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User: skeptikal

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Comments · 14

  1. Pancakes... on Steve Forbes: Bitcoin Not Money · · Score: 1

    Remember way back he was advising his readers buying real estate, at the same time he was secretly dumping it?

  2. Better editors, anyone... on Internet's Energy Needs Growing Faster Than Efficiency Gains · · Score: 1

    >>> Electrons may not weigh anything, but it takes some heavy lifting...

    Year-on-year the editing gets worse and worse.

    What are we, 5-th graders?

  3. Karbonn A1 costs about $65... on Ask Slashdot: Why Buy a Raspberry Pi When I Have a Perfectly Good Cellphone? · · Score: 1

    ... Karbonn A1 costs about $65, with a 3mp camera, 3.5 inch LCD, Android, wireless, battery, etc... the real deal...

    Why would I pay 100+ for a substantially lower setup, is beyond me, unless I buy it to scratch my soldering itch.

    But then again, I would pay $65 and take the Karbonn apart, and solder to it whatever I feel like it.

    http://www.siliconindia.com/gadget/news/10-Cheapest-Android-Phones-in-India-nid-141826.html

  4. Substitute "system" with "marriage" and... on Systemantics · · Score: 1

    lo... behold:

    New problems are created by its very presence.
    Once set up, it won't go away, it grows and encroaches.
    It begins to do strange and wonderful things.
    It breaks down in ways you never thought possible.
    It kicks back, gets in the way, and opposes its own proper function.
    Your own perspective becomes distorted by being in the system.
    You become anxious and push on it to make it work.

    Cheers,

  5. Sex, no drugs and a bit of alKohol on What Do You Do To Relieve Lower Back Pain? · · Score: 2

    Prescription:

    1. One pillow
    2. One asian girl
    3. One shot gin&tonic on rocks

    Applied:

    1. Lay on your back
    2. Place the pillow under your lower back
    3. Position carefully the girl on
    top of of your lower back
    4. Gently rock the girl for about 10 min.
    5. After completion, down the shot
    6. Have a good sleep

    Best results achieved with a japanese girl,
    a chinese one also very good in trained properly.

  6. plain txt passwd on Carnivore Meta-Report Released · · Score: 1

    > Apart from the issue of a compiled-in password, standard practice calls for such passwords to be one-way hashes, rather than plaintext.

    Tells you volumes, uhh...

  7. You can do it on Work Options In The U.S. When Student Visas Expire? · · Score: 1

    There are two ways to do it: 1) Curricular practical training (CPT) This gives the student rights to work half-time for any company as long as the student is registered full-time and work full-time as long as the student is registered for at least one credit. The work should be study-related and requires only a signiture by the major professor or advisor. You cannot be a CS major and work part-time delivering pizzas. You can work more than a year full-time, but if you do it, you lose the right for the second type of work, OPT. However, you can work as long as you wish part-time without losing the right to do OPT. CPT is usually used when the student has to do summer internship or a brief contract work. 2) Optional Practical Training (OPT) You have to apply for OPT with INS. The approval takes about 3 months, so plan in advance. Also once applied, that's it. It is for up to one year, in the field of study, after graduation or 3 months prior to graduation. Basically this is for students who graduate and want to have one year full-time work experience after graduation. You can do it only once. You can specify the date on which it will take force. Like, I am graduating Dec. 2000, and now I send the OPT application and specify Jan. 01. as a beginning date. Usually what intl. students do is the following. They do CPT for the summer, and if the company likes them, after graduation they do OPT, and meanwhile the company applies for H-1. If the advisor is cool, he/she will let you register for one credit, defend the next semester in absentia, sign the CPT for one semester, meanwhile you submit the application for OPT, this will give you great flexibility and more time for the company to apply for H-1, as the caps run out quickly. The congress I think either passed a legislation to double the caps or is going to do it. And they better do it, because there is a shortage of skilled professionals. I don't mean bachelors, but MS and PhD. There are plenty of CS and EE and CE majors, but the level of the skilled ones (PhD and MS) is very low. Even big companies like IBM, HP and Lucent are forced to hire foreigners because of shortage of citizens. Again, I am talking big research, not Perl scripting or JAVA and CORBA. For these there are plenty of bachelors willing to do it. This is however off topic.

  8. Re:first electronic computers on First Digital Computer Dates back To 1944 · · Score: 1

    ABC was using vacuum tubes, not relays. Some of these tubes are on display in Durham Hall in Iowa State along with the memory drum. Also there is a working replica of the computer, full with vacuum tubes. The electromechanical part was the drums containing the programs -- similar to a punch card, like a music box.

  9. Get a degree on Moving From Tech Into Management? · · Score: 1

    Do what I do: back to school and get an MBA. It's fun,
    it's academical, and there are some
    terrific looking girls which almost
    made me regret that I chose a technical
    field 12 years ago :)))))))))

    BTW the math will make you laugh.
    In recent days I show up only for quizes
    and midterms (and for the girls!!)

  10. Re:Great. on GPS Civilian Signal Degradation Turned Off · · Score: 1

    No, you may keep using it. The
    degradation is/was introduced in the
    signal, not in the receptor device.
    The signal was degraded by adding a random
    walk component with mean your current position and
    certain sigma which they now set to zero.
    There was a way before to eliminate the
    degradation, for which you needed two
    GPS receivers, one stationary, another (yours)
    mobile. So, this will eliminate the need of the
    stationary one and cut costs and make your life
    easier. Otherwise, whoever wanted a precise
    GPS signal could have gotten it anyway, at the
    price of a second GPS receiver.

    Best,

  11. Use Mathematica on Open Source Symbolic Math Program? · · Score: 2

    I am a quantum physicist and did
    some quantum chemistry for a couple
    of years. Mathematica is excellent
    for symbolic computations.

    >On occasion I've used Mathematica or Maple to
    >simplify the process, but
    >only rarely because (i)
    >they're not much better than plain paper and pen

    I completely disagree about that. Give me a pen
    example and I'll do it for you with Mathematica.
    I have solved symbolic systems of diff. eqns
    which otherwise freak you out just by thinking about.

    Best,

  12. Hedging on Rumblings of MS Office for Linux at CeBIT · · Score: 1

    Hedging the risk, and diversifying on the
    market, nothing else. This has nothing
    to do with any technical reason. If they
    split the company, guess what will happen.
    The app. part will scramble for any penny
    they can get a hold on. I think this is
    the smartest move they could possibly make now.
    In short term this will give them a huge
    leap, although in a long run who knows
    what will happen. Quite a few times they have
    proved they can make up pretty quickly
    for very nearsighted dessions.

    Anyone else on that?

  13. Re:offshore confusion -answers on Nauru: Real life Kinakuta · · Score: 2

    > to hide in the Caymans this isn't a problem.
    > From that point you're a Citizen of THERE, and
    > not of the US and no longer bound by silly IRS
    > codes.

    Dream on. I am working here, and I am a citizen
    of another coutry, and paying taxes like anyone
    else. I suggest to read the appropriate IRS docs
    otherwise you are in trouble. Even worse, I pay
    three times higher taxes that you on certain
    income (the so called "Income not connected with
    US business") unless this money goes directly
    outside US, for example business deals in my
    country and deposited in my country's bank
    acount. But in that case IRS does not care anyway.
    Also if you lived in US for more that four
    years, you are treated as a US permanent resident
    for tax pusposes, altough you are screwed as
    a foreigner in any other way. When Uncle Sam
    wants his cut, nothing can stop him from coming
    up with any law that surves the purpose.

    > transfer monies to and from your brokerage
    ...
    > but the IRS has no way of obtaining the information.

    Worse, each brokerage transaction gets immediately reported to the IRS, not just transactions above 10 grands. Even if you keep money cash, not in stocks, the broker keeps them in a money market account. Where else this interest comes from?

    If you really beleive in what you said, and are doing this, I suggest that you get the he.. out
    of US before IRS raids your business. You can read
    the Senate hearing if you don't believe me,
    I just forgot the url with the horror stories.

    Best,

  14. DNA denatures above 40 Centigrade on DNA Strands as Semiconductors · · Score: 1

    DNA denatures above 40 C. Moreover,
    300 MHz will frie the molecule
    beyond recognition...