple Pushes First Automated OS X Security Update · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not only is OS X secure, it is perfect and is the only door to nirvana.

  24. Re:more NOS and less lense flare on "Star Trek 3" To Be Helmed By "Fast & Furious" Franchise Director Justin Lin · · Score: 1

    First Contact was awful, as were both of the rebooted movies. The Wrath of Khan, however, has stood up over the years.

  25. Re:Anthropometrics on 3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least one of these "knee jerk" incidents took place in a section of a plane where passengers did pay extra for extra leg room (United's Economy Plus section). The problem is that the more people pay for their ticket the more entitled they feel.