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User: TheSync

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  1. Why should guys like Mitt Romney only get to pay 13% on his annual income in tax

    You should be aware that for tax year 2014, the maximum capital gains tax rate is now 23.8%. Romney was only paying 13% effective tax rate when the capital gains tax maxed out at 15%.

    Of course Romeny paid millions in taxes, which is more than you ever will.

  2. Re:Not to mention Audio Editing on The Current State of Linux Video Editing · · Score: 2

    Back in the late 1990's, we edited Geeks in Space Slashdot Radio with Cool Edit. It was great for normalizing & compressing the recording levels from Slashdot HQ, we could do noise gates, speed up/slow down audio, etc.

  3. Gastric Electric Stimulators used for weight gain on FDA Approves Implantable Vagus Nerve Disruptor For Weight Loss · · Score: 1

    What is ironic is that Gastric Electric Stimulators are used to ease the symptoms of gastroparesis, reducing nausea and allowing those patients to gain weight.

  4. Re:What a bunch of fucking bullshit this is... on Study: Belief That Some Fields Require "Brilliance" May Keep Women Out · · Score: 1

    No, Hedy Lamarr invented a particular mechanical way to achieve frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) using paper player piano rolls.

    FHSS was actually invented by Tesla, who patented the idea in 1903, and there were various implementations of it by WWI.

    Moreover, direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) was actually only made practical through the "noise wheel" work of Mortimer Rogoff around 1950. His work was kept secret for over 30 years, which is part of the reason why few people know of him.

    Hedy Lamarr was clearly a very intelligent person, and her work with George Antheil was apparently used to control some torpedoes in the 1960's using FHSS.

    But it is misleading to say that she invented spread spectrum, or even invented frequency hopping.

    It should also be noted that only the lowest bandwidth early 802.11 protocols used FHSS. There was a transition to DSSS, and now most modern 802.11 protocols use OFDM.

  5. Re:He didn't say that on Elon Musk Plans To Build Hyperloop Test Track · · Score: 1

    I wonder why California didn't pop to mind, especially since he lives there.

    Looking at CA solar plant permitting processes, it generally takes about 2 years to get a permit now - unless you get turned down.

  6. Re:Tell me it ain't so, Elon! on Tesla To Produce 'a Few Million' Electric Cars a Year By 2025 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My father used to own a Texaco gas station. He often competed with stations that were owned by Texaco itself. There were times when those company-owned stations would sell gas for cheaper than they would sell it to him wholesale. Corporate mentality doesn't care about anything but profit.

    Of course through the effects of corporate self-interest, consumers got cheaper gas than they could from your father's rip-off gas station...

  7. Re:everytime this is tired on South Africa Begins Ambitious Tablets In Schools Pilot Project · · Score: 1

    The LA Unified School District is spending over $1 billion to give all students (650,000) iPads.

    Note that Beverly Hills School District is independent, and not part of LAUSD...

  8. Re:3rd place vs 1st place. on Education Debate: Which Is More Important - Grit, Or Intelligence? · · Score: 1

    How do you teach grit, anyway?

    My wife taught me grit. We fell in love despite my inability to even keep a clean room, and then she started slowly with things like "clean up your mess" then "here is a list of things to get done" then "maybe you should make your own lists of things you need to get done" etc...

    Both positive and negative rewards were given to me!

    Anyway, she helped me pick up a reasonable amount of grit to go with my intelligence. Now I need to stop reading Slashdot for the day!

  9. Re: Thanks, assholes on Gun Rights Hacktivists To Fab 3D-Printed Guns At State Capitol · · Score: 1

    murder isn't the only way people are killed by guns.

    True, but the mortality rates are different. For gunshot wounds, mortality rate is 22%, while that for stab wounds was 4% (source, though from 1994 and I wonder with more cell phones whether faster trauma admission speeds may enhance differential mortalities due to differential bleed rates between the two modalities).

  10. Re:Thanks, assholes on Gun Rights Hacktivists To Fab 3D-Printed Guns At State Capitol · · Score: 1

    Detroit is the US city with the highest murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate of 45 per 100,000 people.

    DC is not even in the top ten US cities.

  11. Re:Still scared of the government? on Gun Rights Hacktivists To Fab 3D-Printed Guns At State Capitol · · Score: 2

    In 2014, US Federal, State, and Local governments spent 35.5% of GDP. Compare with 31.6% of GDP in 2000.

  12. Re:Lawsuits already in progress on Dish Introduces $20-a-Month Streaming-TV Service · · Score: 2

    You can, as a Dish subscriber, view any channel right now over the Internet.

    As a "Dish subscriber" you can stream on authenticated devices, but not as a "Sling TV subscriber". That would require another contract between Dish and content providers.

  13. Re:But ... but ... gas is below 2 bucks man! on Seismological Society of America Claims Fracking Reactivated Ohio Fault · · Score: 1

    OPEC doesn't set the price, just output levels.

    For a long time, it has been unclear that OPEC can actually "set output levels". Cartels are notoriously hard to keep together when every member can do better for themselves by cheating.

  14. Re:Lawsuits already in progress on Dish Introduces $20-a-Month Streaming-TV Service · · Score: 2

    Dish already has the right contact list from its DBS business.

    Dish may have the "contact list", but certainly it does not yet have the rights to stream broadcast television stations on the Internet without entering into an agreement with those stations (which likely would mean additional retransmission fees).

    Of course you can already watch broadcast stations for free over the air in actual HD quality, as opposed to the very likely lower quality streaming unless you can keep a 10 Mbps H.264 stream going continuously over your Internet connection.

  15. Re:Easy solution... on Waze Causing Anger Among LA Residents · · Score: 1

    The easy solution is to make highrise apartment and office buildings illegal through zoning.

    Or make high-rise apartment buildings LEGAL so that more people live closer to their job instead of in the suburbs.

    LA has too many parts of its "urban" area zoned as single-family residential (compare with Manhattan).

  16. Re:Experienced it recently on Waze Causing Anger Among LA Residents · · Score: 1

    My brother and I were actually heading down to the Sunset Strip a couple weeks ago for a concert and my brother decided to try the Waze route.

    raining hard

    Dude, when it is raining hard, the 405 Sepulveda pass and the 110 Cahuenga pass became parking lots. If Waze took you over the hills, I'm sure that was the fastest route, even if it seemed like it was long!

  17. Exactly! on Waze Causing Anger Among LA Residents · · Score: 1

    "Waze has caused trouble for LA residents by redirecting traffic from Interstate 405 to neighborhood side streets paralleling the interstate. "

    Exactly, that is why I use Waze, so when the highways get backed up, I can go around them on the surface streets!

    If you can't take the traffic, move to the suburbs!

  18. Re:Over what time interval? on The Sony Pictures Hack Was Even Worse Than Everyone Thought · · Score: 2

    The Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM) contains uncompressed audio and video, but timed text elements like subtitles are stored in XML.

    DCDMs are turned into the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) for distribution to theaters, which is an encrypted file of JPEG 2000 video at a max 250 Mbps.

  19. Re:We've already seen the alternative to regulatio on A Backhanded Defense of Las Vegas' Taxi Regulation · · Score: 1

    These days, when you hop into an Uber X, it's a less consistent experience. Sometimes it's a lost out-of-towner

    I find this in "normal" taxis in New York and Chicago. The drivers are asking me where things are. I'm thinking "do you know what a GPS is?" Then they don't take credit cards (or the credit card reader "isn't working") or they do so by rubbing a pencil on a piece of paper on top of your card and you see the charge a month later.

  20. Re:A few good parts of regulation... on A Backhanded Defense of Las Vegas' Taxi Regulation · · Score: 1

    Because the walk from Bellagio to New York New York is complicated by City Center, it's a pain in the ass 20 minute one-mile hike

    That is a failure of Bellagio, New York New York, and City Center, not of taxis. Next time, let your invisible hand direct you to a more walkable area like downtown Vegas.

  21. Re:Algorithm on UK Announces 'Google Tax' · · Score: 1

    I don't mind Starbucks not paying taxes in the UK, as long as they pay a fair share of taxes somewhere.

    In 2012, Starbucks had operating income of about $2 billion and paid $674 million in income taxes.

    In the last 12 months ending Sept. 27, 2014, Apple paid $14 billion in income taxes on $52 billion operating income.

    Of course both of these companies paid significant amounts of sales taxes as well as income taxes.

  22. Re:Algorithm on UK Announces 'Google Tax' · · Score: 1

    Say they do 6% of their global business and revenue in my country. OK, then whatever profits Apple makes world wide throughout their empire throughout all associated companies, you've got to pay tax in my country on 6% of it.

    So if a company can't make a high profit in your country, they simply would never invest in business operations in your country if you are going to tax them on revenues instead of profits. Sure, that is one scheme.

  23. Re:It is also sad on Finland Dumps Handwriting In Favor of Typing · · Score: 1

    It is also sad that kids these days no longer know how to use a quill to write.

    Quill?!?! I say the kids need to learn how to write Akkadian cuneiform in clay with a blunt reed.

  24. Re:Bad Helmet Design on Football Concussion Lawsuits Start To Hit High Schools · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why does the helmet only have padding on the inside?

    Most football concussions now come from "rotational acceleration", the twisting of the brain inside the skull. It is much harder for a helmet to protect against there than "linear acceleration" forces, the helmet has to literally slide around the head.

  25. Re:But who's going to support the welfare state? on LinkedIn Study: US Attracting Fewer Educated, Highly Skilled Migrants · · Score: 1

    John D. Rockefeller basally created the modern petroleum industry, dramatically advancing technology, and reducing the price of oil for customers.

    Cornelius Vanderbilt was an early steamboat and shipping entrepreneur, and dramatically improved the operation of railroad lines into New York City.

    Andrew Carnegie greatly enlarged the US steel industry, including the first serious of the Bessemer process. Personally, Carnegie was a leader in the American Anti-Imperialist League, in opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. He also gave away 90% of his wealth to philanthropies.

    All three of these men created companies that enhanced the lives of consumers.