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Comment Re:Kilocalories of energy each contestant burned? (Score 1) 42

*nerd alert*

The original script had The Matrix running in parallel on all the human brains.

Studio execs said that was too confusing and that they should be batteries.

Also Neo is seen on the Nebuchadnezzar with hundreds of acupuncture-looking needles with wires to get his muscles working while he's in a coma.

Writers should have been left alone (a story old as time).

Comment Corals are Ancient (Score 3, Informative) 39

by bill_mcgonigle (#65666260) Attached to: Corals Won't Survive a Warmer Planet, a New Study Finds

The Earth has frequently been much warmer than it is today and coral reefs grew much faster then.

Perhaps they have a fine point to make but the implications fly in the face of established evidence.

And not shaky evidence - you can go vacation on huge islands made of these old reefs, from when the oceans were higher.

You can go visit Chazy Fossil Reef today and see coral fossils 480 million years old, from when Northern Vermont was a tropical marine environment.

These data aren't disputed in the field.

Comment Re:It's pretty clear Google hates custom ROMs (Score 1) 2

by bill_mcgonigle (#65663180) Attached to: Google Shifts Android Security Updates To Risk-Based Triage System

I was 100% C=64 before I transitioned to Apple ][ before I went IBM-PC DOS, briefly Windows/OS2 Warp, then MacOS, then 100% linux, and added Android later.

(sprinkle in some brief CP/M, BeOS, and NetBSD sidequests)

I'll deal with the shift to the next phone platform OK, I think.

I should probably dust off my Pine64 and try the latest builds again. It's been a few years since they were unusable as a daily driver.

Folks, this might be a huge opportunity if you correctly pick the successor and are the first developers.

Comment Re:We know what perl is capable of (Score 2) 83

by bill_mcgonigle (#65659578) Attached to: Is Perl the World's 10th Most Popular Programming Language?

> Python isn't perfect with its syntactically meaningful whitespace nonsense

I know a programmer with a visiospatial disability.

Braces are fine. Python is literally impossible.

I looked at a few 'Python with braces' preprocessors for her but they all seemed to be half-done and not really usable.

I'm not quite sure why.

It's a dumb reason to shut someone out of an entire software ecosystem. Almost every other language is accessible to her.

Submission + - Synthetic magnetic fields steer light on a chip for faster communications (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The team achieved this by systematically altering the symmetry of tiny repeating units in silicon photonic crystals. Adjusting the degree of local asymmetry at each point allowed them to "design" pseudomagnetic fields with tailored spatial patterns, without breaking fundamental time-reversal symmetry. Both theoretical analysis and experiments confirmed that these engineered fields can guide and manipulate light in versatile ways.

To demonstrate practical applications, the researchers built two devices commonly used in integrated optics. One was a compact S-shaped waveguide bend that transmitted light with less than 1.83 decibels of signal loss. The other was a power splitter that divided light into two equal paths with low excess loss and minimal imbalance.

In a final test, the devices successfully transmitted a high-speed data stream at 140 gigabits per second using a standard telecommunications modulation format, showing that the technique is compatible with existing optical communication systems.

Submission + - Toxic "forever chemicals" found in 95% of beers tested in the U.S. (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Forever chemicals known as PFAS have turned up in an unexpected place: beer. Researchers tested 23 different beers from across the U.S. and found that 95% contained PFAS, with the highest concentrations showing up in regions with known water contamination. The findings reveal how pollution in municipal water supplies can infiltrate popular products, raising concerns for both consumers and brewers.

Comment Buff .... ering (Score 1) 18

by bill_mcgonigle (#65652334) Attached to: Bending Spoons Buys Video Platform Vimeo for $1.38 Billion

It's odd how every time I need to look at a Vimeo it stutters and buffers like it's 1997 no matter what device, OS, or network I'm on.

Literally the only video site that this happens to me. I thought it was my DSL line back in 2009 but home gigabit has been a thing for a while and oddly similar results.

Comment The Why? Files (Score 1) 44

by bill_mcgonigle (#65652296) Attached to: Narrative Podcasts Are Disappearing

If I understand what TFS is saying, check out The Why? Files for an example of what people like in a show with good production values (it did have a Midjourney rough patch).

"True Crime" seems lame to me but I'm not a chick so that doesn't matter.

"The Telepathy Tapes" is an investigative series that blew up the Internet.

This sounds like the NPR dweebs realized that their product was popular due to scarce distribution. Now distribution is democratized and listeners have choice.

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