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User: hedwards

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  1. Re:Satellite replacement? on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    It's going to have a thermal signature that is just about zero. It's getting its energy from the sun, which means that it's probably a bit hotter during the day, and probably noticeably so during the night, but still probably a challenge to target.

  2. Re:SEE! on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    Well, what other aircraft can stay aloft for that long without being in orbit? That's the important bit, well that and it being somewhat mass produced.

  3. Re:SEE! on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    Indeed, IIRC, when planes are at cruising altitude they are segregated by direction so that they aren't likely to hit each other even without a lot of gizmos. It isn't until you get to lower altitudes near airports or in unregulated airspace that such accidents become much more frequent.

  4. Re:meh on Turning Your Home Wiring Into a Giant Antenna · · Score: 1

    Probably because of the transformers and the line noise. Transformers tend to strip it away, and line noise tens to make it not work reliably or efficiently.

  5. Re:Color Blind on Hubble In Anaglyph Stereo 3D · · Score: 1

    That reminds me a while back when I was in to get my eyes checked. Because I've managed to memorize a lot of those tests, they had to go with an alternate, which used red and green lines to check to see if it was in focus. While a person with color blindness in those cones, wouldn't see the colors, it would still work.

    Likewise, while a person wouldn't be able to see the color component they would be able to get a luminescence channel. The main problem would be being more sensitive in one eye than the other, unless one is color blind in both those cones.

  6. Not surprising on Haystack and the Myth of the Boy Wizard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Journalists tend to be bad at covering tech news. It's not really surprising that they'd get it this wrong. Perhaps rather than having people cover everything at various points, they should move individuals around within the realm of technology. At least that way they can get some expertise in the subject.

  7. Re:Duh! on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 1

    Indeed, even in the legal areas of explosives and demolitions, it requires a lot of skill and technical knowledge to get it right. Getting an explosive to detonate isn't hard, getting it to detonate at the point you want it to, is far, far harder.

  8. Re:Aptitude on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 1

    Had he known about the components he was using, he could very easily have taken out quite a bit with his equipment. I'm not going to say what in particular was wrong, but he had all the necessary components, he just didn't know enough about what he was doing to get it right.

    The scary thing is that it could very easily have worked and the only costly component involved was the vehicle to haul the bomb in.

  9. Re:Aptitude on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's probably because the liberal arts degree is arguable the most useful degree of the ones you listed. The other degrees are virtually useless outside the intended field, and with the science degree in particular, even within that field it's very limited.

    The other degrees set you up in a field, the arts degree sets you up to think.

  10. Re:Aptitude on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 1

    That's a really bad move. It's a pretty good bet that the several 3 letter initialisms are keeping track of those sites. Plus, it's hardly that difficult to put together something really dangerous without a lot of training. The big problem is that the ingredients people have easy access to are really unpredictable. Fireworks being some of the worst to be working with.

  11. Re:Aptitude on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 1

    So, accountants are terrorists? Perhaps we should be taking a closer look at colleges that have accounting programs.

  12. Re:What is your name? What is your quest? on Race Pits Pigeons Against Poor UK Rural Broadband · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm guessing zero.

  13. Re:RTFA. SRSLY. on Study Shows Testosterone is Bad For High-Stakes Decisions · · Score: 1

    Then you don't really care about being called a sociopath, duh.

  14. Re:Gynocentric crappola on Study Shows Testosterone is Bad For High-Stakes Decisions · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, worse than that is that they haven't exactly dealt with the other causes of somebody being CEO. Such as having shady morals and a willingness to cheat lie and steal to get there. That is hardly a male only trait, and definitely not strictly tied to testosterone. If it were you wouldn't see that kind of behavior in older people.

  15. Re:more likely to initiate, scrap or resist on Study Shows Testosterone is Bad For High-Stakes Decisions · · Score: 1

    That was my thought, the others were apparently not cool enough to get any offers. Seriously, in the business world these days it's not likely that you'll be in a position very long before the option to initiate, scrap or resist a merger comes along.

    I'm wondering if they considered the fact that younger CEOs tend to be head of smaller companies and as such more in need of initiating, scrapping or resisting a merger or acquisition? I mean there's a reason why we have the term "hostile takeover."

  16. Re:In other news on High Fructose Corn Syrup To Get a Makeover · · Score: 1

    Same goes for salt producers. While it's generally best not to add salt to foods where possible, if you're going to add it, unrefined sea salt is a better choice for at the table. It's larger sized clumps giving you more control over how much you pinch on, and it contains trace minerals that you're probably needing anyways.

  17. Re:STOP CORN SUBSIDIES on High Fructose Corn Syrup To Get a Makeover · · Score: 1

    That the farmers tend to then vote for politicians promising to shrink the government spending on other things?

  18. Re:Evil stuff on High Fructose Corn Syrup To Get a Makeover · · Score: 1

    Eh, fructose isn't evil, when it's consumed from its natural source, as in from fruits. The problem with HFCS is that it's not a natural product, it's processed using enzymes which while mostly removed are somewhat present in the final product.

    Most of the assertions about it are unproven, it's not really well established whether or not it causes obesity to a greater extent than other sugars do.

  19. Re:What the hell? on High Fructose Corn Syrup To Get a Makeover · · Score: 1

    Indeed, fructose, sucrose and glucose are indeed all sugars, and as you rightly suggest have different properties to them. Ultimately fructose and Sucrose ultimately have to be converted into glucose for use.

    The thing people are generally the most concerned with is how quickly the sugar becomes available, due to the spike in blood sugar that accompanies it. Of course the amount is also important.

  20. Re:I thought controls favored Left handers on Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? · · Score: 1

    Having played a bit of SMB yesterday, I have to agree with you. The A and B buttons are really easy to hit with ones non-dominant hand, but the D-pad can be kind of tricky, comparatively speaking. I don't recall righties whining about the unfair advantage the lefties got.

  21. Re:lulwut? on Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? · · Score: 1

    The NES/SNES/N64 controllers weren't an issue, you really had to have good dexterity with both hands to get anywhere. If anybody was getting unfairly screwed over it was the righties. I mean, the directional pad was far more complicated and at times equally finicky as the other buttons.

  22. Re:Impossible? on Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? · · Score: 1

    They'd be correct about the controls being lousy, because it would in effect be broken for 90% of the population.

    It's pretty much just the arrogant lefties that can't do these things with their off hand. Much of life really does dictate doing things right handed, to an extent it's not terribly realistic to expect to get through life without knowing how to do things right handed.

    Sure it's less than ideal, but expecting the entire world to work just as well from the left side as the right strikes me as a bit unrealistic. And yes gaming ought to cope with lefties, but the mouse goes on the right side of the computer, and it's really strange when people do it the other way around.

  23. Mod parent up on Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? · · Score: 1

    Indeed, I'm ambidextrous, and the only thing which I have any trouble with is writing. The reason being that it's not like most other tasks where it's simply a matter of using the other hand and remapping the motions, writing with the other hand requires a rather drastic change to ones thought process. The process of writing with the other hand is very different, and I suspect that it's easier for a lefty to learn to write right handed than the reverse.

    These days it's often times easier to catch things with my non-dominant hand.

  24. Re:Impossible? on Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? · · Score: 1

    Lefties already do that typically. It's pretty ignorant to suggest that it isn't already the case. It's hardly just games which require it, many situations in life work a lot better for those who use their right hands for things.

  25. Re:What do UKers think? on UK ISPs To Pay 25% of Copyright Enforcement Costs · · Score: 1

    Same reason why people don't quit jobs that pay sub living wages, if you want to work in that industry the opportunities are significantly limited if you're not working for them. And people that have sub living wages would quit if they had a reasonable opportunity to make a living wage.

    I realize that fresh water economists don't believe it, but the reality is that choices are not without consequence, and the government mucks about enough on the business side of things so as to make it necessary for the government to provide the people with some means of protecting themselves.