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User: randomiam

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Comments · 64

  1. Warning! Pendantry Ahead! on Filming an Invasion Without Extras · · Score: 1

    Beady eyed pendant? As a pedant with perfectly normal eyes, I take offense!

    Also, wasn't the Nicole Richie remark an eating disorder joke? Doesn't she have an eating disorder? If not, she should get one, if only to help make /. less incorrect.

    ria
  2. Re:Is the US the right venue to litigate this pate on OLPC Lawsuit-Bringer Has Past Fraud Conviction · · Score: 1

    Is that you, Kevin Spacey?

    Seriously, have you considered being evil for a living?

  3. Is the US the right venue to litigate this patent? on OLPC Lawsuit-Bringer Has Past Fraud Conviction · · Score: 4, Funny

    I get that a US patent can be litigated in any district the alleged infringer trades in (thus the reason for the eastern district of Texas). But a patent from Nigeria? Shouldn't this be tried, um, in Nigeria or the WTC?

    Nigeria Registered Design Patent # RD8489

    Design patents are dumb. If you're gonna run a scam, why not go whole hog and assert a utility patent?

    Also, Nigeria has a Patent Office? (I can see it now: "A method and device to facilitate the international transfer of funds from internet enabled persons")

    ria
  4. Re:When's the next one come out? on Futurama Returns! · · Score: 1

    IMDB thinks that the last three movies will be released in 2008. I imagine that we're gonna get about one a quarter. reference

  5. Re:Both on Engineering School Grads - Tradesmen or Thinkers? · · Score: 1

    Departments should provide an individual who will work with undergrads to get this connection with the industry.

    You're absolutly right that more needs to be done to help students make the transition into industry. But instead of creating what would most likely turn out to be a sinecure, there are a number of ideas that could be implemented in almost any department with very little effort and less money:

    • Seminars and Journal clubs. Invite researchers and respected industry professionals to come and give talks to students. Get the kids out of the books and give them a look at what's going on now. Plus they'll have the chance to meet people during the Q&A (The marketing majors call this 'networking'. If they weren't all such wankers, we'd realize it's not a four letter word and do some of it ourselves.). Double plus learning from real research is great for cognitive synthesis. Make it a class if you have to. One credit hour and free coffee and the punters'll turn out.
    • Invite repected local professionals to teach part time in their area. The benefits will be similar to above, but you're giving fewer students the opportunity to better know fewer outsidey types. Also, there's a definite benefit to giving students the opportuniy to hear how it 'really is'.
    • Mix it up. The chain of prerequisites in any engineering program tends to force students into cohorts (minus the people that quit between the sophomore and junior years). The people you meet your freshman year are pretty much the people you're going to have in all your classes for the next four years. If students could mix more with upper- and underclassmen, then they'd create their own connections to industry as people graduate and go there.
    • Keep in touch. Instead of calling your alumni and asking for the stinking hundo each year, ask them if they'd like to mentor a student. Then, do your best to match mentors with students interested in the field they're in.
  6. Re:Trademark info on Cisco Sues Apple Over iPhone Trademark · · Score: 5, Funny

    That one is owned by CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet.

  7. Re:The article doesn't say the Daily Show is good. on The Daily Show as Substantive as Broadcast News · · Score: 1

    American TV news is a joke

    Everyone that thinks this and is sick of it (and for some reason, still cares to whatch tv news),I highly recommend that you watch 'The News Hour with Jim Lehrer'. The sets are lame, and there is no gimmickry like having Katie sit ON her news desk. (That's innovative news!) If you're used to the 22 minute network news format,the fifty minute format of the show is a breath of fresh (not hot) air. The reporting is more in-depth than the networks (they cover about the same number of stories per night). and the analysis is wickedly good and every side of an issue is ably represented. Check you local listings.

  8. Corelation != Causation on The Daily Show as Substantive as Broadcast News · · Score: 1

    Isn't just possible, that the viewers of the Comedy Central 'News Hour' watch the shows becasue they're already interested in current events and can therefore keep up with the jokes?
    Full dsiclosure: I watch both CC shows, The (real) News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and read my local paper & the NY times daily.
    rIa

  9. Re:Well duh on The Daily Show as Substantive as Broadcast News · · Score: 2, Funny

    With quality on point analysis like that, you should consider a career in broadcasting!
    JK. I'm not poking fun at you, rather the lazy, lazy members of the press who don't get much deeper than the press release on any given event. (Bastards. Wish I could phone in my work.)

  10. FYI on How Old is Too Old? · · Score: 1

    JM Keynes (economist) said it first.

  11. Re:At the end of the day your health is YOUR probl on Americans Are Seriously Sick · · Score: 1

    Hrmm... I don't usually feed the trolls, but you expose an important point of ignorance among people in general, so I'll respond.

    If you have a pre-diabetic condition (read you are a fat ass)

    The prediabetic condition is usally defined in terms of elevated blood glucose levels, either via a fasting blood glucose test, a two hour glucose sensitivity test. An FBS test (the easiest and most common) result of between 100 and 120 mg glucose/ dl blood is said to be prediabetic, while results of 120 are normal and diabetic respectivly. The idea is the same for the glucose sensitivity test, though I don't have the exact numbers in my head. Notice that prediabetes is not in any way clinically indicated by being as you say 'a fat ass'. People need to be taught how to monitor blood glucose, have A1C tests done every quarter, and ideally have access to nutrition education if they need it.
    The point I was trying to make is that there is something fundamentally flawed about a healthcare system that would rather pay $7,500 to amputate a person's leg than a couple of hundred to prevent it. The US would be far down the road towards the best healthcare in the world if we had a system that emphasised prevention over catastrophic care. It makes sense from an economic point of view in that it's cheaper in the long run and from a human point of view since fewer people have to suffer.

    In fact, the US already has within its own government the perfect model for this sort of healthcare system. The VHA really stresses prevention and early detection of problems among its patients (/. IT types would be amazed at how advanced the VA's patient information system is) and has consistently provided better outcomes for less money than the private payer system it competes with.

    Kind of a side point, but since I was specifically citing the case of NYC I'll throw this in too: When I lived in NYC I walked about five miles a day, all told. And if I wasn't careful I tended to eat a lot of 'street food' on the run. Under these conditions a person could appear quite fit and still be prediabetic (though the condition wouldn't manifest untill later in life probably).

  12. Re:Answer is easy. on Americans Are Seriously Sick · · Score: 1
    Spending is only going to keep you alive for so long when you're overweight and out of shape from a poor diet and little exercise.

    Americans spend so much on health care because insurers are only willing to spend on catastrophic type events. For example, back in January, the New York Times ran a week long series about diabetes in New York City (worth checking out if your fat and want a 'scared straight' moment). The insurers convering diabetis in NYC will not help to pay for nutrition counselling and other measures that keep pre-diabetes from becoming full, poorly controlled diabetes; but they will pay for the foot and leg amputations even though they are more expensive and preventative care has proven to be fantaastically successful despite costing practically nothing. Here's why: Americans don't stay with one health insurer. Get a new job, get a new insurer - boss gets a bug about premiums, get a new insurer... you get the idea. Mostly, you can expect an average american to have a new insurance provider on the order of every ten years. So, if you're health insurance company x, why try to save money on a disease that will in all likelihood be somebody else's problem?

  13. Re:Want to be a geek? on Closet Slashdotters: The 'Intellectually Curious' · · Score: 1

    /me looks at amount of male names on current course roster

    I don't know where this comes from, I majored in biochemistry and chemical engineering at school, and my graduating class in ChemE was nearly half women (45% I'd, say) and in biochemistry it was more than 50% (7 of 13). Mind you even good odds did me no good.

  14. Re:The REAL Purpose of DRM on The Real Purpose of DRM · · Score: 3, Funny

    Peasants don't surf.

  15. Re:The scientists are all swimming to Cuba on Top Advisory Panel Warns Erosion of U.S. Science · · Score: 1
    You may joke, but Cuba has a world class biomedical industry.

    ~ria

  16. Re:Mini elephants on More Evidence For Hobbit Sized Species · · Score: 1
    Some one should give you some props for slipping in hhe reference to "A Modest Proposal".

    Nice Job.

    ~ria

  17. This was all over the news this week on Implementing the Bureaucratic Black Arts? · · Score: 1
  18. Synbio antimalarial on Creating Artificial Proteins · · Score: 1
    Jay Keasling at UC Berkeley is doing this.

    In a nutshell Prof. Keasling and these guys are getting E. coli. to make terpenoids cheaply and in large quantites. The first commercial application that amyris is developing is a process for artemisinin, a fantastic anti-malarial drug. Currently, the drug can only be extracted from some plant in small amounts. This bio-synthetic process will (hopefully) lower the cost per dose from ~$USD 2.40 to ~$USD 0.25 (iirc).

    Somewhat off topic, but probably still interesting to the slashdot croud is that the commercialization of artemisinin is being paid for by the Gates Foundation.

  19. Not just motorcyle helmets on Nanotech Coating Prevents Fogging · · Score: 2, Informative

    Firemen and HAZMAT workers have to open a 'de-fogging' vent on their SCBA's to dissipate fog from their facemasks, wasting air. This coating could add minutes to a workers time on scene.

  20. Re:America has a choice for a short while longer on The Decline of Science and Technology in America · · Score: 2, Informative

    While no one will ever accuse me of being in support of the current administration (whose names I will not utter), the Sec'y of State probably snuubed ASEAN in order to force its members to remove Myanmar from the 2006 chairmanship. This move was, (for once) generally in line with what the rest of the international community would have done, if in the same position as the US.

  21. Re:Yeah, but is it robot controlled? on Japan Plans Test of 'New Concorde' · · Score: 1
    The system you describe does exist, for some aircraft anyways. iirc, the larger Gulfstreams have a system called Automatic Emergency Decent. If the system senses cabin depressurization above some altitude and the pilots do not respond to system challenges the plane executes a 180 degree turn and descent to 15,000 feet.

    Why this system isn't generally implemented is another question.

  22. Re:Apple MP3's? since when? on AMD Alleges Intel Compilers Create Slower AMD Code · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if this is what the gp meant, but iTMS offers a different 'free download of the week' every week. ~r

  23. Re:Easy to prevent this on Wired Strongarms Subscribers? · · Score: 1
    Parent devserves some 'insightful' mods on this. It's an interesting social experiment you can cunduct from the comfort of your easy chair.

    I sign up for everything with permutations of my middle inital...random I am, random J am, and so on. I was shocked to see who sold my name and addy to whom, at least once when I specifically opted out.

    Cheers
    RandomXam

  24. Re:Funny you should mention that... on Maps on Path to Mass Innovation · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I was thinking of something like that, only the airspace over Niagara Falls itself is highly restricted, yet the photos are clear as can be. Also, there are high res images of other places which for sure have overflight restrictions, like airports. This composite of BOS was for sure not taken from an airplane (you can zoom in on the airplanes on final).

    Maybe someone will know for sure out there, but aren't the keyhole satelites capable of resolving down to 1 meter? I thought the high resolution images were from satelites.

  25. Funny you should mention that... on Maps on Path to Mass Innovation · · Score: 3, Insightful
    A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for overheads of an air separation plant (for my father, who wants to put one in his model rail road set). I figured this would be easy to do as Praxair has a major production facility in Niagara County, one county north of me. Much to my chagrin, the plant was imaged with the low res photos. Curiosity piqued, I looked at some other 'sensitive' sites in the area. Here's what I found:

    This is the overhead of the niagara falls hydropower resevoir. The power station is lo res, but the neighborhood isn't.

    This is the site of a Dupont factory, a Dunlop Tire factory and a General Motors plant. All low res.

    This view shows a CSX rail depot in the north east and the Buffalo River (which has a plant for making HCl among other things iirc) in the south west. Both blurred.

    Now, I have no problem with denying high resolution images of sensitive areas to the civilian population (especially since the areas I've shown you are all prominently featured in the bad dreams of local emergency services types). But if that's the criterion for deciding what's obscured and what isn't, the result is slapdash. This photo shows a cheese factory. Those white tanks are NH3 tanks for the refrigeration system. Since the winds here are usually from the south west or west, the cloud resulting from a leak in the ammonia system would blow right over one of the more densly populated neighborhoods in Buffalo. Clearly, this should have been obscured as well (Except you can see pretty much the whole thing from the street, which isn't true of the other examples).

    It would seem that someone already read your mind SparafucileMan.What I want to know is who; Google, the local government, the national government (DHS or whoever), the owners of stuff being obscured?

    Discuss.