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User: profplump

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  1. Re:On this 4th of July... on Qualcomm Takes Down 100+ GitHub Repositories With DMCA Notice · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No. It's not sufficient to be "factually wrong" -- the claims must be "knowingly false". You can issue all the "accidental" takedown notices you want without any fear of being sued over it. Which is nothing like 100 year ago.

  2. Re:detroit vs SV? on Google, Detroit Split On Autonomous Cars · · Score: 2

    First, the problems you describe exist in build HVAC systems as well. When you enter air conditioning from someplace hot it would often be nice to have a couple of minutes of cold air blasted at you. And there are lots of building spaces with very high throughput both in terms of people and airflow, but we don't just throw our hands up and say "thermostats can never work here".

    Second, it sounds like you're asking for a smarter thermostat than the 20s technology in many homes. That's a perfectly reasonable request, but not nearly as exotic as you make it out to be. Even sub-$50 home thermostats do things like predictive pre-heating/pre-cooling to meet scheduled setpoints, control of multi-stage or multi-element systems (i.e. support for a single air handler with multiple heating or cooling elements, or a multi-speed air handler), and have the ability to override automated regulation with manual inputs when desired. It's all well within the realm of possibility for car, and has been for years, it's just poorly done which was the original complaint.

  3. Re:detroit vs SV? on Google, Detroit Split On Autonomous Cars · · Score: 1

    A thermostat still provides a simple "I'm too hot" and "I'm too cold" control. It just means that variations in engine temperature don't require me to adjust the climate setting. Likewise cars could still provide multi-zone control, both with their own thermostats, to accommodate the scenario you note above.

  4. Re:So....far more than guns on CDC: 1 In 10 Adult Deaths In US Caused By Excessive Drinking · · Score: 1

    Guns make people more effective at suicide than many other tools. Eliminating guns wouldn't solve the underlying problem, but it would move some numbers from the "suicide" column to the "attempted suicide" column, and at least some people see that as desirable.

  5. Re:Chicago Blackhawks too? on Washington Redskins Stripped of Trademarks · · Score: 1

    You are allowed to be offended. That's a perfectly valid feeling and anyone that tells you otherwise is probably wrong.

    But society places all sorts of restrictions on individual freedom. The trade been individual freedom and the power of collective action is the basis of society -- we agree to protect you from murder, and you agree not to murder anyone. We've long since agreed not to socially acceptable to call people names they don't like, unless that label is itself contrary to societal values and factual (i.e. murder). It's literally one of the first things we teach children, and it's a more or less globally held value.

    If you'd like to change that belief, or convince us that your beliefs are tolerable in society, feel free to try. No one will stop you -- you've already posted to the public Internet and I'm reasonable certain that no one broke down your door and arrested you for that post. But if you hope to convince us though, you might consider avoiding straw men. No one is preventing use of the term "redskin", demanding reparations for previous use thereof, or even suggesting that such things should happen in the future. No one is suggesting that hurt feelings are a reasonable basis for legal decisions.

  6. Re:Chicago Blackhawks too? on Washington Redskins Stripped of Trademarks · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure using centuries of gender discrimination as an example is the best play when trying to defend this position.

    It's also unclear to me why other people having feelings that don't align with yours poses some threat to your rights. What right of yours is being impeded by allow the individuals and groups may choose their own names, like they have since the dawn of time? Is someone discussing a criminal or civil statute that would apply the standard of "at least one person is offended" and impose some penalty or restriction on that basis?

  7. Re:Chicago Blackhawks too? on Washington Redskins Stripped of Trademarks · · Score: 2

    The person or group being named gets to decide what others should call them. This has been true since time immemorial, and it has always been considered disrespectful to do otherwise. It's particularly offensive when the term being used is itself derogatory, as is the case here.

  8. Re:unhackable....Challange accepted on DARPA Unveils Hack-Resistant Drone · · Score: 1

    If only there was some sort of completely internal guidance system available for aircraft.

  9. Re:ISDN flashback on US Wireless Carriers Shifting To Voice Over LTE · · Score: 1

    Absolutely. There's nothing to stop you using a modem with your voice link. As in the ISDN days the bandwidth is much more limited when you used the encoded voice channel, and as with all voice connections you can only reach one endpoint at a time, but if you want to setup a PPP gateway someplace you can call into it and slowly exchange data with it all day long.

    I suspect you'll have trouble improving upon the $/byte ratio when limiting yourself to cellular modem speeds -- your voice channel is probably less than 20 kbps (8.7 MB/hour) or usable bandwidth, but it's absolutely something you could do.

  10. Re:Does VoLTE work from one carrier to another? on US Wireless Carriers Shifting To Voice Over LTE · · Score: 2

    It doesn't. They can terminate the VoIP call to the PSTN. It's just that when they control both ends it's possible for the devices to talk directly to each other, using whatever route the IP network finds most efficient, rather than forcing all calls out onto the PSTN or through their central VoIP server.

    It's nothing different than the way SIP calling works today in non-mobile contexts -- all setup goes through a central server, and the server *can* route to non-SIP targets or forward voice traffic between SIP targets that can't reach each other, but it's *also* possible to bypass the server for voice data if the endpoints can reach each other directly and speak the same language.

  11. Re:Why can't it be both? on Should Tesla Make Batteries Instead of Electric Cars? · · Score: 3, Informative

    If they make good batteries and sell them at a reasonable price, other will buy them. Take a look at say, projector LCD panels -- Epson makes essentially all of them, but you can buy projectors with a wide variety of designs from a number of manufacturers. And that's hardly the only example.

  12. Re:Why can't it be both? on Should Tesla Make Batteries Instead of Electric Cars? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tesla doesn't produce the consumable fuel (electricity), just the durable storage device. And while car manufacturers certainly might outsource a fuel tank, no one would consider it unusual for them to make their own either.

  13. Re:No Threat To Thunderbolt on Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+? · · Score: 1

    But if you had external PCIe you wouldn't need to choose between a workstation and a laptop -- you could have a laptop when you wanted mobility, and with the connection of a cable you could have a workstation. You wouldn't haul around your PCI cards any more than you haul around your monitor -- you'd just have the option to ditch them for the times when you need mobility more than capability, and you could make that choice flexibly, after the fact, without hassling with (or purchasing) multiple machines.

    It's like a docking system, but without the "only available on certain models" and "only available with the bits we think you want" and "only available from the system OEM" and "not forward compatible" limitations of a dock.

  14. Re:So in other words, it will be just like Firewir on Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+? · · Score: 1

    Not all boards are designed to allow arbitrary DMA; modern memory control systems can provide segment protection for hardware just like they have for decades for software. And on systems that do not provide such protections the OS can disable DMA access -- Windows 8.1 disables DMA at boot and whenever the system sleeps/hibernates/etc., and linux has provisions to forbid the use of DMA while otherwise allowing normal access to devices.

  15. Re:So in other words, it will be just like Firewir on Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+? · · Score: 1

    It's useful for anything that wants lots of power or space, which includes things like high-end GPUs, disk arrays, anything with lots of physical connectors (like analog capture devices), as well as various special-purpose ASICs and the like. It's all stuff you *can* do in a big case, or with a custom cabling system, but it's nice to have external be an option and use standard cable.

    One of the obvious applications is desktop use of laptops. I'd like a super-thin, low-weight, long-battery-life laptop for mobile use. I'd also like a high-end GPU, full-sized Ethernet ports, and a slew of USB/etc. connections when I'm at my desk. Currently the solution to that problem is a device-specific dock that supports precisely what the laptop manufacturer decides it will (if the even offer one). External PCIe means nVidia can sell me a GPU that plugs into any laptop (and can be used with more than one laptop), and I can add whatever other bits I like individually or as packaged by arbitrary third-party manufacturers.

  16. Re:There's a reason books can't be updated on US Navy Develops World's Worst E-reader · · Score: 1

    If you can't smuggle data in a book, you're doing it wrong.

    You might also recall that submarines are not known for their spacious interiors.

    Good luck with your sticky, stiff, wet books.

  17. Re:Don't connect them to the Internet on Eavesdropping With a Smart TV · · Score: 2

    Yes. Wake-on-LAN and power management. Super scary stuff there. Thanks for the warning.

  18. Re:Let's save Bennett some time on Really, Why Are Smartphones Still Tied To Contracts? · · Score: 1

    If you're willing to spend 3 months living in a box outside your place of employment until you've saved enough money to put down a deposit on an apartment that's a great plan. Otherwise it's not self-hosting -- you need savings to get started.

  19. Re:Technically, it is on Verizon and New Jersey Agree 4G Service Equivalent to Broadband Internet · · Score: 1

    But they aren't using wireless for the backhaul, they're using it for the last mile. And they're doing it because it's cheaper and quicker to install than improved wireline connections.

    So if they want to use wireless to meet this obligation they should be held to the same standard as if they had met it with wireline service.

  20. Re:in this thread on Verizon and New Jersey Agree 4G Service Equivalent to Broadband Internet · · Score: 1

    Your point appears to be "it can't be changed, so start planning for change".

  21. Re:in this thread on Verizon and New Jersey Agree 4G Service Equivalent to Broadband Internet · · Score: 1

    And so your solution is to do nothing? And you expect people to agree with you?

  22. Re:Democracy at work on Verizon and New Jersey Agree 4G Service Equivalent to Broadband Internet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SCOTUS just told us that it's only a bribe if you can prove quid-pro-quo. Which essentially means bribes *are* legal.

    Besides that, the idea that "buying a politician" and "buying an election" are separate is absurd. If you want to call them independent contractors feel free, but the flow of money and control are unaffected by such labels.

  23. Re:Wasn't allocation always the problem? on ARIN Is Down To the Last /8 of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 1

    PTR records can be delegated with a CNAME record. Not that anyone does this, but it's the recommended solution when delegating IPs.

  24. Re:About time! on ARIN Is Down To the Last /8 of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 1

    35 IPv4 address is the same amount of data as ~9 IPv6 addresses. So I feel like you have the capability to remember them if you so desired.

    Also your important services should be at well-known addresses -- like $PREFIX::1, just like people frequently use in IPv4 -- to make the addresses easier to remember.

  25. Re:Horse alternative on NYC's 19th-Century Horse Carriages Spawn Weird, Truck-Size Electric Car · · Score: 1

    They're doing it for the nostalgia -- they currently use horses, but there's more than one way to convince people they're doing something nostalgic.