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User: Beryllium+Sphere(tm)

Beryllium+Sphere(tm)'s activity in the archive.

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  1. Meta-engineering on Is OpenStack the New Linux? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a general rule, the only way to build something large and complex that works is to grow it from something small and simple that works.

  2. Re:Bomb strapped to a bomb? on Boeing Hydrogen Powered Drone First Flight · · Score: 1

    -The article is crystal clear that the fuel is liquid hydrogen.
    -Is there a single case of someone using supercritical hydrogen above cryo temperatures?

  3. Re:Fan death on South Korea Surrenders To Creationist Demands On Evolution Textbooks · · Score: 1
  4. Re:Bomb strapped to a bomb? on Boeing Hydrogen Powered Drone First Flight · · Score: 0

    Hydrogen cannot be kept liquid at room temperature, or indeed above 33 Kelvin.

  5. Tutoring on Ask Slashdot: What To Do With a Math Degree? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are families who value education and aren't satisfied with schools.

  6. Re:What's the robot for? on Japan Readies Robot For Work At Crippled Nuclear Reactor · · Score: 1

    The maneuverability on non-level and obstacle-covered surfaces may open more areas to inspection. That was the capability they emphasized.

  7. Re:To stop being sexist, stop being sexist on The Shortage of Women In IT · · Score: 1

    >If women want to work there, they can and will.

    It's instructive to converse with or read the accounts of women who have computer industry jobs.

  8. Re:Bullshit. on The Shortage of Women In IT · · Score: 1

    Would you agree that the IT industry is hurting for competent people?

    If so, then shouldn't we make sure the talent pool is as wide as possible?

  9. Re:Genetics probably does play a role on The Shortage of Women In IT · · Score: 1

    That's a fascinating question. Let's find the answer. First step will be to fix the social problems so we can examine any underlying genetics.

    The social problems are not always as obvious as they used to be, but are still pushing bright, motivated women out of computer-related curricula. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Unlocking-the-Clubhouse/Jane-Margolis/e/9780262632690

    Besides the issue of social justice, I enjoy working with bright, motivated people and anything that reduces the supply of them deprives me of that pleasure.

  10. Re:What nonsense units. on Germany Sets New Solar Power Record · · Score: 1

    The unit of "flow" (energy per time) is watts. Not watt-hours (that would be a unit of energy), not watts per hour (not sure what that would be).

  11. Futile on Ask Slashdot: Why Not Linux For Security? · · Score: 1

    If it has a browser, and has Flash or Adobe PDF plugins, it's vulnerable.

    Software repositories free of spyware are a boon, but any corporate system is likely to be locked down anyway so users can't install software.

    Linux desktops do benefit from being a smaller target. That's a fragile kind of protection that I'd hate to call "security", but as one friend of mine put it, "I'll take that!"

  12. Re:Is "tactical nuclear weapon" a bad word now? on Sidestepping Tactical Nuclear Weapons Limits With Strategic Bombs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Notice the mention of a 50-kiloton threshold for being "tactical", when bombs in the 15-20 kiloton range had strategic effects in 1945.

  13. Re:XKCD on Your Passwords Don't Suck — It's Your Policies · · Score: 2

    The OED Second Edition contains entries for 171,476 words.

    If you choose at random from the complete set, there are 8.6E20 possible four-word passphrases.

    This is enough to rule out brute-forcing. But notice of course that both assumptions are critical. An average person doesn't have a 171,476 word vocabulary and humans can't make genuinely random choices.

    I recommend the Diceware system: a list of 6^5 short words, from which you select each word of your passphrase by rolling five dice.

    All of which addresses the wrong problem. Online guessing can be suppressed with rate limits on login attempts. Offline guessing is greatly hindered by adequate salting of the hashes. Today's most dangerous threat is phishing (well, that and password reuse, but that's a related problem).

  14. Re:Federalism on Geeks In the Public Forum? · · Score: 1

    >mandatory levies by the federal government on the states

    The Federalist Papers discussed this idea.

    Taxation depends on coercion, by definition. You can coerce an individual with a few police officers and little or no disruption of the peace.

    Coercing a state requires a civil war. Ghastly.

  15. Evidence-based thinking on Geeks In the Public Forum? · · Score: 1

    It's not going to happen with adults. A good educational system (I did NOT say "school system"!) would try to develop the skills to analyze an argument. It may not succeed, not with human beings.

  16. Re:Bad CEO replaced by bad CEO replaced by bad CEO on HP To Cut 30,000 Jobs · · Score: 1

    The worst? He's up against some tough competition for that title!

    HP used to hire from within, and got good results. The good people have of course been forced out, but they haven't ceased to exist. HP should recruit some veteran who practices the old HP way and has gone on to work in one of the emerging markets.

  17. Re:Any engine technicians around to translate? on Diesel-Like Engine Could Boost Fuel Economy By 50% · · Score: 1

    Oh, it would ignite all right. The problem they have to overcome is that gasoline under those conditions detonates instead of smoothly burning.

  18. Re:From a buffoon on Diesel-Like Engine Could Boost Fuel Economy By 50% · · Score: 1

    The key efficiency gain of a diesel is from its higher compression ratio.

    The Atkinson cycle in a Prius engine gives you the diesel's advantage of a long power stroke with high expansion, without the design constraints that come with high compression.

  19. Applications on Japanese Researchers Transmit 3Gbps Using Terahertz Frequencies · · Score: 1

    Media center interconnects. Large rooms, e.g. event centers.

  20. Freedom and safety on Americans More Worried About Cybersecurity Than Terrorism · · Score: 1

    >I'll take my chances and have my freedom back!

    As will I, along with everyone else who adheres to the ideas on which America was founded.

    But don't get trapped into thinking in the enemy's terms. Freedom and safety are not a tradeoff. It is more dangerous to live in North Korea than it is to live in a free country. Even a small non-free regime such as Pol Pot's equaled between 300 and 1,000 9/11s.

  21. Re:Fearmongering? on Americans More Worried About Cybersecurity Than Terrorism · · Score: 1

    To make that comparison, you have to quantify the value of a human life. Rich societies seem to be willing to spend one or two million dollars to save a human life. Multiply that by the number of lives lost to terrorism, and you can compare that to losses from computer crime.

    Computer crime wins by a huge margin.

  22. Education, cost and need on Americans More Worried About Cybersecurity Than Terrorism · · Score: 2

    "'Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life - save only this - if you work hard and diligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education."
    --John Alexander Smith, Oxford professor of moral philosophy.

    That ability doesn't necessarily cost money to acquire, which is fortunate, because in an era of Internet, talk radio, and cable "news", it is indispensable and vital.

  23. Re:Worse? on Forbes Names Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Worst CEO · · Score: 1

    Carly Fiorina is one of the reasons I dropped my Forbes subscription. They praised her in terms so glowing that they might have come verbatim from her publicity machine. They even gave her credit for financial results that happened when she was already out of office.

  24. Re:Duh? on Finland: Open WiFi Access Point Owner Not Liable For Infringement · · Score: 1

    More like blaming a property owner when the tenants build a meth lab. And the property owner knew that meth cookers were a local problem. And the property owner let just anyone move in without knowing who they were.

    I *want* open hotspots, but the legal issues are real.

  25. Re:Easy solution on Ask Slashdot: How To Secure My Life-In-A-Briefcase? · · Score: 1

    Either you're aware of your surroundings or you're not.

    If you are, then there are only a few situations where the briefcase could walk away, many of which the .45 wouldn't help with.

    If you're not, then absolutely do not carry a deadly weapon.