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Comment Re:This is only one layer. (Score 3, Insightful) 79

Why print? uSDHC cards are cheap. 16GB for ten bucks is not unusual, for sixteen bucks is easy. Printing won't save you from identifiers hidden in the documents, if that's what you're worried about.

I imagine if I wanted anonymity I'd take a directional wifi rig into the hills and point it at town...

Comment Re:Needs more context (Score 1) 75

Aluminium isn't a terrible cable - it's got about 60% the conductivity of copper. The problem is joining it. That oxide layer means that any type of twist or post connection is going to make terrible contact. You have to solder it, and it doesn't take solder at all well.

The solution in house wiring is to terminate your Al with a small length of Cu. They used aluminum in mobile homes for a while to save weight. I've seen it cause an outlet fire. The solution is to get some copper ends which get attached to the aluminum wiring and then sealed on. I've never actually seen the fix done, I think they're crimped on and then either protected with a compound or with an epoxy or glue. I wonder if the same couldn't be done for existing data wiring.

Comment Re:A bit iffy??? (Score 1) 91

What would be the alternative though? Is it possible to have the same functionality in a secure way?

You'd have a separate site for maintenance. This does sort of mandate some duplication of effort. Right now if you want to update your CMS core you have to do this through a shell, file manager, or ftp in most cases as it is. It's not a big stretch to have an admin site with its own codebase sufficient for performing updates. Content management etc would continue to be performed through the CMS as normal. You might or might not want to use the same auth tables.

Comment Re:(un)Fair and (un)Balanced (Score 2) 93

The reality is simple, the gov can't just "shut these places down." What are you gonna do, allow NYC to go dark.

Which is why we need both more grid capacity and more generating capacity. Then you can shut the worst places down, and they can reopen if they can get their shit together. Lather, rinse, repeat. I don't for a second imagine that some environmentalists can really stop all new nuclear plants in this country, so I'm imagining that there's some reason why TPTB doesn't actually want more built right now.

Comment Re:Bluetooth woes (Score 1) 292

The third world can't pull itself up by it's own bootstraps, or won't? What made the US an immediate 'first world' nation? Was it born that way, fully industrialized and ready to go, or did it have to get going on it's own? Who helped the US to become first world, if it wasn't immediate?

In fact, the difference is that the USA had not yet been depleted. It's well on its way now, and the dominance will come to an end.

Comment Re:Dubious (Score 1) 292

I used to hang out with a bunch of guys who were tankers in the National Guard. It was one of their little hobbies to imagine ways in which the nation could be disrupted, and I enjoyed it as well. If you eavesdropped on one of our conversations you might have thought it was a good idea to lock us all up. But none of us were interested in doing anything like that; it was more a case of shaking our heads at how easy it would actually be to shut down whole cities completely. Our conclusion was that if terrorists were running rampant, nothing would ever get done in this country because it's so easy to cause a panic.

Comment Re:$250 for a headset? (Score 1) 292

I think it's too much to pay, too. When I saw headsets that cost that much on the wall at Gamestop I just shook my head. But it's not that much money for someone without dependents. If it really enhances their life, I can see spending that much money. On the other hand, I can't personally see not kitbashing something myself rather than spending $250.

Comment Re:32 bit? (Score 1) 122

One of the punchiest ARM options is the quad-core RK3188. It has the least punchy GPU in the class, a clock-increased (by 25%) Mali400. However, this is the ARM-coupled GPU with the most functional OSS driver. It is already possible to boot Linux on RK3188 directly, and play Quake3, with an OSS driver. OHI, there is now an installer. However, it does not appear that the installer includes recovery. Hmm, reading further, it does not include the accelerated video driver or working bluetooth either, so I guess I'll stick with Finless for now on my MK908. I want to run Linux for a variety of reasons, not least PS3 BD Remote support.

With that said, if the MIPS tools are better, I'd still rather have MIPS for a Linux box. It's not that interesting for Android though, since the majority of the Android world is on ARM.

Also, it's possibly notable that nVidia has stated repeatedly that Tegra's GPU isn't encumbered by agreements with other corporations as their desktop GPUs are, and that they will continue to release increased amounts of driver source code for that platform. I'm not holding my breath, of course.

Comment Re:Too cool for NASA (Score 1) 205

For example (along a different line from what you were saying, but just as important), most of the big countries like Russia, China, EU are setting their sights on the Moon, while the U.S. is off pissing away money on some jaunt to an asteroid, thanks to Obama.

The Moon would be useful if we currently knew what to do with He3. Otherwise, not so much.

But the strategic (not economic) value of the Moon cannot be overemphasized. We MUST get there, and stay there, if for no other reason than to keep others from getting too far ahead of us. Whoever controls the moon pretty much controls the Earth. Never forget that.

Well, no. In actuality, whoever controls orbit controls Earth, and there's no evidence that's best done from the moon. The moon is in a predictable orbit, it's a sitting target. Whoever controls the L-points controls the solar system. The moon may be less of a gravity well than the Earth, but it's still one. Better not to be in one at all. And whoever mines asteroids first is likely to also be who refines them in space first and they will control the L-points first.

The goals are Mars and Europa. The Moon is not necessarily all that useful. If you can bypass that stage entirely and go straight to asteroid mining, that's probably far better than messing with the moon at all.

Comment Re:Getting me started, man! (Score 1) 205

These congressmen are largely stateists who really do want their their own special interests (aka campaign contributors) to get government money instead of the special interests of the other guys.

On the contrary, if they're using the federal government to get money for their state they're still federalists, and they're enjoying abusing the system.

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