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User: Cochonou

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  1. Re:Absence?! on How Ready Is IPv6 To Succeed IPv4? · · Score: 1

    Lets make every one change how to dial a phone! Yeah, we all can dial circuit numbers.

    First we had 6 numbers. Then we had 7. Then we had 8. Finally, we now have 10. And I do not even talk about region-specific prefixes that were used at a time but are now obsolete. So yes, we did make everyone change how to dial a phone, at least in my country.

  2. Re:Not much of a choice on linux.. on Google Chrome Tops 1 Billion Users · · Score: 1

    You can use this wrapper to use the chrome flash plugin with Firefox. It will not speed up flash, though.

  3. Re:Probably a more useful metric than social netwo on Google Chrome Tops 1 Billion Users · · Score: 1

    A Google service can be killed without Google going out of business. History has shown this many times.

  4. Poor slashdot on Mandriva CEO: Employee Lawsuits Put Us Out of Business · · Score: 1

    This is sad times when you get hundreds of clueless users spouting nonsense about labor laws they do not know or understand, while almost no people are discussing about the Mandriva linux distribution itself.

  5. Re:OMG... on New Chrome Extension Uses Sound To Share URLs Between Devices · · Score: 1

    You know, that was a joke.

  6. Re:AOL.com = No Interview on Does Using an AOL Email Address Suggest You're a Tech Dinosaur? · · Score: 1

    Do not forget to also check their zodiac sign.

  7. Re:What about a bus? on New Study Suggests Flying Is Greener Than Driving · · Score: 1

    I think you got your ordering wrong. From your source:
    The overall energy intensity of the intercity bus mode, which is measured in BTUs (British thermal units) per passenger-mile, is 713, compared with 2,441 for intercity passenger rail (Amtrak); 3,999 for certified air carriers; and 4,238 for public transit buses. Automobiles experience 3,671 BTUs per passenger-mile.

  8. Re:It's been nice knowing y'all on The Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct · · Score: 1

    Remember there's been at least one point in history where the human population was on the scale of 1,000.

    As pretty much every new species that grew up and thrived. That did not prevent the extinct species to become extinct.

  9. For a smartphone a TOF camera could be more suited on Tiny LIDAR Chip Could Add Cheap 3D Sensing to Cellphones and Tablets · · Score: 2

    For a smartphones, I'd rather expect so-called "time of flight" cameras to catch-up before LIDARs. Basically, you have an array of LEDs which illuminate the scene using sine or square wave intensity modulation. The imager works at a high framerate (or uses other windowing techniques) to extract the phase shift in each pixel, which gives you 2D ranging information. Of course, there is still the problem of phase unwrapping.
    So in this kind of system, you trade off dynamic range for accuracy and cost. As most measurements with smartphones will probably be performed at short distance, this system seems more suitable than regular LIDARs.

  10. Re:the establishment really does not like competit on Uber Shut Down In Multiple Countries Following Raids · · Score: 1

    AirBNB also abides by the law (collecting occupancy tax for instance...)

  11. Re:forget the gameplay! on Rendering a Frame of Deus Ex: Human Revolution · · Score: 1

    Have you played Samurai Gunn ?

  12. Re:Pilot priorities during an emergency on A Year On, What Flight Simulators Can't Prove About Flight MH370 · · Score: 1

    For that AF447 flight, I should have written: crashed in the middle of the atlantic. Sorry for the mistake.

  13. Re:Pilot priorities during an emergency on A Year On, What Flight Simulators Can't Prove About Flight MH370 · · Score: 1

    Tell me what the plane that went down in the Hudson did? Communicate, aviate, navigate. At least until the decision to go in the Hudson was made, after which there was no need to communicate, and it because Aviate-only. But while crashing (after engine failure), he had a conversation with ATC. That's more important than anything else, despite being last on the list.

    Indeed. Now compare this to other recent high profile crashes: AF447 (Rio-Paris, crashed in the middle of the pacific) - no mayday. QZ8501 (Surabaya - Singapore, crashed in the java sea) - no mayday. From these recent events, I wouldn't say that not communicating before regaining control of the aircraft is unusual.

    That list is for the Cessna fliers who never have, and never will fly anything else.

    I am far for being an aviator. However I got this information from people who do fly airliners. Maybe they are not real pilots, maybe they have been badly trained... but in this case, they are far from being the only ones.

  14. Pilot priorities during an emergency on A Year On, What Flight Simulators Can't Prove About Flight MH370 · · Score: 4, Informative

    He added that "the first thing you're going to do" as a pilot during an emergency is "don the oxygen mask" and "confess to ATC [air traffic control], 'We've got an issue, we need to return.'"

    This is quite a surprising statement. In an emergency, the pilot priorities are:
    1 - Aviate -- Maintain control of the aircraft
    2 - Navigate -- Know where you are and where you intend to go
    3 - Communicate -- Let someone know your plans and needs
    in that precise order, and not in any other order. They are trained to proceed like this.

  15. Re:Really? Come on now, you should know better. on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 2

    The story of the AF447 crash is precisely that: the human took over, and crashed.
    What I wanted to show by bringing up this example is that in current airplane design, there are circumstances in which automation is known to fail (in this case, unreliable/defective sensors). In these circumstances, the systems are designed to give control back to the pilot. The rationale for this is quite clear. It could be argued that fully working automated systems are safer and more reliable than humans. However, automated systems with detected failures are not.
    So the pilot is not there to make passengers feel better: he is a part of the automation backup system. Of course, sometimes this backup does not work: no system is perfect.
    For automated cars, the situation is a bit different. As you pointed out, drivers are not trained for such contingencies. And if a problem happens, the car can just stop on the side of the road, while the plane does not have this option.

  16. Re:So far Areva has not delivered anything but del on French Nuclear Industry In Turmoil As Manufacturer Buckles · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There is something particular with the EPR and Olkiluoto 3 that is worth pointing out.
    For the building of a french nuclear plant, the usual workshare is the following: Areva delivers the reactor equipment, while the EDF utility acts as the prime contractor for the construction of the plant.
    For Olkiluoto 3, Areva took the lead, and operated as a turnkey plant manufacturer. This was actually part of a power struggle between Areva and EDF. You can see it did not turn out well.
    Newer EPR plants (Flamanville, Taishan) reverted to a more traditional workshare.

  17. Re:Insurance and registration on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 1

    Yes, the autonomous car would probably be much better in avoiding an unexpected road hazard such as a deer jumping out of the forest. On the other hand, it would probably have more problems to avoid such hazards in a urban environment, since a big part of avoiding accidents in such a context is recognizing potentially dangerous situations before they happen. Computers are not very good currently at recognizing patterns.

  18. Re:Really? Come on now, you should know better. on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 1

    The point of having pilots in modern airliners is precisely to intervene when automation fails. This happens. There are procedures for it.

  19. Re:If "yes," then it's not self-driving on Would You Need a License To Drive a Self-Driving Car? · · Score: 2

    I would like to see your studies.
    In France, the DUI limit is 0.05%. My anecdotical experience is that this threshold does not seem too low: I certainly do not have the same reflexes or spatial awareness when I am close to this threshold. And I do not think this is a corner case.

  20. Re:Better definition of planet on One Astronomer's Quest To Reinstate Pluto As a Planet · · Score: 1

    I do not really get this line of reasoning.
    I cannot recite the list of mammals or higher primates. My unability to do so has no influence on the definition of these orders.

  21. Re:And still on One Astronomer's Quest To Reinstate Pluto As a Planet · · Score: 1

    You seem to have missed this peculiar characteristic of the 2006 definition of a dwarf planet: it is not a category of planets. Have a look here:

    The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a "planet" is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

    This means that the Solar System consists of eight "planets" Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called "dwarf planets" was also decided. It was agreed that "planets" and "dwarf planets" are two distinct classes of objects. The first members of the "dwarf planet" category are Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313 (temporary name). More "dwarf planets" are expected to be announced by the IAU in the coming months and years. Currently a dozen candidate "dwarf planets" are listed on IAU's "dwarf planet" watchlist, which keeps changing as new objects are found and the physics of the existing candidates becomes better known.

    So this definition actually enrages three kinds of people:
    - People who think Pluto should be classified as a planet for historical reasons.
    - People who think Pluto should be classified as a planet, precisely because as you said, they are many categories of planets which are quite different (terrestrials, gas giants...).
    - People who think it is gramatically incorrect for "dwarf planets" not to be "planets".

  22. Re: White balance and contrast in camera. on Is That Dress White and Gold Or Blue and Black? · · Score: 1

    Yes, it's about the same for me. I see it predominantly gold and white. However, I can see it black and blue if I first look at this white and gold dress, and then I scroll the image from the bottom. I guess it's because most of the orange illumination "hints" are in the lower part of the image.

  23. Re:Incompatible with some situations on Can the Guitar Games Market Be Resurrected? · · Score: 1

    Wait until they get Treasure Adventure for the Wii. It basically makes the sound you hear when you are about to get trampled by a herd of elephants. :D

  24. Re:NYTimes wouldn't write this about... on How One Climate-Change Skeptic Has Profited From Corporate Interests · · Score: 1

    Oh by the way, I an atmospheric scientist and I work with computer models every day. I have serious doubts about how well we can simulate the future climate of earth in 10 years, let alone 100 years into the future. We just recently began incorporating micro-biology into the climate models. They are very crude and in my opinion, it's these very organisms that over the long term, will play an ultimate role in the carbon/oxygen balance. Until we have these features much better modeled, we cannot say with any sort of certainty what the earth's temperature will look like in the long term. At this point, there is still a lot of variability in the outcome, by make very minute changes to the model initial assumptions.

    Yes, of course. The current models point to a strong global warming. They might very well be wrong.
    The matter at hand is actually quite simple. Knowing that the current models predict a salient danger, would you rather:
    - Act now to reduce carbon emissions, given corrective actions are very expensive and might turn out to be useless at the end ?
    - Wait for more information before acting, knowing that delaying the corrective actions might have very nefarious results in the end ?
    The choice is not straightforward. If it was, there wouldn't be such a debate.

  25. Re:It's no wonder fraud is rife in the US on Credit Card Fraud Could Peak In 2015 As the US Moves To EMV · · Score: 1

    What is the purpose of signing the card when I already signed a paper saying that I agreed to the terms and conditions in order to get the card ?