7031686
submission
andhar writes:
In the comments to the story of the Russian policeman turned YouTube celeb, there were lots of comments that warned caution for Russia when visiting the cop's site. My question is, what scares Slashdot readers most about Russia today?
Also, I ask all commenters to post as AC as a show of support for the non-anonymous non-cowards out there letting the sun shine in.
3437901
submission
andhar writes:
I hate audiophile audio and mp3 audio almost equally, though for different reasons. I was sitting contemplating lossy audio compression and the concept that you can throw away data and have the result be perceived just like the original — perceptual transparency. I then wondered to myself, is there a sound of the data thrown away? I.e. the sound of that which is not perceived.
Does anyone know how this would be calculated or even if there are any examples of this posted on the interwebs somewhere?
3302091
submission
andhar writes:
The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reports that the new Swedish book Piraterna, which pieces together the stories of Pirate Bay, anti-pirates and fil-sharers themselves, popped up on Pirate's Bay two days prior to its release.
I'll leave it to you to google translate the whole article, but the highlight for me was when the author tells how at first he was quite angry. Then, however, he begins to wonder what's the meaning of it all. "Fscked?" Maybe. "Read" is more like it.
1741941
submission
andhar writes:
If you tune in to NASA TV this week you can see a lot of footage of astronauts doing amazing things like moving giant new space station modules with robot arms, pressurizing new habitats, etc, etc. What spoils it for me is that these astronauts are dressed in goofy khaki shorts and polo shirts. My question: Why doesn't NASA dictate some kind of uniform for astronauts? Really, what is the thought here?
Why not for the sake of materials research into interesting high-performance fabrics? I swear I feel like I must be more high-tech in my running suit or ski clothes than our astronauts are in space.
Why not for the sake of creating a strong and instantly recognizable NASA astronaut identity? No kid wants to dress like his dad already dresses on the weekend, but give the astronauts a snappy uniform and you won't be able to keep a kid out of his genuine NASA astronaut uniform long enough to put it through the wash! Today's kid is tomorrow's astronaut (or budget-making senator for that matter).
What about even just for the sake of having a damn-snappy-looking astronaut corps in space, with a uniform worthy of robot-arm-wielding-death-defying-amazing astronauts?
