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User: tie_guy_matt

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  1. BSD is dying? on OpenBSD Looking At Funding Shortfall In 2014 · · Score: 0

    Wait, BSD IS dying? Or at least one of them is? Who knew?

  2. Next on Fox News on The True Color of Ancient Sea Creatures · · Score: 0

    Fox news now reports that because the ancient fish have such dark pigmentation, the fish are clearly from Kenya and are therefore not fit to be President of the US.

  3. Re:scilab is better but french. on GNU Octave Gets a GUI · · Score: 5, Informative

    As others have pointed out, octave runs (mostly) unmodified matlab code. Scilab doesn't. However scilab is just close enough to matlab to be really annoying if you are used to matlab. I think that is really why octave is more popular than scilab (probably doesn't have anything to do with scilab being more French but who knows.) Don't want to pay $$$$ for matlab? Install otave for free and do almost everything you would normally do with matlab w/o relearning much of anything. One thing about octave though is that the graphics aren't as nice as scilab and aren't nearly as nice as matlab. I am not to excited about the gui (even use the cli on the latest version of matlab) but hopefully this new version will make the graphics in octave more in line with the other packages.

  4. Data is probably useless on Scientific Data Disappears At Alarming Rate, 80% Lost In Two Decades · · Score: 1

    Scientific data by themselves are probably useless. So we have a bunch of numbers. What was the setup of the experiment that generated those numbers? What exactly was the instrument, what are the units of measurement? Did you make any major modifications to the instrument? How was it calibrated? Where is your control? Are those numbers from a good test or a test where someone spilled coffe on the sample? Was that data taken during one of the trials where you left the lens cap on? Reminds me of a bad sci fi movie. That disk has random "scientific data" on it. Any "scientist" should be able to read it and instantly see what is going on here.

    Your notes and documentation are probably more important than just the numbers you collect and those are often still stored on lab notebooks. You know what is really important? The journal articles and papers that you write that show all your methods and have pretty pictures showing your good data. A lot of those are still on paper so they aren't going away. So we are loosing a lot of random numbers from obsolete equipment from setups that no one remembers anymore. I am not going to loose sleep over it assuming we still have backups of the papers people published that talked about their setups and outlined their final results.

  5. Re:Concentrations on Newly Discovered Greenhouse Gas Is 7,000 Times More Powerful Than CO2 · · Score: 1

    Also people take absorption and emissivity measurements of the atmosphere in the long and mid wave IR all of the time. If this molecule really contributed that much I would think someone else would have noticed it by now. Also doesn't sound like this is new. I would have thought someone would have already mapped the vibrational and rotational energy levels of this molecule by now. I guess they are the first ones to just put two and two together and say that if the concentrations got really big then this would be a big deal. But like you said there are a lot of molecules that would be a big deal if their concentrations got big. Water, having an odd mickey mouse shape, has a lot more absorption lines through the IR than co2 does. But the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is highly variable.

  6. Re:I think... on US Treasury Completes Bailout of General Motors · · Score: 2

    It can cost up to $1-6 billion for car companies to come up with a new model ( http://translogic.aolautos.com/2010/07/27/why-does-it-cost-so-much-for-automakers-to-develop-new-models/ ) and that is what it costs if you are already a car company and are already making similar cars. If you are a company that has never made a car before then it will cost even more. A lot of foreign car companies only got started because they had help from their governments.

    Two things to keep in mind: entering into a new market is not always as easy as opening a lenonade stand, and Ayn Rand novels are shelved under fiction for a reason.

  7. Re:Too bad the Daleks won on Happy 50th Doctor Who · · Score: 1

    In later episodes they already established that some daleks survived. Besides you can't kill off all the daleks. It wouldn't be Doctor Who w/o Daleks! There are some episodes you can think about afterward. However, like most sci fi it is probably better if you just sit enjoy and realize that it is still better than most of what is on tv -- try not to think too much about it afterwards!

  8. Move the doctors up one? on Happy 50th Doctor Who · · Score: 1

    So does this mean that John Hurt is the nineth doctor and Christopher Eccleston is the tenth? Or is John Hurt the 12 doctor? Does it go by when they were introduced on the show or by the Doctor's age? Or is John Hurt not getting counted? Paul McGann was in only one episode and he counts. Actually we never saw Paul McGann turn into John Hurt and we really didn't see John Hurt turn into Christopher Eccleston (he was turning into another doctor but I guess they couldn't get Christopher Eccleston to do a cameo) so in the future could they just keep pulling out more and more past doctors? The nerd in me wants to know!

  9. self made tragedy on Imagining the Post-Antibiotic Future · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is going to be a self made tragedy.

    How many times have people gone to the doctor for a cold but the doctor gave them antibiotics almost as a placebo. How many times have people not used the entire bottle of antibiotics? Some ranchers give antibiotics to their live stock as a matter of course so that they can get fatter faster.

    Then of course after the Ronald Reagan/Margret Thatcher revolution everything has to be about profits. Well there isn't much profit in antibiotics. If you have a really good antibiotic then the medical comunity will be likely not to perscribe it. They would want to save it for the really nasty bugs. Even if it is perscribed a lot people will only get one bottle and then stop taking it after their infection goes away. The drug industry would rather come up with something like statins; that is something they can put rich people on for the rest of their lives (I am sure there are some in the industry that would rather keep giving out statins than to cure heart disease.) Don't even get me started on creationsits' heads exploding because their bacterial infections are actually evolving.

    We already have kids basically getting killed off because they picked their scabs on a minor cut and then got the wrong type of bug. Before antibiotics any little cut was a possible death sentence. Looks like if something isn't done (and I am not holding my breath) we are going to get back there sooner rather than later.

  10. Re:Wondering... on Root of Maths Genius Sought · · Score: 3, Funny

    In the US, jocks pay attention to sports while geeks pay attention to math. In the UK, jocks pay attention to sport while geeks pay attention to maths. Clearly at some point in the past US jocks beat up the geeks at took their "s."

  11. Re:Those bastards on The Chip That Changed the World: AMD's 64-bit FX-51, Ten Years Later · · Score: 0

    Is this intended to be a joke?

    Apple doesn't make processors. These days macs use intel chips. Back in the day they used to use powerpc chips made by motorola and IBM. If you go into the way-way back machine they once used m68k chips from motorola. On the iphone and such they just use ARM cpus. Then if you go all the way back to the days when Woz was making computers in his garage you will see that they used MOS 6502 chips. But they have never really been in the cpu industry.

  12. Same thing happened at the end of the silent era on The Death of the American Drive-in · · Score: 2

    Movie theaters closing because they can't afford to upgrade? Same thing happened when talkies started coming out. In the silent era all you needed was a dark room and a projector -- maybe a piano player. You could practically set up a movie theater in a big living room (assuming you could afford the projector.) But suddenly you needed an expensive sound system wired into the building. Many local theaters went out of business. There were also a lot of stars that could no longer get work. A big all American looking guy might work out great in the silent era. But when everyone figured out that he had a high squeaky voice and a foreign accent suddenly he just wasn't so popular.

  13. Correlation equals Causality on Excess Coffee May Be Linked To Early Death · · Score: 4, Funny

    Every good junk scientist knows that correlation always equals causality. I am a member of the junk scientists world club. We meet every year. Everyone flys to the west to get to our meeting so that no one will end up flying off the end of the earth. Correlation equals causality is thesis of every speach. So it can't be that people addicted to coffee might be more likely to be addicted to something else as well. If coffee is correlated to death then coffee must cause death!

  14. Re: evils of sugar on Study Ties High Blood Sugar To Dementia · · Score: 1

    There is some sugar in fruits. So there was likely a time when having seasonal fruit taste good was a good thing. However having tons of cheap refined white sugar around all year round is relatively new. Most antique sugar cabinets have locks on them. That is because sugar was rather expensive and the head of the house would only break it out for holidays and such. Of course now we get most of our sugar from high fructose corn syrup which wasn't even food before the 1970's.

  15. Re:evils of sugar on Study Ties High Blood Sugar To Dementia · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't say most of the cells in your body depend on sugar, but some need it. However we do not need to have blood sugar levels as high as most of the pre-diabetic people running around living off of the high sugar typical western diet. And in fact ketogenic diets (diets low in sugar and carbohydrates) do show promise in protecting against some forms of cancer.

  16. Re:evils of sugar on Study Ties High Blood Sugar To Dementia · · Score: 2

    I don't agree. Sugary, at least dietary sugar, isn't needed by your body at all. Your body can convert fat to ketones which most cells can use instead of sugar. Your brain and other organs might need some sugar but your body can convert protien into sugar if it really needs to. So in conclusion:

    If you do not eat any protien, you die.
    If you don't eat any fat then you don't get any fat soluble vitamns or essential omega 3 fatty acids, and you die (its called rabbit starvation.)
    If you don't eat any sugar (and restrict carbohydrates because your body will always convert carbs to sugars) then lets see. Um well your breath might smell of ketones. Umm well you might have trouble going to the bathroom since fiber is technically a carbohydrate (might want to still eat high fiber low carb veggies to prevernt that.) Other than that honestly most people just loose weight, lower their blood pressure and cholesterol, and generally feel better. Personally I lost ~50 lbs. Just saying.

  17. Re:evils of sugar on Study Ties High Blood Sugar To Dementia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Otto Heinrich Warburg won a nobel prize in the 30's for proving that cancer cells only eat sugar. So you might want to add that to your list as well.

  18. River song episode on Should the Next 'Doctor Who' Be a Woman? · · Score: 1

    I was dead set against it until I realized it would make an interesting River Song episode. Would we get an episode where that British Doctor from ER kisses another girl?

  19. Re:I've lived in a number of different US places on How Silicon Valley's Tech Reign Will End · · Score: 2

    Utah is the most religious state in the union by far. I understand that bars are actually illegel. Of course they make it really easy to become a member of the local "private club" that sells beer and looks a lot like a bar. But once you get a beer it is (or was at one point) "near" beer as full alchol beer is illegal.

    My company used to send me to field tests out there all the time. One day someone left a copy of the free alternative Salt Lake City newspaper. After reading the rag for about 1 minute it became obvious that even in Utah you can find pockets of forward thinking, progressive individuals. Any city with over 100,000 people is bound to have a section where all the hip people hang out.

    The only place I know of where people might ask you about your church is in the South. And even there it is usually a getting to know you type of question and not a why don't you pray to my sky bully type of question.

  20. Their system really worked on The Billion Dollar Startup: Inside Obama's Campaign Tech · · Score: 1

    I moved from MD (blue state) to PA (toss up to somewhat blue state) right before the election. The DNC knew that we are all registered democrats, and that we had just moved. They sent one person to our house to ask if we were registered in our new state and if we needed help getting to the polls. We said that we were registered and everything was fine so they didn't bother us again. They took their money and resources somewhere else.

    The RNC didn't bother us at all -- at first. Early polls showed mit that PA would be a lost cause, so both parties took their money to other states. But then later the RNC actually thought they would win Ohio ... because well they can't add and as we all know science and math have a well known liberal bias. So despite the fact that there is no way we would ever even consider voting for romney they sent in robo call after robo call after robo call. We got calls from Mit, Mit's wife, Clint Eastwood, basically every republican they could think of. Later we learned that they were so sure they would win Ohio that they wanted PA too just to make their margin or victory that much bigger.

    Of course on election night we learned that not only were the RNC going to lose Ohio and PA but that Obama had such an electoral college landslide that even those two states didn't matter. The DNC kept the senate and the only reason the RNC kept the house was because republican goveners had screwed up the districts so much that 1 million more votes for democrats still wasn't enough to win the house. The best part was watching Karl Rove argue with the math department at Faux News over their projected results for Ohio. No Karl, they were using real math not republican math.

  21. Price keeps going up on 2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In US · · Score: 1

    In the short term the price of gas goes up and down. However in the long term the price of gas goes up and up. It is almost like oil is a non-renewable resource or something. Nah that is crazy commy talk.

  22. Re:It's not so great (yet) on Implant Gives Grayscale Vision To the Blind Using Lasers · · Score: 1

    When humans view stuff their eyes constantly move. The brain stitches all the images together to get a great view of whats going on. The human eye really isn't that great of a camera but it is connected to the greatest image processing software in the universe. Since the sensor implants directly into the optic nerve I bet the human brain can make the most of the sensor and people with the implant can see better than you think.

  23. Re:Virgin LG Optimus V on Smartphones Invade the Prepaid Market · · Score: 1

    My wife is the queen of finding online bargins. She got the same phone for (I think) like $50. I realize that I am almost never anywhere that doesn't have wifi. So I don't even pay the $30 a month. Never activated! I guess if I am not in a wifi hotpot then I don't have signal. If I know I will be somewhere w/o wifi for a while (on vacation or something) I can always pay $30 for one month then drop the service. I do need a phone though so I got a non-smart virgin phone in order to get their cheapo non data plan. I think I pay like $20 every few months. Not a lot of minutes but still more than I usually use. I guess if I wanted an even cheaper plan I could get skype on my optimus. The only problem would be that if I am not at a wifi hotspot then I wouldn't have cell coverage. Anyway, is it me or are most phone plans in the US insanely expensive?

  24. Wide Screen format on Beyond HDTV · · Score: 1

    The original NTSC format matched the aspect ratio of movies at the time. Movie studios wanted to differentiate themselves from tv so they switched to a wide screen format. With HDTV tv's again switched to the aspect ratio of movies at the time. The movie studios then decided to switch to even wider screen format to compete with HDTV.

    You all realize where this is going. If they keep coming out with new wider screen tv formats, with movie studios making even wider screen formats, eventually we will be watching TV so wide that it will be a million pixels wide but only one pixel high.

  25. Re:I like my Turbo Diesel on CEO Confirms Chevy To Sell Diesel Cruze In US · · Score: 1

    I like diesels too because of their mileage. However people always toss out that "engine will last longer" line, and I am sorry but I just don't buy it.

    Are diesel engines heavier and better built than gas engines? Of course. But they do that because if you ran a gas engine at the same compression ratio as a diesel engine the lighter gas engine would explode. They make the engine heavier because they have to, and since the main selling point is mileage they still only make the diesel engines as heavy as they have to be.

    Do you need to worry about spark plugs or an ignition system on a diesel? No! But guess what, who the hell cares? Most modern cars have spark plugs that are designed to last 100,000 miles. They are really cheap to replace (a few dollars each) and even in today's modern cars you can easily replace a spark plug with just a few simple hand tools. It is not like modern gas cars have points that need to be gapped like older gas cars. Today's modern electronic ignition systems are extremely reliable. And the complications diesels loose in the ignition system they more than make up for in their fuel injection system. When it gets cold diesel fuel become like Jello, and diesels need to inject that fuel under high pressure into the cylinders about as fast as a gas car puts a spark on the spark plug.

    But let us humor you and assume that diesel engines do last longer. I would still say, who cares? I usually get rid of older cars because they start nickel and diming you to death. The brake lines start to rust, the shocks and struts wear out, seals crack, etc., etc.. None of these cost too much to fix but when you add up all of the repairs you will make on an older car over the course of a year, a new car payment suddenly doesn't seem so expensive. As all diesel cars on the market are simply gas cars with the gas engine removed and the diesel engines stuck in, just about all the little things that will brake on an older gas car will also go wrong on an older diesel. Just because something is more expensive doesn't always mean it will last longer.

    So yes diesels get you hybrid like mileage with much older and more established technology. Plus they can use biodiesel or maybe even straight veggy oil (which is cool!) But don't try to sell anyone on the reliability of a diesel car, because I think you are skating on thin ice there. Fact is if you take care of just about any car it can last 250,000 miles or more. Long enough for the safety equipment to become so old that you are driving a death trap compared to newer cars.