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User: Wdi

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Comments · 124

  1. License ON transfer on Google, Dropbox, and Others Forge Patent "Arms Control Pact" · · Score: 1

    Has the editor actually understood the idea behind this?

  2. What "Publication" ? on NSA Considers Linux Journal Readers, Tor (And Linux?) Users "Extremists" · · Score: 1

    "Das Erste" is a (major) TV broadcaster and its name roughly translates as "TV1". The fact that they also have a Web site which summarizes the content of previously broadcast features does not change this.

  3. Really bad choice of name... on It's Not a Car, It's a Self-Balancing Electric Motorcycle (Video) · · Score: 1

    From all the possible names for a motorcycle, they felt they had to choose the one which is most likely to get them sued for trademark violation?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bmw_C1

    Covered and innovative motorcycle by BMW, in production 2000-2003.

  4. Yes, that is reasonable advice on Ask Slashdot: How To Back Up Physical Data? · · Score: 1

    Any safe worth its money cannot be harmed by a simple gas explosion in the surrounding house, tornado, car crashing though the walls, etc. and if you have one or two hours of fire protection, that also covers the vast majority of house fires.

  5. Bullshit - don't believe marketing materials on How Apple's Billion Dollar Sapphire Bet Will Pay Off · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sapphire is *not* the second hardest material known. Yes, it's written in the linked article, but it is also definitely wrong. It is hard, and it is harder than glass. That is all there is. Besides diamond. many other materials, such as some forms of boronnitride, rhenium and osmium borides, and a collection of carbon/boron/nitrogen mixed compounds are all far harder than sapphire.

  6. Not surprising, and acknowledged by chemists on Estimate: Academic Labs 11 Times More Dangerous Than Industrial Counterparts · · Score: 2

    To those posters claiming that these are sensationalistic numbers, or fake statistics:

    This problem is well known among professional chemists, and there have been a string of high-profile accidents in recent years (and very expensive settlements for involved universities as a result).

    The ACS (American Chemical Society) has instituted a task force to guide academia in establishing a better safety culture..

    See for example

    http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2013_10_02/caredit.a1300217
    www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/about/governance/committees/chemicalsafety/academic-safety-culture-report-final-v2.pdf

  7. A different real-life explanation on Woman Attacked In San Francisco Bar For Wearing Google Glass · · Score: 1

    From the article: "by the time she ran back into the bar, her purse with her keys, wallet and phone were gone".

    Maybe this is what it all was about. A standard pickpocket distraction manoeuvre.

  8. Most important advantage not mentioned on Laser Headlights Promise More Intense, Controllable Beams · · Score: 2

    With laser lighting, illumination in rain can be dramatically improved, but avoiding to shine the laser onto rain drops.

    http://iq.intel.com/iq/33831801/future-headlight-technology-could-make-rain-disappear

  9. Look for time travellers, and you find... on Searching the Internet For Evidence of Time Travelers · · Score: 1

    a) wrongly set system clocks leaking into page timestamps, etc.

    b) conspirators communicating about/cashing in on their nefarious schemes

  10. Expedition permits? Easier, actually... on Citizen Science: Who Makes the Rules? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Very misleading original article full of misguided complaints. Controls on the export of native plants or other biological specimen have been in place for hundreds of years, and with much harsher penalties.

    The members of the expedition have a, admittedly tedious, path to get permits. Just play by the rules.

    When John Rolfe smuggled tobacco from Trinidad to Virginia in 1611, establishing its tobacco farming industry, there was a mandatory death sentence for seed smugglers imposed by the Spanish colonialists.

  11. Maybe you can learn something from figher tech... on Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech · · Score: 2

    but passenger aircraft have very standard motorized windscreen wipers, really low tech...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIasu8TdhA&hd=1

  12. Combine it! on Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech · · Score: 4, Funny

    For maximum effect, apply JP-8 and scorching hot exhausts simultaneously!

  13. Re:Bad news .... on Why People Are So Bad At Picking Passwords · · Score: 1

    His password is open source and everybody is entitled to read it, modify it, or to sell it as text source if he can find a buyer, as long as the copyright notice remains attached!

  14. Misleading headline on Detecting Chemicals Through Bone · · Score: 1

    The reported method requires that specially coated nanoparticles are first injected though the bone. That is just drilling a smaller hole.

  15. Please, NO, NO, NO! on Explorer Plans Hunt For Genghis Khan's Long-Lost Tomb · · Score: 2

    That guy is a rich retired lawyer, not an archeologist or historian. See his profile at

    http://www.explorers.org/index.php/about/explorers_club_president

    There are zero indications in the linked article that they plan to include any professionals on their expedition, and in his portrait there is no record that he has ever teamed up with such on previous endeavors. Looting or just damaging a tomb of this importance by amateurs, should it be found, would be an enormous cultural loss. A painstaking archeological dig would probably take 20 years and proceed with extreme caution. These guys do not look like they have the patience - to me they certainly look like they would prefer instant gratification and fame by brandishing a few choice artefacts from the tomb if they can find it.

  16. Not just quadruple... on Cambridge University Scientists Find Quadruple Helix DNA In Human Cells · · Score: 2

    triple DNA helixes are also known, just to expand your horizon beyond what is simplified in highschool textbooks:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-stranded_DNA

  17. Just a publicity stunt on Over 1000 Volunteers For 'Suicide' Mission To Mars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are now starting the astronaut selection program for a trip in 10 years, but there is no indication whatever that they are concerned about the much more fundamental task of designing a transport ship?!?! Really, really suspicious. What are the prospects supposed to train on/for ?

    "People in thirty seven countries have purchased our merchandise, demonstrating their support for Mars One"

    OK, I understand. Presumably the foundation managers are well paid. That is no problem even for a non-profit.

  18. This can only work in few industries on Just Say No To College · · Score: 1

    Software is about the only remotely tech-centric field where you have a small chance of success as a college dropout founder even without prior certified qualification, and then only in submarkets which do not cater to other high-tech or regulated fields.

    You may become a lucky millionaire with a blockbuster iPad app for the unwashed masses - if you somehow hit the customer taste better than your 1000 competitors, and cash in before you spend your money on the next 10 unsuccessful projects - , but you will never get a foot into, for the average start-up company, much more reliably profitable fields like machinery design and control software, simulation and research data processing tools, or even seemingly boring stuff like custom database-related software which needs to adhere to strict regulations - which is about anything from bookkeeping to medical data processing.

    And do not even dream about starting your biotech company directly out of high-school.

  19. Unlikely... on Scientists Turn Air Into Petrol · · Score: 2

    This smells fishy. Certainly, there are no laws of nature violated... carbon dioxide can be hydrogenated to hydrocarbons, alcohols, etc., that is well-known technology ...but why would anybody trying to build a commercial company presumably trying to earn money at some stage go to the expense (both financially and energy-wise) to isolate carbon dioxide from air (0.04%), when it is readly available for example from the exhaust of tradional power plants and other fuel-burning processes (>22%, up to 100% with 'clean coal' tech), or, if you want to go fully biological, from fermentation operations (100%). That does not make any economic sense at all.

    Also, the point about the lack additives is strange. Original refinery fuel is almost pure hydrocarbons and minor oxidation products, too - the additives are not a side product of the distillation process from oil. The addititives are added (immediately before filling the delivery trucks) because they improve the burn characteristics, lubrication, waste product accumulation - which are needed for synfuel in the same fashion.

  20. One-sided advertisement for unknown me-too startup on Start-Up Wants To Open Up Science Journals and Eliminate Paywalls · · Score: 1

    The article makes no mention of thriving competitors with similar business models which have already been in business for several years.

    A post about such a topic omitting any reference to, for example, DeepDyve (www.deepdyve.com) can only be classified as advertisement.

  21. Too early to rejoice on Promising New Drug May Cure Malaria · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note that there has been *zero* human testing yet, not even phase 1 tests on healthy human subjects. From among the compounds that make it to that stage, maybe one in 50 or 100 (!) really makes it to market.

    Aminopyridines (the class this new compound is from) have known pharmaceutical uses - and some compounds of this class have severe side effects, such as causing epileptic seizures that are difficult to reproduce in animals. .And its pretty reactive amino group is a general red flag.

    But of course I wish the researchers luck with their tests.

  22. Missing the real progress... on Nanoparticle Completely Eradicates Hepatitis C Virus · · Score: 1

    This is non-news. Cures which work in cell cultures are a dime a dozen. This is at least six years from going to market, and has >95% chance to fail as an actual drug.

    The real progress are the recently introduced, FDA-approved treatments by Vertex, Merck (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-vertex-idUSTRE74M3I320110523) and soon Gilead (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-bristolmyers-hepatitis-idUSBRE83I0T920120419). These are really fantastic advances in the treatment of that disease.

  23. Any 'Economically Significant' Patent on Congress Asks Patent Office To Consider Secret Patents · · Score: 5, Informative

    will be filed simultaneously (*) in Europe, Japan, and increasingly in BRIC countries to protect world-wide market potential.

    So what is to be gained if the US text is kept secret, but the essentially identical application is in the open in three dozen other countries?

    (*) especially after the recent changes in the US patent system to use the same principles as the rest of the world

  24. That is nothing... try a little higher.... on Team Creates Footwear Recognition System · · Score: 1

    Japanese researchers have recently created a system which identifies drivers by recognizing their asses in the driver's seat:

    http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20111213D13JSN01.htm

  25. 128 comments and summary still not fixed on Proposed Mercury Ban Threatens Vaccines · · Score: 1

    The editors still have not bothered to fix 'thermisol' in the summary - and it is even spelled correctly (thiomersal, or thimerosal) in the newspaper article....

    just like the superconductors/semiconductors fiasco yesterday.

    How can you believe you are intelligently discussing a science-related issue when you cannot even name the topic correctly?