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Comment Re:Doomsday clock (Score 1) 301

I really don't get it: more than 50% of the US population is against a tax raise for the 'filthy' rich which only constitutes a maximum of 3% of your population... Why do those (more than) 50% care for those 3%, they certainly don't care for you?....

The answer is simple: More than 50% of the US voting population believe they actually are filthy rich, but experiencing temporary cash-flow problems. That is, they all plan to be in the top 3% within the next year or so.

Ah, the sweet seductive myth of a classless society and economic mobility....

And that's not even the most preposterous thing that most Americans believe.

Comment Re:Windows 8 Is Failing on It's [sic] Own (Score 1) 610

I remember the broom exercise at school. Funny, isn't it? Big strong lads can't do it for more than 45 seconds. I thought I'd try it myself given that I'm not 12 any more. I got bored after 5 minutes. Sure, my shoulder aches a little bit, but I reckon I had another 10 minutes of holding my arm out, stock still.

Same here. I'm in terrible shape, haven't been to the gym in over a year. Picked up a broom just now and held it at arms length with one hand out to the side for 5 minutes, which seems long enough to prove the point.

As a teenager I heard a similar challenge involving holding the empty hand horizontally at arms length for five minutes. After 25 minutes without the slightest tiredness I got bored and quit. I figured I was just too skinny or something -- twiggy nerd arms must be easier to hold up than big muscly jock arms.

I'm pretty sure this "can't hold arm straight out for n minutes" is pure myth. Strange that so few people actually bother to try it.

Comment Not a barrier (Score 2) 96

1 PFLOPS is an arbitrary threshold or milestone. It's not a barrier because nothing special happens at that point. The speed of light is a barrier. Even the speed of sound is a barrier. 10^n somethings per whatever is rarely if ever a barrier for any positive integer n.

Comment Re:Video and first thoughts. (Score 1) 248

It says it uses the Android kernel and drivers to be compatible with the hardware, so will OEM(s) shipping devices with this OSes fall foul of Google's anti-fork rules[1] for Android?

The Android kernel is a derivative work of the Linux kernel, so it's GPL and Google can't prevent anyone from forking it.

Comment Re:Lanier is a dipshit (Score 2) 212

Post on Wikipedia without logging in, and unless you have something really productive to say, you'll probably be reverted

More succinctly: "Post on Wikipedia, and you'll probably be reverted."

Seriously, change "virii" to "viruses" or "loose" to "lose" and watch your edit get reverted because "either spelling is acceptable" and your edit doesn't "focus on content". Even the simplest, most obvious and least controversial corrections raise the hackles of writers/editors who have staked their wiki-territory and will defend it to the death.

Comment Re:Don't Hide Behind "Blasphemy" (Score 1) 278

That's because the water from outside an airport is exploding water. You need to get your water for $5.00 a bottle inside the airport so that you get that special non-exploding water.

One time I bought the special magic $5 bottle of water in the airport only to have it taken away by "security" goons at the boarding gate. Better safe than sane!

Comment Re:Extra safety (Score 1) 337

Agreed: Routine daily driving does nothing to prepare you for emergencies.

A few hours of high performance driver training each year will do far more to prepare you to react to traffic emergencies than an hour or two of daily commuting will. In your first HPDE course you will learn just how comically bad you really are at driving. Yeah, yeah, you're a great driver, top 5% ... you still suck.

BTW, it turns out that in "must stop now!" situations in a modern car with ABS you're almost always better off mashing the brake (not break) pedal all the way down as quickly as your reflexes will allow. What you do with the steering wheel at that point is pretty important and takes a lot more finesse. If you're already in the middle of a curve you have to be careful, but you shouldn't be driving so fast that you don't have plenty of traction left over for emergency maneuvers. Even if a collision is inevitable and acceptable (it's just a dog) you still want to slow down as much as possible first.

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