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User: frovingslosh

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  1. Re:uh, so? on 75% of Russia's Satellite Electronics Come From US · · Score: 1

    There is no way that Russia could ever figure out how to have someone in the U.S.A. (maybe even someone who works that the Russian embassy) just order this stuff from Digi-Key and then send it back to Russia, maybe even in a diplomatic pouch.

  2. Re:DUHHHHH on Kaspersky Explains Why They Won't Say Who Hacked Them · · Score: 2

    I was thinking exactly the opposite. You don't want to say who did it when it was the N.S.A.

  3. Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore on An Origami Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery · · Score: 1

    I clearly remember Al Gore claiming to have invented Origami.

  4. Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore on An Origami Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding created by Akira Yoshizawa

    I find it extremely hard to believe that Akira Yoshizawa, born in 1911, invented Origami. Oh sure, he apparently did a lot of Origami, as did others. But to claim he created the concept is a pretty bold claim.

  5. Re:Insurance companies suffer? on Self-Driving Cars To Transform Insurance and Other Industries · · Score: 1

    I don't know where he is driving or who his insurance company is, but I've checked this out in my state and my quote for just liability insurance was more than twice this, even with the "second vehicle discount" (a huge 10% slap in the face). And I'm told that I live in a relatively low cost insurance state.

  6. Re:Insurance companies suffer? on Self-Driving Cars To Transform Insurance and Other Industries · · Score: 1

    OK, I'll accept that I was wrong about the Volt being all-electric. Replace it above with the Leaf or any other all-electric car (maybe even leave out the ones bought from Elon) and the argument about getting hit twice for insurance on the driver when owning two cars still holds.

  7. you don't get it on Self-Driving Cars To Transform Insurance and Other Industries · · Score: 1

    Don't get it. When I need it, I hire a truck. 7.5 ton truck for a day is quite cheap.

    You are correct, you don't get it. Maybe you think that everyone is just like you, but we are not. In my case I'm not talking about needing a large truck, but still needing the capacity to take things when I go on trips (luggage, camping gear, a bike, and perhaps other items I'm taking to or bring back from the people I visit). My preferred day-to-day car would be a little two seater sports car like a Miata or a Scion, but there just isn't room in such a car when making a long trip. Plus rental mileage costs can add up quickly on a cross country trip and any vehicle would be rented for a couple of weeks, not a day. Also, I take very good care of my car and know it will serve me well on such a trip, I'm not comfortable with risking such trips on less trust worthy rental vehicles.

    If you are happy renting that 7.5 tom truck on occasion, fine. But it doesn't really respond to the argument that I presented. The insurance is really on the driver. The insurance rate goes up when there is a teen driver or a driver with a less than perfect record. So we should stop lying about the insurance being on the vehicle rather than the driver (a lie promoted by the insurance companies so that they can get their double hits). We should tie having insurance to having a drivers license, and not penalize the driver who wants to drive a more efficient, lighter weight, less capable of doing damage vehicle on occasion. I would even be fine with the insurance rate being tied to the largest registered vehicle that the driver drives, even if it is not the vehicle that he drives the most, but I really object to being charged for insurance twice if I want to own two vehicles in a single driver household (and there could certainly be "no loan" clauses tied to insurance policies if the industry saw that as an issue, they don't because they would rather get the double hits).

  8. Re:Insurance companies suffer? on Self-Driving Cars To Transform Insurance and Other Industries · · Score: 4, Informative

    Absolutely. As long as the insurance companies keep the lawmakers in their pocket, they will only gain by fewer accidents. If you have liability insurance (the only type that is legally required by most state laws), you are required to have it on each vehicle that you drive (even if there is only one licensed driver in the household). Yet the driver can only drive one vehicle at a time. The industry claims the insurance is on the vehicle and not the driver, but that argument wears thin as soon as you have a teen driver in the household or the driver get into an accident or even gets a ticket. The insurance is clearly on the driver, but the industry is allowed to charge for it for each vehicle. One obvious problem with this is that we claim to want to reduce pollution and improve air quality and have poured millions and millions of tax money into private industry all electric vehicles like the Volt. But because of the limited range, many people who would buy a Volt don't get one because they would have to have a second vehicle for longer trips if they did (particularly in single driver households) and be charged liability insurance on both.

    Personally, I drive a larger vehicle than I would like. I do so because I feel that I need to ability to haul things around occasionally. If I could have a smaller vehicle without the double hit on liability insurance I would also have a small two seat vehicle (or maybe even one, or a motorcycle). The insurance company would win because statistically I could do less damage when I drove the smaller lighter vehicle, but they have their hooks into the lawmakers and they insist that they deserve the insurance payment on each vehicle even when there are more vehicles than drivers in a household.

  9. Re:Haiti government on How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars For Haiti and Built 6 Homes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Absolutely. they could have built more than 6 homes for Haiti government officials with it, and very nice homes too.

  10. Gave money to the Red Cross? on How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars For Haiti and Built 6 Homes · · Score: 1

    Gave money to the Red Cross? Consider the advice of the great philosophers Nelson and Mr. T.

  11. I have two, I win on Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack? · · Score: 1

    I made a laptop out of a Kodak easy-share picture frame and as Raspberry PI. And I made a digital picture frame out of an old laptop.

  12. Sure, makes complete sense on Artist Uses 3D Printing To Preserve Artifacts Destroyed By ISIS · · Score: 2

    And if ISIS were to kill Will Weaton, that is OK since I have his Wesley Crusher action figure.

  13. Re:Don't believe any promises of features to come on NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Reviewed: Gaming and Possibly the Ultimate 4K Streamer · · Score: 1

    spoken like a true A.C.

  14. If they don't pass it on The Patriot Act May Be Dead For Good · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they don't pass it then the government will just do all those things anyway. It's not like they are subject to the law or the constitution or anything.

  15. Don't believe any promises of features to come on NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Reviewed: Gaming and Possibly the Ultimate 4K Streamer · · Score: 2

    I bought an expensive EVGA Nvidia Tegra 7 tablet based on promises that it would be receiving Andriod 5 (Lillipop) "real soon now". Turns out that even the KitKat "upgrade" was incredibly buggy and I'm still on Jellybean. Nvidia promised Android 5 for 2014. Then it slipped to February 2015. Then, when February 2015 came and went, Nvidia became completely unresponsive on the Android 5 upgrade.

    I bought this tablet based on the promise of Android 5 from what I thought was a capable and well respected name in the industry. I didn't want to buy a Google Nexus tablet and reward Google for their short sighted lack of memory expansion and gouging the consumer for a small increment of internal memory. But at this point I expect that it is the last Nvidia product that I will ever buy.

    No matter how reasonable promises of upgrades seem, believe half of what Nvidia tells you about current products and nothing about what they promise will be available soon in the future for the device, or expect to be treated the way past Nvidia customers have been.

  16. end-run around constitutional protections on Murder Accusations Hang Over Silk Road Boss Ulbricht's Sentencing · · Score: 5, Funny

    or is it an end-run around constitutional protections that everybody in the legal system has just collectively agreed on?

    The Constitution isn't perfect, but it is better than what we have now.

  17. Re:And who's going to pay for it? on Neil DeGrasse Tyson Urges America To Challenge China To a Space Race · · Score: 1

    Idiot! We don't give foreign aid to the people of China. We give it to the government of China.

  18. astrophysicist? on Neil DeGrasse Tyson Urges America To Challenge China To a Space Race · · Score: 0, Troll

    Media hound? Yes! Destroyer of Planets? Certainly! But astrophysicist? Really? I know he takes care of signage at the Hayden Planetarium, but what has he really done as an astrophysicist? I can't find any contribution that Neil DeGrasse Galactus has made to astrophysics.

  19. Re:And who's going to pay for it? on Neil DeGrasse Tyson Urges America To Challenge China To a Space Race · · Score: 0

    Foll, we'll just borrow money from the Chinese to pay for it. Just like the money that Obama borrows from the Chinese and then turns around and gives back to China as "foreign aid".

  20. Re:Last Straw on IRS: Personal Info of 100,000 Taxpayers Accessed Illegally · · Score: 1

    and too busy deleting and hiding the e-mail that documented it.

  21. taxed if you do on IRS: Personal Info of 100,000 Taxpayers Accessed Illegally · · Score: 1

    You can't even officially renounce your citizenship without going to another country and renouncing it at an official government building there.... and you need to buy a U.S. passport to do that. So much for "Land of the Free".

  22. Last Straw on IRS: Personal Info of 100,000 Taxpayers Accessed Illegally · · Score: 5, Funny

    That does it. I'm going to quit giving them my business.

  23. Privacy????? on Adblock Plus Launches Adblock Browser: a Fork of Firefox For Android · · Score: 0

    I can understand and even support ad blocking for two reasons, Avoiding wasting data (particularly on annoying video ads) and Protecting Privacy (not sure why every site that I visit seems to need to contact Facebook, particularly since I'm not a Facebook member and never will be. The HOSTS file seems to be a big help with this on my desktop, but I don't seem to have access to one on my non-rooted Android devices.

    So, with one of the concerns being Privacy, why in hell does the Adblock site say: "Join the Adblock Browser Beta Google+ community here (make sure you’re looged into G+ first!)" before letting me download????? I have no use for Google+ or any other failed attempt by Google to play social media games, or any other social media product (see the thoughts on Facebook above). Why the hell does a software app that pretends to promote the individual's right to opt-out of things demand that I be part of Google+ before I can download it????? Not going to happen and I've lost all faith in them.

  24. slush fund on Planetary Society Wants To Launch a Crowd-Funded Solar Sail · · Score: -1, Troll

    Their crowdfunding goal has been far surpassed (more than $476,000 at this writing), but more can't hurt

    With no clue what they would do with more, and the goal met more than twice over, I'm not inclined to contribute and not even sure that more will not hurt. I certainly don't want them giving the excess to NASA as was suggested, I can easily see politicians making proportional reductions in the NASA budget for every dollar given and spending that money on liberal social projects. Or the Planetary Society might decide that they have done such a good job in raising funds that their officers deserve a bigger pay check or a big party or other perks.

    It strikes me as fairly obvious that this at least had the potential to greatly exceed its goal, and the honest and responsible thing to do would have been to spell out additional goals or what would be done with any excess funds. I don't think the Planetary Society deserves a big slush fund for failing to do that.

  25. Part two will run tomorrow on How Light at Night Affects Preschoolers' Sleep Patterns (Video) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some day we may have the technology to be able to post both parts at the same time.