Slashdot Mirror


User: eis2718bob

eis2718bob's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
30
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 30

  1. Wikipedia as DNS on Cloudflare Terminates Service To Sci-Hub Domain Names (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 4, Funny

    So now Wikipedia is my backup DNS. (IP addresses at the bottom of the info box).

  2. This is a textbook example of p-hacking. Note the plural in "measures of intelligence", along with "educational achievement" as dependent variables. Something was gonna show a correlation, to the vaunted oh point oh five. What a crock.

    882. We don't even need the links for these anymore, just the number.

  3. Homer Dudley had a working vocoder pre-WW2, which was used in the encrypted voice system SIGSALY.

    From Wiki, this encoded voice into 12 signals, each with 6 levels (call it 2.5 bits) at 25 Hz. That's about 750 bits/s.

  4. Re:Coward on President Obama Says He Can't Pardon Snowden (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    ... entire plan is to play meek and non-controversial, try to not rock the boat...

    Obama is a guy that says the astronaut's prayer every morning.

    It should've worked, too. Just leave things alone and the economy will come roaring back. Keep foreign troubles tamped down with a few drone strikes and the country will turn its attention to sock hops and NASA space missions. Trouble is the financial guys, now as ever, have no idea how to run an economy.

  5. Re:Shouldn't involve the internet on Are Tech Firms Liable For What Their Users Post? (mercurynews.com) · · Score: 3, Funny

    You see, a pimp's webpage is very different from that of a square.

  6. Re:This is the missing piece on Revolutionary Ion Thruster To Be Tested On International Space Station (abc.net.au) · · Score: 2

    If you have an experiment that shows a violation of conservation of momentum, the correct response is to send a grad student down to find out where the mistake is.

    Not hold a press conference and start packing your bags for Proxima.

  7. Beginning of the end for Google on Google Gets Land For Its Futuristic Headquarters, Thanks To LinkedIn Deal (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    If you've read Parkinson's Law (and you should!) you'd know that institutions begin their decline just at the time they move into their perfect, palatial quarters.

  8. Re:Convoluted process to convert existing 237Np on ORNL Restores US Capability To Produce Plutonium-238 (ornl.gov) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is the only comment (out of 49 so far) in this thread which is intelligent, useful, and constructive. There was a time (oh you youngsters!) when this was the rule, not the exception, on slashdot. The hamster comment deserves credit for humor, though.

    Is there a better site for news for nerds?

  9. Adding noise on Ask Slashdot: Cost Effective Way To Soundproof My Home? · · Score: 2

    Reducing the sound transmission is good, of course, but usually difficult and expensive. Adding more absorption inside the space is always good, will gain you a few more dB, and improve the environment for listening.

    But the best and cheapest method is to add noise.

    How can adding noise improve the situation? There's already too much noise! This has to do with the nature of hearing and attention - the so-called invisibility of the familiar. Ever notice that when the AC or a fan turns off you suddenly notice it, while you didn't notice the sound before? That's because the mind will tune out and ignore meaningless background.

    If you can add enough white/pink noise to mask the offending noise then your attention will not be distracted by it, and eventually all of the sound will fall beneath your attention. This is the usual treatment for tinnitus, ringing in the ears, and many sufferers can gain substantial relief by it.

    A quick way to try it out is with your home stereo. On FM mode, tune between stations (and turn off muting). This will provide very nice white noise with adjustable volume. Give it a couple of hours at least. There are inexpensive white noise generators available.

    A little classier is falling water, such as an inside fountain. This is more towards lower frequencies (pink noise), but the particular random nature of the sound is very calming for most people.

  10. Ablate the trailing side of the Moon on June 30th Leap Second Could Trigger Unexpected Issues · · Score: 1

    A couple of nuke blasts on the moon would let us keep the Earth's rotation in sync with our atomic clocks. It's practice for asteroids, and good entertainment too!

  11. Re:Two questions need to be asked on Report: Russia and China Crack Encrypted Snowden Files · · Score: 1

    "Comrades," he said quietly, "do you know who is responsible for this? Do
    you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill?
    SNOWDEN!" he suddenly roared in a voice of thunder. "Snowden has done
    this thing! In sheer malignity, thinking to set back our plans and avenge
    himself for his ignominious expulsion, this traitor has crept here under
    cover of night and destroyed our work of nearly a year.
          -Orwell, "Animal Farm"

  12. Re: I had this happen to me several years ago on No Justice For Victims of Identity Theft · · Score: 1

    Just a reminder - put a sticker over the CVV on your credit card so a clerk, waiter, or nosy bystander can't grab your numbers with a glance or photo.

  13. Re:Cancer vs common cold on Protein Converts Pancreatic Cancer Cells Back Into Healthy Cells · · Score: 1

    Fighting cancer is fighting evolution itself.

    Your body is composed of some 40 trillion cells. Each one comes from a line of cells going back billions of generations, every one of which succeeded in reproducing and projecting itself into the future. DNA is not easily squelched.

  14. Re:Any other examples that anyone's spotted? on How Many Hoaxes Are On Wikipedia? No One Knows · · Score: 1

    The solution is to allow a given account only a finite number of edits to a given page, something like 100-300 or so. This would discourage squatting, ownership, and edit wars.

  15. The cockpit of the future on Planes Without Pilots · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a very old joke by now but...

    The cockpit of the future will have two seats - for a pilot and a dog. The dog's job is to bite the pilot if he touches anything.

    The pilot's job is to feed the dog.

  16. Fault(y) theory on Fault System Enables Larger Quakes In California · · Score: 1

    Funny thing how so many earthquakes are on a "previously undiscovered fault."

    The only things we know about earthquakes are: (1) little ones seem to happen after bigger ones, and (2) they roughly occur in the same place as previous ones.

  17. Re:James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like A Dinosaur" on Researchers Moot "Teleportation" Via Destructive 3D Printing · · Score: 1

    Is it a people mover....

                                or a murdering twin-maker?

  18. And yet it cools on Pope Francis To Issue Encyclical On Global Warming · · Score: 2

    Whispered under breath:

          Eppure si raffredda.

  19. Re:Hmmm ... on Bicycle Bottle System Condenses Humidity From Air Into Drinkable Water · · Score: 1

    The specs on that unit give some idea of what's possible with a miniature peltier dehumidifier:

    Weight: 3-1/2 pounds
    Rate: 8 oz per day at 80% RH
    Power: 22.5 W

    That's a lot of weight, and it would take quite a bit of solar panel to get that much power. And all that for a thimble-full of water in an hour's ride.

  20. Re:Nothing? on Mathematical Proof That the Universe Could Come From Nothing · · Score: 1

    The reason there is Something, is that Nothing is unstable.

  21. Re:Awesome on Protesters Launch a 135-Foot Blimp Over the NSA's Utah Data Center · · Score: 2

    A fairly complete description of this complex, its occupants, methods, and procedures was already published in 1961:
    Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, by Stanislaw Lem
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
    All hail the Building, set in opposition to the Anti-Building!

  22. Re:What Could Go Wrong? on ShapeShifter: Beatable, But We'll Hear More About It · · Score: 1

    Anyone remember from Gödel, Escher, Bach:
    "I cannot be played on record player X"

    Who will win, Tortoise or the Crab?

  23. Re:Is Hydrogen more dangerous than other gasses? on Tesla CEO Elon Musk: Fuel Cells Are 'So Bull@%!#' · · Score: 2

    Does hydrogen have a lower flashpoint or some other quality which makes it more dangerous?

    doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.04.012
    Limits for hydrogen leaks that can support stable flames, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Volume 34, Issue 12, June 2009, Pages 5174–5182

    Hydrogen is an unusual fuel. It has a high leak propensity and wide flammability limits, 4–75% by volume. Among all fuels, hydrogen has the lowest molecular weight, the lowest quenching distance (0.51 mm), the smallest ignition energy in air (28 mJ), the lowest auto-ignition temperature by
    a heated air jet (640C), the highest laminar burning velocity in air (2.91 m/s), and the highest heat of combustion (119.9 kJ/g). Hydrogen flames are the dimmest of any fuel. Hydrogen embrittles and attacks metals more than any other fuel.

    Mind you, this is from researchers generally inclined towards the use of hydrogen.

  24. Re:Good. on UK Court Orders Two Sisters Must Receive MMR Vaccine · · Score: 2

    Funny that the rise in shingles cases has occurred since varicella vaccination became common.

    What's changed is that there is no longer a large amount of chicken pox virus floating around the community, constantly challenging folks' immune systems. To get exposed you now have to go to a doctor and buy it. (This is the "shingles vaccine".)

    For many diseases, such as polio and measles, vaccination is undoubtedly a huge good, preventing a huge number of deaths and tragic illness. But for varicella, the vaccine may result in more harm than good.

  25. dot rad on ICANN Raffle Sets gTLD Processing Order · · Score: 1

    The one gTLD that makes sense would be .rad, though I haven't seen this proposed. The idea is to link nationally or internationally assigned radio call signs, to a URL: call_sign.rad.

    This is sensible as a gTLD, as there is a one-one correspondence between call signs and legitimate owners. There is a need and value to having a (somewhat) reliable or trustable way to locate the radio stations on the web.