Comment Re:Electric cars are not the answer (Score 1) 233
You just need the right tires to ride in the snow. I ride on carbide studded nokians, haven't fallen down yet.
Comment Re:Not on National Basis - Some Local Solutions, Y (Score 1) 1139
However, extending high speed rail across the US makes no economic sense now, and would place the government into direct competition with private commercial transport.
There is no such thing as private commercial transport. The highways are all built and maintained by the goverment. The airline industry gets "bailed out" with public monies every other day. Airport authorities are not private corporations, either. Saying transport mode X can't "compete" with transport mode Y is just another way of saying that X is less heavily subsidized.
Climategate and the Need For Greater Scientific Openness 701
The Guardian follows up on the recent news that CRU climate scientists were cleared of scientific misconduct with an article that focuses on how the controversy could have been avoided, and public trust retained, had the scientists made more of an effort to be open about their research. You may recall our discussion of a report from Pennsylvania State University; that was followed by another review with similar conclusions. Quoting:
"The review, led by Sir Muir Russell, does not mention the media. Instead, it examines the reaction of the scientists at the UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) to the pressure exerted by bloggers: 'An important feature of the blogosphere is the extent to which it demands openness and access to data. A failure to recognize this and to act appropriately can lead to immense reputational damage by feeding allegations of cover-up.' The review adds: 'We found a lack of recognition of the extent to which earlier action to release information might have minimized the problems.' Pressure on the scientists, whose once esoteric work creating records of past temperatures had gained global significance, was intense. In 2005, CRU head Phil Jones replied to a request: 'We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?' But, the review implies, the more they blocked, the more the Freedom of Information requests flooded in."
Comment Re:what do you expect (Score 1) 256
Because it is impossible to pirate books to a Kindle?
It is trivially easy to read pirated books on Kindle. Not that I have done this, mind you, but I hear that there are websites out there with ebook torrents on them, and there's this program you can get to convert them into a Kindle-readable format.
The Kindle device doesn't require DRM, the Amazon bookstore does. These are two separate things that people seem to keep mixing up.
Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 609
CVT for bicycles has been around for a while now.
The infinite torque problem is usually not an issue unless you have he-man's leg muscles, or want insanely low gears.
Here's a video of a CVT bicycle hub.
Comment Re:Still not convinced about e-ink (Score 2, Interesting) 219
In my experience, the eyestrain thing seems to be correlated with age. When I was a younger man, I read all sorts of e-books on my palm pilot with no problem. That was maybe 10 years ago. Now that I'm a wizened old geezer (35), I can only read on my droid for maybe half an hour before my eyes fee like they're starting to melt, but I can read on my Kindle for hours and hours with no problem.
The fonts on the Kindle aren't especially good, so I doubt it's font-related.
Comment Re:I live there (Score 1) 483
There are bike lanes everywhere. I would think that with some combination of bike lanes and side streets, you'd end up getting home faster on a bicycle even if it added a few miles to the distance.
Comment Re:sad (Score 1) 168
I actually prefer reading on my Kindle to most paper books. My eyes go buggy reading on a computer screen, too, but the idea that you can't "curl up" with a Kindle is nonsense. I read my Kindle in my comfy chair, in bed, on the toilet, in the waiting room at the doctor's office, etc.
The Kindle's display does not make my eyes go buggy at all.
Really, the only advantage paper books have is that you can't "thumb through" the Kindle, and that graphics / diagrams / photos look like crap on the Kindle.
Comment Re:Kindle isn't the only e-book reader! (Score 1) 116
But really I want to stress that the most important "feature" is that is not Defective By Design: with the Kindle you have to send your PDF or HTML files to Amazon to be converted to the proprietary and DRM'ed format used, which will then only work on a single device,
You are entirely wrong about this. You can convert your PDF into a mobidoc on your desktop and copy the prc file to your kindle over the USB port. I do this all the time, and it works out great. No DRM, doesn't involve Amazon at all.
Comment Re:Kindle isn't the only e-book reader! (Score 1) 116
but it can also appear as an USB key to a PC) and most important is very open: no DRM bullshit, it runs Linux
I have a first-gen Kindle, and I am quite satisfied with it. It runs Linux too. It's a USB storage device too. It reads non-DRM ebooks just fine. There is "DRM bullshit" if and only if you buy your books from Amazon, which is not a requirement.
I bought it to read books, not to try to get root on it. If getting root is really worth spending an extra $500, be my guest, but I'll keep my money and spend it on books.
Best Practice For Retiring RSS Feeds? 71
GBJ writes "I work for an organisation that runs seasonal online competition events. Each event has its own news feed which becomes obsolete shortly after the event finishes. We're still getting RSS requests for some events as far back as 2004. I'd like to close a few thousand old feeds and remove the resource hit they cause, but I'm not sure what is the best approach. Currently I'm considering just returning a 404, but I have no idea if there is a better way to handle this. Uncle Google hasn't turned anything up yet, but sometimes it's hard to find something when you don't know what it's called ..."
Comment Re:Good for employment, bad for productivity. (Score 1) 809
It's easier for the local pizza place to hire more cooks and delivery people if there is additional demand for pizza delivery due to the locals having more pizza money available.
No matter how rich you are, you can only eat 5 or 6 pizzas a day
Stephen Hawking Thinks Aliens Likely 579
OMNIpotusCOM writes "Noted astrophysicist Stephen Hawking thinks that alien life is likely, albeit primitive, according to a lecture delivered at George Washington University in honor of NASA's 50th anniversary. It begs the question of if we need to consider a Prime Directive before exploring or sending signals too far into the depths of space."
Comment Re:Solar thermal power/solar photovoltaics (Score 1) 648
With solar projects in the Mojave there's no risk of spilling oil all over the place.
The fishermen in Prudhoe bay are ok because there hasn't been an oil spill yet. The fishermen in Prince William Sound sing a slightly different tune.
Risking an accident in ANWR in order to extract the last few drop of crude from the Earth doesn't seem like a sensible risk/reward ratio to me.
Internet Sites Biased Towards Supporting Suicide 358
Believe It Or Not, I Care About You writes "According to a new study in the British Medical Journal which examined the search results for various suicide-related search terms, the most common results supported or encouraged suicide. Wikipedia was one of the most prevalent sources of information, particularly on suicide methods, although the Wikimedia Foundation itself does not encourage suicide. Other studies have shown that media coverage has an effect on suicide particularly with respect to influencing the method chosen. Interestingly, this study notes that suicide rates actually decreased with increased Web usage in England, perhaps because support is readily available to anyone who wants it."
