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User: freg

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  1. Re:Do not go out for this show in North America on Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning · · Score: 1

    It's important to stress that this is a 33 year cycle meteor shower. I wasn't around for 1966 but the 1998 shower was probably the biggest of meteor shower of my lifetime (since 1980) thus far. As a poster above suggested I just invited a few college friends and went to the remotest part of KY we could get to by a lake, built a fire (let it die down to avoid light pollution) and waited. We counted around 350 meteors that night in a little over 3 hours with 5 or so spectacular fire balls. It's a night none of us will forget any time soon.

  2. Re:A Change is as Good as a Rest on Moving Away From the IT Field? · · Score: 1

    That's quite an inspiring post for me (not that I hadn't thought of doing just that already, it's awesome to hear from those who have done it). As an IT guy who's only been at it for 5 years I'm already starting to see that my previous dream of just finding any local job and keeping it is a little small.. It's a global economy now anyway right? Why shouldn't more of us scrap this American dream thing, travel the world and help out where we're needed. Besides staying here is just padding more wealthy peoples pockets, whether mine or the stockholders, either way it's less beneficial for those who need it most. I'd like to stick with IT, but I'm curious particularly about India, and wondering if any native Westerners have been reassigned there or moved there at will and what your thoughts/experiences concerning your job experience?

  3. Re:Coincidence? on Iran's Nuclear Ambitions · · Score: 1

    What is propaganda-ish about saying they have nuclear ambitions?? Only the most pro-Iran propagandists are saying otherwise. This is certainly not a repeat of Iraq's missing WMD's..

  4. Re:LED diffusion problems on Panasonic's New LED Bulbs Shine For 19 Years · · Score: 1

    I agree, though maybe putting multiple LEDs at different angles inside a white/frosted bulb would solve that.

  5. Re:Efficiency on Nissan Unveils All-Electric LEAF · · Score: 1

    There's no way I can wreck both vehicles at the same time.

    I like your point, but actually you can wreck both vehicles at the same time, if you're a lousy parker.

  6. Re:Energy prices are unstable on Switching To Solar Power, One Year Later · · Score: 1

    This is fairly unscientific, but having owned a general coal index fund for the past year I've seen a direct relationship between the price of oil and coal. When I go to the gas pump if the price of gas is up it tends to mean that my coal investment will be up by the same percentage. Electricity prices will go up when peak oil becomes more obvious. Energy is energy, and we humans are pretty creative at using all our nonrenewable resources. If that means using coal instead of oil to power our cars then it will happen if need be.

  7. perfection on Windows 7 To Be Called ... Windows 7 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seven's the number of perfection. Maybe this time they will get it right!

  8. Re:Ipod Nano 2nd gen support? on After 3 Years, Rockbox 3.0 Released · · Score: 1, Informative

    That's very sad news, I have a 2nd gen and am seriously considering downgrading to a 1st gen just for rockbox...

  9. hilly terrain sucks on Complaints Pour In After Digital TV Test · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My parents house is really not in the country, as its only 10 minutes from a county with 1 million people, but there is a hill just big enough right in front of their house that it completely cuts off all digital broadcast signal from the city. Analog signal, however, survives bouncing around the atmosphere well enough to make it to their house largely intact with just a little ghosting. I imagine this is going to be the case for a lot of people.

  10. video needs a warning label on New 4100 Lumen Flashlight Can Set Things On Fire · · Score: 1

    I dunno about you guys but I think I damaged my eyes just watching the video in the article.

  11. bittorrent on The Afterlife Is Expensive for Digital Movies · · Score: 1

    They should just upload the data to the web and with all the copies made they could easily recreate the original. In other words...we'd be glad to help.

  12. I, for one, on Nano Safety Worries Scientists More Than Public · · Score: 1

    as a member of the public, welcome our new nanobot overlords.

  13. interesting test for science' sake on Bot-avatar Pesters Second Life Users (For Science!) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This begs the question... do Westerners stand further apart than Asians when chatting in a virtual world? I would guess so. For some reason I occasionally find myself backing up my avatar a step or two and facing it towards the avatar I'm talking to, without even thinking about it really.

  14. this reminds me... on Single Nanotube Becomes World's Smallest Radio · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is actually smaller than the iPod Zepto: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2005/11/28fitch.html

  15. Re:No confidence on Al Gore Shares Nobel Peace Prize with UN Panel · · Score: 1

    Agreed, with nuke technology floating around these days I'm more concerned about global incinerating than global warming.

  16. Re:Symptoms of infection include: on Echeria Coli Co-Opted To Make Gasoline · · Score: 2, Funny

    3) Urinating gasoline.

    Doctors advice:

    1. take asprin

    2. don't drive

    3. avoid the electric fence

  17. fireproof safe on Intern Loses 800,000 Social Security Numbers · · Score: 1

    I'm going to take this opportunity to make my point once more that a fireproof safe (most all good safes are fireproof aren't they?) is quite often better than off-site storage. Especially if it's built into the floor or wall, tho thats not always possible.

    1. encrypting isn't necessary with on-site storage, thus lowering backup resources, increasing recovery speed.
    2. off-site storage is to protect from natural disasters and theft, both of which a reasonably sturdy lock-box is good for.
    3. theft and damage is more likely with off-site backups, even if my data is encrypted I'd rather not hand over my nice big drives. plus the idea of tape drives sitting in the back of a 150 degree car window isn't ideal...
    4. on-site means you can get to your backups when u need to, instead of when the intern decides to come in.

    feel free to nitpick my points

  18. mice bred with autism? on Autism Reversed in Mice at MIT Lab · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm curious, how do u get a bunch of mice who are autistic to test? Do they make them this way through breeding or do they check thousands of mice brains to find the one poor mouse with autism? As far as I know there's no way to give something autism.

  19. robotic chair? Lord help us! on Google, Intel, Microsoft Fund Robot Recipes · · Score: 1
    I've always been reluctantly excited about new robotic technology, even if it does mean we end up with some crazed robot bee with laser beams on their heads.

    But a robotic chair? Can we not even sit down without the help of a technology? I guess the point is that they roll back to a corner out of the way for the cleaning maids after hours... but what about when a meeting goes overtime and while everyone's sitting down suddenly we all start shifting towards the wall? Even if there's safeguards for this, there's sure to be some failures... Someone save the office space from the coming invasion!

  20. good step on Second Life To Open Source Server Code · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This sounds like another key step to making the web how some had originally envisioned it. Back in the day when VRML was born there was the idea of creating virtual worlds where we walk to a clothing store like we would in 'first life', of course the technology wasn't quite there yet... Now with Second Life we're a hair closer but as long as proprietaryness is in the way that's just one more silly road block. Personally I want a Google Earth version of second life so I can travel the world and see a decent recreation of it made with actual photos and 3d satellite imagery, I also want to recreate my college campus and attend class virtually...

  21. buggy coke machines on What is the Best Bug-as-a-Feature? · · Score: 1

    Coke machines that unload their entire change drawer when you hit the change button. How can you beat that? Maybe when an ATM malfunctions :)

  22. thats just business! on Circuit City and the American Dream · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Am I the only person who thinks this action isn't all that horrendous? The executives that make these hard decisions are accountable to their stockholders. If the executives don't make hard decisions to turn problems around fast, they get canned themselves. If stockholders don't get results, they lose money, but that's there right, because they're in control, they put up the money and took the risk to begin with.

    If you don't own your own business you are at the mercy of your employer.

    I'm a freelance programmer but also work a 40 hour job that could easily kick me out on the street with little or no reasoning (tho I do trust they won't because of their friendly track record). I might would disagree with their decision to can me, but I wouldn't even go as far as to think it immoral or unkind, unless it really were.. ie. based on race or age. I don't think this case with CC is either one of these. That said, I would like to see Circuit City get a brain and try to revamp their sales approach and store layouts so they could actually compete with best buy. Bad PR decisions like this don't always sort out the underlying issues and can make turning around even harder in the long run.

  23. i agree, but only to a certain point on Slobs Found To Be More Productive Than Neatniks · · Score: 1

    As in everything balance is key. You don't want to end up like these guys

  24. zune brown? on iPhone, Apple TV Headline MacWorld Keynote · · Score: 2, Funny

    was that a Zune-brown turtleneck Steve was wearing?

  25. please no on The Debate Over Advertising on Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    It's an open encyclopedia, not a commercial magazine. Ads will be sorely out of place. The fund drive going on now is proof that support can be raised to continue operations and maybe do even more without the use of ads. Please don't let this final unadulterated piece of web real estate be sacrificed to over-capitalism.