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Comment: Re:Segway (Score 2) 331

Personally speaking, I wouldn't mind something like a ruggedized google glass for snow boarding [...]

That already exists, the Zeal Z3. One third the price of google glass, speedometer, temperature, altimeter and more inside the goggles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9u1mUlK8qg

I have never seen somebody wearing these while snowboarding, nor would I want one, but there you go.

Comment: Re:What no Android versione? (Score 1) 46

by Silas is back (#43433145) Attached to: FDA Approves Software For iPhone-Based Vision Test

With all those 400+dpi displays out there - are they actually... useful? Short of holding the phone to your nose or otherwise uncomfortably close (to make it hard to actually... use it) does one notice the difference between the 320-odd "retina" DPI vs. the 440 DPI these new 1080p screens offer?

For the human eye it does not make sense to go above the ~320 DPI. It might make sense for Samsung to go to 440 DPI though because their Pentile displays only have two colors per pixel, with different combinations one besides each other (See e.g. here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family). But is a 440 DPI Pentile display better than a 320 DPI IPS LCD? Real tests like the ones over at displaymate.com might give an answer. Whether these in turn make any difference during daily use, who knows?

And for developers the 400+ DPI create a new issue: how should you optimize images for your apps/websites? Do you go 3x the size the image has at standard resolution? Meaning you now have to create each image three times, despite nobody seeing a difference over the double-sized 320 DPI images? Vector images help, but are not the solution since lines will be blurred. Oh how we love numbers.

Comment: Re:who gets paid for this crap (Score 1) 276

by Silas is back (#43216607) Attached to: Galaxy S 4 Dominates In Early Benchmark Testing
Wow, I am really disappointed that I had to scroll down 2/3 to find the first comment asking this very question. Thank you, AC. Phone benchmarks?? Really??? I mean, this kind of benchmarks doesn't even matter on desktops, except for workstations, why are we doing this same crap on PHONES?

Comment: Re:finally, some good sense (Score 4, Insightful) 97

by Silas is back (#43110095) Attached to: Apple Patent Describes iTunes Reselling and Loaning System
To be fair, they implement DRM because the content rights holders want them to. Apple fought to be able to remove DRM from the songs they sell, and they convinced the industry to let them remove it some time ago, which is great and hopefully can expand to the other digital content soon.

Comment: Re:Why tenure? (Score 1) 193

by Silas is back (#43047377) Attached to: The Real Reason Journal Articles Should Be Free
"getting tenure" is just a proxy for becoming a prof. I don't know at which university you are and how many grants that you have reeled in, but at the European and US agencies that I have applied you better have a list of good publications to get your funding. And as for "not to worry about tenure", that is highly illusory. Tenure and teaching contracts may save your salary, but what do you say to your lab technicians, programmers and grad students when you run out of money? "Don't worry, you'll get completely adequate gov benefits"?

Comment: Re:Public-funded research should be public. Period (Score 4, Insightful) 193

by Silas is back (#43047243) Attached to: The Real Reason Journal Articles Should Be Free

This is like saying "we don't need Slashdot or Ars Technica or the NYT, just go to Twitter and let the community upvote the most important news. People with more followers have more weight when favoriting/retweeting".

You will never again see actual news.

There is no way around peer review, and good peer review can only happen if experts choose the review panel. Now this is already being done by professors for journals (for free!) and there is a movement of high-profile profs that will only review for Open Access journals. This is definitely a way to go, and the government agencies requiring Open Access is likely the best solution to date.

Comment: Re:Fault Irrelevant: Shows Flaw (Score 1) 700

by Silas is back (#42878219) Attached to: Tesla Motors Battles the New York Times

Do you want a car that you have to remember to plug-in overnight and which you have to carefully plan your trips to ensure that you can get to the next refuelling station?

That's probably what people said to Bertha Benz when she took the Benz Motorwagen for a long ride in 1888. Pioneers don't have it easy.

Comment: Re:Rejection (Score 5, Informative) 148

by Silas is back (#42873995) Attached to: Drug Testing In Mice May Be a Waste of Time, Researchers Warn

Science's and Nature's rejection rates are very high, there are just this many articles they can publish every week, 15 to 20 for Nature. Almost every paper gets rejected on the first draft, good ones are encouraged to resubmit after revisions. It can take a few years to get your paper into one of these journals, that's what makes the papers of highest quality -- not to be confused with "certainly true", even high quality research can turn out to be wrong.

The leftovers get resubmitted to lower-ranked journals; that's what you usually do if you want to submit something, you aim for a high ranked journal and hope to get in, if not you revise and resubmit or submit to another journal.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win. -- Robert Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love"

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