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User: SEWilco

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Comments · 5,473

  1. This May Hurt A Bit on Arctic Ocean Survey May Reveal Lost World · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remove the icy lid with a nuclear bomb.
    Sometimes the world needs Godzilla.

  2. Cover Your Nose on Arctic Ocean Survey May Reveal Lost World · · Score: 1
    a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice

    Who put the word "living" in there?
    That sounds more like a deep, lidded, watery grave.
    There won't be photosynthesis nor water circulation to supply oxygen. There will only be something alive if there is a geologic heat source.

  3. Trivial Solution for Manhattan on A Piece-By-Piece Guide to the Most Advanced Bots · · Score: 1
    we don't yet have a bot that can navigate downtown Manhattan

    That's a problem that is easy to solve, it's just a matter of putting big bumpers on a monster truck. Paying for the damage is the hard part.

  4. Re:Hey, whose side are they on? on Rocket Hobbyists Get Blown Away by Regulations · · Score: 1
    Maybe we should outlaw fertilizer and diesel fuel, since they have actually been used for terrorist acts.

    People are already trying to control petroleum products. Diesel fuel as a carbon fuel, and fertilizer as a water pollutant.

  5. Re:Weird comparison on PCs Use More Sick Days Than People · · Score: 1
    I take it you haven't been exposed to New Age medicine?

    But he might not remember it.
    Although I hear the same effect can be had in a car crash or bar night.

  6. Windows Machines and Updates Mandatory on Indiana Launches Statewide Productivity System · · Score: 1
    So now the state is requiring that people use MS Windows, and they must pay for upgrades.

    They pay for upgrades in two ways:

    • They have to pay the state to create versions of the magical software which work on every new version of Windows, and with new patch versions.
    • To access their own data they have to pay to keep their own machines compatible with a working version of the magical software.
    • Do we count users' expense in updating the magical software?

    Are you also required to remain a resident of Indiana in order to access your data?

  7. Re:I'll pass, thanks. on Indiana Launches Statewide Productivity System · · Score: 1
    149 trillion years to crack a 128-bit AES key

    Only 74.5 trillion years. On average half of the full time.

    Maybe a little less with faster computers or a mathematical breakthrough.

  8. Re:I'll pass, thanks. on Indiana Launches Statewide Productivity System · · Score: 1
    Each file is encrypted according to the session key at the time the file is stored.

    Session key?
    So the data can only be decrypted when accesses from the same computer which knows the session key, and until the computer forgets the session key? So if the session key is lost and you don't have a backup of it, you no longer have access to your data?

    That doesn't make sense. If access is from any computer with the magical software, you can validate yourself from any computer. But then you don't use a session key, you use a personal identifier or personal key.

  9. Re:I'll pass, thanks. on Indiana Launches Statewide Productivity System · · Score: 1
    By the way, they have been up and running for quite some time, no one has been able to hack the system, and all my files, which are confidential, have not been leaked, lost or hacked.

    You forgot: "That I know of."

  10. Re:I'd volunteer to be an elevator attendant on Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years · · Score: 1

    Not a good idea.
    Do you have any idea what would happen to your voice as you call out the floors?
    400 floors per mile.

  11. Re:Russian Spacesuits on ISS Spacewalk Cut Short · · Score: 2, Funny
    Don't forget that it's not so much the straight fall that will kill you, it's bouncing around on the rocks on the way down.

    Note to self: climb only sheer cliffs.

  12. Re:Uhhhh on Building A Homebrew Robotic Lawnmower? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ya, but would you/the neighbors be able to tolerate the noise nonstop?

    Noise?
    Don't use a sharp spinning blade.
    Scissors, tweezers, propane torch, laser beam, acid or caustic brush.

    Or program the robot to select for grass which only grows two inches high, and let it evolve the lawn. In several decades it might not be necessary to cut the grass -- although in the meantime we don't know how the robot will do the "selection".

  13. Re:Still a great flight on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed · · Score: 1
    Update:

    Piloting Guide:
    384:
    +
    + Near this point in the flight, a pilot rest period may be
    + provided. This is physically triggered and indicated
    + by a lack of response to controls and a soothing
    + massage for all occupants of the vehicle.
    + When the pilot has enough rest, the vehicle will
    + again respond to controls.
    +

  14. Re:Dictionary missed yaw. on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed · · Score: 1
    Particularly because spinning around its vertical axis tends to make a plane go pretty much straight down, I'll count yaw as attitude.

    In a parachute or balloon I'll call it the scenic route.

  15. Re:They were here ...? on Google Plans to Reveal Some of its Code · · Score: 1
    Why wasn't I informed?

    What, you didn't Google for "Melbourne recruiting drive" like everyone else did?

  16. Re:The last place I'd want it... on Wearable Cell Phones Are Here · · Score: 1

    No, just a cell phone in a powder case. Nobody hauls a keg around in their clothes. Your ordinary powder case would be convenient, however. As long as there's enough room left and a cover to keep the powder dry. The ammo belts are fine for having enough the ever-so-practical bullets, but the esthetics of a black powder dueling pistol is simply required in some social settings.

  17. Re:Green Economics and the Net on Confession For Two: A Spammer Spills it All · · Score: 1

    All these comments and nobody used the term "Tragedy of the Commons"? Just two references to "commons".

  18. Re:Interesting complaint... on Microsoft Sues Brazilian Official for Defamation · · Score: 1

    Oh, that darned excess in freedom of thought. Isn't that a politically incorrect phrase now? Apparently Brazilian schools haven't been using the same methods as American ones.

  19. Re:And the number 2? on Wild 2 Comet Analyzed · · Score: 1

    Do we pronounce "2" as "two", as what the Arabic word for "two" looks like, as "one zero", or as the Roman "II"? Rather than Arabic, perhaps we should have the written word in Babylonian, or what preceded the Arabic: the Brahmi "=" or Nagari "2".

  20. Re:And the number 2? on Wild 2 Comet Analyzed · · Score: 1
    I think, instead of trying to exactly and respectfully pronounce names correctly in their original language, that each country, or language group, pronounce it phonetically in their own language.

    Do you have any idea how many words you just used which did not originate in England? Please rewrite them, using their original alphabets. Oh, and shouldn't the rest be in Middle English?

    While you're at it, what is the proper way to pronounce "I live in Beijing, the capitol of China, and today ate Peking duck"? Please use the original pictographs so we can pronounce that properly.

    For that matter, what is the name of the country? CIA World Factbook says:

    conventional long form: People's Republic of China
    conventional short form: China
    local short form: Zhong Guo
    abbreviation: PRC
    local long form: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
  21. Re: Wow on Wild 2 Comet Analyzed · · Score: 1

    I'll see your "...new map of the comet" and add "Right Foot in a new map of the comet" as being miles wide.

  22. Re:Stupid Drivers on 3-D Gaming on Your Cellphone · · Score: 1
    Whoo Whoo, Now I have more stupid people coming at me while I am driving.

    So frag them quickly and get them out of the game.

  23. Re:Do I smell a 'Homeland Security' scam here? on Next Generation Stun Guns? · · Score: 1
    If it makes a difference, they actually paid for that "free" web page. Their domain service gives them that web page free when they purchase the domain name.

    The pictured weapon definitely has a range of 9 feet because that's how far it reaches when used as a club.

    Apparently this device fires ionized gas to create the electrical pathway. Calm air is helpful.

  24. Re:Saved! on Next Generation Stun Guns? · · Score: 1
    a charged sphere (or similar device) next to you

    Enough charge to affect ionized air would be more than enough charge for a spark which would jump to you. Turning on the charged sphere would stun you. At least the stunner would then work at long range.

  25. RTFA EULA on Northwest Privacy Lawsuit Dismissed · · Score: 1

    So we're supposed to blindly go access the web site with the article http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D08MNXC/ 04-04317.PDF without reading the privacy policy for the site? The courts don't seem to have a privacy policy.