Comment Someone watching bond movies (Score 2) 35
Die Another Day (and all the Bond movies) have been playing on the TV. Someone must have liked the Icarus weapon and thought, "let's work up to that".
Comment My only team member that got himself fired (Score 1) 66
I managed an IT team of 6. Only one had a masters degree, the others were all bachelors, college, or high school grads. It was the one with the masters degree that was clueless enough to utter a threat of physical violence to an employee of a photocopy repair company. Pretty sure he meant it as a joke, but it didn't come across to the repair guy as a joke. The repair guy reported the incident, the incident was reported back to our company, and HR said he has to go. Not bright.
Comment How about the simplier explanation (Score 1) 262
How about just having a radio or transponder kept off most of the time, and turn it on occassionally to communicate? He also couldn't have gotten to far, so the search area wasn't huge.
Comment Obligatory Wargames quote (Score 1) 100
General Beringer: "What does the Whopper recommend, Mr. Mckitrick?"
Mr. Mckitrick: "Full scale retaliatory strike"
General Beringer: "I need some machine to tell me that?"
Comment Drive-thru consent? (Score 1) 124
It's going to get to the point where you are assumed to give consent to being recorded just by going through the drive-thru. #1984
Comment AI's biggest weakness is psychopathy (Score 1) 38
Humans have angst and many might view that as bad, but a healthy fear keeps us out of trouble. AI doesn't have that, no matter how much it tries to simulate that. I code with AI but I would never let it be a sys admin.
Comment No more cosplay (Score 1) 123
If this is left to some algorithm, this will likely prevent any cosplay guns like the Star Wars stormtroopers, etc.
Comment Context is key (Score 3, Insightful) 136
A good percentage of slashdot reader grew up when there were no smartphones, so a smartphone is more likely a tool to look up stuff, email, etc. For the generation that grew up with smartphones, they were not taught to use it as a tool, but as an entertainment device. Walking around with a TV stuck in your face all the time is a huge distraction. So I can see the appeal of ditching the smartphone to break habits.
Comment Something from Star Wars (Score 1) 21
Oh, that is what Lobot is wearing!
Comment What's the use case? (Score 1) 48
As one other comment mentioned, it's a nice stunt but what would be the real world use case for this? Even if this was a server it seems unlikely that anyone wants to risk swapping for a different part in an environment demanding that level of HA
Comment Re: Incredible stupidity (Score 1) 198
Yes, because the morning walk to school is the only time kids can get sunlight... There are plenty of kids in northern latitudes that go to school in the dark, or school just starts at a later hour. I'm guessing the teachers wouldn't mind a later start too.
Comment No more need to shoulder surf passwords (Score 1) 25
This is a privacy nightmare. There does not seem to be any practical reasons for the screen, but it is a great way to help broadcast data 360 degrees.
Submission + - Researchers find abundance of Helium in Baffin Island in Canada (nature.com)
thepacketmaster writes: Documented in a recent Nature journal, researchers have found an abundance of both helium-4 and helium-3 trapped in the volcanic rocks on Baffin Island.
As the Earth formed, it is thought that helium-4 and helium-3 flowing on the solar wind became trapped in the minerals of the cooling planet. With heavier elements and minerals sinking to the bottom, this trapped helium was transported to the core, where it would have remained locked in its original forms.
Earth isn't massive enough to hold on to helium in any significant quantities, though. Any that did not get trapped, or that was subsequently released when the minerals melted in the mantle or due to massive impacts, would have eventually seeped up to the surface and floated off into space. So, helium is relatively rare on Earth, and helium-3 is even more so.
As the Earth formed, it is thought that helium-4 and helium-3 flowing on the solar wind became trapped in the minerals of the cooling planet. With heavier elements and minerals sinking to the bottom, this trapped helium was transported to the core, where it would have remained locked in its original forms.
Earth isn't massive enough to hold on to helium in any significant quantities, though. Any that did not get trapped, or that was subsequently released when the minerals melted in the mantle or due to massive impacts, would have eventually seeped up to the surface and floated off into space. So, helium is relatively rare on Earth, and helium-3 is even more so.
Comment Re: Artificial problem (Score 1) 117
You bring up a good point. One of the reasons cited for the housing crunch is lack of labour. Why? Not as many people that were born in Canada see trade skills as a good career, AND we keep asking for high tech immigrants, not trade skills. So we've created our own housing shortage in some ways.
Comment Where are they going to live? (Score 2) 117
Canada's housing market is already red hot due to a lack of inventory. Despite all the talk about creating new housing, that is still years away. This will make an already tight housing market even worse.
