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User: MFriis

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  1. Re:Yay for faux currency! on Ethereum Could Be Worth More Than Bitcoin Very Soon (inc.com) · · Score: 1

    I don't have a stake in any cryptocurrency, probably for most of the same reasons you don't.

    But honestly, isn't what makes a currency trustable that it's backed by something of value which has something to lose should it fail? It's not gold anymore but rather the trustworthyness of the country and the corporations within. Dollars are hardly even on print anymore, most of it being digital.

    So if a cryptocurrency is backed by big corporations who actually have something to lose should it fail, how is it different from "real" money? NSA isn't going to take away something MS and Bank of America is lobbying your policiticians for.

    Bitcoin certainly doesn't have this support, but it sounds like Ethereum is, at least, starting to get there.

  2. Or maybe, just maybe, do both. Provide healthy meals and encourage outdoor activities.

    Portion sizes have likely changed a lot since you were a kid. I am only 30ish and remember a screw capsule glass bottle of coca cola lasting almost an entire week.
    There is an excellent comparisson of mickeyd' portion sizes through the ages (and countries) somewhere. They are likely not alone to have increased it over the years.

    In Denmark it's quite rare to find a school that actually provides meals. Everyone has to bring a lunch from home which puts the responsibility firmly in the hands of the parents.

  3. Is this a lot? on NASA Spends 72 Cents of Every SLS Dollar On Overhead Costs, Says Report (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Obviously it sounds like a lot, but i haven't been able to find any source on what they define as overhead. I also have no idea how much the normal overhead is.

    It sounds like any cost not going towards a private company is accounted as overhead. Surely NASA has expenses internally that wouldn't make sense to call overhead.

  4. Re:Will it be entertaining? on Self-Driving Car Speed Race Ends With A Crash (electrek.co) · · Score: 1

    It's a bit more complicated than that. Autonomous vehicles rely on a constant balancing-act between calculating actions perfectly based on sensor input, and speed. The faster the vehicle travels, the less accurate the calculations have to be to keep up.

    I can certainly see the potential in "one-upmanship" when it comes to equations, calculations and intepretation of sensorinput while pushing the speed to the absolute.

    They could make it more fun if they banned preprogrammed track knoweledge.

  5. Re:Managers and engineers on Goldman Sachs Automated Trading Replaces 600 Traders With 200 Engineers (technologyreview.com) · · Score: 1

    I think this point is that once you and the other willing party is done trading tulips ad infinitum someone figures out it's not worth what they thought. The whole pyramid falls down and left behind is those that trusted the business.

    Those with a house with a mortgage based on stocks/bonds/currency.
    Those with pensions savings invested in otherwise "non risky" stocks.

    You are not trading coins or stamps. You are pumping and draining in a complex ecosystem whose success or fall has huge ramifications for billions of people.

    I am not saying what you are doing is wrong or right, i don't know you. But day/minute/second trading is not just a hobby between willing participants.

  6. I know it sounds crazy, but last i heard the Irish government refused the money. Has that changed? Ireland is a very interresting place to do international business and i suppose this backtax issue is something Google and Amazon are paying very close attention to.

  7. Re:No need to space mine on Satellite Spots Massive Object Hidden Under the Frozen Wastes of Antarctica (thesun.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    That certainly depends on what it's made of. Best case is the asteroid is leftovers from a dieing star after undergoing multiple fusions. Gold forexample is rarer than carbon because it requires a lot more nuclear reactions, and not all stars make it that far. It's far more likely to stop at Carbon (which ends up as rocks) or Iron (FE). Simple way (but crude and potentially wrong in some cases) to see how rare something will be is to look at a periodic table. Fusion starts with Hydrogen or Helium and once it's over the nuclear reactions start going through the table until the energy is spent.

  8. Asteroids unlikely to hit polar regions on Satellite Spots Massive Object Hidden Under the Frozen Wastes of Antarctica (thesun.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I must admit all my orbital experience comes from reddit and Kerbal Space Program. BUT isn't it highly unlikely that an asteroid would hit a polar region? Rotation of earth, aswell as our trajectory around the sun and our solar systems trajectory around the galaxy all make it much easier for asteroids, especially big ones, to come at earth from the side. The closer to the equator the more likely to hit. Based on all the the observed craters by the lunar and planetary institute (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/epo_web/impact_cratering/World_Craters_web/worldcraters_maps.jpg) it looks like the northern hemisphere is even more favoured to be hit. So with the low odds of it being an asteroid, what are they basing their assumption on?

  9. Not availiable in most of the world on Grand Tour 'Most Illegally Downloaded TV Show In History' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AFAIK Prime Video is only available in United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. Leaving much of the world without a way to watch the new show. I don't consider it an excuse to pirate it, but i can certainly understand why so many would download it illegally when they have no legal means of acquiring it. Prime Video used to be in the nordic countries but was close in 2014 for unknown reasons (probably not that popular). I hope Amazon can see a potential in this widespread piracy and start offering it through legal means to more people. It worked for HBO with GOT in the nordic countries when they started offering their content through "HBO Nordic".

  10. Re:Michael Flynn Jr believes it on Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    He said league, not degees. League, any of several European units of measurement ranging from 2.4 to 4.6 statute miles (3.9 to 7.4 km). In English-speaking countries the land league is generally accepted as 3 statute miles (4.83 km), although varying lengths from 7,500 feet to 15,000 feet (2.29 to 4.57 km) were sometimes employed

  11. Scale differently on Ask Slashdot: Why Are American Tech Workers Paid So Well? · · Score: 2

    My workplace is dabbling a bit with outsourcing aswell. It's a scalability attempt, we simply cannot find enough people to keep doing what were doing with the amount of work we are expected to do in the future. We make marketing websites and apps for a wide range of inhouse products. One department is outsourcing to India, they keep doing what we have always done, just with more hands and more management. Another department is changing the techstack, trying to scale differently, make the tech require fewer hands, use the same content across devices, componentify code. Essentially move our approach to a more stabile platform that enabled configuration. Not sure which is going to "win" but i know our colleagues in the other department would rather come work with what we are doing, rather than micromanage the indian teams.

  12. I work for a toy manufacturor in Denmark. We buy up all kinds of shitty domains to prevent idiots from squatting, spoofing or mocking. We even bought up our companies name as a TLD, despite having no wish to use it for anything. I really hope ICANN doesn't come up with anymore common TLD's. Buying .xxx domains solely to protect your companies reputation is nothing but extorition and tax.

  13. I don't disagree with you. Corporate agendas are not rare. However i do think there is a difference between being blatantly in support of a candidate (which from the view of a humble european, like me, is the case with Fox News) and having a slightly favourable selection algorythm that favours one candidate. I don't know enough about the laws and regulations of the US to judge, but what facebook does seems close to subliminal marketing which the FCC revokes broadcast licences for. Is it too big a stretch to compare news nudging to subliminal messaging? I doubt the consumer knows they are being manipulated.

  14. Re: The way of the Sega on Super Mario Is Coming To The iPhone (popularmechanics.com) · · Score: 1

    I take it you refer to Crazy Taxi? (Segas take on temple run). It seems to be doing rather well. However its probably the miriad of Sonic games thats the real kicker. They also have a successfull Football manager app which i am told has some quite popular ingame purchases. All in all i would say Sega is doing pretty good on the app front: https://itunes.apple.com/us/de...

  15. Re:Better Hide Because it Can't Fight. on The New F-35 Is So Stealthy, It's Harder To Train Pilots (airforcetimes.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seeing the F4 is still in service, Widely used up until the 90s, still holds several world records and supports a wide variety of mission types. I think we should be lucky if the F35 is anything like it. Neither were dogfigthers, but maybe neither deserves to be compared to an F-15. I am sure we can find many other things to critize that it actually claims to be good at. Denmark (where i am from) are replacing our fleet of F16's with the F35. I think were getting about 27. This is an odd choice since our primary purpose for the jets is to engage Russian fighters when they press our airspace. We need a detterent (radar visible) air supremecy jet, and chose the F35 for that. Great idea right?

  16. Re:Jammers and video cameras? on Iraq Shuts Down Internet In Entire Country To Prevent Exam Cheating (softpedia.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In a country where disabling the internet in it's entirety is the only tool to prevent exam cheating, i am sure they can use jammers without legal consequenses.

  17. Re:The Microsoft slashdot .. on Skype is Getting Cortana and Crazy Bot Messaging (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Microsoft just held their Build conferrence. I am sure if you look back at what articles came out immediately after Code and WWDC you will see an increase of articles from Google and Apple aswell. I am glad /. put's up articles that are newsworthy rather than try to balance a quota between the majors.

  18. More interresting used in reverse on UK Gov't Launches Public Consultation On Porn-Site Age Checks (bbc.co.uk) · · Score: 1, Troll

    Very few websites, services or media targets children. It's insanely complex to meet the demands of COPPA or similiar legislation. As a developer who works with software for children the outcome of this consultation is very interresting. Using the system in reverse to verify the person is actually a kid is very interresting. Currently we have to resort to parents paying $1, scanning passports, doing ackward skype calls or some combination of those. I hope they end up with something really cool and usable. Not to save kids from porn, but to open the internet more up for kids.

  19. Re:$40K still a lot for most folks on Cheap At $40,000: Phoenix Exoskeleton Gives Paraplegics Legs to Walk With · · Score: 1

    The price doesn't seem overly high compared to similiar products. A powered wheelchair easily costs between 6000$ and 10.000$. I reckon the competitiveness of that market is much greater than that of the exoskeleton. With a few competitors and some production facilities i can see this competing with wheelchairs within a few years.

  20. Re:Give it time on Cheap At $40,000: Phoenix Exoskeleton Gives Paraplegics Legs to Walk With · · Score: 1

    We have actually been close for quite some time. Oscar Pistorius was at 21,30s @ 200 meters. WR is 19.19s His time is better than that of the women in the non paraolympics.