I think you answered your own question right there.

It hasn't been observed to do that...if RdRand was found to ever produce meaningful quantities of low-randomness output, then it should be eliminated as an entropy source.

No, it's not an issue.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

RdRand could be 100% predictable and it wouldn't cause a problem.

Everyone loves the benefits of government-funded infrastructure if someone else is paying for them.

That's not entirely true. If you are in the top %0.001 of the population for income, you could feasibly pay for your own private infrastructure. You buy a plot of land, put a wall around it and hire a bunch of people to protect you, take care of you and cater to your needs. But your standard of living wouldn't actually be any objectively better than it is in contemporary America. In fact it would probably be somewhat worse. Historically societies that organized themselves along these feudal lines were not by modern standards innovative. You mustn't imagine living your untaxed castle enjoying Internet access and the other benefits of a modern science. In the rule by and for the wealthy, guys like Jon Postel or Vint Cerf would most likely have been serfs.

Humanity's greatest resource is the creativity of people -- a resource that tends to be squandered either by totalitarian control on one hand or anarchistic neglect on the other. People who can see no middle ground aren't just blind as futurists, they're historically blind.

And by a thousand years ago they were going to war in his name. People will seize on anything to rationalize what they want to do, aided by the bottomless human capacity for inconsistency. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if someday to learn there were "Gandhian" terrorists.

Don't get me wrong, I think ideals are important. But we shouldn't expect too much from them. An ideal is only as good as the people who espouse it.

No, you have to get up before that so you can shlep 22 10 TB hard drives to the backup site.

The truth is that there is no simple solution for backup -- not if you consider preparing for future contingencies. Backup to hard drives? Your backup data is an asset that needs constant maintenance less bit-rot set in.

That's only if you don't count the unused solar energy as waste.

Came here to say this.

List of Chinese nuclear tests

Furthermore, is denying China access to certain Intel CPUs that much of a roadblock? They can buy elsewhere or even make their own. Maybe even make their own clones of these very Intel chips.

This pissing match is stupid on a Cuba-esque level.

Hahaha you're a moron, it's more like saying "The temperature in Phoenix, AZ could become colder from August to September." It's still relatively hot, but it's getting colder. It doesn't imply freezing. Same with acidic/alkaline. Nobody said the oceans were getting closer to pH 0. And since we're dealing with a system that's already more acidic than it should be, I'd say to try to sugarcoat it with "less alkaline" for anyone who doesn't know exactly where the pH should be is disingenuous.

If "more acidic" implies anything else, maybe you should loosen your tinfoil hat.

I wonder if there's any way to keep this methane from escaping? Even if it could be collected and flared off it would be a big improvement over letting it escape into the atmosphere.

I don't see how anyone could be "awesome at CS" without being strong at math. Being skilled at *programming* and bad at math? Sure, although that would be a significant handicap.

Programming isn't CS, just like machining isn't mechanical engineering. Sure, machinists and mechanical engineers tend to have a basic seat-of-the-pants understanding of each others' disciplines, but that doesn't mean they can do each others' jobs.

Of course CS is different, in that many if not most people with CS degrees make their livings as programmers. And probably quite a few of them are mediocre at math in a way no mechanical engineer would be, but I wouldn't call those people "awesome at CS"; I'd call them over-credentialed programmers. On the flip side there are programmers without degrees in CS who are awesome at CS, but that's because they've self-taught, and are pretty much by definition good at math. They may have deficits in specific areas like geometry or calculus, but they're going to be good at stuff like abstract algebra and graph theory. If someone is "awesome at CS" they should be able to follow Euler's solution to the Konigsberg bridge problem. If they can't follow it they may be quite useful as programmers but they're not going to be designing any novel networking algorithms.

As far as making CS a core subject? That seems a bit extreme to me, and I actually have a CS degree. I think most people who are destined for STEM careers would benefit from some programming experience in something like MATLAB, but they'd benefit *more* from additional probability and statistics. There is certainly little call to teach them actual CS. It's questionable to me whether people heading into non-STEM careers benefit at all from CS or programming, and they'd certainly benefit more from additional courses in writing.

Maybe in the far future humans will become like the Irken and the tallest will rule over us all :-P

If you've ever been on a jury hearing a trial for a violent felony, you'd understand. Despite the feeling you have that the world is full of irresponsible morons, when you put people in that jury room most of them understand that they have a man's life in their hands on one hand, and the safety and order of society in the other.

It's very likely the most serious and important thing you'll do ever do in your entire life. You do not want to f*ck it up, even if the answer seems obvious when you walk into deliberations.

No, government control doesn't necessarily mean a loss of privacy, which I think also helps explain why right-wingers aren't against it: It's a gross invasion of privacy (which at least neoconservatives don't care about, because they "have nothing to hide" and don't mind the government in their bedroom) but it's not any kind of government control structure (in itself).

Furthermore, the NSA roughly falls under the "defense" part of government which in the eyes of the right, gets every free pass in the book of free passes and cartes-blanche.