Slashdot Mirror


User: wiggles

wiggles's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
665
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 665

  1. Re:Kidnapping. on US Arrests Son of Russian MP In Maldives For Hacking · · Score: 1

    This.

    Plus, ever since Snowden, the US is actively putting pressure on anyone in power in Russia - any Russians in positions of power with so much as a parking ticket in the US is on an extradition list.

  2. Re:Great... Instead of CO2 we get CO on Solar-Powered Electrochemical Cell Used To Produce Formic Acid From CO2 · · Score: 2

    Problem with that is, vegetation rots eventually, releasing methane - a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Sure, you can flame it off, but then you're still releasing that captured CO2 back to the atmosphere. Only by increasing the forest footprint of the world, or causing massive algae blooms in the oceans can you really sequester CO2 in vegetation.

  3. Re:Sounds about right... on Researchers Claim Wind Turbine Energy Payback In Less Than a Year · · Score: 1

    Do you know anything at all about cost/benefit analysis and payback period?

    The Germans are doing this with tax dollars, effectively siphoned off of the other EU members. I'd have to do it with my own money.

  4. Re:Detroit calls Google arrogant? on Google, Detroit Split On Autonomous Cars · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Look outside! Life is beautiful and full of wonder!

    Typical Euro-socialist garbage. :)

  5. Re:Detroit calls Google arrogant? on Google, Detroit Split On Autonomous Cars · · Score: 1

    >Is this a republicans vs democrats thread in disguise?

    Isn't every thread on Slashdot a political one these days? I swear, sometimes I think this place has become a cesspool of political mudslinging. I miss the old days before politics took over.

  6. Re:Sounds about right... on Researchers Claim Wind Turbine Energy Payback In Less Than a Year · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > Home owners can't really lose with solar PV

    Unless, of course, you happen to live somewhere other than Southern California or Arizona, where weather conditions don't permit the sun to shine at sufficient intensity over the whole year. Here in the mid/upper midwest, the payback period for a solar installation on my house works out to be 17 years. Wind, on the other hand, can be cost effective if you have sufficient land space to put up a tower. I see a few of my rural neighbors with wind turbines on their properties.

  7. Re:Wrong decision on Supreme Court Rules Against Aereo Streaming Service · · Score: 1

    All those TVs and the antenna are owned by you.

    That's the difference.

    In 1976, Congress updated the telecommunications act to specify that communal antennas were essentially 'retransmissions' under the act. SCOTUS was merely pulling Aereo in line with that existing law.

  8. Re:In Chicago??? on George Lucas Selects Chicago For the Star Wars Museum · · Score: 1

    We do have the Museum of Science and Industry right across the street - a geek mecca if there ever was one.

  9. Re:Temporary on China Starts Outsourcing From ... the US · · Score: 1

    Your timeline for that is a bit optimistic, I think. Robot factories - sure. Simple stuff like individual parts and toys from 3d printers - ok. For things like durable goods, there are too many dissimilar, complex parts made from varying materials, each processed in a different way, to make this a reality any time soon. You'd need a universal constructor - and that's at least 150 years out. We need to master far too many high level concepts first, like quantum physics.

  10. Those are a great read - thanks for this.

  11. > Comcast's peering connection to Level 3 has been saturated (over 90% capacity) 24/7 for over a year now

    Got a source on that? Not that I doubt you, just looking to back up that claim.

  12. Re:In civilized countries... on Starbucks Offers Workers 2 Years of Free College · · Score: 1
  13. Re:In civilized countries... on Starbucks Offers Workers 2 Years of Free College · · Score: 1

    The gold plated faucets comment was merely hyperbole for effect - intending to signify they were spending way more than they needed to. Really, they were just spending too much money on new buildings, perks for top administrators and football coaches, and other 'status' projects.

  14. Re:In civilized countries... on Starbucks Offers Workers 2 Years of Free College · · Score: 4, Insightful

    See, what happened to those days was that gradually, colleges realized they could keep raising prices past what the government could pay, because they knew families of students could pay more. Colleges built palaces to "education", dormitories with gold plated faucets, gymnasiums, new buildings that were completely unnecessary simply because they could. All the while, tuition kept going up - the government saw that tuition was increasing at universities, so they'd raise the amount of subsidy, then the college would raise tuition above that to the point where families were bled just as much as before. Eventually, the bottom dropped out, the government said enough is enough, and held or dropped subsidies. Colleges, so used to 10% pay raises for tenured professors and unwilling to live with 20 year old dorms, screamed - "they're cutting our funding!" - so they just saddle their students with the maximum loan allowance they can - because they know they can get it - just to keep the gravy train coming. The more the government allows students to borrow, the more money colleges will charge.

    It's economics at work. It's called Rent Seeking Behavior. If there is money to be gotten, it will be.

    Here's a journal paper someone wrote on it.

    Here's a bunch of resources on this from a think tank.

  15. Re:stupid on US Agency Aims To Regulate Map Aids In Vehicles · · Score: 1, Insightful

    > minimal burdens on the vast majority of law-abiding firearm owners

    In your eyes perhaps, but not in the eyes of the gun holding public.

  16. Re:In civilized countries... on Starbucks Offers Workers 2 Years of Free College · · Score: -1, Troll

    Are those the same countries that come crying to the US whenever Vladimir Putin decides to turn the gas off? Maybe if they'd spend some money defending their own countries rather than depending on the US to do it, the US could afford to pay for college tuition for its citizens as well.

  17. Re:Better idea on Fixing China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions For Them · · Score: 1

    Easier said than done.

    I rarely agree with Krugman, but he's right in this case - in order to effect change here, we need an economic solution - we need to make it so that it's in their best interest to reduce emissions. Voluntary boycotts of Chinese goods would be ineffective at best. We'd have to make goods from non-polluting sources have price parity with goods from polluting countries.

  18. Re:Rights tariffs, then? on Fixing China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions For Them · · Score: 5, Informative

    Umm, you do realize that the constitution specifically provides for the government to levy tariffs in Article 1 Section 8, right? Tariffs were the main source of revenue for the federal government until the income tax was established.

  19. Re:market at work on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > right books

    Yeah - humanities education is worthless.

  20. Nexus 4? on Ask Slashdot: Do 4G World Phones Exist? · · Score: 1

    Doesn't the Nexus 4 qualify for this?

  21. Re:Ignorant of legal issues on Virtual DVDs, Revisited · · Score: 1
  22. Re:GMO Mammoth Burgers! on Efforts To Turn Elephants Into Woolly Mammoths Are Already Underway · · Score: 1

    You got it!

  23. Re:GMO Mammoth Burgers! on Efforts To Turn Elephants Into Woolly Mammoths Are Already Underway · · Score: 3, Informative

    Probably similar to bison - the only real ice age megafauna left.

  24. Re:considering what is known about the NSA on China Bans Government Purchases of Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    You say this as though China is innocent of such shenanigans. It's been known for years that they backdoor stuff made in China - we still buy all our crap from them.

  25. Re:If they programmed it correctly on EA Ending Online Support For Dozens of Games · · Score: 1

    Virtualization extends the life of a lot of applications that would otherwise need to be replaced, but once an OS vendor stops supporting an OS, even virtualization can only go so far.