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User: photonyx

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  1. Re:Favors? Surely You Jest! on Chinese Hack New York Times · · Score: 1

    It's painfully, obviously obvious.

  2. France on Will Renewable Energy Ever Meet All Our Energy Needs? · · Score: 1
    FTFY: Dawn Stover has another great piece of FUD.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France
    and http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html :
    1. France derives over 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy. This is due to a long-standing policy based on energy security.
    2. France is the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation, and gains over EUR 3 billion per year from this.

    Now get off my lawn.

  3. The problem with ONE online math class on The Problems With Online Math Classes · · Score: 1

    As the statistics instructor, the author of TFA should've known that ONE sample may not be statistically significant.

  4. Re:Flipping the classroom..? on Why Professors Love (and Loathe) Technology · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure that you're understanding me. By professors not caring, I'm talking about the guys who don't actually teach anything and then just post the entire exam -- along with the solutions -- on their website a week before the exam, call it a "study guide" (No, it wasn't 'similar' to the exam, it WAS the exam, he just printed that out and gave it to use for the test. And it was multiple choice and fill in the blank.) The professors who don't answer questions; who take 30 minutes out of a 70 minute class just getting the computer booted up; who do nothing more than read off of slides prepared by somebody else; and who refuse to accept obviously correct answers because they're not phrased in exactly the same way it was phrased on the answer sheet.

    Doesn't sound like any professor that I've encountered in my life... I guess you went to a tough college :) The worst I've seen was a professor reading from a textbook (one section == one lecture).

  5. Re:Flipping the classroom..? on Why Professors Love (and Loathe) Technology · · Score: 1

    That's because if you come to 300-400 level classes you are considered motivated and mature enough to sit through and think for yourself.

    It's a pity that majority of students don't realize that college tuition is the payment for the opportunity to learn, not payment for good grades.

  6. We want our Governator back! on Location Privacy Act Approved By California Legislature · · Score: 1

    He promised!

  7. For all of you missing Psygnosis... on Sony Closes WipEout Developer Studio Liverpool · · Score: 1

    www.psygnosis.org

    I still terribly miss playing Drakan: Order Of The Flame. Was way ahead of its time.

  8. Relax, this is only an artist's impression on Astronomers Watch Star Devouring Planet · · Score: 1

    Same as /. articles are submitters' impressions. Both are catchy but as a rule grossly inaccurate.

  9. Math is a filter on Political Science Prof Asks: Is Algebra Necessary? · · Score: 1

    Math and logic comprise a bullshit filter that is quite useful in everyday life, from realization that $994.99 plus tax is way over $1K, to ability to filter out general BS statements such as "spend more to save more", "15 minutes on the phone can save you 15% or more on your car insurance" etc. You need them to figure out that you'll pay double on your mortgage, and that "buy a car, get a baseball cap for free!" is not such a sweet deal. Also, you'll need it to realize that the TFA is bullshit.

  10. Way to go, Google! on Google Killing Off Mini, Video, and iGoogle · · Score: 1

    What's in line for the next "spring cleaning"? Gmail? Sure! And while you are at it, don't forget to spring clean that pesky search engine, which shows some idiotic unrelated results every single time I search for something that is not in a kindergartener's vocabulary!

  11. Re:A boat? on The World's First Supercavitating Boat? · · Score: 2
    No it's not a submarine. From TFA:

    The main compartment of the Ghost vessel, which houses the cockpit and controls, sits above the water in between two torpedo-shaped pontoons or “foils,” which are submerged and create all the buoyancy and propulsion for the craft.

    Would be interesting to see it in the open ocean with the high waves. If the wave height is higher than the boat clearance it's similar to hitting the water surface at 100 mph. A nosedive at such a speed means the cockpit becomes a 12-seat grave.

  12. Need training for recognition algorithm? on Disney Research Can Turn Nearly Any Surface Into a Touch Screen · · Score: 1

    The article says nothing about how they trained their software. Is it person-specific? I suspect that the sensor response from different people gripping the same doorknob can be quite different. Same due to sweating, dehydration, dirty hands, etc.
    "Check out our new touch-recognizing doorknob! Training times may vary. We don't advise to put it on the bathroom door for at least a week after the purchase."

  13. Re:Gasoline-like energy density on IBM Creates 'Breathing' High-Density Lithium-Air Battery · · Score: 1

    When you add up the cost of the materials for the flywheel (they need high tensile strength), the cost of maintaining near-vacuum in the flywheel enclosure (you don't want any air friction losses, do you) and the cost of service (you essentially have a bunch of rotating parts), then the flywheels lose some of their attractiveness. Low mobility and high energy loss due to friction, just to name two.

  14. Yes, but.. on New Frog Species Found In NYC · · Score: 1

    Did they check the frog's immigration papers? Does it croak with an accent? Does it object being put through the TSA scanners? Does it use internet cafes and pay with cash only? It might be a terrorist frog!

  15. Re:Buckyballs on Solid Buckeyballs Detected In Space · · Score: 1

    Bucky Badger, the University of Wisconsin mascot, gives "buckyballs" a whole new dimension.

  16. But of course it reads from RAM on Oracle Claims Dramatic MySQL Performance Improvements · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The case when the data set is bigger than RAM amount has not been investigated (link here, see the comments). The hard drive I/O speed would slow it dramatically, unless it's an expensive array of SSDs.

  17. Re:lol on Maine Senator Wants Independent Study of TSA's Body Scanners · · Score: 1

    No, it's like "a very lonely man in a government".

  18. Chevy should answer on MIT Media Lab Rolls Out Folding Car · · Score: 1

    with an inflatable Suburban. When parked, takes three times as much space! Take that, MIT.

  19. Dwarves are lousy singers! on Hobbit Film Trailer Posted Online · · Score: 1

    The trailer song should've been "Misty Mountain Hop"!

  20. waste? on In Nuclear Power, Size Matters · · Score: 2

    Still would not solve the nuclear waste problem.

  21. Just another little bit of history repeating on Twitter Bots Drown Out Anti-Kremlin Tweets · · Score: 1

    Looks like /. already covered that. Oh, wait, that was 4 years ago...

    This is a good (albeit somewhat rudimentary) explanation of a clear indication of the elections being rigged. The first graph shows the histogram of the % of the votes for different parties vs. the number of the voting locations that registered that figure. Under standard circumstances the curves should be close to normal (Gaussian) distribution. Different curves correspond to different parties; the presidential party is brown. All of the curves exhibit a clear bell-shaped behavior, except for the brown one, which has the obnoxious right tail and artificial peaks at nice-looking values (50 to 100% with a step of 5). This means that according to lots of voting locations, exactly 55, 60, 65, ... 100% of voters voted for the presidential party. This can only be achieved by injection of fake ballots and/or stealing the votes.

  22. No street view? on China Building Gigantic Structures In the Desert · · Score: 1

    I'm disappointed.