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  1. Re:Purple prose... on 11-Year-Old Graduates With Degree In Astrophysics · · Score: 1

    True genius is making the complicated seem trivial. This means writing as clearly as possible rather than trying for the highest scrabble word score.

    There's a time and a place for "waxing loquacious": Academic papers of predefined arbitrary lengths.

    Not normal conversation.

    Then you would probably enjoy The Theory of Relativity In Words of Four Letters or Less:

    http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html

  2. Re:what the hell are you talking about? on Open Government Brainstorm Defies Wisdom of Crowds · · Score: 1

    Because successes can be copied by other states, and failures contained. Because different states really do have different people, and what works for one group of people may not work for another. It's why we have nations and not one world government. Differences between people are good and healthy, there's no reason to force everyone to become the same.

  3. Re:Unintended consequences on Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Others Blocked In China · · Score: 1

    I think it's disingenuous to compare Tiananmen and Kent State. Perhaps 9/11 would be a closer analogue?

    Only if you're completely missing the point, and trying to use the word "disingenuous" to sound smart.

    They were both a government killing their own protesting citizens. How could you miss that? 9/11 isn't analogous to Tiananmen at all!

  4. Supply? Demand? on Credit Crunch Squeezing Data Center Space · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As the supply of data center space dwindles, the price will go up. When it goes up enough, it will become profitable to build new data centers, and it will happen. It's the economy, people.

  5. Re:WOW on How IBM Plans To Win Jeopardy! · · Score: 1

    Um, Trebek doesn't compete. He's the host of the show. The summary is stupid. The computer will be playing against other human contestants.

  6. Re:The babe from Firefly? on Sarah Connor Chronicles — Why It Died · · Score: 1

    P.S. If you haven't watched "Firefly" / "Serenity" yet, you're missing the best show that was ever on Sci-Fi.

    Well, I don't know about other people who didn't watch this show, but _I_ stopped watching it halfway through the pilot episode. I was just baffled by the technology available to the characters. They have ships that can move from planet to planet with relative ease (and seemingly great speed) and yet they still used 6-shooters and shotguns as their weapon of choice. WTF Mate?

    If you watched more than 30 minutes, you might understand. Why is that not obvious?

  7. Re:contractor position? on How To Handle Corporate Blackmail? · · Score: 1

    It was a joke, son. Relax.

  8. Re:contractor position? on How To Handle Corporate Blackmail? · · Score: 1

    Oh, come on, there a lot of things more important than salary. I haven't done it recently but in 2004 I gave up $10k/year because:

    I would have given up that job too. Just to pay my mortgage and support my family, I think I'd need at least $40k.

  9. Re:WTF? on Iowa Seeks To Remove Electoral College · · Score: 1

    The bias for the media to highlight national candidates is a symptom, not the cause. Since voters don't vote for local electors, there's no point for the media to cover them, right?

  10. Re:WTF? on Iowa Seeks To Remove Electoral College · · Score: 1

    You've failed to recognize that people today still have no clue about the candidate they're voting for. There are enough links to Howard Stern in other threads. If things worked correctly, we would be still voting for electors on the local level, and electors would be people who can be trusted to make the decision and who will take the time to educate themselves about the candidates. As it is, people make snap decisions without any knowledge, and that's why we get the candidate that has the best ad campaign.

  11. Re:Not a problem on Shifting Apps To ARM Chips Could Save Laptop Batteries · · Score: 1

    Second that. A tiny laptop that's as powerful as an iPhone would be fine with me.

  12. Re:How much does a sub 1k Slashdot UID cost ? on Steve Wozniak To Appear On Dancing With the Stars · · Score: 1

    How much would you pay? Should I put it on eBay?

  13. Re:The thesis is a joke... on Schneier on Security · · Score: 1

    Haha, USA bias FTL. My bad. I'll have to find one of my countrymen to kill the fuckers then.

  14. Re:The thesis is a joke... on Schneier on Security · · Score: 1

    If someone fucked with my country that much, I'd be trying to kill the fuckers too.

    There are two groups fucking with your country that much. They are Republicans and Democrats. I say you and me let's get started killing the fuckers.

  15. Where goes our oxygen? on Germany Fired Up Over Clean Coal · · Score: 1

    So, CO2 sequestration seems to be the new fad idea, but explain me this, please:

    We dig up hydrocarbons (hydrogen + carbon) from the earth. We burn them using oxygen from the air, producing water (hydrogen + oxygen) and CO2 (carbon + oxygen).

    Then we bury the CO2 (containing the oxygen that was taken out of the atmosphere) in the earth for millions of years.

    Is that sustainable? We, like, need oxygen, right?

  16. Re:I hope they're removed, on Barr Sues Over McCain's, Obama's Presence on Texas Ballot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And today we get yet another lesson on why the electoral college is useless and outdated. How is it that someone can get a majority of votes and not win? Everyone's vote should be equal; having some people's vote count more than other people's vote is absurd.

    Insightful my ass.

    Try reading the constitution. You know, the founding document of our nation? The supreme law of the land?

    People don't vote for president. States do. It's the law. Get over it.

    Complete disregard for constitutional law is exactly why we're having so many problems today. (Lack of education is another one.)

  17. Re:Looks Legit on Graduate Student Defends Right To Own Chicago2016.com · · Score: 1

    I'm going to get spaceolympics3022.com. Surely they'll have enough funding to buy the domain from me.

  18. Re:Still doesnt solve jack on Americans Refusing To Wait For Mainstream EVs · · Score: 1

    Um uh, 33% x 90% is
    But as an electrical engineer I can tell you a large power plant is way more efficient than 33%, probably better than 90%

    But the grid is, depending on the distance as bad as
    So the total still pans out around 1/3th, about the same as a modern (non US) car.

    is... is.... super??!? is.... exploding?!?!?

    IAMAEE, but as someone who knows how to read, I can tell you that a power plant can only be 90% if you include cogeneration, which is fine, but doesn't describe the efficiency of producing electricity.

    Yes, the overall system efficiency is about 30%, which is quite good. Plus, the power source can be anything. Which is great.

    My point was that the guy I replied to claimed that transmission and distribution are a 96% LOSS. (20% efficient in transmission and 20% efficient in distribution) That is not true.

    This paper from the DOE has the numbers I was looking for. It puts average generation efficiency at 33%, and transmission efficiency at 92%. That's where I get my 30% figure.

    http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2000_register&docid=00-14446-filed.pdf

    It is also about calculating the efficiency of electric cars, which is muy apropos.

  19. Re:Cost Effective? on Americans Refusing To Wait For Mainstream EVs · · Score: 1

    Also, there is the question of whether the $700 represents a real savings, or simply a transfer of costs from gas to electric. Unless he's stealing power from his neighbors, of course...

    For fun, try and find out how much electricity it takes to make a gallon of gasoline. :) :)

  20. Re:Still doesnt solve jack on Americans Refusing To Wait For Mainstream EVs · · Score: 1

    Your reasoning would be sound if you didn't just make up all those numbers.

    Power plants are 33% efficient on average (http://www.energetics.com/gridworks/grid.html).

    Overall, transmission and distribution losses are less than 10%. That is, over 90% efficient. I can't find the reference right now, but I did not make this up.

  21. Operating systems matter less on Apple Climbs Into Third Place In U.S. PC Market · · Score: 2

    It makes sense that more people will use non-Windows operating systems as operating systems become more irrelevant. Nowadays the computer is the web browser.

  22. Re:Some notes on Oil Billionaire Building World's Largest Wind Farm · · Score: 1

    As stupid as the "launch it into space" idea is, just calling it "nuclear waste" is a problem. It should be called "unused nuclear fuel." The problem is that it's a type of nuclear fuel that can be used to make bombs, but 99% of the energy is still available to be extracted by the correct type of reactor. A thousand or ten thousand years from now, we can go dig up Yucca mountain and have huge reserves of energy. But we could use that energy now if we had the will to do it.

  23. Re:Make me read the article... on Silent Microchip 'Fan' Has No Moving Parts · · Score: 1

    I suppose it's called a "fan" so that people know what it is and what it's used for. Just a thought.

  24. Re:Car Must Be 100 MPG+ on New X-Prize for Fuel Efficient Cars Announced · · Score: 1

    Yes, my car satisfies the requirements in the summary. :)

  25. Re:sounds like a way to re-start on Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival · · Score: 1

    It's 600 tons, not 600 pounds.