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User: bruce_the_loon

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  1. Re:Thinner devices? on Apple Proposes Smaller SIM Card Design · · Score: 2

    a) Worldwide, the vast majority of cell users never swap their SIMS so changing a design and implementing a new locking mechanism that won't accidentally eject the SIM when dropped isn't worth the designers' time.

    There is also an element of security in the design. If someone steals my handset, they can't switch to another SIM without going through my PIN to start the phone.

    b) Google dual-SIM phones sometime. There are a number out there for precisely this use. Maybe they're not available in your country, but they do exist. If you are American, you really should think about an armed revolution against your cellular companies.

  2. Re:Can this discussion actually be constructive? on Amazon Removes Yaoi Manga Titles From Kindle Store · · Score: 1

    My Kindle isn't "controlled" by a single content provider.

  3. Re:pure and utter BS on Amazon EC2 Failure Post-Mortem · · Score: 2

    Go and read the entire notice, not just the pathetic snippet a bad submitter used. Makes more sense.

    Also, this is a storage network, not an access network. Effectively it's like pulling the SAS cable out of the RAID card while the machines are running.

  4. Re:Sport...pfft. on Taking the Fun Out of StarCraft II · · Score: 1

    You are so wrong. It's because of the manic button-pressers that game developers routinely nerf the shit out of games and game elements to get "balance"

    Screw balance, I want my massively overpowered and overgunned characters because they are fun to play with.

  5. Re:Nook Color vs. Kindle on Amazon To Let Libraries Lend Kindle Books · · Score: 1

    It's amazing what Calibre does, isn't it.

  6. Re:BRICS unable to change it my ass on Local Currencies To Replace Dollar For 5 Countries' Dealings · · Score: 1

    Wrong Southern African country. You're thinking of Zimbabwe. South Africa isn't Southern Africa.

    We have had land returned to compensate for displaced black populations by the apartheid chaps, but market-related prices were paid for those farms. That is a matter of record.

    Loss of market protectionism by product control boards and farm subsidies has driven farmers to either give up farming, go to foreign countries or take up game farming instead, but those farms changed hands on the market. Same for farmers affected by violence, an all-too-real rising trend in some areas.

    Currently, there is noise being made by some of the young guns in the ruling party's youth league about nationalization and seizing of property, but that has been repeatedly slapped down by the government ministers and would require significant changes to the laws and even our constitution.

  7. Re:As I and many others pointed out yesterday on Amazon's Cloud Player: We Don't Need a License · · Score: 1

    They'll make use of the de-duplicating features of whatever massive SANs they'll be using for this Cloud Drive. It will be completely automatic and Amazon can say "Oh gosh darn, that danged thing did it out the box"

  8. Re:Hope for Smithsonian on Discovery Heads Into Retirement · · Score: 1

    The one at Speyer is the atmospheric test bed, not the orbiter, same as Enterprise was. They have unit OK-GLI which is named "Buran aerodynamic analogue" on Wikipedia.

    http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/spaceshuttle-buran

  9. There will be one unused stack on Discovery Heads Into Retirement · · Score: 1

    Even with the last flight, there is a standby flight waiting if there is on-ascent damage preventing re-entry. That stack will never be used because there is no backup for it will probably sit alongside the segmented Saturn V at Kennedy.

  10. Re:"Illegal" != "not lawful" on Over Half a Decade, China Closed 130,000 Internet Cafes · · Score: 1

    Probably yes and no. Illegal does mean no license, but if the penalty for violating the terms of the license is the automatic revocation of the license, then you become illegal.

  11. Re:How is this possible? on Nuclear Emergency Declared At 2 Plants In Japan · · Score: 1

    I was not saying you ignore the meltdown because of the injuries, I was pointing out that the level of destruction caused is a massive disruption to any disaster plan. Hell, they might have a set of generators ready to airlift to a stricken plant. But if the warehouse is damaged or flooded or the district is on fire, then what? Their DR plan is quite deep, feed from the grid, or from generators if the grid is gone, or from batteries for 8 hours if the generators are down. TEPCO was shipping charged batteries to the plant within a couple of hours of the quake.

    Now to the issues of backup power.

    Firstly, the plant runs off the grid when the grid is operating. The plant feeds the grid in a balanced configuration and they draw off the power to run the plant from the grid, ie from the main turbines on site. A plant doesn't have another link to the grid just to power itself.

    Secondly, the logistics behind adding a small thermal generator to run off waste heat doesn't make sense. Adding it in means extra hot zones or links to hot zones to run it when needed. You don't need it when the grid is live. If the reactor goes offline at the same time as the grid, you'll only get power out of the small generator while there is enough heat left. So you can cool down the reactor from that generator only to a certain point, then you have to switch in a diesel or gas turbine generator to cool it the rest of the way. Now you need extra switchgear and controls to handle that part of it.

    Another reason to use separate technology is if the reason you're shutting the reactor down is because you've blown a steam fitting. Now you've got no way to run the small thermal generator.

    So, since you will have to fall back on the diesel generators to finish the cooling cycle and to restart the plant until there is enough heat to run the thermals, why add the extra complexity to an already complex plant.

  12. Re:How is this possible? on Nuclear Emergency Declared At 2 Plants In Japan · · Score: 1

    Sir, you are an idiot.

    From earthquake epicenter to the plant is 150km. The wave was measured at 800km/h, so the wave would have hit the plant 11 minutes later.

    TEPCO news releases state that the reactors were automatically shutdown at 2h48PM, and the USGS states the quake took place at 2h46PM, so they were shutdown before the tsunami hit. The issue at hand is because of the residual reaction heat that needs to be dissipated by cooling, which was running normally until the tsunami hit a few minutes later.

    As for backup equipment, have you seen the state of the country? The US Airforce assisted within a couple of hours with coolant dropoffs and the Japanese military moved generators in place inside eight hours if the BBC can be trusted.

    Oh, and one more thing, those tour guides at the Texas plant lied to you, or misunderstood the question. ALL power plants have diesel or gas-turbines to provide startup power in case of a grid loss. A plant will draw from the grid if available, but it will have backup generators available for a cold-grid start.

  13. Re:In Zimbabwe anything can get you arrested on Zimbabwe Makes Arrest Over Facebook Comment · · Score: 1

    Actually a Zimbabwe no-fly zone is easy to implement, all you need is a good old chap with a shotgun and some birdshot to take care of their 4 carrier pigeons. Zim needs a no-drive zone, which won't happen for the reasons given both above and below.

  14. Re:IPv6 for older hardware on Most IPv6-certified Home Network Gear Buggy · · Score: 1

    I'm running v6 via Hurricane with the following version ouf of the box. v24-sp1 (07/27/08) std.

  15. Re:That's not how it works on PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning · · Score: 1

    No, you are presumed innocent in the eyes of the court until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Your actual guilt begins the instant the crime is committed.

  16. Re:Roman-Arab numerals mixup on NASA's Ares 1 To Be Reborn As the Liberty Commercial Launcher · · Score: 1

    Salyut means Fireworks/Salute and Soyuz means Union. Both probably have a good reason deep inside the old Soviet mindset.

  17. Re:ISP on If You Think You Can Ignore IPv6, Think Again · · Score: 1

    Port forwarding does what you describe, not NAT. Port forwarding works on all decent firewalls without NAT.

  18. It sucks on Slashdot Launches Re-Design · · Score: 1

    Bring back the original. First Google News, then Youtube and now this S H I T

  19. Re:Iridium on Cell Phone Industry's Six Biggest Failed Schemes · · Score: 1

    Fiber and multi-gigabit microwave point-to-point links

  20. Re:Okay, good... on Google To Push WebM With IE9, Safari Plugins · · Score: 2

    Firefox has h264 added on with the MS WMP plugin, IE and Safari will get WebM via the Google plugin. Only Chrome doesn't have h264.

    Foot, meet gun.

  21. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except they were prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 which was replaced by the Espionage and Sabotage Act of 1954 which permits the death penalty only when a foreign power identified and killed an individual acting as an agent of the US or where the espionage directly concerns nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack; war plans; communications intelligence or cryptographic information; or any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy. http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/37/794

    While the leaked cables and war documents were embarrassing and affected diplomatic efforts, I don't see any direct violations of the requirements for the death penalty. The Rosenbergs did.

  22. Re:Captions on Most Anticipated Tech Products of 2011 · · Score: 1

    They were on the top right side.

  23. Re:Native DD-WRT support? on After IPv4, How Will the Internet Function? · · Score: 1

    All you need is iptables6 support, so what if the device has an address that is valid if nothing can get to or from it?

  24. Re:A linear induction motor is not a railgun. on Navy Uses Railgun To Launch Fighter Jet · · Score: 2

    I meant he missed the point of it. Average acceleration is a average line through the entire acceleration profile and can be simply calculated by the formula as stated by the GGGP.

  25. Re:A linear induction motor is not a railgun. on Navy Uses Railgun To Launch Fighter Jet · · Score: 1

    You've missed the second derived acceleration formula. a = (v^2 - u^2)/2s

    Makes me sad for physics education in schools these days.