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Comments · 288

  1. Re:Tough ship on Container Ship Breaks In Two, Sinks · · Score: 1

    Since one possible reason is overloading, when they were towing it, how many containers did they drop to sea. If they had dropped enough they could have saved the remaining? Or is my lack of shipping knowledge showing here?

  2. Re:Yvonnee Lee's resume is awful! on Reasons You're Not Getting Interviews; Plus Some Crazy Real Resume Mistakes · · Score: 2

    Personal attacks on anyone - especially on things people have no control of - is rather distasteful and takes focus away from the actual issue - slashvertisements.

  3. Re:I'm curious to see how many retailers actually on Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday In USA · · Score: 1

    We should see how this affects e-commerce though.
    This could be one salvation for the brick and mortar stores. They were being run out of business by e-commerce - and now the extra 3% could come as salvation.
    E-Commerce might now push the Cash on Delivery then :-)

  4. Re:irrelevant on Should Inventions Be Automatically Owned By Your Employer? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Very true. I always wanted to be an inventor, and have now more than a few patents. My first few patents were taken by the company where I was working during that time - even though it had absolutely nothing in common with the work I was doing for them - even the domain was completely different.

    Primarily due to this, and partly due to the fact that they did not even implement the patent and try to sell it - rather they wanted the patents to bolster their resume when they went to their clients -, I left them and decided to work for my own. Started 2 companies till now, nothing has gone anywhere - but at least my patents are mine now.

    I consider these total takeover of any work done to be a big deterrent to innovation overall. If I am coming with an idea, it should be mine and mine only. I am being paid for the work they expect me to do in the company - not thinking of ideas of my own. The companies doesnt even pay well for those patents and then complain that they are not innovative etc. I do understand that a very small percentage of patents make money, but for an inventor, it is his baby - giving pennies for it is like insulting him.

  5. Re:And this is news? on 1976 Polaroids of an Apple-1 Resurface · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would prefer this much more than the umpteen politics and yro posts here.
    So, even though it might not pique your interest, there would be many others who might be interested.
    Also, look at the comments on that site. It is quite illuminating and does give an idea of how computers really came through.
    History does teaches lessons a lot.

  6. Re:*different* scores for *standardized* tests on With NCLB Waiver, Virginia Sorts Kids' Scores By Race · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I feel this more Anti-Black and Anti-Hispanics than anything else.
    My understanding is that the biggest factor to a persons growth is the expectation upon him/her.
    If a person is expected to be incompetent, more often than not, they grow to that role.
    This is very well elucidated in Tipping Point, wherein a research found that if there are more than 5% of high-income people in a locality, automatically, within 10 years, the high-income people percentage goes up (to around 40% - I dont remember now), because the overall expectation on others goes up - from their parents, spouses etc.

    Here, when the expectation is that Blacks and Hispanics are of lesser competency than Asians and Whites, they will grow to fill that role.
    Such a rule, from a group of scholars, is quite shocking indeed.

  7. Re:It's just not cricket. on Pakastani Politician Detained By US Customs Over Opposition To Drone Strikes · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another factor here is that Imran Khan is one of the few politicians who stands up against extremism. He was previously the captain of their cricket team (and a very capable player and leader - I must say), and was even then known for his secular, non-conformist views and opinions. Of all the people from Pakistan to detain, he should be the last.

  8. Re:More hype and angst on How Big Pharma Hooked America On Legal Heroin · · Score: 1

    You should really read about Ayurveda.
    This was/is a very widely used/implemented/tested set of traditional medicine in India, and can be very effective in many cases.
    The studies associated with it are not very scientific, and the efficacy of the medicine for many serious diseases are not very good compared to Allopathy, but it can be very effective for many types of diseases - especially minor but quite debilitating diseases.
    Do read about it, because it is not correct to completely disregard some types of medical practices without intimate knowledge about them.

    I had done a study myself - we come from a very large family of very accomplished doctors - all of them allopathic - and my current view is that the Homeopathy, Reiki etc are quite a sham, while Ayurveda is quite a serious area of science. YMMV though.

  9. Re:Be your own boss. on Ask Slashdot: How Do I Stay Employable? · · Score: 1

    I disagree on this moderately.
    Unless you take the risk, there is a low chance of escaping out of the drudgery. You play your cards well, and the maximum that can happen is that you will lose out on a job - and maybe 1 year savings (which you should keep before you start out on your own). Which can happen anyways in such a toxic atmosphere (as mentioned by the OP) anyways - the difference is that with entrepreneurship you have a chance of safety and even hitting it rich, while in the job, you have nothing.

    I have tried to be an entrepreneur twice, both after I was middle aged, have a kid, with mortgage, both times failed, but still am in a better position (job wise, not financially) than what I would have been - had I been in a job. One thing I did was that I never took any loan to start the company - that would have messed me up though.

    The biggest part of both the adventures was that it was fun - it was nerve wracking, extremely panicky at some times, had a bad temper - but in the end, it was fun. Daily job is no fun after some time - so I prefer this energy compared to the daily job. And now I have assets - the code and programs I wrote during this time is mine - and I always have a hope that I will be able to sell it some time - with a job - do we have any assets?

    Anyways YMMV.

  10. Re:Flash journalism on 350-Year-Old Newton's Puzzle Solved By 16-Year-Old · · Score: 1

    Not in this case though.
    People re-engineered the solution and found the way he solved it - and it checks out -
    http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/u7551/teen_solves_newtons_300yearold_riddle_an/c4t03fl

    So, this is real.

  11. Re:Nice to see, but not really revolutionary on Astronauts Open Dragon Capsule Hatch · · Score: 0

    I actually would congratulate Obama on this. He forced everybody's hand on this, and it looks like a completely new future is beckoning...

  12. Re:Well holy god on Scientists Solve Mystery of Ireland's Moving Boulders · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My understanding is that they have not solved it, rather they have just suggested a mechanism. They found that even when there are no tsunamis the rocks are moving. They now think that storm waves could be a reason for it. If I understand correctly, they have not done the calculations for it.

    So, now we have a hypothesis. Once the calculations and simulations are done, only then we will know for sure. Moving such big rocks means a lot of energy. Especially when it doesnt float. Can a positive feedback loop generate this much energy ? If so, who knows, positive feedback tidal waves could be the next big thing in renewable energy :)

  13. Re:What I want to know is... on Nanocoating Waterproofs Any Gadget · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In that case, the best and cheapest option is to nano-coat the humidity tag.
    No problems with replacement then ...

  14. Re:It's me, the creator. on The 8-Bit Computer That's Been Built By Hand · · Score: 1

    This is amazing. This article doesn't give enough credit to what you have done. This is unbelievable - There is no question that you are a genius - but I also really admire your patience - I cannot believe the amount of frustrating debugging that you would have to go through for this.

    I am a low level entrepreneur/inventor myself - and while I have nowhere near the intelligence and patience that you posses, I do have enough experience in this area to appreciate this. Study hard and become a great - you have the capability - just focus it enough.

  15. Re:Misleading Title As Usual on Fukushima Meltdown Might Have Come With Earthquake, Not Tsunami · · Score: 2

    It need not melt in the 40-50 minutes as you suggest. When the tsunami came only the diesel generators failed. The battery backup was still working. Only when the batteries wound down was the effect of the tsunami felt - i.e. generators were offline. So, there was ample time for the meltdown due to structural damage to occur.

    I am not sure about your other points - only pointing out that the timeline need not be as stringent as you were mentioning.

  16. Re:Push the asteroid at the earth plz k thx bye on NASA Satellite Snaps First Image of Target Asteroid · · Score: 1

    Actually, I was calculating momentum - not energy ratio - if you check the result of calculations I had mentioned (100 M to 10 M kms distance). But, I agree that my post was misleading since I mentioned energy ratio and not momentum specifically.

    Also, for dino-killer I dont think any impact option is feasible at all - other than the hovering spacecraft idea. But the probability of dino killer is pretty low, compared to the 100m asteroid. So, I was considering for moderate asteroid impacts (torino scale - 8/9).

    I was just wondering whether it is possible for such impacts?

  17. Re:Push the asteroid at the earth plz k thx bye on NASA Satellite Snaps First Image of Target Asteroid · · Score: 1

    Talking about asteroid impacts, this is just a question which had popped up in my head. Just thought this will be the best place to get the answer –
    I am not an astronomer. So my question below might contain a lot of factual errors and foolishness. But I had this doubt for a long time, which I wanted to solve.

    For avoiding asteroid impact – is the following method thought out and discarded?

    Keep a pretty big satellite circling (or nearby) the earth. Make it the fastest man made object – if possible even faster than Solar Probe + , by using gravity assists. Now, suppose we find that an asteroid is going to hit the earth, get this satellite to impact the asteroid and nudge it out of position so that it doesnt hit earth.

    The advantage of this option is:
    1. The satellite is always on standby – so if it is required, we can use it in a short notice (1 year range)
    2. The more the time we have – i.e. if the asteroid is going to hit us in say 50 years, more slingshot runs we could do and due to gravity assists so that we can increase the speed to a very huge value
    3. The faster it is, the less mass it need be – say a satellite weighing 10 ton and say moving at 200 km/s should be able to nudge a moderate size asteroid –
    Comparison:
    Asteroid Diameter: 100 m
    Asteroid size: approx 10^6 ton – speed 10 km/s
    Satellite: size: approx 10 ton – speed 200 km/s
    Energy ratio ~= 250 : 1
    If, say, we find the asteroid when it is at around 100 Million kms from earth (at least 6 months prior to collision)
    This looks good enough to nudge the asteroid enough to avoid collision – from my non-scientific viewpoint. Am I completely wrong here?
    Since we usually find asteroids in such time and distances, what are the pitfalls here?

  18. Re:Um, how on Google Wants Your Voice Data · · Score: 2

    In that case, they can use Youtube videos for this, right? Their automatic translation is quite horrible - they could use the good/bad check there too.
    Actually they can translate the same videos everytime people sees it - and until quite a high percentage of people say yes, they can test it again.
    Also, when they have more than 200 Million videos in youtube, why do they need to store data from Google Voice - which is much more personal and important.

  19. Re:Enough already? on Third Blast At Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant · · Score: 0

    If it is over water, it will make a big splash.
    If it is over land, it will make a crumbling sound.
    It might completely fail - but it will not cause radioactive contamination of the surrounding area for the next year or more.
    It will not cause cancer in the surrounding cities (including tokyo) just because wind blew wrong.

    I was a neutral on the nuclear energy till two days back - now, I am having a rethink - it is far too dangerous for the advantages it offers.

  20. Re:all this crap about israel on Iran To 'Remove Fuel' From Bushehr Nuclear Plant · · Score: 5, Informative

    India - a nominally democratic country that has nucs so it can ward off Pakistan.

    I guess you are using nominally - as - existing on name only - right?

    From this sentence, I take it that you have never been to India - and dont even really know about it. There are many negatives for India, but being non-democratic is not one of them.

    Democracy is the most important thing in our collective psyche. And when people kick your country down on the biggest thing it believes, due to their ignorance - it really really feels bad.

  21. Re:The UNIX crypt tool is not at fault on Amazon Flaw Lets Password Variants Through · · Score: 1

    No - this is a basic testcase for any login scenario - the person who is at fault is the tester

  22. Re:Ummmm ... on Google Releases Software To Iran · · Score: 1

    Whoever who could have done anything against the US gov using these applications would already have done this by now. People are talking about proxies etc - can they proxy to a different country?
    All they are doing now is to provide these tools to the Iranian citizens - which is a good thing.

  23. Re:Repeating history on GE Venture Will Share Jet Technology With China · · Score: 2

    IANAE, but it looks like an issue with the basic concept of stocks. Stocks are a nice way for a small company to get external funding and grow, but once it breaches the small company size and the companies growth decreases in speed, then short term benefits override long term benefits for the share holder.

    For smaller companies, the money put in by the investor grows in multiples within few years - so the investor is wary of doing anything that can jeopardize the future of the company - since the profit margins are unattainable through other methods. For bigger companies, the company might grow 20% or so per year - so people who make the decisions (big investors) - has multiple options, and so try to maximize the profit even if messes up the company. Even the company tanks after 5 years of higher profit, they can use the money to put in any other big company giving the same level of profit, and totally they have higher returns overall.

    Even dividends I dont think helps much in this case, since it is just percentage of the profit. So, unless a completely new concept comes which can avoid this problem, this issue is going to be there.

  24. Re:Ideas are cheap... on 'I Just Need a Programmer' · · Score: 1

    I would also like to thank you for the very helpful and supportive comments till now. You were extremely helpful and I am quite grateful for the same.

    Thank you.

  25. Re:Ideas are cheap... on 'I Just Need a Programmer' · · Score: 1

    Thank you very much. This has been a hugely supportive and helpful discussion. I am really thankful to MartinShou, Yourself, mutube, Hairy1 and everyone else too.

    I had lost a lot of confidence during the whole thing, and was quite hard on myself, since I did not persevere. But yes, it could be just that without a business partner, it is easy to quit.

    Thank you all again.