Slashdot Mirror


User: Applehu+Akbar

Applehu+Akbar's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
8,215
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 8,215

  1. Re:And still nothing in the US on Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains Celebrate 50th Anniversary · · Score: 1

    "What will we say when it's 50th anniversary time for Apollo 11? "

    We will reminisce about how brave and adventurous Americans were back then.

    Recently I was speaking with a highly educated relative of mine, a California Democrat, and I asked how the LA - SF bullet train project was doing. I had just come back from a European trip that included riding the Eurostar from London to Geneva. Her response was "I don't think Californians could be trusted to build something like that..."

  2. Re:About fucking time. on Hong Kong Protesters Use Mesh Networks To Organize · · Score: 1

    Some disaster-preparedness integration between cellular tech and ham radio could be a powerful communications tool in emergencies - and in times of political unrest.

    PS: I was once a contract software developer at Tsukuba, in its very early days, when it was just emerging from the rice fields.

  3. Re:Close, but I think it's simpler and more normal on Scientists Seen As Competent But Not Trusted By Americans · · Score: 1

    But when the public distrusts motives, it's generally the motives of engineers who implement scientific theory, while scientists themselves have been seen as above the fray. What'a new is the nation that scientists themselves are working for them whenever they announce an unpopular finding.

  4. Re:Americans are smart. on Scientists Seen As Competent But Not Trusted By Americans · · Score: 1

    But keep in mind that all of those "chemicals" in your food and medicines were passed upon by the FDA, which is the most notoriously conservative testing organization in the world. Even Europeans routinely get drugs that may not be available in the US for years. We can alost consider it a promotion board for medial tourism.

  5. The problem is the politicization of science on Scientists Seen As Competent But Not Trusted By Americans · · Score: 2

    We really need to stop doing that. When science is seen as being a part of politics, the public assumes that the facts we discover by observation of nature can be manipulated and bargained away in the same way as the laws made by legislatures.

  6. Re:Sometimes the change is good on The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should have stayed ohm that day.

  7. Re:The climate there sucks. on Marc Merlin's 2014 Burning Man Report For Tech Geeks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    True enough, but the Burning Man environment has one great advantage for nerds: it's an ultimate test of hardware reliability for your project. If the tech product you're about to introduce will survive BM, it will work in any home or business.

  8. Re:huh? on 2015 Corvette Valet Mode Recorder Illegal In Some States · · Score: 1

    Aren't there only about two all-party consent states? Why doesn't GM issue large warning stickers that the driver can attach if he lives in one of these states.Instead, it seems that in typical Corporate Chicken Smith fashion, the valet mode feature is going to be disabled. If so, I predict an immediate stealth market among Corvette owners to jailbreak their cars and re-enable the feature.

  9. Cram in regulations while Democrats still lead on Forest Service Wants To Require Permits For Photography · · Score: 1

    I live within walking distance of wilderness, and spend a lot of time hiking in it with my 400-member club and documenting our adventures in pictures. Because my images go up on a public site and are regularly used in local newspaper stories about the wilderness, does that make me "media"? Would an amateur photographer who occasionally sells a print (lots of those around here too) come under this regulation?

    The Forest Service is supposed to be in charge of keeping designated wilderness pristine by controlling trail access and, in general, monitoring any usage of the area that can alter the environment. The current rule on photography requires permits for commercial crews that need to bring in special equipment, have exclusive use of an area for the day, and so on. In extending the regulation to have commercial or 'media' use of photographs themselves be the criterion for the permit requirement rather than impact on the land, the Forest Service would be changing its role from steward to landowner trying to maximize profit on his acreage.

  10. Re:This is huge on Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair With Astonishing Crop Yield Breakthrough · · Score: 1, Insightful

    No, the effect of global warming is to make everything worse. That's why they predict drought at the same time as they predict massive hurricanes (which transport large amounts of water). All weather gets worse: hotter in the summer, colder in the winter, scarier all around.

  11. If a peer reviewer is anonymous on Anonymous Peer-review Comments May Spark Legal Battle · · Score: 1

    Then how do we know he's an actual peer? This is an especially relevant question when it comes to certain scientific issues of an inflammatory politicized nature.

  12. Re:Alright smart guy on Ask Slashdot: Is iOS 8 a Pig? · · Score: 1

    At age 92, her computing requirements are fairly simple. I left Office 2008 on it, the latest version that runs on the PPC, and she's just fine with it. MS Office, Mail.app, and the ability to maintain her Wordpress blog and run the writing classes she teaches. Graphics card speed is not an issue in this situation.

  13. Re:Something tells me... on The Raid-Proof Hosting Technology Behind 'The Pirate Bay' · · Score: 1

    If any copy of VMWare is suspected of being used for an illegal purpose, the DEA has the right to swarm in and confiscate everything. The evidentiary standard for this action is "probable cause."

  14. THIS is why we of the dark side hate Obamacare on Bioethicist At National Institutes of Health: "Why I Hope To Die At 75" · · Score: 1

    We recognize that a large segment of the population can't afford healthcare and need to be subsidized by the public. We realize that because the pharma and hospital lobbies are not about to allow a free market to develop (imagine if medallion cab drivers had the nationwide ability to behead people who used Uber - that's the power of the lobby we're talking about here), that is going to cost a lot more than it would if a free market did exist. What we fear is that as the costs inevitably mount, policy Twinkies like Emanuel are going to cement the "suggestion" of this article into national policy. Like the people in Isaac Asimov's "Pebble In the Sky" we will be required to be gassed at a specified age to keep the system solvent.

    My hiking club in northern Arizona includes about 400 members, most of them retired. At age 75 most of them are still hiking every week, enjoying more of the outdoors than city folk half their ages. Hikes are routinely led by people in their eighties. Our oldest member recently hung up his cleats at the age of ninety-three. As time goes on we get titanium knees and hips, implanted teeth, and pacemakers, and we stay on the trail farther and farther into senescence. We're going Borg, and that's how we like it.

    My case is typical. When I was a child I had to wear huge Coke-bottle eyeglasses. For high school graduation, I got contact lenses. That was already fifty years ago, and now I'm about to take the next step up, to implanted lenses. Ezekiel Emmanuel, please take your early exit option and never get to set health policy in this country.

  15. Something tells me... on The Raid-Proof Hosting Technology Behind 'The Pirate Bay' · · Score: 1

    That soon a DEA SWAT team will attack VMWare development facilities and smash everything up, using trumped-up drug charges.

  16. Re:More harm than good on Hundreds of Thousands Turn Out For People's Climate March In New York City · · Score: 2

    But those were GOOD buses, carrying environmental activists to a protest, as opposed to those BAD buses, which carry Silicon Valley nerds to work.

  17. Re:Largest Climate march in history on Hundreds of Thousands Turn Out For People's Climate March In New York City · · Score: 2

    Slashdot: Can we have a new downmod category, perhaps called "Burn The Witch!" It would indicate severe disagreement with the comment and would be a way of avoiding overuse of the Troll mod.

  18. Re:All this because Clang went Clunk? on Kickstarter Lays Down New Rules For When a Project Fails · · Score: 1

    But KIckstarter, as a new financial market, has the opportunity to take the same innovative approach to the reporting area as it has to investing itself. Can it come up with a financial reporting system that investors will actually pay attention to, rather than toss in a drawer unread? THAT's what I'm looking for here.

  19. All this because Clang went Clunk? on Kickstarter Lays Down New Rules For When a Project Fails · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More transparency will be a good policy for Kickstarter. It's developing what is essentially a new stock exchange, and in the process is finding out what kind of reporting investors will truly find useful.

  20. Re:Alright smart guy on Ask Slashdot: Is iOS 8 a Pig? · · Score: 1

    Oops - iPad Mini Retina. My kingdom for an Edit button.

  21. Automatic subway train operation? on Washington DC To Return To Automatic Metro Trains · · Score: 1

    Tokyo was rolling that out when I wrapped my commercial duty tour in 1978. The recently finished Oedo Line, newest in the system, runs on linear induction motors. That means no more overhead network of catenaries to deliver power.

  22. Re:Style on Is Alibaba Comparable To a US Company? · · Score: 1

    The hope is that Alibaba's status as a Cayman Islands shell will allow it to develop a black tulip, which will not only be significantly more valuable than all the other tulips,but will be tradable on social media. And because Alibaba owns its own credit subsidiary, you will be able to buy them on thin margin, putting up very little of your own money.

  23. Re:Some details about the 3D printer on SpaceX Launches Supplies to ISS, Including Its First 3D Printer · · Score: 1

    The other important fact about human colonization is that was never, at any time in history, an example of waiting until until all problems "at home" were fixed before jumping off and colonizing a new place. Corollary: there is also no instance of a person who advocated not attempting to achieve X until all current problems have been resolved either (1) solving all current problems or (2) achieving X.

  24. Re:Some details about the 3D printer on SpaceX Launches Supplies to ISS, Including Its First 3D Printer · · Score: 1

    When you hang yourself, please remember to do it over your compose pit, and to use the biodegradable rope so Mother Gaia will not be offended.

  25. Re:So we just gave all this money on SpaceX Launches Supplies to ISS, Including Its First 3D Printer · · Score: 1

    Those must be the airline seats we're still sitting in.