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Comment wrong place for solution (Score 1) 550

Myopia is the effect of having an eyeball out-of-round. Astigmatism is the result of aberrations in the cornea. Why cut up the cornea to fix myopia? You got lucky with 20/15; most do not, and many have aberrations. No thanks.

If/when myopia-corrective lens implants give full vision range (and, incidentally, also correct presbyopia), I'll be down to the clinic to have it done. Until then, I have 20/15, 20/20 and astigmatism correction with contacts and no side effects.

Submission + - Letter to Congress: Ending U.S. Dependency on Russia for Access to Space 1

Bruce Perens writes: I've sent a letter to my district's senators and member of congress this evening, regarding how we should achieve a swifter end to U.S. dependency on the Russians for access to space. Please read my letter, below. If you like it, please join me and send something similar to your own representatives. Find them here and here. — Bruce

Dear Congressperson Lee,

The U.S. is dependent on the Russians for present and future access to space. Only Soyuz can bring astronauts to and from the Space Station. The space vehicles being built by United Launch Alliance are designed around a Russian engine. NASA's own design for a crewed rocket is in its infancy and will not be useful for a decade, if it ever flies.

Mr. Putin has become much too bold because of other nations dependence. The recent loss of Malaysia Air MH17 and all aboard is one consequence.

Ending our dependency on Russia for access to space, sooner than we previously planned, has become critical. SpaceX has announced the crewed version of their Dragon spaceship. They have had multiple successful flights and returns to Earth of the un-crewed Dragon and their Falcon 9 rocket, which are without unfortunate foreign dependencies. SpaceX is pursuing development using private funds. The U.S. should now support and accelerate that development.

SpaceX has, after only a decade of development, demonstrated many advances over existing and planned paths to space. Recently they have twice successfully brought the first stage of their Falcon 9 rocket back to the ocean surface at a speed that would allow safe landing on ground. They have demonstrated many times the safe takeoff, flight to significant altitude, ground landing and re-flight of two similar test rockets. In October they plan the touchdown of their rocket's first stage on a barge at sea, and its recovery and re-use after a full flight to space. Should their plan for a reusable first-stage, second, and crew vehicle be achieved, it could result in a reduction in the cost of access to space to perhaps 1/100 of the current "astronomical" price. This would open a new frontier to economical access in a way not witnessed by our nation since the transcontinental railroad. The U.S. should now support this effort and reap its tremendous economic rewards.

This plan is not without risk, and like all space research there will be failures, delays, and eventually lost life. However, the many successes of SpaceX argue for our increased support now, and the potential of tremendous benefit to our nation and the world.

Please write back to me.

Many Thanks

Bruce Perens

Comment Re:this is great news! (Score 1) 94

None of the above. I have an old Denon DBP-2010CI that just plays discs (Blu-Ray, DVD, CD), but has a (at the time it was sold) spectacular scaling engine.

All of the other stuff would be handled by a WDTV, PC, Mac, ...

So far, I haven't found a 1080P, or less, disc it will not play, but the DVD players all eventually couldn't handle the menu formats of some disc, or other, so I suppose this one will, too.

I still need a good Linux BD->streamable file converter for backups, though, and I could also use the files with XBMC or one of the systems listed above.

Comment need to move my email - where? (Score 1) 63

As a current TWC hostage, I need to move my email before this happens. Since the US government is unconcerned about collateral damage when taking down a hosting site, I'd like it to be in Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands, for example). I need POP/SMTP access, and a routable domain (name not yet selected) for incoming mail. If there MUST be a web service, a simple static "C" program returning "Access to this site not authorized." in a few languages (and, maybe, a suitable response for robots) should suffice.

Any suggestions for hosting provider/registrar there?

Comment sold box, still have cards (Score 1) 192

I sold my A2000, stripped, for $300 way back when. I still have the card set (RAM, '030, 7-port serial, two SCSI adapters, 8088 bridge board, video sync; even the two SCSI hard drives still work). Maybe I should buy one and put it back together to support 32-bit Linux. I have the CD32 and A500 for the games, I s'pose. Tricky bit is converting the old output to VGA, much less HDMI.

First cards were for a homebrew ZorroII expansion I built for the A1000. 2 additional Megabytes of RAM and the Amiga's yet-to-be-equaled ramdisk gave me a really usable system.

Comment Re:Evolution (Score 1) 253

I think it's more likely that more people are becoming obese because of exactly one factor: age. They are living artificially prolonged lifetimes due to access to adequate food and to medicine. It's easier to get fat when you are 50 than when you are 30 because of the natural changes in your metabolism.

Comment Re:advertising does NOT power the Internet (Score 1) 418

IFF the methods I listed are supported. Comment system doesn't parse Internet News to build threaded responses.

I get my email through POP/SMTP, so don't need a browser for that.

Nav's built into the car, and I use hardcopy, so no maps needed.

Buy from stores, unless literally impossible, and place 'phone orders, otherwise, so no ecommerce.

Give me the others and I happily pull the browsers, on top of which, it would reduce my security exposure.

Comment advertising does NOT power the Internet (Score 2, Insightful) 418

I used the Internet, quite happily and successfully, for more than a decade, before HTTP (curse you, Tim Berners-Lee) began to intrude on the experience. I would be very happy to go back to those days. Throw in an IRC/FTP/RTP+RTSP "subscription" for content, and there's nothing I would miss.

The old adage about TV ("99 channels and nothing on") applies to the web, but with several orders more magnitude of noise to signal.

Comment Re:Evolution (Score 1) 253

:-)

You make it sound like starving people are getting fat too.

If they are becoming obese, the particular individual has a surplus of caloric intake, if only for this year or month. This is not to say that they have proper nutrition. So I am not at all clear that the fact that there is obesity in the third world is confounding evidence.

Comment Evolution (Score 1) 253

For most of the existence of mankind and indeed all of mankind's progenitors, having too much food was a rare problem and being hungry all of the time was a fact of life. We are not necessarily well-evolved to handle it. So, no surprise that we eat to repletion and are still hungry. You don't really have any reason to look at it as an illness caused by anything other than too much food.

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