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User: garyrich

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  1. leaky underground tanks of "unknownium" on Hanford Nuclear Waste Vitrification Plant "Too Dangerous" · · Score: 1

    Most of those leaky tanks are full of leftover waste from 40's-60's military projects and nobody has any good idea what's in them. They have remote monitors for radioactivity and temperature, but mostly people stay as far away from them as possible. As anyone who's been there knows they have three alarms 1) evacuate 2) shelter in place and 3) you are going to die and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

  2. Re:Demand Free Software on FDA: Software Failure Behind 24% of Last Year's Medical Device Recalls · · Score: 1

    You don't get the source code to their software. You probably rely on results of an FDA audit of the MRI vendor. The FDA auditor would look at the validation protocols for the software. If they say they are using a "waterfall" development paradigm, they will go through all the documentation for that and look for evidence of proper code review and sign offs. This is the sort of things auditors are trained to do. Theoretically they could audit and review the vendor's source code - in reality there are probably a dozen people at FDA that could make any sense of the code. Those people are working trying to make FDA own software work properly and won't be part of an audit team unless people are dying (and probably not then).

    Precedent says that you can get away with murder if you just rely on COTS software (Commercial off-the-shelf). Your MRI probably has a Windows user interface (shudder...) and may have a proprietary database back end, like Oracle and many other layers of commercial software underneath. FDA has little ability to audit them and no ability to access their source code. Also - installing current vendor patch fixes to Windows or Oracle are usually not done frequently. Patch fixes often trigger elaborate and expensive revalidation protocols to make sure the fix doesn't break something else They would be unlikely to find one if it existed but they are required to document that they spent $$$$ trying, so they will put if off. In some cases even updating anti virus definitions would trigger a revalidation, so they don't get applied either.

  3. Re:Huh? on WikiLeaks Begins Releasing Stratfor Internal Emails · · Score: 1

    Substitute in "country A's soverign debt" for "company" and it's perfectly legal

  4. Re:Huh? on WikiLeaks Begins Releasing Stratfor Internal Emails · · Score: 1

    In general there are no laws against using inside information to trade in "government bonds, currencies and the like". Even if there were how are you going to prosecute some Iranian general that buys crude futures in Dubai the day before doing some grandstanding in the Straight of Hormuz?

  5. Re:this Stradivarius is fake! on Paypal Orders Buyer of Violin To Destroy It For a Refund · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For the sake of those that don't get the joke - the above describes virtually every genuine Strad that still exists. I can only think of one that has its original length neck

  6. Re:Materials on How 3D Printing Could Help Keep the ISS In Orbit · · Score: 1

    Didn't we only recently have tons of material up there? Aluminum, plastics, all sorts of good stuff. But no, we just flew it back to put in a museum.

  7. wasn't this about affiliates? on Amazon Folds In California Sales Tax Deal · · Score: 1

    I thought CA had decided that by having amazon "affiliates" in the state that Amazon itself had a business presence in the state? Amazon dumped all its affiliates in CA so that it couldn't be required to collect tax. But that doesn't seem to be what this agreement is about

  8. Re:Why? on Space Station To Be Deorbited After 2020 · · Score: 1

    "It's like saying you can reach your local California supermarket with your bike, so hey you should be able to go to Hawaii with it as well!"

    But what we are doing is saying that since we can't ride to Hawaii, we should take our super expensive, super high tech bike and throw it off the end of Santa Monica pier. The numbers are inescapable, but it is very frustrating.

    Here's another absurd idea born of frustration: Donate the ISS to a non profit and take donations to boost it slowly to GSO. Outfit it with light sails and boost it mirror arrays from down here. Probably wouldn't work. Probably wouldn't even produce enough v to offset orbital decay.

  9. stuntaz! on Man Updates His Facebook Status During Hostage Stand-Off · · Score: 0

    Am I the only one that thought that photo was one of the Icy Hot Stuntaz? Then looked at the article and that is actually him, way to represent playa

  10. Re:Why not leave it at the ISS? on A Bittersweet Finale For Discovery Space Shuttle · · Score: 1

    Like I said, I'm sure this has been thought through, but it still doesn't make sense. I wasn't thinking plug and play spare parts. More along the lines of "gee I could make this cool thing if only we had a few spare pieces of lexan" or "we might survive this very bad problem if only we had a few #5 bolts. That shuttle that used to be up here had hundreds, but now it's in a freakin' museum." I know NASA frowns on improvisation and using parts for things other what they were specifically designed for, but at some point we need to get over that.

    Filling it with enough waste gas (space farts for all it matters) to maintain a "soft" vacuum for storage also doesn't seem like a big drain.

    At some point it would a net negative for fuel. the additional mass is there forever, while the additional fuel left in the shuttle will be used up at some point.

  11. Re:Why not leave it at the ISS? on A Bittersweet Finale For Discovery Space Shuttle · · Score: 1

    So you'd use it as somewhat leaky storage and a source of spares and raw materials. Still seems way more valuable up there than sitting in a museum.

  12. Why not leave it at the ISS? on A Bittersweet Finale For Discovery Space Shuttle · · Score: 1

    There has to be a simple reason why they don't leave it up there, but I don't know what it is. It costs $$$ for every kilo that goes into orbit. It's an airtight space full of equipment and other useful things. It has engines and a bit of leftover fuel that could be used for station keeping.

    What aren't the shuttles just made a permanent part of the station and source of parts and the crew just sent down via MIR or something?

  13. Re:$0 per home? on Obama Awards Nearly $2 Billion For Solar Power · · Score: 1

    It's a $1.45B LOAN GUARANTEE, not cash money. Unless they default on the loan it only costs imaginary money.

  14. Re:Whatcouldpossiblygowrong on Hidden Cores On Phenom CPUs Can Be Unlocked · · Score: 2, Informative

    "The manufacturer will *always* bin the partially flawed parts as their low end units first."

    True, but the after market CPU is not the low end, not at any price point. You would put the real X2 and X3 chips in the low end consumer boxes, where the mobo doesn't support unlocking and the consumer doesn't know/care. You sell the perfectly good ones to newegg, fry's, etc. Happy geeks that unlock cores or overclock successfully are morle likely to recommend to others and buy next time. AMD and Intel understand this very well.

    Why do you think AMD has a "black label" line in the first place?

  15. the BBB is worthlless on Calling Video Professor a Scam · · Score: 4, Informative

    you don't even have to reincorporate somewhere else to pull that scam off. The BBB makes money from businesses paying them for "accreditation" and they don't make money from consumers. Their bias is obvious.

    Here in SoCal there is a construction fraud gang that seems to mostly be run by a Moroccan/Israeli family named Ben Shulsh. I tried to report their most recent front company (Erco Construction) to the BBB and they would even bother to even look at it. They publicly list the same front people, and they are at the same business address as their last front company (Highrise construction) and 2 miles from the front companies before that (BC Specialty Construction, Bashan and Allied). The BBB only changed the the rating on BC from A+ to F *after* they had robbed everybody, folded up shop and when into hiding for a few weeks. This despite complaints going back months.

    I wouldn't put any stock in the BBB or its rating of anything. They are just there to collect the accreditation fees.

  16. Re:Never make a pretty woman your wife on Attractive Women Make Men Temporarily Stupid · · Score: 5, Funny

    For your sake, I hope your wife does not have mod points. Actually either way you are sleeping on the couch

  17. Re:DVR on What Has Fox Got Against Its Own Sci-Fi Shows? · · Score: 1

    If you have a "normal" DVR then you are part of a sort of stealth nielsen household. Obviously they know how you use your DVR or they wouldn't know that it accounts for 33% more viewers. My cable company can totally tell what channel I'm currently tuned to and if I have something recording on the DVR. It goes without saying that they store that info and sell it to the upstream providers.

    Even if you haven't seen these particular eyecatches I'm sure you've seen the technique of going to commercial just at cliffhanger and then doing a 30 or even 15 second ad and right back. This is the networks messing with you.

  18. Re:DVR on What Has Fox Got Against Its Own Sci-Fi Shows? · · Score: 1

    It almost seems like the terrible scheduling of Dollhouse on Friday night (when their audience is not home) is part of an experiment. Probably less than half of the people that see it are watching in real time. So flipping through the commercials. Show business a business.

    How do you make money? Eureka uses aggressive product placement and tries to smirk at itself about it (this sort of works). Have you noticed the Dollhouse eyecatches (do they call them that here?) they come right out and say "dollhouse will return in xx seconds". At least with my DVR a 60-90 second break isn't really worth zipping though, you overshoot and spend more time rewinding back than it's worth. So I watch the ad. When they don't do the eyecatch you know you are in for a local station break of ~7 minutes of crap about shamwow and restless legs that you can zap at will.

    Not *all* the people at these networks are stupid. Hell, Rupert Murdoch is far from stupid himself.

  19. Re:Dollhouse is no Firefly on What Has Fox Got Against Its Own Sci-Fi Shows? · · Score: 1

    FWIW, Dushku is not the Summer Glau equivalent. She's a fairly known actress. She's "Mal". The Glau effect is someone you've never seen before that looks like nobody you've ever seen before. Someone that causes brain lock when she first shows on screen. IS she pretty? Is she too wierd looking to be pretty? Is she an alien or some sort of android from the future? Does she have an interocitor in her dressing room?

    That's clearly Dichen Lachman.

  20. Formants on Wood Density May Explain Stradivarius Secret · · Score: 1

    Ah, but you want those resonance frequencies, or formants. Both for a particular sound color and also to cut through other sounds. The well known "singer's formant" centers around the highest F# on the piano. Opera singers train and train to punch up this harmonic across the actual range of sung notes. There is a hole in the sound frequencies of the entire orchestra that will allow the singer to be heard even while other "louder" instruments are playing.

    Also the varnish may be as important as the source wood in trating the wood to get this evenness of density.

  21. clearbody on Wood Density May Explain Stradivarius Secret · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's a reissue of the Ampeg/Dan Armstrong Clearbody out now. The original ones were OK with a pickup that slid from neck to bridge and were really cheap. The bass was a bit better than the guitar, the guitar had a plain boring tone. The reissue is way to expensive.

  22. Bach-Gesellschaft edition on Provider of Free Public Domain Music Re-Opens · · Score: 1

    I've got the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of the French/English suites on the piano now. It's a perfect example of why other editions exist. It's really quite terrible. It's full of errors and is nearly unplayable. As written it is unplayable, unless you have three hands or can stretch at least a 12th. It's best not to even mention it's treatment of ornaments.

    In contrast, I also have facsimiles of the Cello Suites in Bach's own hand - you can actually play from those once you get used to his handwriting.

  23. he's an F1 designer on Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybrids · · Score: 2, Informative

    this is something most of the posts I see have missed. Not only is he an F1 designer - he's a *good* one. This guy understands perfectly well all the crash dynamics that dozens of posts here are complaining about. Carbon fibres or even the engineered cellulose in an article below this one should be looked at.

  24. chain of custody on How To Spot E-Vote Tampering? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If it is tampered with, it is probably going to before you ever see it. Your watch is not a good target. Too many people and a single hacked machine or two will stand out like a sore thumb to statistical analysis. Much better to get at a bunch of them while they are waiting to be distributed to the polling stations.

    Are you even an interesting target? Would a 2% shading of your numbers change cascading electoral numbers? The perfect crime would be to hack hundreds of machines in a critical state's critical swing districts and then shade the numbers by the tiniest amount needed to do the job. See Ohio in 2004. That kind of electoral sharpshooting is beyond my expertise, but it's part of what makes Rove the power that he is.

    Where did your machine come from? Who guarded it and how? Where did they get it from? Can it be opened with a hotel mini-bar key?

  25. Re:Like most, they misunderstand Webvan on The Greatest Defunct Websites and Dotcom Disasters · · Score: 1

    yup, and these guys
    http://www.geologistics.com/
    are just a company that sells groceries to cruise lines