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User: BerntB

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  1. Self driving cars are not that far off on Ray Kurzweil's Slippery Futurism · · Score: 1

    Self driving cars on the Highway are on the way, if the pun is excused. There are quite a lot of experiments and development. There is an EU program, etc. Sure, to get them on the roads (and integrate their systems with highways etc) will certainly take at least another decade.

    The point is, the subject is not a joke, as the article insinuated.

    That said, I'd not trust Kurzweil's claims on e.g. economics or cancer research. I might give some credibility to experts in those areas.

  2. Why would I work hard for social change? on Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "He concludes that social media promote social 'weak ties' which are not strong enough to motivate people to take big risks, such as imprisonment or attack, for social change."

    Call me a cynic (-: cheap flattery works :-), but I can't imagine anything that would motivate me for that much of social change. Mostly because most other societal systems are more or less as good/bad (inside a factor of two) as the where I live.

    And if I did get motivated to change society, I would support (or maybe even join!) a political party and try to get into the parliament. Since that is allowed where I live.

  3. Sounds like good news for female boxers? on Study Finds the Perfect Ratio of Attractiveness · · Score: 1

    Sounds like good news for female boxers?

  4. Dictators always need external enemies on Russian Scholar Warns Of US Climate Change Weapon · · Score: 1

    American climate weapons fits in a bit too well with:
    Dictators must have external enemies. And people in non-democracies tend to believe in conspiracies -- after all, they live in one.

    Let us hope this is a crank, or we should be sad (and scared!) about where Russia is going... :-(

    I assume it is the Russian oil's fault. Countries with too much of their export income from natural resources never become democracies, if they weren't one already. (See "Resource curse".)

  5. Reference? on Kaminsky Offers Injection Antidote · · Score: 1

    Linky linky?

  6. Re:Do you know this expression? on Killer Apartment Vs. Persistent Microwave Exposure? · · Score: 1

    He, you beat me ... with a decade. :-)

    But that type of naivité which I mentioned is typical here. I'm not certain which place is worst, the difference might just be in style; a result from size differences and the Swedish' tendency to be group oriented.

  7. Do you know this expression? on Killer Apartment Vs. Persistent Microwave Exposure? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You are probably right, because it would need a conspiracy to hide research results. But... remember the tobacco companies' bought research.

    A while ago, I learned a new expression which I've never seen in my native Swedish media -- which do say something about at least Sweden's political trustworthiness:

    Regulatory capture.

  8. Re:Just got a Nook on It's 2010; What's the Best E-Reader? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Can the Nook handle password-protected PDFs? (Some publishers sells ebooks like that.)

  9. Re:It depends on the language on Learning and Maintaining a Large Inherited Codebase? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Funny you should say that.,,

    I quite like this reference from the Perl world about understanding large systems: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=788328

  10. Because I need to browse... on New Color E-Reader Tech To Challenge E-Ink Dominance · · Score: 1

    I don't understand these complaints about the response times for the screens on e-readers.

    I want to browse, at least when not reading literature. Also, I want a full A4 with note taking for browsing code (my own and others).

  11. Mod parent up, comparision E-ink/OLPC on New Color E-Reader Tech To Challenge E-Ink Dominance · · Score: 1

    Thanks, that was informative. No mod points just now.

  12. Thanks for the laugh! on FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign · · Score: 1

    Quite a funny combination:

    I'm the biggest Linux fanboi you'll ever meet [...] most of the time, if I just need to jump online, I boot to Windows.

    The IE standard support can't be beaten, I guess... Pity you don't have support for Firefox or anything on the OS you're a "fanboi" for. :-)

    Not a single on of their "sins" is immoral or unjust.

    Thanks for the deep insight into monopoly economics and behaviour, like actively destroying standard compliance as a business practice.

  13. Re:These people are delusional. on FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign · · Score: 1

    I thought I was quite obviously ironic to what I commented on. Sorry for the confusion.

  14. Re:These people are delusional. on FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I understand your irritation -- FSF present Microsoft's standard behavior as if it were news. Wasted my time checking it out, too.

  15. Re:Pick a new name assholes on Alternative Orion Missions Proposed · · Score: 1

    Not this one. The Russians make a point about being pissy about any details that shows them to not be the Soviet Union, anymore... :-)

    (Excuses in advance if I mangled the slang idiom.)

    All non-democratic states needs to get external enemies, so it is generally a good idea not to give them excuses. (Unless the local democratic leader also needs a conflict, sigh.)

  16. I was thinking the exact same thing :-( on Alternative Orion Missions Proposed · · Score: 1

    I was going to post the exact same thing. :-(

    It would be hard to use for launches today, because it'd fry some satellites, but check this out, if you haven't seen it.

  17. Graphics are really, really important for an hour on What's the Importance of Graphics In Video Games? · · Score: 1

    Graphics are really important for an hour or two, then you turn them down to get maximum speed in the real goal -- killing your friends and unknown kids on the intertubes... ;-)

  18. Re:Surprise surprise on Siemens, Nokia Helped Provide Iran's Censoring Tech · · Score: 1

    One un-elected guy has godly powers. He can do anything he likes.

    Totally wrong!

    It wasn't him, but another group of priests that decided which 4 (out 450++) presidential candidates that could run for election. (Four times better than old, undemocratic Soviet!)

    Besides, since all the cowardly real opposition left the country (to avoid being among the thousands shot), there probably wasn't anyone among those 450++ claiming Iran wasn't as close to Heaven-on-Earh as possible.

    Anyway, the Grand Parent is obviously right, Iran is a good democracy that is just getting a bad reputation! I mean, after BBC was part of the British conspiracy against the great Iranian state and started riots in the streets with terrorists, they didn't even have the reporters shot -- just told them to get out of the country.

    I think the above isn't even a parody on the official line... well, there should probably be something about Jewish/sionist conspiracy somewhere. :-)

  19. Re:I'll cross my fingures harder for polywell then on French Fusion Experiment Delayed Until 2025 or Beyond · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nebel recently claimed in an interview that he expects to know if Polywell will work or not in 18-24 months. Not a long wait, really...

    There are some other funded projects that might work (and some that probably won't). It would be good for the world if at least one did. Maybe it is time to buy shares in an electric car-builder...?

    General Fusion seems the coolest; steam driven pistons! :-)

  20. Re:99% of the answers are going to be Eclipse on What Free IDE Do You Use? · · Score: 1

    Sigh, s/If I do development/If I do web development/

  21. Re:99% of the answers are going to be Eclipse on What Free IDE Do You Use? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have it easier to keep multiple code windows open in Emacs, since I don't lose lots of area to IDE buttons etc. (I generally run two A4 of Emacs and one A4 Shell window. If I do development, I'd really need another screen for browsers and other windows).

  22. Re:Sometimes the truth sucks on Telling Fact From Fantasy In the World of Apple Rumors · · Score: 1

    Second hand Macs are expensive, AFAIK. Mechanical quality is high, etc but they mostly are quite expensive. but You pay for the UI and integration and the hourly cost is quite insignificant. Is it worth it? Depends on usage. My new Mac will be bad economy for me -- I mostly use Emacs, Ffox/Opera and bash.

    This is not a flame (I don't know you and have no idea how you are on average), but my honest opinion.
    The worst Mac fanatics I've seen under a decade are the extreme haters/trolls. They really go out of their way to spend lots and lots of time bashing Macs in places where there are Mac users. They also always claim that Mac users are fanatics, even the one who posted more than 10 percent of all posts over a few months... (-: Hello, Svante Wendel, you old mythomaniac! Still having lots of alter egos and canceling everything that contradicts you on Usenet? :-)

    (Disclaimer: I've been running Debian/Ubuntu almost exclusively for quite a few years, but got a Mac again in December. My experience might be outdated.)

  23. Re:Twice as fast... on Ruby 1.9.1 Released · · Score: 1

    We don't really disagree, but I'd quibble with a few points (In OO, the Moose/Mouse stuff seems to beat OO for all mainstream languages as of today; what a twist! Closures are cool and useful. Also, Perl 6 -- at last -- seems to grow into something really, really exciting.)

    As I wrote, a good part of the reason I like Perl are the smart and interesting people in the community; I'd be plain embarrassed to stand with a crowd that do that kind of hype. (I'm not really sure it's the Rubyists that are those boring trolls, btw?)

  24. Re:I am afraid, there is lack of direction for Rub on Ruby 1.9.1 Released · · Score: 1

    I agree with your points. That said, the PCRE library seems quite sweet and I could probably live quite happily with it. Sure, Perl has advantages because regexps are built into the language and don't need quoting etc.

    (-: And that from someone totally opposite of you; I wss never really happy with C++ but do Perl for fun. :-).

  25. Re:Twice as fast... on Ruby 1.9.1 Released · · Score: 4, Informative

    I still do Perl.

    Half the reason is that Perl is a bit insane and breaks all language design rules -- but still works. That makes it fun. The other half is that the community is so good; CPAN is a result of that and, also, you don't have so much of that disgusting hype (like you just commented on); like you, I'd rather not be identified with a community doing that.

    Ruby do look sweet and Python seems usable (if a bit boring). But with the "Perl Best Practices" book becoming so popular and Moose (et al), I can't motivate a switch. The largest problem with Perl today IMHO is that it takes a bit more time and energy to learn.