Comment So.... (Score 1) 325
....it's like a coffee table book for nerds?
Comment Re:Cylumes (Score 3, Interesting) 98
The military has them up to about three feet. Possibly larger, but those are the biggest I've personally used.
Comment Re:Price (Score 4, Insightful) 565
Everyone is guilty of something.
Comment Re:One word: (Score 2, Informative) 302
While Humvees are indeed heavier than this (5200-5900 pounds,
When I left Afghanistan about six months ago, Humvees were well over 10,000 pounds. Come to think of it, they weighed about the same in Iraq in 2006.
Comment Re:A fool and his money... (Score 3, Funny) 827
I'm a wine snob - I won't touch Mad Dog 20/20.
Thunderbird all the way....
Comment Re:Faster Solution (Score 1) 1139
Durrrr.
I was thinking of that, but meant my post more in the sense that it wouldn't be as easy as chaining military vehicles, which all have lifting/tie-down eyes on the bumpers/frame, etc....
Comment Re:Faster Solution (Score 1) 1139
why can't they be wider?
Right-of-ways, tunnels, etc.... Some areas (I'd imagine out West, but I've never been on a train out there) might be able to support them, but then you're stuck with rolling stock that can only traverse x% of the lines. Even if you don't have anything on the outboard side of the lines, there's still generally a fixed space between tracks, which means you'd have to widen the lines.
Comment Re:Faster Solution (Score 1) 1139
BTDT also, but it's a lot easier when you've got Humvees and 7-tons (or 5-tons, or whatever...); not an F250, Honda Civic, a Harley, a couple of busted minivans, etc... all with different attachment points and every other challenge inherent with a run-what-you-brung method.
When I was a little kid, there was the Amtrak Auto Train. It ran from VA to FL. Now (I'm 23), we've still got the Auto Train. It runs from VA to FL. Doesn't seem like it's taken off on a large scale.
Comment Re:What's wrong with Ohioan and Wyomingite? (Score 1) 1268
Massachusettsan?
They're called Massholes.
KDE 4.5 Released 302
An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.5.0 has been released to the world. See the release announcement for details. Highlights include a Webkit browser rendering option for Konqueror, a new caching mechanism for a faster experience and a re-worked notification system. Another new feature is Perl bindings, in addition to Python, Ruby and JavaScript support. The Phonon multimedia library now integrates with PulseAudio. See this interview with KDE developer and spokesperson Sebastian Kugler on how KDE can continue to be innovative in the KDE4 age. Packages should be available for most Linux distributions in the coming days. More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4."
Comment Well duh, it's not encrypted.... (Score 1) 1
....or anything more complicated than paring to shut off the dumb light on the dash.
In other news, you can intercept people's iPod FM transmitters by driving right next to them on the highway.
Submission + - The Enforcer (nytimes.com)
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times has an interesting story about a day in the life of Devon Baker, a licensing executive with BMI who collects royalties whenever music is played in a public setting. A significant portion of BMI’s business is to “educate” and charge — by phone and in person — the hundreds of thousands of businesses across America that don’t know or don’t care to know that they have to pay for the music they use. Besides the more obvious locales like bars and nightclubs, the list of such venues includes: funeral parlors, grocery stores, sports arenas, fitness centers, retirement homes — tens of thousands of businesses, playing a collective many billions of songs per year. During her five years with BMI — on trips to Texas, Ohio, Florida, Washington — Baker has learned a lot: managers of adult clubs tend to be polite. People who run coffee shops tend to be difficult. Arts and crafts festivals, forget it; creative types never have any money. The most important rule of the road, however, is never — Baker looked me in the eye — eat in the venue, even if they invite you. Because God only knows what they might put in your food."
Submission + - CIA Software Developer Goes Open Source, Instead | (wired.com)
jamie writes: "For three years, Matthew Burton has been trying to get a simple, useful software tool into the hands of analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency."
Submission + - Can T9 predictive texting be improved upon?
Sam Haine '95 writes: I'm being driven slowly mad by the inefficiency of predictive texting on my mobile phone. There must be a more efficient way of grouping the letters on the numeric keypad, but the only way I can think of finding it is a brute force approach which involves trying 8^26 combinations! Is there a smarter way of finding the grouping of letters with the fewest textonyms? I'm assuming an English language dictionary and yes, I am aware of phones with QWERTY keyboards!
Comment Re:At last (Score 1) 122
I thought lasers such as TOSLINK were eye-safe?
Don't have a reference, but I'm pretty sure they're only a Class I laser.
