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User: Ihlosi

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  1. Isn't electrolysis 60+% efficient? on Possible Breakthrough In Hydrogen Energy · · Score: 1
    Last I heard, hydrogen generation by electrolysis was well over 50% efficient.

    The problem with hydrogen isn't making it. That's easy. The problem is storing it, which involved dealing with energy losses through compression and diffusion. Or with getting a carbon source and attaching the hydrogen to carbon, which leads to a convenient storage form.

    Wake me again when they can efficienty make, say, methane from electrolytically generated hydrogen and CO2 extracted from the air. Then we're talking.

  2. It's not hype, but ... on Is the 4th Yellow Pixel of Sharp Quattron Hype? · · Score: 1

    ... you have to be one of the one-in-a-million people who supposedly happen to be tetrachromates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy *SCNR*

  3. Re:Cameras make sense if you lower the fine on Arizona Backs Off Its Speed Camera Program · · Score: 1
    A small chance of a large ticket and a guaranteed chance of a small ticket should have similar deterrence rates.

    Actually, the latter should have a better deterrence rate.

  4. Re:It is better than a jury of Bobs on Brain-Scan Lie Detection Rejected By Brooklyn Court · · Score: 1
    What would also help would be if people who had actual intelligence didn't try so hard to get out of jury duty.

    If you have a job or a business then _not_ trying hard to get out of jury duty (which would make you lose that job or ruin your business if the case drags out a bit) shows lack of intelligence.

  5. Re:Because they are unreliable. on Brain-Scan Lie Detection Rejected By Brooklyn Court · · Score: 1

    Instead, we rely on "these 12 guys who have been struggling to stay awake during the proceedings think it's true, therefore he is guilty." Even worse, they're the same 12 guys who were not smart enough to evade jury duty.

  6. Oblig: How to deal with the spill site on How Bad Is the Gulf Coast Oil Spill? · · Score: 1

    Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Then again, orbital bombardment probably won't penetrate a mile of water. Better to strap the nuke to a robotic submarine.

  7. Single picture? on Red-Light Camera Ticket Revenue and Short Yellows · · Score: 1
    A single picture proves nothing. That's why red light camera systems that are not designed and set up by a bunch of morons _always_ take two picture with about 0.5s to 1s delay between them.

    Geez, this isn't rocket science.

  8. Just demand pretty much everything in your job ad: on How To Find Bad Programmers · · Score: 2, Funny

    Knowledge of 6+ OSes and at least 15 programming languages, developer experience in everything from industrial controls to web apps, etc. Hire the applicant who looks like he's fresh out of college. There's your bad programmer.

  9. Don't tell me ... on What Chernobyl Looks Like In 2010 · · Score: 1
    There are no zombies on any of them!

    Don't tell me you were really expecting to see the mutant, invisible zombies on simple photos.

  10. Pictures are nice, but ... on What Chernobyl Looks Like In 2010 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... playing one of the Stalker series of games is more fun. Even if the scenery isn't 100% accurate.

  11. Photographed with Sonar? on Grounded Russian Nuclear Sub Photographed With Sonar · · Score: 3, Informative
    How do you do that? Snap a picture of what your sonar screen is showing?

    If you create an image of something using sound waves, the correct term would be "sonographed". "Photographed" implies that you used light to create the image.

  12. Re:works in Boston on Chicago Debates Merits of ShotSpotter Technology · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There should be little patentable in the field, given how old and obvious sonic triangulation is.

    Sonic triangulation is only simple if you're trying it on a flat field, i.e. no echoes, absorption, reflections, etc.

    Using sonic triangulation in a city isn't simple - unless you're placing a bajilion sensors all over the place (which is expensive in its own right).

  13. Re:Maybe it's cart horse... on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1
    no scripting language has any difference in there. neither perl, ruby, php, etc has that.

    I bet you can screw up adding fifty floating point numbers in any of those languages. Heck, even Excel can't do it right.

    And seriously knowing the difference between int and float and bigint, etc has nothing to do with math. That is something you learn in CS classes.

    It has everything to do with math. That's why they teach it in CS classes.

  14. Re:Queue joke... on NASA Summoned To Fix Prius Problems · · Score: 1

    How many engineers does it take to fix a Toyota?

    Just one ... provided he can catch up with the car.

  15. Re:Apparently... on NASA Summoned To Fix Prius Problems · · Score: 1

    A business that wouldn't bat an eye at a $10,00 loss? You must be on drugs.

    No, you just have no idea of how a casino works. Paying out $10k to some lucky guy isn't a loss to the casino - it's advertising and will attract lots and lots of gullible folks who won't be winning $10k.

    Or do you honestly believe that people would play in a casino that has never made such a "loss", i.e. one where no one has ever won big? If so, then you're on drugs, not the GP.

  16. Re:What if they just breathe at the sensor? on Self-Destructing USB Stick · · Score: 2, Informative

    Exposing blood to air gives your pretty decent oxygen saturation.

    Only if you create a _huge_ surface area. Exposing a drop of blood to air doesn't saturate it at all. There's a reason why the inside of your lungs have a surface area about the size of a tennis court.

    Perhaps more practical, I wonder how difficult it would be to produce a variant of the classic "gelatin finger with correct fingerprint" that reads as having oxygen sat and a pulse?

    Much, much easier than trying the same with a detached finger. That's why there's no reason for chopping off any appendages. Unless you're a really, really dumb criminal.

  17. What if they just breathe at the sensor? on Self-Destructing USB Stick · · Score: 2, Informative

    No detached fingers necessary. Many scanners can be fooled by "reactivating" the most recent fingerprint with the moisture in the exhaled air.

    And _really_ professional fingerprint scanners don't check temperature, they check blood oxygen saturation and pulse. That makes cutting of any appendages pretty much a non-issue - it's easier to fool the thing with a dummy finger (or the actual finger that's still attached to the unconscious or otherwise compliant owner) than trying to simulate blood oxygen saturation and pulse with a detached finger.

  18. Re:There is no easy road! on Best Way To Land Entry-Level Job? · · Score: 1

    Programming is a science that requires no physical tools besides a computer.

    Programming is not a science, it's a trade.

  19. Re:Maybe it's cart horse... on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1
    In my 12 year career my math comes down to some percent calculations for some basic stats.

    And if you don't know enough mathematics to know about the peculiarities of integer, fixed-point and floating-point arithmetics, your program will screw up some of those calculations in the most horrible way, and be somewhat less-than-accurate in others.

  20. Re:Given two programmers on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1

    What about the other 0E?

  21. Re:Yes and no on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1

    When you work with simple business applications you don't need to do complex calculations :)

    You still need to know how to do the not-so-complex calculations correctly. Especially in business applications.

  22. Re:depends, becoming more important I think on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1
    True, but that's assuming it would then be $500 of programmer time and not say, $50 000 (ten developers earning $60k per year spending an extra month developing the software because they focused on optimizing it), at that point a $0.01 saving per unit would require 5 000 000 units to sell in order for the investment in time to pay off.

    $0.01 in hardware is basically nothing. A few resistors or capacitors, maybe. Now, if you can use a smaller processor and save even just $0.50 per unit, then even spending $50000 on those savings can pay off pretty quickly if you're selling upwards of a hundred thousand units per year.

  23. Re:depends, becoming more important I think on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1

    Hands up everybody who's been in that situation.

    How about the legions of programmers who write the code for your computer peripherals, cellphones, toys, appliances, medical devices, cars, etc?

    Fact is: Stuff containing a "computer" of some sort (even if it's just a 4-bit microcontroller) is manufactured in the millions or even billions. The software for all this stuff doesn't write itself. Saving even a minimal amount on hardware cost by using better software pays off quickly if you're manufacturing a couple of hundred thousand units a year.

  24. Re:Math & linux audio? on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 1

    It seems as if very few FOSS coders know how to write even the relatively simple signal-processing code that's needed for playing some files while doing any necessary sample-rate conversion or mixing, and while maintaining sync with the record-in.

    How deep would I have to dive into the intricacies of audio hardware if I wanted to have a look at it?

  25. Re:depends, becoming more important I think on Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This was of course just an example but it's true for a lot of stuff, back then you had to spend a lot more time optimizing your code as well, these days premature optimization is generally considered a bad thing (since in most cases it ends up being a waste of $500 worth of programmer time to squeeze out a performance gain that $50 in hardware would've have gotten you.

    If you're planning to sell a million units containing both hardware and software, then "wasting" $500 of programmer time to save even $0.01 in hardware per unit is a really sweet deal.