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Comment Re:One hand, 12 o'clock ... (Score 1) 756

Also, when people use turn signals intermittently, it seems they tend to use them when they make a "real" turn, the kind you do in a turn lane. They won't use them for little turns, like changing lanes. Which, of course, is exactly the opposite of when signaling other drivers of your intentions would be helpful.

Comment Re:Still no tsunami protection for cities (Score 2) 201

Nova aired an NHK look at some of the survivors / victims that were seen on the various cell phone etc. videos right after the tsunami. Turns out, a fair bit of the people who got caught were unaware because they were doing something where they didn't hear the radio, the sirens, and didn't see the locals run for the hills. It would be time to consider other ways of notifying the population, maybe cell-phone based stuff?

Comment Re:trolling think tanks (Score 1, Insightful) 477

I read (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_224526f0-9af5-11e0-84b8-001cc4c03286.html) that some of the main drivers for the elevated water levels were the shipping and fishing industry that lobbied their demands into the manual. Oddly enough, I suppose the fishing and tourism industry have largely similar interest as the "environmentalists" as far as the water levels. Still, original sounds indeed like conservative propaganda being propagated on people's misery.

Comment Re:Who does that idiot think he is? (Score 1) 651

Don't forget that teaching pays even less. So, the good engineers get wise and get out of engineering into finance, law, etc. The middling engineers put up with what's available. The ones that can't get other jobs end up teaching the next generation.

Now, before the flaming starts, that's a gross overgeneralization, I know. But the fact is that teaching of the next generation of scientists and engineers is about the worst paying job a well educated one can have in those disciplines, and the good people in it see it as a calling.

Part of the reason Finland's education system (through which I went) was so good was that your STEM teachers (ditto for foreign language) in middle/high school typically had a full master's in their discipline plus education studies, and they were paid enough to make this a worthwhile endeavor.

Comment Re: :: Post! (Score 1) 133

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> AAAA www.slashdot.org
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 339
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.slashdot.org.              IN      AAAA

;; Query time: 39 msec
;; SERVER: 2607:fe50:0:f201::2#53(2607:fe50:0:f201::2)
;; WHEN: Thu Jun  2 21:02:28 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 34

Kind of ironic, actually, that the geek news site has geek news about a geek event, but no indications of participating.

Comment Re:Not on my watch (Score 1) 443

The problems in a lot of IT shops are that instead of training people to troubleshoot Dells (or HP, or Lenovo, or Apple), getting them the diagnostics, spare parts and warranty procedures for a few models, and site licensing software for one architecture, you now have to get people to troubleshoot fifty different kind of hardware, drivers, antivirus, patches, license all the software for Mac / Windows / Linux etc. It's certainly doable, and in some environments there's certainly a business case for it, but it means multiplying the size of the support staff, which costs a lot of money -- or putting up with the kind of ad-hoc support that existed before standard PXE boot images, in-stock spares, test-to-work standard hardware/OS/applications.

Comment Re:Heavy users? (Score 1) 303

And that's the part I don't understand: I really like the Nordic/European model where your usage is unlimited, but you get a speed cap determined by how much you pay. In the US everyone gets full speed for the first half day, and then either gets cut off or has to pay ridiculous overage charges. You'd think at least one carrier in the US would get with the program and start selling unlimited use but limited speed plans.

Comment Re:alternatives to Amazon (Score 2) 450

I live in a pretty large town with several colleges, and know of zero independent new book stores, and one used one. Borders closed all their stores in town, but there's a B&N and Books a Million left, but it's really hard to find books I like in either. Bottom line is, I don't really have an alternative to Amazon for the books I buy.

Comment Re:Not Again... (Score 1) 748

Actually, if you have a 3G/UMTS phone that uses normal international frequencies, they now work in Japan as well. I've used a Nokia E61, Sony-Ericsson K600i and will be taking my N8 with me on the next trip. Also, T-Mobile had much better (still exorbitant, though) international roaming rates.

Comment Re:The exceptions (Score 4, Informative) 174

Too bad Apple has been entirely unwilling to address DHCPv6 for purposes of DNS information, which means that all of their products must have DNS servers configured by typing in their IPv6 addresses. (Yes, several other vendors suffer from the same issue) but I still suggest that disqualifies them form the "Ready for IPv6" badge of honor. See http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2607101&tstart=1, or most any education networking IPv6 discussion.

Comment Re:It didn't have this already? (Score 1) 266

In my case, run a turn-by-turn GPS navigation program (Ovi Maps) while streaming music / podcasts to my car stereo, and have the phone check email and facebook for updates so that when I stop they're fresh and up to date. Run a GPS sports tracking thingy (like Sports Tracker) while playing music when mountain biking and allow me to check maps, web, email, whatever while waiting for slower people to catch up.

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