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User: Nutria

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  1. Re:Thousands of dollars? Big spender on Ex-NSA Director Keith Alexander's Investments In Tech Firms: "No Conflict" · · Score: 1

    More importantly, nowadays for your typical upper-middle class Washingtonian, $10,000 is bordering on chump change.

    I'm surprised the IG would even notice it!

  2. Why Chemistry? on Nobel Prize In Chemistry Awarded To Trio For Microscope Advancement · · Score: 1

    This seems more "Physics", even though the techniques will be used by chemists.

  3. Re:Can we even detect ourselves from beyond LEO? on Are the World's Religions Ready For ET? · · Score: 1

    they did that with Voyager: turned it back on Earth and the answer came back "Inconclusive". I don't think they were that far away, either.

    Interesting. Of course, they were launched 37 years ago, and antennae+sensor capabilities have greatly increased since then.

  4. Can we even detect ourselves from beyond LEO? on Are the World's Religions Ready For ET? · · Score: 1

    Before getting all confident that we can detect ET civilization, how about sending a satellite or three to 10-20 Lunar orbits (what's the Lunar equivalent of the AU?) to determine if we can detect ourselves -- especially when Earth is between it and the Sun.

    If not, then no sense bloviating on religion and ET.

  5. Re:min install on Outlining Thin Linux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    10 years ago, and I was a late-comer to the idea.

  6. Re:Null Terminated Strings on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Strangest Features of Various Programming Languages? · · Score: 1

    If you are seeking a language to write administrative applications then you should look further. COBOL back in the days or Java nowadays would suit you better.

    Too bad that Computer Scientists are a bunch of elitist Haters who only know COBOL from legend. Even back in the day, CompSci professors loathed/disdained it, and the most popular textbook series was from the grossly incompetent Shelly & Cashman.

    Once I re-learned it from people who grokked the language, I discovered how powerful it is at it's intended task.

    Finding people willing to write in it is hard, though, so -- before Java -- many managers decided that business apps would be written in C rather than the appropriate language.

  7. Some COBOL features I like on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Strangest Features of Various Programming Languages? · · Score: 1

    - Variables can start with a numeric, since whitespace is the token separator. This has some distinct uses in a globally scoped language, when combined with PERFORM THRU.
    - "Concatenated OR". It lets you write code like IF 8 = A OR B OR C OR D OR E THEN ...
    - 88 Level variables

  8. Re:Everything old is new again. on Facebook Experimenting With Blu-ray As a Storage Medium · · Score: 1

    Tape has always had a limited life-span and is too easily damaged to completely trust with high-value archival data. Instead, archival on tape usually means "we're not quite confident enough to just delete this crap".

    Maybe the cheap crap. I've pulled 7 year old data off of SuperDLT tapes.

  9. Everything old is new again. on Facebook Experimenting With Blu-ray As a Storage Medium · · Score: 4, Informative

    Enterprises have been doing this with tape for 30 years.

    In fact, modern tape technology probably has a higher "volumetric" density than BD.

  10. Re:not true at all on FarmBot: an Open Source Automated Farming Machine · · Score: 1

    Damn, you beat me to it...

  11. The obvious /. question... on New HP Laptop Would Mean Windows at Chromebook Prices · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But will it run Linux??

  12. Re:2x the resolution? on Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face From Space · · Score: 1

    Are you in the habit of being an asshole?

  13. Re:2x the resolution? on Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face From Space · · Score: 1

    Resolution is measured linearly, not quadratically.

    Why? The surface of the Earth is two-dimensional (three, if you want to be picky), not one-dimensional.

  14. 2x the resolution? on Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face From Space · · Score: 1

    Or 4x the resolution (a 50cm square being 4x as large as a 25cm square)?

  15. Re:What would I *not* do? on Ask Slashdot: Can Tech Help Monitor or Mitigate a Mine-Flooded Ecosystem? · · Score: 1

    Just ask the Germans what happened to their request for their gold stored in the US.

    Are there any "THE GOLD IS MISSING WERE DOOOOOOOOMED!!!" sites that are not scaremongers?

  16. What would I *not* do? on Ask Slashdot: Can Tech Help Monitor or Mitigate a Mine-Flooded Ecosystem? · · Score: 0

    Ask Slashdot. Instead I'd go to forums where actual field ecologists -- the ones who actually go out and sample water, etc -- to see what they suggest.

  17. Re:Well at least they saved the children! on Google Spots Explicit Images of a Child In Man's Email, Tips Off Police · · Score: 2

    and prove that the IP they have is going to right place.

    Eh? It's gmail. The need is to associate a gmail account with a person, not with an IP address.

    And doing that depends mainly on how much PII the person tells Google when he registers the account.

  18. Re:White Werhner von Braun may be many things... on Was America's Top Rocketeer a Communist Spy? The FBI Thought So · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The majority were a buncha eggheads who thought it was cool they'd found someone willing to fund them,

    And willingly worked 12,000 "undesirables" to death.

    put the blame where it belongs

    Square on Frank Malina's shoulders for wanting to do something else.

  19. Re:Federation of Am... Soc.. for Exper... Biology? on UK Team Claims Breakthrough In Universal Cancer Test · · Score: 1

    so I imagine they came to a similar conclusion at some point.

    Twelve other Societies and the FASEB also have the same Bethesda address, but different phone numbers. Maybe FASEB is contracting out administrative functions?

  20. Federation of Am... Soc.. for Exper... Biology? on UK Team Claims Breakthrough In Universal Cancer Test · · Score: 1

    How many Societies for Experimental Biology does a country -- even a big one -- need?

  21. Re:The description doesn't help: on Newly Discovered Virus Widespread in Human Gut · · Score: 1

    kb == kilobits

    Thus, it's 12416 kilobyte-pairs.

  22. Re:The lesson here isn't to be quiet, but... on Man Booted From Southwest Flight and Threatened With Arrest After Critical Tweet · · Score: 1

    This way, he doesn't lose out on the rage of the moment,

    Or he could remember that throwing temper tantrums when you don't get your way is what we putatively teach children not to do.

  23. The lesson here isn't to be quiet, but... on Man Booted From Southwest Flight and Threatened With Arrest After Critical Tweet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to tweet her rudeness after you land.

  24. DOE is the wrong place for studying *effects*. on Lawrence Krauss: Congress Is Trying To Defund Scientists At Energy Department · · Score: 1

    That should be the Departments of Commerce (NOAA), Interior (USGS) & Defense.

  25. Re:user error on People Who Claim To Worry About Climate Change Don't Cut Energy Use · · Score: 1

    The economy can adapt to the needs of the environment and our aggregate needs as a people.

    Sure it can adapt, by shipping jobs to un- (or bogo-)regulated China.