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  1. Apparently Samsung had the lander COMMS contract on Schiaparelli Mars Lander May Have Exploded On Impact, European Agency Says (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    !

  2. Re:Missing Scale Factor? on Universe Is Expanding Faster Than We Thought (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Hope that helps!

    A great deal actually. Thanks! I always get tripped-up trying to think about the expansion of the Universe. I imagine it's not really as hard as I manage to make it. *sigh*

  3. Missing Scale Factor? on Universe Is Expanding Faster Than We Thought (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Well, 45.5 miles/s/Mpc means that at a distance of ~4.1 Gpc the expansion speed exceeds c (~186000 miles/s). But the observable Universe has a diameter of ~28 Gpc. What am I missing here?

  4. Re:Gov. Purchasing is the Real Problem on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 1

    More detail on local forms so you don't think I'm making them up. One is the local version of the purchase card request form (since I am not personally a card holder). The other is the description of the item, why it's needed, and why it's only available from a particular source. That last part (sole source) is optional for something like a cable that is available from multiple sources.

  5. Re:Gov. Purchasing is the Real Problem on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 1

    Well, I'm glad things are that easy in your world, I really am. Let me show you a bit more about mine. Checkout:

    http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents/NAVADMINS/NAV2011/NAV11346.txt

    See the etc. in item 3(E), that's where my cable falls.

    See the ITPR in section 4. That stands for Information Technology Procurement Request. That's the 14 page document I mentioned. The other 2 are local to my command. If some reforms would get us closer to what you describe I'd be much happier.

  6. Gov. Purchasing is the Real Problem on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a federal worker I can tell you that trying to buy something for government use is an extremely byzantine process. An example, if I need to buy a monitor cable, I have to fill out 3 forms (one of them is 14 pages), get four _independent_ approvals, quotes (yes... quotes for a monitor cable), and then follow the documents to make sure nothing gets messed-up along the way. I have to do this for _any_ piece of equipment that is in any way related to information technology. I don't want to describe the process for anything requiring a contract and I can't imagine the amount of work that went into writing the requirements document for a project involving 55 (55!) contracting agencies. The REAL PROBLEM here is the desperate need for contract and purchasing reform in the federal government.

  7. wait for it... on Gabe Newell Talks Linux As the Future of Games at LinuxCon NA · · Score: 1

    Newell said "... 2 to 3 ..." therefore Half-life 3 confirmed!

  8. Wrong metrics? on Study Shows Professors With Tenure Are Worse Teachers · · Score: 1

    Consider a different explanation of the results. Adjuncts are contracted and likely need good student opinion forms to be re-contracted. That's a big incentive to make a class easy (hence the good grades) and fun (hence the desire for other classes from the same prof.), but not necessarily rigorous and worthwhile. It's really easy to make a class fun and simple and a total waste of time. Much more difficult (but not impossible) to make a class fun, worthwhile, and still simple. I'm speaking from experience as a prior adjunct and now a tenured professor.

  9. Helluva Microscope on Computer-Designed Proteins Recognize and Bind Small Molecules · · Score: 1

    I want a microscope like the one in the picture in the article that researcher is using to "... examine in the lab the molecule they designed ..."! He's not even using the highest power objective!

  10. Re:The return the Confederacy? on Secession Petitions Flood White House Website · · Score: 1

    What you really want are the cartogram maps (area proportional to population rather than geographical size). Have a look at:

    http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/

    especially the last 4 on the page.

  11. Uni-Ball Signo Ultra Micro 207 on Ask Slashdot: The Search For the Ultimate Engineer's Pen · · Score: 1

    Retractable with the smallest tip I've found that isn't felt. I've tried many different pens in 16 years of doing physics and this one beat them all so far.

  12. a national OS called... on In Censorship Move, Iran Plans Its Own Internet · · Score: 2

    MohammeDOS?

  13. Brain and brain! What is brain?! on Researchers Grow a Brain In a Dish · · Score: 1

    It is controller, is it not?

  14. For the record... on Microsoft Is a Dying Consumer Brand · · Score: 1

    it should be the "i-don't-want-to-go- _on_ -the cart" dept.

  15. It's inspector Kemp... on Super Principia Mathematica · · Score: 1

    following in his grandfathers vootshteps, vootshteps, vootshteps!

  16. If you're serious about it... on Best Way To Publish an "Indie" Research Paper? · · Score: 2, Informative

    you might want to start with a guide like "How to Write & Publish A Scientific Paper" by Robert Day (ISBN-13: 978-1573561655).

    Then search for the appropriate journal. One suggestion is: GPS Solutions (published by Springer),

    http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/geophysics/journal/10291

    Manuscript submission instructions and forms at: http://www.springer.com/journal/10291/submission

    Hope it works out for you!

  17. "Belief" is irrelevent here on The Science Credibility Bubble · · Score: 1

    The whole point of science is that no belief is required. Science is a method, a process by which we hope to learn something about reality. Nobody has to resort to believing anything, just look at the data. People can and will sometimes disagree about the correct interpretation of the data, but that's very different from "believing". As stated several times above by others, the real problem here is people who know little about the scientific process being very loud about their uninformed opinions.

  18. Details, details on US Fed Gov. Says All Music Downloads Are Theft · · Score: 1

    Just pointing out that the text (and voice-over) states that downloading files without payment is stealing, not just any download. It's mainly trying to make the point that P2P can be a security risk. I understand it's more fun to criticize everything the government does, but if you ran a company with nearly 3 million employees wouldn't you want to provide some guidance as to when their activities put them in legal jeopardy or compromise the network? No? Okay, how about if your company controls nuclear weapons?

  19. Re:Entitlement Mentality, again on A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial · · Score: 1

    what gives you the right to something I create?

    You have a legal right, but that is about it. You sound like the slave owner who asks "What gives you the right to force me to release my slaves?" and thinks he has the best argument in the world.

    Your comparison is severely flawed and even offensive, perhaps intentionally. Anything I create is a product of my mind, a slave is not something I created nor something I have any right to "own". You cannot own another person. Someone could reasonably bring up a discussion of artificial intelligence here but I'll digress on that.

    Another simple question, what incentive remains for me to create anything

    If you can't make money on it, stop creating and go do something else.

    That is exactly the point. If others are allowed to immediately steal anything I (or anyone else) produce how will any money be made?

      The benefits to society for not having copyright/patent laws is huge.

    * Workers move to sectors where their work is valued enough that they get paid without having to rely on monopoly protections.
    * People can build on previous knowledge without getting sued.
    * Everyone in society can access all knowledge that has ever been produced at little to no cost.

    Sure, the production in some areas may go down and some types of production may even die, but that isn't a bad thing. If supply decreases because content producers move to other sectors, demand for new works will go up and people will find new ways to make it work. It just won't be ways that rely on restricting the copying of zeros and ones.

    The "society" you describe provides no incentive for someone to spend a large part of their life working to develop something new. Why bother? Someone else will do it and then you can claim it as yours after the work is done, right? The problem is not "copying ones and zeros" as you say. The creativity, the thought, the hard work comes in knowing in what order the ones and zeros must be placed! I'm happy to pay for someone to do that and would never expect someone to do it for free. They may choose to do so, but it must be their choice.

  20. Re:Entitlement Mentality, again on A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial · · Score: 1

    These really are simple questions.

    ---A simple question, what gives you the right to something I create?

    The Constitution gives that right.

    Not until the copyright protection prescribed by law expires. You and I may have some agreement about shortening that length of time, but the idea that you or anyone else has an inherent "right" to something I've created is simply false. As proof I offer the following. I have in mind a creative work, let's say a poem, but I've not written it down. There are only three ways you can get it from me, you can buy it, I could tell it to you free of charge, or you could threaten to kill me if I don't give it to you (i.e. steal it by force). Which one of these is not protected by the Constitution?

    ---Another simple question, what incentive remains for me to create anything if you will only steal it and say you had a "right" to it from the beginning?

    Money is rather a bad incentive. In terms of psychological incentives, wanting to create for creating sake is much higher. And hence, the art forms that would rarely ever sell, but are created nonetheless. However, by cutting off money also cuts off the 99% of the works that rely on selling to the lowest common denominator.

    And no, the second question is not a simple one. We're talking about money vs. a persons want to create.

    That's great, but it's hard to eat on pursuing higher incentives. I also think you view of money as an incentive is very cynical. What else can you offer an artist who has created something you really want? Wouldn't you be willing to offer even more money for something you like better? This line of thought does not remove or diminish an artist's desire to create something great. On the contrary, it rewards it!

    And as a question to you: Why should we allow artists who hold copyrights able to sell them off? Shouldn't artists be afforded all the fruits of their labor?

    It is the artist who holds the right to the work. If I correctly understand your question, I would say it is buy selling their work that an artist enjoys the fruits thereof. The person or people that buy the work enjoy it as well and everyone benefits. If the artist would prefer to give it away that is also their perogative. But ask yourself, if you remove money as an incentive what is left? Would you spend your life making things, useful things, beautiful things, only to have them taken from you by someone claiming "rights" to them? Someone unwilling or unable to create those things on their own?

  21. Re:Entitlement Mentality, again on A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial · · Score: 1

    Copyright encourages development by protecting a creative work from theft. The benefit to society comes in having wonderfully creative works that you can buy.

    Man, you really don't understand how copyright works in the US. In exchange for creating a work, you are provided a time-limited monopoly on that work. At the end of the time period, the work falls into the public domain. The benefit to society is that works are created and become public-use after the creator has had a chance to reap some benefit.

    Under copyright, you are not obligated to distribute or license said work (there are some minor exceptions regarding compulsory licensing for music, etc.) You may camp on it to your heart's content. However, at the end of the copyright term, you can't use force-of-law to prohibit others' use of the work. The benefit to society has nothing to do with "consumerism."

    You did not answer either of my questions. I'll ask a different one, but the other two remain open. Where is the "benefit to society" when those who create choose to stop being creative because it is no longer profitable and protected from theft?

  22. Re:Entitlement Mentality, again on A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial · · Score: 1

    If this sounds extreme, consider the opposite side. A musician/artist/whoever has a backed-by-force-of-law monopoly on some work he did.

    Absolutely! After all he/she created it!

    Copyright is intended to benefit society by encouraging development of creative works (says so in the US Constitution, I can't say about it elsewhere.)

    Copyright encourages development by protecting a creative work from theft. The benefit to society comes in having wonderfully creative works that you can buy.

    So at some point, society is supposed to benefit. Exactly when does that happen if the originator of the work can camp on it for his entire lifetime plus 75 years?

    It happens 75 years after the artist dies, as you said. Until then the work is not yours unless you pay for it! Perhaps 75 years is too long and should be shortened by law. But the law exists to protect the artist's rights to their creation, not some imagined "right" of society to their work.

    You and I have been swindled out of our part of the bargain - the work is supposed to drop into the community for use by others. Extension of copyright has stolen that from us, and yes, you have been deprived of access to something, so "stealing" is appropriately used.

    A simple question, what gives you the right to something I create? Another simple question, what incentive remains for me to create anything if you will only steal it and say you had a "right" to it from the beginning?

  23. Relax on Black Holes From the LHC Could Last For Minutes · · Score: 2, Informative

    maximum LHC center-of-mass energy (in a Pb-Pb collision): ~1.14e15 eV

    cosmic ray flux at Earth's upper atmosphere: ~1 per km^2 per year with energy > 10^19 eV

    Collisions 10,000 times more energetic occur multiple times every day over your head, and you're still here. Except now, we can finally reproduce them for study in the lab.

  24. Re:Somebody needs to remake... on Resurrecting Old Games, What Works? · · Score: 1

    So many of the Microprose classics could; SotS is certainly one (though some might argue that Shogun: Total War came close, to the second half at least.)

    Agreed, except that it was missing the personal aspect of wandering around the countryside resolving encounters and political rivalries on an individual basis. You really risked your game if had no heirs. *sigh*

    The remakes of Railroad Tycoon and Pirates! were excellent. Civilization is still going strong.

    In addition to Sword of the Samurai, I'd like to see Covert Action redone; I quite enjoyed it.

    Absolutely! The mini-game idea that the above games used so well seems to be returning. One can only hope the quality will be maintained.

  25. Somebody needs to remake... on Resurrecting Old Games, What Works? · · Score: 1

    Sword of the Samurai (Microprose). Imagine what could be done with it now. Anyone else remember this one?