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User: deimtee

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  1. Re:Can someone explain in laymans terms how.... on Scientists Finally Turn Hydrogen Into a Metal, Ending a 80-Year Quest (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    But it is 6 degrees above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Cooling things only that far is a lot cheaper than going down to liquid helium temps.

  2. Re:Good news on US Government OKs Sale of Sharper Satellite Images · · Score: 1

    If your pixels are 0.4 x 0.4 metre you can get pretty damn close.

  3. Time delay storage. on After the Belfast Project Fiasco, Time For Another Look At Time Capsule Crypto? · · Score: 1

    Write it out on archival paper, put it in a sealed ceramic pot and bury it on the lee side of a travelling sand dune.
    - Ceramic so metal detectors won't find it.
    - how high up on the dune is determined by how fast the dune is travelling, and how long you want it to stay buried.
    - make the average density of the pot plus contents the same as the sand, so it neither sinks nor floats.

  4. Re: Fishy on TrueCrypt Website Says To Switch To BitLocker · · Score: 1

    That's ordinary NSLs. What about the the double-secret NSLs?

  5. Re:Depends on Should Microsoft Be Required To Extend Support For Windows XP? · · Score: 1

    Then they document all released code, labelling it as either released by Microsoft or owned by $third_party.
    If $third_party wants to enforce their copyright, then $third_party becomes liable for its maintenance.

  6. Re:To be fair... on $30K Worth of Multimeters Must Be Destroyed Because They're Yellow · · Score: 1

    The infringement is for using "yellow". Not a particular shade or PMS color, just "yellow".
    That leaves red, pink, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, black, grey, and white. (Did I miss any?)
    So about ten more trademarks and the market is locked. Not exactly unlimited.

  7. Re:Slashdot BETA Sucks. on Slashdot Tries Something New; Audience Responds! · · Score: 1

    the problem with the boycott is that 99%+ of the users aren't active contributors, just passive viewers. So a boycott won't change the viewership numbers very much. heck, most of the people who would boycott are probably no script/adblock anyway, so there's no lost impressions there.

    You are probably right about that percentage, but you miss the point that even the passive viewers are here for the comments and the links to interesting tech stuff. If the active users go away there will be nothing left to passively view.

  8. Re:Gasoline, diesel, etc don't have to be Fossil F on Australian Team Working On Engines Without Piston Rings · · Score: 2

    ... nobody can make it happen on a large scale at cost, let alone at a profit...

    That applies now.
    The only reason it is not economically feasible is because it is so cheap to dig fossil fuels out of the ground.
    Allegedly, we are now past peak oil, and the price of fossil fuels should start going up. Eventually it will be economical to produce synthetic hydrocarbon fuels using solar/nuclear/other power and either biomass or CO2 and water - either because the technology has improved, or the products have risen in value, or more likely, both.

  9. Re:There must be a very good reason... on Utilities Fight Back Against Solar Energy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He's saying he's paid retail up to the amount he uses (12 or 25 c/kWh). (Connection charges are not included.)
    When he generates an excess they only pay him wholesale for that. (2c/kWh)

    I think it is actually a reasonable model.
    Maintaining the lines is a pretty fixed cost = connection fee.
    Generate less than you use = you pay retail on the diff like everyone else.
    Generate more than you use = you collect wholesale on what you sell, same as other power suppliers.
    They make a profit on selling your excess power, you get free energy storage.

  10. Re:No... on Proposed California Law Would Mandate Smartphone Kill Switch · · Score: 1

    Any mobile phone in AU can call the emergency number (000) regardless of blacklists, whitelists, whether you've paid the bill, or anything else.
    If the phone is still functional and can get a signal, you can call the cops, ambulance, and/or fire brigade.

  11. Re:Great... on Gunman Opens Fire At LAX · · Score: 2

    Your government has nukes, artillery, tanks, bombers, etc. Are you going to demand access to these too? After all your logic seems to be 'whatever government can has, I want too'.

    Any objective reading of the second amendment would seem to indicate that that is the case. If you don't like it, you should work to get the second amendment changed, not work to violate your constitution.

  12. Re:Black Hole on First 'Habitable Zone' Galactic Bulge Exoplanet Found · · Score: 1

    Four thousand light years is actually quite a long way.

  13. Re:We have this thing called "competition" on What the Insurance Industry Thinks About Climate Change · · Score: 1, Insightful

    These policy prices are largely determined by the re-insurers, not the insurance companies you deal with directly.
    This is a much smaller group of much larger companies. I would have no difficulty believing they were colluding to raise prices.

  14. Re:tech fright on He Fixed 300,000+ Machines - America's Oldest Typewriter Repairman Dies At 96 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Red or black, depending on where he set the ribbon.

  15. Re:replace Windoze with Linux on Why the NSA Can't Replace 90% of Its System Administrators · · Score: 1

    What?

  16. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US on US Gained a Decade of Flynn-Effect IQ Points After Adding Iodine To Salt · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a gram and a half of sodium. It's 3.8 grams of salt.

  17. Re:helpdesk india or helpdesk must use script fail on Sent To Jail Because of a Software Bug · · Score: 1

    When he was threatened with a lawsuit the problem magically went away. Obviously, he had the power to fix it. If it took threatening him to get him to fix it, then he deserved the threat.

  18. Re:helpdesk india or helpdesk must use script fail on Sent To Jail Because of a Software Bug · · Score: 1

    Australian Ombudsmen kick arse. They have some pretty tough powers over whoever they are monitoring, and they aren't afraid to use it.

  19. Re:Aren't these just workshops? on In Praise of Hackerspaces · · Score: 1

    It wasn't budget cuts that got rid of woodshop and metalwork classes, it was the combination of legal liability and feminism.
    - Little Jimmy cuts his finger on a chisel, mummy and daddy to sue the school.
    - Woodwork and metalwork are mainly of interest to boys and are therefore sexist. They should learn "home economics" instead.

  20. Re:at least they're trying... on Spain's New S-80 Class Submarines Sink, But Won't Float · · Score: 1

    I'm also curious about what it was that made the more comfortable cabins weigh more.

    Waterbeds. Those buggers are heavy.

  21. Re:Start here on White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care · · Score: 1

    That's pretty much what Oz did when we converted. The open road limit was 60 mph, and went to 100 km/h (~ 62 mph). Same with the in-town limit of 35 mph which went to 60 km/h (~37 mph).
    Made it much more acceptable to most drivers.

  22. Re:Movies are real! on House Bill Would Mandate Smart Gun Tech By U.S. Manufacturers · · Score: 1

    It is also perfectly fine for the prevention of "grab the cop's gun and shoot him" scenario. As long as bypassing the mechanism takes more than a few seconds, it would save lives.

  23. Re:Requires more metal on Working Handgun Printed On a Sub-$2,000 3D Printer · · Score: 1

    They will if you turn the sensitivity up to "I need to search the hot chick" levels.

  24. Re:I'm tellin ya... on Larry Page's Vocal Cords Are Partially Paralyzed · · Score: 1

    Some of them will. Not necessarily all. See http://www.fantastic-voyage.net//

  25. Re:Appeal to belief on 97% of Climate Science Papers Agree Global Warming Is Man-made · · Score: 1

    Carbon dioxide does act as a greenhouse gas. However, at some point there is enough to essentially block that radiation window, and from that point extra carbon dioxide has very little direct effect on temperature*.

    *It probably still has indirect effects by by affecting the biosphere.