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User: Chas

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  1. Re: Atomospheric toxins. on First Human Colonies Should Be Among Venus' Clouds · · Score: 1

    No I'm not kidding.

    Sure, glass doesn't need to be brought to melting point to be weakened though.

    Glass starts to become malleable around 580C or so.
    This is still above the surface temperature of Venus. But I'm still not convinced that, long term, such a construct would retain structural integrity.

  2. It's the end of the world as we know it! on North America Runs Out of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The sky is falling!

    The sky is falling!

    It hit me on the head! *OW! NOT THAT ONE!*

    "Runs out".

    Yeah. Okay. And how many companies are sitting on vast blocks that are only partially tapped?

    This isn't so much an issue of lack (though at some point it'll become that).
    It's an issue created by how assignment of address blocks was and is managed.

  3. Re: Atomospheric toxins. on First Human Colonies Should Be Among Venus' Clouds · · Score: 1

    Place large, thick glass domes on the surface of Venus. Would be impervious to the acid and could withstand the atmospheric pressure.

    Not at 900 degrees they wouldn't!

  4. Re: Really ? on First Human Colonies Should Be Among Venus' Clouds · · Score: 1

    Yes. And how much energy is expended in doing so?
    And how much deterioration of the mechanism happens over time due to long term exposure to sulfuric acid?

  5. Scientists' Union? on Scientist Union's Talks Stall Over Pay · · Score: 1

    Newsflash!

    Scientists strike! They say "No working science until they're paid better!"

    In other news!

    *BOOM!*

  6. Jesus H FUCK! on Greek Financial Crisis Is an Opportunity For Bitcoin · · Score: 0

    Yet another "Situation X makes the Bitcoin Scam look good!" article!

    Bitcoin is a goddamn money pit. Sure, you can invest, and you can follow it and get glowing feels from a website telling you what your investment is worth.

    Then, try to cash out... I dare you! I double dog dare you!

    OOPS! NO MONEY FOR YOU!

  7. Re:hum on Ask Slashdot: Are Post-Install Windows Slowdowns Inevitable? · · Score: 1

    The truth is you don't need a third party anti-virus program the MS security essentials works just as good

    Sorry, but this has never been true. MSE is pretty much a bottom-rung AV solution with the absolute WORST detection and recovery rates.
    There are far better solutions out there, even free ones.

  8. Are we too quick to act on social media outrage? on Are We Too Quick To Act On Social Media Outrage? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Short answer: Yes.

    Long answer: Oooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllll Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssss!!!

    People need to grow the fuck up and grow some slightly thicker skin.
    People still have a lot of rights. Thankfully.
    But the "right to never be offended" has NEVER been among them.

  9. Re:helocopters on Protesters Block Effort To Restart Work On Controversial Hawaii Telescope · · Score: 1

    But only when "da mare" wants it!

  10. Basically "let's act like asshole children" on Protesters Block Effort To Restart Work On Controversial Hawaii Telescope · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Okay. We've sued and lost.
    We've sued again and lost.
    We've appealed to every political figure available and lost.
    We've tossed up every roadblock imaginable and lost.
    So now, despite what the law says and the fact that it's obvious other people want this, we're still going to interfere and be assholes because we didn't get our way.

    At this point, I'm with the social darwinists. Just roll over the fuckers. You'll be doing the species good by ridding it of obvious mental defectives.

  11. IMAX has apologized. on IMAX Tries To Censor Ars Technica Over SteamVR Comparison · · Score: 2

    Sure they have.

    Remember folks. It's not about who's right or wrong. It's "what can we get away with, without causing something to blow up in our faces".

  12. Human trials go awry! on Triggering a Mouse's Happy Memories With Lasers Gives It the Will To Struggle On · · Score: 1

    Interviewer: Did it work?
    Researcher: Yes. But we had to discontinue it.
    Interviewer: Why?
    Researcher: Because what we thought was memory stimulation was actually a memory encoding and replay system.
    Interviewer: And that makes a difference...why?
    Researcher: Because our test subjects were highly disturbed by "memories" of getting their freak on with female mice...
    Interviewer: ...eww...
    Researcher: Indeed...

  13. Re:Use of trademark on IMAX Tries To Censor Ars Technica Over SteamVR Comparison · · Score: 1

    Not Ars' fault that an idiot gets a dumb idea.

  14. Use of trademark on IMAX Tries To Censor Ars Technica Over SteamVR Comparison · · Score: 1

    IMAX apparently doesn't understand trademark or copyright at all.

    Simply mentioning IMAX in an article isn't "use of trademark".
    Had Ars set up a company selling things tagged with IMAX logos, THAT is use of trademark.

    Fucking idiots.

  15. Too much "special sauce" in .NET on Is Microsoft's .NET Ecosystem On the Decline? · · Score: 1

    Just about every .NET implementation I see has all sorts of crap in there, completely black-box.
    And when it breaks, usually because the programmers assume some bog-standard "clean" environment, there's no actual "troubleshooting" recourse.

  16. Yep. And that's the end of Uber in California!

  17. Oh poor Monster on Apple De-Certifies Monster Cables After Lawsuit Against Beats · · Score: 1

    Someone might not want to buy their $5 for $50 anymore! Boo hoo!

  18. The Jack LaLane Ammendment! on FDA Bans Trans Fat · · Score: 1

    If you're eating something and it tastes good, SPIT IT OUT!

    Notice that the old fucker still died anyhow.

    We need to stop with the nanny state bullshit like this.

    EVERYTHING out there is bad for you when not taken in moderation.

    Personal fucking responsibility!

  19. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    Yeah. 10 years.

    Look at the actual number of times the battery can be drained and recharged. With regular use, how much capacity do these units lose over time?
    And how soon into the battery's life-cycle will a replacement be needed to continue meeting the needs for which it was bought?
    Incurring, yet again, the cost of replacing the battery.

    As for how long Tesla's batteries are sold out for? Who cares? It's code-speak for "They'd be great...if we could get one..."

  20. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    "it won't be long" is usually rah-rah-speak for "yes it will be"

    The current limits on number of charge cycles for newer battery tech is a major problem. One that rules them out, currently, as some sort of actual storage medium. Because they'd be getting replaced on roughly an annual basis. And I don't care who you are or how much money you have. They aren't THAT cheap.

  21. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    Then it'll almost be on par with non-renewables. At least during the day...

  22. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    Again, I'm not being negative. I'm saying that the phrasing and usage is deceptive (the whole Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics thing).

    And I acknowledge that solar has achieved new milestones in adoption. For that, I'm glad.

    What I'm saying is that trying to compare it to another power generation sector that's producing 40-50x the power is misleading.

    For Solar to be a truly major contender, they need at least an order of magnitude in growth. And I'm somewhat pessimistic that the US can actually achieve that level of growth. Even over a longer term.

    As for "total renewable energy". I'm just going to laugh derisively and leave it at that. Quite simply, with our ever-growing energy demands, renewable energy quite simply CANNOT support the entire energy industry. You could carpet the US in PV cells and toss up solar thermal and wind farms willy nilly, and it still wouldn't cover it.

    Geothermal and Hydro *might* cover baseload "right now". But remember that we're pretty much at peak hydro in the US right now, for environmental reasons. And geothermal isn't something you can just drop everywhere. So they can't grow to keep up with demand.

    Realistically, some sort of solution that includes nuclear is our best option.
    Sure, nuclear is dirty in its own way. But it's a way that can be managed and minimized. And you're not blowing the byproducts up a stack and into the environment.

  23. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    The thing is, they're NOT talking about installs. They're comparing number of installs versus base installed capacity and trying to draw a correlation with the number of installs versus installed capacity in a different sector of the power industry. One that is supplying over 40x the power that total solar does, in facilities that take longer to build and are generally more energy-dense than solar is.

    It's apples and pears.

  24. Re:simpler? exclusive ad channel? on iOS 9 To Have Ad Blocking Capabilities · · Score: 1

    Hell, it only makes sense in pretty much the entire mobile industry.
    Ads, on a transfer-limited device (like phones) are, essentially, theft of resources.

  25. Re:Deceptive wording on Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal For Second Year · · Score: 1

    Oh, must I be?

    I have nothing against the solar industry.

    I simply dislike deceptive comparisons like this, worded in such a way that it magnifies the accomplishments and contributions out of any recognition with reality.