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User: bloobloo

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Comments · 369

  1. Re:Storm in the tubes on Data Storm Caused Nuclear Plant To Shut Down · · Score: 2, Informative

    The plant I'm working on the design of at the moment will have a VPN connection so that we can monitor it's performance from abroad. Running private cables over 7000 miles would not be feasible.

  2. Re:kibibytes & mibimeters on The First Terabyte Hard Drive Reviewed · · Score: 1

    Of course, I mean 2.4%

  3. Re:kibibytes & mibimeters on The First Terabyte Hard Drive Reviewed · · Score: 1

    The convention DID work fine. At kilo level, the difference is 0.24%. This is pretty negligible. But at tera level it is a 10% difference. We know from Ariane that confusion about numbers can lead to bad consequences!

  4. Re:kibibytes & mibimeters on The First Terabyte Hard Drive Reviewed · · Score: 1

    What is more specific than the International Electrotechnical Commission deciding on sticking to SI prefixes and creating new ones for 2 to the power of 10x for computing purposes?

  5. Re:Good thinking on Holographic Storage Slated to Hit Market This Fall · · Score: 1

    Hash the whole file. The chance of finding a collision that would be a valid excel file (just as an example) must be vanishingly smaller still than finding a collision among the whole set of all possible computer files.

  6. Re:kibibytes & mibimeters on The First Terabyte Hard Drive Reviewed · · Score: 1

    Or maybe you should look and see that for the last two years mega = 10^6 etc has been the international standard for electronics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

  7. Why put aerogel in quote marks? It's not a made up phrase - it's a perfectly normal phase of matter. You may as well write "liquid".

    In practical terms I have doubts about this technology as described. Filters normally rely on building up a cake of residue from the feed liquid that consists of particles smaller than the filter holes rather than matching exactly. This sponge would also rely on the virus entering at the right angle.

    The advantage that I can see is that you could get around virus mutations by rapid fabrication of new sponges.

  8. Re:Clearing Up Confusion on Bubble Fusion Researcher Faces Fraud Trial · · Score: 1

    Catalytic converters for cars. They use palladium hence the increase in the price.

    Palladium is only refined as a contaminant of platinum-containing ores.

  9. Re:Why only Scientology? on Surprise Arrest For Online Scientology Critic · · Score: 1

    I think you'll find 1.1 billion people disagree with you.

  10. Re:What I want to know... on Surprise Arrest For Online Scientology Critic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    First they came for the neo-Nazis...

  11. Re:Suspicious Cloud on Spy Chief Hints At Limits On Satellite Photos · · Score: 1

    Methanex Motunui closed two and a half years ago.

  12. Re:What about limited copyright? on You Can't Oppose Copyright and Support Open Source · · Score: 1

    TeX is public domain and always has been

  13. Re:Umm no... on India Hopes to Make $10 Laptops a Reality · · Score: 1

    Or a 2CV

  14. Re:Understood... on Student Arrested for Making Videogame Map of School · · Score: 4, Funny

    "That guy was quite ready to severely injure me - had the teacher not told him to shut up, i woulda been hit with a chair."

    Apart from that, what was Steve Ballmer like at school?

  15. Re:Couples? on NASA Tackles Ethics of Deep-Space Exploration · · Score: 1

    I doubt that people who need to socialise with large groups would be likely to apply for the mission anyway...

  16. Redundant? on Z Machine Advances Fusion Race · · Score: 1

    It's a joke, people

  17. Re:I'm a mathematician, and I call BS on Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics · · Score: 1

    The quadrilateral base is described as having two adjacent sides of 2 units length, and one other side of 2 root 3, and one unknown. The diagonals are described as crossing at 90 degrees to each other. This means that they must intersect at their middle points, and therefore the fourth side is also 2 root 3, so this is a kite shape. Dividing the shape into triangles and analysing them using basic trig you can see that the angles of the corners are 120 degrees between the 2 unit sides, 60 degrees between the 2 root 3 sides (the opposite corner) and 90 degrees for each of the other two corners. The height is given, so one can pick an arbitrary co-ordinate system and determine the equations of the lines and planes that are being described. At this point you admittedly use slightly more complicated geometry to determine angles between lines, and angles between planes. Et voila!

  18. Re:I'm a mathematician, and I call BS on Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics · · Score: 1

    There doesn't appear to be anything more complicated than working out the vectors and doing basic geometry. It's the lack of parallel sides in the quadrilateral and the 3d-ishness that give it the appearance of being hard to the untrained eye.

  19. Re:Tag: theresnoplacelikehome on Earthlike Planet Orbiting Nearby Star · · Score: 1

    No, the benefit is in getting there ahead of the colony ship and throwing on a nice party for them when they arrive!

  20. Re:Voice calls not enabled on Cell SMS in Planes on Trial Down-Under · · Score: 1

    Of course they can. You must comply with any legal order given under the authority of a plane's captain while in his aircraft. Refuse to stop talking when ordered, and you can be arrested. And the staff are allowed to use reasonable force to enforce their orders.

  21. Re:they are like us on Monkey Business and Freakonomics · · Score: 1

    "Apes, especially monkeys" is like "Fish, especially dolphins"

  22. Re:What happened? on RIAA Wants Student Deposed On School Day · · Score: 1

    No.

    Some kid has been accused of breaking the law. Innocence is assumed until guilt is proven.

    I hope you are never placed anywhere near a jury.

  23. Re:But it is not a good substitute for nylon on Montana Says No to Real ID, Passes Law to Deny It · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have a look at http://www.uiaa.ch/article.aspx?c=231&a=147 for a good explanation about the problem with natural ropes. When nylon wasn't available in sufficiently large quantities then obviously it couldn't be used.

    For airbags, the quality control is extremely tight. The specification for the monomer salt is a variability of +/- 0.03 of a pH which is about as close as you can possible measure. There's no way you can get that kind of consistency from a natural product.

  24. Re:hemp on Montana Says No to Real ID, Passes Law to Deny It · · Score: 1

    But it is not a good substitute for nylon, so I get really irritated whenever people bring Dupont into the conversation. As a climber I'd hate to carry a wet hemp rope, and as a driver I'd hate to have a celluloid air bag in my car.

  25. Re:Open AP? on UK Man Convicted For Wi-Fi Piggybacking · · Score: 1

    In such a case as you describe, a reasonable person would accept the defence of mistakenly choosing the wrong network. However, the fact that the defendant parked up outside someone's house and connected there was taken as evidence that he was searching in an illicit manner. Bear in mind also that this was from a case in 2005, when wireless networks were less common than now.