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User: marcosdumay

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Comments · 6,436

  1. Re:Average time-to-market? on Plastic Batteries Coming Soon? · · Score: 1

    "but I still haven't heard how they intend to make them safe in a car crash, when the capacitor itself might get ruptured or crushed."

    We still have the technique we use today to make safe batteries... Encapsulate several little batteries, and use them toghether to make a huge one.

    The strenght of the container you put your battery on decreases proportionaly to its size, but the ebergy it contains decreases with the third power of the size. So, the real question is: How long until we are able to manufacture (and use) super-capacitors that are small enough to be safe?

  2. Re:I'd never date MS.... on Would You Date Microsoft? · · Score: 1

    Yea, but her ports are all open to everybody on the world... Not someone I'd gladly marry.

  3. Re:Kids today...... :-) on Why Johnny Can't Code · · Score: 1

    What does learning about the underlying system help with in programming?

    Architecting beautiful code? Nope.

    Learning powerful, high-level abstractions? Nope.

    Dealing with those LEAKY powerfull high-level abstractrion? You can bet so.

  4. Re:Piracy on Microsoft Sues and Gets Sued · · Score: 1

    R$10 = US$4.2 and going up... It seems that you didn't update your dolar conversion by a couple of years...

    But if people look HARD, they can by the program for R$5, so my point is useless.

  5. Re:Some more relevant questions: on Will the Solve-the-Riddle Hiring Trend Affect IT? · · Score: 1

    Deliver "Hello World" in a mounth... There where no specs...

  6. Re:Why not track things backward, starting from no on No Shadow From the Big Bang? · · Score: 1

    Now, I'm feeding a troll, but I think that this one deserves an answer...

    "We say that the speed of light is a constant in all frames of reference. How was that measured? What assumptions did those measurements depend upon?"

    Speed of light was compared on several directions by this (very famous) experiment: Michelson-Morley experiment. It relies on the assumption* that Earth is moving, it may be around the Sun, or just rotating, but moving.

    Now, there is a mechanism for maintaining the pedigree of scientifical information, it is called 'science', and is what help us eliminate the possibilities. You seem to ignore that there are centuries of theories and experimental data helping us to grasp the origins, and thousands of (quite smart) people cooperating for hundreds of years (adding to what is probably more than milions of people-years) can get a LOT of investigative work done.

    By the way, you can get the hierarchy of this knowledge on any book about science's history. It is not secret or anything like that...

    *The experiment itself doesn't rely on anything, no experiment do. But the conclusion that light moves always at the same speed does.

  7. Re:Moo on Trouble on the Debian Front? · · Score: 1
    "It just sets itself up (on both my laptop and lab desktop) and gets out of my way."

    Well, it doesn't, at least it is not what the rest of your post says. What you claim is that it is easy to install. And what the GP claims is exaclty that Ubuntu does never get out of the way. Debian otherwise is hard to install (but not that much as you imply, did you try it lately?) but does get out of the way once it is installed.

    But, of course, if you compare with Windows, anything is easy t use.

  8. Re:Biggest way for AMD to save power on AMD Says Power Efficiency Still Key · · Score: 1

    That, of course, if you ignore current leaks...

  9. Re:Even better... on Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 Arrives · · Score: 1

    Well, Firefox used to have a close buton on every tab, but made some usability studies and found that harmfull. Now it has only the far right buton... Now they did usability studies again and found just the oposite?

    There is probably something wrong with that. It is possible that the facts changed (they do, over time), but it is not that likely. That makes me very suspicious about that "if gathered properly" stuff...

    Personaly, I think that the buton on each tab is dangerous. I already lost a lot of pages because of it (but it does make browsing faster). Now, if FF will come with the unclose tab function, there is no problem with it.

  10. Center falacy on US Government Restricting Research Libraries · · Score: 1

    Because most stuf fall on the grey area, that doesn't mean that there is no black or white. There is a widely known and accepted fact (at least out of the US) that the U.S. governement has no right to be in Iraq.

  11. Re:Misconceptions on Misconceptions About the GPL · · Score: 1

    "The GPL as a click-through text doesn't limit me in any way, so there's no harm in accepting it."

    Yes, it does. Well, the GPL doesn't limit you, but the click-through dialog does! Because of those dialogs it is hard to bundle the software and install it all together, it is hard to manage it automaticaly (like Linux distros do), it is very hard to simply download and install an entire collection of software that you like...

    It is an interative step while installing the software, and having interative steps at instalation is always bad... Having more of them is worse.

  12. Re:Put it on the GPU on Add Another Core for Faster Graphics · · Score: 1

    Also mirrors and lenses are almost free and water does look like water. But objects that are not perfect mirrors (semi reflective) consume a lot of time.

  13. Re:Count me in the skeptic camp on Iranian Heavy Water Nuke Plant Goes Online Today · · Score: 1

    Iran has being after the bomb for some time, but it WAS geting more democratic, so the people persuing it WAS losing its power (and wheren't strong enogh to create poblems with the UN). Well, that is past, becasuse since US started to bully Iran, its population decided to give power exactly to the people that promissed defend the contry (you can guess how), and turned the democratic moviment upside down.

    Well, there is no way to undo that, but the US simply acknoleging the fact would be nice.

  14. Re:The problem is not the bomb itself on Iranian Heavy Water Nuke Plant Goes Online Today · · Score: 1

    Of course you knew that Iraq have alread had some WMDs, you SOLD it to them!

    But my question is: If Iraq in fact stil had some WMDs, would the United States make a war with them?

  15. Re:Count me in the skeptic camp on Iranian Heavy Water Nuke Plant Goes Online Today · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But what will protect them from the United States? You, see... US's president alread made it clear (several times) that he wants to go into Iran. Since long before their nuclear project was a problem.

  16. Re:Wrong approach to education... on OLPC Gets a New Name, New Features · · Score: 1

    Those problems are to a degree universal. And OLPC won't solve them.

    What doesn't mean that those laptops will be useless, like the GP implies.

  17. Re:More than 50 layer stack for future Windows? on Vista the Last of Its Kind · · Score: 1

    "Maybe through TCP/IP, making the different parts of the operating system completely independent? Of course this would bring a bunch of other security issues, but updating the different parts would get easier as the only thing that is common between the parts is the protocol. This way the different parts could even be run on different computers, though latency-critical parts should obviously be on the same machine.

    Those who don't know Mach are doomed to reimplement it... Generaly you can skip the 'badly' part, but if anyone are able to do an even worse Mach, this one is Microsoft.

  18. Digital x Analogic on Polymer 'Muscle' Changes How we Look at Color · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At the time you put it on a real product, it makes no difference (maybe outside the price) if you have an array of leds or a device capable of emiting any frequency. You receiver won't be able to read on a perfectly sharp spectrum, and light will scatter on the fiber, adding noise to the frequencies close to the ones you are using.

    At nature, you never have infinite precision, so anything you do can be discretized.

  19. Re:Dowsing for bad RAM chips. on Computer Voodoo? · · Score: 1

    Binary search would make sense if testing the chips was the slow step, not exchanging them. The MINIMUM amount of exchanges you have to do to test N chips with binary search is N, sequential serach can do no worse than this.

  20. Re:Always remember... on Computer Voodoo? · · Score: 1

    I always wondered what use have a sync command that doesn't sync (unless you call it twice).

  21. Re:Is it wrong? on Teens Don't Think CD Copying is a Crime · · Score: 1

    It is obviously speech, but it is obviously not free. That is what the GP was saying.

  22. Re:Brain vs. computer comparisons only go so far on The Thalamus - The Kernel in Your Mind · · Score: 1

    The fact that a computer is binary or analogic (or digital with more than 2 states) is completely irrelevant to understand its behaviour. Knowing that it is a Von Neuman computer or a neural network is also almost irrelevant to understand its behaviour.

    Now, the difference from a network of a few hundred simple neurons and one of several bilion of very complex ones is quite relevant.

    You can't compare our brain with our computers, but you gave the wrong reasons.

  23. Re:CapsUnlock on War Declared on Caps Lock Key · · Score: 1

    Boot Linux. Now go to a text console (CTRL + ALT + F1). Now press CTRL + s. Look at the bright "scroll lock" light.

    See the problem? CTRL + s is very easy to misspress (near CTRL + c, but easier yet if you are using emacs, and mispressed CTRL + z while trying to press CTRL + x), and it is very confusing to have the console locked without you wanting it.

  24. Re:GUI = easy ? on Major New Features in Debian Etch · · Score: 1

    Those instructions are missing at Debian.org, or, to be clearer, are too confising to be used.

  25. Re:CapsUnlock on War Declared on Caps Lock Key · · Score: 1

    Complain all you want about resident programs on Windows, but don't EVER suggest another combo to get the function of a key.

    The legacy CTRL + s is trouble enought (Windows user rejoice, you are better than Linux on that - hell, one can't win everytime :).