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Comment Re:Hoax (Score 1) 986

you know that the central process of most power generation involves "just creating heat", right?

Actually it isn't "just creating heat" it's creating a temperature gradient suitable for efficient conversion of heat flux to work, since the efficiency of that conversion is limited by the second law of thermodynamics.

Comment Re:Hoax (Score 1) 986

Without weighing in on TFA or any of the other subject matter, or even the economics of nickel isotopes since I have no clue, materials that have little current use can and do cost more than they would were there reason to produce them, so to make that statement one must assess the projected cost of large scale production.

Comment Re:Unicomp (Score 1) 304

Yep as the TFA states:

But fans say the springs' resistance and their audible "click" make it clear when a keypress is registered, reducing errors

However, with modern software's 7 layer abstraction burrito and race conditions up the wazzu, that's only half the battle.

Comment Re:In which country? (Score 2) 993

We do better than that in MA. Our left lane law was actually apparently written before multilane highways and never adapted. It's technically even illegal to take a left exit here (never enforced) and to use the middle lane unless passing.

There's a common code that many states to defer that gets it about right, unlike the "passing only" states: you have to be going the average speed of traffic to use the left lane, should pull over if safe to let people pass, and generally shouldn't use the left lane unless there's too much congestion for everyone to drive in the right lane. with exceptions for left exits and preemptive passing positions when going by entrance ramps.

In Europe they put on their blinker towards the median side rather than obnoxiously flashing their high beams to remind people in front to vacate the fast lane. Very civilized. This also lets the driver behind you know you'd pass the guy if you could.

Comment Re:Changes require systematic, reliable evidence.. (Score 1) 336

This is pretty much the way I see it, working in the field. On the "pro-net-neutrality" side there are those with reasonable views on balancing common carriage with legitimate needs for priority, some with a basic level of network literacy with a wide range of conflicting specific suggestions who don't usually understand the consequences of what they are asking for, and a whole lot of people who don't even understand what it is they are asking for and prefer to converse in vague terms and catch phrases. I doubt there are even 3 million Americans who know what "statistical multiplexing" means so how are they supposed to weigh in on the issue.

Being a progressive my peers are generally surprised when I answer :"it depends" when asked whether I support "net neutrality" rather than "yes."

Comment Re:Please explain (Score 5, Insightful) 114

It doesn't, you can load it as a module.

...or run the alternative userspace driver, which linux supports doing as well.

What really should be the question is why can't even Microsoft, which despite their software reputation generally is well reguarded for input accessories, not present a consistent interface across different generations of controllers. It's not like there isn't an enumeration standard they could follow.

Comment Re:So, if not the FCC, who should regulate it? (Score 1) 278

Now... what happens when a Hotel guest brings in a portable device [theverge.com] and starts shutting down the official Cameras, Printers, and Wireless APs?

Well, if the Microsoft would fix the damn surface so MFP doesn't break it and operators have to disable MFP, and the hotel sets things up right, nothing, just a bit of congestion.

What happens when conventioneers start using MFP? That's the real fun, there.

Comment Re:Now if they could only fix... (Score 1) 278

I have thousands of hosts on the same L2 network over WiFi. Works fine. Just turn off broadcast/multicast, use proxy ARP, and pinhole/convert the bare essential multicasts/broadcasts to unicast. RF is indeed a big problem with density, which is why stadium setups use directional antenna arrays, but the biggest problem is consumer-grade wifi drivers that lose their s**t if they see too many APs, die horribly in the face of modern roaming assist standards, and if they are even lucky to have a 5GHZ antenna to drive, can't do DFS channels right.

Comment Re:perfect? (Score 1) 110

Actually thermophotovoltaics, like stirling engine collectors, have the advantage that you can use them as a an electricity generator from natural gas at night instead of using a dedicated natural gas plant. Not sure if TFA is a technology that enables that use case, but it has been looked at as a way to combine the installation costs of solar arrays and natgas plants. Also there's been speculation as to whether they can be made into a more efficient way for hybrid cars to burn gas than an ICE.

TFA, though seems like it is more focused on photo-thermo-photovoltaics. No pun intended.

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