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User: Defenestrar

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  1. Re:Of course... on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Efficiency can be easy - we just need to build a Dyson sphere.

  2. Re:At least the infrastructure is in place on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 1

    If you're trying to heat the building - not so much. If the panels are in contact with the building - not then either - they tend to capture a lot of heat. If you get them far enough away that outside air removes the heat - then shade may help.

  3. Re:Feed 250 hungry people, or 20 Americans on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 1

    I know a guy in Alaska who uses solar for all of his power needs during the summer. So if that farmland sale doesn't pan out - you can try to sell off the land for power generation - because that'll be equally suitable too (year round).

    ;)

  4. Re:Feed 250 hungry people, or 20 Americans on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 1

    There are a number of ways to quantify the impact of one's decision, and by many measures (e.g. greenhouse gas produced by commute to work, & etc...) I'm sure the ratio is even further from unity.

  5. Re:Obligatoriness Extraordinaire on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 0

    Can the sun realistically power data centers? Excepting for the regions which burn primordial elements - it's powering all data centers today.

  6. Re:What's the UTF-8 encoding of THAT? on Password Security: Why the Horse Battery Staple Is Not Correct · · Score: 1

    And if your passwords support Unicode 7, all you got to do is throw in that one to give your opinion to the brute forcers. With respect to passwords, it seems to me that software/touchscreen (non Windows) keyboards have led to the greatest decrease in available password security in recent times on an entropy basis. (i.e. it's no longer trivial to include extended ASCII or unicode characters).

  7. Re:All Judges on National Security Letter Issuance Likely Headed To Supreme Court · · Score: 2

    I don't take much issue with the first part of your assessment, but you might want to take a look at the last eight or so years of SCOTUS vs DOJ. It's not exactly one sided.

  8. Re:Not going to SCOTUS on National Security Letter Issuance Likely Headed To Supreme Court · · Score: 2

    Um, the Supreme Court wouldn't necessarily have a compelling reason to take up the case if the 2nd and 9th are in agreement. The quickest way for this to go to the top would be for the 9th to sustain the ruling for the EFF's client and then there'd be a 9th-2nd split.

  9. Re:DOJ Oaths on National Security Letter Issuance Likely Headed To Supreme Court · · Score: 1

    Well put a bunch of Firsters on one side of the room and a bunch of Seconders on the other side and then let them do battle with their respective speech and arms and see who wins.

    There's probably a lesson or three in there. Figuring it out is above my paygrade though; that's why I'm so appreciative that this country has an independent judiciary making sure that the people with the arms aren't able to just simply apply force majeure to prevent free speech...

  10. Re: Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 1

    Ok, Mr. McCarthy - why don't we just get you and Mr. Murrow to have this conversation on the air?

  11. Re:Update to Godwin's law? on Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics · · Score: 1

    What? It's not like mob rule had anything at all to do with the downfall of the Roman Republic ;) Besides - even if it did, it took an emperor to get pax. After six civil wars inside a century, who wouldn't be ready for an imperator?

  12. Re:Direct Link to DURC on US Asks Universities To Flag Risky Pathogen Experiments · · Score: 2

    For those interested in the list but too lazy to read federal documentation (who isn't?) - here you go:

    a) Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic)

    b) Bacillus anthracis

    c) Botulinum neurotoxin

    d) Burkholderia mallei

    e) Burkholderia pseudomallei

    f) Ebola virus

    g) Foot-and-mouth disease virus

    h) Francisella tularensis

    i) Marburg virus

    j) Reconstructed 1918 Influenza virus

    k) Rinderpest virus

    l) Toxin-producing strains of Clostridium botulinum

    m) Variola major virus

    n) Variola minor virus

    o) Yersinia pestis

  13. Direct Link to DURC on US Asks Universities To Flag Risky Pathogen Experiments · · Score: 2

    Here's a direct link to the dual use research of concern (DURC) policy.

    My main concerns will be whether it's going to have a chilling effect on research; especially when it's also unclear to me whether this will have any useful impact beyond another layer of red tape. We already have IRBs, biosafety committees, and select agent lists, and I'm unsure that such a "volluntary" system of a PI tagging their own research for extra bureaucracy will make much headway before a problem occurs.

  14. Re:This is huge on Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair With Astonishing Crop Yield Breakthrough · · Score: 1

    Hmm... Now there's a possibility. Find a symbiotic gut bacteria which can render fossil fuels edible.

  15. It's Not About Predicting Technology! on Sci-fi Predictions, True and False (Video 1) · · Score: 1

    The gizmos, gadgets, and Mac Guffins are merely there to help us ponder the question of "how would the ability to do such and such impact human life/culture/civilization/etc... ?" If that question is ignored, then the story - regardless of the do-hickeys involved - belongs to another genera: perhaps adventure, fantasy, or something else. The question can be treated at the highest levels of galactic civilization and politics or at the lowest levels of an individual's life, but it is the quintessential aspect of Science Fiction.

  16. Re:For given values of education on Is Remote Instruction the Future of College? · · Score: 1

    This will still only work for middle class as long as the colleges are tied to video/teleconference systems running with the Polycom tax. There will need to be at least a moderate quality system with high reliability/usability for the lower class to be able to access from public libraries and such. Also, you might want to check you assumptions about entrepreneurs and inventors. In those cases the success of ivy league educations is probably more associated with the ability to afford ivy league education (i.e. initial capital resources) than anything else.

  17. Re:Reconcile these two sentences please. on Ode To Sound Blaster: Are Discrete Audio Cards Still Worth the Investment? · · Score: 1

    Yeah - oxygen free digital cables at that.

  18. Re:1440 wide vs 1080 wide on BlackBerry's Innovation: Square-Screened Smartphones · · Score: 5, Funny

    No no no - the pixels aren't the same because the Blackberry has true square pixels - which is the best, and the Samsung has the narrow rectangular pixels which aren't very good for spreadsheets or other business applications.

  19. Re:"Welcome to the Blackberry video rental site! . on BlackBerry's Innovation: Square-Screened Smartphones · · Score: 1

    Yeah - Blackberry is doing a great job of emulating video rental stores.

  20. Name That Show! on BlackBerry's Innovation: Square-Screened Smartphones · · Score: 1

    "1, 1, 2, 3, 5, eureka!"

  21. Re:not taking the stand on Mass. Supreme Court Says Defendant Can Be Compelled To Decrypt Data · · Score: 1

    I'm glad to hear it.

  22. Re:I lost the password on Mass. Supreme Court Says Defendant Can Be Compelled To Decrypt Data · · Score: 1

    Sorry - I made the mistake of assuming that people knew what lawful search and seizure means (i.e. a warrant except in very specific cases). In most cases judges don't hand out blanket warrants and, like you said, need to have justification more than "fishing expedition" (FISA cases aside).

  23. Re:WTF? How is this not self incrimination? on Mass. Supreme Court Says Defendant Can Be Compelled To Decrypt Data · · Score: 1

    ... The "self" has been redefined to mean: A collection of molecules that you used to be, but are not now.

    Indeed - you can't cross the same river twice (or exact aggregate quantum spin state).

  24. Re:I lost the password on Mass. Supreme Court Says Defendant Can Be Compelled To Decrypt Data · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, as the series of court rulings have gone, the Fourth Amendment does not protect you from lawful search and seizure (such as a safe or hard drive). The combination to the safe, or encryption key to the drive, is not incriminating evidence and providing it to allow for lawful search and seizure does not violate your rights. They can admit evidence produced by oneself into court (such as two sets of books in one's own handwriting for a case of fraud) and that is not a violation of the Fourth (or Fifth) - just so with information one puts on a hard drive. What they can not compel one to do is testify against oneself (which is the Fifth by the way) nor assume guilt because you do not take the stand (not that a prosecutor won't toe that line with the jury). So, if one can keep all details of a crime in one's head and manage to destroy all other evidence which could be subject to lawful search and seizure - then you've got a shot at being a criminal mastermind.

    I'm not sure I entirely agree with the line of thought - but I can certainly follow the logic as well as the precedence.

    What would be interesting is if one's pass-code was material evidence with respect to the case - but a possible way around that would be limited immunity or ruling it as inadmissible evidence...It would make for an interesting case study.

  25. Re:so incite immenent lawless action on Washington Redskins Stripped of Trademarks · · Score: 1

    You realize that the case in which "falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater" came up in the justice's opinion was overturned almost fifty years ago?

    I don't mind you bringing up the rest of your opinion, especially as there seems to be an objective trend of chilling free speech in the US, but please try not to further your argument by invoking invalidated information.