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Comment Re:Musk'll Fix It! (Score 1) 246

I take applications from high schoolers to participate in and use a lab I run. Let's say I get one app from a kid who is from a rural Kentucky holler, and I get another from a kid from coastal Rhode Island. Both kids are in the same grade, and both have a sufficient GPA required to participate. As presented, both could be admitted to the program but I can choose only one of them because only one person can be accommodated. I could quietly reject the kid from Kentucky because of an assumed education of lesser-quality and that they will be harder to work with as a result, as the kid from coastal RI is very likely to go to school in a far more affluent area and thus probably has a better education. Predicament resolved. I can congratulate the perceived-affluent kid on their acceptance and send the Kentucky kid a "We're sorry, better luck next time" form letter of rejection. One of them was going to get rejected anyway.

If you protest and say "Hey, that wasn't a fair assessment! You're making gross assumptions about both kids!" you would be correct. Doing what I described would not be fair. But stuff like this does happen often and in ways where plausible deniability makes it easy to do and any challenge impossible. DEI principles guide deeper assessments of merit, it doesn't replace merit. It keeps people in positions of power and decision-making honest, transparent, and makes us ask ourselves if we've been honest and fair in what we've done by others. Put plainly, being uncomfortable with that kind of introspection may be an indicator of something one needs to work on.

Submission + - China unveils Haolong space shuttle (space.com)

Geoffrey.landis writes: The Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, part of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), has unveiled their design for a reusable uncrewed spaceplane for delivering and returning cargo from the Chinese Tiangong space station. Like the Sierra Space "Dream Chaser," the vehicle is to be launched as a payload on a separate launch vehicle, and land horizontally on Earth on a runway. The design is aerodynamically a hybrid, incorporating features of both winged and lifting-body designs. A model of the Haolong will make its debut at the 15th "Airshow China", November 12 to 17 in Zhuhai. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Submission + - New thermal material provides 72% better cooling than conventional paste (techspot.com)

jjslash writes: Researchers at the University of Texas have unveiled a new thermal interface material that could revolutionize cooling, outperforming top liquid metal solutions by up to 72% in heat dissipation. This breakthrough not only improves energy efficiency but also enables higher-density data center setups, cutting cooling costs and energy usage significantly. TechSpot reports:

Data centers are hot, both figuratively and literally. As we feed more and more data and processing demands into these server farms, keeping them from overheating is becoming an increasingly expensive and energy-intensive challenge. But researchers at the University of Texas may have a cool solution – a new thermal interface material that can whisk heat away from processors better than the likes of Thermalright and Thermal Grizzly.


Submission + - Trump picks Kristi Noem for Homeland Security Secretary (keloland.com)

sdinfoserv writes: Governor of the State ranked 47th in GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... , and most famously known for shooting her dog and banging Corey Lewandowsi, https://nypost.com/2023/09/15/..., has been purportedly chosen to run Homeland Security . Perhaps her solution will be to adopt permit less concealed carry on a national level, just like she did in her frozen, sparsely populated State. https://sdsos.gov/general-serv...

Submission + - US Senate to revive Software Patents with PERA Bill Vote on Thursday (eff.org) 1

zoobab writes: The US Senate to set to revive Software Patents with the PERA Bill, with a vote on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

A crucial Senate Committee is on the cusp of voting on two bills that would resurrect some of the most egregious software patents and embolden patent trolls. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would dismantle vital safeguards that prohibit software patents on overly broad concepts. If passed, courts would be compelled to approve software patents on mundane activities like mobile food ordering or basic online financial transactions. This would unleash a torrent of vague and overbroad software patents, which would be wielded by patent trolls to extort small businesses and individuals.

The EFF is inviting members of the public to contact their Senators.

Submission + - US agency says Tesla's public statements about self driving are misleading (apnews.com)

AmiMoJo writes: The U.S. government’s highway safety agency says Tesla is telling drivers in public statements that its vehicles can drive themselves, conflicting with owners manuals and briefings with the agency saying the electric vehicles need human supervision.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking the company to “revisit its communications” to make sure messages are consistent with user instructions.

The request came in a May email to the company from Gregory Magno, a division chief with the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation. It was attached to a letter seeking information on a probe into crashes involving Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system in low-visibility conditions. The letter was posted Friday on the agency’s website.

The agency began the investigation in October after getting reports of four crashes involving “Full Self-Driving” when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust. An Arizona pedestrian was killed in one of the crashes.

Critics, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have long accused Tesla of using deceptive names for its partially automated driving systems, including “Full Self-Driving” and “Autopilot,” both of which have been viewed by owners as fully autonomous.

Comment Re:Limits to inelastic demand discovered (Score 3, Insightful) 76

Nothing, you say? Comp Sci web app coding major detected. You're right if the schooling were only, and purely, about a transfer of information. But we know that uni/college brings way more than that, as it brings environment and resources to utilize, practice, and enhance any book-read knowledge. Engineering and physical sciences students can utilize professional-grade labs stocked with all manner of materials and equipment and learn how to navigate those environments. Communications students have entire studios at their disposal. Art and theatrics students get professional stages and galleries. Social sciences students obtain access to regional networks of government and professional programs to work with and learn from. Would you want a med student that has never seen the inside of a teaching hospital or clinic to diagnose your illness? I can't understand how you've managed to spawn your assertion.

Comment Re:Some clarification (Score 4, Interesting) 59

Thank you for pointing this out. To expand on this, it's the ITU that also coordinates and regulates geosync orbit slots - it's not a free-for-all up there. It's a finite about of area that must be kept regulated to ensure a sat collision doesn't f-up things for everyone else. With the density of LEO rapidly increasing, we need international agreement and orchestration there, too, to keep it usable and minimize the chance of a worst-case scenario.

Comment Re:I propose to outlaw cryptomining (Score 3, Informative) 130

I didn't switch out all the incandescent bulbs in my house to LEDs just to save myself some money on my electric bill. I also did it to reduce my "take" from the grid; with the hopes that the sum reduction of everyone replacing items in their everyday lives with ones that consume remarkably less energy would require less overall power generation, which in turn would consume less fossil fuels, which would put less CO2 into the atmosphere.

But no, some individual with a wire rack full of nvidia cards running full tilt 24/7 is going to blow my contributions to reducing energy consumption away, and that of many others as well, for their goal to accumulate magical internet nickels. TBQFH, I couldn't give 2 shiats to the desired of miners.

Comment Re:It actually makes sense (Score 2) 70

This is my county, and I appreciate not only the environmental benefit and the fewer amounts of particulate and nitrogen compounds being spewed into the air, but also not being stuck behind a bus that has a tailpipe that is level with my car's air intake and is therefore mainlining diesel fumes into the cabin while I wait in line to drop the kiddo off. They are still too young to ride the bus.

Comment Pilots in command (Score 4, Insightful) 110

With aircraft, there is always a Pilot In Command. The PIC (and, really, the entirety of the flight crew) are still responsible for everything an aircraft does, even if it's on autopilot. The PIC must still pay attention and monitor both systems and the situation at all times. If the autopilot being active is not appropriate for the situation or is operating the aircraft unsafely, it's still the PIC's responsibility to assume control and (attempt to) correct the situation. You just cannot assume that the autopilot will always do the right thing.

I really don't know why this concept hasn't been applied to driverless cars. The infrastructure for truly driverless cars does not exist on all of the roads nor is it standardized, even though the mechanisms might be, so attempting to completely absolve the quasi-non-driver from responsibility is for the operation of the vehicle is wondrously dumb. This is especially true since driving environments will be mixed with drivered and driverless vehicles for quite some time and the same hazards that exist today will exist for just as long.

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