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User: ChrisMaple

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  1. Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable on The Most Annoying Software Out There · · Score: 3, Informative

    Conporate quarterly conference calls are generally available only in Windows Media Player and RealPlay formats. Under Linux, this means RealPlay only. Fortunately, Linux RealPlay seems pretty benign.

  2. Re:Has Fedora fixed the packager manager performan on Fedora 9 a Bit Behind the Curve On Installation · · Score: 1

    Sorry, it's not that simple. In Fedora 6 (which I consider a broken distribution) all the repositories are disabled by default. The user has to do a lot of research to figure out how to enable them, and it still doesn't work. In the end, I've had to do as much work with yum as I did with manually downloading each RPM - or installing from tarballs, in some cases.

  3. Re:The reality... on Woman Indicted In MySpace Suicide Case · · Score: 1
    This is not a simple case of a single insult leading to a suicide. This is a case of a multi-month campaign by an adult designed expressly to destroy the life of a minor, which resulted in death.

    Results DO matter, and they properly make a great deal of difference. Shooting a gun into the air can be criminal negligence or reckless endangerment, and if some-one dies as a result it is manslaughter.

    Intent matters also, and there obviously was malice here.

    I think the difficult thing is getting the punishment right. A long duration punishment will bring excessive harm to the perpetrator's family, so something short and harsh may be appropriate. Six months solitary confinement, or six months hard labor, seems about right.

  4. Re:What's the real motivation here? on Woman Indicted In MySpace Suicide Case · · Score: 1
    Isn't "endangering a minor" illegal? Reckless endangerment?

    I think there are clear grounds for legal action, but not at the federal level. The malicious intent is obvious.

  5. Re:180 degrees? on Screen With 180 Degree Field of View · · Score: 1

    No good. The dots were still in my field of view when my nose hit the board.

  6. Power shift on Government Efficiency and Network Theory · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Parkinson also noted that when the cabinet exceeded 20 persons it merely indicated that power had shifted away from the cabinet as a unit. Power might be in another group, or in a subset of the group and meets separately to get the real work done.

    Around 20 members, people start making prepared statements rather than using meetings as think tanks. Real work is no longer done in cabinet meetings.

    Since this new study indicates that the government and the nation is less efficient if the cabinet is large, it's an interesting extension of Parkinson's work.

    Many of Parkinson's articles were humorous and he strongly hinted that he had no actual numbers to back up his claims. It's a little surprising to see that the real world aligns with his claims.

  7. Related issues on Google's Shareholders Vote Against Human Rights · · Score: 2, Interesting
    One political complaint these days is that U.S. dollars are going to China, leading to a lowered value of the dollar. Google has the effect of returning some of these dollars to the U.S.

    Although China is one of the less free countries, it is improving. Think about that it was like 25 or 50 years ago. Now it is rapidly industrializing and becoming richer. Increased freedom is a major cause of the increased wealth, and these newly richer people are better able to promote more freedom. Google's technology is helping this trend.

    The sort of people who create this sort of stockholder initiative either have no interest in the success of Google or they're too blind to see that such silliness harms Google. Political posturing and power grabs make up the majority of the stockholder initiatives I've seen in the last decade.

  8. Re:Why bother? on How To Move Your Linux Systems To ext4 · · Score: 1

    From what I've read, Reiser4 is very slow deleting files.

  9. Re:Inkjet shminkjet... on How Aftermarket Inkjet Ink Holds Up After a Year · · Score: 1
    The problem with home color emulsion printing is not the initial expenditure (perhaps $500, less if you build your own enlarger), nor is it consumables (less than inkjets if you buy from a place like Freestyle). It's time and frustration. Mix chemicals and have a place to store them. Control temperatures accurately to about 1 degree. Pour chemicals in and out carefully. Learn how to work in near darkness and total darkness, depending upon the particular part of the process you're doing at the moment. After exposing and processing a print (20 minutes) do it again because it's too dark or the color balance is wrong.

    I made a few hundred 8 x 10 inch color prints over the course of 30 years. It was an adventure and an education, but today I wouldn't start again. The materials are becoming harder to buy as silver processes become obsolete. Inkjets are too easy.

  10. Re:The same as it affected... on The File-System Fallout of the Reiser Verdict · · Score: 1
    The Union Carbide case is very much open to question. The Bhopal plant was part of Union Carbide India Limited, owned 51% by UC and 49% by the government of India. To a large extent it was managed locally, and badly. There is some reason to believe there was sabotage, but the gov't blocked investigation of that possibility. I am not saying here that UC management in the US is devoid of blame, but even a claim of gross negligence is too strong.

    Bhopal is a city of more than 1 million. The initial death count was 3000, long term deaths probably did not exceed 20000. The claim that "they poisoned a whole town killing everyone" is just a lie.

  11. Re:You heard it here first... on $1/Gallon "Green Gasoline" In Sight · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Trees are not a step in any efficient process that goes from sunshine to liquid fuel. It takes too much energy to make wood. Some plants are much better at turning light into useable biomass.

  12. Re:What are they working on now? on F-117A Stealth Fighter Retired · · Score: 1

    I'd think that the risk of jamming would make remote control unacceptable, and that the delay of radio links added to human response time would be much too slow. I'd go for redundant navigation (GPS/inertial) and on-board computer control. Is the computer technology required too advanced?

  13. Re:Other Project They Are Working On on F-117A Stealth Fighter Retired · · Score: 1
    If you actually bothered to look at a 1040 instruction booklet, you'd see a pie chart showing where federal money goes. 2/3 goes to transfer payments like social security and medicare. All of that 2/3 is unconstitutional, which is to say ILLEGAL. The portion which goes to defense is much smaller and is legal. If only legal expenditures were made by the federal government, it could not reasonably be called "Tax Payer Crushing".

    If you really want to see crushing, think about what would happen with no defense budget.

  14. Chaos theory father dies of cancer on Edward Lorenz, Father of Chaos Theory, Dies at 90 · · Score: 1

    Doesn't anybody see the irony here?

  15. Re:China on Soyuz Ballistic Re-entry 300 Miles Off Course · · Score: 1

    Good analysis. Whether Chinese products will cost as much as US products in the long term will depend upon political factors: tariffs and tax burdens and restrictions on production.

  16. Re:Liberal Arts Has Its Place on For CS Majors, How Important Is the "Where?" · · Score: 1
    If you're frequently staying up to 5AM studying, and have been studying to the exclusion of all unnecessary activities, you've chosen a course of study beyond your abilities. This can refer just to a single class that your mind doesn't grasp well, or it can refer to the level of ability that's required for that school generally. In either case, you should re-evaluate whether you belong there. If you take a normal course load you should be able to do all homework in 5 or 6 hours a night 7 days a week, and get grades well above average. Most college students don't work that hard, even at premier universities.

    I went to MIT circa 1970. My intelligence was average for an MIT student. The grades I got were average. I took a heavier than average course load, including several graduate-level courses. I probably spent only about 30 hours a week on homework, and I wasted a lot of time. I don't think my experience was far from normal.

  17. Re:Hmmm.. on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1
    To clarify, "begging the question" means assuming (in a hidden form) your conclusion.

    In the example, "Have you stopped beating your wife?", the questioner assumes wife beating already exists. It is a logical fallacy because the premise is assumed true without challenge; it is a technique of dishonest debate because it attempts to hide the unsupported premise.

  18. Re:What exactly is your point? on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    Caves are not ON the earth, they are IN the earth.

  19. Re:Solar not sustainable : only 100 - 200 years on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1
    Oooh, goody! Exponential extrapolations! The population of the U.S. is going to grow continuously forever! Energy useage per capita is going to grow exponentially forever!

    Efficiency in automobiles and electronic systems, and insulation in new homes, is improving constantly. Population numbers are decelerating. Use some common sense.

  20. Re:The WRONG kind of solar power on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    solar thermal is several fold more efficient than photovoltaic
    If your end product is heat: solar thermal >90% efficient, photovoltaic (as currently unused waste heat) ~70%.

    If your end product is electricity: solar thermal 20% to 30%, photovoltaic 15% to >30%.

    No way is solar thermal "several fold more efficient."

  21. Re: Environmental impact of the most literal kind on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    Solar thermal plants are 20% to 30% efficient (Wikipedia). Assuming that 90% of the light is absorbed and the rest is reflected back to space, that's 60% to 70% of the incident energy turned into local heat. Desert areas vary a lot in reflectivity; it's not unreasonable to think that there won't be much change, but there could easily be net warming.

  22. Re:Solar thermal power/solar photovoltaics on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1
    Long term (100,000 years +) the only adequate type of energy is nuclear fusion. There are 2 reasonable sources, materials in the Earth, and the sun. There's no reason not to use the sun.

    When usage starts peaking there is no way to get the sun to send down more energy.
    Well, first, you're wrong. To get more of the sun's radiation to reach the earth, put reflectors in orbit or on the moon. In practice, we probably wouldn't want to do that on a really large basis because it would heat the earth very substantially. But second, so what? The total of the sun's energy that hits the earth is enormous, and is more than we can ever forseeably use. That total amount is much more than a 92 mile square. Third, a 92 mile square is 92 times larger than 92 square miles.
  23. Re:Why restrictions on total vehicle mass? on Eco-Marathon Team Hits 2,843 mpg · · Score: 1
    The flexing of tires is a major component of rolling resistance, and flexing is proportional or worse to mass. If you're old enough, you may remember that improved fuel economy was one of the reasons cited for radial tires being better than bias ply tires. Pumping tires up hard reduces flexing and improves mileage (very slightly). Tire manufacturers can alter the rubber formulation to improve mileage (at the expense of other factors, like traction and durability). In addition, the losses in tires have to be overcome by providing increased power, which increases drag in gearbox, differential, and engine.

    Consider that trains have the ability to get much better fuel efficiency than cars and trucks. One reason is much lower air drag per pound, another is almost zero loss in steel wheels on steel track.

  24. Size and weight on Building a 5-Ton Calculator From 19th-Century Plans · · Score: 1

    The parts shown in the photos look pretty hefty, almost large enough to be used in an automotive gearbox. I'd think that good precision machining could make the machine less than 1 cubic foot and a couple hundred pounds, and still be plenty robust. Even smaller if wristwatch-sized gears were used.

  25. Re:Jedoc on Brain Study Calls Free Will Into Question · · Score: 1

    People can be in very different circumstances and still choose not to be thieves. Generally, being poor is the result of immorality, not the cause.