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User: Ihlosi

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Comments · 4,892

  1. Re:Not a bad patent... on Nestle Patents Coffee Beer · · Score: 2
    The idea is the Coke formula is a trade secret and violating that would cost you.



    No, no, no. That is absolutely NOT how a trade secret works. In fact, you cannot violate a trade secret precisely because of that second word: secret. If you come up with the formula for Coca Cola by any other means (i.e. chemical analysis, trial&error, plain dumb luck) than flat-out stealing the recipe, you're clear.


    Of course, if you work for Coca Cola, have knowledge of the recipe and sell it to competitor X, you're toast.

  2. Re:Not Valid. on Identity Theft-What Can Really be Done w/o a SSN? · · Score: 1
    So, credit score isn't just about debt, it's also about liquidity of assets.



    What does credit score have to do with having X00,000$ sitting in a safe in your basement (an extremely "liquid" asset) ?


    The "credit score" is an attempt to make an assumption about how likely a person is to pay off future debt by looking at how well the person is paying off their present debts.



    In other parts of the civilized world, how much you're "worth" to the bank is not determined by how much debt you already have, but by what assets you have (and believe me, banks are exceedingly good at turning even the most "solid" asset into "liquid" form should the get any doubts about your creditworthiness) and how much money you're making.

  3. Re:Paper Checks on Identity Theft-What Can Really be Done w/o a SSN? · · Score: 1
    In Europe, I understand that the reverse is true. If you want to make an electronic payment the payer electronicly deposits money in the account of the payee. This is a much saner system.



    Actually, we have both versions here. Each of which does have some issues users need to be aware of:


    1. Payer deposits money in the account of the payee. Very simple, with one small problem: There's no way to get your money back, since you (the payer) initiated and authorized the transaction. So if your ebay seller turns out to be a crook, you're screwed.


    2. Payee withdraws money from account of payee. Sounds scary, doesn't it ? However, payer has (afaik) four weeks in which he can simply contact his bank and request that they cancel the withdrawal.

  4. Re:But what about getting them back? on Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth · · Score: 1
    So there will be naysayers, except for the fact that they'll be on another planet.



    Well, if indoctrination, heroism and straight-out brainwashing didn't do the trick, there's still the sudden revelation that the life-support system has a remote-controlled off-switch, so they can die "here, now", or "here, 200 days from now".

  5. Re:For those who aren't in the 19th century anymor on Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth · · Score: 1
    I personally don't like the metric system because it's too easy to make mistakes in, having witnessed lots and lots of them in physics and chemistry classes, "Oh, woops, I meant 10^3 watts of power for that hair dryer, not 10^4."

    And when you're not using metric units, you automatically quit using the decimal system, too ?

    The "error" in your example has exactly zero to do with the metric system, but with people have trouble counting the number of zeros.

  6. Re:Next swing-by on Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth · · Score: 1
    Dude, you at least need 11.2km/s to get away from the earth.

    [nitpick mode] Well, nah. 11.2 km/s is a theoretical number that assumes you start at Earth's surface, don't have to go through the atmosphere, don't receive any thrust after liftoff and don't encounter any other gravity wells along the way. Sort of like "If you fire a bullet with 11.2 km/s from the surface of Earth (minus the atmosphere) into a completely empty universe, the bullet will never ever start falling back towards earth". [/nitpick mode] But other than that, what would be Mach 2 in Earths atmosphere would be quite slow for a spacecraft. Not that you can measure a spacecrafts speed outside the atmosphere in Mach - no atmosphere, no sound, no speed of sound. Duh.

  7. Re:Getting closer! on Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth · · Score: 4, Informative
    Second time in 60,000 years that we know of?



    Planetary orbits are pretty stable (especially considering the short time frame), so it is fairly simple to calculate where Earth and Mars have been during the last 60,000 years.

  8. Re:Where do Slashdot editors come from? on The Car That Makes Its Own Fuel · · Score: 1
    So what, all our energy comes from the fusion of the sun's atoms.



    Uranium and geothermal/tidal power don't, for starters.

  9. Re:Disgusting on Florida DUI Law and Open Source · · Score: 1
    I'm thinking anything over zero is too high a limit

    ... then you probably don't know in which seemingly innocent substances alcohol can hide. Anything that contains esters and water will also contain alcohol (pretty much any fruit juice qualifies here), even without any fermentation. Anything with yeast in it, too. Oh, got a yeast infection in your intestine ? Yep, there'll be trace amounts of alcohol in your blood. Any alcoholic beverage used as an ingredient in cooking will put you over a "zero" limit, as well as the miniscule amounts of alcohol in some alcoholic sweets. Heck, alcohol absorbed through the skin/lung from perfumes/disinfectants ?

    Most people cannot "feel" if the have, say, 0.005% BAC, and probably have no idea that a large glass of fruit juice might put them there. Don't drink (orange juice) and drive ?

  10. Re:Slippery Slope Guy. on Florida DUI Law and Open Source · · Score: 1
    The fact of the matter is, without access to the code used to run these comparisons, their is no practical way to determine if any of them are valid.



    That may be true, but it is not relevant as long as you still have the DNA samples used in the comparison. If you do, you can have someone check the match by hand if there is any doubt about the inner workings of the software. Doing that is impossible with breathalyzer tests unless you actually take a blood sample.


  11. Re:Sorry But on Florida DUI Law and Open Source · · Score: 1
    Any programming or hardware problems would show up during calibration, causing that unit to be rejected.



    Um, you never actually wrote soft-/firmware for any measuring device, I assume ?



    Lots of flaws can show up during calibration (sensor drift, numeric problems, etc), but those that require specific conditions (race conditions, priority problems, etc) might not show up even if you calibrate 100 times. They can still mess up your measurements once in a while.

  12. Re:Stupid pre-retail release on Intel Dual Core Xeon Benchmarked · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is the high end market that hungry?

    No, the high-end market is waiting for something that has "Intel" and "Dual Core" written all over it. Everything else is irrelevant.

  13. Re:This sort of thing... on RIAA Sues a Child · · Score: 1
    This newspeak definition of "theft" has only been invented in the last 10 years by self-justifying copyright violators.

    No, the definition of theft has been in the legal code of various countries for a century and maybe more. Lawyers and judges have to abide by it. You may fantasize and make up your own definitions, of course, but they'll count exactly jack shit in court if they differ from the definition of theft as provided by the respective country's penal law.

    Copyright infringement may be a crime, but that still makes it copyright infringement and not theft, assault, robbery, rape, or murder. Period. Get over it, read some books on law.

  14. Re:This sort of thing... on RIAA Sues a Child · · Score: 4, Informative
    Piracy is the copying of merchandise for distribution ...



    No no no. Real piracy involves ships and assorted pirate accessories (for the modern-day pirate, that means small arms, for the more historically-inclined pirate, muskets, swords, cannons, eyepatches and parrots). And usually plenty of violence, keel-hauling and making people walk the plank.



  15. Re:Family torn apart? on RIAA Sues a Child · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Remember that RIAA public service anouncement where zombie warriors would kill an entire family if you downloaded music from the internet? Is that really how far the RIAA would go in their avarice?



    No, they'll do much, much worse things than send zombie warriors.


    They send lawyers.

  16. Re:You're right, they're massive enough. on Short Gamma-ray Bursts Traced to Colliding Stars · · Score: 1
    Also it'd be a bit warm - T-shirt and shorts weather, I think.



    Don't forget the sunscreen, either. Preferably with a LPF that ends with "e[really large number]"

  17. Re:Correction... on Short Gamma-ray Bursts Traced to Colliding Stars · · Score: 1
    It is supposed that such an even would generate enough gamma rays to wipe out the ozone layer, and cause life extinction on earth.



    If the burst occurs close enough (a few lighyears, maybe even a few tens of lightyears should do), it would essentially sterilize the side of the planet that is facing towards the source of the burst.



    Death Stars are for tourists.

  18. Re:Well... on Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic · · Score: 1
    does not possess a metabolism



    It certainly does. How else is it getting the energy to make more cells ? It breaks down certain molecules to generate energy, and it assembles new molecules it needs. Catabolism and anabolism, both of which make up metabolism.

    responds to some stimuli



    It certainly does (implantation on contact with a suitable surface, for example)

    so any drug or device that prevents implantation should certainly be allowed (RU-486).



    RU-486's purpose is not preventing implantation (that can be done with much simpler hormones, medically), but to disrupt an already existing pregnancy. RU-486 is a chemical abortion drug, not a morning-after pill/emergency contraception.

  19. Re:Well... on Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic · · Score: 1

    Good question. Is anyone who isn't conscious at present "fair game" ?

  20. Re:Umbilical Cord Stem Cells? on Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic · · Score: 1
    And what's wrong with that?



    The precedent this creates, the change in attitude towards the bad thing(tm), and of course the potential for abuse.


    Have a "donor" for organ X who is unwilling to donate ? Let's just frame him for murder, and we can even harvest the organ minutes after his death. Or, depending on the laws of the country you're in, framing for murder might not even be necessary when something much simpler (drug trade or whatever) will do.

  21. Re:Extremely sceptical on Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic · · Score: 1
    Nerve cells will grow at a speed of about 1 mm per year.



    So most humans would be able to move their toes when they're, um, 70 years old or so ?

    At some point in life, nerve cells have to grow faster than that.

  22. Re:Wrong headline ... on NASA Admin Says Shuttle and ISS are Mistakes · · Score: 2, Informative
    With artificial gravity even of 1/2 or 2/3 normal this problem would essentially disappear, freeing up maybe an hour a day for each astronaut.



    Sorry, but generating artificial gravity isn't as simple as just making the space station spin (even if movies suggest that). First, getting even a fraction of a g would either require relatively huge angular velocities OR a really BIG space station. Then, by spinning things around, you don't just get the illusion of gravity (by centrifugal force), but also a lot of weird side effects (coriolis force) that a ME can probably explain better.



    Also, the rotation creates quite a lot of strain on the structure of the space station.

  23. Re:Imagine if... on NASA Admin Says Shuttle and ISS are Mistakes · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why doesn't NASA use SS1's fuel and propulsion system?

    Because NASA actually wants to get stuff into orbit and beyond, instead of just barely peeking out of earth's atmosphere.

  24. Re:Well then on NASA Admin Says Shuttle and ISS are Mistakes · · Score: 1
    Someone without a dime to their name can come from your dumb-ass country and become one of the wealthiest people here.



    Hahahahaha ... good one.

    Someone without a dime to their name usually doesn't make it past immigrations nowadays. And is probably kept from entering the country at any point thereafter, just for the reason of having been denied entry once.

    Being poor should be the ultimate motivator to not be poor.



    Being poor (really poor) is one of the ultimate causes for staying poor.

  25. Re:More like it on Pay vs. Happiness · · Score: 1
    I found out that the ad was run to satisfy some government regulation for employing foreign workers.



    That seems to be common practice. Usually, the company has to prove that no [insert country here] national is qualified for the job before they can hire a foreigner. So, if they have a foreigner they really want to hire, they make the job description so specific that it only fits that person.