Slashdot Mirror


User: rolfwind

rolfwind's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
3,806
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 3,806

  1. US Military Uses Oil Like a Smaller Country on Pentagon Unveils Plan For Military's Response To Climate Change · · Score: 2

    US Military could count as it's own country in oil usage. They also do a fair bit with reusable energy:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

    And I know several other projects. But for Military readiness, it would be nice if they put a few billion more into supporting something like algae biodiesel or fusion and a few billion less into one more aircraft carrier (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the current fleet has around 11, more than the rest of the world combined?)

    Off the top of my head, America's strategic reserve can cover fuel use for 60 days. However, since the biggest threat to America isn't any type of invasion force (no viable one exists), it would likely be economic and since the days of Hurricane Katrina, we've been shown to be unable to cope with peoples' extended needs.

    So the Leadership's strategy should be to wean the country off of it's most dire dependencies. It should almost be the military's strategy as it would only positively effect them, but that runs counter to global force projection and stamping out the latest fires around the world.

  2. Re:Robots? on Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    I agree with your overall message, but humans being what they are (not always following the rules), another barrier of protection would not hurt imo.

    A salute to your friends for me.

  3. Re:Robots? on Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    Not quite. Just thinking dumb humanoid robots that need a puppetmaster would have a lot of uses.

  4. Robots? on Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 2

    We have robots for ridding explosive ordinance. Considering the humber of healthcare workers that contracted this disease so far, hopefully some remotely controlled robot doctor/nurses would help further quarantine the situation.

    We are far from autonomous humanoid robots, but since this isn't a labor saving measure, it should be much easier, as they are rather more like walking drones, how far is current tech from making this possible?

  5. Re:Obama's done more than Elon musk on The Cult of Elon Musk Shines With Steve Jobs' Aura · · Score: 2

    I think it's actually Obama who's done the most on climate change concretely. He signed into law new fuel economy standards that will double the fuel called me a new vehicles. Elon musk is selling a couple thousand cars a year, well Obama standards will affect millions of cars every year.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/id/2232...

    When posed with the question: Would I prefer 50 politicians like X or businessmen/inventor's like Musk, my answer would be more Musks in the world.

    Politicians should be lauded for doing the right thing for PR purposes, but their importance to the overall scheme should not be overhyped in history. Their minds are not the ones that shape the future. They can mandate anything they like, but it's up to engineers and others to actually implement it.

    (Also, fuel economy standards are notorious for the loopholes and crooked accounting.)

  6. Myth of Tech Innovation on Oculus Hiring Programmers, Hardware Engineers, and More For VR Research Division · · Score: 1

    The research team seeks to actively defeat what Abrash calls âoethe myth of technological innovation,â the idea that just because a technology is possible, it will eventually exist without a concerted effort to develop it.

    This rings within my experience of experiencing some projects firsthand just die on the vine because of corporate politics or just typical upper management being risk adverse to something long-term.

    There's a common perception of tech being like a river, with it's bends and turns varying but still getting there (out to some utopian ocean destination) but I visualize it flowing the other way, from a ocean of talent to rivers and creeks, etc. Some advances are unavoidable rivers, but there are a lot of unexplored tributaries and creeks along the way that could provide a unique benefit.

    This is especially true as society often demands solutions to problems previous tech created, making a unique trajectory through history on research based on a series of reactions rather than intrinsic need. (Think of the history of the rocket and space race).

  7. And what's the problem ? on Complain About Comcast, Get Fired From Your Job · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If the man's account is to be believed, EVEN if he name dropped his employer, it was only in an effort to get fair service from comcast to begin with. And get all the crap charges removed.

    And comcast should get bad press for contacting their customer's employer to begin with. Who the hell does that to a customer? Comcast, that's who. Time to go to congress, and get all this cable and telecom monopoly crap gotten rid of.

  8. Re:Hardware isn't Progressing on Lost Opportunity? Windows 10 Has the Same Minimum PC Requirements As Vista · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, you can't compare hz between differnt families of chips just like you can't compare RPM between a motorcycle and dump truck to definitely talk about power output.... but it definitely means a lot.

    If they could crank CPUs up to 100 Ghz or 1 teraherz, they would because it's easy gains. In F1 race cars they use plastic pistons just to be able to rev it over 18,000 rpm (more than a standard motorcycle).

    That's why overclocking still exists. Hz won't mean anything if they ever manage to pull of clockless chips. Considering how much circuitry/transistors are dedicated to timing in a modern CPU, that would be a huge gain. But AFAIK, it's still a pipedream.

  9. In response, Mac will come out with OS 11 on Microsoft Announces Windows 10 · · Score: 1

    And MS will still be behind.

  10. Re:So eBay would survive on eBay To Spin Off PayPal · · Score: 1

    eBay and Paypal are mutually beneficial. Paypal is absolutely reliant on ebay for sheer volume. It's their foundation.

    But I just don't think sellers liked being cornered into having to accept PP 99% of the time.

    eBay is off it's core market, chasing more lucrative opportunities. Problem is, they don't own that other market (amazon, alibaba), never will, and are pissing off their base with every new change. It's the curse of needing constant growth in our economy.

  11. Re:I dunno about LEDs, but CFLs don't last on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    I have over 50 Crees installed, from the standard 40 & 60 watt (equivalents) to the 100 watt eq, to the 65 and 90 watt eq par bulbs.

    From all manner of inside lights to a few all nighter streetlamps.

    They're wonderful and none of them blink. Granted, I don't have any of them on dimmers, just straight out on/off switches.

  12. Re:Ease of Use on Apple Yanks iOS 8 Update · · Score: 1, Informative

    Yeah, um, Apple products have always been plagued with blatant oversights (like the antennas years back). Seems every new generation of iPhone has something wrong with it at the start. A lot of it is extreme attention. The other thing is to never be the first to buy a new product or download a major update.

    In case of a phone, let the crowd rush in for a couple months and pick up the one with small hardware revisions in November or January. Same with downloads.

  13. Don't use the forefinger or thumb on Apple's TouchID Fingerprint Scanner: Still Hackable · · Score: 1

    And a different hand than you usually hold it with. Should be good enough if the phone is just randomly lost.

    I wonder if you have to use the end of a finger or could use the "print" on the middle or proximal phalanx?

  14. Apt Tax on To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We don't need more rules, more laws, more agents (that cost a shit ton of money at work and in retirement), more jails.

    Just banish most taxes, simplify the system to a low rate transaction tax, don't deal with deductions or deciding which charities or legit or not (tax would be too low to matter in individual cases), stop caring if business are on shore or offshore or if couples are married:
    http://www.apttax.com/

    Of course, by nature, bureacracy always has to build itself up, never deconstruct itself, so don't expect to see it short of in the face of a revolution.

  15. Specs don't matter on Do Specs Matter Anymore For the Average Smartphone User? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The experience does.

    When the experience is good, specs don't matter.

    When someone has a bad experience or sees someone else have a better experience they lack, then specs matter.

    For example, I'm going to assume resolution is going to stop mattering with the 6+ having 1080p (surely 4k/8k will be superfluous here, right?), until phones can emit 3D holograms. But they can work on other metrics till then like contrast and sunlight readability.

  16. Re:Hey, NERDS! on Assembling a Micro-scale Biochemistry Lab Like Snapping LEGOs Together · · Score: 0

    Are they ipad/iphone friendly unlike this site, whose only progress the last 15 years seems to be continually breaking the default comment threshold controls?

  17. Re:Capitalism is enamored with Fascism on Why a Chinese Company Is the Biggest IPO Ever In the US · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but Roosevelt didn't fix the Great Depression, WW2 did.

    And before WW2, our Government was in a much better position than it is now --- which is arguably in the bind it is in, from an unholy combination of military spending (Republicans love this) and from poor Medicare/D/SS design and paying government/civil workers too much and giving many of them overly-generous retirement packages after just 20 years work (Democrats love all of this).

    The USPS, after it was spun off, reformed its pension plan, and while the few billion it needs a year is loudly denounced, it largely works considering what it's mandated by congress to do and other paremeters it has to work within, plus being one of the largest employers around.

    So neither side is really for the people. And why would they be? The people don't control their reelection in reality.

    We need an amendment giving power back to the people, and that's by giving only citizens the right to give to politicians in their jurisdiction. No corps donations. No PAC donations. No ALCU or NRA donations. Just citizens. Senators like Biden from Delaware shouldn't have an interest in representing Hollywood. And so on. Congressman from Bumtickle, Idaho should only be able to collect money from the Bumtickle, Idaho congressional district. Senators from their state. Mayors or Mayoral candidates from their city.

    That should curb influence, from say, NYC banks.

  18. Me too. on Why You Can't Manufacture Like Apple · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Simply, you can't manufacture like Apple, because if you manage too, you'll be just as expensive and the vast majority will want the name brand anyway. It's a me, too, that doesn't work.

    But they had to buy 10k CNC machines to build 1M bodies? Doesn't sound right. Only 100 per machine.

  19. Nand flash Dropped only 13% in 2 years? on Why the iPhone 6 Has the Same Base Memory As the iPhone 5 · · Score: 1

    That doesn't sound right. Can anybody confirm?

  20. Re:Jailbreak on Apple Locks iPhone 6/6+ NFC To Apple Pay Only · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh wow, the "my corporate company brand is better than your corporate company brand" fight.

  21. Re:No more subsidies on FCC Chairman: Americans Shouldn't Subsidize Internet Service Under 10Mbps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can't we fine them and jail the executives for fraud on not delivering promised product instead? Might put a kick in the pants.

    I'm tired of punishments consisting of not paying the corporate robbers any more money but getting to keep all they made so far.

  22. Re:Who to believe? on Is the Tesla Model 3 Actually Going To Cost $50,000? · · Score: 1

    Did it suck when he was there or only after he left? I don't recall anymore.

  23. Re:Can someone clarify the state of BitCoin? on Paypal Jumps Into Bitcoin With Both Feet · · Score: 1

    Tax-wise it seems tricky. It seems (you're nuts if you take advice from a random stranger on this) that it's considered an asset, and if bitcoin gains in value you have to pay tax on that

    Like most assets, don't you (in the US) just pay tax on it when you sell it and realize a profit? Just like stock?

    That doesn't seem tricky at all.

  24. Does natural gas fracking work the same way as oil on US Rust Belt Manufacturing Rebounds Via Fracking Boom · · Score: 2

    ?

    I know the extraction bellcurves of conventional oil wells/fields are generally decades long things, while fracking lasts only a few years, so a fracking area tends to get dotted with many, many wells before they have to move on due to depletion.

    Does the same short-livedness hold true for natural gas?

  25. Re:Science creates understanding of a real world. on How Scientific Consensus Has Gotten a Bad Reputation · · Score: 2

    Science may be good and pure and free of politics.

    BUT SCIENTISTS ARE NOT. They depend on funding and getting tenure and in general are dependent on institutions and where institutions are, there is a boat load of politics.

    A hard science like physics has it relatively easy, but everything down the ladder can be and are muddied to one degree or another.

    For the record, I'm convinced of anthropogenic global warming.