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User: XenonChloride

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Comments · 29

  1. Keep the rules simple! on Craig Mundie Wants "Internet Driver's Licenses" · · Score: 1

    #1 Using IE gets you a ride on the Old Sparky.

  2. forks and teeth on The World's Spookiest Weapons · · Score: 1

    Can you imagine how much pain you could inflict with a standard dinner fork (provided the subject was sufficiently restrained)?

    Can you imagine a crowd of unrestrained test subjects turning forks, arbitrary objects in reach or just their teeth against themselves in uncontrolled fashion?

    The idea of an externally triggered mass outbreak of Lesch-Nyhan-type behaviour definitively is more spooky than a bunch of refurbished dolphins.

    Sweet dreams!

  3. Re:I'm starting to wonder... on Photoshop Express Terms of Use Cause Stir, Will Be Revised · · Score: 1
    One might assume that "someone at Adobe" was inspired by the Acceptable Use Policy of ICQ http://www.icq.com/legal/policy.html, which states:

    [...] You agree that by posting any material or information anywhere on the ICQ Services and Information you surrender your copyright and any other proprietary right in the posted material or information. You further agree that ICQ Inc. is entitled to use at its own discretion any of the posted material or information in any manner it deems fit, including, but not limited to, publishing the material or distributing it.[...]
    YMMV, but I agree with the GP: these conditions are absolutely inacceptable and in view of FOSS alternatives there's no good reason to give up your freedom!
  4. Not blocked in Germany on ISO Miscounted Cuban OOXML Vote · · Score: 1

    http://groklaw.net/ in general and the article in particular are accessible from Germany via my local ISP. No need for any proxy!

  5. Re:HA-HA on German Police Raid 51 CeBIT Stands Over Patent Claims · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, i expect another raid during the IFA (consumer electronics show) in Berlin, end of august. And again, Roberto Dini of Sisvel will deny any responsibility.

  6. Re:Journals on Some Journals Rejecting Office 2007 Format · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Has anybody at Slashdot ever actually submitted anything to a journal? Yes. ACS (American Chemical Society) journals (e.g. J. Phys. Chem.) and Elsevier journals (Tetrahedron, Tetrahedron Lett., J. Photochem. Photobiol., to name a few) DO accept LaTeX submissions!
  7. Re:Alternative names for it? on Vista Followup Already in the Works · · Score: 1
  8. Re:A little respect please on Jurassic Beavers Challenge Current Mammal Theories · · Score: 2, Informative

    I dare to disagree. Recent big cases of misconduct (Jan Hendrik Schoen, Hwang Woo-Suk) involved forged data submitted, reviewed and published in...Science. Peer-reviewing for Science definitely isn't better than for J. Am. Chem. Soc., J. Phys. Chem., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. or even Acta Cryst E. (I'm dead serious on Acta Cryst - some co-editors there do a fantastic job!). The problem is: If you're trying to boost your career with fabricated results, you will probably not succeed by submitting a manipulated CIF file to Acta Cryst but try to aim at the most prestigious journals - Science and Nature. Don't get me wrong on the original article in question; i have no idea whether the data are correct or not. But Science is not the Holy Grail - the reviewers have failed in the past and will do so in the future - the crap flood submitted by egomaniacs is simply to big!

  9. Re:Adult Groups a Liability Risk on Oregon Woman Sues Yahoo for $3 Million · · Score: 2, Funny
    I seriously wonder wtf is wrong with women who let a boyfriend (in most instances an uncommitted relationship of indeterminant duration) photograph or tape them nekkid.
    Hint: Some of them do enjoy to pose and don't mind to be caressed, spanked and bonked before, during and after the photo session ;-)
  10. Re:wires... on Quantum Wires · · Score: 1

    While you might want to wait I'll continue using polypropene rope (6 mm diameter) from DIY stores, which does the job quite well. It runs very smooth, doesn't absorb body liquids and the ends can be sealed with a lighter. This might not be geekish - but it is fun ;-)

  11. Re:An Indie filmmaker's perspective on Indie Artists Support Peer To Peer · · Score: 1
    You might want to contact Mark Burson and William Farmer from Fistful of Film how the "release" of "First You Live Then You Die" on edonkey went for them.
    However note that one of them stated:
    Both my co-director and I have gone on to other things, and this film is just something that pops into our heads now and then as a bunch of fun memories. [...] and yes anyone can post this on emule or anywhere they wish. Since it never found "legitimate" distribution, I don't mind letting it out there in whatever form possible.
    So they pretty much just let it go, which might not be exactly what you were looking for.
  12. While you wait... on Blowfish Poison Derivative Could Be A Painkiller · · Score: 3, Informative

    While you wait for the order, read a bit about Tetrodotoxin, which was the Molecule of the Month in November 1999.

  13. Re:Peer review? on Stem-Cell-Like-Cells Made Using Only Blood? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thanks, that was exactly what I missed in the whole thing. So far, their claim to "retrodifferentiate" blood cells to pluripotent stem cells (= similar to embryonal stem cells in the 8-cell-stadium) is questionable. It seems they simply went for profit and propaganda rather than for proof-reading by the scientific community.

    One (of many) more serious examples for (embryonal) stem cell research is given by D. Kaufman in PNAS 2001, 98(19), 10716-10721, for an online pdf version see Hematopoietic colony-forming cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.

    Although enthusiastic about their results, the authors are honest enough to warn in the last paragraph of the article mentioned above:

    The clinical promise of human ES cell-based therapies is great; however, because these therapies will be entirely novel, serious concerns about safety and efficacy will need to be addressed before human clinical trials can be initiated. The malignant transformation of cells that have been cultured for extended periods is a particular concern.

    This has indeed been observed by Mathias Hoehn at the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne, Germany. As far as I remember, the researchers had caused an apoplectic stroke in rats. One week later, they injected the animals with embryonal stem cells from mice. MRT scans showed that the stem cells travelled through the rat brain right to the damaged region and started to differentiate and form a network. The stem cells, originating from different specimen, had replaced damaged tissue.

    However, when the same stem cells (note: embryonal stem cells from mice) were used on mice, everything went out of control! Rather than moving to the damaged region, the stem cells started penetrating surrounding nerve cells and showed uncontrolled growth. In all mice examined, tumors were found!

    Keeping that in mind, I prefer to take all "scientific" announcements in non-peer-reviewed journals with a ton of salt.

  14. What's on a kids mind? on Caching Torrent files in DNS · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    evank40767 kindly linked to an old picture stored on his own AOL account.

    evank40767, don't the guys at AOL suggest having something like index.html rather than granting access to the whole directory?

    And please stop crying now, it is too late anyway. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
  15. Heart attack gene and lifestyle on Researchers Discover the First 'Heart Attack' Gene · · Score: 4, Informative
    Whoever isn't really satisfied with the information given in the CNN article might want to have a look at the Heart News, where Eric Topol points out:
    People with this exact MEF2A mutation have essentially a 100-percent chance of having a heart attack or developing coronary artery disease [...] For people without a genetic predisposition, they must make it their responsibility to take care of themselves to prevent heart disease from developing.
    So for all the obese guys out there:
    Think about some other famous last words than It is all genetic [...]
  16. Re:Non military uses on Robotic Gliders Soar Underwater · · Score: 1
    Notice that the gliders currently used, such as the ALACE and the APEX still use batteries to drive an electrical motor.
    I'm astonished that you don't recognize a joke being one yourself.

    Go fly a kite, kid! Yes, you may use the string of your greased Yoda doll.

  17. Re:Non military uses on Robotic Gliders Soar Underwater · · Score: 1
    How about [...] cargo delivery? [...]
    I rather doubt that the concept is feasible for large freight.
    No fuel
    Well, at least no diesel. But it isn't a perpetuum mobile ;-).
    In order to move the glider in sawtooth mode (up and down) you'll need energy to pump the "swimming oil" around. Wouldn't the amount of oil to be pumped and thus the energy used be proportional to the freight carried?
    What about automated sailing ships with sturdy square sail constructions like the Shin Aitoku Maru instead?
  18. websites as reliable sources in science? on Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge · · Score: 1
    Dellavalle, a dermatologist [...] had co-written a research report featuring [...]footnotes -- many of which referred [...] to Web sites that he and his colleagues had used to substantiate their findings.
    Pardon me, but I call this unprofessional! In order to support your own findings/experiments you may cite peer-reviewed articles form printed or online journals having an ISSN or refer to personal communications. Usually, the latter only makes sense if the source has some sort of reliability and reputation in the scientific community. Didn't Dellavalle and collegues contact the authors of the respective web sites in time - just to make sure that the data published were correct and obtained under defined and reproducible conditions? Apparently not! If they would have done, they probably would have had enough background information to recontact the original of the data.
    1. Joe Sixpack, www.blaaa.net/index.html.
    2. A drunken bloke in the subway, personal communication, 2003.
    are not relevant references.
  19. Re:How lovely...YUCK on More on the University of Florida · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the clearing remarks.
    Blind passengers brought from home can be a plague to deal with. I remember visits from armenian guest scientists in pre-www times. It was crucial to confiscate all their floppies on arrival ;-)

  20. Re:RWE Powerline in Germany: dead on Broadband Over Power Lines in Canada · · Score: 1
    They are selling/closing these things as is the norm in these situations.
    Sure. Services get cancelled if they don't sell. And while the technical specifications (transfer rates) did sound attractive, the volume-based tarif was not.
    We don't know that it was a failure.
    Please read more careful. I didn't write that RWE Powerline failed, but that the original article failed to mention that the service still is out of business (= not available to the customers). Or did I miss something?
  21. How lovely...YUCK on More on the University of Florida · · Score: 1

    Assuming that the UF might get sued by the Record Mafia for not preventing illegal activities it seems consequent and reasonable to block P2P transfer within the university net. Why did they install a surveillance system instead? Are they up to something else?

    But I really loved this part:

    For a first violation, transgressors [...] must watch a 10-minute interactive Web program on copyright law.
    Hmm, aversion therapy. That's nice. Are there any details about hooks holding the eye lids and electrodes attached to the testicles?
  22. RWE Powerline in Germany: dead on Broadband Over Power Lines in Canada · · Score: 4, Informative
    While the article states:
    German utilities company RWE started offering Internet service over power lines the summer of 2001...
    it fail to mention that this service went out of business again in summer 2002.
  23. Re:the real point on Can America Trust Electronic Voting? · · Score: 1

    Funny indeed. Voting on paper seems to work in Germany too. It seems to be secure (anonymous) and it is fast, even if you take into account that we don't use the plurality (the winner takes it all) system but counting methods which are considered to be more fair.
    A short overview (in English) is given in the German voting system

  24. Re:Not with these companies... on Can America Trust Electronic Voting? · · Score: 1
    [...] the problem is the fraudulous mentality of the management of these companies [...]
    I disagree. If these companies wouldn't provide exactly the service they are paid for they would be out of business already.
  25. The time has come for... on Microsoft Makes Push for COBOL Migration · · Score: 1
    • ALGOL69.NET
    • PL/I.NET