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User: dex22

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Comments · 192

  1. Re:People with artificial lenses can already see U on UW Scientists, Biotech Firm May Have Cure For Colorblindness · · Score: 5, Interesting

    During WWII this was used to advantage by the British. They would use UV lights to flash signals then have somebody at each location who had their lens removed due to cataracts and who could see the UV, which was completely invisible to the healthy Germans that had passed the German medical. This way, they could invisibly pass messages ship to shore and vice versa.

  2. Re:caesium137 has an approx 30yr half-life on Fukushima Radiation Nears California Coast, Judged Harmless · · Score: 2

    350,000 curies x 0.0114 gram Cs-137/curie = 3980 grams (4 kg) – of Cs-137. It decays by beta emission which in water is quickly absorbed; typically within 10mm - 15mm.

    But don't let a good scare story go to waste.

  3. Re:Huh? on GNOME Project Seeks Donations For Trademark Battle With Groupon · · Score: 1

    Gnome's trademark includes software services involving databases and spreadsheets. How does a point of sale system work if it doesn't have some kind of database or spreadsheet to track sales, stock, etc? Further, Gnome's trademark covers software consulting. Are you suggesting Groupon would not consult with buyers of their PoS about configuration, ideal settings, etc?

  4. Re:That was a near miss on Court Order: Butterfly Labs Bitcoins To Be Sold · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I bought one of these. It took a VERY long time to arrive, and only worked for a few weeks. I contacted them for warranty repair and they simply never responded after that. I am out around $3000.

    I'm not a fool or idiot. When I ordered, the marketplace was quite simple and they were the most promising option. It was only after most of us placed our orders with BFL that the trend in the market for pre-orders (and incredibly late deliveries) began, took shape and gained meaning as a deal-breaker.

    The current bad actor in this is Black Arrow - and their reseller, MinerSource. They are 9 months behind on delivering Prospero X1s, and if you call or write, they tell you, "you can cancel your order, but there are no refunds. Here's a link to our non-existant terms you agreed to, which did not exist at the time."

  5. Re:That almost smells like... on Mining iPhones and iCloud For Data With Forensic Tools · · Score: 1

    Indeed.

    It seems contrary of us as an audience to find so much difficulty with solving these problems. Yet at the same time we're roundly condemn Apple for their solution that has, so far, worked for over 99.999% of users. It's easy for us to throw stones, but when we look at what they have done and how they can improve it, it turns into a scrappy brawl of slashdottian proportions. :)

    As a peanut gallery, we are a tough crowd ;)

  6. Re:That almost smells like... on Mining iPhones and iCloud For Data With Forensic Tools · · Score: 2

    If they abstract the fingertip so there's a granular range of maybe 10,000 possibilities, it would have the same security as a 4 digit pin and an attacker would only have a 1:10,000 chance per attempt of hacking the fingerprint. That's within the realm of being anonymous enough to not exclusively identify, yet difficult enough to not easily reproduce. It's also a course enough granulation that a person can achieve the same result with their same fingerprint on a new phone.

    It looks like we're in violent agreement ;)

  7. Re:That almost smells like... on Mining iPhones and iCloud For Data With Forensic Tools · · Score: 2

    Yes, but you do still have the same fingertip. Unless you're worried about the common case of losing your phone and your fingertip at the same time.

  8. Live there? on Willow Garage Founder Scott Hassan Aims To Build a Startup Village · · Score: 1

    Live there? I offer to move there and help set it up! :)

  9. Re:This probably ignores cost of decommissioning on Brookings Study Calls Solar, Wind Power the Most Expensive Fossil Alternatives · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you read the article and linked information, you'd know they included decommissioning costs, plus costs related to accidents and insurance costs. Also, many nuclear power stations have been fully decommissioned. A surprising number of them are now greenfield sites in the US.

  10. Re:Democrats voted on House Majority Leader Defeated In Primary · · Score: 1

    If I might be so bold, bring a suit if you think you're not getting "equal protection under the law"...

  11. Constructive approaches... on Ask Slashdot: Communication With Locked-in Syndrome Patient? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm truly sorry for what has happened.

    Many people are addressing how to communicate, but few are addressing what to communicate. At this time, your sister-in-law is tired, afraid, and a new mom. Her mental stamina is low and she is trying to heal. Making it harder, her potential to heal won't be apparent immediately, and can take several weeks or months to show.

    Let her spend time with the baby. If things go badly this may be her crowning achievement, and if things go well, this may be her greatest mental uplift giving her the energy to heal.

    Spend time listening as well as talking with her. Always give her comments to you priority over your comments to her. If her time is limited, there's much she will want to say - you have to let her get it out.

    Just take things day by day. There will be good days and bad days. Bad days can actually be good news - healing is tiring, and while her brain swelling goes down and she recovers she will be extra tired. As parts of her brain switch back on and fumble to find their mental feet, she will sometimes seem off-balance.

    Finally, given the affected area, modify your expectations of touch. Contact is important, but it should be somewhere she is connected to. If she can't move or feel her hands (which are two quite separate things) but she can move her eyelids, contact with her face might work better. Give her a say in that - she will guide you. Touch and intimacy are vital to her wellbeing.

    I hope she makes a full recovery. She may well not. Take what you can get, listen to her, and do the best you can as a family to work with what you now have.

    Congratulations on the new baby. I hope they will grow to know and enjoy their mother.

  12. Re:dreamworld on Bitcoin Thefts Surge, DDoS Hackers Take Millions · · Score: 2

    And a credit/debit card processor or bank won't do that? :)

  13. Re:dreamworld on Bitcoin Thefts Surge, DDoS Hackers Take Millions · · Score: 1

    This is exactly what BitPay does. They calculate the BTC price of your $ item, collect the BTC, convert that immediately at a known rate to $ and put it in your account.

  14. Re:Guns are good on Solid Concepts Manufactures First 3D-Printed Metal Pistol · · Score: 1

    I found this comment interesting. I'd like to have a discussion with you off-slashdot, but your email is hidden and your domain doesn't resolve. Your whois is anonymized. Contact me. :)

  15. Re:Because plastic is for pansies on Solid Concepts Manufactures First 3D-Printed Metal Pistol · · Score: 1

    That report has been thoroughly debunked. It contained statistics which were wrong, made up, and even statistics that were right! Also, the statistic was calculated 30 years ago, and the number of people who understand statistics have halved since then!

  16. Re:Doesn't matter anyway. on Oil Recovery May Have Triggered Texas Tremors · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given that fracking is a permanent change to the environment that can't be undone, EVER, I'd want to see some pretty compelling evidence that it absolutely can't cause harm, EVER, before being used widely across a bunch of different geologies.

  17. DoS? on CryptoSeal Shuts Down Consumer VPN Service To Avoid Fighting NSA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What is to stop the NSA doing a form of DoS attack on these types of services by demanding keys, and giving the services little option but to shut down?

    The effect of this is to remove secure competitors from the market and force users onto pre-compromised services.

  18. Re:Lesson #1: on Lessons From the Healthcare.gov Fiasco · · Score: 1

    I wrote a tasteful missive about the dangers of politicians of all creeds, stripes, colors. When it came time to click "submit" I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Modern politics is brought to us by the Seventh Circle of Hell. I laugh so that I do not cry.

    The first steps of progress in making things better would be if one party gained some competence, and the other turned off their Petty Hate Machine(tm). You, humble reader, can decide which party is which. Choose the one that makes you happiest and upmod accordingly ;)

  19. Bitcoin saved my home... on Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving On Bitcoins · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A few bitcoin donations helped me make my mortgage payment last month, and I have a little left over. Things are picking up but it's still really tight. I had to have emergency dental surgery (blessed wisdom teeth) too... There is a point that you reach when you're desperate that you still feel the shame of begging, but the need overwhelms it.

    I'll just leave this here: 17S6drtGpJXer6qA5V6XhP3snasGWANBjc

  20. Neat! on Russian Government Takes Over Country's 289-year Old Scientific Academy · · Score: 4, Funny

    My big take-home from this article is they have an "Institute for Information Transmission Problems" - a whole Institute just devoted to resolving poor communication.

    They really got their message out!

  21. Re: Colleague there on Boulder's Tech Workers Cope With Historic Flood · · Score: 1

    Well, it was until it got slashdotted!

  22. As an indie filmmaker... on Hollywood Studios Fuming Over Indie Studio Deal With BitTorrent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As an indie filmmaker, I understand the dilemma. Granted, I'm at the low end, and don't get to work with name actors, but the problems stay the same until you have to start worrying about territories and distribution - and this is a dispute about controlling distribution.

    If I invest, say, $20,000 of my own money in a project, I need to be reasonably confident about making at least some of that money back or I don't get to make another movie. I don't have a patron or rich lover to fund what I do, so... I have to not make consistent losses.

    Facing this reality, the main way I make money is through private showings in indie theaters, selling disks direct, and then when the economic potential of the production seems tapped out, sticking it somewhere accessible so at least it is seen by *people*.

    That doesn't really work. I don't know what else to do. I have a couple of really fun hard sci-fi ideas I'd love to develop, but the audience is hard to reach and still get paid enough to just cover my costs... Or I can participate in the conventional distribution system and be SURE of making no money.

    Unless there's some rich benefactor or wealthy single lady out there *grins* my really very specialist movies have no chance of being made or seen by a wide audience.

    Bittorrent breaks the distribution problem, but doesn't help the money problem.

  23. Re:Benchmarks don't mean much... on OCZ Launches Vector Indilinx Barefoot 3 SSD, First All In-House Design · · Score: 1

    5 years is the standard warranty on Samsung Pro SSDs like the 840 Pro....

  24. Re:Air resistance. on White House Finalizes 54.5 MPG Fuel Efficiency Standard · · Score: 1

    The new Mazda CX-5 in the US gets about 33 mpg on the highway. The new CX-5 in England gets 60mpg combined. Why is the US so far behind production EU models?

    The main difference is the US car has a pokey gasoline engine, and the EU version has a turbo diesel with more power and torque.

    Draw your own conclusions as to why this situation exists.

  25. Adaptation... on Exxon CEO: Warming Happening, But Fears Overblown · · Score: 5, Funny

    The coral reefs off Australia and New Zealand announced their Climate Transition Plans in Adelaide, Thursday. The reefs, known for their outstanding beauty and fragile ecosystems, have decided to move further south. They announced their plans, which involve a 600 mile hike, as Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO, announced plans to survey the ground they abandoned each year for new oil and gas fields.