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typodupeerror

Comment panopticon (Score 1) 171

For a while the question from my perspective has been how long until we live in a panopticon not what can I do to keep privacy on the web ? The results in the article are pretty obvious, the only way to keep information secret about yourself seems to become a hermit and use technologies from two centuries ago.

Comment Plastic vs. paper packaging (Score 1) 325

How would changing packaging to paper help with the dumping plastic issues ? Recently I heard about managed forests and on the surface it sounds good since the forest stays in place and it's cut down to make paper products and also replenished at the same time. I cringe every time I have to throw a plastic/glass container in the trash (and no, there's no recycling program where I live).

Comment Re:Sesame Street & the Importance of Bilingual (Score 1) 1077

I learned English from TV (the TV where I lived was subtitled not overdubbed), games, and reading books. I also I have a better than average understanding of Italian from (I assume) watching Italian TV without subtitles as a kid. I can understand most Italian (90%) but cannot string together a single phrase. My native language is Romanian and as such is 70% percent similar to Italian. However, I know a lot of people who do not understand Italian even though they speak Romanian as a native language. In English I am very fluent - better than the average native speaker from test scores and interaction with native speakers. So I think TV, books, games, etc do help even in the absence of native speakers.

Comment Re:Question about atmospheric friction (Score 2, Informative) 87

Actually an object will heat up less on reentry if it is blunt because there will be a bigger cushion of air between the aircraft and the shock front.. Early ballistic missiles had a round (blunt) tip made of plywood which chars slowly in order to prevent the destruction of the payload on reentry.

Reposting this (posted as AC) because I can't stand someone being wrong on the internet. :)
Education

Submission + - University of Kansas strict copyright infringement 1

NewmanKU writes: "Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica writes that the University of Kansas has adopted a new strict copyright infringement policy for the students on the residential network that are sharing copyrighted files. The university's ResNet website states that, "Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus." According to a KU spokesperson, KU has recieved 345 notices in the past year from organizations and businesses regarding complaints about copyrighted material downloading."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Will pervasive multithreading make a comeback? (google.com)

exigentsky writes: "Having looked at BeOS technology, it is clear that like NeXTSTEP, it was ahead of its time. Most remarkable to me is the incredible responsiveness of the whole OS. On relatively slow hardware, BeOS could run eight movies simultaneously while still being responsive in all of its GUI controls and launching programs almost instantaneously. Today, more than ten years after BeOS's introduction, its legendary responsiveness is still unmatched. There is simply no other OS (major) that has pervasive multithreading from the lowest level up (requiring no programmer tricks). Is it likely, or at least possible that future versions of Windows or OS X could become pervasively multithreaded without creating an entirely new OS?"
Biotech

Submission + - Genome of DNA Pioneer Is Deciphered

unchiujar writes: The New York Times reports that the full genome of James D. Watson, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953, has been deciphered, marking what some scientists believe is the gateway to an impending era of personalized genomic medicine. Skip to next paragraph A copy of his genome, recorded on a pair of DVDs, is to be presented to Dr. Watson today in a ceremony in Houston by Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine, and by Jonathan Rothberg, founder of the company 454 Life Sciences.

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