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Comment: Re:Choice of average (Score 2) 374

by sapphire wyvern (#43638843) Attached to: Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate

Because the test course is a fixed length and profile, and they're comparing the number of gallons consumed between vehicles to complete the standardised course.

M/g with fixed M and varying g means that the denominator is changing.

It would be difficult to test the cars on a fair yet realistic basis if you had to drive along some kind of (varying) course until you have consumed exactly one gallon and then measure the distance you have travelled.

Volume / distance is a better metric anyway because it's easier to correctly compare the performance of two vehicles. Your fuel savings suffer from diminishing returns from increasing MPG. An improvement from 10 MPG to 20 MPG (halving your fuel consumption) is much, much, much bigger than an improvement from 40 MPG to 50 MPG (cutting your fuel consumption by only 20%). But an improvement of 1 GPM, or 1 L/100 km, is always going to yield the same amount of savings no matter what your baseline is.

This is particularly relevant when you consider that for most use cases, the amount of travel a particular person needs to do is a fixed variable and the type of vehicle they drive (and hence fuel efficiency) is the independent variable. People choose a car based on their needs; they don't select their commuting route based on the kind of car they drive.

Comment: Re:What is "GNU/Linux?" (Score 1) 320

by sapphire wyvern (#43616087) Attached to: RMS Urges W3C To Reject On Principle DRM In HTML5

Busybox may well be the most deployed Linux distribution.

But, in terms of actual person-hours of interactive use (as opposed to quiet background service provision), Android would curb-stomp Busybox as the most popular distribution.

Same would apply for most-popular on a brand recognition & loyalty basis. Everyone knows what Android is and it has a lot of actual fans (and fanboys); only a few software and hardware engineers have heard of Busybox.

Comment: Re:What did they think was going to happen? (Score 1) 290

by sapphire wyvern (#43345519) Attached to: Falling Windows RT Tablet Prices Signify Slow Adoption

If you could target Windows RT with win32 desktop code, I'm sure many of the proprietary vendors would happily release arm versions of their products.
But the need to target a whole new set of platform APIs (Metro /Modern) for apps on the Windows Store / WinRT makes the barriers to entry significantly higher for the proprietary vendors.

Access to the source code is only required if the end users need to do the build themselves. Obviously a big advantage of FLOODS is that you're not as dependant on a vendor's business case to target a new platform, but I don't think there's much enthusiasm for targeting metro amongst OSS enthusiasts.

Comment: Why would you want to know about existing patents? (Score 1) 92

by sapphire wyvern (#43268351) Attached to: Can Innovation Be Automated?

Why would you want to search existing patents, especially in software?

Patents, particularly software patents, are written to be incredibly general and almost entirely devoid of anything that's actually useful.

All you would get from searching for patents would be wilful infringement liability and treble damages when the patent holder sues you.

Maybe patents for physical processes and inventions are more useful to someone doing novel work?

Comment: Re:VP8 is terrible (Score 1) 112

by sapphire wyvern (#43111887) Attached to: Google and MPEG LA Reach VP8 Patent Agreement

How much you'll have to pay Google for the royalty-free license, or whether Google will subsidize the cost for all VP8 users has not yet been announced, as far as I can tell from TFA.

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding some terminology here? It seems to me that a royalty-free licence is, by definition, free as in beer. Isn't that what royalty-free means?

Comment: Re:Broder Strikes Back (Score 1) 79

by sapphire wyvern (#43045413) Attached to: SpaceX Launching Dragon Capsule to ISS Today

Sadly it looks like you're not completely wrong. Word is that the solar panels haven't deployed. It seems that they're trying to figure out if the module has enough battery power to attempt an ISS docking anyway. I don't know if the spacecraft has an ability to charge from the ISS, or if they would conceivably attempt a spacewalk to deploy the panels, but I'm sure they wouldn't risk stranding a capsule with flat batteries on one of the ISS's docking rings.

When it is incorrect, it is, at least *authoritatively* incorrect. -- Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy

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