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User: VAXcat

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Comments · 698

  1. Re:Airchat, or as I like to call it, CB Radio on Anonymous' Airchat Aim: Communication Without Need For Phone Or Internet · · Score: 1

    It's a good point, that VHF allocation for CB would prevent some of the abuses it is prone too. But when it was allocated, radios that operated at 50 Mc and above . were exotic and expensive. Gear that would operate at 27 Mc was a lot cheaper and ruggeder than VHF gear would have been.

  2. Re:Oh really? on Anonymous' Airchat Aim: Communication Without Need For Phone Or Internet · · Score: 1

    Not allowed to swear? Clearly you don't spend much time listening on 20 meters, or (at least in my local area) 80 meters. The amateur operators to be found there could teach sailors a few things about swearing.

  3. Mockolate on Asia's Richest Man Is Betting Big On Silicon Valley's Fake Eggs · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of the Friends episode where Monica has to make recipes for a chocloate substitute - Mockolate.

  4. Re:About beta. on Fracking Is Draining Water From Areas In US Suffering Major Shortages · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    They need to remember what happened to Digg. Sites like this can lose almost all of their users in the blink of an eye.

  5. Re:Okay...nice and all... on Australian Team Working On Engines Without Piston Rings · · Score: 1

    "...and aren't exactly long lived" Model airplane glow plug engines exist in two states - not broken in yet, and slap worn out. There is no middle ground....

  6. Re:50s TV - Antennae on Ask Slashdot: Video Streaming For the Elderly? · · Score: 1

    I dunno about the whole country, but in the two big cities I'm familiar with the TV situation, Dallas and Houston, the TV stations all have their broadcast antennas located at more or less the same location, so you don't have to change the antenna aim to change the channel.

  7. Re:North Carolina drivers are the worst in the US. on Lead Developer of Yum Killed In Hit-and-run · · Score: 1

    Clearly you've never driven in Boston...I had a summer job there driving a patient transport van for the Boston State Hospital (a mental asylum), and I always felt like the lunatics I was driving around in the van weren't a patch on the maniacs driving the other cars.

  8. Re:When you ride at night, on Lead Developer of Yum Killed In Hit-and-run · · Score: 2

    He's not blaming the victim, he's quoting a Roling Stones song lyric. Jeez....woooshhhh

  9. Re:Take the men in the silos out of the loop ... on Malcolm Gladwell On Culture and Airplane Crashes · · Score: 3, Funny

    They say in the future, airliners will no longer have a pilot and a copilot. Instead, there will be just a pilot and a dog. The dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to mess with any of the controls.

  10. Re:Harmless? on FCC Considering Proposal For Encrypted Ham Radio · · Score: 1

    It goes back to the origins of radio. Originally, it was all amateurs messing arouind. Then, as it became more useful and of interest to companies and governments, amateur radio types were quick to restrict themselves as harmless and non-competitive to these interests, in order to keep from being squashed as nuisances. I think it ought to be more like licensing of pilots - those licensed at the lowest skill levels can't charge for flying and can only fly for personal gain under strict rules. As pilots progress in skill levels, they can perform a wider range of flying for hire. Something similar could be done for radio operations. As it is, it took decades to get legal permission to use a radio link to order a pizza.

  11. Re:It's dead either way, why not try this? on FCC Considering Proposal For Encrypted Ham Radio · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can't swear? You clearly haven't spent much time listening to 20 meters, or, at least in my part of the country, 80 meters. Sailors could learn a thing or two about swearing by listening in....

  12. Re:Seems an unnecessary feature on Keyless Remote Entry For Cars May Have Been Cracked · · Score: 5, Informative

    Never get into a car with a carjacker. People who do that wind up at the secondary crime scene, where the homicide (yours) takes place. Run away if you can, fight if you must, but don't get in the car.

  13. Re:The inability to research? on New Drugs Trail Many Old Ones In Effectiveness Against Disease · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not exactly true. Thalidomide does indeed have two mirror image isomers,. and there is some research to indicate that indeed only one of these isomers causes damage. BUT - thalidomide undergoes racemization in the human blood stream - that is, even if you start only with "good" thalidomide in your drug, it will be metabolized into a mix of good and bad in the bloodstream - so, even if you only ingest the "good twin", you wind up with the damage causing "bad twin" in your body anyway.

  14. Re:I'm sorry on 'Smart Gun' Firm Wants You To Fund Its Prototype · · Score: 1

    I'd like a smart rifle, like the one in Vernor Vinge's Bobble series, that lets you designate several targets in the scope, and then, when given the command to fire via trigger pull, actually fires when the barrel is properly aligned to hit the designated target or targets - you mark the targets, then pull the trigger and wave the weapon in their general direction.

  15. Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing on Curiosity Rewarded: Florida Teen Heading to Space Camp, Not Jail · · Score: 3, Informative

    BTW - October Sky is an anagram for "Rocket Boys".

  16. Water on Water Isolated for Over a Billion Years Found Under Ontario · · Score: 2

    There is water at the bottom of the ocean!

  17. Re:Consumerism at its finest on Grocery Delivery Lowers Carbon Dioxide Emissions Over Individual Trips · · Score: 1

    That's right, comrade. Come the Revolution, the proles will get what we on the Central Committee decide they get.

  18. Re:I won't be buying one... on New Smart Gun Company Hopes To Begin Production This Summer · · Score: 1

    WIlliam S. Burroughs! Is that you?

  19. Science Fiction is too good for 'em... on Space Junk 'Cleaning' Missions Urgently Needed · · Score: 1

    Do not give that which is holy to dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine. SF is way too good for the average illiterate student.

  20. Re:Mother told us not to watch TV from too close on Google Glass Specs Hit the Web · · Score: 1

    This is discussed all over the web. Here's one cite that shows a Consumer's Union report of HV rectifier tubes in old TVs producing an objectionable level of X rays. http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1233533&highlight= There are lots of articles about a couple of early GE color sets with misaligned tube shields that produced even more.

  21. CP violation on LHCb Experiment Observes New Matter-Antimatter Difference · · Score: 1

    Matter...Anti-Matter...I'm the guy with the gun.

  22. Re:Mother told us not to watch TV from too close on Google Glass Specs Hit the Web · · Score: 1

    My mother warned us no to sit too close to the TV, because in the good old tube TV days, they tended to emit dangerous levels of X rays from the HV rectifier tube...back then you had to risk your life to get your fill of TV goodness.

  23. I'll miss the old school special effects on Classic BBC Sci-fi Series Blake's 7 To Return On Syfy Channel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It always looked like they could make it to the next starbase, if they didn't run out of steam and iron filings.

  24. Re:You're a contractor. Your "secrets" are yours on Ask Slashdot: How To (or How NOT To) Train Your Job Replacement? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And, if you're friendly about it all, you can count on years of providing support to the new guy, which should bring in a lot of money.

  25. How we look at Austin from Houston... on A High-Tech Pedicab Dispatch System at SXSW in Austin (Video) · · Score: 2

    The motto in Austin is "Keep Austin Weird". The motto in Houston, seen on T-shirts and posters - "Keep Austin 163 miles from here"