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User: troylanes

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Comments · 33

  1. Re:Does it work better than a tree? on New Solar Cells Can Convert CO2 Into Hydrocarbon Fuel (nextbigfuture.com) · · Score: 5, Informative
  2. Tetris in HP Oscilloscope on Slashdot Asks: What's Your Favorite Easter Egg? (slashdot.org) · · Score: 2

    I recently picked up a used HP 54600B oscilloscope and whilst searching for the manual came across a "three finger salute" that launches a fully playable version of tetris [ http://www.eeggs.com/items/392... ]. I wonder how many hardware engineering hours were spent "debugging" hardware during the 90's with one of these. I also wonder how this slipped through code reviews.

  3. Re:My $.02 on DHI Group Inc. Announces Plans to Sell Slashdot Media · · Score: 1

    I wish I had mod points for parent. A community owned slashdot would be ideal. Slashdot has been far too valuable of a resource for me personally and professionally to be at the mercy of evil corporate overlords with an agenda to sell its users as advertisement fodder.

  4. CDs that come with Text Books & youtube on Ask Slashdot. Best Online Science Course? · · Score: 1

    Get on craigslist/ebay and find some used text books that come with CDs. They typically have wonderful animations and interactive diagrams that helped me immensely in my Bio/Biochem undergrad. Also, do a cursory search on youtube. My wife recently completed some basic chemistry courses and showed me some of the stuff that was on youtube -- amazing it was.

  5. 60 Hz Flicker? on Philips Releases 100W-Equivalent LED Bulb, Runs On Just 23 Watts · · Score: 2

    I recently put some rather expensive LED bulbs in my fridge (long story...) Anyhow, reaching in and pulling anything out freaks me out due to the flicker... it's like a strobe light or an old CRT... Is there a DC converter or are they still hitting the LEDs with raw AC?

  6. Datasheets on Ask Slashdot: Sources For Firmware and Hardware Books? · · Score: 2

    Quite often the best references are datasheets for microcontrollers. This is where I have gained the bulk of my knowledge.

  7. Back to the Garage on Dysfunction In Modern Science? · · Score: 1

    I'd love to see more real science and research done in the garage/basement rather than in environments which are prone to the "publish or perish" disease. Are there still basic concepts of the universe to be discovered that don't require a particle accelerator or electron microscope? I'd be willing to be there are. It also seems that current academia is so focused on such tiny details of a particular phenomenon that they can't see the forest through the trees...

  8. Ethanol on Graphene Membranes Superpermeable to Water · · Score: 1

    Super still anybody :) ? I can see it now: BATF busts graphene lab in remote Kentucky hills. Moonshine operation shutdown.

  9. Please don't send him to university on How Do You Educate a Prodigy? · · Score: 1

    First off, do what will make him a well rounded, happy human being. Doing so includes being socialized -- even if the best way is to make him deal with the drudgery and tedium that is the American public school system. Second, please don't send him to _any_ university. I'm afraid that if he follows and focuses too much on contemporary science he'll get lost in the trees and won't be able to see the forest. Newton and Einstein followed some precedent but managed to forge forward with brand new, world-changing science. This is what the world needs. Try to find an environment that will stimulate his curiosity about the universe -- let him find his own way. A university will most likely force him down a certain path into areas that have already well been charted. Just my 2c.... Hope all ends up well. Make sure the kid is happy. Don't put too much pressure on him. Remember to have fun.

  10. Re:Drizzle? on Drizzle Hits General Availability · · Score: 1

    For shizzle.

  11. Heat Issues on DreamPlug ARM Box Brings Power To Plug Computing · · Score: 2

    I hope they've resolved the heat issues. I had a SheevaPlug that I used as a space heater for about 8 months until it finally burned itself out. Other than that, it was a great little box.

  12. Communism vs. Terrorism on Google Books Makes a Word Cloud of Human History · · Score: 1
  13. Can't make a call from inside on SatPhones — Why Can't They Make It Work? · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've worked in the industry for the past 7 years or so -- most of the support calls that came in were related to the fact that the phone would not work indoors or in a car. People were really confused and often angry when you told them they need to be outside to make a call. This is small fact is one of the reasons, not to mention the cost, that satphone adoption has been stagnant.

  14. Break out the... on Inside a Full-Body-Scanning X-Ray Van · · Score: 1

    ...tinfoil underwear?

  15. Re:pea-nutty holocaust has no basis in science. on Woman Develops Peanut Allergy After Lung Transplant · · Score: 1

    I would have recently agreed wholeheartedly with your ascertains. However, having recently witness my daughter suffer a violent allergic reaction accompanied by an expensive trip to the ER by doing something as innocuous as eating a cookie, I've had to shift my stance. In places such as daycare and primary schools where a child does not have enough faculty to understand that taking a bite of a friends lunch could kill them I'm all for peanut free zones. In settings where the child is old enough to know and to ask, It's a reasonable risk to allow. Until you've personally experienced a 3 year old son or daughter unable to breath and swelling up like a baloon, I doubt you can understand the "hysteria." So, for now, I'm sorry that your kids have to suffer such that my kid may live.

  16. Aestetic enhancements... Non-blind users? on Blind Soldier Uses Tongue To "See" · · Score: 1

    I'd imagine that it wouldn't be too difficult to use a wireless link from the camera to a battery powered dental retainer like receiver (think junior high and pimples). This way, the wearer, wouldn't draw unnecessary gawking. A few drawbacks, perhaps, would be that the tongue would need to be flush with the retainer on the roof of the mouth, so no talking whilst looking. Also, if you are running up a flight of stairs and need to draw breath through the mouth, it may impede vision. I am sure, a sighted person, could use this device to "see" light out of our normal range. What would it be like to see IR or UV?

  17. This is great... but... on Researchers Beam 230Mb/sec Wireless Internet WIth LEDs · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm an epileptic you insensitive clod!

  18. chanes of life on other worlds on Saturn Moon Could Be Hospitable To Life · · Score: 1

    If habitable worlds, for life as we know it, are more common than once though in our own solar system, does this necessarily imply that other solar systems are more likely to contain such worlds? Or, perhaps, is our solar system somewhat unique in this aspect?

  19. Stress mitigating pharmaceuticals on New Brain Scans Can Spot PTSD · · Score: 2, Funny

    AFAIK stress mitigating pharmaceuticals have been in use by both civilians and military for thousands of years... check out: this

  20. Re:Great on Scientists Discover How DNA Is Folded Within the Nucleus · · Score: 3, Informative

    I used to have this problem, too, until I discovered that little white collar on the wire. When not in use, simply slide it all the way up. This prevents the majority of the knotting. Or, just get a pair that occupy 4 dimensional space -- that way it's impossible for them to get tangled up!

  21. Re:Maybe off topic but... on Firefox 3.5's First Vulnerability "Self-Inflicted" · · Score: 1

    It certainly "feels" less responsive. Particularly when scrolling through a page then subsequently stopping and clicking a link, etc. A 3-5 second 'spinning ball of death' is not uncommon when traversing any given page.

  22. Re:For the love of god on Google Open Sources Updater · · Score: 1

    Thanks for this comment. Obviously brilliant.

  23. Apple Spotlight on Building a Searchable Literature Archive With Keywords? · · Score: 1

    Not trying to sound like a fanboi... However, I have hundreds of data sheets for various microprocessors, IC's, power supplies, embedded API's, 5 years worth of emails, etc. Spotlight indexes them all beautifully, and access is very quick, only a few seconds to pull up all references. I believe spotlight will even index network attached storage although I could be wrong.

  24. Re:Government Maps - of course on Open US GPS Data? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Roadnav is a fairly good open source turn-by-turn nav solution that uses TIGER data. Check it out: http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/

  25. Re:Warranty? on Seagate to Offer Solid State Drives in 2008 · · Score: 1

    #!/usr/bin/perl my $is_fine; my $i = 0; while ($i++ 1000000){ $is_fine = hash($is_fine); } print (($is_fine) ? "Wow! Everything _is_ fine" : "LIAR!!!!!!");