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User: Baby+Duck

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Comments · 366

  1. It's The Money, Stupid on DARPA Bolsters Blueprint To Build Robotic Services For Satellites · · Score: 1

    Step 1. Stop giving money to Russia for its rockets.

    Step 2. Invest that money into US private space firms instead.

  2. Sleepspace on Coffee Naps Better For Alertness Than Coffee Or Naps Alone · · Score: 1

    But WHERE will the employees nap? You would have to layout cots in a grid in an open floor space so no one tries any hank panky. Not all employers have the luxury of devoting so much space to napping, though.

  3. Not A Maxim on Ask Slashdot: "Real" Computer Scientists vs. Modern Curriculum? · · Score: 1

    Those grads are merely inferior for tasks where memory management is paramount, that's all. Just like someone who graduated with a database class would be inferior for database programming. It doesn't make them inferior all around. Java is just easier to teach AND learn with, really.

    I remember doing all these exercises in C about storing multiple "strings" in the same character array. Most programming jobs out there wouldn't deign themselves to be concerned with such low-level solution-space details. Even when I had to deal with "packed arrays" in C++, Java, and JavaScript, the first thing I did was write a class around it to abstract all those details away.

  4. Since you are on Fedora already, I'd recommend FreeIPA. It'll give you more than your LDAP+PAM for centralized authentication and authorization, like Host-based Access Control, centralized sudoers policy, DNS, etc.

    However, it wouldn't accomplish any of the tasks you specifically asked for out-of-the-box. I was thinking you could write some of these tasks as FreeIPA plugins.

  5. Wardriving + Rickmoting = ?? on The "Rickmote Controller" Can Hijack Any Google Chromecast · · Score: 1

    Cruisin' down the street
    Real slow
    While the Chromecasters be yellin'
    RICKROLLED!

  6. As Always ... on Giant Crater Appears In Northern Siberia · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me guess. The explosion was caught on a Russian dashcam, amirite?

  7. But would it recognize the time flow of a movie like Memento? Every sequence moves forward, but each subsequent sequence predates the previous one, with overlap. There are also flashback sequences.

  8. Old News on Human Blood Substitute Could Help Meet Donor Blood Shortfall · · Score: 1

    I read about this in Wired more than 5 years ago.

  9. Re:Wormholes + a flat universe on The Disappearing Universe · · Score: 1

    You are correct insofar that the visualization model of a bowling ball on a trampoline is misguided and misrepresentative of nature. However, the Universe Is Flat claim is not addressing spacetime "curvature" and its relation to gravity. Think of a complex 3-D configuration of eletrical charges. If you zoom way out, you can treat the cumulative electrical field as if it's a one-dimensional, singe point of charge. Similarly, if you zoom way out from the observable universe, it's overall shape inside the unobservable universe tends towards being co-planar. Observable "stuff" tends to clump along a plane and the metric expansion of the universe tends to also move along this plane. There is nothing to stop energy/matter or metric expansion from moving or existing further along a Z-axis, but from all observations, it just tends not to (on a cosmic scale).

  10. Re:How many galaxies have we already lost sight of on The Disappearing Universe · · Score: 1

    Depends on what you mean by "lost". We've seen the Cosmic Background Radiation in all directions. This predates the first star. Now if by "lost" you mean unable to communicate with, even if each relay has massive amounts of time inbetween, then yes, many galaxies are already lost. Some are expanding away from us faster than the speed of light (or will be right before any photon we send could hope to traverse the distance). Some are just close enough they could intercept a signal, but the reply back wouldn't make it due to expansion. There is also the possibility of younger galaxies that formed in a region of space that is expanding away from us too fast.

  11. Re:Am I missing something? on The Disappearing Universe · · Score: 1

    We will still merge with Andromeda and perhaps the entire Virgo Cluster. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

  12. Re:Wormholes + a flat universe on The Disappearing Universe · · Score: 1

    The further you zoom out, the flatter everything appears in relation to everything else (globally flat). If you zoom way in, you can find numerous examples of arrangements across all three dimensions (locally non-flat).

    Even if gravity is unlimited and radiates volumetricly, as you zoom out, there is no matter/energy for the gravity along the Z-axis to exert itself upon. And remember, you can still compare infinite sequences. One can state gravity is much stronger along the X-axis and Y-axis than the Z-axis, even though all three are infinite. This is because the gravity-emanators, mass, are globally arranged flat. Therefore, in a twist of the meaning "flat", gravity, and the mass-having universe it lives in, is globally flat, too.

  13. Nope on Goodbye, Ctrl-S · · Score: 1

    My XBox 360 had an autosave to cloud function. Only then that copy became corrupt. There were no other cloud copies. I had to start the game all over again after putting in many, many hours. I learned to periodically rotate between save multiple checkpoints to disk and periodically save to cloud.

  14. Transportation Hazards on Dump World's Nuclear Waste In Australia, Says Ex-PM Hawke · · Score: 4, Informative

    The problem is getting it safely to central Australia in the first place. Lots of disasters can happen en route. The same resistance is found in the USA. People near railroads and interstates that will transport waste to American deserts are nervous.

  15. Re:octanal on How the Emerging Science of Proteotronics Will Change Electronics · · Score: 1

    Some Human Centipede terminology.

  16. Re:Common sense on Data Mining Shows How Down-Voting Leads To Vicious Circle of Negative Feedback · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't Feed the Trolls means don't engage them will novel comments you crafted yourself. The impersonal act of downvoting without comment doesn't fit in their diet.

    The researchers are really bad at establishing causation. People who generate content awful enough that others actually bother to make the clicks to Downvote ... are more likely to make inferior content again in the future. It's because they suck at critical thinking and/or writing. No combination or up or down voting will magically bestow these skills upon them. The "shame" of being downvoted in a non-personal way is not enough behavioral impetus to motivate someone to acquire skills (to do better "next time.")

  17. It's The Lawyers, Stupid on Autonomous Car Ethics: If a Crash Is Unavoidable, What Does It Hit? · · Score: 1

    "Whatever answer to an ethical dilemma the car industry might lean towards will not be satisfying to everyone."

    Everyone being satisfied is inconsequential. What is satisfying to the lawyers is everything. Laws will need to be passed giving exemption to autonomous cars choosing to crash into what the law predetermined to be the right choice.

    If The People later decide those predetermined choices to be unsatisfactory, they have to battle it out in Congress, not in the courtroom and not in pleas to auto manufacturers.

  18. Virtual Representatives on Open Source Program To Give Voters More Active Role In Government · · Score: 1

    The entire House of Representatives can be completely replaced by virtual entities. Each entity unconditionally votes according to the majority of its voting constituents. It's like an electoral college where each constituency is reduced to a single vote, yet without any human electors who could vote contrary to the majority opinion.

    All bills introduced by the House are drafted by volunteers. Any citizen can volunteer. When enough citizens upvote a proposal, the bill automatically goes up for vote.

  19. Lamepocalypse on The Upcoming Windows 8.1 Apocalypse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As far as apocalypses go, that's one lame-sounding apocalypse.

  20. Re:Someone doesn't understand devops. on How 'DevOps' Is Killing the Developer · · Score: 1

    Awesome quote! I will attribute you, russotto!

  21. For the Swarm! on The Graffiti Drone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I will be more impressed by a dozens of drones simultaneously spraying, crossing streams to make more colors.

  22. Backdoor to Woe-land on Your Car Will Tell You How To Hit the Next Green Light · · Score: 0

    Until that ambulance, fire truck, or police cruiser comes by, spontaneously changing the light.

  23. Whew! Live-viewing with a special analog, optical "periscope" is still permissible!

  24. Except It Doesn't on Computer Program Allows the Blind To "See" With Sound · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This does not change how we think of the brain. We've know for decades from synesthesia that sensory cortices have no choice but to process any inputs they receive.

  25. WTO will prevail, unfortunately on Visual Effects Artists Use MPAA's Own Words Against It · · Score: 2

    If the MPAA loses here, they'll just appeal to the WTO to override US law. If the US doesn't comply, the WTO will slap even bigger penalties at the US.