Comment Re:Maybe (Score 1) 118
It's not their value alone if they need society to realise it.
Comment Offensive Chutzpah (Score 1) 118
So you get a leech living in your house that should be able to get a job paying for an apartment, and get no personal benefit. No equity, no repayment, nothing. Who would be so daft as to sign this agreement?
Comment Mel Brooks as Van Helsing (Score 1) 336
No other Van Helsing will do
Comment Re:Strange sense of morals (Score 1) 263
It was obviously not intended to be published to the world. Once you're doing hostile penetration analysis, you've well beyond "fair and square".
Comment Re:Talk about the constution.. (Score 1) 745
Wasn't talking about the party, but the other guy who responded to this provided a nice example of the very silly claims many libertarians make on this front.
Submission + - Microchips, lollipops and echolocation: New ways to help the blind see (patexia.com)
ericjones12398 writes: "Two men in the United Kingdom who had lost their vision after birth due to a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, wherein light-sensitive cells in the eye stop working, just received the gift of sight due to an innovative new microchip implant. Surgeons partially restored vision to both men by implanting tiny electronic chips (0.12 by 0.12 inches) in a thin sheet of tissue at the back of the men’s eyes. When switched on, the chips perform the duties of the malfunctioning photoreceptors, converting light into electrical impulses that travel to the brain. A thin cable threaded beneath the skin connects the chip to a battery back, which sits under the skin near the ear.
These chips were designed by Retina Implant AG, a medical technology company in Germany, and have been implanted in at least ten patients so far as part of clinical trials. The current implants cannot help people with glaucoma or other conditions that degrade the optic nerve, and they do not offer the blind crisp and colorful images, but rather offer blurred outlines. Even so, these indistinct images are a vast improvement over complete blindness, and with the proper training, allow patients to distinguish food, tools, and sometimes people’s faces."
These chips were designed by Retina Implant AG, a medical technology company in Germany, and have been implanted in at least ten patients so far as part of clinical trials. The current implants cannot help people with glaucoma or other conditions that degrade the optic nerve, and they do not offer the blind crisp and colorful images, but rather offer blurred outlines. Even so, these indistinct images are a vast improvement over complete blindness, and with the proper training, allow patients to distinguish food, tools, and sometimes people’s faces."
Comment Talk about the constution.. (Score 1) 745
Amusing that so many people claim the Constitution as their banner and claim it represents their precise political views, when it predates basically all modern political discourse and their own views are so reprehensible. Amusing that the Libertarians might claim to be the same party as the Democratic-Republican Party, or the Federalist Party, and claim all sides of the First Party System as themselves.
Submission + - Mozilla Not Initially Supporting Linux for Web Apps (internetnews.com)
darthcamaro writes: Guess What? Linux is not a primary platform for Mozilla. For Mozilla's upcoming Web Apps marketplace, Linux support is not part of the initial release.
Some Mozilla developers simply are shrugging this off as Windows and Mac dominates the Mozilla user landscape today.
Some Mozilla developers simply are shrugging this off as Windows and Mac dominates the Mozilla user landscape today.
Submission + - Plastic Logic Shows Off a Color ePaper Screen (the-digital-reader.com)
Nate the greatest writes: I'm sure you've heard about the color E-ink screen which was rumored to be used on the next Kindle. As of today E-ink no longer has that market niche to themselves.
Plastic Logic held a press conference in Russia this morning where they unveiled a new color screen that uses their plastic based screen tech. The resolution is low (75ppi), but if the video is any sign then this might be an better screen than the 9.7" Triton color E-ink screen used on the Jetbook Color.
And that's not all Plastic Logic showed off this morning. They also developed a frontlight for their screen and they can play video at 12 frames per second. But best of all PL cut one of their screens in half just to show that it could still work.
Plastic Logic held a press conference in Russia this morning where they unveiled a new color screen that uses their plastic based screen tech. The resolution is low (75ppi), but if the video is any sign then this might be an better screen than the 9.7" Triton color E-ink screen used on the Jetbook Color.
And that's not all Plastic Logic showed off this morning. They also developed a frontlight for their screen and they can play video at 12 frames per second. But best of all PL cut one of their screens in half just to show that it could still work.
Submission + - Photographers, you're being replaced by software (photo-mark.com)
Mrs. Grundy writes: CGI software, even open-source software like Blender, continues to improve in quality, speed and easy-of-use. Photographer Mark Meyer wonders how long it will be before large segments of the photography industry are replaced by software and become the latest casualty to fall to outsourcing. Some imagery once the domain of photographers has already moved to CGI. Is any segment of the photography market safe? Will we soon accept digital renderings in places where we used to expect photographs?
Comment Re:I'm wondering why (Score 1) 169
Yeah, that at-best/at-worst thing is what I'm getting at. Something as generic as better science education is broadly awesome, and avoiding a sponsor (provided they're not a demanding sponsor) for that is pretty dumb. The at-worst concern is worth thinking about though, as would be potential "cultural rot" caused by accepting aid for now and possibly needing to pull back from it later should it head over to type-2.
Comment I'm wondering why (Score 1) 169
I can imagine there might be good and bad reasons to part ways, and I'm wondering if he's explained himself somewhere.
If the DARPA involvement is just to encourage cleverness and the sciences, I don't think he has a leg to stand on (or his principles are WAY different than mine), but if DARPA is having the kids build specific technologies being used for military applications, it might be worth parting ways over it.
Comment Emigration vs Immigration control (Score 4, Insightful) 417
This is an interesting step; in general countries are a lot more strict on entering their territory than leaving it. There are some circumstances where you'd want to control exit (if someone is fleeing law enforcement for some reason, avoiding child custody or the like), but I wonder if that's the intent of this policy shift or if it's something else.
Comment OP is broken (Score 2) 155
The high profile journals weed out sensationalist claims more often than not (part of being high-profile is having a finely tuned bullshit meter). The number of retractions are also a sign of strength, as the mechanisms forcing people to correct their errors are getting better. This isn't to claim that the process doesn't have room for improvement, but the cited examples are rubbish.
Comment Re:I can see the point, but... (Score 1) 897
It kinda makes my point that you're willing to make that comparison, Godwin's law and all.
