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Comment Amtrak does pretty well (Score 1) 215

by jeffkoch (#55570669) Attached to: Apology After Japanese Train Departs 20 Seconds Early
> ... There's no similar sense of urgency here in the US. ... I disagree. Amtrak (U.S. passenger rail) is very good on timeliness -- you can just about set your watch at their departure. And when there are expected or potential delays, they are very good about notifying customers. My experience has been in the "north east corridor" - travelling between NYC and WDC.

Comment Re:This sounds great until... (Score 1) 364

by jeffkoch (#55258705) Attached to: Court Rules That Imported Solar Panels Are Bad For US Manufacturing
You're implying that the major cost driver -- the reason that the US can't compete -- is because of the cost of the touch-labor in assembling the panels. I would have thought that would be largely automated. What is the cost build-up for solar panel manufacturing? Like other posters, I would have thought the installation labor would far outweigh the manufacturing labor.

Comment sensationalized story (Score 1) 241

by jeffkoch (#54875899) Attached to: Sweden Accidentally Leaks Personal Details of Nearly All Citizens
The first article linked says that the Swedish Transportation Agency allowed IBM to proceed without background checks and security clearances. Some of the IBM personnel were located in other countries. It does not say that anyone outside of IBM had any inappropriate access. The second article linked, from which the summary paragraph above is drawn, seems a bit sensational in extrapolating this as having been a huge data leak -- "...emailed the entire database...".

Comment Re:"Human Colleague"... Nope, You Just Don't Get I (Score 1) 407

by jeffkoch (#54047497) Attached to: A Rogue Robot Is Blamed For a Human Colleague's Gruesome Death

there is no known way to implement such law

Duh, of course!

Why is that an, "of course"? The article describes a woman crushed in an assembly line. If a self driving car can recognize a human and apply the brakes, I think a similar algorithm could have put the assembly line robots into a safe mode.

Submission + - U.S. Senate targets patent trolls 1

Submitted by jeffkoch
jeffkoch writes: Last year, the United States Senate failed to pass bipartisan legislation to combat patent trolls when it was killed by then-Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Congressional-insider newspaper Roll Call reports today that, “Knowing Reid would no longer control the Senate's legislative schedule in 2015, staff for John Cornyn, (a Republican from Texas), and Charles E. Schumer, (a Democrat from New York)”, began work in February to assemble a new bill and to build support among fellow members of the Senate. Patent law is usually not a partisan issue, and President Barack Obama has called for getting an overhaul to his desk on several occasions including in his 2014 State of the Union speech.
The last overhaul of United States patent law, the America Invents Act, took several years to be developed. The U.S. Congress is likely to act on the proposed legislation before they recess in August.
“Patent trolls are taking a system meant to drive innovation and instead using it to stifle job-creating businesses around the country. Main Street stores, tech startups and more are being smothered by the abuse that is all too common in our patent system, and it’s time for that to end,” Schumer said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill shifts the legal burden back onto those who would abuse the patent system in order to make a quick buck at the expense of businesses that are playing by the rules.”
Earth

After Recent US Storms, Why Are Millions Still Without Power? 813

Posted by timothy from the probably-because-of-the-recent-us-storms dept.
Hugh Pickens points out a report from Jamie Smith Hopkins that "The unusual nature of the 'derecho' is complicating efforts to get everyone's much-needed air conditioning up and running again as more than 1.4 million people from Illinois to Virginia still remain without power and power companies warn some customers could be without power for the rest of the week in the worst hit areas. Utilities don't have enough staff to handle severe-storm outages – the expense would send rates soaring – so they rely on out-of-state utilities to send help, says Stephen Woerner, Baltimore Gas and Electric's (BGE) chief operating officer. Hurricane forecasts offer enough advanced warning for utilities to 'pre-mobilize' and get the out-of-state assistance in place but the forecast for Friday's walloping wind was merely scattered thunderstorms. 'No utility was prepared for what we saw in terms of having staff available that first day,' says Woerner. But is it a given that a strong storm would cause this magnitude of damage to the electricity grid? 'Even without pursuing the extremely expensive option of burying all of the region's electrical lines, the utilities can and do take steps between bouts of severe weather to prevent outages,' writes the Baltimore Sun, adding that consumer advocates are concerned that utilities invest sufficiently in preventive maintenance. 'Tree trimming and replacement of old infrastructure — particularly in areas that have been shown to be vulnerable to previous storms — helps prevent outages.'"

Comment Red Shift - was:Re:Targets (Score 1) 32

by jeffkoch (#31980238) Attached to: LOFAR Telescope Array Grabs First Pulsar Images

> pulsars, for example, are often observed around the 1-1.5 GHz range. (There's a hydrogen emission line at 1.5 GHz,...

Yes, but as you look at objects farther away, they are also moving away from us at higher speeds causing red shift in all their emissions. So the 7 meter (40MHz) signals originated at a much higher frequency.

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