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Comment Re:Why would you want to? (Score 1) 92

by PopeRatzo (#45341397) Attached to: The First Phone You Can Actually Bend: LG's G Flex

If it's to help the phone survive drops, then that's what they should talk about.

I can't imagine a reason I would ever want to bend my phone.

Now if I were planning on going to prison, I could see how a bendable phone might make it easier to smuggle one into my cell, but it's still not going to be very comfortable, going in or coming out. And god forbid I get a call while my phone is hidden in a body cavity. I keep my phone on vibrate and it could get very embarrassing.

Submission + - Elementary School Bans Students From Touching Each Other (ctvnews.ca)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: From the 'Think Of The Children' Department: OK, so this isn't a tech article. But it is about something that is so messed up I just had to post it. A school in British Columbia (the province that now even California can call flakey) has just banned elementary school students from touching each other during recess. You know, one of those times for play and more importantly learning how to socialize (which itself includes touching). CTV News reports: "A ban on touching during recess at a B.C. elementary school has shocked parents, who call the new no-touch policy "ridiculous." For most kids, recess is a chance to run around and goof-off with their friends, but a new ban on touching at a school in Aldergrove could put a damper on playtime. School administrators at Coghlan Fundamental Elementary School in B.C. have banned kindergarten students from touching each other during recess."

Comment Re:increased by $200 billion = down by half? 40% i (Score 1) 160

by PopeRatzo (#45331103) Attached to: Lockheed Martin Developing Successor To the SR-71 Blackbird

Excuse me, raymorris, but why would you leave out 2009, 2010, and 2011?

Say, you wouldn't have an agenda in leaving those numbers out, would you? Nah, not you.

This year's deficit is 1/2 of last year's deficit. And in 2013, the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP is less than it was under the Reagan Administration. Last year, our budget deficit was 4.1% of GDP. Under Reagan's 8 years as president, his average was 4.2%.

And wouldn't you say that looking at the deficit as a percentage of GDP is a pretty fair way to evaluate it?

Submission + - AMD R9 290X "up to 1GHz" tests like 727 MHz (base), 850-880 MHz (boost).

Submitted by Phopojijo
Phopojijo writes: The recently released AMD Radeon R9 290X has an advertised shader clock rate of "up to 1GHz". The card brought formerly $1000-level performance down to a $550 price point. Its benchmarks tend to fluctuate wildly, however, based on the card's ability to maintain an intended maximum temperature of 95C. By analyzing across a variety of fan speeds, AMD's default settings are characteristic of a 727 MHz base clock with an average boost to 850-880 MHz. At these defaults, the card will not maintain 1GHz for more than a couple of minutes (or less).

Submission + - Quantum cryptography demonstrated, using relativity theory (cam.ac.uk)

Submitted by umundane
umundane writes:

A breakthrough in quantum cryptography demonstrates that information can be encrypted and then decrypted with complete security using the combined power of quantum theory and relativity — allowing the sender to dictate the unveiling of coded information without any possibility of intrusion or manipulation.

The article is light on details, but says quantum theory and relativity theory work together to allow "bit commitment". Anyone understand this well enough to share insight in layman's terms?

Submission + - 10-Year-Old Boy Discovers 600-Million-Year-Old Supernova (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: Nathan Gray, 10, from Nova Scotia, Canada, recently discovered a 600-million-year-old supernova in the galaxy PGC 61330, which lies in the constellation of Draco – beating his sister by 33 days as the youngest person to find a supernova.

Gray made the discovery on October 30 while looking at astronomical images taken by Dave Lane, who runs the Abbey Ridge Observatory (ARO) in Nova Scotia. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada confirmed Gray’s discovery, but astronomers with the International Astronomical Union say they will need to use a larger telescope to make the finding official.

Submission + - How Elon Musk Approaches IT at Tesla (wsj.com)

Submitted by onehitwonder
onehitwonder writes: In short, they build it themselves. When Tesla Motors needed to improve the back-end software that runs its business, CEO Elon Musk decided not to upgrade the company's SAP system. Instead, he told his CIO, Jay Vijayan, to have the IT organization build a new back-end system, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company's team of 25 software engineers developed the new system in about four months, and it provided the company with speed and agility at a time when it was experiencing costly delivery delays on its all-electric Model S.

Submission + - Helium in Hard Drives Enables 50% Capacity Boost, 6TB HDDs Now Shipping (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "After 10 years of development, Western Digital announced today that it's shipping the industry's first helium-filled hard disk drives with 6TB of capacity, 50% more storage space than any other 3.5-inch drive out today. In addition to a 2TB capacity increase over today's 4TB drives, the new hermetically-sealed Ultrastar He6 hard drive uses 23% less power and are 38% lighter than predecessors. Because helium is one-seventh the density of air, the drive's disk platters and actuator arms benefit from reduced friction, allowing WD to cram seven disk platters into the same form factor that previously could only hold five platters. The hermetic seal also keeps contaminants out of the drive.

Submission + - Tesco to use face detection technology for in-store advertising (v3.co.uk)

Submitted by TinTops
TinTops writes: Tesco has sparked privacy concerns following its decision to install technology that scans shoppers' faces in order to display video advertising on screens at its petrol stations.

The UK's privacy watchdog the ICO is looking into the technology.

This is the first national rollout of the system, known as OptimEyes, which claims to recognise facial characteristics that determine a customer's gender and age in order to show more relevant video adverts on screens as they queue at the till.

Simon Sugar, chief executive of Amscreen, the firm which sells the technology, has admitted it has connotations of science fiction, but is looking to increase its reach further. "Yes, it's like something out of Minority Report, but this could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible," he said.

Comment horrible union thugs (Score 1, Insightful) 603

by PopeRatzo (#45325249) Attached to: TSA Union Calls For Armed Guards At Every Checkpoint

Damn those union workers for expecting to be protected after the government has put targets on their backs with insane security policies and then stuck them in a high-risk environment for all of $30k/year.

How much risk would you take every day for $30k/year before asking for an armed guard to be put at the door to your cubicle hive? Tell you what, we could find out. Let's put a bunch of customer service phone center workers in a very public place and have them do their jobs out in the open and see how long it takes before people start taking shots at them and then we can ask them how it feels and if they want to be protected.

Fucking unions. Next they're going want safety equipment before going into coal mines.

Submission + - Satellite Internet connections for South America (specifically Peru). Advice? 6

Submitted by EdIII
EdIII writes: I've been looking on the Internet for a decent contention service (4:1,10:1) in South America and I am not finding much. I have also heard that some frequency bands are a lot better at cutting through cloud cover. This is for a fairly remote ground station with reliable power generation, but also routinely cloudy. I would need at least 3/1Mbps with hopefully decent latency. What's your advice Slashdotters? Yes, I know that some of the solutions can cost 20K for deployment and 2-10K per month for service. Not looking NASA results with Home Depot parts on the budget of a 7/11 chiclet. Feel free to to tell me about a good commercial service. There is another ground station that might be deployed in north east Alaska. Thanks

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