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Comment Grandparent had it right. (Score 2) 81

The word you are looking for is "preventive".

No, it's not. The usage you're complaining about is perfectly valid.

"Preventative" has been in use since 1666 as an alternate pronunciation and spelling for "preventive".

In some regions (including where I grew up - almost in the center of the region natively speaking the "radio accent", which has been the de facto standard speech for the U.S. since the advent of commercial broadcasting) it is the preferred form.

If you want to be a spelling NAZI, you should avoid being provincial about it. Check the online dictionaries before correcting others, to distinguish between being helpful and imposing your local speech on others.

Unlike French ("a dead language spoken by millions"), American English does not have a regulatory body prescribing an official standard (though some educators have tried, since at least Daniel Webster). It grows and changes by usage. Dictionaries play a game of catch up and try to document how it's realy used.

(Yes, I know how it grates on your nerves when someone uses a different spelling or pronunciation than you're used to. I feel the same way when my wife pronounces "legacy" as if she was talking about a ledge. But apparently that's actually the first pronunciation listed in The Oxford.)

Comment Counter? (Score 1) 7

"By holding up modern China as an example of Communism, Smith expressly shows us that he is fucking propagandist scum inhabiting the more clever of propagandist echelons as the peon is then seemingly left with NO OPTIONS as to how they could potentially reorder or rethink their society."

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/04/open-thread-2014-10.html#c6a00d8341c640e53ef01a73dae40f4970d

Comment Re:Kansas City Hyatt Regency Skywalk (Score 1) 183

(Slashdot timed out on me and I lost the start of my post.)

As built the skywalk was so overloaded that eventual collapse was possible even without any load. Naturally when it did fail it would be at a time when both the upper and lower skywalks were heavily loaded with people, and the floor crowded below. 114 died, 216 were injured - many seriously.

Of course loads on things like bridges and skyways vary a lot. You can expect them to go in times of high load, which happens to be when there are a lot of people around to be injured or killed.

The Almighty Buck

Journal Journal: Abraham Lincoln 2

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

Comment Re:You can probably thank Microsoft for this... (Score 1) 285

OK, would it be fair to say that Sharepoint sucks in roles that lots of people seem to expect it to be useful for?

Yes that's fair. Though IMHO most companies and individuals don't really use any of their software right. So for example the #1 thing people do with Excel is keep lists. There is far better outlining software than Excel which is much better for lists. But...

I'm hardly an expert, but I kept getting the impression that it was a bad tool intended for general use.

I think most companies (over 100 employees) need a document library. Most companies write a large percentage of their documents in Office. I think Share Point is a reasonable choice for a document library for most companies. That's the general use. Then you throw in project resources like team calendars, team wikis... I think it is rather good and less hassle than most of them. But that's different than saying no hassle.

Taking the example of a file share. What most people do with a file share is better done in SharePoint than NFS. Which is not to say Share Point makes a good no frills file share but the changes that Share Point induces are the right kinds of changes for most companies and will benefit them.

Similarly on things like project calendar sharing.

Comment Re:Kansas City Hyatt Regency Skywalk (Score 1) 183

n this case it failed when there was a celebration in progress. The ground floor level was crammed with dancing people and the crowd had overflowed onto the skywalks. Pogo dancing was current at the time, and apparently the failure occurred when people on the bridges, synchronized by the live music, were jumping up and down in unison. (It's the inverse of the way soldiers are required NOT to march in step when crossing a bridge.)

Thus you can expect such structures to go when there are a lot of people around to get hurt.

(Interestingly, a crowd of people is MUCH more of a load, even without synchronized jumping, than vehicular traffic. San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was reported to have had its greatest load ever during its anneversary, a few years back. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic and the public invited to hike over it. Normally the bridge span has a substantial arc. This stretched the springy cables and broght the span down until it was flat.

During the planning the load on the bridge had been anticipated and computed to be safe. But there were plenty of boats standing by to try to save people if the deck DID collapse, and the people had been warned of the possibility and asked not to dance or walk in step.

Comment Beans & Rice, Rice & Beans (Score 4, Informative) 390

It's like Dave Ramsey says: if you're broke, then eat "beans and rice, rice and beans." It's easy and cheap, even in a dorm.

1. Rice cookers are like $10-20. Get one with a steamer tray. It doesn't have a burner and can't start a fire, so tell your RA to fuck off.
2. Buy rice at the Asian store. It'll cost $1/lb for good Jasmine rice (brown rice only, you'll need the nutrients). (You don't have an Asian store? My ass. Or try the Mexican store. You don't have a Mexican store, either? Shut the fuck up and stop lying. Open your eyebulbs; they're everywhere.)
3. Buy bullion cubes and/or soup base (it comes in a jar) for flavor. You can get that stuff cheap at the Asian store.
4. Buy beans in a can from Save-a-Lot/Aldi/cheapo-store. I like navy beans and fava beans. There're a few dozen other kinds. Get what's cheap. One can a day, minimum.
5. Put the rice, soup base/bullion/soup mix and water in the rice cooker and press the button. Add the beans when it's done. Enjoy.
6. If you're feeling rich, chicken or sausage or burger patties go in the steamer tray.
7. The Asian store will also have cheap noodles that the rice cooker will cook just fine. Cheaper than ramen. (You still need the beans, or you'll eventually get something nasty like beri-beri.)
8. Oatmeal and raisins make a good, fast breakfast. (Add sugar packets and creamers from wherever other people get coffee.)
9. You'll also need to add some vitamin C every once in while to prevent scurvy. Any fruit or fruit juice will do. Tea made from fresh pine needles (actual pine trees only) will do in a pinch. I like raisins, apples, bananas, and oranges, which are all usually cheap enough.

You can actually live on that stuff for months at a time without dying. The soup base/bullion and occasional noodles and meat will keep you from committing suicide.

Comment Re:Cost breakdown (Score 1) 125

I think the difference is that the $10k/pound is likely the cost for launching a satellite. The 5000 pounds that NASA is launching is inside a pressurized container (according to Wikipedia, the dry mass of a Dragon is roughly 9300 pounds) so the total mass that NASA is paying for is probably closer to 15,000 pounds per launch. Plus they're getting back about 3500 pounds from orbit, which is also good because it allows for return of experiments (Soyuz can return a little, but not anywhere near that much). Also, I seem to remember that the $10k/pound figure was for the Space Shuttle, not Falcon and that article probably hasn't been updated in awhile.

In the end, by the time you include the various payload prep and recovery services, NASA is probably getting quite a good deal from SpaceX. The reverse is also true since NASA signing the contract gave other SpaceX customers confidence in their ability to get the job done and gave SpaceX an assured funding source to continue development. These are all good things!

Comment Re:Bullshit (Score 1, Informative) 397

The article is sensationalism. You don't have to install at each brewery. Someone builds one processor, and inserts it between the many breweries and the many farms.

So now you want the breweries to pay to have it sent to a processor, and have the cost go up dramatically, even though this stuff is food which was approved for human consumption and it's been boiled, so there's just no reason for that to happen. The breweries can legally make it into bread on the premises and sell it to humans but you don't want it to be fed to animals.

Comment Re:Porsche Boxster E (Score 1) 360

You'd probably want to use a pretty fat piece of fiber, because automotive cables get flexed and abraded and you'd want protection. Ideally, you'd make a loop, and it would be fault-tolerant. On the plus side, you don't need much in the way of data rates; infotainment needs to be on a separate bus anyway. But it's a great idea, for sure. I'd prefer one fat wire for power, though. Everything can ground through the chassis since all the signals are going through the fiber.

Comment Re:Porsche Boxster E (Score 1) 360

The sad thing is that there's an easy way to save weight on wiring. It's called moving to a higher voltage. Audi is already unafraid to make your battery expensive. A simple regulator provides 12V power to systems that require it, and moving literally all of the lighting to LED solves the lamp availability problem and is long overdue in any case, on any vehicle where it is not present.

Another way would be to distribute networked controllers more throughout the car. This just doesn't have to be expensive any more. It does complicate repairs, but Audi is unafraid to complicate repairs, as well.

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