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Comment Disfigured skulls and jaws are the problem. (Score 1) 61

I'm pretty sure a pill isn't going to fix my lobsided skull or my staggered teeth and underdeveloped jaws. A problem evidently linked to wrong post-teething toddler nutrition rampant in modern societies around the world for roughly 200 years. There's even a book on the problem (Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic).

Comment Re:Windows is not a professional operating system (Score 1) 220

The problem with absolute statements is they are disproven by evidence. The world is run on Windows, professionally. It literally makes the world go around and contributes a shitton to the GDP of nations the world over.

The problem with statements is they are disproven by "literally".

Comment Re:Answer question headlines with (Score 1) 196

I'd argue that while you might be gaining something here (time) you could also losing something and that is expertise.

If you aren't reading the documentation yourself, then you aren't absorbing things that could be valuable later (even though they might not be relevant to the particular task you are doing now) and are therefore "stupider" at least by that definition.

All the time I'm involved in conversations where it is useful to have information in my head to either
- immediately answer a question (and avoid a follow up meeting), or
- prevent time being wasted on some course of action that isn't viable, or
- to suggest a neat solution I am aware of
all because of some detail I have read that hasn't previously mattered.

Of course, perhaps you are reading the documentation first, then pointing the AI at the relevant bits so it can complete some task and then reviewing the output for sanity, in which case I think you probably aren't losing out.

In the real world though I am seeing more and more information coming my way where it is pretty obvious that the person presenting it hasn't actually done their homework and doesn't really understand what they are proposing or working with.

Comment Re:Three times? (Score 2) 81

You're not being too picky. The summary pretends there's only one temperature in play, whereas the original source mentions at least two temperatures (one defined after a phonon-phonon equilibration time; and a more conventional thermodynamical temperature which is only well-defined after a longer time). The sensationalism comes from thinking the longer-time-scale one applies at very short time-scales.
It's shit like that which makes headlines and then makes people distrust research.

Comment Looks like critical mass to me. (Score 0) 150

The things holding back Linux for the unwashed masses have diminished to minor annoyances in the last 15 years, especially when compared to the nonsense wintel still puts its users through. It finally has gotten through to ords that there are solid reasons why experts don't even consider Windows as an option when doing mission critical stuff these days. ChromeOS and Android are signs of the things to come and Windows isn't even on the radar with those usage patterns.

Looks like linux has finally gotten critical mass for regular end users. I certainly wouldn't mind. My last Windows was Win2k and that's been a while. I occasionally bump into poor bastards using whatever the newest Windows is and always experience a bizarre throwback into distant and long gone times messing with ultra proprietary systems and their bullshit. Very strange. Personally I fundamentally do not get why M$ even has a business case with their system. And I even am a well paying customer who is quite happy with his XBoxes.

Comment Re: Not exponential growth (Score 5, Informative) 150

It's far faster than exponential (assuming that's 1% of a constant-size market, then 2% of the same market, etc.). The first doubling time was 8 years; an exponential growth process would keep the same doubling time, but it took another 2.9 years to double again.
So your "not even close" is correct, in that exponential growth is far slower than whatever this is.

Submission + - Germany is building the worlds largest wind turbine

Qbertino writes: Heise, a (the) German IT news publisher reports (English version by Google Translate) that the German state of Brandenburg is getting the worlds highest wind turbine, with an overall height of 300m designed to capture so-called 3rd level winds at higher altitudes. The article also has a short 3D animation illustrating construction and size relative to regular modern wind turbines.

Comment It's very satisfying to see ... (Score 1) 11

... Blender just piling on to it's already solid critical mass of professional functions and features after finally gaining wide-spread industry recognition a few years back. I'm an early Blender user and even have an original commercial license from NAN more than 20 years ago, before Blender was liberated into open source. Back then it was a curious underdog that had full OpenGL UI rendering (a first), a fully configurable UI (also a rare feature) and it fit on a 3,5" disk (absolutely unique).

25 years later Blender has finally taken the industry lead with other 3D kits keeping up by lowering their prices and emphasising special features and optimized workflows. Good to see the laughed-at FOSS underdog in this state of things.

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