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Comment Re:Images (Score 2) 1191

by EL_mal0 (#45014423) Attached to: Come Try Out Slashdot's New Design (In Beta)
The site should default to classic. One of the things I love about /. is that it is generally pretty light, even with the stuff that came with the last update a few years back. Keep it light by default. Remember: you're audience are power users; treat us accordingly.

Comment The market is working RIGHT NOW. (Score 2) 238

by Descalzo (#44465971) Attached to: How Did My Stratosphere Ever Get Shipped?
If you start a Stupid Crap website, I'll visit it. Every time a friend or acquaintance asks me what they think about the phone they're thinking of buying, I'll direct them there. Every time someone comes to me and says, "Look at my sweet new Statosphere 3!" I'll say, "I don't know, man. I was looking at StupidPhoneBugCrap.com and how do you like your calendar?" and then I will encourage them to take the phone back. That's the free market at work. Now if I can beat you to the punch and create such a website, I'll make the money and you won't. Thanks for the idea, dummy!

Comment Re:That and... (Score 1) 305

by EL_mal0 (#43024693) Attached to: <em>Minority Report</em>'s Legacy of Terrible Interfaces

help the mind make an instant map of the UI to help recall

I don't know about you, but this was easier for me back in the days when the UI didn't change based on what you had selected. Buttons and menus that were unavailable for whatever was selected were grayed out they weren't hidden like they are now. Drives me nuts. It all makes me feel that UI designers are forced to do this kind of stuff to justify their jobs. I cannot imagine that (most) people actually find it easier to use.

Comment Re:terrorism (Score 1) 656

by EL_mal0 (#42582415) Attached to: US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide
Was he in any way associated with MIT? If so, you have a point. If not, I think you're trying awfully hard to justify something that is pretty clearly illegal. I'm not saying that the response by the prosecutor is in anyway proportional to what he did, but the GP makes a valid point.

Comment Re:Somebody didn't get the memo! (Score 1) 170

by EL_mal0 (#42547171) Attached to: US Gives $120M For Lab To Tackle Rare Earth Shortages

You're blissfully unaware of the regulations involved in getting a mine up and running. Especially in California. It takes years to get through permitting. And Molycorp's environmental record is far from pristine, which throws more regulatory junk in their way. link. I work in mining, and for an expansion of a mine I worked at that was 100% on private property, there were something like 30 permits, each with its own lengthy process, that we needed to clear before going forward. And that was in a state far more friendly to the industry

Comment Re:Somebody didn't get the memo! (Score 1) 170

by EL_mal0 (#42547081) Attached to: US Gives $120M For Lab To Tackle Rare Earth Shortages
It's true that rare earths aren't rare, geologically speaking. But big deposits that have the mineralogy to give them high concentrations amenable to processing are quite rare. They're out there, but they're not common. And China can extract and process them for a lot less than we can here in the rest of the world.

Comment Re:Viability of ocean mining? (Score 2) 170

by EL_mal0 (#42546903) Attached to: US Gives $120M For Lab To Tackle Rare Earth Shortages
Well, not really. According to TFA, the goals of the studies are to:

Diversify Supply - enable new sources of critical materials that are not now commercially viable, improve the economics of processing existing sources, and identify new uses for co-products and by-products that do not currently contribute to the economics of materials production.

Develop Substitutes - design and deploy replacement materials that have lower or zero critical materials content, and develop a knowledge-based approach to accelerate advanced material development and deployment.

Improve Reuse and Recycling - both reduce demand and increase supply by developing economically viable technologies for efficient material use in manufacturing, recycling, and reuse.

Conduct Crosscutting Research - develop theoretical, computational, and experimental tools necessary to support the basic science needs of the other focus areas; develop and apply strategies to assess and address environmental sustainability and the life cycle of new CMI developed materials and processes; and evaluate the social and economic viability of the CMI developed science and engineering solutions.

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