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User: FatLittleMonkey

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  1. Re:DSCOVR? on Tracking System Bug Delays SpaceX's DSCOVR Launch · · Score: 1

    Why "DSCOVR"?

    Modern NASA has a thing for retarded backronyms. This one is particularly forced. ("OVR" is "Observer"? Fuck off.) Older programs were given names for the sake of names. "Pioneer", "Voyager", "Mariner". Not MARINR (MArs Remote ImagiNg observeR).

    Still, at least the damn thing is flying after being mothballed for 15 years years because of its association with Al Gore.

  2. Re:And now Elon's thinking... on Tracking System Bug Delays SpaceX's DSCOVR Launch · · Score: 2

    you can bet the Air Force will still be involved, since the launch trajectory for equatorial orbits crosses Florida.

    By the time a Brownsville/Boca-Chica launch crosses the Florida peninsula, it will above 50km and not a range-safety issue. In fact, it'll be well after first stage separation, and may even be after second stage MECO.

    The USAF will routinely track it as they would any launcher, or ICBM or IRBM, launched by anyone, anywhere in the world, but that will have nothing to do with launch ops and will have no effect on SpaceX's decision to launch.

  3. Re:Mandatory Pratchett quote. on How a Hardware Designer Was Saved By His Own Creation · · Score: 1

    Thanks. But "+5 informative"? A bunch of wiki-scraping to set up that penultimate line. What is wrong with people? Sheesh. What does a troll have to do to earn some disrespect around here?

  4. Re:Mandatory Pratchett quote. on How a Hardware Designer Was Saved By His Own Creation · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since I've already been a pedantic wanker in this thread, I might as well dance...

    "Colonel Shrapnel wasn't blown up, M. Guillotin died with his head on, Colonel Gatling wasn't shot. If it hadn't been for the murder of cosh and blackjack maker Sir William Blunt-Instrument in an alleyway, the rumour would never have got started." - Feet of Clay

    Henry Shrapnel died a lieutenant-general, and was posthumously promoted to major-general. Convention is to use that final rank, however even if you are trying to be contemporaneous, he invented the eponymous shell while a lieutenant, so colonel is still wrong.

    Richard Gatling was a medical doctor before becoming an engineer/inventor. He ran his engineering company during the US Civil War, and AFAIK he never served.

    Likewise, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was a French physician. Hence Docteur Guillotin, Monsieur Docteur, even Monsieur Medicins, but never Monsieur Guillotin. (Wikipoo says that Guillotin didn't actually invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his family ended up changing their family name due to the shame. Also that a guy called Guillotin was guillotined.)

    And finally, Willem Blunt was never knighted, the most he ever got was an OM. "Blunt Instrument" was also a nickname, not his actual surname. So, Willem "Blunt Instrument" Blunt OM. And he died after drunkenly falling off a horse, not being bashed in an alley.

    Sir Terence Pratchett, OTOH, has an OBE and is fully entitled.

  5. Re:wrong on How a Hardware Designer Was Saved By His Own Creation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The AED can't restart the heart from true "flat line" (asystole). You have to force the heart into some kind of activity using manual CPR, and ideally a suitable drug, to give the AED something to bite on.

    However, tachycardia can appear pulseless even though the heart is still beating (dysrhythmically), and the AED alone can shock-stop that dysrythmia and allow the heart to restore its own timing. That's where the advice to use the AED "even if their heart has stopped" comes from; their heart hasn't actually stopped.

  6. Re:Priorities on Pilot's Selfies Could Have Caused Deadly Air Crash · · Score: 1

    Hmmm,

    "http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/04/taiwanese-jetliner-cartwheels-into-river-frantic-rescue-saves-some"

    I'm guessing here, but that article might be about the Taiwanese jetliner crash. You know, coz of the headline, which is also in the URL.

    Just a guess.

  7. Re:bad title on Pilot's Selfies Could Have Caused Deadly Air Crash · · Score: 1

    How did the selfie result in an accident?

    Flash photography in the cockpit at night at low altitude during touch-and-go's. Part of a pattern of such behaviour by the pilot.

    What can be done to prevent that *kind of* judgement lapse from causing an accident in the future? Blaming the pilot will not answer these questions.

    Actually, blaming the pilot is the only thing that might help prevent a repeat. It really is just a "seriously guys, don't do that, it's retarded" situation.

  8. Re:First sighting of the selfie gremlin? on Pilot's Selfies Could Have Caused Deadly Air Crash · · Score: 2

    A selfie brought down the plane?

    Flash photography in the cockpit at night at low altitude during touch-and-go's.

    This was not a smart pilot.

  9. Re:Priorities on Pilot's Selfies Could Have Caused Deadly Air Crash · · Score: 2

    there is no way taking a picture could by itself be the cause of spatial disorientation.

    At night.

    With a flash.

    (FTFA)

  10. Re:Priorities on Pilot's Selfies Could Have Caused Deadly Air Crash · · Score: 1

    Only in the sense that flying an airworthy plane into the ground is aviation, of a sorts.

  11. Three parents? on British MPs Approve 3-Parent Babies · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hell, I'd be surprised if Texas legislators don't respond by going to five parents.

  12. Re:Gag warrants... on Site Launches To Track Warrant Canaries · · Score: 1

    "At the sort of the companies"

    "At least the..."

  13. Re:Gag warrants... on Site Launches To Track Warrant Canaries · · Score: 2

    The TLAs can effectively DOS the warrant canaries in their current form.

    Many companies challenge the warrants, subpoenas and NSLs. (At the sort of the companies with Warrant Canaries.) If a TLA starts to issue frivolous ones, eventually a judge (yes, even an American judge) will see it as an abuse of process. That ruling then sets the precedent for the rest to be challenged.

    NSL-DOSing may actually be a good thing for EFF/ACLU and the companies that object to these secret orders, since the agencies issuing them will inevitably make a mistake.

  14. Re:Gag warrants... on Site Launches To Track Warrant Canaries · · Score: 1

    Then you do something else that isn't specifically excluded by the letter of the gag warrant.

    "Ladies and gentlemen of the press, thank you for attending this press conference which is being streamed live. We, CompanyName, would like to announce that we are not removing our so-called Warrant Canary notice. We do not expect that our company will remove this notice, which claims [text of notice], at any point in the foreseeable future. Further, we reiterate that we have not received a [specific name of warrant/NSL/etc] under [specific law] from [agency/agencies listed on the warrant], and do not expect to announce receiving such a [warrant/NSL] for the foreseeable future. We will not be answering questions on this matter for the foreseeable future, except to reiterate these points. Thank you."

    And when that gets listed, you do the next thing and the next and the next. The whole point of Warrant Canaries is that even if you can be compelled to lie, you cannot be compelled to lie well.

  15. Re:EFF actions aid terrorists on Site Launches To Track Warrant Canaries · · Score: 1

    The enemy without is not the only enemy.

    Constitutions are designed to get in governments' way. That is their sole purpose. If they didn't get in the way, they wouldn't be "Constitutions", they'd be guidelines. Voluntary codes. Best Practice advisories. It's the getting in the way that makes them Constitutions.

    If a Constitution gets in a government's way excessively, then there are usually mechanisms within those Constitutions to change them. The US Constitution has such a mechanism. If the First and Fourth Amendments (and Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and eventually the Second) so harm the government's abilities to fight teh terrists that it endangers the Republic, then they should make the appropriate changes to the Constitution.

    Changing a Constitution is usually difficult.

    That is also by design.

  16. "It's the Supreme Court, stupid" on Site Launches To Track Warrant Canaries · · Score: 1

    The only purpose of a Democrat President, and the reason to vote Democrat, is to prevent Republican Presidents from appointing Supreme Court Justices. The biggest anti-democracy cases and other anti-Constitutional rulings have typically been split 5/4. The five are the appointees of previous Republican Presidents, the four are two appointees each of Clinton and Obama. Even when "we" won 5/4, it's the four Democrat appointees and a single odd-duck Republican appointee versus the other four Republican appointees.

    You need at least one more term to guarantee four Democrat appointees (RBG will retire/die soon), and at least another two terms to swing the majority away from Republican appointees. Then, and only then, can you hope to undo some of the damage that's been done by that Republican-appointed majority.

    OTOH, if the Republicans get another President and control the next appointment (RBG's replacement), the court will be 6/3 and under their control for at least 20 years. By then... who knows how much damage they'll have done.

  17. Re:Indians on FAA Could Extend Property Rights On the Moon Through Regulation · · Score: 1

    Technically the US does since we landed people on it first

    Technically North America is owned by the american natives ( also called Indians) So if the USA is owned by the indians, and the moon is owned by the USA, then the moon is owned by the Indians.

    No. The Native Americans/American Indians may own the land of North America, under first-come-first-served, but that doesn't mean they own the political entity called the US nor the subsequent claims of the US. Since the US hasn't sworn fealty to Native Americans, none of their own claims of external territory belong the Native Americans, even if the US is falsely or illegally or unnaturally (or whatever standard you are using) squatting on NA soil while making those claims.

    If a squatter illegally occupies in a property owned by you, you don't get to keep their stuff even when you get them kicked out. (Unless you get a judgement for damages, and the judge rules the property be held as surety. But that requires a sovereignty that you are both subject to.)

  18. Re:Listnr on Listnr Wants to be 'Your Listening Assistant' (Video) · · Score: 1

    Where did all the hating for 'e' come from?

    Tumblr... Flickr... now this.

    When you have no online presence, creating a nonsense word makes it easier for you to quickly reach the top listed search result.

    For example, "Listener" is a band, a magazine, a TV show, and a Javascript function. You have to rise above all of them before you "exist". Simply drop a couple of E's (untz untz untz) and suddenly you become the top result. I believe it's also harder to protect your trademark if it's a generic word.

    However, if you change the spelling of your company too far (eg, "Listiner") and people may either mispronounce it (hard T, for example, List-inner or Listeen-er), or subconsciously "correct" the spelling before typing it in. Dropping the E's still retains an obvious phonetic spelling.

    Of course, now it's just trendy. Which is the real answer to your question.

    I mean look at the device itself, why is it the size of a fucking brick? It's a microphone with some DSP, my Bluetooth dongle has more hardware and is smaller than my thumb. They want it to be the most obvious thing on your desk "Ooo shiny glowy thing, tell me about that." (And it's iOS only, which explains even more.)

    Oh, and speaking of specific searches for nonsense words, why can't Google filter out the "no such word on this list" dictionary/directory results? Fuck those guys, how is that any better than scraper sites? And fuck Google, it's a hundredth as hard as some of the other filtering they do. And autoplay videos, I mean just fuck off. I can understand flash video doing it, those guys are cunts, but how can the html5 video/audio spec not have browser triggered behaviour overrides (or at least notifications for the browser to use for tab-highlighting). It's an official web specification! Fuck you W3C.

  19. Re:Huge Domains on Listnr Wants to be 'Your Listening Assistant' (Video) · · Score: 1

    It's amazing that this hasn't been stopped. I understand having an "idiot tax" on late renewals, you screwed up so you should pay a late fee, but allowing an entire business model based around hijacking lapsed domains is crazy.

    Imagine if that happened with other areas of our lives. You're a day late paying your rent, someone can jump in and pay it first and take your office. Late renewing your business licence and someone can pay the fee and take your business name out from under you. One day late paying your phone bill and every number for your business is redirected to squatter. It's nuts.

  20. Re:Goodbye, SETI! on Ted Cruz To Oversee NASA and US Science Programs · · Score: 1

    The government funded SETI program was terminated 20 years ago (1995). Since then it's been a private research program.

    --

    For the AC who replied to you,

    The SETI program should have terminated [...] about a decade ago

    So he thinks it should have been funded for ten years longer than it was?

  21. Re:Is it just me... on Ted Cruz To Oversee NASA and US Science Programs · · Score: 1

    Also, explain to this Canadian why NASA is researching climate.

    It's their job.

    "102(c) The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:
    (1) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;
    (2) The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;
    (3) The development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and living organisms through space;
    ..."

    - National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958)

    It's the very first job they are given.

  22. Re:It's a first... on NASA's New Horizons To Arrive At Pluto With Clyde Tombaugh's Ashes · · Score: 1

    Sword and shield?

    I'm not sure they're going to be much of a threat to us.

  23. "the Lobbyist Went Down To Georgia" on Tesla vs. Car Dealers: the Lobbyist Went Down To Georgia · · Score: 2

    The analogy doesn't work. In the song, the Devil accepted when he'd lost.

  24. Re:That was quick ... on Canadian Government Steps In To Stop Misleading Infringement Notices · · Score: 1

    This still isn't enough though. Knowingly doing this should be a criminal offense.

    Even that isn't enough. Any system that gives aid and comfort to the extortionists is, by definition, corrupt. An appropriate response would be to create a centralised, universal licensing system to replace existing individual rights-holding licensing. Ends exclusive licenses, therefore prevents region blocking (by allowing other companies to exploit the absence), allows competition and model-differentiation in the distribution marketplace, allows artists to register directly and easily, letting them bypass the Big Four. And sends a clear message that if you don't play nicely with other children, we will take your toys away.

  25. Re:That was quick ... on Canadian Government Steps In To Stop Misleading Infringement Notices · · Score: 5, Interesting

    that they have done the right thing here.

    Done the right thing? Passed a law slavishly devoted to the copyright industry's wishes? So mindlessly copied the US version that it contained the same decade-known flaw, an absence of penalties for false-notices, fraudulent-notices, spamming robo-notices, allowing 3rd party companies to create whole business models around extorting fake "fines" out of people? How is any of that the "right thing"?