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User: KingOfBLASH

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  1. Re:Each drink costs about 3 hours of life... on Soda Pop Damages Your Cells' Telomeres · · Score: 1

    ...that horrible habit cut her down at the tender young age of 101 years.

    How do you know she wasn't supposed to live to 130?

    The key question here, is what is the mechanism that causes shortening of your life?

    If, for instance, high fructose corn syrup is the culprit, well soda only started getting HFCS recently (old time soda was made with sugar).

    Then again, maybe the mechanism is only for excessive use? The same way that how someone who drinks a beer a day is fine (maybe even healthier than someone who doesn't drink), and someone who drinks a gallon of beer a day ends up dead at 40 of cirrhosis?

    Or is it something genetic? Perhaps some people have a gene that causes soda to lop off their telomeres quickly?

    In summary: while the results are interesting, we're no where any where close to actually understanding the ramifications (if they're in fact true).

  2. Re: on Apple's Next Hit Could Be a Microsoft Surface Pro Clone · · Score: 1

    IIRC back around 2000 there were some laptops (was it IBM?) released with fingerprint sensors for security, and you could use biometric authentication in windows.

    So really what you mean is Samsung copied Apple who copied Motorola who copied ?IBM?

    Technology is a pyramid. You only get to a higher point by building on the stuff before you.

    Truly original ideas are few and far between and in most cases you have incremental improvements. And, in the cases of original ideas, you have improvements on the original ideas!

  3. Re:"Perfectly timed"? on Apple's Next Hit Could Be a Microsoft Surface Pro Clone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The fact of the matter is EVERYONE is playing catch up.

    When the iPhone 6 (and +) came out, android users started talking about how they'd had swiftkey keyboards, etc., for YEARS.

    They conveniently forget about things like how Samsung came out with a fingerprint sensor after apple's introduction, or any of the other features phablet makers played follow to leader to Apple on, like a half baked watch Samsung got out on rumours of the Apple Watch so they could be the first mover.

    This is the nature of competition. Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, and any other phablet makers are going to innovate. They'll create unique features for their products. A few years down the road, anything that was a brilliant idea is going to get copied.

    So can we please all stop this b.s. of "X is copying Y"?

  4. Re: Parts Count drives Failure Rate on Tesla Teardown Reveals Driver-facing Electronics Built By iPhone 6 Suppliers · · Score: 1

    Yeah but when you buy a car, resale value is a HUGE thing people look at.

    If Tesla really wants to be a good automaker, they need a good resale value.

  5. Re:Commas matter. on Google Fiber To Launch In Austin, Texas In December · · Score: 1

    The city and state combo is a list. An example if we extended the list would be: Austin, Texas, United States, and Earth.

    Hence, we're talking about the oxford comma.

  6. Re:Parts Count drives Failure Rate on Tesla Teardown Reveals Driver-facing Electronics Built By iPhone 6 Suppliers · · Score: 1

    You bring up an interesting point. Replacing your in dash computer system is probably ridiculously expensive.

    I'd disagree about their target market being throwaway devices. They are quite vocal about trying to become the dominant electric car player.

    That's not going to happen if 5 years after sale all the boards are fried, and the car doesn't work anymore.

  7. Re:Commas matter. on Google Fiber To Launch In Austin, Texas In December · · Score: 0

    What you're asking for is called the "Oxford Comma," and is considered optional.

    There's a really interesting TED video on the debate about the Oxford Comma, and usage, on TED

  8. Re:Confucius say: on Apple Announces iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, OS X Yosemite and More · · Score: 1

    My XPS had the keys on the keyboard fall off, suspiciously close to the time the warranty ran out.

    As always, YMMV.

  9. Re:5K display (and computer) for $2500 on Apple Announces iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, OS X Yosemite and More · · Score: 1

    Apple historically has offered the same displays for sale as separate entities.

    My guess would be in the future you'll be free to buy an Apple display

  10. Re:Let me get this right on Bill Gates: Piketty's Attack on Income Inequality Is Right · · Score: 1

    If someone wants to buy a car with a small engine, like a Civic, you tax it at one rate.
    If someone wants to buy a sports car with a big engine, like a Ferrari, you tax it at another.

    You have a number of features you can use in any car to implement such tax bracketing so that it's fair. For instance, no budget car will have 8 cylinders or leather seats.

    European countries like the Netherlands have been doing things like this for a long time, and it works out quite well.

  11. Re:Samsung Already works with Apple, what changes? on Will Apple Lose Siri's Core Tech To Samsung? · · Score: 1

    Except voice recognition is difficult. Really, really, really difficult.

    I have no doubt they would like to bring such technology in house. But after the Apple Maps fiasco, I'm not sure they'd risk a switch.

    Then again, Siri already sucks. It can't get much worse.

  12. Samsung Already works with Apple, what changes? on Will Apple Lose Siri's Core Tech To Samsung? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find it funny how this article implies that because Samsung might now own the technology behind Siri, Siri is in trouble.

    Samsung is a REALLY big company with lots of different divisions. One of those, the phone division, is in stiff competition with apple. Another one of those, the chip division, has apple as their best customer.

    Apple will continue licensing siri technology. Yes, they'll probably look for alternatives (the same way they are looking for an alternative to the Samsung chip fabrication).

    But whether or not they're successful, all that will happen is two really big companies will continue having divisions that work together, and divisions that are in competition.

    It's a non story.

  13. Re:uh... which starbucks is this? on At CIA Starbucks, Even the Baristas Are Covert · · Score: 1

    It started a year or two ago IIRC. Basically many starbucks ask for your name, and write it on the cup. That way you know the venti cappuccino is indeed for you, and not the guy next to you. (They also write the order)

    I travel a lot and I've had the fortune of going to many starbucks, globally. I'd say maybe 50% use names, but it hasn't been implemented everywhere.

  14. Re:You have to have a car payment to drive? on Miss a Payment? Your Car Stops Running · · Score: 1

    The less money you pay for a car the more of a gamble you're taking.

    You might find the car goes for years or the engine might explode off the lot.

    Sure you get at least a bit of a warranty, but it ends quickly

  15. Re:Could be improved on Miss a Payment? Your Car Stops Running · · Score: 1

    And, they're starter interlocks, they won't disable a car while it's running, despite what the lady who ran out of gas said.

    If you stall out you need to hit the starter again. Were the lady driving a manual, it's possible indeed that she had her car disabled at a red light.

  16. Re:Can someone explain? on Where Whistleblowers End Up Working · · Score: 1

    Yeah but when that happens you find out you're failing a background check, right? You have every right to see what that naughty thing is and appeal it.

    And I know someone who was arrested for parking their boat illegally. Apparently in some jurisdictions you can go to jail for this. Every time he gets a new job it pops up in the background check, but they ask him about it (although now he tells the funny story up front before the background check)

  17. Re:Can someone explain? on Where Whistleblowers End Up Working · · Score: 1

    A secret "Do Not Hire" list seems a bit much. Because we haven't heard of it, it would imply a huge number of levels of people involved who were keeping the secret, including the little old lady at the corner store who wouldn't let the guy in as a bagger.

  18. Re:Can someone explain? on Where Whistleblowers End Up Working · · Score: 1

    Yeah but that's the thing.

    When I got hired to wash dishes in college I showed up and they asked me if I had a social security card, then told me to start working.

    I did maybe ten other jobs with similar requirements (warm body that can lift stuff and clean). All of them were a breeze.

    There's no resume asked for with certain jobs. I'm not surprised his career in government is over. I am surprised it's over for McDonalds.

  19. Can someone explain? on Where Whistleblowers End Up Working · · Score: 1

    How is it logical that he loses his job and now he can't get any job?

    I can understand probably government is off limits for him, and if he goes to a big company maybe the background check would keep him from a job. But there have to be plenty of small businesses who would be willing to hire him, and certainly if he just goes looking for anonymous low brow work, well that shouldn't be a problem, no?

    This article seems to suggest if you piss off Uncle Sam, he'll force you into homelessness....

  20. Re:eyebrows raised. on CDC: Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million In 4 Months · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up!

  21. Re:CDC "Estimates" on CDC: Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million In 4 Months · · Score: 1

    Yeah but how do you separate smoking deaths from non-smoking deaths?

    "Smoker diseases" like lung cancer afflict non smokers as well. For instance, 10-15% of lung cancers come from non-smokers:
    http://lungcancer.about.com/od...

    When you consider cancer is often caused by mutations, and smoking encourages gene mutations, this makes sense.

    So really, smoking makes it more likely to die early, not that you are shooting yourself with a gun.

    Thus the reason why you might assume anyone who actively has smoked above a certain age, who has smoked a long time, that did not die an accidental death died of smoking.

  22. Re:Endemic would be really bad.. on CDC: Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million In 4 Months · · Score: 1

    Except one of the reasons AIDS could go pandemic was that it was a slow killer.

    People just need to wash their hands for a good month or two and the thing will die off...

  23. Re:eyebrows raised. on CDC: Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million In 4 Months · · Score: 0

    Holy shit! Mod parent up!

    +1 scary

  24. Re:I propose the Extreme test. on Bioethicist At National Institutes of Health: "Why I Hope To Die At 75" · · Score: 1

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...

    Read it. It's Awesome.

  25. Ask your accountant! on Ask Slashdot: Who Should Pay Costs To Attend Conferences? · · Score: 1

    This is actually a question you might consider directing at your accountant. Specifically:

    1. Some or all the conference costs may be tax deductible. Depending on your tax bracket this can end up being an instant 30% discount.
    2. Corporate structures or other accounting tricks may allow you to change who your company pays (are you a W-2 employee? or do you have your own company?) This may again lead to favorable tax treatment for your conference, further reducing what you're actually paying.

    Of course tax deductible doesn't mean free. But depending how things are structured the conference could cost you more or less money.