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User: Nicolas+MONNET

Nicolas+MONNET's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 2,538

  1. Aren't his books covered by DRM? on Why eBook DRM Has To Go · · Score: 1

    Since almost all major publishers use DRM, it's a fair bet they are. Yet they are pirated. How would removing the DRM make any fucking difference?

  2. Le Parti Radical on French Elections Could Affect HADOPI, ACTA · · Score: 1

    ... has not been a radical party for over a century. It's /always/ been to the right of the Socialists.

  3. The Bible says on Santorum Calls Democrats 'Anti-Science' · · Score: 1

    That you should stone your wife if she wears clothes made of two different fibers.

    Why anyone would ascribe any authority to it, I've never understood.

  4. Nambla's chairman defends pedophilia, news at 11 on A Defense of Process Patents · · Score: 1

    I'm sure Nambla's chairman could (and probably has) come up with a nicely worded defense of pedophilia. It would be marginally more offensive than this trite, but both just as convincing and moral as this piece of shit.

  5. He is Moroccan on Text Message Brands Quebec Man a Terror Suspect · · Score: 1

    He learned a french language that's closer to France's than Quebec's.

  6. You're confusing the tech. with the standard on Google Pulls Support For CDMA Devices · · Score: 1

    CDMA as a multiplexing technology is superior to TDMA.

    CDMA is not superior to GSM, which happens to use TDMA.

  7. It's not the algo that's sparse, it's the signal on Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform · · Score: 1

    Saying that compression uses the regular "non-sparse" algorithm is rather meaningless; they use what is available, and I don't believe there was a sparse-optimized algo until now.

  8. As usual with Oracle, the patch will be a 4GB on Serious Oracle Flaw Revealed; Patch Coming · · Score: 0

    As usual with Oracle, the patch will be a 4GB download. Considering how much they charge for that junk, it's amazing those morons haven't figured out how to just simply use rpm/yum or apt.

  9. How does this work in the US? on Verizon Adds $2 Charge For Paying Your Bill Online · · Score: 2

    Here in France direct transfer is actually safer in that respect than CC, because chargebacks are even easier to obtain (IIRC a mere phone call as opposed to written complaint, and a longer grace period). This is mostly because creditor-issued transfers have stringent specs, it's open only to established businesses (utilities mainly), and if they don't respect the charter (i.e. delay in chargebacks, abnormally large amounts ...) their authorization can be pulled in a matter of days.

  10. BTW this is in Europe so YMMV. on Verizon Adds $2 Charge For Paying Your Bill Online · · Score: 1

    etc.

  11. CC charges are very low for high volume on Verizon Adds $2 Charge For Paying Your Bill Online · · Score: 1

    I used to work in the payment card industry, McD was one of our clients, and I was told that they paid on the order of a few cents or maybe a dozen at most per trx. Might be higher for card not present, not sure.

  12. My computer runs on nuke on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    gfy

  13. You don't on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 2

    You use fresh water in a closed circuit for steam, and you cool _that_ with seawater.

  14. I called the question silly, not you on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    But you're making me change my mind.

  15. Power plants are much more efficient than engines on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    From memory, typical internal combustion engines are on the order of 20% efficiency; advanced combined cycle fossil fuel power plants, taking into account transportation losses, conversion, charging, battery losses, driver and motor translate into something like 40% efficiency.

  16. What is the amount burnt to build coal plants? on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 3, Informative

    For a given power generation capacity, there is no intrinsic reason why the energy cost for building windmills / solar cells should not be a fixed ratio of that of building coal plants. Maintenance costs for wind/solar are very low, but even if you don't believe me on this one, ask yourself, again, whether coal plants require no maintenance -- they do.

    After that, solar/wind cost nothing in energy, while coal plants need to be fed coal, that also has to be transported.

  17. I've never understood this line of argument on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Coals plants also need to be built, they also need generators that require rare earth elements, they also need plenty of steel and concrete. And not only do they obviously spew shitloads of CO2, you also need to build the roads, railways or ships and ports to carry the coal around, as well as mine the damn thing.

    So what is the argument? That since it's just merely much better, and not simply perfect, we should just give up on them?

  18. Silicon simply cannot be the limiting factor on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    They might be secretive (or not, I've never heard that claim before) because purer sources should require less work. In any case microelectronics grade silicon needs to be extremely pure, and the industrial processes involved are very advanced; finding a good source of raw materials is likely to be a trivial problem in comparison.

    But that is rather moot because the total amount of Si used is rather small compared to its economic value. Chips and solar cells are etched on extremely thin discs. Considering that there are enormous amounts of the element in the crust (it's the 2nd most common element there after oxygen, 28% in mass), there's bound to be plenty of places where you can find it in the right configuration.

  19. Houses, mountains, bridges, trees ... on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 2

    ... all extract wind energy. They interrupt the flow of wind and generate turbulence, and eventually turn wind energy into heat, except that unlike wind turbines they don't make electricity as well. It's a rather silly question when you know the first thing about thermodynamics.

  20. Cooling towers do just that on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 2

    They're not practical for mobile steam engines, but they certainly are used in most nuclear plants. Those that don't are located near the sea. Not gonna run out of sea water any time soon.

  21. Reserves of SILICON??? on The Myth of Renewable Energy · · Score: 1

    Is this a joke?

    Are you seriously suggesting that it's reasonable that we could one day run out of fucking sand?

  22. We really, really don't know. on Exoplanet Count Tops 700 · · Score: 1

    But the reaction you describe reeks of closed mindedness.

    Anyway, we really have no idea what's out there. The Drake equation has been criticized for being of little use; what it does very well though is point out how much we don't know. The great thing though is that we're progressing very rapidly; if life (not necessarily intelligent) is rather common, we will find out in less than 3 decades, possibly earlier. The upcoming 30m and up telescopes are getting close to the point where we could do spectral analysis on some extrasolar planets.

  23. Sarkozy is (was) very pro-Israel. on Technical Glitch Lets Reporters Eavesdrop On Obama, Sarkozy · · Score: 1

    When he gained the presidency he got rid of the more pro-Arab foreign service hired by his predecessor. He bowed to all US desideratas he could get away with without angering the local populace too much. His early career in Neuilly was largely started through his good relations with the strong Lubavitch community there. He also happens to have Jewish ancestors.

    In other words, yes, it's real news if you know the slightest thing about Sarkozy. Here's a hint, if you want to know things, Fox News is probably not the way to go.

  24. IPad's competitors are about the same price on Apple's Secret Weapon To Influence Industry Pricing · · Score: 2

    Only recently have they started getting cheaper, but not by much. Those that are noticeably cheaper are also of noticeably worse quality.

  25. It's actually more efficient on Paris Launches World's First Electric Car Share Program · · Score: 1

    Internal combustion engines have about 25% efficiency at best.

    Large scale thermal power plants achieve twice as much. You have some transmission loss, but since batteries, their chargers, electric motors and power electronics each have nearly 95% efficiency, you still come out ahead. Plus electricity can come from renewable sources, and on top of that battery charging can be deprioritized to accomodate for their intermittent nature.