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Comment Re:They've been moving that way for a while (Score 2) 13

My wife's latest Omnipod pump comes with a controller which, if you were to dismantle it, would likely turn out to be an off-the-shelf unbranded smartphone running a customized Android. Presumably this device is a stopgap until that app gets approval.

I'm just guessing that your wife is using the dash model? I just got hooked up today. The off brand android model is called a PDM, and it has all of the cell phone bits turned off. To my knowledge, the us gov't didn't originally allow insulin delivery via smart phone until today - thus the cheap android/pdm device. There is an omnipod model 5 coming out is the very near future - it's my understanding that it should talk to smart phones then.

Comment Re:I have a much more ambitious vision (Score 1) 1073

Lets reverse roles: How would you feel about living in China, behind their great firewall? They are trying to censor the content that it's population is exposed to. On Slashdot, that move is regarded as foolish. It seems that the citizens of China are always trying to find ways around it. I think in someways, filtering is good. But not in a one-size-fits-all sort of way.

To answer your question: I don't think we'd be better off for it.

Comment Re:Might I suggest an alternative currency (Score 1) 454

In fact the value of currency is psychological.

In fact it's not. Or more precisely, not only.

If one dollar buys one candy bar, why should that change if there are more dollars? Nothing has really changed in terms of the candy bar's production costs.

The price of an item is a function of its scarcity and of the effort required to create it. If everybody had lots of money, nobody would be willing to work to create more candy (why bother making candy for a buck a piece, when you can just shake the money tree in the backyard, and get more bucks with less effort?). So candy becomes a scarce resource, and everybody competes for the same limited amount of candy. The only way to get the sweet luxury is to pay more. The price of candy goes up, and will continue growing until either people give up on candy, or the price becomes high enough that making candy becomes profitable again.

While I am not going to contest the properties of supply and demand, I don't fully agree with you. Here is a fact: a dollar is only worth anything, because you believe it is. This is why the government has such a hard time with counterfeit money.

Now here is a thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that all the money in the world disappeared, and is no longer part of the equation. We'd still be able to build candy bars.

Comment Re:I thought this was already solved (Score 1) 341

Dinosaurs laid eggs - we've found lots of them.

Chickens evolved from dinosaurs, i.e. came after them.

The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.

Parent is right. Its a relatively well known fact that chickens are the first cousins to dinosaurs. Besides, eggs were being laid before dinosaurs existed. I imagine that eggs were soft while being laid under/near the water. Once the animal evolved enough to walk onto land, and laid eggs on land, the eggs developed the hard shell -- the eggs as we know it today.

Comment Re:They still don't like us? (Score 1) 76

hardening systems thru more secure software (abandon Windows -- whether you like it or not, it's the best target due to being used by everyone).

Not quite. Windows is the best target due to its low coding standards, the huge number of security holes it suffers from, and it's unmanageably.

The fact it is used heavily doesn't make it any more or less secure.

Despite the fact that sounds like trolling on Windows...I'll bite. The fact that Windows is the most used desktop OS does increase its surface of attack. Perhaps that is what GP meant?

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