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Comment Keybase.io (Score 1) 155

I use keybase.io, Syncs your pgp keys and signs and validates your domains, dns zones, social media accounts etc... Also provides secure messaging and teams, slack like interface, the ability to share pgp encrypted git repositories across your private groups or teams and send messages that expire and self delete with time.

https://keybase.io/johnburns

Comment Re:Why don't we just say it? (Score 1) 245

Freedom and government are mutually antagonistic concepts.

that's an incredibly silly comment. there are extremes of course (China, Russia, North Korea...), but in democratic and open societies, governments are necessary to ensure freedoms exist. who else would there be to ensure criminals don't deprive others of their freedoms? who else would there be to ensure contracts are enforced and not just useless words on paper? without courts, who would determine if people have been injured or mistreated and ensure justice for those people? these are roles that only the government can play, not corporations or for-profit organizations, or individuals on their own. and what do you call individuals getting together to ensure the rights of all, not for a profit but because it's the right thing to do? a government.

I don't think the comment is silly at all. I have never had a criminal deprive me of my rights. I have had the government and the police do it on a continuing basis. I think people confuse the difference between a criminal attacking you or committing a wrong against you and the government systematically removing your freedoms, rights, and your ability to defend yourself against said criminal attacks.

Comment Mass produced products would be worthless (Score 1) 563

I have always thought about it like this: Most of the citizens are provided energy credits, which they can use to replicate most mass produced items and food they would need. Energy is obviously very cheap in the Star Trek Universe but not free. I would assume that based on your contributions to society you might get extra energy credits which could translate into more transporter use to visit other cities and additional replicator use.

However what I imagine would happen and we are seeing a little of this today with the Maker movement and 3d printers, is that the world would return to more of a cottage industry. People Like Sisko's father who make real food non replicated and provide a fun atmosphere could charge in currency for their products. Weather that is latinum or energy credits I am not sure. Anything that is hand made with care and passion would be worth insane amounts of currency. This is probably what solves the real estate issue in Star Trek as well. Land is finite and there has to be some way to decide who gets to live in the nice neighborhoods or the mansions overlooking the water. I think there is probably a bustling economy in the Federation utilizing energy credits as mentioned in a few episodes. However I think scarcity is a thing of the past and anything can be had by anyone. If you want a licensed replicated Gibson guitar no problem, however if you want a hand made one with intrinsic value that is more than the sum of its molecules, that will cost you extra. I think this encourages people to work in their passion without having to do something they hate to pay the bills.

If all the bills were covered just for being a citizen, then you could focus on your passion, and that might actually earn you a very good living, after all its easy to strive for perfection on a project you are passionate about.

Comment We want Choice! (Score 1) 417

The problem with integrating any of this technology is it limits choice. I remember when every car could be upgraded with an aftermarket stereo inexpensively. Today almost no car stereos are upgradable and the integrated technology is locked to a specific technology company who may be dominant today or nonexistent tomorrow. For instance how many android users felt unhappy about being stuck with a car with IOS integration and how many IOS people really wanted a particular car then realized it only had android or Microsoft integration and realized you would have to settle for a reduced level of integration as you do not have the ability to swap the radio in the car.

If this was done in an intelligent way then maybe things would be better, why cant the industry come up with a standards based module slot in the glove box or under the dash that would allow consumers to purchase and install their own technology package? Apple users could pop in an Apple module the size of a minidisc and have all the Apple apps and integration displayed on the screens and buttons, Android users could do the same. Hell maybe you are a Pandora user and you opt for the Pandora module.

This is the direction we should be going, come up with a standard interface so that when I slap My Android module under the dash it boots up and says your car has the following standards based features it can use. Some cars could have a display or backup camera and the module would use those, others may only have a Bluetooth hands free interface. Car manufacturers can still create packages to gouge people, forcing them to purchase the luxury package if they want the video screen, while consumers can pop in any aftermarket software "flavor" module they desire. Since your standardizing all the different modules and making them speak a standard protocol, you could even bring back the aftermarket upgrade scene.

Comment Re:One Word Thorium! (Score 1) 290

It is a shame that we are falling behind in IP related to safe thorium reactors that can never go critical, produce only commercially viable byproducts used in industry, and can be made small enough that every house could have a sealed thorium reactor powering them. The outdated thorium laws are also causing the US to cede rare earth metal production to china, when a change in laws would allow us to use plenty of rare earth metals mined in the US.

Search for the documentary "The Thorium Problem". The US made a prototype thorium reactor in the early 50's that was slated to be used to keep our nuke bomber force in the air 24/7, it was test run for 50k plus hours before shutting down. Also thorium in its natural state is so mildly radioactive it sits in piles all around the US outside of rare earth metal mines. You can walk next to it sit on them.

Thorium reactors do not need to be pressurized to run, they have to be artificially heated to over 800c to become fissile, so in the event it runs away a wax plug can be put in the bottom of the reactor that will melt and the thorium will drain out into a room temperature container and become non fissile. Also because of the temperatures required to keep them running they can be used to power chemical reactions in chemical plants directly without the need to turn steam into electricity. Another words we could harness the heat directly.

Comment One Word Thorium! (Score 1) 290

It is a shame that we are falling behind in IP related to safe thorium reactors that can never go critical, produce only commercially viable byproducts used in industry, and can be made small enough that every house could have a sealed thorium reactor powering them. The outdated thorium laws are also causing the US to cede rare earth metal production to china, when a change in laws would allow us to use plenty of rare earth metals mined in the US. Search for the documentary "The Thorium Problem". The US made a prototype thorium reactor in the early 50's that was slated to be used to keep our nuke bomber force in the air 24/7, it was test run for 50k plus hours before shutting down. Also thorium in its natural state is so mildly radioactive it sits in piles all around the US outside of rare earth metal mines. You can walk next to it sit on them. Thorium reactors do not need to be pressurized to run, they have to be artificially heated to over 800c to become fissile, so in the event it runs away a wax plug can be put in the bottom of the reactor that will melt and the thorium will drain out into a room temperature container and become non fissile. Also because of the temperatures required to keep them running they can be used to power chemical reactions in chemical plants directly without the need to turn steam into electricity. Another words we could harness the heat directly.
Biotech

Scientists To Breed the Auroch From Extinction 277

ImNotARealPerson writes "Scientists in Italy are hoping to breed back from extinction the mighty auroch, a bovine species which has been extinct since 1627. The auroch weighed 2,200 pounds (1000kg) and its shoulders stood at 6'6". The beasts once roamed most of Asia and northern Africa. The animal was depicted in cave paintings and Julius Caesar described it as being a little less in size than an elephant. A member of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology suggests that 99% of the auroch's DNA can be recreated from genetic material found in surviving bone material. Wikipedia mentions that researchers in Poland are working on the same problem."

Comment Loadbalancing (Score 1) 298

I work for a largs E-commerce site as a network engineer, we gets thousands of connections a second. In order to accomodate that load we use F5 Network BigIP loadbalancers. GTM's or ( Global Traffic Managers) allow you to have geographic loadbalancing accross multiple datacenters, and LTM's ( local traffic managers) these are actually the devices you need to purchase. All you do is add the ip addresses of each server to the bigip in the form of nodes, add the nodes to a pool, and add the pool to a virtual server. The VIP or virtual server IP is the one used in dns, or as part of a wide IP system if using gtm's.

F5 has the biggest market share in loadbalancers and their products are top notch. If you like they can come in and demo them for you. I see a lot of replys to your questions but nothing I have seen so far uses a product that a company would actually accept. Open source is great, but when you need 24x7 365 uptime, high availability in the form of stateful clustering.

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