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User: wjcofkc

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Comments · 1,337

  1. Middle School Teacher? on Printing 3-D Replicas of Human Beings with a Home Brew Printer (Video) · · Score: 1

    I suspect a mind like his is going to inspire a lot of young minds. It's also pretty obvious that he could choose from any of a number of lucrative career paths. A truly noble and heroic human. Too bad we can't print life sized fully working copies of him. Every middle school should have at least one.

  2. Original Quake too on It's Time For the Descent Games Return · · Score: 1

    I remember buying an S3 Virge DX with Decent as a pack-in. I do believe this was the only game that ever got 3d acceleration on the Virge. Yes, it was a blast to play. I would really really really like to see the original Quake remade with a modern 3d engine, but otherwise completely the same down to the physics. The ecosystem that sprung up around that game was marvelous.

  3. Finally. I have been saying this for years. on Researchers Experiment With Explosives To Fight Wildfires · · Score: 2

    I have always wondered why this is not standard practice. If you want to extinguish a candle, the established method is to blow it out. After all, we used explosives to put out the Iraqi oil fires. Carpet bomb it, massively. If the fire is already to big for that to be practical, carpet bomb as wide and as much of a perimeter as you can and let it burn itself out.

  4. Great timing on Americans Hate TV and Internet Providers More Than Other Industries · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have Time Warner and about an hour ago I woke up to an outage. Needless to say it has been cleared up, but outages are routine and expected with their "service". I learned a long time ago that calling their customer service\tech support is futile. Also, I barely break five-megabits down. Unfortunately there has been no alternative and I have been stuck with them for fifteen-years. I guess you can suck that bad and not care if you are a monopoly. Two-days ago I received an email from Google letting me know that Google Fiber will be available to me pretty soon. Yesterday large spools of fiber optic cables showed up on my street. There is one right next to my house. Despite my misgivings about letting Google provide me with internet access, I am absolutely going with them. Time Warner has been flipping out since the roll out started in my city last year, yet no aspect of their service has improved. I am convinced that they have been a monopoly for so long that they literally don't know how to compete. Good riddance to them.

  5. Perhaps in part on Studies: Wildfires Worse Due To Global Warming · · Score: 1

    Okay, so I accept that the expansive worsening of fire season may be at least in part caused by global warming, climate change, or whatever we are calling it this week. But I squarely point my finger at the logging industry and decades of mismanaging re-forestation as a substantial contributor that is just now catching up with us.

  6. Re:Slashdot's moderating system on Data Mining Shows How Down-Voting Leads To Vicious Circle of Negative Feedback · · Score: 1

    When making an insightful comment that represents a minority opinion bound to get modded down, always start your post with something along the lines of, "I know I am going to get modded down for this." or "Mod me down all you want, but..." I have been here for a very long time and recognize that as a genuinely working strategy. I picked up on it a very long time ago. Not only have I seen it work hundreds of times, I have used it myself. That is some psychology I would like explained.

    So mod me down all you want...

  7. Re:Just a question: on Pentagon Document Lays Out Battle Plan Against Zombies · · Score: 1

    Yeah. When I was typing it out, I honestly wasn't sure if I was going for tongue-in-cheek insightful or just dark funny. We'll see how the moderation goes. Although I suspect my "sorry I just woke up" typo will come in to play here.

  8. Re:Just a question: on Pentagon Document Lays Out Battle Plan Against Zombies · · Score: 3, Funny

    I always thought it was the Federal Government that was made up of zombies. After all, the do desperately need brains.

  9. This is not an actual defense plan on Pentagon Document Lays Out Battle Plan Against Zombies · · Score: 1
    For those not reading the article, this is not a serious defense plan. The document is for training, zombies could be replaced with another scenerio and the students would still have to think there way through the same logic and set of problems. The zombie spin is a matter of cultural relevancy and thinking out of the box for a scenario.

    "The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario," Navy Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, told CNN. "This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan."

    "Officials familiar with the planning of it say zombies were chosen precisely because of the outlandish nature of the attack premise."

    Awhile back the CDC led a zombie awareness campaign involving the public. The objective was not to prepare for actual zombies, but instead to teach basic principles disaster preparedness in a format that would actually get attention.

  10. Re:This sounds technically easy, maybe fun! on Electric Stimulation Could Help You Control Your Dreams · · Score: 1

    No. A TENS units uses AC power, a tDCS device used DC. You don't want to hook that up to your brain.

  11. Reckless bio-hacker here. on Electric Stimulation Could Help You Control Your Dreams · · Score: 1

    tDCS (transcracial direct-current stimulation) devices are remarkable in many ways, and a good - albeit basic - unit can be built with relatively few parts for less then $20, plus a good multimeter. However, if you know little to nothing about electronics - learn electronics first. If you screw it up, you can severely burn your scalp, cause blood vessels in your eyes to explode, and I am sure worse. To be safe, you can purchase a fairly sophisticated device from http://www.foc.us/ they sell it to boost reaction time in gaming, but it is all the same. Depending on where you place the electrodes you really can boost your brain power in many different ways, and the effects can be dramatic. You can also take better control of brain functioning, I have had severe, clinical (really really bad) anxiety disorder since I was just a kid. Strategic use of my device has nearly eliminated my anxiety and I rarely need a benzo anymore. As a self-described (slightly reckless) bio-hacker, I have been seriously considering shaving my head down to the scalp just to gain more convenient access to my brain without sponge electrodes.

  12. Re:Long way from Compton on Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't know why you got scored funny, it's actually true:

    He's a billionaire straight outta Compton -- or so Dr. Dre says, anyway.

  13. Re:Birth. Life. Death. on Space Telescope Reveals Weird Star Cluster Conundrum · · Score: 1

    I am equally in doubt. I do understand the body of science that says things are as they are and it's pretty much indisputable. I was merely musing. It would be quite a surprise after all. I'm surprised I got a single mod point out of that. I sometimes ponder how humanity would react if we discovered that we had only a few hundred years to evacuate the planet, even the solar system.

  14. Birth. Life. Death. on Space Telescope Reveals Weird Star Cluster Conundrum · · Score: 2

    I have always wondered if we would find out we are wrong about star mechanics. If this is enough of a problem that the process of star birth ends up being heavily revised, I am left wondering if we will also have to revise our theories on the properties of a main sequence star, and star death. It is said that the current estimate for the sun's ability to sustain life on Earth is around a billion years and that it will puff up and finally go nova in about five-billion years. It would be disappointing to find out that the life of our sun is overestimated by five-billion years.

    Anyway, I am really not qualified to even have that thought, but at least it would probably make for a good science-fiction story.

  15. Re:To all who say it's not two-dimensional on First Transistors Made Entirely of 2-D Materials · · Score: 1

    I didn't define it. I got that out of a dictionary. I guess what you're not understanding is that to describe something physical as two-dimensional, we are referring to perception through our senses. It is a depth deficit, not a lack. Here are a couple more definitions:

    Two Dimensional refers to objects or pictures that lack the expected range or depth.

    Lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth

    So when you refer to something like a piece of paper as being three-dimensional, you are not being accurate so much as you are being a pedant because you completely fail to understand how the definition is applied to physical objects.

  16. Re:To all who say it's not two-dimensional on First Transistors Made Entirely of 2-D Materials · · Score: 1

    Yeah. I'll probably get modded down. (Score: -2, Reasonable)

  17. Re:To all who say it's not two-dimensional on First Transistors Made Entirely of 2-D Materials · · Score: 1

    Your really grasping there.

  18. To all who say it's not two-dimensional on First Transistors Made Entirely of 2-D Materials · · Score: 2, Informative

    two-dimensional
    adjective
    having or appearing to have length and breadth but no depth.

    According some of the definitions of two-dimensional that I am reading here, there is no such thing as two-dimensional outside of a few popular thought experiments in theoretical physics.
    appearing to have - This is why it is not incorrect to call a sheet of paper two-dimensional.

  19. Re:Still denialists, no surprise. on US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe · · Score: 1

    "and yet we're still here."

    And yet we can't keep it up forever. Would you say we are actually doing a good job with your "command and control" strategy? Please outline that strategy as it is currently unfolding on the problem of global warming. Oh wait, there isn't one. Governments are acknowledging global warming and it's causes yet sitting on their collective hands about doing something about it. You seem rather bent on bringing the Earth to the edge of becoming an industrial wasteland just to see if we can recover from it. You keep talking about history without taking a serious look at the future.

    As far as lead, see my original post, we barely got that taken care of. As far as CHCs go, I used the international cooperation and banning of Ozone depleting chemicals it took to fix the ozone layer in a post just yesterday. The problem we are not seeing that international cooperation now.

  20. Re:Still denialists, no surprise. on US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe · · Score: 1

    Mod this post up!

  21. Re:Still denialists, no surprise. on US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe · · Score: 1

    But that's the sad truth. If was straightforward enough, yet still managed to be a gigantic multi-decade battle to get something done about it. The story behind it is actually really interesting, but I can't think of any books on it right off.

  22. Re:Still denialists, no surprise. on US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe · · Score: 2

    There is a point where a species cannot adapt and change fast enough. We do not yet fully understand the implications of a fully realized man-made global warming event, at what point it could become a runaway event, and where that might lead. The reason the Permian extinction event "The Great Dying" killed 99% of all life on Earth, was due to the Earth rapidly flip flopping between deep freeze and hot enough to bake a loaf of bread on the surface. Evolution simply could not keep up. The halls of extinction still has plenty of room left, and no doubt at least some of it will get filled over the coming eons. Better to err on the side of caution.

  23. Still denialists, no surprise. on US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I believe this report is overall truthful, I can't help but think of Clair Cameron Patterson. It took him 20 years of fighting corporations and their "bought and payed for" scientists to convince enough people in our government that the nation was dying due to lead poisoning to actually do something about it. This despite the fact that the reality of it was in-your-face blatant the whole time. We should all consider him a hero and be thankful that he solely lead the charge against the ridicule he faced. Although a largely unsung and unknown hero, he really did save the nation. The convincing that needs done now is a bit more diverse and politically complicated. Lets hope we come to our senses in time on the issue of climate change as we did with lead.

  24. Good for the economy? on Elderly Mice Perk Up With Transfused Blood · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As it stands, hundreds of thousands of people in the United States donate blood and plasma everyday, not out of goodness of heart, but for the quick $50 you get. If it turns out that this procedure not only works on humans, but that the effects are substantial, and the FDA actually approved the practice, the value and price of blood would go up and the number of donors would skyrocket. This could cause problems like increasing the cost of a blood transfusion for someone who is bleeding out from a bad accident. It may introduce social problems like a suddenly expanding elderly population, but perhaps they would be better able to take care of themselves and would require less age-disease related medication. Then their is the problem of who pays for it. People who retired with a lot of money may be able to pay what could be a hefty price, but what of people in lower classes? If this extends life, would it not be a right to life issue where anyone past a certain age is guaranteed the procedure? Would Medicare pick up the bill? What about retirement and the employment market? Ideally we will discover that a whole blood transfusion is not necessary but that instead there is just one component of young blood that would need distilled, cloned, grown in a lab and infused in smaller amounts then a full transfusion.

    At the end of the day, life extension is one of the major goals of modern medicine, and aging itself is increasingly be viewed as a disease. Whether or not this pans out, eventually something will, and we will then enter into stranger times then we already live. Cheers to the future for better or worse.

  25. Re:Git can be seen as his more important contribut on Linus Torvalds Receives IEEE Computer Pioneer Award · · Score: 2

    Git may not be at the same level of importance as the Linux kernel, but it is still a masterpiece of engineering. It's a total reinvention or at the very least a massive refinement and rethinking of workflow within a version control system. While there are other players. It's difficult to call any of them competition. If there is a major award that pioneering Git falls into, he deserves that as well.