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User: TWX

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Comments · 7,648

  1. Re:Breaking the stranglehold of other countries on Denmark Plans To Be Coal-Free In 10 Years · · Score: 1

    I donno, when my food has been terrible I haven't been inclined to eat as much of it as if it's incredibly delicious...

  2. Do any of us know how much we really use? on Hungary's Plans For Internet Tax On Hold After Protests · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I honestly can't say how much traffic I pass. I'm curious as to how they came up with the rate they did, and how that number looks in Euros rather than US Dollars...

  3. Breaking the stranglehold of other countries on Denmark Plans To Be Coal-Free In 10 Years · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Russia has demonstrated that it is unwilling to engage in above-board transactions for their fuel exports. It is in every country's national interest to reduce dependency on imports when they can neither control the supply nor rely on the supplier to operate as a business rather than as a belligerent nation. If anything, Russia's recent behavior has reinforced this for Europe, and given the Europeans incentive to get off of Russia's exports.

    It's a shame that Denmark can't get off of natural gas sooner than coal.

  4. Re:Unless the plant is surrounded in a glass dome. on France Investigating Mysterious Drone Activity Over 7 Nuclear Power Plant Sites · · Score: 1

    Chillers and other outdoor heat-discharging HVAC equipment is generally not designed to withstand intentional malicious acts. Any enclosure for such equipment cannot be too restrictive either, otherwise it will not allow enough airflow to function effectively. That means that the coils, fans, piping, pressure gauges, valves, and other parts are fairly exposed and can be disabled without much effort.

    Fragmented shrapnel could easily puncture multiple coils, could easily break-off pressure gauges, could destroy fan motors or blades. Even if the HVAC units have the ability to disconnect from discharged coils, if enough coils lose pressure and vent then the unit won't be able to keep up with its needs.

    The compressor/chiller units at my work are located about 3' off of the ground, behind a fairly high wall with locked gates, up near the building. It would not be impossible to fly a drone with something nefarious in and under the units, and if they're off, the server room heats up in minutes. The units are redundant, but I don't doubt that with planning, both units could be disabled with a single stroke.


    If the grounds of a power plant are supposed to be considered secure, then I doubt that many secondary or tertiary systems are hardened on those grounds. Taking out enough of those systems will force the plant to shut down.

  5. Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced on Cutting the Cord? Time Warner Loses 184,000 TV Subscribers In One Quarter · · Score: 1

    I suspect that if you do cut the cord without having the MythTV backend (I was planning on doing EXACTLY the same thing, still haven't completed it!) that you really won't miss it in the end.

    You don't have to catch 'em all. Your life will go on if you miss some TV.

    As for cooking shows, PBS has a LOT of shows on, and many are quite good.

  6. Re:Actual irony? on Drupal Warns Users of Mass, Automated Attacks On Critical Flaw · · Score: 1

    Rain on a wedding day isn't ironic, as rain could happen on any calendar day of the year in most climates. It may be statistically more or less likely in given seasons, but it's not impossible on the surface of it.

    A woman meeting the man of her dreams, and his wife is definitely not ironic, as it's very likely that many women admire the same qualities in men. That becomes a matter of who met whom in what order, and the wife happened to get there first while presenting the qualities that he admired.

    The comment on cutlery isn't ironic, because there's no context to set it up as irony. It's simply a matter of having one incorrect thing in abundance, and not having the one correct thing.

    I'm sure that others have gone through all of the statements from the song, so I'll stop there.

  7. Re:No surprise here on Cutting the Cord? Time Warner Loses 184,000 TV Subscribers In One Quarter · · Score: 1

    There's really no reason for content distributors to stop making content available.

    What I think should happen, is that if viewers still are willing to accept the idea of timeslots like television broadcasts have, that once the content goes up for broadcast, then that content remains accessible from that point forth, with the ability for the content provider to change-out the ads between acts. There's no reason to have to wait for another broadcast window or to have to delay allowing on-demand viewing of the content after its original release.

    If anything, this kind of system for "reruns" would be more fair to everyone involved. Advertisers would be billed per-ad, as the number of times their ads are shown could be more accurately determined. Content providers could actually see how often a show is being watched when it's relatively new, and the audience could actually go back and watch content that they might have missed before attempting to continue watching a series.

    I stopped watching Person of Interest after it was pre-empted for a sports broadcast; they pre-empted the second of a two-parter. Apparently it was the local affiliate that decided to do it, but I've never gone back. Other shows, like Firefly could have benefitted by being watchable even if the network wants to show other content; all of the basketball games on FOX that season hurt finding an audience, resulting in cancellation. I've missed some Agents of Shield and am about ready to give up on that show, based on ABC's bloody stupid decision to not let one watch the previous week's episode until after this week's episode has already aired, so one cannot catch-up before the next broadcast! STUPID!

    The business model can change and still be workable for the existing parties, if they're just brave enough to do it.

  8. Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced on Cutting the Cord? Time Warner Loses 184,000 TV Subscribers In One Quarter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yup. We got rid of cable TV something like five years ago. Keeping it was already in jeopardy when I realized I was coming home from work and watching four hours of CSI every evening on Spike, and starting to see reruns of episodes that I could have sworn were just shown, and the straw that broke the camel's back was the removal of Turner Classic Movies from our cable package. Since getting rid of cable we've found ourselves actually engaging in our hobbies again, as opposed to just passively staring at the screen.

    A lady at work the other day didn't seem to know that one could still receive over-the-air broadcasts for television. I wonder how many people don't realize this and are paying for TV that they don't want or need.

  9. Actual irony? on Drupal Warns Users of Mass, Automated Attacks On Critical Flaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    SQL injection flaw in a Drupal module that's designed specifically to help prevent SQL injection attacks

    Would this be actual irony, as opposed to Alanis Morrissette irony?

  10. Re:There's a reason why... on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 1

    Heh. If the article implies what I think it implies, the engine that blew up on the stand was intended for this launch. So, possibly the replacement engine that was actually used in this launch (or the original one that passed) failed during the actual launch, if it was indeed an engine failure that destroyed this rocket.

  11. Re:CNN is reporting on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 2

    Someone at the station must have been watching Earth II again...

  12. Re:CNN is reporting on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 1

    Cap'n! She's taking quite a Wallop(s)!

  13. Re:Wasn't aborted by the RSO either on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 1

    You seem to have some knowledge from whence you speak... Given the use of decades-old refurbished Soviet engines, would either of the components that you mentioned be a part of that old assembly?

  14. Re:There's a reason why... on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 0

    Budum-bum!

  15. Re:She's.. on Ex-CBS Reporter Claims Government Agency Bugged Her Computer · · Score: 1

    I don't think that it's a cut and dried as the article makes it out to be. My guess is that it still required human control to activate it, it just might not have required high-ranking military personnel or politburo officials to make the call.

  16. Re:Wasn't aborted by the RSO either on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 3, Informative

    Honestly at that height I don't think it would have mattered that much. Either the buildings of the launch facility were going to have debris rained down upon them from above, or were going to have their walls in the vicinity of the ground explosion absorb the debris.

    There have been reports of vehicles damaged, but I think those are erroneous, confusing the destruction of the launch vehicle with possible damage to ground vehicles. There shouldn't have been anything not inside-and-under-cover given the destructive power of the launch anyway.

    The ground explosion did take out two of the four towers around the pad, but I'm amazed that the worklights on the remaining two towers stayed functional. They were on through the end of NASA TV coverage a moment ago.

  17. Re:There's a reason why... on Antares Rocket Explodes On Launch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You mean, it wasn't a good idea to reuse those 40-year-old Russian engines even when two of them have been shown as defective before this launch?

  18. Re:This was no AP. on LAX To London Flight Delayed Over "Al-Quida" Wi-Fi Name · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a mobster name.

  19. Re:She's.. on Ex-CBS Reporter Claims Government Agency Bugged Her Computer · · Score: 1

    Per her source, the deletion of data while she was using it was a warning. Warnings don't work that well when they're less obvious to the user. (I think Tom Clancy actually invented that move originally).

    The reference I remember was in Doctor Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, when it's revealed that the Soviets have a doomsday weapon that'll destroy the world if a nuke goes off in their territory, and the Americans comment how a deterrent weapon is only good if it's known.

  20. Re:Nonsense. Again. on Black Swan Author: Genetically Modified Organisms Risk Global Ruin · · Score: 1

    Hey, it worked for Sigfried and Roy!

    Or should that be, "Hay! it worked for Sigfried and Roy!"?

  21. Re:Why at a place of learning? on Creationism Conference at Michigan State University Stirs Unease · · Score: 1

    Agnostics that believe that it's unlikely that there's a diety?
    Agnostics that don't know if there's a diety?
    Agnostics that don't really engage in the discussion?

    I'd dub the last group Apathiests. They're not in the debate because they simply don't care. They're probably also the majority. Good luck appealing to them. Until the dissolution of the separation of Church and State goes too far they don't have a stake in this.

  22. Re:Why at a place of learning? on Creationism Conference at Michigan State University Stirs Unease · · Score: 2

    It'll be a lot worse than that. The door is open to LaVeyan Satanists and all of the offshoots of Satanism too. There's already a fight brewing over a Satanic statue being carved with the intention of placing it on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol, given the presence of a Ten Commandments statue there already opening the argument. If this conference has religious ceremonies at it, then that opens the way for Satanists to have their own religious ceremonies, which could include live animal sacrifice or sexual rituals.

    The university should not have booked the event.

  23. Re:Makes sense to me on Elon Musk Warns Against Unleashing Artificial Intelligence "Demon" · · Score: 1

    Like the Ferengi captain of a ship?

  24. Re:Burnt? on Lenovo Reveals Wearable Smartband To Track Exercise Stats · · Score: 1

    Ah. I guess what I should have asked then, is what an article about an exercise product is doing on Slashdot...

  25. Re:Makes sense to me on Elon Musk Warns Against Unleashing Artificial Intelligence "Demon" · · Score: 1

    Only if you're the last vestiges of the Holy Roman Empire, that's not holy, not Roman, and certainly not an empire...