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Comment Interesting statistic (Score 3, Interesting) 171

From what I've read, all the gold in the world that has been mined could fill something like 2 olympic swimming pools, or something like that.

Considering this is like 32 inches x 5 inches, think of that sitting in the bottom of an olympic pool. Not too big, but still pretty impressive considering the relative size.

Comment Your own domain (Score 5, Interesting) 213

This is why everyone should have their own domain.

I have catch-all email for my domain, so if an email is sent to it that isn't recognized, it goes into my catchall account.

The nice part of this, is I can create 'newegg@domain.com', and I know exactly who sent it, and/or who shared out my contact information.

You can do throw-away emails for single event cases, or just use a generic 'junk@domain.com' for sites you don't care about.

Comment Go back to the start (Score 1) 730

I'm a strict constitutionalist, for many reasons.

I believe that most people have forgotten the vertical separation of powers that was originally understood when the USA was set up, because the federal government has now assumed so much of the local and state levels.

Originally, the census was used to figure out representation, and also tax liability.

The federal government figured out that it's budget would be X dollars, and it would go to each state and ask for X*Y dollars, where Y was the number of people in that state, as a percentage of total population of all the states. If New York had 5 % of the population, then it (the state) would have to write a check to the federal government which was 5% of the total federal budget.

It was up to the state to decide how to collect the money.

In today's terms, Alaska could pay it from their money from oil, and any single citizen of Alaska might not have to personally pay a dime to the federal government. Nevada might use gambling taxes to do it. Texas might charge fees for exotic game hunters to pay it. New York might have a 100,000 page state tax code to collect it. But, it leaves it up to the state to handle it.

It also gets the federal government out of my pocketbook, and out of my hair. I might interface with a state tax division, but not a federal agency, that is less accountable to me than a state agency.

I truly think we have lost our way in a lot of this, and that the men that set up the USA were far more visionary, and fair, than anyone we know today.

Comment Mythical Improvements. (Score 3, Insightful) 74

So, everyone said, if we switch to SSDs, longer battery life. Did it happen? No.

Memory does not use up that much power, relative to the whole system. Even switching a laptop's screen to LEDs doesn't help that much.

It's almost the same as the mythical new invention that will be out "in 5 years".

Give it up people. Semiconductors improve year after year, These kinds of breakthroughs that drastically change everything just don't happen.

The only thing I can think of that made that kind of a change in the last 30 years was going to an SSD drive for speed and responsiveness. Other than that, each year gets a bit better. Don't expect that to change any time soon.

Comment Synergy! (Score 1) 169

Why don't tablet makers that want to use a full desktop OS think about using it with Synergy (on sourceforge)???

It's a perfect complement.

If the tablet is running Win7 or x86 Linux, then when it's docked next to my monitor, it fires up synergy and the mouse and keyboard control it just like an extra screen. When I pull it off the cradle, Synergy shuts down, and now it's a distinct computer. If running Ubuntu, it can still run Windows apps via Wine (critical for how I want to use a tablet).

I don't know why these companies don't see this option!!!

Comment Human-readable analysis of the stuff (Score 1) 140

Here is a semiaccurate article on this, with human-readable analysis: http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/08/04/intel-settles-ftc-and-nvidia-win-big/

Secondly, Intel doesn't need to be bastards, they can just continue with the bog-standard half-speed PCIe 2.0 link that they have on their Atoms. This doesn't provide enough bandwidth to run a retired analog cigarette vending machine let alone a modern GPU. If Intel doesn't want a GPU on their platforms, it is trivial to abide by the letter of the law and still screw Nvidia. Won't this be fun to watch?

Rumors have it that Intel was making changes to their chipsets that detected Nvidia GPUs and hamstrung performance on them. Having the GPU not work at all would be too obvious, but performance losses are a bit of a "he said, she said" argument. These changes broke the PCIe spec, but are basically impossible to prove without a lot of specialized equipment, trained engineers, and time. Given that it was Nvidia complaining, it is more likely that it was simply bad engineering by the GPU (formerly) giant. Either way, it is a moot point now.

Comment Re:Ugh... yet another paywall stopping innovation (Score 2, Insightful) 137

Information wants to be free. People want to control it and hide it and charge for it. But, if I told you a secret, you naturally want to share it. If I write a book, and people read it, that information is now theirs too, ie "free".

Of course people want free information. But, some people keep it in chains and lock it up and prevent it from becoming "public" knowledge, for their own personal gain. It's a war that has been waged for ever and will continue to rage...

Comment Re:The Walkman was the end of the music industry (Score 1) 250

Let's try that again, to make a point:

Once those player pianos were possible, the music industry was not able to sell any more tickets to performances. Artists went to get real jobs and that is why all music you hear is only done by amateurs.

Same sea change. Music is still being done by professionals.

As much as technology changes, the *situation* is still the same. Human behavior is the same. Supply/demand curve stuff. If they want to overcharge for it, I won't pay *their* price, and can either not get it or get a copy of varying quality from someone else. It's been that way for thousands of years. The walkman didn't change it in any way.

Now, Napster was the start of something that I don't think we had a precedent for. (Maybe the jump from no recording devices to the first ones?) Unlinking the content from any physical limitations (ie unlimited copies with very little storage/copying overhead) was an order of magnitude jump in this area. (Think the first replicator from Star Trek fame for physical stuff.)

These kinds of things happen once in a 100-1000 years. The walkman was just the next step in a walk across the country.

Comment Re:flowers to a gun fight (Score 1) 289

Thinking About Freedom
Robert LeFevre
The Freeman, February 1983, p. 115

                Could I control others by a simple exercise of my own will I would have no reason to inflict control, punishment or death upon another of my kind. Since my wishes would control others, each and every person would gladly do my bidding. Unhappily, for me, this isn’t true.
                Every other person has the same kind of control I have and is as eager for me to act as he wishes, as I am to have him act as I wish.
                The result is conflict. And from the days of Plato to Marx, stretching backward and forward from those polarities, the pages of the human record run red with blood and echo with the cries of anguish emitted by those who, at the moment, found themselves under the sway of some human being not content with self-management; seeking always to manage others in a way nature has not bargained for.

It's not "man", in general, but men that want to have some "kind of control" and "is ... eager for me to act as he wishes".

Most men don't have such ambitions. For some reason (the ability to actually exert this power over others), politics draws these kinds of men out.

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