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User: beanyk

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Comments · 171

  1. Re:Kids these days? on Android Software Piracy Rampant · · Score: 1

    Let's also not forget that there's no way to "return" an app or even to politely ask for your money back. If the app doesn't work, you're screwed.

    According to Androd Market, you can return the app for a refund within 24 hours:

    http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134336

    Does this not work for you?

    (I'm just parroting the link given a few posts above -- I haven't tried this myself)

  2. Re:Highly political subjects? on Peer Review Highly Sensitive To Poor Refereeing · · Score: 1

    All the physics articles I've been asked to referee so far have appeared on the arXiv (http://arxiv.org/) already. They tend to be submitted to arXiv and the target journal at the same time. There's a good chance I'd be familiar with the paper by the time the journal came knocking with a referee request.

  3. Re:That's what I love about Conservatives on Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists · · Score: 1

    Makes me think we should eliminate names and parties from ballots altogether and simply have a 100 question questionnaire that you simply select 1 to 5 for or against, and weight how important that issue is to you and then the system matches your answer to the candidate who most closely matches your choices, and counts your vote for them. Never happen of course since it'd gut the power of the current parties and we might actually get people in there who represent what the people truly want, but hey, I can dream...

    That only works if the candidates actually really -believe- in their own stated policies, and moreover, actually -act- on them when in power. There's not much point in matching voters' preferences to lies.

  4. Re:Owned by Warner Music Group now though on AU Band Men At Work Owes Royalties On 'Kookaburra' · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, it's still wrong.

    "Recoup" is a transitive verb, "recuperate" is intransitive. You can't "recuperate" losses or an investment or anything.

  5. Re:Cretin != Cretan on Science Historian Deciphers Plato's Code · · Score: 4, Informative

    Your link is to a subscription service. More accessible (though not as impressive) is the dictionary.com definition:

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cretin

  6. Re:what a douchebag on India Attempts To Derail ACTA · · Score: 1

    It may be in the poor country's interest to ignore IP laws to save lives now, but that doesn't make the GP wrong. The cost of depriving pharmaceutical companies of profits -today- may be fewer improved drugs -tomorrow-.

    Sure you can treat HIV/AIDS with drug cocktails now, but you can't -cure- it. And without lots more research -- paid for by those huge profits -- perhaps we'll never see a cure.

  7. Re:Premature on Mozilla Puts Tiger Out To Pasture · · Score: 1

    According to the Apple website, it's $30 ONLY if you already have Leopard (10.5). Otherwise you have to buy the snow Leopard "Box Set" for $170.

  8. Re:Premature on Mozilla Puts Tiger Out To Pasture · · Score: 1

    It's only $30 if she's already running Leopard (10.5). If she's on Tiger (10.4), it's no longer considered an upgrade and will cost $170.

  9. Re:Oh, no... on Students Failing Because of Poor Grammar · · Score: 1

    The UK stand alone in world with its absurd ban on driving lessons on motorways.

    No, it has Ireland for company (as in so many things). Or it did when I was learning to drive, anyway.

  10. Re:Latin Grammar Police on Metadata In Arizona Public Records Can't Be Withheld · · Score: 1

    Also, a real second-declension neuter noun in Latin would use a singular verb, even when it is plural. So applying Latin-like rules to English, "data is" is still correct.

  11. Re:A little early on The Kindle Killer Arrives · · Score: 1

    Now the iPod is like Kleenex or Hoover - the generic name for all players.

    Not yet with people I talk to (in the Washington DC metro area). For them iPod is still very specifically an Apple device. I hear "MP3 player" much more often when people aren't actually talking about the Apple product.

    Only a very small sample, obviously.

  12. Re:Transformers was ruined on Astro Boy Director Speaks · · Score: 1

    Yes, but there's more to violence than guns. Rocks, baseball bats, fists, boots ...

    (and a small percentage of 7-year-olds do seem to be able to get at their parents' guns)

  13. Re:Transformers was ruined on Astro Boy Director Speaks · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... and, um, violence?

  14. A complementary approach on A Galaxy-Sized Observatory For Gravitational Waves · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just wanted to point out that the pulsar timing array approach will cover a completely different frequency range (~ 10^-9 to 10^-7 Hz) to existing ground-based detectors (LIGO, Virgo and friends), which operate in the 10^1 to 10^4 Hz range. In between are projects like LISA (http://lisa.jpl.nasa.gov/).

    The different frequency ranges mean different astrophysical sources of gravitational waves; generally speaking, the more massive the system, the lower the GW frequency. LISA, for instance, would see the radiation produced by the supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies, while the other detectors would be targetting much smaller systems.

  15. Re:Who is hitting it that hard? on Twitter Offline Due To DDoS · · Score: 1

    I disagree, unless "segway" means anything apart from the Jeff Bezos creation.

    "Segue" is pronounced "segway", and is almost certainly what the product name was evoking.

  16. "Smitten", not "smote" on 14-Year-Old Boy Smote By Meteorite · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... unless the boy as doing the smiting.

  17. Re:Their Real problem... on Lawsuit Says Google's Sale of Keywords Is Illegal · · Score: 2, Funny

    I dunno ... perhaps you should check out one of their competitors' ads to find out.

  18. Re:Nah, I call BS on Hundreds of Black Holes Roam Loose In Milky Way · · Score: 1

    At what speed do they need to spin in order for them not to collapse?

    All current research seems to indicate that eventually -all- orbiting BHs will merge eventually, regardless of spin. When the holes are large and aligned with the orbital angular momentum, it will -delay- merger: the system has to radiate more angular momentum before it can collapse.

    One of the first numerical relativity papers to demonstrate this effect can be found here: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/0604012

  19. Re:Nah, I call BS on Hundreds of Black Holes Roam Loose In Milky Way · · Score: 1

    Can I assume that the difference between the mass of the product hole and the sum of the masses of the two predecessor holes is released as energy?

    Yes; the mass difference is radiated as gravitational waves.

    Also, a wilder question: when the two event horizons come into contact, is it possible for a "bubble" to form for a short time between them which is cut off from the rest of space-time by the two event horizons, but is not technically within either - sort of a Chandrasekharian Kaliningrad?

    I'm not absolutely sure, but I haven't seen results from any simulation that hasn't maintained a "simply connected" (i.e. no strange disconnected regions) common horizon.

  20. Re:Nah, I call BS on Hundreds of Black Holes Roam Loose In Milky Way · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well for one thing, the "time moving slowly" thing is an observer-dependent effect. If you were the one falling into the hole, you wouldn't notice any real time lag at all [depending on the size of the hole -- and your personal oxygen supply, etc -- you might even survive crossing the horizon].

    But to a distant observer, your progress would look more and more gradual. Signals leaving you would also get more and more red-shifted, and eventually pass out of the visible spectrum. So a distant observer would never see you cross the horizon.

  21. Re:Nah, I call BS on Hundreds of Black Holes Roam Loose In Milky Way · · Score: 5, Informative

    What happens when two black holes actually intersect at their event horizons? Inquiring non-astrophysicists would like to know.

    They merge into one bigger hole. The final hole mass will be (almost) the sum of the two masses, and will likely have a significant spin, even if the pre-merger holes don't.

    Disclaimer: this is actually my area of research.

  22. mental fllexibility on Google To Remove "Inappropriate" Books From Digital Library · · Score: 4, Funny

    A group of authors, including Philip K. Dick's estate, has tried to delay the settlement for four more months until they get their minds around the issue.

    I'd have thought that anyone related to Philip K. Dick would be able to wrap their mind around -anything-.

  23. "Reins" fer chrissake on Sink Your Balls Quickly With Pool-Cue Robots · · Score: 2, Informative

    In order to keep tight reins on the mechatronic ball handlers' movements

    ...

  24. "Flout", not "flaunt" on Sun's Phipps Slams App Engine's Java Support · · Score: 3, Funny

    Grr.

  25. "Confers", not "conveys" on New CyberSecurity Bill Raises Privacy Questions · · Score: 1

    'Nuff said.