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Comment Re:Old Idea, and Users Hate It (Score 1) 107

Having spend years reading newspaper(s) every morning for leads - like property purchases, planned construction, homes for sale ads in the classifieds, etc. - as a real estate broker I was pleasantly surprised when i got out of the business to find that reading the newspaper was an expensive, time-wasting, unnecessary, not-too productive habit. When news came online, nearly in real time, with enough details to satisfy any lingering curiosity, I stopped buying and reading them.

Having decided that watching TV - from the slanted, headline and brief sound-byte oriented talking-head news to the nearly unlimited and possibly entertaining shows that weren't scientifically truthful to hoards of stretched out, padded, unresolving, and questionable documentaries - was a waste of my time, was semi-addictive (you always want to channel surf to see what else is on during commercials or boring parts), was a distracting background noise that annoyed me, and was also forcing opinions and things I "should" be concerned about onto my already overloaded brain that was trying to think, I got rid of all my TVs. Besides, I've found most of the "news" is really only supposition and what-if and press releases and opinions or expert analyses anyway.

Having found that most magazines can be found online free and faster - and that usually the headlines were enough to get the gist of the story - i stopped reading things that were published months after the fact. Most magazines can be replaced, and even the glossy photography printed at home, by Google and web sites that focus on certain subjects.

The point is now that I don't have a lot of distractions clamoring for my visual and auditory attention I can concentrate on things that i want to do. Information overload is a real malady, getting worse all the time. I don't miss the old ways at all. And I have also discovered the key to filtering down all those inputs:

News that affects me will find me.

I have friends that tell me things, headlines alert me to news that might interest me, websites are constantly updated nearly real time enough to keep me on top of things, and if I happen to miss anything, somebody who thinks I owe them time or money or resources will contact me.

Comment Simple (Score 1) 368

Good grief, just crash a $500 drone into a $500 drone.
 
But the Pentagon would rather spend 50 times that - $25,000 - to create a committee that spends $250,000 coming up with $2,500,000 ideas that take $25,000,000 in R&D dollars to demonstrate how cost in-effective a $500 drone is.
 
After all, when the drones are flying over us they don't want to give the local RC club any ideas...

Comment Re: Donating to Science (Score 1) 793

You might want to reconsider and do a little research. I read your post and curiosity is prompting me to delve into the organ donor facts a little deeper.
 
My philosophy is simple: I don't need this body when I die, "so dispose of it as you will" (as the Klingons would say).
 
Research, science exhibit, transplant materials, part'n'pieces here'n'there - if I can be put to good use for even 1 person when I'm gone, that's just carrying on what I try to do now.
 
I had always thought that some body parts might not be cancer- or whatever-prone, or at the least wouldn't carry any rogue properties with them. Even so, don't they do pretty comprehensive compatibility studies before they use the parts? And what they can't do now, they be able to do by the time I die, so I'll sign the card in anticipation of knowing they're inventing even better science as I write.
 
Even if body parts are found to be faulty or incompatible after they're used, the recipients still would get some living-longer or living-better use out of them. There's even the possibility of another transplant, too.

Networking

Submission + - Researchers warn of possible BitTorrent meltdown (torrentfreak.com)

secmartin writes: "Researchers at Delft University warn that large parts of the BitTorrent network might collapse if The Pirate Bay is forced to shut down. A large part of the avaliable torrents use The Pirate Bay as tracker, and other available trackers will probably be overloaded if all traffic is shifted there. TPB is currently using eight server for their trackers.

According to the researchers, even trackerless torrents using the DHT protocol will face problems: "One bug in a DHT sorting routine ensures that it can only "stumble upon success", meaning torrent downloads will not start in seconds or minutes if Pirate Bay goes down in flames.""

Power

Submission + - Scientists develop 40% efficient solar cells

gtada writes: A story published on Physorg.com states 'Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, have recently published their research on the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone — the highest efficiency achieved for any photovoltaic device. Their results appear in a recent edition of Applied Physics Letters.' How much longer until we all have paneled roofs?
Intel

Submission + - Twenty Five Intel CPU Coolers Tested (hexus.net)

Kez writes: Over recent years coolers have grown increasingly exotic in design, striving for good cooling performance and low noise even with the most power hungry of CPUs. But sometimes that comes at a price, be it straining the motherboard's socket to its limit, or the wallets of PC enthusiasts. Investigating which coolers do their job well, without snapping your motherboard in two, HEXUS.net reviews 25 LGA775 coolers.
Windows

Submission + - Vista's 40 Million License Sales In Context

Overly Critical Guy writes: Microsoft's figure of 40 million Vista OEM licenses sold has less impact when weighed against the expanded size of the PC market, according to IDC numbers. The myriad of factors involved in determining success in the market makes Microsoft's constant comparisons to Windows XP less reliable as a growth indicator — particularly with Microsoft refusing to reveal the number of actual activated Vista licenses.

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