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Comment Re:Simplistic (Score 4, Insightful) 385

The ones least likely to be replaced are a) socially prestigious, or b) in jobs that require direct interaction with humans. So lawyers and Doctors are safer then anyone else.

The lion's share of MDs could be replaced by machines. We tend to worship the ground they walk on in the United States but at the end of the day medicine is just a trade, no different than plumbers or electricians, and nurses do the bulk of the work in your typical medical practice. The percentage of truly innovative Doctors is no different than the percentage of truly innovative coders, for most it's just rote memorization and long established best practices.

There are countries that recognize this fact, where MDs are paid less than teachers and society doesn't treat them as Gods walking amongst men. Of course, in fairness to American MDs, Doctors in those nations don't have to deal with crushing malpractice premiums and student loan debt.......

Comment Re:Linux Mint 13 (Maya) MATE desktop demo (Score 1) 290

Why would someone want to be free of Microsoft?

Better question: Why is it still an A/B choice in the day and age of virtual computing? It's not like you even have to deal with the hassle of dual booting anymore. I run Slackware as my native OS, use it for >50% of my daily tasks, and still have the option of firing up Windows in a VM when the need arises.

Comment Re:Yes more reliable (Score 1) 101

Yeah, I wasn't really disputing that point dude. :)

Just saying that the days of SMS being delivered via the paging channel on the voice network are fading into the past. It's all data now. The only thing the old method had going for it was that it was easier on the battery. The newer data networks purchase responsiveness at the expense of battery life by going into sleep mode less frequently.

Comment Re:Yes more reliable (Score 1) 101

And SMS is the most reliable because it involves the voice signaling channel and telephone companies are more or less required to reliably deliver them.

Not with newer phones; Verizon's new model phones all deliver SMS via the data network. That's why your texts are sent so much faster than they used to be, the phone doesn't have to deal with contention to secure a channel on the voice network just to send 140 bytes. Voice is going there too, see VoLTE. Eventually it's all just going to be packets. The carrier's voice and SMS services will get special QoS treatment but that's the only thing that will be special about them.

Comment Re:oh the Irony (Score 4, Informative) 597

DC has very rapid power loss over any kind of distance.

No it doesn't. Losses are related to current, not AC vs. DC. A higher current in the same sized conductor equates to higher loss. You can get around this by raising the voltage (traditionally easier with AC), thus transferring the same amount of energy with less current, or you can increase the size of the conductor. DC can actually transfer more energy than AC on a similar sized conductor because it doesn't have to deal with skin effect.

I could link all of these terms to applicable articles for you but I'm feeling lazy and this is all common knowledge stuff anyway.

Comment Re: Not pointless... (Score 1) 461

Bomb squads don't "investigate" items that might be bombs. They safely dispose of them. Are you seriously going to value a $30 pressure cooker over someone's life? If the authorities were wrong they should (and usually do, FYI) reimburse the property owner. No piece of property is worth taking a chance on someone's life.

Comment Re:I think they mean.... (Score 1) 206

Perhaps the municipal governments having control of the infrastructure

My municipal government can't even keep the streets in good shape. Ever seen this meme? It's an accurate reflection of the condition of the roadways here. They don't even have the hard freeze excuse that my municipality in the northeast had. You want them running the last mile? Thanks, but no thanks.

There's probably merit to someone owning the last mile infrastructure and leasing it out to ISPs; there's definitely merit to separating the TV side of the house from the ISP side.

Comment Re:Germany should pay war reparations for WWII (Score 1) 743

Finland lost 10% of her territory, had to relocate 15% of her population, and pay reparations for a war she didn't start. Despite all that, they've built one of the most successful countries on the planet, by any metric.

It's truly sad to see how far the cradle of western civilization has fallen. On the bright side, tourism there will be dirt cheap when they finally get booted out of the Eurozone.

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