Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Figures (Score 5, Insightful) 149

"There is no safety or cost reason to prefer this over normal analog protein vaccines. Only advantage MRNA has is reduced up front capex."

Nice attempt at shaping the discussion to flow down the limited paths you prefer. In reality world the gigantic advantages of having straightforward yearly influenza vaccines be mRNA-based is that (1) after enough experience it would become possible to reformulate the vaccine midseason if the dominant flu strain changes (2) if a 1918 Kansas Flu boils up out of a giant pig farm somewhere it will be possible to create an mRNA vaccine for it and get it into distribution rapidly.

Comment People will die (Score 4, Interesting) 116

This outrageous level of paranoia over "alleged" drone sightings will cost human lives soon.

Here we have the US military mis-identifying a party balloon as a drone and firing a powerful laser at it -- while members of the public get prosecuted every year for flicking their laser-pointers at helicopters and airliners.

In Germany, police will be allowed to shoot at "alleged" drones even though it has been clearly proven that most (if not all) of the recent drone sightings were simply mis-identified aircraft lights.

Can anyone see the potential for disaster here?

The mis-identification of aircraft flying at night as "drones" has become rife, dating back beyond the NY/NJ "drone" incidents that caused such concern in the USA a year or two ago. Almost without exception, these "drones" are real aircraft (often passenger flights) carrying people through the skies. How long before one of them is shot down by paranoid trigger-happy idiots?

Paranoia is a mental health issue and it's infecting governments and authorities around the world.

Before someone says "but... Ukraine..." I ask you: how many people have died as the result of actions by bad actors using drones in the USA or outside the war zones in Europe?

That's a big fat ZERO!

Yes, it "could" happen but right now it's far more likely that innocent people will die from friendly fire produced by paranoid idiots on the ground with guns and lasers.

Comment Multiple rug pulls (Score 5, Informative) 90

The streaming services have already done multiple rug pulls, rights-stripping acquisitions, and bankruptcies to take away "purchased" streaming rights and force people to pay a second time (and a third, and a fourth...). But yeah, the people who have CD players with analog outputs and who buy CDs are the dumb ones.

Comment Re:Unbelievable! (Score 1) 186

Who else remembers 1channel, FlixNet and the others?

Ah... happy days. At one point almost everything that had ever been screened or broadcast was available to anyone with a Raspberry Pi and a copy of Kodi with a few choice plug-ins. I'd gladly have paid $50 a month to have access to all that stuff but now, with the destruction of that piracy vector, much of the content is no longer accessible and what's left is fragmented over a dozen different streaming services that all want to empty your wallet.

Hence I now just watch my collection of hundreds of DVDs and BuRay disks that I bought for a song when the video-hire stores started shutting dow and which I've ripped to my NAS.

Comment Re:Sell NFTs ! Sell Bitcoin ! Buy AI ! (Score 2) 153

I laugh at you all!

A Nigerian prince has contacted me and advised me that I now own ONE BILLION BTC which is being kept in a chest in that nation's treasury. All I have to do is send him 4Kg of gold to cover the costs of the paperwork and all that BTC will be *mine!!

Those of you who speculate on crypto and precious metals are all fools -- only *I* am onto a sure thing.

I shall laugh at you and ridicule you when my container-load of BTC is delivered next week. Hang on, apparently another 1Kg of gold is required because of inflation. No problems... prepare to be humiliated you crypto and bullion fools!!! The wealth will soon be mine!

Comment Wilhoit's Law (Score 5, Informative) 97

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect"

To conservatism I would add billionaireism.

[note that this is not Wilhoit the academic political philospher, but a different Wilhoit]

Comment Magic money (Score 4, Insightful) 190

Where is all the money for this UBI going to come from?

Tax the rich?

Yeah, that's not working now so I don't see it working just because UBI is a thing.

The sad reality is that AI is likely to cause major financial stress, regardless of whether there's a bubble or not. Once AI improves worker productivity by a huge amount there will be job losses. That loss of jobs means less money in the economy to purchase goods and services. Reduced demand means reduced profits for the companies that employed AI in the first instance.

Net result: huge economic contraction and a situation where nobody wins.

The oft-described utopia where nobody ever needs to work again (are you listening Elon) is better described as 100 percent unemployment -- with all the heartache and financial difficulties that brings.

Comment 40% growth forever (Score 1) 39

The smartest guys in the room somehow failed to realize that 40% compounded growth forever at 80%-3000% gross margins wasn't possible. It can happen for 5-10 years of an economic turnover (whether driven by new technology, new forms of organization, immigration, or other fundamental changes) but just because it happens to some organizations for 5, 10, even 20 years does not mean it can/will happen to every organization - and trees don't grow to the sky.

Comment Re:Smells fishy to me (Score 2) 146

Before starting a local nuclear power industry Korea did a thorough study of the global industry and decided to basically copy US NRC regulations. They had the option to start from scratch and create a new regulatory framework but they decided to go with one that had experience behind it and known weak spots documented. I don't track that part of the industry closely any more but my understanding is that Korean nuclear operational and safety requirements are now tighter than those of the US.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained." -- The Tao of Programming

Working...