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User: SJHillman

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Comments · 3,106

  1. Re:From the pdf... on NASA Tests Microwave Space Drive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The best part of science is when we expect X to happen, but we get Y instead. And the very best of that is when X = nothing.

  2. Re:free electricity! on NASA Tests Microwave Space Drive · · Score: 2

    It is possible to generate electricity without expendable fuel, whereas our current methods of chemical propulsion *must* use expendable fuel. Unless your religion doesn't believe in solar panels?

  3. Re:Can you hear me now? on Deaf Advocacy Groups To Verizon: Don't Kill Net Neutrality On Our Behalf · · Score: 1

    There's plenty of politicians who will do whatever it takes to benefit the dead. For some of them, it's their core voter group.

  4. Re:Can you hear me now? on Deaf Advocacy Groups To Verizon: Don't Kill Net Neutrality On Our Behalf · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, but the blind never saw it coming and the deaf just don't want to hear about it.

  5. Re:$1M? on Google Offers a Million Bucks For a Better Inverter · · Score: 1

    Developing a working prototype and developing a commercially-feasible product are two different things. You could conceivably meet the requirements of this, but by using components or techniques that are not commercially feasible due to cost, safety, or other issues. However, it would be a big step in the direction towards doing such a thing. Google is paying for you to help make that step... not necessarily to develop a device that's worth commercializing.

  6. Re:Solar power? on Google Offers a Million Bucks For a Better Inverter · · Score: 1

    "if you want a solar-powered Chromebook"

    I'm a little confused... why would you convert dc to ac, only to convert it back to dc for the computer to use? If it's a dedicated power source for one device, wouldn't it make more sense to keep it dc?

  7. Re:Don't buy cheap android on Why My LG Optimus Cellphone Is Worse Than It's Supposed To Be · · Score: 1

    I have an LG Optimus F3 from Virgin, and before that was an LG Optimus Slider, also Virgin. Although they're a tad underpowered and the Slider froze up once in a while (every few months), I've had no gripes with them. Considering the F3 was $60, I'm pretty goddamned happy with what it can do. The closest thing I've seen to a bug with the Optimus F3 is that GPS will sometimes freeze if I'm also using music, texting and bluetooth all at the same time, but that's more likely to be a performance thing. Again, for the price, perfectly acceptable. There's nothing wrong with cheap android phones as long as you use them for their intended tasks. You don't buy a Honda Civic and then complain that it can't tow your 30 foot party boat.

  8. Re:Simple solution: Make those responsible pay on Breaches Exposed 22.8 Million Personal Records of New Yorkers · · Score: 1

    The problem is what happens when it's a government breach? Have taxpayers fine themselves?

  9. Re:In ... the New Your State? on Breaches Exposed 22.8 Million Personal Records of New Yorkers · · Score: 2

    It stopped being our state a long time ago.

  10. Re:Need a EULA for video on Court Rejects Fox's Attempt to Use Aereo Ruling Against Dish's Hopper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " insert a screen before every show"

    Don't be silly. They'd insert the screen right over the damned show.

  11. Re:Bitcoin isn't money but it's still a financial on Judge Shoots Down "Bitcoin Isn't Money" Argument In Silk Road Trial · · Score: 0

    But what about that ATM slot on the front of my computer?

  12. Terror on UK Computing Student Jailed After Failing To Hand Over Crypto Keys · · Score: 5, Funny

    "He's also accused of trolling on Facebook."

    If that doesn't spell out terrorist, I don't know what does.

  13. Sucks on TSA Prohibits Taking Discharged Electronic Devices Onto Planes · · Score: 2

    I can see this sucking for people who kill their battery browsing Slashdot while waiting for their flight.

  14. Re:Audible warning on Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature · · Score: 1

    "other" would have been fine. Hell, it's even fewer letters than "regular".

  15. Re:Audible warning on Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature · · Score: 1

    It strongly implies that a disability is the only thing that determines if a person regular/normal. Otherwise it would be acceptable to say "black people or regular folks"... which most people would agree isn't generally acceptable even if non-blacks are the majority. The easiest, simplest and best way would be to just say "other" folks. It acknowledges that disabled people are in a separate group without implying that a disability puts them in a completely separate category from regular or normal people. I don't take offense because the poster obviously didn't mean it like that, but it's still a very rude way of phrasing something. In general, if you can't replace a group with "black people" without sounding racist, you should probably reconsider how you phrased something.

  16. Re:Audible warning on Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature · · Score: 1

    " for regular folks"

    Was not aware that I wasn't a regular folk. You learn something new every day.

  17. Re:What I've seen at some intersections... on Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature · · Score: 1

    What happens, with the ones I've paid attention to, is that when the timer gets to 0 (or the hand stops flashing if it's one of those lights), the light turns from green to yellow, so the delay is the time of the yellow light, plus the slight delay in which lights in both directions are red before the other direction turns green.

    Sadly, there are a lot of behaviors that driver's *should* learn. Such as noticing lights from cars coming the other way on trees/houses when driving at night, or how to handle high beams from opposing traffic.

  18. Re:Libertarian nirvana on Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They're Private Corporations, Immune To Oversight · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, he never said that he was a Libertarian.

  19. Re:Yes, let's tax the poor on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    A few years back, I worked for a company that did a lot of deliveries. All of our vans and two of our smaller box trucks were regular unleaded; only our larger box trucks were diesel. Most small businesses that don't deal in large goods use vans running on gasoline. UPS and FedEx may use all diesel, but they're not the only ones doing deliveries.

  20. Re:make it a percentage! on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    As much as it would suck because it would mean paying more all along, it would make more sense. There's a lot of things in which percentages would make more sense, but the government opts for absolute values - various taxes, minimum wage, etc

  21. Re:Not the answer to the problem on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    The problem is where exactly do you draw that line? If I drive my car across the state border to buy cheaper booze, then everything from my driveway to the store parking lot and back is "directly involved" in interstate commerce.

  22. Re:Yes, let's tax the poor on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    Or have anything delivered to you. Or use the postal service. Or pay taxes...

  23. Re:Durability? on Is It Really GPS If It Doesn't Use Satellites? · · Score: 1

    Satellite frequencies range from 1176.45 MHz for the L5 band to 1575.42 MHz for the L1 band, although it looks like only L1 and L2 (1227.60 MHz) are really used for the actual positioning. But then I saw a bunch of math I didn't understand, so I skipped to Wikipedia's Submarine Navigation page and it lists GPS as "Surface and Near-Surface", which is described as no more than periscope depth.

  24. Re:Does it give you a position on the globe? on Is It Really GPS If It Doesn't Use Satellites? · · Score: 1

    But when expanded, it retains the capital letters. Which denotes a proper noun (name of the system). Unlike you're IMU example.

  25. Re:Does it give you a position on the globe? on Is It Really GPS If It Doesn't Use Satellites? · · Score: 1

    If you think humans are the unreliable thing, you've never met my Magellan. Half the time, I couldn't use it to circumnavigate a town.