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User: bferrell

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  1. Re:Only 50 a year? on How Many Books Will You Read in a Lifetime? Around 4600, If You Read Fast (ft.com) · · Score: 1

    To reply to my own post is gauche, but I realized I needed to clarify... That's 125 a year.

  2. over the last 3 years my count is like 125... And I've read like that since I was a kid... MANY decades ago.

    That doesn't count the magazine (dead tree and electronic), technical articles, manuals for work and email lists I subscribe to.

    And, yes, I do other things too.

    I do NOT sit, drink beer and cheer clods smashing one another on large publicly funded grass fields or chasing small white balls through grassy parks.

    I do throw heavy balls at harmless pins just to watch them fall down in fear and hysterical laughter. Sometimes I even manage to hit them.

  3. Were the issue solely protein on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    There MIGHT be a point. Unfortunately that's not the case.
    Meat, in it's various animal forms, provides nutrients beyond just protein.
    For those interested in a somewhat thick read, have a look at The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz

  4. Re:How does it works? on Airlines With the Best In-Flight Wi-Fi (latimes.com) · · Score: 1

    The have a.) compression and b.) handed off links ground side and or satellite. Both routes are asymmetric.... Decent in, cruddy out.

  5. What's weird... on Airlines With the Best In-Flight Wi-Fi (latimes.com) · · Score: 1

    They all use the same vendor and equipment!

  6. Re:Yesterday this same site reported on on Solar Power and Batteries Are Encroaching On Natural Gas In Energy Production (electrek.co) · · Score: 1

    dig past the current story. That's NOT their take a few weeks back. Other analysis are showing the same demands are driving prices up, not down

  7. Contact lenses aren't a controlled item on Contact Lens Startup Hubble Sold Lenses With a Fake Prescription From a Made-up Doctor (qz.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just because there is a prescription involved, that doesn't mean there is a problem.
    in this case a prescription is simply a lens specification. What it DOES mean is that one may order contact lenses made to any particular specification from this vendor.

    Take a chill pill

  8. Yesterday this same site reported on on Solar Power and Batteries Are Encroaching On Natural Gas In Energy Production (electrek.co) · · Score: 2

    a forecast of battery shortages due to vehicle demand. That was predicted last year with a forecast of a "hockey stick" price rise in batteries.

    That little factoid isn't mentioned here and THAT is the entire flaw in battery land. capacity is dependent on physical "expensive" batteries; electrical "tanks" that are semi-expensive to make and very much to be in demand. Hdrogen... Well, gas storage tanks are MUCH cheaper and easier to make in huge volumes.

    In the movie, Mrs Robinson, the word was plastics (and kind of still is).

    Now the word is infrastructure (tank manufacturing/sales). Not kewl or sexy, but in the long haul...

  9. Re:Move those people out ! on The Silicon Valley Paradox: One In Four People Are At Risk of Hunger (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Odd how the people who talk like this are the first scream and complain about losing their jobs to overseas IT outsourcing.

    Just sayin'

  10. We might not get the best of the best of the best of the best!!!

    Not that college/University grads are that either, but it not "best practices"

  11. As of this exact moment, Uber own the old Sears building in downtown Oakland. They paid over 100 million and it looks like they'll be able to sell it for double.

    That's just off the top of my head.

  12. they ARE organized crime... just not the mafia or a regular street gang

  13. No,

    This is what racketeer influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) was invented for and it's how those whose hands are "clean" ( shareholders and all the rest who can't be directly connected to the acts, but profited anyway ) are held accountable for this type of operation.

    I'm certain this isn't the only one in the valley, but it's certainly about the most egregious.

     

  14. ram rama rama on Study of Recent Interstellar Asteroid Reveals Bizarre Shape (bbc.com) · · Score: 2

    RAMA!

  15. Hmmm... Seems like maybe the muckrakers are rising on 'Panama Papers' Group Strikes Again with 'Paradise Papers' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    This is a good thing

  16. Sounds like union busting done old school on New Victims in the 'Billionaire War on Journalism' (newsweek.com) · · Score: 1

    And it's a federal offense.

    This DOJ will be unlikely to do anything, but it times gone past...

    Sigh. It's the dark ages all over again

      Boy the way Glenn Miller played
    Songs that made the hit parade.
    Guys like us we had it made,
    Those were the days.

    And you knew who you were then,
    Girls were girls and men were men,
    Mister we could use a man
    Like Herbert Hoover again.

    Didn't need no welfare state,
    Everybody pulled his weight.
    Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
    Those were the days.

    Archie is laughing his ass off!

  17. The wonder of immeasurable and intangable on Ask Slashdot: Why Do We Still Commute? (citylab.com) · · Score: 1

    More because there IS value in casual communication that just DOESN'T happen over IM, email or phone... When we wander into the break room or just over hear a conversation.

  18. Re:Perl Is Hated Because It's Difficult on Perl is the Most Hated Programming Language, Developers Say (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 2

    except in six months something basic will be deprecated and you'll have to re-write your code from scratch in favor of the new shiny thing... which will be deprecated in eighteen months.

  19. Alvin Toffler/John Brunner on Silicon Valley 'Divided Society and Made Everyone Raging Mad', Argues Newsweek (newsweek.com) · · Score: 2

    The future shock/shockwave rider effect writ large.

    I love how this effect was predicted in the late 60's

  20. Re:I know your problem. on "Maybe It's a Piece of Dust" (theoutline.com) · · Score: 0

    Since just after the Apple ii+, branding is what Apple had to sell... And people bought it and they're wishing there was more of it to be had.

    I stopped being supportive of Apple when the thing that attracted me to Apple became and "extra"... The tech manual. That told me all I needed to know about who thy thought the customer was.

  21. I love the phrase "cord-cutter" on Cord-Cutters Drive Cable TV Subscribers to a 17-Year Low (houstonchronicle.com) · · Score: 1

    As if they aren't using broadband provided in some way, shape or form provided by the cord!

    denial is more than a river in egypt

  22. Re:I know of one peice of hardware that relies on on Windows 10 Update Removes Windows Media Player (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    IP based tuner boxes for both OTA and cable use... Not *exactly* a STB. The boxes have NO composite, RF or HDMI interfaces.

  23. I know of one peice of hardware that relies on it on Windows 10 Update Removes Windows Media Player (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    The Silicondust tuners can ONLY play DRM content with Windows Media Center.

    They (Silicondust) is about to be VERY unhappy... Not to mention those who bought the devices

  24. And yet... on 20 Years of Stuff That Matters · · Score: 0

    No explanation of the two days down

  25. Just like when the Okies came out of the dust bowl... No money, no work, no place to live.

    At least now there are RV parks for them.