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Comment Not a good time for newspapers (Score 1) 126

I feel for them. The print paper shuts down and their online offering falls flat.

Saw this recently:

"So how are things at the newspaper?"
"Really good. It's a boom industry right now. We actually drove here in a car made out of money. That's how good things are. Would you like some money? I have extra."

source

Math

Strings Link the Ultra-Cold With the Super-Hot 236

gabrlknght writes "Superstring theory claims the power to explain the universe, but critics say it can't be tested by experiment. Lately, though, string math has helped explain a couple of surprising experiments creating 'perfect liquids' at cosmic extremes of hot and cold. 'Both systems can be described as something like a shadow world sitting in a higher dimension. Strongly coupled particles are linked by ripples traveling through the extra dimension, says Steinberg, of Brookhaven. String math describing such ripples stems from an idea called the holographic principle, used by string theorists to describe certain kinds of black holes. A black hole's entropy depends on its surface area — as though all the information in its three-dimensional interior is stored on its two-dimensional surface. (The 'holographic' label is an allusion to ordinary holograms, where 3-D images are coated on a 2-D surface, like an emblem on a credit card.) The holographic principle has value because in some cases the math for a complex 3-D system (neglecting time) can be too hard to solve, but the equivalent 4-D math provides simpler equations to describe the same phenomena.'"
Games

The Perils of Pointless Innovation In Games 260

Negative Gamer is running a story discussing the need felt by the major game developers to create the next huge blockbuster, which often leads to innovation and change for their own sake rather than simply focusing on what makes a game fun. Quoting: "There seems to be this invisible pressure to create something that is highly 'intuitive' and incorporates the highest level of innovation that we have ever seen. The problem is that the newest ideas put into games are either gimmicky, terrible in execution, or blatantly ripping off another title. On the other hand there are series that feel the need to completely revamp a game that played perfectly fine before into something completely new that falls flat on its face. ... There's a critical problem with popular, mainstream video games that isn't as large with other mediums; they are expensive to make and require a lot of time and effort put in to create something masterful. With that, games must take cautious paths. I fully understand the risks, but adding unneeded material to certain games is not justifiable."

Comment Tango (Score 1) 394

I still prefer the Tango.

Yes, the V2V stuff is very interesting, and I see a lot of future potential there. But Tangos are being built right now today.

The prototype runs for 35 miles, at a top speed of 35 mph, on lithium-ion batteries.

The Tango runs for 150 miles and has a top speed of 135mph. That's around 4x the range/speed of the PUMA. Of course, the PUMA is projected to cost a lot less, assuming they come to production.

Let's look over the pros and cons again.

  • Tango
  • faster
  • safer
  • greater range
  • fully enclosed
  • actually exists right now
  • PUMA
  • cheaper

Just because the PUMA is cheap doesn't mean I'd want to buy one. YMMV

Comment The Sleeping Student Dilemma (Score 1) 500

I used to be a teacher, and it bothered me when students fell asleep in class. Sometimes I would get right in their face and wake them up, so the first thing they see is my angry face and scary big eyes. They'd jump and the rest of the class would laugh.

And then I realized: I could only think of two reasons why they would fall asleep in class.
1) They were tired.
2) My lesson was boring.

If they were tired, who was I to wake them up? Maybe they had a part time job, or maybe they had trouble at home. Whatever. I don't know what's going on in their lives.

If my lesson was boring, was that their fault? No, it was mine. EVEN if they were tired, if my lesson were interesting enough they would stay awake for it.

I stopped waking up sleeping students, and instead worked on improving my lesson plans. The fewer snoozers, the better the lesson. (I also got a lot louder and more energetic, which also helped keep them awake/attentive)

By my third year as a teacher, I never had a student fall asleep in class again.

Comment Re:This is an old, existing problem. (Score 1) 35

OK, so now I've read the article (I don't know whether to go "What? I posted before reading the article?" or "What? I've read the the article?"), and it says:

Oil based hydraulic devices are said to be safer, but most such chairs on the market today use gas cylinders; naturally these tend to be made in China, where this accident occurred.

(emphasis mine)

Is this true? All (three) of my desk chairs use springs. ....how old is my furniture? I know I've had to replace the cushions a couple of times...

Comment This is an old, existing problem. (Score 2, Informative) 35

Per this story from the '80s:

The problem has cropped up with adjustable office chairs fitted with
nitrogen gas cylinders in place of the conventional springs in their height
control mechanism. Preliminary findings suggest that metal fatigue cracks
can develop in the cylinders, possibly caused by the poor chairs being asked
to cope with more than they can bear.

In short, if your chair uses a spring (most likely), then you are in no danger. You can sit easily now.

Comment Not street address (Score 1) 258

An IP address is not like a street address (which is fairly permanent). It's more like a hotel room number (transitory). The identity of the occupants of room 128 are not public knowledge like in a phone book, but must be obtained through a 3rd party (the hotel's front desk).

Do police need a warrant to look at the front desk's guest log?

The hotel room analogy also explains why IP addresses are insufficient evidence of criminal activity. If they know that criminal activity took place in room 128 last week, and arrest whomever is staying in that room this week, they don't necessarily have the person responsible. Could it in fact be the criminal? Sure, it's possible. But hotel rooms change occupants on a regular basis.

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