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User: jandrese

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  1. Re:Why the Apple reference? on How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have? · · Score: 1

    I use it to call my wife from work, typically about once a day (when I'm getting ready to go home). I also used it to call my parents on Christmas day, but otherwise not too often.

  2. Does this actually work in real life? on Corporate Boardrooms Open To Eavesdropping · · Score: 1

    My experiance with those VTC devices is that when they're off, they make efforts to show that they are indeed off, and conversely when someone connects they do stuff like swivel the camera around, turn on lights, etc... It may be possible to do that without someone noticing, but it seems more likely that you're going to get a whole lot of attention from some high power folks.

  3. Re:Get rid of that last zero and it's a winner on The Coda Electric Car at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video) · · Score: 1

    I suspect that it just isn't possible to build a car for $3700 that is safe enough to pass the Federal impact safety requirements. You could do that in India or China where the regulators are willing to look the other way with regards to safety, but the US would never let you sell it. $10k or $15k would probably be a more realistic target, and maybe a 60 mile range and 2 seats. Basically a purpose built commuter car. I could see a market for that, but it will be hard to make much money with it since you're building the cars from the ground up yet you need economies of scale to make them affordable and profitable. It's the same problem Tesla has, they can't make enough cars to recoup their R&D costs even when they are flying off of the shelf as fast as they can make them.

  4. Re:Standard arguments on The Coda Electric Car at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video) · · Score: 1

    If it's -20 in Arizona, the entire state would be shutdown anyway and nobody would be going anywhere. That's a level of cold that they're just not prepared to deal with.

    Plus, with Global Warming this probably won't be an issue in the future anyway.

  5. Re:As an American... on Outgoing CRTC Head Says Technology Is Eroding Canadian Culture · · Score: 1

    That's the export filter. Generally people only export the best stuff, so it tends to stand out. For every Kids in the Hall there were dozens of shows that were deemed not fit for export (for good reason).

  6. Re:bad thing? on Outgoing CRTC Head Says Technology Is Eroding Canadian Culture · · Score: 1

    I've seen this sentiment repeated so many times in this thread alone I just had to respond. Everybody focuses so hard on the lowest forms of American Culture that they overlook all of the good stuff. It's all "O shit! Justin Bieber!", and not "That's good, I liked Firefly".

    Just like Beer, everybody thinks their locally made stuff is superior, but in practice they're making unfair comparisons between their local high class entertainment and low class entertainment from abroad. By the way, having traveled a bit, I can say the Beer discrepancy is overrated too. Cheap beer in Europe tends to be similar (or often worse) than cheap American beer, and the same with expensive beer, but Europeans always insist on comparing their 5 euro premium stouts to $0.50 cans of Bud for some damn reason.

  7. Re:Hardly a Sedan on See the Tesla S at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video) · · Score: 1

    Ah, I misunderstood then. I thought it was a "4 seater" with the rear seats being hilariously useless.

  8. Re:Laugh on How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have? · · Score: 1

    Holy crap, 5GB of texts is 33,554,432 messages a month. If that's not "effectively unlimited" then I don't know what in the world you are doing with your phone (data over SMS?).

  9. Re:Why the Apple reference? on How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have? · · Score: 2

    Not exactly, Apple's claim was that they were the first to offer video chat that people would actually use.

    The weird thing is, I never thought I would use Facetime, but because it uses WiFi and doesn't come out of my minutes, I've actually used it a fair bit now. Plus my (2 year old) son loves to see my face when I call. I've never used video teleconferencing before on any platform because it was far too much effort to set up on both ends, but with Facetime all you need is to be near your computer or your phone. It's really easy. It doesn't break behind NAT either, which is a nice touch.

  10. Re:Why the Apple reference? on How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have? · · Score: 1

    Considering the cost of internet service on a tethered device, as long as Verizon isn't a gigantic prick about it...

    Um, I have some bad news for you.

  11. Re:Why the Apple reference? on How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have? · · Score: 1

    The big advantage of being an early adopter is that you get the spectrum mostly to yourself, so your data transfers are blazing fast when you have coverage (which may not be very often depending on what you do). 3G users right now are crammed in there with a bazillion iPhones and Droids and end up with just a trickle of data overall in busy areas.

    Over time this benefit will diminish, but it's likely to be another year or two until 4G users start to even notice congestion slowdowns outside of extreme events (Apple product launches, Times Square when the ball is dropping, WWIII, etc...)

  12. Hardly a Sedan on See the Tesla S at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video) · · Score: 1

    Optional rear facing mini-seats? This isn't a family car, this is just a roadster that can transport a family in a pinch.

  13. Re:Very cool car on See the Tesla S at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video) · · Score: 1

    Of course the most difficult repairs in a car are electrical ones, and guess what a Tesla has in spades? Diagnosing electrical problems can be a real nightmare in regular cars, I hope Tesla has engineered in better diagnostics for their cars.

  14. Re:Sweet! on VGA and DVI Ports To Be Phased Out Over Next 5 Years · · Score: 1

    I suspect you would have a difficult time finding a 2560x1440 panel that doesn't support HDMI. DisplayPort does seem to be slower to catch on though.

    That said, phasing out DVI seems entirely premature. I wonder if NPD is one of those trade groups that still has its panties in a bunch because DVI is unencrypted and could theoretically be used by pirates.

  15. Re:Zeno on The Doomsday Clock Is Moved Closer To Midnight · · Score: 1

    The only other time I've thought about them in the past 20 years is when I read and then saw the Watchmen.

  16. Re:The answer appears to be a yes. on Could a Dirty Rag Take Out a $2 Billion Satellite? · · Score: 1

    Not even this wrench?

  17. Re:Find a big cave on The Challenges of Building a Mars Base · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, the Mars Science Labratory is going over there with a RTG as the primary power source. The reason the rovers don't explore underground isn't the terrain handling (they already do their own navigation) or the lack of sun, it's the fact that you can't transmit data back out of the cave.

    It would be possible for the MSL to explore a cave a little bit, but I'm sure that would cause a lot of nail biting over at NASA.

  18. The answer appears to be a yes. on Could a Dirty Rag Take Out a $2 Billion Satellite? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't this sort of like asking if a $5 wrench could wreck a car engine if it were left inside of a cylinder? Is anybody going to say "no"?

    And yes, I went with the car analogy right from the start. Deal with it.

  19. Re:Does the data reflect tires slipping on ice? on What a Black Box Data Dump Looks Like · · Score: 1

    I take it more as an indication of how good the safety systems on modern vehicles are, he crashed at over 100mph with no seatbelt on, and basically the airbags and crumple zones saved his life. Twenty years ago this would have been a story about how he skidded on some black ice and died.

  20. Re:And Yet on China Cuts 'Excessive Entertainment' From TV · · Score: 1

    If you live in a police state with spies everywhere where the punishment for insufficient grief might be a trip for your whole family to the prison death camp, you'd better believe you'd play up the death for all it is worth, especially if there is a camera nearby. While I don't doubt that there are true believers in North Korea (a whole lifetime of propaganda works!), it's impossible to get an idea of the numbers with the information we have. Even if the regime were to fall, the whole country would be an unbelievable mess for years to come, probably generations. You can't undo that level of racism and paranoia overnight. It takes a concerted effort from the whole society to root out that sort of damage. In the US we're still feeling the effects of slavery almost a century and a half after it theoretically ended, especially in the south. Granted, the institutional racism lasted much longer, but even that is supposed to be over. The situation in Europe is perhaps even more depressing, with deep seated and unspoken racism swept under the rug year after year so they can put on a happy face for the rest of the world.

  21. Re:It's sad either way on Mathematics Says Romney and Santorum Tied In Iowa · · Score: 2
    I liked:

    Strong number 2 finish propels Santorum forward

    Also:

    Santorum surges from behind

    It's really just too easy.

  22. Re:The problem is the media on Mathematics Says Romney and Santorum Tied In Iowa · · Score: 1

    In short, I think centrists tend to do better in the general election. Iowa is a fairly conservative state, so they tend to elect centrist democrats and right wing republicans.

  23. Re:So... what's the difference? on Mathematics Says Romney and Santorum Tied In Iowa · · Score: 1

    As a libertarian, you really need to be careful who you call a whack job. People in glass houses and all.

    There are many libertarian stands that I agree with, but there are many other stands that I think are completely nuts. If you have some grand plan for the economy, I think that's great. If your grand plan involves the creation of a serf class and/or people starving in the streets, well, you've lost me.

  24. Re:I got my beta invite yesterday on Microsoft To Offer Flight For Free This Spring · · Score: 4, Informative

    Amazingly enough, people already do this, albeit not with Microsoft Flight Simulator. X-Plane pilots join up with virtual air traffic controllers to efficiently run the airspace in their virtual world. X-Plane is a pretty hardcore package though that appeals to a different set of people than Microsoft Flight Simulator.

  25. Re:TiVo business model on Tivo Gets $215 Million Patent Settlement From AT&T · · Score: 2

    The advantage of the TiVo over your cable company's DVR is that you can get the lifetime subscription for your TiVo. My Series 2 TiVo was expensive up front, but I've saved quite a bit of money with it now compared to paying the monthly fee to the cable company.