Comment MdSolar (Score 1) 140
I'm sick and tired on MdSolar posting these anti-nuclear propaganda pieces!
Comment Re:Exchanges are not good for storing coins (Score 1) 117
Wow, this almost reads like a joke. I had heard of 1/2 of the exchanges you had coins on that got hacked.
Comment Re:There is no spoon (Score 1) 280
I see you've played knifey-spooney before!
Comment Nightmare (Score 4, Insightful) 153
What a fucking nightmare!
I wouldn't do this even if it made the phone completely free.
Amazon Prime Will Knock $50 Off an Android Phone If You Watch Amazon's Lock-Screen Ads (recode.net) 153
It's no secret that Amazon's Fire Phone tanked on the market. But while the e-commerce giant is keeping a distance from smartphone manufacturing business for some time, it is not ignoring the platform. The company is now willing to offer its Prime members a $50 discount on two unlocked phone models should they agree to see ads on the lock-screen of their smartphone. Recode reports:Unlike the Fire Phone, which used Amazon services in place of Google, these two phones (the fourth-generation Moto G and Blu R1 HD) will include all the standard Google apps (Play Store, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, etc.) along with Amazon apps for shopping, watching video and playing music. With the discount, the Blu phone will sell for just $49, while the price of the Moto G drops to $149. The move is clearly a modest one but could at some point become more significant, particularly if Amazon is willing to strike deals with other hardware makers to include its apps and services.The bigger news is Amazon finding its way into Google Mobile Services-powered Android smartphones. Most of the Amazon-branded devices don't have Google Mobile Services (Google Play, Google Play Services, Gmail etc).
Comment Re:Good! (Score 1) 124
Ha your sig caught me off guard! I'm heading to the Chapel Hill one today to pick up some cat food. Great stores! The NC showing on
Comment Re:Better Idea (Score 3, Informative) 760
That is exactly what they think. They know somebody who's cousin is like that. Therefore all poor people are lazy bums!
Comment Velocopter (Score 4, Interesting) 152
The article briefly mentioned a few of the competitors.
My favorite of this whole new 'class' of flying machines is the Velocopter.
It has 16 outrunner brushless DC electric motors on fixed prop blades. All flying is done essentially through the software and a single joystick (no rudder pedals or separate throttle).
The fact that it has no actuated flight surfaces, and the blades are in a fixed position, the build complexity of this machine is waaay simpler and to lower tolerances than just about any other flying machine out there.
Of course, right now on battery alone the range is pretty poor (prob like 15-20 min of flying time, tops), but with a gas turbine generator it should be extended quite significantly.
While it isn't exactly the most efficient at flying compared to even helicopters, I think its simplicity, safety (very redundant), and relative quietness makes up for that.
Comment Re:Aluminum (Score 1) 231
Hmm, I wonder if solar molten salt storage could serve as a hedge against the cells solidifying. Or grid backup.
That is a great insight though, thanks!
Comment Re:Aluminum (Score 1) 231
Okay, then Aluminum reduction for the spent Al-air batteries.
Comment Aluminum (Score 4, Interesting) 231
Why not create some aluminum recycling factory? Those are pretty energy intensive. They could scale their operations based on excess demand. Perhaps even solely to create aluminum-air batteries.
Comment Re:Soon... (Score 2) 304
I'm with you on the lost tolerance for ads. Whenever I go to my parent's house they all they a kick out of how repulsed I am at the TV commercials.
As for telemarketers, especially for Time Warner who try ever few months to sell me a cable package I love pointing out how much of a ripoff it is. 'So you're telling me for $100 dollars a month I get to watch TV with 5 minute commercial breaks every 15 minutes? If I watch an 'hour long' TV show 15 minutes of my life was wasted on ads. And I have to pay for that?' I'm usually met with 'wow, yeah when you put it that way...um....have a nice day'
Comment Re:People need a real sense of PURPOSE. (Score 1) 1116
There's plenty of work to be done, just not enough jobs.
If there was a basic income...why NOT spend all your days planting flowers along the highways? Or tutoring children? Or hanging out with old people who no longer have any family?
A basic income could usher in a new CCC of sorts. A organized network of unpaid volunteer positions to help provide meaning, structure, and purpose into people's lives.
Comment Think of it this way... (Score 3, Insightful) 1116
If you have lots of money, but have trouble with the idea of a basic income think of it as guillotine insurance!
-Some meme I saw somewhere
The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a Black Woman (thedailybeast.com) 269
Reader bricko writes: The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a black woman (video). She calculated the trajectory of man's first trip to the moon by hand, and was such an accurate mathematician that John Glenn asked her to double-check NASA's computers. To top it off, she did it all as a black woman in the 1950s and 60s, when women at NASA were not even invited to meetings. And you've probably never heard of her. Meet Katherine Johnson, the African American woman who earned the nickname 'the human computer' at NASA during its space race golden age.
