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Comment Re:You can't win... (Score 1) 136

And either could be worked around.

Online voting, for utmost security.

Each voter gets a specialized browser install based on a normal browser with few key differences:
  - Cache is flushed every 60seconds
  - Only 1 SSL key is accepted
  - Only 1 host with which communication is accepted
  - All communication over HTTPS only

Then the webservice portion, and i'm basing this how things work in Finland. Here you can authenticate with your real life details using your bank account details.
So you login via your bank, which requires 2-factor authentication (password + rotating PIN).
Add RSA dongle which is given personally to every single voter (cost 10-20€ per voter)
So you have many forms of authentication before you are able to login to make absolutely certain you are who you say you are.

Absentee voting is not allowed. Only the voting right holder is allowed to vote.

Then just have a normal online poll type of solution, but with extra information, and extra steps to ensure the voter has given some thought to it.
Allow semi-anonymous commenting by different voters, ie. every voter is given a random "voter id"

In database the votes are saved by voter id.
the voter id to real life information data is only viewable for very precisely vetted small group of people, to basicly ensure every one is voting for themselves only, and everything is technically working.
Every one else will not see the actual identities, unless a voter expressly wants to reveal that (ie.in a comment has revealed his personality). A voter can be given a new pseudo-anonymous voter id at request as well.

Allow absolutely no one to log in as someone else. Databases are fully transactional only -> no modifying records directly etc. every single action against the database is logged. that way this database can be append only, and a cache database which can be at any time be rebuilt by following the log.

So this can be in extreme cases still traced to a specific voter, but i don't see why that is needed at all.

The biggest problem will be the people involved in this system, without making it technically impossible to manipulate the voting data even by administrators it will not be a sound system. Even government itself shouldn't be able to trace pseudo-anonymous voter id to voter at will and especially not in mass.

Comment Re:A good site for extrapolating from current scie (Score 1) 409

Mirrors:
Defeated with a group of very tiny droid satellites scattered for multiple angles.

Really long away: Can't really hit the enemy, and if you can see the enemy, they likely will see you too.

Lasers: As fast as light soooo -> best weapon to use if target doesn't have reflection ;) When they see it coming, they are already hit.

Getting away: Better be the fastest around, otherwise you are screwed

Getting hit: Your course will change as well, even if hit by laser, tho with laser it is very minimal amount of course change.
Shooting anything with mass or which generates surface heat: Your course will change and you need equivalent opposite force.

Mass drivers OR in other words: Rail gun is going to be super effective as there is practically zero drag except gravitational.

Targeting systems will be of utmost importance too.

Missiles, rockets, space torpedoes: Can be very fast in space, with huge acceleration BUT distances are so long that they need to be guided. Unless you are shooting a scatter of tiny rockets.

Initially as well everything will be very weak, get hit by pretty much anything and you are totally screwed, single hit will often be quite enough until we can get sufficient payloads sufficiently cheap into space to build any sort of armoring apart from reflectors.

Dark paint: I would guess visual cues are only semi important, anything in space will have infrared etc. so you might as well paint your warship bright orange, won't make much difference.

Battles are most likely to be very long and mostly quite boring tactical undertaking due to the vast distances and vast detection ranges.
Kind of playing chess in 3D, where movements are dictated by your engines and position (gravity etc.)
Decisions needs to be quite swift but not fraction of second swift usually, you are likely going to have quite a bit of time to see where it leads.
Probably also will be alot about psychology: Knowing your enemy and knowing how they will react.

Comment apart from moving ... (Score 1) 474

Double windows, like in BMW luxury cars, 7-series has been doing a long time. Thick windows too, custom made. Not that expensive really.
That is if you must have natural light coming in still, which you obviously want.

Active noise cancellation is not that expensive anymore, i recall seeing headphones for 100€ or so with active noise cancellation!
You could hack from that set a cheap active noise cancellation system! :)
A little bit of experimenting is required with the location of the receiver microphone to get the timing right, and the distance of the reflector if reflector is required.

As for other surfaces:
Look at car acoustics, there is many types of noise insulations! Some are cheap, some a little bit less cheap. Common in everything: Comes in easy to apply format, "mattress" or "paint".
The "paint" type is usually very massive and to be applied thick, often just bitumen which is very cheap. Will not "dry" ever completely necessary. Thickest form needs to be applied with heat.
The "mattress" types are usually for specific types of noise, the bitumen type usually is best used to stop vibrations etc. in cars, and functions for all types of noise. The mattress types are usually lightweight and thus usually effective only for certain bands.
Often the mattress types also include heat shielding & insulation.
The cost per m2 ranges from couple euros to 30 euros with these, but i'm sure you can get them in big quantities far cheaper than that.
Downside is that these are only suitable for inner structures, so if you live in brick / concrete building you'd need to build separate inner walls too, thus most likely not suitable to your application.

Active noise cancellation might be the best bet here.

Comment nothing new (Score 1) 333

this is nothing new, wikipedia is a collection of rumours accepted as fact by the majority, not actual facts based on science and credible sources.
I've seen some outrageous claims, such as tweeter speakers being capable only to produce upto 20kHz, not even a picture of a *TWO* retail tweeters (tweeter + retail packaging with specs) promising 30kHz made them change their mind back then.
I stopped trying to fix all the errors in the english wikipedia ages ago because "the elite of editors" seemingly knows better than anyone.

Comment Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score 1) 290

Must be of lesser quality metal then ...
I got bolts which are meant to be reusable for "as many times as they are undamaged to the naked eye". They are very expensive very high tensile strength bolts, studs and nuts meant to hold very high forces in some cases extreme temperature changes, potentially from ~-40C going to +100C in few short minutes while other metals around them are at unevent temperature and different material, therefore different thermal expansion. Any sane person will allow some warming period before actually putting their strength to the test when peak temperatures can become as high as 1200-1300C.

What are they, you ask?
High performance engine fasteners, for example:
  - Flywheel which is connected directly to crankshaft... If it comes loose, somebody is likely to die
  - Cylinder heads. Imagine the pressure when you have 10:1 or higher static compression ratio and you are pushing more than 3 bars of boost pressure, in a gasoline engine or a diesel engine pushing 7-8bars of boost pressure .... That's some wicked pressure and heat peaks!
  - Connecting rods and crankshafts ... Experiencing some extreme revolutions (you know, 4stroke engine doing 18k RPM as per ignition, is doing hell of a lot more at crankshaft and connecting rods ...)

They are always fastened to very precise, and usually very high torque, preferrably using molybdene based lubricant, but even higher torque if using somekind of assembly oil (traditionally some 30W mineral oil...). If try torque rating is 90nM (quite usual), then molybdene torque rating is around 105nM and with oil can be 120-130nM and that's not even a particularly special case, using JUST 8-10mm diameter studs.
I got some studs which costed 18€ each at wholesale prices, and these are mass produced afterall, available to anyone, made from high strength steel and not some unobtainium.
10 of those TINY studs + bolts + washers might be holding down the force generated by a 1liter turbocharged engine revving to 10k RPM and upwards, while producing more than 600hp at the wheels... dyno failed at that point, not enough grip, and that was at quite mild boost because there was not enough cold air to be used for cooling the engine... This particular engine was ran at the salt flats on even higher boost ratio.
or a 13k RPM screamer 1.6liter naturally aspirated engine with EVEN HIGHER peak pressures, charged engines have actually lower peak pressures than naturally aspirated engines. and yes both of the engines is still roughly at the reach of anyone motivated sufficiently and meant for a car. First one had actually displacement reduced significantly.

Do you really think NASA is not using bolts, nuts and studs of AT LEAST this kind of quality?

That being said, they probably should use studs in exterior fastening, exactly because of the reasons mentioned in TFA.

Comment Re:Red Green solution (Score 1) 290

working on old cars almost daily this is somewhat common.

without any lubricants or excessive force, the trick is usually to remove the object being attached, then try to get the bolt to screw in fully, failing that, using something to try and clean the thread and just trying again several times.
Usually it's just some kind of dirt OR the object being attached not perfectly aligned or slightly wrong dimensions.

Once i tried to get a bolt to screw in for weeks, despite everything seemingly aligning perfectly (VW Golf MK2 gearbox) it simply wouldn't bolt in, removing the gearbox and then screwing in the bolt no problems, but as soon as i put the gearbox in place on a gearbox jack, despite all the other bolts going in like supposed to, the last one kept on giving grief until one day it just went in like it's supposed to.

Point is, it's no rocket science (pun intended) and usually it's going to be either of the two (dirty or misalignment)

Comment Re:We would be selecting for selfishness (Score 1) 840

What are they going to do when The X-Men show up?

Some "super" athletes already are superhuman, there is people living today who are Superhuman, such as:
- Super flexible
- Extreme threshold for pain (still feels, but no such reaction to pain)
- Those who can control their surface temperature exchange, useful in extreme temperatures, ie. Sauna and swimming in ice cold water
- Those who can control rate of oxygen consumption AND how much they can extract oxygen from air AND don't have as strong Co2 reaction
- Extreme tolerance to electric shocks (tens of times higher than what would kill average joe)
- Superior mathematical ability
- Echolocation like in daredevil
- Extreme strength
- Extreme endurance

Comment Re:We would be selecting for selfishness (Score 1) 840

Really how'd you notice? The dystopia is here. It's called anti-intellectualism. It prevents people from having even an enlightened self-interest. If they were a bit smarter they'd realize that they too benefit from not being completely selfish. But that would mean a few seconds of thought and .. ooh shiny american idol!

You mean they would benefit from not being complete a**holes :)

Comment Re:Eugenecist Plays God Again (Score 1) 840

...and it always starts with the best of intentions...

One problem tho in your statement. We've not had this kind of technology before.

We have been doing selective breeding however, unfortunately it's usually with too small population of subjects, leading to all kinds of diseases etc. That being the case on cats, dogs and horses, so called purebreds.
Albeit, they tend to be genetically superior on the traits chosen by the breeder.
My understanding is that the inherited diseases etc. is a result of breeding within too small population.

My personal opinion? Genetically engineering is Eugenics 2.0, where the major kinks has been solved.
Watch Game of Thrones and you can see where the "old kind" of eugenics can lead (in game of thrones it's incest, brother and sister having children, yuck!), and the resulting son is crazy.
Not sure if it's being researched, but there is "folk lore" that children of incest tend to be crazy like that.
So that kind of "eugenics" is rigged to fail from get-go.

BUT, 2 completely non-related people having children, and then having for example genetic diseases fixed and introducing a gene known to increase mental ability, i don't see a problem in that. The changes are still rather small, say if there is 1-2 inherited potential genetic diseases and a single gene added.
IT CAN however result in unexpected consequences for the better or worse, and i would say this leads to evolution speed in the exponent, at the expense of less completely random changes where multiples of undesired genes are warranted for the positive change to happen.

But on the other hand basic evolution will become extremely rapid, there are some absolutely amazing people in terms of mental capability and physical ability, which are considered to be abnormal, someone might even call those people freaks.
Some of the extreme abilities: Extreme flexibility, extreme pain threshold (still feels but doesn't get the same reaction as others), ability to control skin surface temperature exchange (Ability to withstand temperature extremes better), ability to change the rate of oxygen consumption AND negated Co2 reaction (Extremely good for free divers).
There's also that one guy who seems to have ACTUAL photographic memory, tho i'm not still 100% conceived as some experts considers that ability to be near impossible and/or causing severe drawbacks. In that guys case we've seen in the news the drawback is autism.

Imagine you could introduce the same genes that made einstein so brilliant to your child! I would pay some serious dough for that - mental capability is one of the most important factors for success in life, albeit not a necessity (just watch some of the reality tv shows... Some really dumb people are making quite an success)

Also, some people have dyslexia and the mathematics variety of dyslexia, i wouldn't want my child to suffer from either. There is also related ailments of lesser, but still important, drawbacks.

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It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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