They may have a lot of people working on their space program but I find it hard to believe they have a million people working on it. SpaceX has been able to develop a launcher with capabilities similar to that of the Chinese launchers at a price that is also competitive and they've only got 2-3000 people working there. I know a space program is more than just a launcher but if the extra 997,000 people only gain you one lunar lander more than that you're doing something wrong.

Also, I'd like to see documentation on a concrete plan to build a moon base by 2023 because from what I understand of their program thats not going to happen.

Not to knock the Chinese because what they're doing is really impressive but if you want to indirectly fund humanity's journey to the stars I think you're better off buying a Tesla than some cheap stuff at Walmart. SpaceX has better odds of pushing the envelope in space than the Chinese in my opinion.

According to the information on the eBay page the lightbulb is actually UL certified.

I've always been pretty interested in ontologies. What did you consider the vital literature to be? Is any of it not behind a paywall?

Cheers,
Greg

What I would like to know is how its legal for the airline to not refund her money. She paid for a ticket to SF, attempted to board the airplane, and was told to fuck off. I'd be on the line with my credit card company getting that charged back in a heartbeat.

"Given that calculators were probably most commonly used in finance initially, I would guess that the most common number used (possibly even now) would be 0. Placing that most common number at the thumb position has clear utility, similar to that of the spacebar."

To expound on this a bit, the design is not arbitrary. In finance digits don't actually occur with equal frequency. 1s are far more common than 9s for example. See Benford's Law for more info. Its used in forensic accounting to help detect cooked books.

I use a '10 key' for a couple hours doing books most workdays and it would definitely be less convient if the numbers were flipped. Having said that I don't have a problem with phone keypads. I think this might be because phone dialing is almost exclusively done with thumbs on modern phones so you don't use the same muscle memory you do when using a '10 key.'

Sonic also has great customer support. You can call them and talk to an actual person without going through some convoluted phone tree. The ones I have spoken with knew their stuff, too. Just a happy customer here.

I use Sonic.net and have nothing but good things to say about them. When you call customer support you get actual people who live nearby and speak your language fluently. Reasonable prices and decent speeds. Maybe slightly more expensive than ATT, if you don't value your sanity, but not by much.

Cheers,
Greg

I think its sad that society has come down to this. So full of fear.

I let strangers make calls on my phone sometimes, and I've asked strangers to make calls on theirs when mine wasn't working. I'd rather live in a society where people aren't afraid to help each other out.

Also, from what I've heard from several people who have been mugged for electronics there hasn't been any asking to use the device in question. One person grabs it and runs or punches the victim in the face, grabs it, and runs. I live in SF so I have heard a number of these unfortunate stories. They mostly seem to target women, especially when its a lone mugger.

Cheers,
Greg

The problem isn't that some people have more than others, thats always been the case in the US, especially for the last 30 years and we haven't had protests in the streets over that. The problem is that the people at the top cheated to get there at the expense of the rest of us. Here is an article that sums it up pretty well. I'm not generally a huge fan of Matt Taibbi's writing but this article hits the nail on the head.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025

Awesome launch. That was also one of the best question and answer sessions on Slashdot in a long time. Thanks for taking the time.

-Greg

Does anyone know of any fairly inexpensive way to test for lead in something like apple juice? Something that can be done at home without sending something out to a lab? Just curious. Some posters have stated that a lot of juice sold in the US has apples from China and instead of just fear mongering it would be interesting to test and see if there are actually unsafe levels of heavy metals in the juice. -Greg

Pico and Pine are from some Washington University if I recall correctly. And the Sphinx voice recognition software is from CMU.

"I heard they mail you DVDs if you want."

I seem to recall that the main way to watch DVDs on Linux uses a package that is illegal to distribute in many countries (DeCSS). Sure, it is more readily available than other options but it is still considered illegal.

Cheers,
Greg

Having seen the second video I don't think the officer meant to break the window. It really looked like he was just trying to put the guy up against the wall to handcuff him. It was surprising to see that glass break like that. When you see it at the station in looks much stronger. It also looks like the breaking window cut the officer more badly than it did the suspect.

The other situation though, the one with the man being shot in the back....That officer deserves a nice long stay in jail.

Cheers,
Greg

The system uses GPS systems that use report in their location every minute. Even if they predictions that nextbus publishes aren't open the raw gps feed could be very useful. The nextbus prediction system leaves a lot to be desired; With the raw data I'm sure someone could do significantly better.

Cheers,
Greg