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User: Delwin

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Comments · 279

  1. Re:Comparative advantage is BS on Russia Bans US Use of Its Rocket Engines For Military Launches · · Score: 1

    Not the shuttle but the SLS. It's already being tested. Also SpaceX will likely get its human rating a lot faster than it would have otherwise.

  2. Re:governement approach can waste money trying on NASA, France Skeptical of SpaceX Reusable Rocket Project · · Score: 1

    NASA had it's biggest successes when von Braun was a leading force within it. Without a genius level mover like that in their ranks the bureaucracy takes over and huge projects will not be what they could be.

    That said they're still good at smaller projects and basic research.

  3. Re:Economic reasons on How Concrete Contributed To the Downfall of the Roman Empire · · Score: 1

    #1 - There are a number of fabs in the US. Interestingly semiconductors is one of the items that you need a truly skilled workforce to fabricate and thus it's still cheaper to do it at home.

    #2 - ... that's a real problem.

    #3: Rare earth elements. China's already got a stranglehold and it's already been doing things like banning export to Japan. In return Japan has been doing a lot of research into reduction or elimination of rare earth elements. We should be OK on this one.

    Oil though... That's a real problem. EROEI is already way below peak and it's only getting worse. We're going to need to invent either really good batteries (which are in research now) combined with extensive deployment of wind/solar (which is happening now) or we're going to need some serious advancements in the nuclear realm - either small reactor technology, thorium, or fusion. Barring any of those we're going to need some kind of currently sci-fi/fringe power source to actually work (Hydrino, LENR, zero-point, etc).

    If we don't get one of those three, or better all of them, then yea. We're screwed.

  4. Re:Lack of regulation == chaos on F.C.C., In Net Neutrality Turnaround, Plans To Allow Fast Lane · · Score: 1

    More != Better
    Less != Better
    Better == Progressive paradise.

  5. Re:Interesting, but they admit low-current capabil on Nanodot-Based Smartphone Battery Recharges In 30 Seconds · · Score: 1

    You missed his last line: "Good batteries would be a true game-changer, and solve both energy crisis and global warming in a single strike."

  6. Re:informal poll on Linus Torvalds Suspends Key Linux Developer · · Score: 1

    You can't discount Android for this. Android is a Linux distro and uses the Linux kernel.

  7. Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine on Russian Army Spetsnaz Units Arrested Operating In Ukraine · · Score: 1

    If we don't enforce the treaty we are partner to then any hope of keeping Iran from getting nukes is out the window. Likewise the last few decades of keeping nukes out of the hands of those that would be more than happy to smuggle them into the US and use them on us is gone too. Would you still feel this way when Boston, DC or LA become a mushroom cloud because a suicide bomber upgraded from chemical to nuclear explosives?

  8. Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine on Russian Army Spetsnaz Units Arrested Operating In Ukraine · · Score: 1

    Did you completely miss the part where we are treaty-bound to be involved in this one? That the only reason the Ukrane gave up it's nukes was because we promised that Russia wouldn't do exactly what it just did?

  9. Re:Frog is boiling.... on Supreme Court Ruling Relaxes Warrant Requirements For Home Searches · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, this is about when someone didn't consent and was then arrested. The police came back and asked the remaining person who of course then consented (rather than be arrested). That should qualify as consent under duress if he had a good lawyer.

  10. Re:SpaceX on SpaceX Testing Landing Legs On Next Falcon9 Rocket · · Score: 1

    The intent (not with the Falcon but with later rockets) is for it not to splash down at all but land vertically back on a launch pad. You can then use a crane to put a new second stage on it, bolt it all back together, refuel and relaunch. ... that's the goal at least. We're still a long way from that.

  11. Re:A lot of "collateral damage" mis-moddings. on Debian Technical Committee Votes For Systemd Over Upstart · · Score: 0

    Most of us who use use-names on the Internet have our real name tied to them in so many places that it is trivial to connect the two, and thus they serve no real purpose in terms of security. They are nicknames, nothing more.

  12. Re:Giant external storage security hole patched? on The App That Tracks Who's Tracking You · · Score: 1

    As of Android 4.4.2 apps can only access their own directories in external media. Needless to say this broke a number of apps like file browsers.

  13. Re:NHTSA pushed a 5 star rating on NHTSA Gives the Model S Best Safety Rating of Any Car In History · · Score: 1

    You mean like non-nuke submarines... which use electric while underwater and disel whie on the surface where they can get access to an air supply? Sure it's different batteries (which don't explode when exposed to water...) but your argument doesn't exactly hold a lot of weight. Now I would like to see a flood test where they run it into a river and see if it explodes.

  14. Re:How to (not) get people to use your OS... on Alan Cox to NVIDIA: You Can't Use DMA-BUF · · Score: 1

    Right up until you classify Android - with it's hundreds of millions of installs - as a Linux distro since it uses the Linux kernel. That's what NVIDIA is complaining about.

  15. Re:So from here on out ... on Supreme Court: Affordable Care Act Is Constitutional · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That was the point of the other half of the mandate ruling. The government doesn't have the power to compell you to engage in commerce. They do however have the power to tax you and then give you a tax break for engaging in said commerce. You can feel free to not get health insurance. You just don't get the tax break that having health insurance gets you.

  16. Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid. on Verizon Wireless Goes Ahead With 'Bucket' Data Plans · · Score: 1

    People are complaining over the $50 for the first GB but don't bother to look at the $100/10GB and $10/2GB block after that. That's $10/GB for the first 10 and then $5/GB after that. Once you're into that tier it's cheaper than the europian plans. The ones getting screwed are the ones who only use 2-3 GB/month.

  17. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? on The Leap: Gesture Control Like Kinect, But Cheaper and Higher Resolution · · Score: 2

    Point it at your face and make twitching movements with your cheeks. This takes the technology in Stephan Hawking's chair and makes it inexpensive enough people with ALS who aren't world famous scientsts could use it.

  18. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? on The Leap: Gesture Control Like Kinect, But Cheaper and Higher Resolution · · Score: 1

    I think you missed the point of his comment. I don't think I'll need much computer assistance for my daily bathroom break either. Now one that will help me by tying my coffee pot to my alarm might be welcome... but somehow I just don't think a computer will help me defecate.

  19. Re:Great but... on A Better Way To Program · · Score: 1

    He does do one function but I'm also worried that this won't scale well in modern programing. It does however lend itself very well to functional programing (as opposed to object oriented).

  20. Re:In THIS house... on LED's Efficiency Exceeds 100% · · Score: 1

    A couple of us went over the math on Reddit and it turns out there's a hole in the infinate loop here. It's close - real close - to an over unity device but it doens't quite make it. That said being able to make use of quantum level particle motion to produce light is still an amazing feat of science.

  21. E.E. Doc Smith on Ask Slashdot: Good, Forgotten Fantasy & Science Fiction Novels? · · Score: 1

    Lensmen and Skylark. E.E. Doc Smith is one of the pioneers of Science Fiction but his works seem to be lost to the mists of time.

  22. Re:Isn't that kind of the point? on Iran's Military Claims To Have Downed US Surveillance Drone · · Score: 1

    Yes but there is still data that can be extracted from the keys if you can get them. That said I'm sure they're zeroized long before anyone got to the crash site. The hardware on the other hand is still well into the TS levels of classified. DOD doesn't want it getting out exactly what hardware is used for the communications on those things since that's by far the most vulnerable aspect of drones (remote control).

  23. Re:constitutional interpretation on Interpreting the Constitution In the Digital Era · · Score: 1

    The problem is that you're skipping a large part of our history - namely the Civil War. The United States is a very different entity than These United States because of that war. In a way the 14th Amendment is as important, if not more so, than the rest of the document.

  24. Re:Isn't that kind of the point? on Iran's Military Claims To Have Downed US Surveillance Drone · · Score: 2

    The problem with this is that those drones have encrypted radios and if they didn't get wiped in time closely guarded encryption keys. The radio has a remote-detonate so it should be OK but there's still a lot of other tech on that drone that we really don't want Iran getting it's hands on - not to mention China to whome it was likely sold.

  25. Re:Isn't that kind of the point? on Iran's Military Claims To Have Downed US Surveillance Drone · · Score: 1

    They do.