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Comment Re:But.. But... (Score 4, Interesting) 162

I live in Sweden. Medium sized city, pop. 70,000, population density 2,261/km2 (about 80% of the population density of Urban New York City). The apartment complex I live in was built in the '60s.

As a private person, I pay roughly $30 (USD) a month for municipal broadband. And what do I get?
* 10 IP addresses.
* 100 Mbps connection, and that is up and down. Network jack in the wall that's hooked up to a switch somewhere in the building that's got a fiber connection.
* No data transfer cap, no surcharges based on traffic, no closed ports or clauses in the terms of service that say I can't host servers or bullshit like that.

This is not the perk of living in some a luxury apartment, but something that's fairly common.

Comment Re:The Acela Trains can already go that fast (Score 1) 1026

The problem with all high speed trains is that they work in theory. In practice, they're ridiculously vulnerable, especially compared to sturdy, old fashioned trains. God forbid there's snow on the tracks. Or leaves. Or dust. Or someone sneezes inside the train. Or it's slightly windy. Or there's a problem with the train's internet connection.

Comment Re:Frequencies? (Score 1) 118

You don't even need Fourier transforms. You can illustrate this happens with kindergarten level trigonometry. Let the carrier be C(t)=sin(kt) and the amplitude modulation be a simple oscillatory modulation given by A(a,b,t)=a cos(ft) + b sin(ft)

Then as
sin(x)cos(y) ~ sin(x-y) + sin(x+y)
sin(x)sin(y) ~ cos(x-y) - cos(x+y)

you get a modulated signal

C(t)A(a,b,t) = a sin(kt-ft) + a sin(kt+ft) + b cos(kt-ft) - b cos(kt-ft)

As this is simple multiplication, you can build arbitrary functions out of a sum of of different A-functions as a Fourier series.

Comment Re:Speed of Light? (Score 1) 506

It will be exactly 2c for mass-less particles (like photons). And this is still measurable, by for example having them reflect off two mirrors at equal distances from the observer, measuring the time it takes to do the round-trip. You will find that they both travel at exactly c, in opposite directions, thus, they (from your point of view) travel with a speed exactly 2c relative to each other.

Comment Re:It's been 12 years (Score 2) 286

The thing is, when you use Linux and it doesn't work, it's usually pretty obvious that the source of the fault is none other than yourself (unless you use ubuntu, that distro does enough crap behind your back for something to be the computer's fault), so shouting at the computer because your Linux system isn't working is a lot like shouting at the grocery store because you forgot to put the milk in the refrigerator when you got home.

Comment Re:HAH (Score 1) 218

Most religious messages from Jesus come from disputable sources such as visions from beyond the grave, messages in dreams and other vague signs. The man him self seems to have been more interested in pacifism than anything else (which led to martyrdom when he was killed, developing into a cult of personality which after a few hundred years of Chinese whispers had taken the form of a religion).

It's probably better to say Paul the Apostle invented the "fear of hell" dungturd than Jesus.

Comment Re:sad thing is ... (Score 1) 546

Banning things takes an effort proportional to the demand for them (making prostitution and drugs among the things that are unfeasibly difficult to ban, only serving to create an uncontrollable shadow market fueling organized crime with money). But green laser pointers aren't in particularly high demand, so banning them would be plausible. But rather than doing that, the best option would probably be to regulate their sale so that people who legitimately need them can have them, while the unkempt masses can't. Obviously this wouldn't completely prevent them from getting in the wrong hands, but it would stem the flow. Also, as laser equipment is quite sensitive and prone to breaking down, existing laser pointers should not become a long-term problem.

Comment Re:Whoah (Score 1) 81

I question the validity of the claim on the basis that graphene hadn't been manufactured 20 years ago (it wasn't until 2004 meaningful quantities of the stuff was produced), let alone turned into transistors.

Now I can buy that the NSA may have access to some applications of science (algorithms, possibly some hardware) that is not accessible to civilians; but I do not buy the notion of the NSA being some 15 years ahead of the scientific community in theoretical physics.

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