Slashdot Mirror


User: tkw954

tkw954's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
285
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 285

  1. Re:Notebook, laptop, netbook ... on 11.6" Netbooks Face Off · · Score: 1

    [Obligatory Car Analogy]So you don't feel the need to distinguish between a motorcyle and a pickup truck?[/Obligatory Car Analogy]

    In the spirit of this article, I have to say that the pickup truck is clearly the best kind of motorcycle because of its superior cargo carrying capacity and cold-weather comfort.

  2. Re:ban the man on P2P Network Exposes Obama's Safehouse Location · · Score: 1

    And how do they propose that Limewire prevent sharers from sharing government secrets?

    I propose that all governments send Limewire all their secrets to that a filter can be set up. Since this is likely to be a large file, it is probably easiest if they transfer the data by putting it in their publicly shared folder and then allow the filter maintainers to download it from there.

  3. Re:Don't see the problem. on Why the Photos On Wikipedia Are So Bad · · Score: 1

    They want free advertising for their photography, but they're afraid that their photos (or modified works) will be attributed to them. They can't have it both ways.

  4. Re:yes, I know that you are joking on NASA's LRO Captures High-Res Pics of Apollo Landing Sites · · Score: 1

    Wow. The President got hit by a car? I hadn't heard about that.

    No, the president was eaten by wolves. He was delicious.

  5. Re:These plaintiffs are being very reasonable on UK's National Portrait Gallery Threatens To Sue Wikipedia User · · Score: 1

    They're threatening an american user for doing what is perfectly legal in the US on servers based in the US. Their copyright claims have no merit whatsoever.

    I bet that makes Marc Emery feel better.

  6. Re:2^119 is... on New AES Attack Documented · · Score: 1

    Already you're up to 17*10^6/0.05/0.5*128*10 = 870 billion suns - that's about 8-9 Milky Way galaxies. And there's still a lot of extremely unlikely conditions in there, by the time you've reached "realistic" conditions you're probably talking about burning through most of the known universe.

    So you're saying that a length of rubber hose would be cheaper?

  7. Re:2^119 is... on New AES Attack Documented · · Score: 1

    you could have an infinitely fast computer, but even the Sun at E=mc^2 and 100% efficiency couldn't do it. It's not a speed limitation, it's an energy limitation. Take the Landauer limit at background radiation temperature. Plug that into a calculator and you get joules required: (2^256) * 1.3806504 * (10^(-23)) * 2.72500 * ln(2) = 3.0196359 * 10^54 Energy of sun: 1.98892 * (10^30) * (299 792 458^2) = 1.78755215 * 10^47

    So you're saying I only need 17 million suns?

  8. Re:A theoretically practical solar-powered car on Chicken Feathers May Hold Key To Hydrogen Storage · · Score: 1

    They're using an inefficient piston engine. If they use that fancy Australian Rotary Air Engine, they might have better luck. They might even attain a range of 30+ km, which would be enough to get me to work. :P

    It doesn't really matter about the engine efficiencies. Even if you had 100% efficient engines and compressors and perfect isothermal heating/cooling, the theoretical energy density of compressed gas is very low. According to the analysis on wikipedia (which looks reasonable to me), the maximum theoretical isothermal volumetric energy density of a 200 bar tank is 106 kJ/L. The value for combustion of CNG stored at a similar pressure (250 bar) is 9 MJ/L. For comparison, gasoline is at 34.2 MJ/L and even Lithium Ion batteries are over 800 KJ/L and have room for improvement.

  9. Re:A theoretically practical solar-powered car on Chicken Feathers May Hold Key To Hydrogen Storage · · Score: 1

    Air powered would be the easiest way to go, except that like all vehicles running on alternative energy, you can't get them anywhere.

    Also, except that you can't get anywhere in them. From the link you posted "the only published test of a vehicle running on compressed air alone was limited to a range of 7.22 km". The biggest problem with gaseous combustion fuels is the limited storage capacity, and compressed air is much worse than any of them.

  10. Re:I can definitely see their point, because on NASA Sticking To Imperial Units For Shuttle Replacement · · Score: 1

    Let's assume that on one piece they currently have a dimension of 12 inches +/- 0.01 inches. So they convert this dimension to metric giving a new value of 30.48 cm +/- 0.025 cm. Excuse me?!?!? That's a rather odd and strange dimensional target to hand off to the machinest.

    If your machinist/QA people can't understand 30.48 cm +/- 0.025 cm, you probably aren't a supplier to NASA.

  11. Re:$370 million? on NASA Sticking To Imperial Units For Shuttle Replacement · · Score: 1

    This isn't a matter of trivia, where we are worried if plans are marked in inches or mm. Change to metric, now every bolt must be metric pitch thread, every nut must be changed to accomodate. Every calculation of mass and structural integrity has to be reexamined and recalculated for new components. You don't just magically say "ok, our 3/8" bolts are now to be called 9.525mm bolts" and call it a day.

    Sure you can. Do you think NASA has drawings that just say "3/8 bolt" on them? No, they have a part number from a specification. What's stopping them from writing a specification for a "9.525mm bolt" that is equivalent to their previous part or editing the old spec to give metric equivalents? My understanding is that this is exactly what happened with the 12.7x99mm NATO aka .50 BMG ammunition.

  12. Re:Snopes is often wrong. on NASA Sticking To Imperial Units For Shuttle Replacement · · Score: 3, Funny

    I live in Rural Idaho, Cow tipping is a lot like snipe hunting. We would take gullible kids out to a farm in the middle of the night. They would try to sneak up on a cow and tip it. It would either move or not tip, and then move. We would convince them that their shoes were making too much noise. After they gave up their shoes, we would hop in the car and leave them in the middle of a pasture, barefoot, in the middle of the night, miles from home. That is what cow tipping is really about.

    I grew up in rural Canada, and can assure you that you can, indeed, tip a cow. Certain breeds are more difficult to sneak up on and others wake up before they hit ground, but it is certainly not difficult once someone has shown you how. If you really are from a farm and have never done it or even seen it done, I suggest you visit us up north and we'll take you out one night and show you the finer points.

  13. Re:If you give up the inch, they'll take the mile on NASA Sticking To Imperial Units For Shuttle Replacement · · Score: 1

    Generally speaking things are moving to metric (thankfully) but it will take many many years for imperial to die here currently we are in one big measurement mess and we will be for some time, especially as every traffic sign is in imperial.

    I know of situations in Canada where they just painted a "k" on the pre-metric sign and moved it to the corresponding location.

  14. Re:Not just a deliberate untruth, possibly illegal on Apple's Obsession With Secrecy Grows Stronger · · Score: 1

    The rights of shareholders of a corporation to be informed about materially relevant information about the enterprise do not in general override the privacy rights of its CEO

    He should have the right to remain private about his health (i.e. not make a comment), even if it is materially relevant. However, if he decides to waive that right by making a statement, it does not mean he can lie about materially relevant information.

    The possibility that the CEO of a corporation you're investing in is secretly very sick and will die soon is, well, just a risk that you have to take.

    That's very different than a corporation making a untrue statements that their CEO is healthier than he is.

  15. Re:Lots of ffmpeg gpl violations on Sothink Violated the FlashGot GPL and Stole Code · · Score: 1

    They tend to fall into two camps, those who attempt to use the lgpl parts of ffmpeg and publish the license; and those who outright ignore the gpl or pretend they've followed it. ffmpeg keeps a "Hall of shame" for these violaters but sothinkmedia have not yet been added.

    I saw KMPlayer on the list of software not in compliance with the license and my jaw nearly hit the floor. KDE doesn't respcet the LGPL? What?!? However, it appears that KMPlayer on the hall of shame is the Kang Media Player at www.kmplayer.com, not the KDE mplayer frontend at www.kmplayer.kde.org. That was a close one.

  16. Re:Sorry NewYorkCountryLawyer on How RIAA Case Should Have Played Out · · Score: 1

    Now, for a practical matter. If a friend from the US comes and visits, and makes copies (or downloads) of music, is she liable for copyright infringement when she returns to the US? Now, further, if she downloads exclusively from me, and yet is resident in the US, is she guilty?

    I think another good question is whether it is legal to visit the States as a Canadian with music on your ipod which you legally copied in Canada.

  17. Re:Then its not insurance... on US House Democrats Unveil a Health Care Plan · · Score: 1

    Take, for example, HIV treatment. Most people probably couldn't afford the cocktail that keeps them alive. But I don't think its too terrible to throw in a couple bucks of year in taxes per person to help another guy stay alive, as long as he doesn't bitch about Republicans, in which case, I'd vote to cut him off.

    Wow.

  18. Re:When done right on Are Code Reviews Worth It? · · Score: 1

    Code Reviews are useful when they are done right.

    That's why Code Review Reviews are necessary. Of course, Code Review Reviews are only useful when they are done right.

  19. Re:Fortran is still useful for calculations on Should Undergraduates Be Taught Fortran? · · Score: 1

    There are tons of mathematical packages like Matlab, Octave and Mathematica if you just want to get your calculations done. So what's the advantage of Fortran?

    Matlab can be considerably slower, unless you specifically write your code to take advantage of the fact that it calls fast precompiled and optimized routines, such as BLAS (FORTRAN), LAPACK (FORTRAN), EISPACK (FORTRAN), FFTW (OCaml), etc.

  20. Re:"identity theft" - get the fuck out on Swedish Anti-Piracy Lawyer Gets New Name 'Pirate' · · Score: 1

    noone STOLE their identity.

    In fact, they GAVE him a new one.

  21. Re:Idiocy on Homeland Security To Scan Citizens Exiting US · · Score: 1

    Terrorism is a non-threat.

    No. Terrorism is *only* a threat. You don't need any action if you have a credible threat.

  22. Re:CDBaby on Amazon & TuneCore To Cut Out the RIAA Middleman · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately this still doesn't provide a good alternative to one important service the major record labels provide: promotion.

    The other service they provide is financing. Although the cost of recording a professional-quality album has come down in recent years, it is still more than a lot of artists have in petty cash. They need the record deal to finance those costs, since the only bank that will provide business loans for something like this is the "Bank of Mom and Dad".

  23. Re:Fail on Robot Soldiers Are Already Being Deployed · · Score: 1

    Fail safe systems fail by failing to fail safely.

    I wish there was a +1 Redundant moderation.

  24. Re:Overhead? on Measuring the User For CPU Frequency Scaling · · Score: 1

    I should have said "negligible when compared to experimental uncertainty". In any case, you're right about the wall wart. I measured a draw of approximately 6 W with nothing plugged into it.

  25. Re:Overhead? on Measuring the User For CPU Frequency Scaling · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I recently did a test on a fanless VIA Eden system (CPU + mobo + RAM + notebook hd + 2 Delta 1010LT soundcards with a switch mode PSU). The power consumption was 29.1 W with the system idling and throttled down (600 MHz) and 31.9 W with a full 'ping -f localhost' load (1200 MHz). I know it's not an embedded ARM system, but this does give an idea of the nearly negligible power savings available by halving your clock speed.