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  1. Re:Oh lookie on Opus 1.1 Released · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sure, this was originally Skype, but Microsoft has continued to work with us even after acquiring Skype.

  2. Re:Compatibility on Opus 1.1 Released · · Score: 4, Funny

    So is this backwards compatible with my existing Monster Cables or do I have to buy new ones?

    You will just need to update the firmware on your cables if you want to maintain optimal RDF (reality distortion field).

  3. Re:Won't fly on Lawsuits Seek To Turn Chimpanzees Into Legal Persons · · Score: 1

    The folks who push "personhood" for a fetus would probably vehemently oppose granting the same designation to a chimpanzee (fundamentalists see man as on a whole different level than other animals). Likewise, the people pushing personhood for chimps would be some of the more liberal types and would probably be very "pro-choice".

    Now... what about a chimpanzee fetus?

  4. Re:they've had this place since what 2010? on Toyota Announces Plans For Fuel Cell Car By 2015 · · Score: 1

    If your electricity comes from burning hydrocarbons, then using hydrogen is a bit silly since you get a loss in the heat->electricity process, plus in the electricity->hydrogen process.

  5. Re:No, but the Age of Information will. on Linux Format Magazine Team Quits, Launches New Profit-Donating Mag · · Score: 1

    How, exactly, in your utopia do I get paid for my work? Who pays me?

    People were saying the same thing about free software ~15 years ago. If software is free, how will developers ever get paid? Turns out there's now a lot of people that get paid for writing free software. I don't know what the model will be, but I'm pretty sure the same will happen for book/documentation authors at some point.

  6. Re:Dark matter fighting dark energy on Most Sensitive Detector Yet Fails To Find Any Signs of Dark Matter · · Score: 1

    At this point, the two are mostly equivalent. For example, Einstein's original "cosmological constant" in the general theory of relativity *is* a form of dark energy.

  7. Re:Misconceptions on Cisco Releases Open Source "Binary Module" For H.264 In WebRTC · · Score: 2

    Right now, the site has neither binaries nor source, but I'm pretty sure both will be available at the same time. The only point of the binaries there is that since they are served by Cisco, then Cisco can handle the patent licensing. The license is non-transferable (this is not something Cisco controls), so you can't download once and put it into your product, each product has to downloading it on its own for the license to apply. Since it's open source, anyone can also just build it themselves, then then obviously they're also not covered by the license.

  8. Re:Good luck with that... on Cisco Releases Open Source "Binary Module" For H.264 In WebRTC · · Score: 4, Informative

    I recommend reading Monty's Daala demos 1, 2, 3 and 4. We're not just building a similar codec, but making radical changes to many fundamental components of a video codec.

  9. Re:Good luck with that... on Cisco Releases Open Source "Binary Module" For H.264 In WebRTC · · Score: 3, Informative

    Legally, there's a reasonable limit on how long you can wait (6 years under some theories). That being said, indeed can can never prove non-infringement, and it's equally valid for free codecs than it is for encumbered codecs. Paying the MPEG LA tax does not shield you from trolls, or even from companies that participated in the standard and aren't part of the patent pool (usually, not all declared IPR holders are represented in a pool).

  10. Monty's comments on Cisco Releases Open Source "Binary Module" For H.264 In WebRTC · · Score: 4, Informative

    Beyond the official announcements, I strongly recommend reading Monty's comments on the issue.

  11. Re:Self-driving cars will come with an EULA on Toyota's Killer Firmware · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure the EULA will say that the car is only really good for going 5 km/h in your driveway and that going on public roads voids your warranty.

  12. Tidal forces on How an Astronaut Falling Into a Black Hole Would Die Part 2 · · Score: 1

    I always assumed the astronaut would be ripped apart by tidal forces long before reaching the event horizon.

  13. Re:I do not understand why this is a story on Somebody Stole 7 Milliseconds From the Federal Reserve · · Score: 4, Informative

    Trades were executed in Chicago before the change was announced in Washington D.C. in a relativistic physics sense.

    Actually, in relativistic physics sense, the trades in Chicago where outside of the light cone of the Washington event (neither in the future cone nor in the past cone). That being said, since Washington and Chicago do not move at relativistic speed with respect to each other, the trades are still at a later time than the announce, even if there's no possible causality.

  14. Re:Finally! on Georgia Cop Issues 800 Tickets To Drivers Texting At Red Lights · · Score: 2

    Except that the message this sends is "you're less likely to get a ticket if you wait for the green light before you start texting". Sure it may be against the law, but the problem I have with this sort of thing is that the focus is always on the least dangerous behaviour. Just like in my neighbourhood where the cops will stop people speeding on the big street where it's least dangerous while ignoring speeding in the residential area where you can have children crossing at any time. Enforcing the law where it makes the most money rather than where it's most important doesn't help safety.

  15. Re:Safety design was fine on USAF Almost Nuked North Carolina In 1961 – Declassified Document · · Score: 1

    The problem here is estimating the probabilities of failure. Assuming failures are independent and considering there's probably (I'm guessing, feel free to plug in other numbers) been somewhere between 10 to 100 similar incidents with one case where 3 safety mechanisms failed, then we can say that the probability of failure of any one safety is between 14% and 30%. From this, the probability of all four failing would be somewhere between one in 100 and one in 3000. That's way too high considering what's at stake here. I assume it's been fixed (hopefully not just patched) because there would probably have been an actual accident since then.

  16. Re:I wouldn't throw stones. on Measles Outbreak Tied To Texas Megachurch · · Score: 1

    The goal should not just be control, but eradication of these diseases.

    The vast majority of those diseases cannot be eradicated because they can infect other animals too. So unless you want to vaccinate every bird/pig/monkey/... (depending on the disease), the only thing that can be done is to keep vaccinating humans. The case of smallpox (which AFAIK only infected humans) is very rare.

  17. Re:Oh the irony on Boston Marathon Bomber Charged With Using 'Weapon of Mass Destruction' · · Score: 1

    They're called "weapons of collateral destruction" (WCD).

  18. Re:Excuse me? on The Canadian Government's War On Science · · Score: 1

    Muzzling scientists, shutting down a world-class lakes research facility (that only cost $20 million/year to run

    But you need to understand. They really needed that money so they could commemorate the 1812 war.

  19. Surprising result on 97% of Climate Science Papers Agree Global Warming Is Man-made · · Score: 1

    I really thought oil companies were funding more than a mere 3% of climate science papers.

  20. Re:Private health insurance nonsense on Larry Page: You Worry Too Much About Medical Privacy · · Score: 1

    I think the "insurance" here is mostly historical, nothing more. An actual insurance (public or private) would never pay for your yearly health check-up or for your regular meds. If you tell your insurer that you're planning on having a minor car accident in May of every year, I doubt you'll be insured for very long.

  21. Private health insurance nonsense on Larry Page: You Worry Too Much About Medical Privacy · · Score: 1

    Maybe we should change the rules around insurance so that they have to insure people

    That would be an improvement, but at the same time it creates another problem. Having an industry where only the buyer is allowed to use information is complete nonsense too. I know this opinion isn't popular around here, but for health insurance, the only thing that makes any sort of sense is a public system. It's just sad to see that the US is among the last to realize this.

  22. Re:Open source sound localization on Hand-held "Sound Camera" Shows You the Source of Noises · · Score: 1

    The card you see is an undergrad engineering project. The PhD is the software that goes with it. You can read all about is here. Trivial localization of a single sound in a quiet environment is one thing. Tracking many simultaneous sources in a noisy/reverberant environment while separating the audio for each of them is a different thing.

  23. Re:Open source sound localization on Hand-held "Sound Camera" Shows You the Source of Noises · · Score: 1

    You mean like this card? It's indeed designed to use cheap electret microphones. In terms of number of microphones, it's effectively limited to 8 because finding acquisition cards for more than 8 mics is hard. It could probably be tweaked to run on a table using some approximations, but I'm not quite sure how useful it would be on a tablet.

  24. Open source sound localization on Hand-held "Sound Camera" Shows You the Source of Noises · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don't know about this particular project, but back when I did my PhD, I open-sourced my sound localization algorithm. Tracks up to ~4 moving sound sources in real-time using 8 microphones.

  25. Re:Kids These Days... on 80FFTs Per Second To Detect Whistles (and Switch On Lights) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, an FFT is often cheaper than autocorrelation because it's N*log(N) whereas auto-correlation is N^2. In any case, it's insanely cheap on today's machines.