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  1. Re:theories on When Continental Drift Was Considered Pseudoscience · · Score: 2

    the book-length study of scientific revolutions you are referring to is "The structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn. IIRC he coins the term "Paradigm Shift" and using many anecdotes including plate tectonics devises a theory of how scientific revolutions occur. Its really interesting you mention attirtion as being necessary for the acceptance of a theory because thats basically the crux of his theory: for the final phase of the paradigm shift to occur you need the proponents of the old theory to basically die off, 'cause ain't no manner of logic or evidence gonna convince them otherwise.

  2. Two words: refridgerator laser on NASA Plans Probe to the Sun · · Score: 1
    From David Brin's "Sundiver" novel: dump excess heat into a thermoelectric power plant and use this power to geenrate a laser which is fired away from the probe dissapating excess energy.

    Ya, simple in concept, I suppose Peltier elements could be used as the heat-to-electric converters and from there is a simple matter to focus the energy away from ship. much easier from an engineering standpoint than using passive radiators (monofiliament, etc as mentioned earlier in this thread.)

  3. Re:Don't laugh on A Home Lab/Shop For Kids? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Entertaining enough for Campus Security to come over and ask "What was that, no, really. You're not in trouble. That was awesome?"

    where did you go to school?
    nitrogen triiodidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_triiodide? Not looked kindly upon by the RA's. Even at a nerd school.
    ps: easy to make, if you can find crystalline iodine: stick the iodine crystals in a coffee filter and slowly pour household ammonir through. let dry, verrrrry carefully. The resulting crystals are contact explosives, and they leave a nasty redidsh purple mess behind, too ;-)
  4. Re:get them a bunch of broken tech on A Home Lab/Shop For Kids? · · Score: 1
    Yeah, I'm sorry I got off on a rant there and away from my initial point. Nothing like taking a perfectly good post and messing it up with politics...

    thanks for the response :-)

  5. get them a bunch of broken tech on A Home Lab/Shop For Kids? · · Score: 1
    get them a bunch of stuff to just take apart. I learned more by taking everything around me apart than I did in 17 years of formal education (US years, here. high school, 4 yrs for a bs, grad school "experimentation")

    and once you are bored of just taking thinks apart, perhaps you try to reassemble said thing, and perhaps even fix it!

    Of course, I got into some trouble when I was young doing exactly this, and as a previous poster stated, a great deal of what then was considered harmless childhood experimentation would get you (or your "irresponsible" folks) thrown in jail today.

    Hey, if you do decide to have kids, teach them a whole lot about rocketry and self-sufficient life support systems so they can help get you to a place where the "adults" aren't so concerned about security and safety of said kids. Since childhood, my Never-Never Land's vector is 90 degrees to the tangent of the circumference of the earth, straight up.

  6. Re:Something Old, Something New on Gartner Reveals Top 10 Technologies For Next 4 Years · · Score: 1
    Man, I am all about your #1. Can someone more knowledgeable than I please explain why a single core cpu is better/faster than a dual core under a 32 bit OS?

    What am I missing? last I knew it was apps like AutoCAD (perhaps Adobe CS) that had 64 bit versions, but everything else exists in 32 bit space (I am ignoring "exotic" apps, I used to work with RISC processors in the late '90's*. I am talking mainstream computing here.)

    If I am correct this is an abberation in mainstream computing: software needing to catch up with hardware, in other words, excess hardware capacity.

    somebody shout me down if I am clueless, please.


    *(SGI's, petroleum reservoir modeling if anyone cares. I was a college junior/senior with root access to some serious iron then. My memory is a bit hazy but I remember at least two Indigo 2's and an Octane or two under my direct admin, and contract work on a lab full of octanes. Sweet stuff for a 20 yr old :-) )

  7. West Texas, Guadalupe National Park on Oil Billionaire Building World's Largest Wind Farm · · Score: 3, Interesting
    About 10 years ago I spent many months in and around Guadalupe National Park in western Texas. There are hundreds of windmills lining mountain ridges, and they are HUGE! On a dare I climbed to the top of one (the ones I saw have this central shaft with a ladder that you climb in the interior) and let me say it was interesting to say the least.

    There were several examples of blades (I would guess the blades were ~70ft long, each, three blades per turbine) sheared off due to excessive winds. Splintered fiberglass across the desert. Never got to see one go in person, though. That would have been cool.

    I thought they were immensely cool, from a geek standpoint. Obviously modern technology juxtaposed with the harsh, ageless desert. Pictures of Guadalupe National Park available at the park center had the windmills photoshopped out. I found this a bit odd, but people's aesthetics differ. [shrug]

    You know what the kicker was? I was there to perform geologic mapping for the development of oil reservoir models. Turns out the geology of the place is some of the finest examples of an exhumed turbidite (underwater landslide) complex in the world, and these turbidites make mighty fine oil...

  8. The Ramans? on Breaking the Fermilab Code · · Score: 1

    The Ramans do everything in threes...

  9. Tivo and Tivo-to-go is the answer. on Microsoft Acknowledges NBC's Wish is Its Command · · Score: 1
    I've said it before, I'll say it again: Windows MCE has always been crippled.

    Wanna stream a recorded show to a seperate MCE machine, say a laptop over wifi? No Way. Can't Do It. Go buy a Media Extender and you can watch by way of an X-Box.

    Tivo has Tivo-To-Go http://www.tivo.com/buytivo/tivogear/software/index.htmlthat does exactly the above scenario, at a LOWER TCO (numbers mildly pulled out of ass, but not a whole lot):

    Tivo series 3 device (80gb): $150
    Tivo lifetime subscription: $300
    Laptop for remote viewing: $500
    Tivo-TO-Go applicaiton: free

    versus

    WIndows MCE enabled machine: $500
    MCE channel subsctiption: "free"
    Laptop: $500
    X-box with media extender: $200-$300 depending on setup
    Lack of mobility with x-box/media extender combo: subjective

    Windows MCE is more costly, is actually HARDER to set up than the Tivo option, and offers less mobility/functionality.

    I've used both systems, and I would choose the Tivo system hands down for DVR functionality and streaming capability. Oh, and itunes is supported by Tivo-to-go. And no, I don't work for them ;-)

  10. Godwin! on Hawking Searching For Africa's Einsteins · · Score: 1

    See, I think you are making the same mistake of underestimating theoretical physics as the Germans did in the 1930s...
    GODWIN! sorry...;-)
  11. The Diamond Age! on To Curb Truancy, Dallas Tries Electronic Monitoring · · Score: 1

    The battle of nanotech, charcoal grey dust clouds and asthma for everyone!

  12. Re:Horse meat is great on EA Loosens Spore, Mass Effect DRM · · Score: 1

    Don't knock it until you've tried it. Cooked it is really quite similar to a very lean cut of beef, but raw and with just a dash of soy sauce it is really, really good. Please don't all go PETA (OMG think of the ponies!) at once. They're dumber than pigs and pigs are delicious, too.

    Yeah, sure, but can you ride a pig?

    On second thought, don't answer that.

  13. flash---silverlight? on Microsoft Prefers Flash To Silverlight · · Score: 1
    Combined, they become the mighty "FLESHLIGHT"!

    or was I the only one who saw that...[slinks away in shame]

  14. yes indeed on Author Faces Canadian Tribunal For Hate Speech · · Score: 1
    I think a fable we are all familiar with here is relevant, the fable of the Goose and the Golden Egg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_that_Laid_the_Golden_Eggs

    I hope (because it will raise awareness) and fear (because I might be next) that it is only a matter of time until the goose is killed. Of course, then "they" just move on to the next goose.

    "first they came for the $MINORITY, but I didn't care because I was not a $MINORITY..." We know how it works.

  15. Re:All I want is... on Tech's Top 10 Workspaces · · Score: 1

    A day at the office shouldn't be painful.

    You've never worked in construction, have you? ;-)

  16. Re:Following Chinese laws on Chinese soil? on China Wants US-Owned Hotels to Censor Internet · · Score: 1

    that this is somehow a political affront to the United States as if every Hilton and Marriott in the world was a kind of US Embassy.
    Embassy Suites , in fact =)
  17. Re:Orion Bankcorp: Crybabies on US Court Orders Company to Use Negative Keywords · · Score: 1

    I want to make a Xerox(tm) of your comment.

  18. Terrible example on China's Cyberwar Against India · · Score: 1
    Sweet and sour sauce is standard fare for chicken McNuggets(tm) in McDonalds!

    Also barbecue, honey mustard, ranch, chipolete, buffalo...

    shit, I think I just gave away that I am an American...

  19. Anybody else out there on How Microsoft Dropped the Ball With Developers · · Score: 1
    read the article title, "How Microsoft Dropped the Ballmer with Developers?

    "Yo shawty, drop that Ballmer now!"

    Ick, sorry, too much GTA...

  20. Re:Kill switch - possible but by no means probable on DARPA Sponsors a Hunt For Malware In Microchips · · Score: 1

    I'm one of the people who was interviewed for this article. Several people in my department spent an afternoon talking to the IEEE Spectrum technical writer. Although it didn't really come out in the article, our take on the kill-switch concept was that it was possible but very unlikely.

    BUT, the payoff could be tremendous. I'm thinking Cylons here. Mod me funny if you dare, but think of simply the idea that US chips are compromised. The US did it to the USSR, the example that comes to mind is this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002

    And now everybody is doubting the integrity of their chips. COmbine this with the Cisco hardware scandal previously covered by slashdot, and...

    To the Chinese, I tip my hat. A brilliant move, even if only psychological.

  21. man, this is nothing on MADD Targets GTA IV Over Drunk Driving Scene · · Score: 1

    I'm currently drinking, driving, playing GTA IV on my in-car x-box, and posting on slashdot.

  22. pigeons for dinner on Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork · · Score: 1
    You know, I actually have eaten pigeon. It was at this hole-in-the-wall restrauant in Italy (Florence? I don't remember) and it tasted like ass on toast.

    But at least I know if I am ever homeless, I can gag down those little poop machines...

  23. PTL on Disillusioned With IT? · · Score: 1
    on that insight!

    try working in freezing/boiling weather [outside, of course] doing dirty, dangerous, physically exhausting, and [relatively] poorly paying work for a few years.

    I don't mean to sound like your dad, but...

    Right after I got out of college I went to work in engineering. I was good at it. I hated it. In fact, as a sophomore I did an internship in the same field and promised to myself that i would never do that particular field. So after two years I quit. now I do the previous paragraph. I've been out of the engineering world too long to get back in without some major changes in my life.

    A good gig is a good gig. if it pays well, you don't have to risk your life to do it, think about changing occupations real hard. don't talk with your friends about it, talk to a therapist or a spiritual advisor. You need impartial advice. -=$0.02

  24. Re:Tried it already on Mining the Cognitive Surplus · · Score: 1

    Tool. :-)

  25. Re:Indeed, Scientific Zealotry Hurts the Cause ... on Ben Stein's 'Expelled' - Evolution, Academia and Conformity · · Score: 1
    huh huh, you said Ben Stain.