Comment Re:Apple 100% renewable? (Score 1) 288
Strawman much?
Comment Re:alternative energy (Score 1) 288
They used to, but the people who started it that wan't a balance forward thinking approach to moving away from coal where ousted and replace with scientifically illiterate alarmist that only want to make money for greenpeace.
Comment Re:Time to start building more nuke plants as long (Score 1) 288
"It failed to prevent a partial meltdown of the reactor core."
I succeeded on repvents a full meltdown, as designed.
"It failed to prevent a significant release of radiation to the general environment as 15 curies (560 GBq) of iodine-131 (the most concering portion due to biological uptake to the thyroid)":
According to the official figures, as compiled by the 1979 Kemeny Commission from Metropolitan Edison and NRC data, a maximum of 480 petabecquerels (13 million curies) of radioactive noble gases (primarily xenon) were released by the event.[45] However, these noble gases were considered relatively harmless,[46] and only 481–629 GBq (13–17 curies) of thyroid cancer-causing iodine-131 were released.[45] Total releases according to these figures were a relatively small proportion of the estimated 370 EBq (10 billion curies) in the reactor.[46]
i.e. Not Much.
Comment Re:Greenpeace Blecchhh (Score 1) 288
When they lied about apples products.
The stopped being about the environment around '82.
Comment Re:Greenpeace... (Score 1) 288
"The former requires fundamental breakthroughs which have yet to materialize and may never arriv"
what? I thought dam technology was already here. Are you telling me I get to invent pumping water into a reservoirs to store potential energy and the release it when the is a higher demand?
Sweet.
I can think of many ways to store the surplus energy.
When Spies and Crime-Fighters Squabble Over How They Spy On You 120
The Washington Post reports in a short article on the sometimes strange, sometimes strained relationship between spy agencies like the NSA and CIA and law enforcement (as well as judges and prosecutors) when it comes to evidence gathered using technology or techniques that the spy agencies would rather not disclose at all, never mind explain in detail. They may both be arms of the U.S. government, but the spy agencies and the law enforcers covet different outcomes. From the article:
[S]sometimes it's not just the tool that is classified, but the existence itself of the capability — the idea that a certain type of communication can be wiretapped — that is secret.
One former senior federal prosecutor said he knew of at least two instances where surveillance tools that the FBI criminal investigators wanted to use "got formally classified in a big hurry" to forestall the risk that the technique would be revealed in a criminal trial. "People on the national security side got incredibly wound up about it," said the former official, who like others interviewed on the issue spoke on condition of anonymity because of the topic’s sensitivity. "The bottom line is: Toys get taken away and put on a very, very high shelf. Only people in the intelligence community can use them." ... The DEA in particular was concerned that if it came up with a capability, the National Security Agency or CIA would rush to classify it, said a former Justice Department official.
Comment Re:As soon as greenpeace touches it (Score 1) 288
Funny how this only applies to far-left organizations and not to mainstream conservatives. Hypocrisy.
Comment I must be a coding superstar (Score 1) 160
My brain activity is abysmally low when I am coding. I must be engaging hardly 5% of my brain during coding. Often times when I am debugging my own code, "what the hell was I *thinking*?" But now I realize I must not have been thinking at all. I must have been a coding superstar unbeknownst to myself.
Submission + - What would you do with half a rack of server space?
Christian Gainsbrugh writes: I work at a company that is currently transitioning all our servers into the cloud. In the interim we have half a rack of server space in a great datacenter that will soon be sitting completely idle for the next few months until our lease runs out.
Right now the space is occupied by around 8 HP g series servers, a watchguard xtm firewall, cisco switch and some various other equipment. All in all there are probably around 20 or so physical XEON processors, and probably close to 10 tb of storage among all the machines. We have a dedicated 10 mbs connection that is burstable to 100mbs.
I'm curious what slashdot readers would do if they were in a similar situation. Is there anything productive that could be done with these resources? Obviously something revenue generating is great, but even if there is something novel that could be done with these servers we would be interested in putting them to good use.
Christian Gainsbrugh
Lead Developer
LearningCart
www.LearningCart.com
Right now the space is occupied by around 8 HP g series servers, a watchguard xtm firewall, cisco switch and some various other equipment. All in all there are probably around 20 or so physical XEON processors, and probably close to 10 tb of storage among all the machines. We have a dedicated 10 mbs connection that is burstable to 100mbs.
I'm curious what slashdot readers would do if they were in a similar situation. Is there anything productive that could be done with these resources? Obviously something revenue generating is great, but even if there is something novel that could be done with these servers we would be interested in putting them to good use.
Christian Gainsbrugh
Lead Developer
LearningCart
www.LearningCart.com
Comment Re:What's your point? (Score 1) 29
"By bulk are you referring to the number of people in the political system, or something else? "
The number of people whose livelihoods depend on taxation, if that is what you mean by 'in the political system,' would be one good proxy for bulk. Another would be the percentage of GDP spent by government, either directly or indirectly (through mandates for example.)
"If instead the argument is that government is trying to help too many people (ie the country is so large that government from a federal level is impossible and should be abandoned), I don't necessarily disagree."
That's a whole different barrel of worms, and not what I was saying at all. Power is the problem, power itself. It's essentially the same creature whether it is the local strongman and busybody or the national ones, except that the national level can obviously arrange for larger disasters. Devolving power from the national to the local level may be worthwhile, but it's not an end-all. Local tyrannies are still tyrannies.
A subsidiary problem is government trying to follow heart-wrenching but utterly inchoate missions like 'help people' btw. Government programs are easy to institute but damn near impossible to shut down, so if you have any interest at all in stopping it somewhere short of complete totalitarianism you really must come up with much more specific, well-defined, and suitable missions. Like 'provide a court and law enforcement system of last resort' or 'prevent Mexico from reclaiming her northwestern states' for example.
"I do think it is likely time to split our country up into 2 (or more) independent nations. Frankly I don't expect that our country will survive more than another 10-20 years without that happening anyways"
You know, when other countries have problems with different groups not seeing eye to eye on everything, one common remedy suggested by Merikans has been something called federalism. It allows the country to keep the benefits of union, while avoiding much of the squabbling, by keeping the central government relatively weak and small so that it doesnt matter so much which region controls it. Perhaps we should investigate that before splitting up?
I seem to recall some old white dudes named Jefferson and Madison and that whole generation even talked about it a bit. Nah, couldnt be. If they had, we would have a federal system here already, and we wouldnt be talking about breakup, right?
"Is regressive taxation not state action? "
Taxation *is* state action. It is the primordial state action, because it is the see of all other state actions which require funds.
"How about restrictions on health care for certain parts of the population?"
Restrictions on health care, like all restrictions on peaceful honest business, should be repealed.
The number of people whose livelihoods depend on taxation, if that is what you mean by 'in the political system,' would be one good proxy for bulk. Another would be the percentage of GDP spent by government, either directly or indirectly (through mandates for example.)
"If instead the argument is that government is trying to help too many people (ie the country is so large that government from a federal level is impossible and should be abandoned), I don't necessarily disagree."
That's a whole different barrel of worms, and not what I was saying at all. Power is the problem, power itself. It's essentially the same creature whether it is the local strongman and busybody or the national ones, except that the national level can obviously arrange for larger disasters. Devolving power from the national to the local level may be worthwhile, but it's not an end-all. Local tyrannies are still tyrannies.
A subsidiary problem is government trying to follow heart-wrenching but utterly inchoate missions like 'help people' btw. Government programs are easy to institute but damn near impossible to shut down, so if you have any interest at all in stopping it somewhere short of complete totalitarianism you really must come up with much more specific, well-defined, and suitable missions. Like 'provide a court and law enforcement system of last resort' or 'prevent Mexico from reclaiming her northwestern states' for example.
"I do think it is likely time to split our country up into 2 (or more) independent nations. Frankly I don't expect that our country will survive more than another 10-20 years without that happening anyways"
You know, when other countries have problems with different groups not seeing eye to eye on everything, one common remedy suggested by Merikans has been something called federalism. It allows the country to keep the benefits of union, while avoiding much of the squabbling, by keeping the central government relatively weak and small so that it doesnt matter so much which region controls it. Perhaps we should investigate that before splitting up?
I seem to recall some old white dudes named Jefferson and Madison and that whole generation even talked about it a bit. Nah, couldnt be. If they had, we would have a federal system here already, and we wouldnt be talking about breakup, right?
"Is regressive taxation not state action? "
Taxation *is* state action. It is the primordial state action, because it is the see of all other state actions which require funds.
"How about restrictions on health care for certain parts of the population?"
Restrictions on health care, like all restrictions on peaceful honest business, should be repealed.
Comment Re:We can't live without these things? (Score 1) 212
/. has sunk so far
Feed Google News Sci Tech: NASA Needs $460 Million to Start New Rocket System by 2017 - Auto World News (google.com)
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NASA Needs $460 Million to Start New Rocket System by 2017
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Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo : Reuters). There is a good chance that NASA's Space Launch System will miss its planned December test flight, according to a report...
NASA Short of Money for Big RocketsUncover California
Beancounters tell NASA it's too poor to fly planned mega-rocketRegister
all 160 news articles
Auto World News
Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo : Reuters). There is a good chance that NASA's Space Launch System will miss its planned December test flight, according to a report...
NASA Short of Money for Big RocketsUncover California
Beancounters tell NASA it's too poor to fly planned mega-rocketRegister
all 160 news articles
Feed Google News Sci Tech: Beancounters tell NASA it's too poor to fly planned mega-rocket - Register (google.com)
Beancounters tell NASA it's too poor to fly planned mega-rocket
Register
The US Government Accounting Office (GAO) has told NASA it has a massive funding shortfall for its ambitious Space Launch System (SLS) rocket if the spacecraft has any chance of blasting off on schedule. "The agency's current funding plan for SLS may be...
and more
Register
The US Government Accounting Office (GAO) has told NASA it has a massive funding shortfall for its ambitious Space Launch System (SLS) rocket if the spacecraft has any chance of blasting off on schedule. "The agency's current funding plan for SLS may be...
and more
Comment not here (Score 2) 85
In the old days here, freshmeat and sourceforge, but not post-dice. Not really seeing much point in any of them now.
Two South African Cancer Patients Receive 3D Printed Titanium Jaw Implants 71
jigmypig (3675225) writes "Two patients in South Africa that have had their lives and more specifically their jaws severely affected by cancer, have just received 3D printed jaw implants. The jaws were 3D printed using a laser sintering process that melts powdered titanium, one layer at a time. The process saves a ton of money, and unlike traditional manufacturing of titanium jaws, it doesn't waste any materials. Traditional manufacturing wastes up to 80% of the titanium block used in the process, whereas with 3D printing there is little to no waste at all. This new process also allows for a fully customizable solution. The models are drawn up in CAD software, and then printed out to precisely fit the patient."
