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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:Argenties are bad pilots? on India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months · · Score: 4, Informative

    The British shortened the runway with a Vulcan bomber sent from the UK. I doubt that the runway could have been kept operational for any length of time.

  2. Re:Good for US overall on India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months · · Score: 1

    I doubt the US Government considers India secure enough to have access to export controlled US technology.

  3. Re:Interesting stuff on India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just like the Harrier. Against the Argentinians the British pilots would effectively slam on the brakes and attack the other aircraft from behind.

  4. Re:No thanks. on India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months · · Score: 1

    A flat spin killed Goose.

    Compressor turbine stall killed Goose. I wonder how the designers keep the airflow into their turbines clean enough to avoid that problem?

  5. Re:Threatening plurality? on James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News" · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure nobody in the US or continental Europe gives a crap about cricket.

    Not true. The USA has a lot of immigrants from the Caribbean region now and is likely to become a cricket power in the future.

  6. Re:Hold up what if on Oracle To Sell Sun's Hardware Business To HP? · · Score: 1

    Maybe HP can develop the OpenStep API and GUI into something better for SunOS and Solaris as well as OpenSolaris. HP might want to use all OpenStep IP to make a Mac OSX type server OS that is easier to use and configure to help it compete with Apple's XServers.

    I don't like using CDE either, but installing Gnome would seem the easier way to accomplish this.

  7. Re:That might not be safe enough on FBI Investigating Mystery Laptops Sent To US Governors · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But delivering them this way is attracting too much attention. Better to deliver the machines to their normal IT supplier, perhaps by getting one of your people on the payroll.

  8. OLPG on FBI Investigating Mystery Laptops Sent To US Governors · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its obviously the one laptop per Governor project.

  9. Re:A Waste? on China Admits Use of Death-Row Organs · · Score: 1

    China and other totalitarian dictatorships haven't exactly been restrained in their executions regardless of the profit motive.

    China is actually a lot more restrained than Iran.

  10. Re:Two words.. on ACLU Sues For Records On Border Laptop Searches · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never, ever carry porn over a border. Anywhere.

  11. Re:Shoot down at 10,000 feet is easy on High-Tech Blimps Earning Their Wings · · Score: 1

    So....you're saying that the aircraft is going to be vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles. Stop the presses.

    Really. If the blimp can be built cheaper than an airplane/UAV, and cover loads more area, then it getting shot down would be unpleasant, but a loss less expensive than losing a plane, its fuel, its weapon payload, its pilot, and so on.

    And if the blimp is cheaper than the anti aircraft missiles you might have a net benefit right there.

  12. Re:Silly NASA on NASA Explores the Moon's Water/Oxygen Deposits · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You know I reckon that pipeline would make a great transportation system. BYO scuba gear.

  13. Re:Wrong agency; should have claimed NSA on Man Claims to be In the CIA to Get Out Of Speeding Ticket · · Score: 1

    the golden passport to ticket exemption is the military ID. I've seen it used many times. According to rumors, this works better for enlisted personnel than for officers. I know a guy who was a sergeant in the army. He was often pulled over, but NEVER ticketed.

    Nah, membership of a masonic lodge. My in-laws are all masons in a large-ish Queensland country town, and the discreet square-and-compass (I call it "hammer and sickle" to bug them...) stickers on the cars have helped get them out of speeding fines and parking tickets. Not always, but enough to let you know that's the way things are.

    So whats the real emergency number, 001?

  14. Re:he the the? on South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit · · Score: 1

    Looks more like a cut and paste error to me.

  15. Re:open source... Likely defence on Goldman Sachs Code Theft Not Quite So Cut and Dried · · Score: 1

    Using the old one to make money while you make the new one is not new in the software world.

    Yes I agree but its a pretty good way to avoid getting sued for stealing the source.

  16. Re:Hm... on Air Force & NASA Fire Off Green Rocket · · Score: 2, Funny

    It would be easier if water could be found on the moon.

  17. Re:open source... Likely defence on Goldman Sachs Code Theft Not Quite So Cut and Dried · · Score: 1

    If he wanted the code why didn't he just rewrite it? Most of us would be glad to ditch the crap implementations we work on and write a new one from scratch.

  18. Re:Strange Leap on Fully Functional Bioengineered Tooth Grown In a Mouse · · Score: 1

    The problem with growing organs is that in order to get cells to multiply you have to disable certain genes in those cells, or at least reset their counters. Which genes ? Well those that guard against cancer ...

    OTH cancer can often be treated with surgery to the point where the body can't do without the lost tissue. If the tissue can be regrown the surgery may not be such a bad idea. Maybe we have to prune our bodies like trees.

  19. Re:global warming heretic on Sunspots May Be Different During This Solar Minimum · · Score: 1

    If they had claimed it was the position on Saturn an Jupiter in the sky I might have said they have a point. But they go on about orbital inclination and eccentricity which I doubt could influence sun spots. I think this is correlation by spreadsheet. Not real.

  20. Re:MUCH MORE IS COMING on Developing World's Parasites, Diseases Enter US · · Score: 1

    Yes but how open are the legal channels, as compared to the illegal ones? The porous north and south borders are obviously a problem here.

  21. Re:Colours on BrainPort Lets the Blind "See" With Their Tongues · · Score: 1

    So what does blue taste like?

    You need to crack an AI to find out.

  22. Re:MUCH MORE IS COMING on Developing World's Parasites, Diseases Enter US · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it was easier to enter the country legally fewer people would do it illegally. Then it might be easier to apply health checks on the way in.

  23. Re:Dividers yes, obstacles no on Obstacles Near Emergency Exits Speed Evacuation · · Score: 1

    I don't go to events with large groups of people.

    The only time I really got scared was on new years eve one year here in Melbourne. I was on a big road bridge which literally filled up with people. I couldn't move a limb. A panic in that situation would be deadly.

    The last time we had a fire drill at work our group got forgotten and "died". Thats okay because if we have a real fire nobody is going to wait to be told to go.

  24. Re:What do you mean? on Criminals Prefer Firefox, Opera Web Browsers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it the mouse-clicking or the keyboard-typing that requires more technical capability while using Firefox or Opera rather than IE?

    Knowing about them.

  25. Re:Success! on Initial Tests Fail To Find Gravitational Waves · · Score: 1

    Hmmm. Maybe the ether soaks up energy from gravitational waves.