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User: mikewhittaker

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Comments · 79

  1. Role play on Israeli Army Frowns on D&D · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe it's the role-playing aspect that they don't like - putting yourself in someone else's shoes.

    Heaven forbid that a grunt might think back to being a schoolkid him/her self and not pull the trigger on a child who strayed off a path.

  2. Re:Only a few hours until it makes a crater on Tit on Huygens Probe Prepares for Saturn Moon Landing · · Score: 1
    Beagle 2 was not "European", it was British - and underfunded/done at the last minute.

    See here

    The main ship Beagle was carried on, Mars Express (European) is working fine.

  3. Re:Amazing level of system redundancy on Titan Photos and Sounds · · Score: 1

    No, I believe that the carrier signal could be detected here on Earth, and its Doppler shift change used to determine drift speed of the craft, and hence indirectly, the wind speed.

    Unless I imagined reading it somewhere ...

  4. Re:Barney Google? on Google Tidbits · · Score: 1
    Googol, ten to the hundredth power

    But then, it being US American, are you sure it isn't "ten to the ninety-seventh power", by analogy with billion ?

  5. Re:Why a thank you - look out for global warming on Titan Photos and Sounds · · Score: 1
    That we need to understand our own Earth systems better is highlighted here

    where the TV programme discusses a possibility that currently the worst of global warming caused by CO2 is reduced by atmospheric pollution.

    The pollution messes up monsoons, so is a bad thing it its own right, but if we remove these "dimming" effects (e.g. by stopping all US airline flights on 12th Sep 2001) then temperatures start to shoot up.

    Hence a conclusion that we might be balancing on a knife-edge ...

  6. Re:Amazing level of system redundancy on Titan Photos and Sounds · · Score: 1

    Except note that "the tone" gave them some useful wind speed data ...

  7. Re:Serious question - data per pixel on Titan Photos and Sounds · · Score: 1
    Also, it's not "three times as much data per pixel".
    A 4.0 megapixel camera has (typically) 1 million "red" sensitive pixels, 1 million "blue" and 2 million "green".
    RGRGRGRGRGRG ... GBGBGBGBGBGB... RGRG ... ...
    So it doesn't have 4 million independent RGB data triplets - it has 4 million RGB data triplets where the missing pair of colours at each point was generated by software interpolation from the surrounding elements.

    So the raw data from an 8-bit 4 meg camera sensor occupies 4 meg rather than 4x3 meg.

  8. Re:We need high res pics - coding on Titan Photos and Sounds · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Also be aware that JPEG is perceptual coding, meaning it's good for us looking at pictures - but not necessarily good for scientific data, since it throws away what might be significant data that might be "boring" to the human eye.

    If you're spending that amount to get a result, you want all the data.

  9. Oh ye of little faith ? on Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional · · Score: 1
    So let's get this straight:
    • Creationists suggest that the Universe arrived in some flat-pack form from Ikea, because "otherwise things wouldn't fit together, would they"
    • non-Creationists suggest that the Universe "just growed"

    This is like saying that all trees must have been bought in tubs from a garden centre, because it's "too unlikely" that they grew from a seed.

    Now which, for those who wish to think about such things, is the greater miracle, and if you like, the greater "demonstration" of "creation".

    For my money, it's the Universe that was initiated in a big bang. That is awesome (look up "awe") - inherent in a quantum fluctuation giving rise to spacetime is the possibility of life, and McDonalds(tm).

    So the Creationists don't think "God" could do that ? Who lacks faith in the Almighty now ?

  10. GDP figures - Ireland the richest in the EU ??? on Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional · · Score: 1
    The richest EU country--Ireland???
    EU GDP data from Eurostat 2004 Q3 figures in million Euros, descending order, plus US for comparison
    • US:2417123
    • DE:545010
    • UK:432504
    • FR:406262
    • IT:33 9454
    • ES:199889
    • NL:116479
    • BE:71223
    • AT:59216
    • DK :48862
    • EL:41860
    • FI:37150
    • IE:36372

    From which we can see that Germany as a whole has a GDP of 1/5 of the US.
    Ireland has the 12th highest GDP in the EU, and its GDP was 1/66 of the US GDP.
  11. Re:I'm an American...humility on Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional · · Score: 1
    Perhaps a student of history can correct me, but I get the feeling that with Europe's history of persecution between Roman Catholics and Protestants of various denominations, people in Europe generally are these days more willing to see another's point of view, or at least to tolerate it, perhaps even leading to a more secular, but nonetheless moral society; though we still see divisions, for example in Northern Ireland.

    Whereas many of the religious sects and branches of Protestantism who felt oppressed or threatened by life in Europe emigrated to America in order to set up religious societies where they did not need to come into contact with outside influences; perhaps the Amish being a case in point.

    My understanding therefore from a European view is that the Creationist standpoint harks back to the mindset of those settlers of the 18th century, who were dogmatic in their beliefs, and, rather like the Israelites of the Old Testament, felt they would only come to salvation by ever-closer adherance to the letter of the law as set down in the scriptures.

    And as we know from 21st century media, a set of writings, especially those translated from two millenia ago, can be reinterpreted to agree with different agendas.

    Those religions that claim to have all the answers seem to me to be lacking fundamentally in one attribute they all preach, which is humility and respect for others.

  12. Re:I'd just like to say... on A Scanner Darkly Sneak-Peek · · Score: 1

    Surely you go to see a good story, not just good visuals ?

  13. Re:Fun but dangerious? on Google Exposes Web Surveillance Cams · · Score: 2, Funny
    I presume the Bushism in the Subject was intentional ;-)

    Incidentally, Bush was born in Connecticut, so I often wonder why they call Texas his home state.

    Adopted, I suppose.

  14. non-PC on CES Tidbits · · Score: 1

    I suppose a "tidbit" is a post-Janet-Jackson "titbit" ? Less etymologically correct anyhow.

  15. Which Americans ? on Top 25 Innovations of the Past 25 Years · · Score: 1
    ... are readily recognizable by most Americans ...

    But they don't specify North or South Americans - presume they must mean both continents, which could affect the choices ;-)

  16. Which amputees ... on Cybernetic Prosthetics for Amputees · · Score: 1
    Not that I wish anything but the best for them, but I presume the poster meant to say "returning US civilian and military amputees".

    I just hope to whichever god you subscribe to that the people who are supposed to benefit from all this, the Iraqis, come out better in the next few months, despite the best efforts of their misguided and murderous "insurgents".

  17. Re:A unique and amazing ecoregion on Countries Plan Land Rush in Warming Arctic · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why do you hate America? Do you want to see more people die? Why do you like to see people die?

    Unfortunately that same level of debate seems to apply to issues in the Palestine region ... if you criticise one party, you're a holocaust-denier, if you criticise the other, you're condoning ethnic cleansing.

    This unfortunately then dissuades the majority from intelligent discourse.

  18. Re: Terminology abuse, dammit on Gates Nose-Dives at CES · · Score: 1
    "Anarchist government" is an oxymoron

    No, it's a contradiction.

    An oxymoron is something slightly different.

  19. Telescope Optics on Laser Painting Could Lead to 25-Year Prison Term · · Score: 1

    Better suggest police helos don't fly over astronomy sites using adaptive optics - they shine lasers into the sky to allow their optics to compensate for atmospheric fluctuations.

  20. Re:Where'sTheFuel? on The Physics of the Hydrogen Economy · · Score: 1
    A better project would be a photosynthetic "fuel cell" which used atmospheric CO2 (sorry, no tags), water and sunlight to provide direct electricity using the electrons from the active part of the chlorophyll reaction.

    Or failing that, one which burned the resulting compound to provide motive power, in a carbon-neutral reaction.

    Or, I suppose, a more efficient photovoltaic cell - since, all we're wanting to do here is convert sunlight to energy, like those bugs and plants did when the fossil fuels were being formed many millions of years ago.

  21. Make better use of what we've got on The Physics of the Hydrogen Economy · · Score: 1
    Why is there interest in H2 as an energy "source" ?

    Could it be because of the negative connotations of carbon-based fuels ? (I did Physics and Chemistry at university; those atmospheric CO2 and ocean heat conveyor graphs sure get me worried).

    In which case, how about making (much) better use of the existing hydrocarbon fuels ?

    I hear that the dreaded SUVs are getting on for half as efficient as standard saloon cars, even US saloons !

    Most of the rest of the economy (outsourcing, downsizing ...) seems to be hell-bent on greater "efficiency" - how come the motor industry has the attitude "we don't like the sound of this, we'll bury our heads in the sand and believe it's nothing to do with us".

    Or maybe it's the customers who buy these things that need educating in global citizenship ... that we live in a finite set of interdependent systems, you can't just "go west" if you run out.

    Doesn't win any votes though ...

    PS Why doesn't Slashdot support <sub> tags ?

  22. Re:Autocompletion and suggestion in del.icio.us on Folksonomies In Del.icio.us and Flickr · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't that be "nutr.itio.us" ?

    Or don't they have a dictionary ?

  23. Re:I don't have diabetes on Designing Diabetes Gear? · · Score: 1

    "Natural" insulin production is geared to blood glucose levels, which fluctuate over a relatively short interval, hence any attempt to mimic natural behaviour should use blood levels, although a urine test is a reasonable diagnostic measure - it cannot accurately reflect the current blood level however.

    In addition, damage from hyperglycemia is caused by excess blood glucose, so you /do/ want to be monitoring this.

    Believe me, you can get used to extracting a drop of blood. The "autolet" device is a penlike object with builtin spring-loaded (replaceable) spike that 'lets' you prick a finger without any hassle. Load-touch-release (ow!), squeeze to get a big enough droplet, and apply it to the sensor.

    Any embedded monitor would need to be completely under the skin if it were not to run into problems with infection - maybe someone else knows about these.

  24. Not exactly recent news ... on Indoor Tropical Island · · Score: 1

    (Tuesday December 21, 2004)
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,13777 12,00.h tml

  25. Re:OpenGL is the Future on Does Linux Have Game? · · Score: 1

    I'm sure people have made /shed loads/ of great suggestions regarding C++ extensions, but guess what, they were all ignored and I'm /still/ using C++.

    What a stick-in-the-mud I am.