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Comment Re:Fission Reactor (Score 3, Informative) 122

You might want to read a bit about fission reactors. A controlled reaction producing heat to be used. That is what it is. It isn't a pile of hot isotopes. Those have been used in the past. As often the case, reading the article might have helped. Or maybe reading about fission reactors on Wikipedia. Good luck.

Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 547

Vudu is another good option. More current choices than Netflix. Seems in my area they use less compression or do it better than Amazon. They claim to get new movies the same day as DVD is released. Amazon isn't too far behind though. Either service seems better than Netflix on anything other than old TV shows. Vudu isn't a subscription service. You merely pay for what you watch as a rental. Though on some movies they offer a buy option.

Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 547

This is the kind of thinking that might work. Obviously, buggy whips is an apt comparison. You do need either your own niche, and unless in a huge market you probably still can't make it work. But creative combinations of a new product or service, only part of which is the DVD is what will work. Pizza and DVD might work as would others. Basically you still are going to morph your business from DVD rental to something else. Either DVD plus something or something altogether different. You might recognize it when you see it. And until you do, you will possibly think,....hmmm I can't think of anything so it cannot be done.

Comment Re:...and ground based is better now (Score 3, Informative) 37

Modern telescopes with the ability to compensate for atmospherics are now so good they can work at higher resolution than even the Hubble could manage above the atmosphere. That is one reason they decided to end the Hubble's service. Better images are possible from the ground now at much reduced cost vs the Hubble. Or in other words they can be almost completely effective to remove the ill effects of the atmosphere. Then the limit to resolution is simply the diameter of the instrument which on the ground can be larger than the Hubble.

Comment Re:Practical in some, but not all, applications. (Score 1) 490

In the southeast US, warms temps and high humidity mean you will want to run AC all the time. I am guessing this will probably take out as much range as cool temps in winter up north. In stop and go traffic it might mean AC is where most of your juice gets used. I really like the idea of electric cars. Other than the batteries they can be cheap, reliable and have much longer lifetimes than IC drivetrains. But the batteries as mentioned elsewhere need to get twice as good for half as much. The physics of it make it appear that is doubtful. Take out the batteries and the things would be great. Making me think somewhere down the road when oil gets more scarce we will need a shift to trollies or other devices powered by overhead or in road bed electricity. No batteries needed that way.

Comment Not that useful advice given here (Score 1) 192

"For now, the researchers recommend dimming backlit devices such as tablets when using them at night, and they suggest limiting their use at night in the first place." Heck, I have important or fun stuff to do in the daytime when there is plenty of light. Best time for such back lit devices is at night. Sigh.

Comment The Day we Found the Universe (Score 5, Interesting) 31

http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-We-Found-Universe/dp/0307276600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345962369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+day+we+discovered+the+universe#reader_0307276600 Delightful book about how we came to figure out there was more than the milky way, and just how much more. Details the history of the instruments used, the scientists involved and the ideas that battled it out until we understood how big things were. The Hubble is in the lineage of important instruments helping us learn how big all of space is. All the way back to 13 billion years or so of it.

Comment Re:Drug test the final standard? (Score 1) 482

Well, this guy seems to have an axe to grind. For one thing a more qualified expert than him on the retest results has said they were questionable, but not to the point he was willing to call the test a fail. For another this fellow claims no on has shown muscle efficiency increase ever in training though plenty have looked. Try and google that and in about 30 seconds you will have a couple dozen such cases documenting it. So that rather decreases this guy's credibility.

Comment Re:Drug test the final standard? (Score 2) 482

Actually Hinault and others took a special cocktail. Working from memory it was a bizarre combination, of amphetamines, strichnine, morphine and alcohol. The morphine would be injected into the large muscles of the legs to dull pain, and the alcohol was I believe just a carrier. The injections would be given quickly under cover of sorts from the support car during the ride. In early drug testing when amphetamines were the main abuse, the testing company knew some were using a drug they couldn't detect. At the Giro d'Italia just days before it started they got confirmation of a test that worked on this previously undetectable speed. Assuming the people paying them would want it done they tested for that too without telling anyone. Out of something like 130 riders guess how many were positive? Say like 130 riders or every stinking one of them. So rather than call it off or declare everyone in violation race organizers said since no team doctors or riders knew they would be tested for that substance, they would hold them accountable in the future and let that one go. My guess is Lance doped, and so did very nearly all the other riders. I don't know what will happen, you can't award to someone else not with any legit way. Many of the others doped, some weren't tested as much. Really pitiful to strip Lance and hand it officially to another doper. Merckx, Indurain, Hinault, Fignon, and Anquetil were all known by admission or otherwise have admitted such things. It is a pitiful statement on pro cycling. Seems Lance shouldn't suffer more than these others though. Really messed up situation. And yes, if the rules are we test, and you pass the test, really should leave it at that. Even testing old samples with new technology shouldn't effect old results. Might be useful to see what is going on, but I don't see going back and altering results that way. And the due process in this case seems worse than non-existent.

Comment Re:Another terrible summary (Score 5, Informative) 75

You are right the summary was rushed and could have been better. If you don't know what CyanogenMod is, it is an alternate open sourced ROM for Android devices. Phones and tablets can have this replace the stock ROM getting you more control over your device, and some alternate features. Often glitchy Android devices with propietary ROMs work better with this CyanogenMod.

Comment Re:DISCLAIMER: I WORK FOR MS ON THE "METRO" SCREEN (Score 1) 671

Yeah, I agree with this. Use it and you find it more useful than it first appears. Still some things I don't like. But some I do. I dislike that seemingly most desktops are moving toward touchscreens. I find a keyboard too useful. And voice input isn't worked out well yet, plus I don't see it in an office setting. But of all the touch/tablet leaning OS systems to choose from I think MS of all people got it morphed together with a conventional GUI by far the best. Gnome 3 is a sad joke and the developers by totally ignoring users are probably on the verge of sending it into a death spiral. Unity was not much better initially, but has improved and is listening to users somewhat. MS doesn't seem to be listening yet, but they did a much better job initially. But just use Win8 for few weeks and I don't think it is as bad as it first seems. It also has some genuine strengths as well. Still my favorite desktop is KDE.

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