Comment Re:Sample contamination (Score 2) 293
Of course it is. I can tell by the pixels.
Comment Re:Free market for the win (Score 3, Informative) 644
It is still possible to get most of the old UI back in Firefox. This is what I do:
- Turn all of the toolbars on
- Turn off "Tabs on Top" to put the tabs back where they belong
- Add a Firefox 3 theme
- Install a real status bar
- Restore the back/forward button functionality
It's not quite the same, but it's close.
Comment Re:$15 Minumum Data Plans (Score 1) 348
Assuming it's unlocked, T-Mobile will sell plans with just a sim card. I've never actually done it, so I don't know if they will require you to have a data plan once they find out what you've put the sim card in.
Comment Re:Let's just do away with sales tax (Score 1) 949
As an example, you can look just slightly north to Oregon. No sales tax, and a relatively high income tax just like the GP wanted. The result? Incredibly volatile state revenue, and large budget cuts whenever the economy has a downturn. In fact, a frequently proposed solution to that is the much more stable sales tax.
Comment Re:Placebo (Score 1) 117
That doesn't necessarily sound like a placebo to me. I certainly don't know what medicinal properties black seed oil might have, but it is a concentrated extract of whatever the "black seeds" are, much like many traditional drugs. There may not have been controlled double-blind studies yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't effective. Histamines are a known cause of headaches, so it isn't an unreasonable claim that an anti-histamine could help.
Homeopathic remedies, on the other hand, are diluted to the point of not containing any of the curative substance, and have been proven not to work. That's a placebo.
Who Killed the Netbook? 398
Comment Not just Ham radio... (Score 1) 309
He also wants to sell off 450-470 MHz. Among other uses, this is the band for consumer FRS radios. Just try telling the public that they aren't allowed to use their walkie-talkies anymore...
Comment Re:For the airplane geeks... (Score 3, Informative) 317
Because not every plane has a GPS or INS. (Certified) GPS equipment is still new and expensive for airplanes. INS is very large and heavy, and only used on large commercial jets.
And perhaps most importantly, a compass always works. If everything else fails, you still have that as a backup.
Comment Re:Stupidest idea ever (Score 1) 121
When you're talking about VHF signals that are only a few kHz apart, it pretty much is the only method available. No amount of DSP can overcome the compression in the (analog) front end you'd get without a diplexer in front of it.
Comment Re:Well, yes and no. (Score 1) 121
This additional 32 dB of gain would greatly increase the range of the 2.4 GHz system over the VHF system, and would be available all the time -- making for a suitable Internet connection.
Unfortunately, the additional path loss more than makes up for the antenna gain over long distances, so the benefits are much smaller than you might expect. Beyond 25 miles or so, VHF is going to have less loss, even accounting for the antenna gain. That's part of the reason that low frequencies are preferred for broadcasting.
Comment Re:Stupidest idea ever (Score 1) 121
To be fair, those system require somewhat large and expensive cavity filters to work, along with a radio that is designed for such a system.
A system like this probably isn't practical for internet access in the Outback. (The filter is the set of cans on the lower right).
Comment Re:Bogus shortage (Score 1) 309
It is a problem - your office computers, or even home computers, aren't supposed to share an IP address. Every machine should have a unique address.
They only share addresses because there aren't enough to do it right.
Comment Re:I Won't (Score 1) 390
So when were people required to put on pants before leaving the house?
No thanks, too much hassle. I will just stick to not wearing them.
This is Slashdot - are you sure you didn't mean
"I'll stick to not leaving the house"?
Comment Re:Notices mean nothing in legal terms (Score 1) 457
I don't know where you live, so that might be true there. However, no state of the US I've ever lived in has a law requiring two weeks notice. Generally, employment in the US is "at will". I can quit, or be fired, at any time. Two weeks is just a common courtesy.