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User: StikyPad

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  1. Re:Krm on How Google Searches Are Promoting Genocide Denial · · Score: 1

    It's ok, we don't know what a dotless ii sounds like anyway.

  2. Re:The problem is the ads don't show the sponsor on How Google Searches Are Promoting Genocide Denial · · Score: 2

    Because that's worked so well for political ads? "Paid for by Citizens for Knowledge? I hate knowledge! I'm not listening to this nonsense!"

  3. Re:The alternative is... What, exactly? on How Google Searches Are Promoting Genocide Denial · · Score: 1

    The standard for free speech can't be whether or not a person believes what they're saying, otherwise we couldn't have religion, politics, or girlfriends.

  4. Again? on Ham Radio Fills Communication Gaps In Nepal Rescue Effort · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

  5. Re:The 90s all over again... on Why Crypto Backdoors Wouldn't Work · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They didn't get their way through other means really. Mass surveillance doesn't trump encryption -- on the contrary, encryption is the only protection against mass surveillance. I think it was more that encryption just wasn't used for most communications, so they realized it was a moot point. Now that companies are shifting toward end-to-end encryption, it's becoming relevant again.

  6. Re:Aggressive schedule on Meet the Firmware Lead For Google's Project Ara Modular Smartphone (Video) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which is still 5 years before this kid's 18th birthday, by the looks of it. And here I thought sweatshops were the only ones using child labor.

  7. Re:But will it blend? on Breakthough Makes Transparent Aluminum Affordable · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BLEND, not bend. 20 replies and nobody noticed?

    And besides, Kevlar bends just fine.

  8. Re:Fins - probably not. on US Successfully Tests Self-Steering Bullets · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is the most information I could find. Maybe someone else can do better:

    Design and Demonstration of a Guided Bullet for Extreme Precision Engagement of Targets at Long Range Performing for the DARPA Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, the team developed a revolutionary .50 caliber bullet guidance system that will be used to produce the smallest, fastest, highest g projectile to date that is fully guided. To perform across a 70,000-g launch acceleration, they designed a first-of-a-kind, two-body bullet with a decoupled aft section that despins from 120,000 to 0 rpm in under 300 ms. This required the implementation of an innovative, alternator controlled, despun aft section that provides sufficient maneuverability but low drag for the bullet to remain supersonic out to maximum range.
    The team worked within an 11-month time frame to deliver a system that exceeded all of the accuracy requirements across a variety of night- and daytime ranges, moving targets, wind speeds and directions, and other environmental conditions. The effort culminated in May with a physics and experimentally-based, fully integrated hardware- and software-in-the-loop demonstration that not only validated superior system performance, but also exceeded designated product requirements over all ranges and all target motion challenges. For this accomplishment, the program was recently awarded Phase II to continue the design and development of the guidance mechanics and electronics in collaboration with a commercial sponsor. The outstanding technical achievements demonstrated in the design, fabrication, simulation, and testing of this miniaturized guidance system are well-deserving of this award.

    http://www.draper.com/Document... (page 109)

    There's also a picture of a model that differs from those that appear in most other press releases.

    From what I could find out, it looks like Draper Laboratories does the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (the interesting part), Teledyne does the optical target acquisition/locking (semi interesting), and Orbital ATK makes the ammunition part -- probably primer, charge, casing, and shell.

  9. Re:Here _I_ come? on US Successfully Tests Self-Steering Bullets · · Score: 1

    In theory maybe. In reality, most criminals are amatuer combatants, at best, and they buy the cheapest, or the most intimidating weapons, not the most effective. And they don't snipe -- they do drive-bys and kick-ins.

    At any rate, there is no law banning steerable bullets, and there's no reason to think there will be. They're much better suited to hunting than to the "thug life" anyway.

  10. Can't punish your customers on University Overrules Professor Who Failed Entire Management Class · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Obviously the university can't afford to punish its customers. At least, not for very long.

    I'm also skeptical that 100% of students deserved to fail. Maybe they did, but that should be a consequence of individual evaluations that have a coincidental outcome, not a group evaluation that affects every individual. The older we get, the more we tend to use the shortcut of categorization instead of individualized evaluation. Categorization is efficient, and often "good enough," but honestly, students deserve the individual evaluation they paid for.

    I had a high school teacher burn out in much the same way. He was actually a great teacher -- excited about the material, animated, and he always encouraged debate. He had a large number of students in one of his classes that would taunt him for childish reasons like his mannerisms, and eventually he lost it and told the entire class that they had failed, and told everyone to report to the principal's office in an expletive-laden tirade. Teachers are people, and they have limits. The behavior of the students was inexcusable, and while the reaction of the teacher was understandable, it was unprofessional and thus unacceptable.

    The entire class did not fail, nor did it deserve to. It wasn't the job of the well-behaving students to moderate the behavior of the bad actors -- the other students were victims as well. I think the lesson is to really nip this sort of thing in the bud. If disruptive students had been removed after a couple of infractions, it would have both decreased the level of disruption and set an example to the rest of the class. Allowing things to get to the point described in the summary is the real failure.

  11. Re:In-depth political analysis on Texas Admonishes Judge For Posting Facebook Updates About Her Trials · · Score: 1

    Also, she's not bad looking as far as judges go. In American politics, good looks count for a lot.

    Fortunately, they really don't. Sarah Palin has had limited success. Michelle Bachman too. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has almost been President once, and may be yet.

    Politics truly is hollywood for the ugly, and attractive politicians are as much the exception as unattractive stars.

  12. Re:Guilty of violating the laws of physics on Texas Admonishes Judge For Posting Facebook Updates About Her Trials · · Score: 1

    I think you'll find that this answers your question: http://science.slashdot.org/st...

  13. Re:Texas Judges on Texas Admonishes Judge For Posting Facebook Updates About Her Trials · · Score: 1

    Don't forget Mike Judge! Probably the only one I'd like to see on the bench.

  14. Re:Pinto on The Engineer's Lament -- Prioritizing Car Safety Issues · · Score: 1

    I'll be fair, since you don't define "safe distance," but I would wager that it's more to do with inattention than distances. I see lots of cars keeping well away from the car in front of them, but keeping too much distance decreases traffic flow since it lowers vehicle density, by definition, and in any semi-urban area, that gap is going to be filled with other cars anyway. Sure, you could make another gap, but that requires you to slow down, which causes the cars behind you to slow down, and probably causes a standstill at some point. All of that to avoid the possibility of a $200 fender bender -- not the guarantee, mind you, just the possibility.

    Or, you could just pay attention. Very rarely do people slam on the brakes out of nowhere. If there's a red light ahead, and you don't see the guy in front of you slowing down, then go ahead and slow down anyway. Keep an eye out for potential risks, and look at the behavior of several vehicles ahead, not just the one directly ahead.

    And as to the original point of poor braking behavior: Traffic laws are designed to make driver behavior predictable. Anything you do that deviates from that predictable behavior increases the chance of an accident, whether that's swerving into oncoming traffic, or unexpectedly slamming on the brakes. If your MO is to mash the brakes at every red light, you're going to get hit eventually.

  15. Re:Inflation, slow Internet, skill, slow PC on Valve Pulls the Plug On Paid Mods For Skyrim · · Score: 1

    In the Super NES era, games used to cost $60, which is about $90-something in today's money after inflation. Now in the Xbox 360 and Xbox One era, games still cost $60. Day one expansions make the extra $30 of content optional to buy.

    You may be right. There's not really any evidence, but it's a plausible theory.

    Here's the thing. The market is much larger now, and the distribution costs have only gone down.

    The best selling game in Super NES history? Super Mario World. Copies? 20.5M.

    Compare that to GTA5, which has shipped over 45M copies to retailers alone, not even counting direct sales/downloads.

    So just the revenue that we have visibility into is 75% higher.

    Here's the other thing. If the game needs to be $90 to be profitable, then set the price at $90. Don't set it at $60 and then nickel and dime everyone to death to make your $90, explaining how they made "optional" parts. "See, the book is only $5, but the ending is another $5, and if you want any of the 5 subplots, those are $1 each." At best, it's betraying the vision of the artist for finished product he wants to be seen. At worst (and the skeptic in me says in most cases), it's deliberately gouging your customers.

  16. Re:Attempting with existing title was a mistake on Valve Pulls the Plug On Paid Mods For Skyrim · · Score: 1

    Sure, you worked you ass to model your armor or level, it is all your content, and you only get 25% of the sale price. However, what is the real value of your product? If you are really good modelling swords, were is the market where you can model a sword and get thousands of people interested in paying $1 or $2 for it? I'd argue a lot of the value you're providing comes not from your mod, but from the framework that allows it to exist in the first place. And you don't own that.

    By that logic, the government should be taxing businesses at 75% because, hey, without their infrastructure, property rights, and policing, where would that business be? And it would be a real shame if anything happened to those property rights...

    *I* would argue that modders are enhancing the value of the game at least as much as the game is enhancing the value of the mods. It's a symbiotic relationship, or it could be, if not for the parasitic fees of the publisher.

  17. Re:Low-hanging fruit... on Turning a Smartphone Display Into a Biometric Scanner · · Score: 1

    Not to be confused with the Five Eyes principle, which means that the government's just going to read it anyway.

  18. Re:Either way on A Guide To the 5 Cybersecurity Bills Now Before Congress · · Score: 1

    We have qualifications to run for Congress now?

  19. Monocoque on Giant Survival Ball Will Help Explorer Survive a Year On an Iceberg · · Score: 1

    Bellini plans to use a lightweight, indestructible floating capsules, or "personal safety systems" made from aircraft-grade aluminum in what's called a continuous monocoque structure

    So a giant ball... made out of a monocoque? Unless I'm mistaken, the emphasis should be on the monoball, since monocoques are the most common variant, while monoballs are somewhat of an exception.

    And sometimes you have bivalves or whatnot, and a monocoque just isn't sufficient. Sometimes what's required is a bicoque. I think the engineers might be relying on false information if they believe the motion of the ocean is going to compensate.

  20. Re:Future Potential on Random Generator Parodies Vapid Startup Websites · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a job for.. Bookmrkr! Do you love bookmarking? What to broadcast your bookmarks to your social network? Check out Bookmrkr!!

  21. Re:Least common denominator on Has the Native Vs. HTML5 Mobile Debate Changed? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If only it were that easy. The problems with cross-platform development are myriad. The LCD experience has already been outlined, so here are the others:

    1) It's write once, TEST everywhere, and you can't debug the code you actually wrote -- only the specific translation of that code into native code. And that sucks beyond words. It can be incredibly time consuming to the point where it easily erases any time you saved in development. And the longer the lifecycle, the more of your budget this is going to consume.

    2) On a related note, profiling and performance tuning is a bear. If you do anything that requires performance, cross-platform is the wrong way to do it.

    3) The potential for bugs is twice as high, because now you don't just have to worry about bugs in the native SDK, but also in the abstraction as well. While the OEM can generally afford to test the hell out of their SDKs, cross-platform suites have much less resources at their disposal. And it shows.

    4) You are always playing catchup. New features take longer to implement, because you have to wait for the third party to either implement the new feature, or to implement it right.

    5) You're needlessly adding another layer of dependence. None of the "popular" third party platforms are anywhere close to guaranteed that they'll be around in a month, or 6 months, let alone 2 years from now. If your favorite library goes away, you find a new one and make a few changes. If your entire SDK goes away, you're fscked.

    If your software doesn't matter at all, if it's just a hobby, has no business case, and you have no plans (or potential) for going commercial, then by all means, use whatever development tool strikes your fancy. Personally, I would never recommend that anyone use cross-platform tools for anything they plan to support indefinitely. Even for a prototype or an MVP -- too often the prototype becomes the codebase for the final software, despite prior assurances to the contrary. Don't waste effort developing something you can't build on, unless you have no other choice.

  22. Re:danger vs taste on Pepsi To Stop Using Aspartame · · Score: 1

    It has RDA of calories, and if you're drinking soda, then 100% of the calories are from sugar (or corn syrup, for most soda in the US). There is no RDA for sugar specifically because there are no scientific guidelines, not because the FDA is part of some grand conspiracy to keep it a secret.

  23. Re:Caller ID on Facebook's "Hello" Tells You Who's Calling Before You Pick Up · · Score: 1

    I don't understand why this information isn't sent/displayed in the first place. My land line shows that, and has for decades. Why doesn't my cell phone?

  24. Re:anonymous kidnapping? on Traffic App Waze To Alert L.A. Drivers of Kidnappings and Hit-and-Runs · · Score: 1

    Kidnappers are usually anonymous. That's sort of the key part of any crime, really. Get that wrong and you haven't got much of a career ahead of you.

  25. Worked for me. on Virtual Reality Games Can Improve Memory Retention of Safety Instructions · · Score: 1

    When Virtual Happy Fun Ball suddenly accelerated toward my virtual child under 10 and my pregnant virtual wife, I nearly soiled myself. Fortunately, the virtual child absorbed most of the blow, otherwise the collision with my virtual would've caused a virtual miscarriage for sure. It's reaction with virtual concrete was, while beautiful, ultimately tragic, and led to Virtual Happy Fun Ball emitting large quantities of smoke from its exposed core. Mesmerized as I was by the display, I did not heed the warning to look away, seek shelter, and cover my head, and I paid the virtual price (lost all of my items and some experience.)

    When I taunted Virtual Happy Fun Ball, well, let's just say that I'll never make that mistake again. Woe be unto any who taunt Virtual Happy Fun Ball.