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Comment Re:Seems he has more of a clue (Score 5, Insightful) 703

I really do not understand the hate involved here. Let's assume that climate change is NOT happening. We still have the following facts:

1) Fossil fuels are a limited supply. Maybe enough for another 50 years. Maybe 100. But still limited.

2) We purchase large amounts of oil from countries that, in general, do not like us.

3) If it were not for oil, our interest in the middle east would decline greatly, which would be a good thing. If Muslims want to kill Muslims, that sounds like their problem. There is no "right" side in a conflict like that.

For all of these reasons, we should be decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels. More fuel efficiency and alternative fuels just simply make long term sense, even without considering climate change.

So, what is the problem?

Comment Re:Progressive Fix 101 (Score 1) 622

You do know that some SUVs have room for more people and/or more cargo, right? I have five kids (three are adopted, before you start whining about overpopulating the planet). Try finding a car that will hold seven people. Some SUVs have third row seating. How about people who want to actually go off-road? Should they drive a Prius so that they need to be towed out of the woods? How about people who have to haul trailers.

In short, you are either short-sighted, or a troll, or both.

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 1) 245

Another stat. Russia has very strict gun control, and they have a much higher murder rate than the US. Using your logic of focusing on only ONE statistic, banning guns leads to an increase in murder, right? I, however, am not as ignorant or dishonest as you appear to be. I could trumpet that Japan bans guns and has a much higher suicide rate, and claim that this is BECAUSE of their gun laws, but that would be dishonest. I realize that countries are complex places.

So, since it appears that the percentage of homicides caused by guns has not been eliminated due to the gun laws, we can draw one of two conclusions:

1) The new gun laws also magically kept people from killing each other with knives and clubs.

2) Perhaps, just perhaps, the drop in the homicide rate is due to some other factor: social, environmental, or economic.

Nope. Can't be #2. Countries never change at all in any other way besides gun laws. Economies are essentially static, stock prices never change, people never move from urban to rural areas, and culture never changes.

No, now that that mystery is solved, we just need to figure out how gun laws keep people from stabbing each other.

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 1) 245

Cherry-picked? Ha.

Why did I choose 1995? Simple. The Australian government started cracking down on gun ownership in 1996. I wanted the latest year that I could find that was before the gun ban. Period. Nothing sinister about that. That site also does not have any data before 1995.

Why 2012? The very last year that the data in available on that chart. Period My reasons for those years are based on reasons that have nothing to do with getting the results that I want. I gave my links to the Australian Government web site. There is nothing stopping you from compiling your own statistics

Oh, by "cherry-picked" do you mean how gun-control advocates only publish "gun homicides" and conveniently ignore beating and stabbing deaths, as if people who are stabbed are somehow less dead?

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 1) 245

Not a solution
Not relevant

Ummm. Right. So, people might get stabbed, so let's ban knives? People die in car accidents, so let's ban cars? Rights. Same logic. Some **FACTS** for you:

There were 8855 gun homicides in the US in 2012. There were about 270,000,000 guns in the US (middle estimate). So, for every gun used in a murder, there were 30490 guns that were NOT used in a murder. Yes, over THIRTY THOUSAND. Wow. we really need to crack down on those 30,000.

Do you have an authoritative reference that shows the "point of law is to indicate what's OK and not OK"??

Wow. The fail is strong with this one. That is pretty much the definition of a law. Check out the very first sentance of the Wikipedia article about law:

"Law is a system of rules enforced by governments to govern behaviour."

  So, yes, that means that laws define what is OK and not OK. Please take your trolling elsewhere.

The people who inhale the paper dust? The people whose peace is shattered by the gun shot?

Wow. You are REALLY reaching for this one. When you run out of facts, it is amusing to see what you try to present.

On the basis of the example given - no one. There's an assertion that the gun will protect the woman. The false logic that a gun is an equaliser. Another assertion that the "ex-husband" is "crazy". Yet another unsubstantiated assertion that somehow being "crazy" means the ex-wife is at risk from something that only a gun can protect her. Emotive, speculative, logically flawed, and totally irrelevant to the legislation that was speculatively proposed.

Ha. If a crazy ex-husband breaks in and finds a gun pointed at him, you think that will NOT be a deterrent? I am also sure that you personally know every single ex-husband in the US and can personally vouch for the gentleness and sanity of each and every one of them? More epic fail here.

Check out the Wikipedia article that states:
"Middle estimates have estimated approximately 1 million DGU (defensive gun use) incidents in the United States."

Yes, guns are used approximately a MILLION TIMES EACH YEAR to deter or prevent crime. Amazing what you learn when you use facts. And only around 8,000 gun murders. Sounds like they are doing FAR more good than bad (hint: 1,000,000 is much greater than 8,000).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

Maybe to you, but real life not so much. If you removed all the gun laws tomorrow it'd still be an offence to shoot someone (assault).

Exactly. If murder is already illegal, assault is still illegal, do we really need to make it "extra-illegal" to shoot somebody?

Gun laws are there to keep voters happy as a measure designed to reduce the risk that someone might do "something bad" with a gun.

Somebody might do "something bad" with a penis! WIth 83,425 forcible rapes in 2011, and approximately 153,000 penises in the country, there are 18,380 "good" penises for every "bad" one that commits a rape. To compare this to guns your penis (assuming that you are male) is 60% more likely to commit a rape than my gun is to commit a murder. Sounds like you need to get castrated to me.

As to keeping voters happy, that lead to the Patriot Act to "keep us safe." That lead to taking your shoes off in the airport and no liquids. Giving up freedom for the appearance of security. It is call "security theater." As long as people FEEL safe, who cares what the reality is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Bullshit. I'm relatively honest - how does the "cracking down on ownership" negatively affect me? It doesn't unreasonably affect me. (I'm assuming that part of your problem is the inability to differentiate between "law-abiding" and "honest". "Honesty" doesn't mean you obey the law - it just means you'll admit breaking it if asked.)

Well, if you own guns, and the government says "hand them it," then YES it does affect you. And stupid laws DO affect honest people. Read this and tell me how this situation makes anybody any safer: http://www.philly.com/philly/n...

Or how about this one where a man is arrested for a FLINTLOCK -- the sort of weapon common when the Constitution was written: http://dailycaller.com/2015/02...

(you can save your libertarian self-protection bullshit for the Congo or somewhere else you shouldn't reasonably expect your taxes to pay for police to actually do their jobs).

So, the police are there to protect you? Does your area have a guaranteed service time? There in two minutes or your next arrest is free? Sorry, the courts have rules that the police have no legal obligation to protect you. They do their best, but if the closes cop is 10 minutes away, there is nothing they can do. Their primary job (aside from writing tickets to make money) is to catch criminals after the fact. If somebody intends me harm, I do not want to be an "after the fact." The fact that you are OK with this is fine by me, but don't tell me how to live my life.

Anyways, enough time wasted on you. Come back when you have facts.

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 1) 245

OK. Stupid question here. How would such laws stop bad guys.

Let's assume that an honest guy was considering printing a gun. He obeys the law. Number of lives saved? None. An honest person would not commit a murder whether they have a gun or not.

Now, let's assume that a person has a 3D printer and actually intends to print a gun. Will this law stop them? No -- since they are already planning to break the law, breaking another will not stop them. Number of lives saved? None.

So, please tell me how these laws make sense.

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 1) 245

Generally, the point of the law is to indicate what is OK and what is not OK, and to provide punishments for those that break the law.

In murder and rape, there is a victim. For ponzi schemes, there is a victim.

If a guy gets a gun and blows a bunch of holes in a piece of paper, who is the victim? If a woman gets a gun to protect her from her crazy ex-husband, who is the victim?

The point here is that OWNERSHIP of a gun is NOT bad. It is what you DO with the gun that actually matters. Cracking down in ownership really only affects the honest people. Criminals who intend to break the law certainly do not mind breaking one more law to get a gun. It really is not that hard to figure out.

Comment Re:regulation? (Score 3, Informative) 245

why are so many americans such fucking morons when it comes to the simple undeniable truth: more easy guns = more senseless death, not protection

Simple. IT ISN'T TRUE.

How about using (gasp) some FACTS! Hard to believe, but if it were true, you should be able to prove it.

Australia has greatly tightened its gun laws since 1996. Let's look at the great change.

http://www.aic.gov.au/dataTool...

According to this, in 1995, guns accounted for 18.38% of all murders. In 2012, guns accounted for 17.5% of all homicides. Yes, less than one percent drop! WOW! WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

OK. Gun homicides DID go down quite a bit, but so did knife homicides and blunt object homicides. Did Australia ban all knives and clubs? Yes, the police hassle people who carry such things in public, but you can have a bunch of cricket bats and very large knives in your home in Australia.

The homicide rate went down overall, but the proportion of weapon used did not seem to change much as at.. This points to some other cause for the drop in homicide. Some people point to less lead in the environment -- removing lead from gasoline and paint, for example.

So, tell me. Where is your proof?

Oh, and in the US, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

Copy this table into your favorite spreadsheet. Make an X-Y scatter plot of "Gun Ownership" and "Murders." Add a trend line. Look: more guns = less homicide (a weak trend, but it is there). Hey, the District of Columbia has the most murders and the least number of guns (wow, go figure). Delete that row. Look, the trend is still there -- weaker, but still there.

Now, I ask you: where is your proof?

Communications

Ask Slashdot: What Would a Constructed Language Have To Be To Replace English? 626

Loren Chorley writes: The idea of constructing a language capable of replacing English has fascinated me for a long time. I'd like to start a project with some of my own ideas and anyone who's interested, but I'd really like to hear what the Slashdot community thinks on the topic first. Taking for granted that actually replacing English is highly unlikely, what characteristics would the new language need? More specifically: How could the language be made as easy as possible to learn coming from any linguistic background? How could interest in the language be fostered in as many people as possible? What sort of grammar would you choose and why? How would you build words and how would you select meanings for them, and why? What sounds and letters (and script(s)) would you choose? How important is simplicity and brevity? How important are aesthetics (and what makes a language aesthetic)? What other factors could be important to consider, and what other things would you like to see in such a language?
Power

Massive Power Outage Paralyzes Turkey 57

wiredmikey writes: A massive power outage caused chaos and shut down public transport across Turkey on Tuesday, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack. The nationwide power cut, the worst in 15 years, began shortly after 10:30 am (0730 GMT) in Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkey Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) as saying. Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the authorities were investigating whether the power outage was due to a technical failure or cyber-attack. "It is too early to say now if it is because of a technical reason, a manipulation, a faultplay, an operational mistake, or a cyber (attack). We are looking into it... We cannot say they are excluded possibilities."
United States

White House Office of Administration Not Subject to FOIA, Says White House 334

An anonymous reader writes with this story at USA Today: The White House is removing a federal regulation that subjects its Office of Administration to the Freedom of Information Act, making official a policy under Presidents Bush and Obama to reject requests for records to that office. The White House said the cleanup of FOIA regulations is consistent with court rulings that hold that the office is not subject to the transparency law.

Comment Re:Swap drive now? (Score 4, Informative) 204

Okay, those numbers that you quoted are very arbitrary, I'd like to see anything to back that up.

SATA revision 3.0 = 6 Gbit/s

DDR3 - 1600 = 12800 MB/s
"MB" = Mega-BYTES, so multiply by 8 for bits/seconds
DDR3 - 1600 = 102400 Mbits/s
DDR3 - 1600 = 102.400 Gbits/s

So, the peak bandwidth is about 17 times faster!

Now, let's look at latency.
Typical DDR RAM latency is around 10 ns (give or take, but that is an average number)
Typical SSD latency is around 0.1 us, which is around 100 ns. About ten times more.

One more thing here about these numbers.... An SSD is **NOT** RAM. If you page, you have to get the data FROM the SSD and put it INTO your RAM. From there, the RAM must be read again. So, even IF your SSD were exactly the same speed as your RAM, it will still be slower because it must be copied into RAM first before it can be used.

As to whether it is unreasonable, that depends. It will not cost much to try, but still a rather bad idea if you do a LOT of swapping.

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