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User: TheGavster

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Comments · 1,189

  1. Re: they will defeat themselves on ISIS Bans Math and Social Studies For Children · · Score: 5, Funny

    The goat herder shall receive payment for his goats as Allah decrees.

  2. Re:Car Dealers should ask why they're being bypass on Court: Car Dealers Can't Stop Tesla From Selling In Massachusetts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tesla points out that new car companies in the US tend to fail and they blame the dealership system for this because they say they're invested in existing auto companies and brands.

    I blame the dealerships too. The last time I went shopping for a car, I told the salesman I was looking to replace my Chevy Malibu, and wanted something small to midize that was good in the snow. Despite the bevy of options on the lot, he walked me over to a Challenger SRT ... a rear-wheel drive boat that most likely isn't even particularly good in the rain. Looking around, though, the dealer had invested in a lot of special edition models of sports cars (2 Mustang Roushes, a GT500, the Challenger, etc) and that was what he needed to sell that day. If I was the guy making midsize sedans, I wouldn't want that guy involved in selling my cars either.

  3. Re: Pet Peeve on Restoring Salmon To Their Original Habitat -- With a Cannon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Casualties from modern, western nuclear designs are easy: zero. You get more exposure from a banana than standing next to TMI during the event. And yes, the nimby folks are the source of most of the problems. We wouldn't have plants decades past their intended life using obsolete designs, and we'd be storing nuclear waste in geologically sound facilities rather than temporary storage pools.

    As for scalability, you can add a reactor to a nuclear site much more easily than you can add a dam to a hydro site.

  4. Re: "Time" won Best Graphic Story? on The 2014 Hugo Awards · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's actually several thousand frames that play out a sequence of events. It was notable both because of the unique presentation (most frames, particularly the early ones, change only subtly) and because of the details that go into establishing the otherwise unexplained setting.

  5. Re: This is ridiculous. on Researchers Find Security Flaws In Backscatter X-ray Scanners · · Score: 1

    What activity would the TSA need to install body scanners at to cross the line for you? The train? Subway? City bus? Terrorists have blown up far more cafes than airplanes, so logically you should need to be scanned to buy coffee. And it wouldn't be an imposition, since you're there voluntarily!

  6. Re:all of them then? on Gmail Now Rejects Emails With Misleading Combinations of Unicode Characters · · Score: 2

    The "restrictive profile" that Google is using for the filtering is defined in Unicode as any combination of the Latin character set with another set or sets, with the exception of very specific combinations (selected legitimate combinations of Asian sets that contain radically different letter forms and thus are unlikely to cause confusion).

  7. Re:Why is this news? Seriously? on Google Sells Maine Barge For Scrap · · Score: 1

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been like "oh, you mean the datacenters on barges for the cooling water, from several years ago?" whenever someone brings up these "super secret" Google containers!

  8. Re:i blame my kids on 35% of American Adults Have Debt 'In Collections' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Children are simultaneously the most expensive and least liquid luxury you can get. If it's hard to make ends meet, maybe you should have gotten something more sensible and resalable, like a boat.

  9. Re:Hipsterism at its finest (worst?) on Greenpeace: Amazon Fire Burns More Coal and Gas Than It Should · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You fail to account for how slow SD cards are so that they need to be powered longer to extract data off them.

    Every so often, this argument is brought up. What universe do you live in where the wireless interface is faster than the local storage? MicroSDHC cards read at 832Mb/s (104MB/s = 832Mb/s). 4G LTE tops out at 300Mb/s (wiki). And that's optimal speed, not accounting for latency. On my personal mobile device, playing a 5 minute song from Amazon's cloud service takes 1-2 minutes to buffer and then keeps the radio going the rest of the 5 minute song. From local storage, that song would load into working memory in less than a second.

    Regardless of the net energy usage, the propagation of cloud services for things that could very easily be handled locally is completely insane.

  10. Re:McCarthyism v2.0 on The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist · · Score: 2

    We have always been at war with Eastasia!

  11. Re: Translation (Rough) on Geographic Segregation By Education · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs didn't run around with a resume because he went and started his own business. At the time, his talents were with something new, and wouldn't have been recognized by established companies anyway. If you think that your skills are something special, you serve yourself better by going and using them in an original way as an entrepreneur rather than trying to fit in the box of some established job. Of course, it is much easier to have someone else start a business and provide work for you to do, but then we;d have to acknowledge that the guy at the top is doing something special deserving of his wealth-gap-inducing income.

  12. Re:Perfectly appropriate action for the FAA to tak on FAA Pressures Coldwell, Other Realtors To Stop Using Drone Footage · · Score: 1

    I think that it's hard to draw a logical link between someone buying a quadcopter and Wal-Mart and doing something irresponsible with it because they aren't a dedicated member of the RC community, and a commercial entity using a RC planes/helicopters in the course of their enterprise.

    In the former case, it seems that the issue is that technological advance has removed the barriers to entry that have historically regulated access to these machines to those who have a responsible and dedicated interest in the field. Perhaps regulations are needed as to the capabilities and safety features of "cheap" RC craft, similar to how there are limits on the model rocket parts you can buy at the big-box.

    In the later case, for-profit companies use all manner of potentially dangerous equipment, often in places where it might come in contact with the public. Imagine if the DOT prohibited taking a vehicle on the Interstate for a commercial purpose; it would be absurd. Instead, you can drive the company pickup just the same as if you were driving your own. Then, for larger vehicles or those being used in a non-standard manner, there is a system of commercial driving licenses and insurances.

  13. Re:Not a rule - Not just the FAA on FAA Pressures Coldwell, Other Realtors To Stop Using Drone Footage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem with the approach the FAA has been taking on this issue is that the deciding factor is whether money changes hands. If an activity is safe for a hobbyist to perform, why is it suddenly dangerous and in need of regulation when a professional does it? If anything, commercially operated remote controlled planes/helicopters would be safer in a given situation, as the parent company is going to have real liability insurance, and the insurer is going to have all sorts of maintenance and training requirements.

  14. Re:Not about jealousy, but ... on Dubai's Climate-Controlled Dome City Is a Dystopia Waiting To Happen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The extra ironic part is that by selling you the gasoline to burn, they contribute to the slow heating and eventual flooding of a city that is basically on an island at sea level ...

  15. Re: Hmm on Site of 1976 "Atomic Man" Accident To Be Cleaned · · Score: 1

    In the short term, that analysis may be correct, however for work that is both skilled and dangerous you need to factor in how difficult it will be to find a replacement technician after it becomes known that you let the last one perish. There is additionally the external cost of reduced effectiveness from the management team who would need to work through the emotional impact of watching someone die when they could have helped. Economics can model much more than the actual dollars ;)

  16. Re:Do people even know the ban has been lifted? on FAA's Ruling On Smartphones During Takeoff Has Had Little Impact · · Score: 1

    This is actually the first real word I'd seen on it. I flew back in May and remember not hearing a notice when we crossed 10k feet that we could use devices, but just figured that I'd missed it. The cool part to watch out the windows is under 10k anyway :P

  17. Re:Gilbert U238 atomic energy lab was a "kids toy" on That Toy Is Now a Drone · · Score: 2

    The largest hazard with that set seems to be swallowing the parts, in that in addition to potentially choking on small parts, some would sicken or kill you if you managed to choke them down. For mature children though, looks like a cool toy to use under supervision (for educational guidance in addition to safety).

    The real problem with that thing seems to be that it was quite expensive, and even more expensive to produce (the company lost money on every unit).

  18. Re:Sudden outbreak of common sense on Federal Judge Rules US No-fly List Violates Constitution · · Score: 3, Informative

    Entries in the no-fly list are sufficiently bare of details that by the law of large numbers, most of the entries probably apply to a US citizen somewhere, even if the entry was added for a specific non-citizen. Hence why there are periodic stories of family vacations stopped by the US Government accusing 3 year olds of terrorist sympathies and soldiers recently returned from duty of being the enemy they were just engaged with.

  19. Re:Here's the Solution on Federal Judge Rules US No-fly List Violates Constitution · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The trick here is that he was powerful enough to get them to look it up and find out it was a mismatch. You or I (presuming you're not a Senator posting under a pseudonym?) wouldn't get that luxury.

  20. Re:Magazines still exist? on After 47 Years, Computerworld Ceases Print Publication · · Score: 1

    This. Particularly since many print magazines don't print the numbers on a surprising number of pages (ads, the first page or spread of an article, on infographics ...) so there isn't even an easy way to seek to the continuation.

    The web has invented its version as well, though, with what would be a six-inch newspaper article spread across 3 pages. "one page view" is now a subscriber-only feature :/

  21. Re:Seriously? on US Secret Service Wants To Identify Snark · · Score: 1

    That's easy: If it's an anonymous threat, it's not serious. Much like: "There was a bomb threat today? Statistically, we're safer today than yesterday!"

  22. Re:Thermodynamically Impossible on Solar Roadways Project Beats $1M Goal, Should Enter Production · · Score: 1

    Solar powered melting devices have two advantages over blacktop from a thermodynamic perspective:
    - Blacktop conducts part of the collected heat into the ground, whereas solar collection could hypothetically collect the energy before it gets to the ground, leaving more available to radiate back upward.
    - When it isn't snowing, blacktop still radiates into the air above it. These devices could store energy to be released only when it's actually snowing.

    That said, implementing these devices as anything other than a billionaire's ruinously expensive driveway seems impractical. The actual devices would be absurdly expensive to produce in that quantity with the amount of semiconductor fabrication and precision assembly. Ignoring materials, installation would cost much more than a normal highway, since this essentially combines the labor-intensiveness of a cobblestone road with the specialized labor requirements of a hardwood floor. Lastly, that energy storage mechanism that makes it remotely feasible would be similar to replacing the fuel tanks at every gas station with the batteries of a Tesla charging station.

  23. Re:Their business model sucked on How the USPS Killed Digital Mail · · Score: 2

    You can specify senders whose mail is to not be opened. Basically, it's $5 a month to have someone throw your junk mail away for you.

  24. Re:Makes no sense on DOJ Complains About Getting a Warrant To Search Mobile Phones · · Score: 1

    The moment an officer realizes there's evidence in a home is often the exact same moment the perp realizes they need to get rid of said evidence. If the officer has to go get a warrant, that gives the suspect plenty of time to destroy the evidence.

    Yeah, phone is really the only noun that fits in that hypothesis, so their point for a special case is totally justified

  25. Re:Boo Fucking Hoo on DOJ Complains About Getting a Warrant To Search Mobile Phones · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The police are allowed to search your phone, your papers, your home, anything, once they go to a judge, present their case, and receive authorization. The person whose property is being searched has no voice in this case, and in fact isn't even necessarily aware it is being made until they are presented with the warrant. It's literally the most trivial of checks and balances, provided you actually do have a need to search that single individual's property. The goal of these warrantless search rules is to allow dragnet searches of EVERYONE's property.

    Think of a warrant as similar to those "hash cash" anti-spam concepts: It's really easy to do if you have a single email that you want to send, but if you're looking to send 100k indiscriminate spam messages, it's going to slow you down.