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Comment Re:The abuse of free speech. (Score 2, Insightful) 271

"My opinion is there is problem as I see it is there is a big abuse on free speech."

I totally agree. After the Las Vegas mass shooting, I spent most of two days watching youtube conspiracy theories about it. It was pretty clear that they were wrong, but nonetheless, I found them fascinating. Since when is all entertainment required to be educational? And what if the videos had turned out to be correct?

The authorities "knew" that Galileo was wrong back in the 17th century, but that didn't make their censorship of him OK.

Comment Re:am I the dullest knife in the drawer? (Score 1) 258

1) Tulips don't have a limited supply. I.e. as tulips are bred, their supply can increase exponentially over time.
2) Tulips aren't divisible. I.e. you can't pay 0.032 tulips for something.
3) Tulips aren't easily transportable. I.e. you can't send a tulip to china in a few minutes.
4) Tulips aren't durable. If you kept one for 20 years, it would be unlikely to be in good condition afterwards.
5) Tulips aren't uniform. One tulip is not like another.

Comment Re:Anything is possible. Practical though? (Score 1) 418

That's not possible. 4KB is 32000 bits, so there are 2 ^ 32000 ~= 10 ^ 10000 possible 4KB sequences. That's a one followed by 10,000 zeros number of sequences you would have needed to compare to find the one you were looking for. If you could have compared a billion sequences / second, it would have taken the age of the universe times nearly infinity to locate the sequence you were looking for. You must have had a bug in your code - perhaps your random number generator was faulty, or you weren't comparing the full 4KB length of the data.

Comment Re:Pseudoscientific claptrap (Score 1) 418

I might remember something about that 30 year ago scheme! One of my father's friends (a professional mathematician who worked for a well-known defense contractor) invested in it in mid-1987. I thought about it and told my father's friend that I didn't think the claims were plausible and suggested that he try to get his money back - which annoyed him. Never heard anything about it since, and my father's friend died many years ago. I wish I knew the name of the technology or company.

Submission + - ESA: European Mars Lander Crash Caused By 1-Second Glitch (space.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The European Space Agency (ESA) on Nov. 23 said its Schiaparelli lander’s crash landing on Mars on Oct. 19 followed an unexplained saturation of its inertial measurement unit (IMU), which delivered bad data to the lander’s computer and forced a premature release of its parachute. Polluted by the IMU data, the lander’s computer apparently thought it had either already landed or was just about to land. The parachute system was released, the braking thrusters were fired only briefly and the on-ground systems were activated. Instead of being on the ground, Schiaparelli was still 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) above the Mars surface. It crashed, but not before delivering what ESA officials say is a wealth of data on entry into the Mars atmosphere, the functioning and release of the heat shield and the deployment of the parachute — all of which went according to plan. In its Nov. 23 statement, ESA said the saturation reading from Schiaparelli’s inertial measurement unit lasted only a second but was enough to play havoc with the navigation system. ESA said the sequence of events "has been clearly reproduced in computer simulations of the control system’s response to the erroneous information." ESA’s director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration, David Parker, said in a statement that ExoMars teams are still sifting through the voluminous data harvest from the Schiaparelli mission, and that an external, independent board of inquiry, now being created, would release a final report in early 2017.

Comment Re:Seagate claimed 60TB by 2016 (Score 2) 107

It goes back even farther than that!

Here's an article from 2010 reporting Seagate promising 100TB HAMR hard drives:
http://www.myce.com/news/seaga...

Here's an article from 2006 reporting Seagate promising HAMR hard drives in "a few years":
http://webcache.googleusercont...

Also I'm puzzled by the claims about hundred layer 3D NAND chips. I can see how a hundred-layer chip would increase density and therefore could reduce access latency, but I don't see how it could significantly reduce cost-per-bit. Sure, there will be a hundred times as many bits per square cm, but a hundred times as many manufacturing processing steps should be required to make it, thereby increasing manufacturing cost a hundred-fold. Also, with all those manufacturing steps, the chance of defects also goes up, thereby reducing yields and increasing costs even more. Reduced latency would be cool, but I don't see it reducing cost-per-bit by much, if at all.

Also, Intel seems to be peculiarly self-contradicting when discussing their 3D XPoint technology. In 2015 they claimed that 3D XPoint was NOT phase-change technology and that it was already in volume production to prepare for sale in early 2016. In 2016 they're claiming that 3D XPoint IS phase-change technology and will not enter volume production until 2017.

I've become very cynical about all this. Frankly, I'll believe these things when I can see them with my own eyes.

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Jerk human beats up Boston Dynamics robot - Mashable (google.com)


Mashable

Jerk human beats up Boston Dynamics robot
Mashable
A new clip released by Alphabet-owned Boston Dynamics in an attempt to show off its robot Atlas left us feeling a little bad for the faceless humanoid. Mainly because a person in the video is a total jerk. SEE ALSO: Humanoid robot walks through a ...
Boston Dynamics presents the 'next generation' Atlas robotEngadget
Watch Boston Dynamics' next-gen Atlas robot do warehouse work (and bounce back from bullying)GeekWire
Watch Google's Latest Robot Deftly Deal With Snowy Trail, Abusive Co-WorkerRe/code
IEEE Spectrum-Inverse-Gizmodo
all 16 news articles

Submission + - Next Gen ATLAS Robot from Boston Dynamics is Incredible (roboticstrends.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Boston Dynamics just posted a video of its next generation ATLAS robot, and it’s absolutely incredible. The video shows ATLAS walk, open a door, maintain its balance while it walks through snow and semi-rough terrain, squat and pick up 10-pound boxes and much more. And it does everything without a tether.

The new version is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain and help with navigation. This version of Atlas is about 5’ 9” tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs.

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