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User: Cyberax

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  1. Re:Yeah sure on Court Releases DOJ Memo Justifying Drone Strike On US Citizen · · Score: 1

    Have you checked the actual score? US foreign diplomacy screwed up pretty much everything during the last 20 years.

  2. Re:What happens if on Bitcoin Security Endangered By Powerful Mining Pool · · Score: 1

    DDoS _what_? Miners have use a negligible amount of network traffic. You probably can run the whole mega-pool on one old-school 56k modem.

  3. Re:So after years of panic... on Microsoft Runs Out of US Address Space For Azure, Taps Its Global IPv4 Stock · · Score: 1

    Yes, using IPv6 makes routing much easier. Right now the number of routes on the DFZ (Default-Free Zone) edges up to 500k - lots of networks have to use multiple blocks of IPs because they simply can't get large enough contiguous blocks. Each block gets its own entry in the routing tables.

    By comparison, with IPv6 it's easy to get ONE large allocation to cover all the needs of an organization. It's not unusual for a small ISP to announce 10-15 IPv4 prefixes and just one IPv6 prefix.

  4. Re:Hm.... on Group Demonstrates 3,000 Km Electric Car Battery · · Score: 1

    Regular solid aluminum blocks do not burn in a 20% oxygen atmosphere. There's not enough surface area for oxidation to replenish the heat lost to convection or radiation. So it's safe to use liquid aluminum for molds, for example.

  5. Re:So what's the alternative? on Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work · · Score: 1

    No, it's more complicated. X86 historically used 80-bit floating point numbers internally and translated to 64-bit as needed. That causes a lot of very subtle bugs if you're not careful - they do not affect the result too much, but they're there. It's easier now, because most CPUs simply use 64-bit floats.

  6. Re:So what's the alternative? on Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work · · Score: 2

    Excel is reproducible. Microsoft worked very hard to make its floating point calculations work exactly the same way on all machines.

    SPSS is nice, but it is expensive as hell.

  7. Re:So what's the alternative? on Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work · · Score: 1

    Nope. Numpy doesn't allow you to visually play with the data. You have to write code for everything.

  8. So what's the alternative? on Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So what's the alternative? There are no good and easy to use software packages to create simple data-intensive apps. The closest alternative was VB6 and if I had to chose between it and Excel, I'd choose Excel any day of the week.

  9. Re:Transmutation in SFRs or LWRs too on US Nuclear Plants Expanding Long-Term Waste Storage Facilities · · Score: 2

    Beloyarsk power plant has a fast-neutron reactor ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... ). It's been working without major incidents for about 35 years.

  10. Re:Fuel economy? on New Semiconductor Could Improve Vehicle Fuel Economy By 10 Percent · · Score: 1

    88% efficiency means that out of every 1KWt*hr you pull from your outlet, 0.88KWt*Hr will be used to propel the car. And it's the TOTAL efficiency, including the battery charging overhead.

    I have a Chevy Volt with 10.5KWt*hr of battery storage, it takes about 11.2KWt*Hr to charge it completely. So we're talking about ~5% loss during the charging. With other losses in the high-voltage system, the 88% figure seems believable.

  11. Re: Bah on How Predictable Is Evolution? · · Score: 1

    What do you mean by 'terrestrial eye'? An eye filled with air instead of liquid? It won't make any difference in efficiency. You really can't make eyes to look much different than they are.

  12. Re:"GM thinks" there's your problem. on GM Sees a Market For $5/Day Dedicated In-Car Internet · · Score: 1

    Tried that, still not as easy to use. Also, holders suck. I'm also using my RPi to get statistics from CAN bus and do a couple of other tricks, like emulating OnStar and sending address directly to in-car navigation so that I don't have to enter it manually.

  13. Re:"GM thinks" there's your problem. on GM Sees a Market For $5/Day Dedicated In-Car Internet · · Score: 1

    Answer: convenience.

    I actually installed a RPi-based hotspot in my car with a Verizon stick. It's really nice to be able to access Internet on my laptop and non-3G tablet without bothering to activate a hotspot on my phone.

  14. Re:When Al Franken... on Al Franken Says FCC Proposed Rules Are "The Opposite of Net Neutrality" · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair, he also introduced a bill to make NSA more transparent.

  15. Re:Forbes DID NOT report this on Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked · · Score: 1

    And Svoboda party got 50% of government positions, even though they got less than 5% of popular vote. Things get crazy after revolutions.

  16. Re:Busy protecting the cartels? on Milwaukee City Council Proposal Would Pave Way For Uber, Lyft · · Score: 1

    I lived for a couple of years right on Kings Highway and I never managed to get a yellow cab. Though a lot of limousine service cars violate their rules and pick up passengers on streets.

  17. Re:Limited licenses on Milwaukee City Council Proposal Would Pave Way For Uber, Lyft · · Score: 1

    Hey, I'm about as socialist as it's possible in a capitalist country. I totally support the right of cabbies to make a good wage. And in theory, taxi regulations are the text-book case of protecting consumers.

    However, taxi companies need to get their shit together. Right now all the taxi services in the US that I've seen are an embarrassment. A general computerized dispatch with easy-to-use phone apps is a must, with an ability to get a fare estimate beforehand. As it is, getting a cab at 2am right now is way easier with Uber - I know this because I used it many times to get home at 3am.

    As for your objections, they are valid. But Uber can fix them by providing incentives to drivers to work full time - by increasing the fare prices at night or by introducing a realtime marketplace for fares.

  18. Re:Busy protecting the cartels? on Milwaukee City Council Proposal Would Pave Way For Uber, Lyft · · Score: 1

    Ok, that makes sense. IN MANHATTAN. But nowhere else.

    It's impossible to get a yellow cab in Brooklyn or Queens. You have to call a car service (typically a company named something like "Supreme Leader Taxi and Limousine Service"), listen to 5-10 minutes of music then try to explain where you need a car to someone who barely speaks English. Then wait for 20-30 minutes to get a car. Maybe.

  19. Re:What an idea on China May Build an Undersea Train To America · · Score: 1

    Fair? Not really. For one thing, Russian Empire hasn't seen a cent from that payment. You see, it sank.

  20. Re:the polio vaccine causes cancer on Polio Causes Global Health Emergency · · Score: 1

    I can haz sterilization without surgery? Where can I get some of this vaccine, please?

  21. Re:Forbes DID NOT report this on Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked · · Score: 2

    Here's a list of independence referenda, quite a few of them have 80%+ turnout: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... It is NOT unheard of.

    Ukraine's very own independence referendum in 1991 had 85% turnout with 92% voting for independence.

  22. Source? on Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked · · Score: 1

    All the sites refer to TSN.ua which is a bit, shall we say, violently anti-Russian. In reality, foreign journalists have not detected any major incidents of fraud during the referendum.

  23. Re:L3, Cogent and Others Crying Wolf on Internet Transit Provider Claims ISPs Deliberately Allow Port Congestion · · Score: 2

    That might matter if we're talking about transit networks where reciprocity makes sense (i.e. "I'll forward your traffic if you forward mine").

    However, Comcast is overwhelmingly an 'eyeball' network - its customers PAY to get access to this music/video. By refusing to setup additional peering interconnects Comcast hurts its own customers. If there was some real competition then they'll be under pressure to optimize their infrastructure and reach an agreement with transit providers on fair and equitable grounds.

    Some people also mix an issue of transit there. For example, if L3 and Comcast have a peering interconnect in Dallas, for example, and L3 wants to use it to send traffic to Comcast customers in San Francisco then it _might_ make sense to ask L3 to pay fair price for long-distance transit.

  24. Re:A drop in the bucket. on California City Considers Restarting Desalination Plant To Fight Drought · · Score: 2

    Incorrect.

    Farmers in California's San Joaquin depend on government-provided water. The federal government built aqueducts and channels and so it can control water allocation.

  25. Re:how long? on ISS Studies Show Bacteria From Earth Could Colonize Mars · · Score: 2

    Mars is capable of holding atmosphere for hundreds of millions of years. Mars has more than enough gravity to hold together Earth-like atmosphere with negligible losses.

    The main problem is the solar wind, it consists of fast-moving particles that can give enough push to ions and atoms in the atmosphere to achieve escape velocity. But solar wind is very thin, so it's not like it'll be an immediate threat.