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User: KJSwartz

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  1. Use the following NHC Links to see Cat 3, 2, 1 on When Did Irene Stop Being a Hurricane? · · Score: 1

    The National Hurricane Center found that Irene was CATEGORY 3 off the Florida Coast, and running up the coast over the Gulf Stream. If you do your calculus properly, you have to plan for the fact that Irene could not help but remain a hurricane if (or when) it hits New York City. That would have been a disaster the likes of New Orleans (times ten, then times ten again). President Bush looked the fool by not taking precautionary measures; who could seriously blame President Obama for being Presidential?

    CAT 3 (Florida): http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/gtwo/atl/201108281214/index.php?basin=atl&current_issuance=201108281214
    CAT 2 (NC) http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/gtwo/atl/201108270558/index.php?basin=atl&current_issuance=201108270558
    CAT 1 (New York) http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/gtwo/atl/201108260858/index.php?basin=atl&current_issuance=201108260858

    Check out the US Geological Survey in a couple more days to view the raw meterological data (usgs.gov)

  2. Re:Paging Darth Vader on Microsoft 'Ribbonizes' Windows 8 File Manager · · Score: 1

    That's MADAM to you!

  3. USGS will have data ready in 3-5 days on When Did Irene Stop Being a Hurricane? · · Score: 2

    It is a thought-provoking idea - "When" did Irene become a hurricane - and well worth my time to consider it. The US Geological Survey is an E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T source of information, and, in my humble opinion, criminally underfunded by our tax dollars (especially those companies that won't pay U.S. Taxes).

    Use the following link inacoupladays
    http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/irene/coastal-change/updated-assessment.php

  4. Inmarsat M & B was enormously successful on SatPhones — Why Can't They Make It Work? · · Score: 1

    There is remarkably poor phone service in the middle of the ocean, or in countries with poor infrastructure. Think Katrina or some other natural catastrophe where a cell phone site could be remotely connected through a satellite using a simple flat antenna.

  5. Re:Are you looking to start a flame war or for adv on Which Language To Learn? · · Score: 1

    I like how you have put perspective into this conversation. Most software engineers build up their design time skills - documentation, proposals, test plans - or the management side of software development. Take a good technical writing course is what I would recommend across the spectrum. Follow that up with a Dale Carnigie (sp?) public speaking program. The better you communicate with others, the more in demand you will be. It really isn't having "mad skillz" that ensures our sucess; we've proven ourselves countless times before!
     

  6. Re:solutions from the article on How To Deflect an Asteroid With Today's Technology · · Score: 1

    Impact has the best chance, in that a large number of "small" mass missles can travel at a high velocity and timed to impact for best effect. A jackhammer effect, or convert rotational energy in a manner to nudge the asteriod into a different orbit. Think COMSAT maneuver.

  7. Isn't this part of the standard Flash library? on Webvention Demanding $80k For Rollover Images · · Score: 1

    Forgive my ignorance, but how can somebody patent an idea that Adobe delivers with their developer's toolkit?

  8. You should be impressed... on Lost Ends · · Score: 1

    Lost: The TV Series was meant to lead to Lost: The Board Game and then Lost: The DVD. Put your favorite characters' life in proper order. Amaze your friends, be a leading cause of Biker Bar fights, or as a source for WWF personalities.

    That giant sucking sound was all the viewers getting amped for the final episodes.

  9. Re:Crazy talk! on US Supreme Court Upholds Indefinite Confinement · · Score: 1

    Crazy, you sly dog!

    "Protect the Children" isn't about treating rapists harsher because children are involved, but to punish those whom attack the young before they can develop a functional point-of-view. Interrupting child development with rape is an especially heinous crime, deserving my special attention and hopefully yours as well. The survivors of childhood rape must live with the event AND TRY to progress through the toughest part of life, dependent on adults who weren't there to protect them in the first place. "It take a village" is another phrase to take note.

    Rape a child, expect a lot of prison time.
    Rape a child and claim mental disease, become the prison's interior decorator.
    But punishment time must be used to demonstrate to the child survivor that adults WILL TAKE ACTION in their defense.

    Warehousing non-rape offenders indefinitely on the expectation they (the offenders) might progress to child rape is not what I believe to be Constitutional. That falls too close to the categories "Minority Report" and "Star Chamber".

  10. Bring Back COBOL on Stock Market Sell-Off Might Stem From Trader's Fat Finger · · Score: 1

    Forget "Clippy", popups and CAPTCHAs. COBOL would have forced the trader to type out "BILLION" or "BILLIONS" instead of "MIL...".

    Skip that, never mind, I'm an imbecile.

  11. Adobe needs an FPGA implementation of Flash on FSF Response To Steve Jobs's Letter · · Score: 1

    I'm not a fan of Flash after dealing for the past several years with a 400MHz (yeah, MHz) PPC G4 and what I believe to be USB 1.0. Up until the latest OS upgrade, Apple supported their old product line and I was happy - unless I was reading the local newspaper's website with its plethora of flash animations. Scrolling became a Herculean task with killing the browser its only outcome. So I'm not happy with any software implementation that acts AS IF it uses spinlocks for cross-platform timing.

    Steve Jobs did his job: made an executive's decision and holding the entire company AND - THEIR - CUSTOMERS to that decision. Flash or Battery Life? Flash or Responsiveness? Apple got spanked in the 90's for selling monitors with one inch less viewable area than what was advertised clearly as monitor dimension. Apple learned its lesson to deliver hardware that meet its specifications.

    Adobe really needs to look into offloading much of their flash implementation into the most energy efficient component of mobile devices - its FPGA, not software. Keep the processor free to perform the collect-and-forward tasks of data streaming. Adobe, if they are really serious, would provide a reference design and Altera/Lattice/Xilinx firmware libraries (Cores). Apple should investigate making FPGA space available to their developers & downloads for their customers just as if it were code space.

    Now that would be truly visionary.

  12. Re:maybe on Yelp Founder Says "No Extortion — Just a Misunderstood Algorithm" · · Score: 1

    How did you get rated as +3 Insightful?
    I would rather say +5 Obvious.

  13. Dumb & Dumber in Wisconsin on College To Save Money By Switching Email Font · · Score: 1

    Where to start?

    #1: The default font should be pushed into their printers, not email system, and printers protected against unauthorized configuration. Unspecified font types would then save serious money.

    #2: Arial is better for numerical formatting. Who does accounting with Century Gothic?

    #3: No HTML formatted emails should be allowed through their email filters - ever! This was not the point of the article, but worthy to repeat ad Infinitum.

    #4: Others say use Laser, not Inkjet. True! Real easy to justify pawning off most of those costly Color printers for monochromatic B&W, and get cartridges with superior shelf life and faster print times.

  14. Re:Where is the invention? on Scary Smartphone Motion Control Patent Granted · · Score: 1

    I agree - these patent applicants weren't that unique. Freescale/Honeywell/Others had software to test these MEMS devices in one-and-more axis, with one-and-more motional references. Just-how-could-they-publish-their-specifications? And how can they perform product QA? By your analogy, the person who perfected the wheel rolled it along the ground, and somebody else took the credit.

  15. Re:I wonder what the MEMS Manufacturers will do... on Scary Smartphone Motion Control Patent Granted · · Score: 2

    Everyone should review the slashdot story on faxed Patent Submissions. Seems they are getting so many submissions they can't spend time to reorient upside-down applications. ALOT of postings were hillarious; the simplest fix is to rotate all pages 90 degrees in the fax machine. The Patent Office, by their rule, has to take them.

  16. I wonder what the MEMS Manufacturers will do... on Scary Smartphone Motion Control Patent Granted · · Score: 2, Informative

    Got to wonder how aggressively the people like Analog Devices, Honeywell, Motorola (Freescale) will do to invalidate this patent, since they own the manufacturing process. I sincerely hope they look not just to invalidate this patent, but all other patents "owned" by these applicants as payback. What the [Obscene Gerund] were the Patent Office reviewers thinking?

  17. Re:Don't worry . . . on Nearby Star Forecast To Skirt Solar System · · Score: 1

    I guess the Texan Nation decided the Catholic Church wasn't strict enough. Thumbscrews, The Rack, and listening to Iron Maiden will catch their students' attention better and will be far cheaper than developing an engaging and inspiring curriculum.

  18. You Da Man!!! on Write Bits Directly Onto a Hard Drive Platter? · · Score: 1

    First thought was - WoW! Somebody wants to defeat disk caching, ECC and make life bloody difficult to boot. The best way, if you really want to do direct disk RMW operations - is to use Flash. Its fast, reasonably portable, and won't fail you if you use it properly.

  19. Re:Non-issue on Fingerprint Requirement For a Work-Study Job? · · Score: 1

    You have eight fingers - choose a finger with the least identifiable features (pinky finger, perhaps?).
    Leave your thumbs for the Banks and the Mob.

  20. Will reinstalling XPSP3 be a good starting point? on Rootkit May Be Behind Windows Blue Screen · · Score: 1

    I'm tossing in this idea reloading SP3 may be a proper starting point.

  21. Lazlo? Lazlo!! Is That You??? on University to Evict Man 13 Years After Graduation · · Score: 2, Funny

    13 years in the dorms -- gotta be Lazlo, running off Publisher Clearinghouse entries by the carload.

  22. Canter & Siegle would protest these term on Verizon Changes FiOS AUP, -1, Offtopic · · Score: 1

    'Nuf said?

  23. Use Solar Propulsion instead of propellants on New Kind of Orbit Could Ease Mars Communications · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If we're THAT CLOSE to the sun, it would be interesting to see how big a solar sail would need to be for a 364.245 day parking orbit. Use the dark side of Mercury as Network Control.

  24. What about a Stationary Position about the Sun? on New Kind of Orbit Could Ease Mars Communications · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First: What is the purpose of 24 hour communications? If you need SOS messaging, signal recovery, or a simple heartbeat, use the sun as the point-of-reference.
    Second: A fleet of solar communications satellites could provide a solar GPS system.
    Third: These satellites could use Solar Propulsion and "hover" at a fixed distance from adjacent satellites. Solar sails could serve as a foundation for power generation (focused beam) and for data reception.

    Downsides: the sun is a noisy place for communications, as well as a dirty place to park objects with large surface areas.

  25. There's plenty sources of power in Utah on NSA To Build 20-Acre Data Center In Utah · · Score: 1

    Solar, Geothermal, Wind, Nuclear ... scratch Nuclear - imagine using the Great Salt Lake to cool a reactor?
    Ehr, Isotope Decay! All they need are two wires stapled to the side of Yucca Mountain in a few years.