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User: zippthorne

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  1. Re:On SATA? on Colossus 3.5-in SSD Combines Quad Controllers · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or shake it vigorously before attempting to pour (frequency is more important than amplitude. The higher, the better). Ketchup, like much of California, is susceptible to vibration-induced liquefaction. You look ridiculous, though.

  2. Re:re Increase or decline? on New Research Forecasts Global 6C Increase By End of Century · · Score: 1

    If the proxy data isn't valid *now*, how do we know it was valid during the time period it was used?

  3. Re:Insurance companies aren't doctors on Facebook Photos Lead To Cancellation of Quebec Woman's Insurance · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, we should pattern our health care system on Canada's. That way we won't get situations like what affected this Quebec woman.

  4. Re:Good for apple on Apple Voiding Smokers' Warranties? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As for the 135 passive smoke deaths, it could be avoided with considerate smokers...

    I haven't met any. Ever.

    I don't know if you guys realize this, but to those of us who don't smoke, we can really smell it. I mean, really smell it. It's headache inducing if you're just wearing the same clothes that you smoked in yesterday.

    I don't know if it causes physical harm or not that much later, but the smell is overpowering and disgusting, and if you really were considerate, you would go out of your way not to subject us to it. Your coworkers, because they can't avoid you without potentially losing income. And your friends, because you like them, and even though they're willing to put up with it, it's kind of a scumbag move to actually make them put up with it.

  5. Re:Who? on WHO Says Swine Flu May Have Peaked In the US · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which Doctor?

  6. Re:SquareTrade on Netbooks Have Higher Failure Rate Than Laptops · · Score: 1

    Minicomputers are the size of a small room: they fit in the room, rather than you having to build the room to fit the machine. Microcomputers are what people put on their desks.

    netbooks are like some kind of mini-micro computer.

  7. Re:problems? on FAA Computer Glitch Causes Widespread Airline Delays · · Score: 1

    And some of which still runs on cryo-cooled Univac machines...

  8. Re:Forget performance on Microsoft Aims To Close Performance Gap With Internet Explorer 9 · · Score: 1

    Back in the day, 250 Meg was pretty close to all the memory...

  9. Re:That's what you get with corrupt democrats... on Chicago's Camera Network Is Everywhere · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why does it have to be stated anywhere? Owning and even operating (responsibly) a handgun doesn't interfere with anyone else's rights on any front.

    Therefore you must come up with a reason why the constitution allows the government to restrict ownership since nowhere in the constitution is the power to regulate firearms ownership explicitly stated, and the 10th amendment specifically forbids the government from any powers not listed.

    Also, the 2nd amendment further explicitly forbids the government from restricting ownership AND use of firearms.

    Also, the 10th amendment probably means that the 2nd amendment applies to the states as well, considering the wording. And if it doesn't, the 14th does.

    So, you'd better have a pretty solid legal theory that allows the government to do such.

  10. Banks on When a DNA Testing Firm Goes Bankrupt, Who Gets the Data? · · Score: 1

    Yeah. It's like asking, "when a bank goes out of business, who gets the money in the accounts?"

  11. Re:Dials for manipulating 3D objects on 1977 Star Wars Computer Graphics · · Score: 1

    Perhaps improved IK algorithms and motion capture have proven even more helpful than MIDI-connected dumb models.

    I suspect, if you want to bring the models back, that you are going to need feedback: stepping through frames and having the "physical model" update its joint positions would make it a lot easier to avoid accidentally jerky inputs. As to whether this would be a significant enough improvement over skeletal models with elaborate constraints, I dunno.

  12. Literally? on Spain Codifies the "Right To Broadband" · · Score: 1

    It says, literally: "All the Spanish people have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing"

    A big question that I have in that case; Why is the Spanish constitution written in English?

  13. Re:I've been saying this for years. on Can We Really Tell Lossless From MP3? · · Score: 1

    It'll be plain-as-day obvious as soon as you get to to any white noise section (like say clapping or crowd noise and hear that characteristic squeagle. (I'm making up a word here, but if there already is a word for it, I hope someone posts it.)

    And although those sections of a song are less important (unless you bought the "live performance" tracks...), they're glaringly apparent. I'd bet you can hear the error even in 256 kbps audio. So, any practical comparison must, imo, avoid tracks with "white noise" that has any structure (e.g. clapping, crowd noise, snare drum section, etc.) as degenerate cases.

  14. Re:Kids prefer that cold, dry, digital sizzle. on Can We Really Tell Lossless From MP3? · · Score: 1

    Now expose them to a full orchestra in a well-designed sound hall.

    Bring earplugs, though. The loud end can be way too loud depending on where you're sitting, and that's without even factoring in the cannons.

  15. Re:The hiss is where it hides on Can We Really Tell Lossless From MP3? · · Score: 1

    Well, that IS by design, after all. MP3 is a filter, ultimately, and the designers of the filter chose a response curve that their testing found acceptable compared to the original.

    It's certainly possible that their filter does, in fact, improve the overall experience sufficiently to be preferable, at least for certain kinds of music and listeners. If it were not the case that people prefer filtered music sometimes, there wouldn't be anyone who used over-driven vacuum tubes as part of their guitar amp.

    So, filtered music sometimes sounds better, and MP3 is a filter with a lot of research behind it into how people hear things. It should be no surprise that sometimes or even often, the result is preferred to the "original" (which itself is put through a quantization filter to get it down to "CD Quality")

  16. Re:ding ding ding on Calling B.S. On Amazon's Taxation Arguments · · Score: 1

    Even if the company stays, it's a false accounting. They're only counting the specific jobs in the company that they can see (and they're counting *all* of the jobs in the company, rather than just the delta). They're completely missing the jobs they could have gotten if the "sweetheart deal" was the "general policy" and all the jobs that are lost because of the higher taxes necessary to maintain the same average when some fraction of companies have sweetheart deals.

  17. Re:Use Tax on Calling B.S. On Amazon's Taxation Arguments · · Score: 1

    You actually don't have to. If the amount of out-of-state purchases is under a certain amount (consult your state tax guide), you don't always have to even declare the purchases. Also, many states offer a "I don't have time to keep all the stupid receipts" option to pay a fixed amount (as long as you didn't have any large purchases that year, and you're pretty sure the total is below a certain threshold).

  18. Re:Cold mineral oil. on Cooling Bags Could Cut Server Cooling Costs By 93% · · Score: 1

    How did you get a 300 mhz CPU in 1993?

  19. Re:The problem with Fusion... on CERN Physicist Warns About Uranium Shortage · · Score: 1

    No, they said it would be "too cheap to meter." You'd still have to pay for the cost of the plant and fuel somehow, but it would be more like bandwidth: you pay for an "unlimited" share of the output. Which makes a certain amount of sense, actually, considering nuclear plants aren't quick to ramp up and down.

  20. Re:I mention this on CERN Physicist Warns About Uranium Shortage · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The last time I did back-of-the-envelope math on it, uranium looks like 50 years worth of proven reserves, 500 or so with reprocessing, and close to 50,000 years if you use thorium, assuming you use it for *all* the energy needs, the use per-person will resemble the first world energy needs, and the global population continues to follow the logistic curve with an asymptote between 9 and 12 billion people.

    Which, IMO, gives us plenty of time to get the next energy generating technology going, probably solar-thermal, or if if you like pie-in-the-sky exotic ideas, deep geothermal, depending on what environmentalists have to say about footprint.

  21. Re:Cryo has got to be the most brilliant scam ever on Become Your Own Heir After Being Frozen · · Score: 1

    It's not a scam, it's just a burial option (doesn't even cost much more than most other burial options) that may or may not be less creepy to you than the other burial options.

  22. Re:Fun fact #65 on Optical Mice Used To Detect Counterfeit Coins · · Score: 1

    Just leave them on the sidewalk. Someone will pick it up and either get a laugh, or be the laugh.

  23. Re:I like my iPhone on Apple Patents "Enforceable" Ad Viewing On Devices · · Score: 1

    Make sure you don't pay the termination fee. If they change your phone they change the terms.

  24. Re:Cringely is an idiot. on The Space Garbage Scow, ala Cringely · · Score: 1

    It's not a stupid idea. It has a stupid rationale, and many parts of it are ignorant (orbital mechanics is the biggie. You can't trade orbital energy for speed, at least not freely like an airplane. Every interaction changes the orbit. period. time them so they add up usefully if you can.) or outlandish (a net?? seriously?) but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a kernel of an interesting idea.

    I wouldn't say that I think it's a great idea, but it's definitely worthy of an AIAA paper or so worth of effort. Even if it turns out to be completely unworkable, it would be a useful exercise to work out why.

  25. That's pretty hard core. on UN Officials Remove Poster Mentioning Chinese Firewall · · Score: 1

    f I went to a dinner about abortion methods for doctors where the topic was to discuss efficient safe methods. And I brought a big ass jesus loves your baby poster to the event it sure as hell would get taken down.

    You can eat while watching powerpoints about actual abortions being performed, but you can't handle a "god loves" sign?