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Comment Re:Obama (Score 1) 706

Say what you want about Obama, but I guarantee the next president (probably Republican) won't care about preserving Net Neutrality.

This is the same Obama who appointed a former cable lobbyist to run the FCC. Now he asks for Net Neutrality regulations while mentioning that the FCC is an independent agency that doesn't have to listen to him. Typical political doublespeak. If this was something he really cared about, don't you think he would have chosen someone to run the FCC who advocated for net neutrality?

Comment Re:don't use biometrics (Score 1) 328

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defendant would have you believe that they NEVER sent a text message, NEVER sent an email, NEVER used a web browser in the 4 years they've owned this $700 iPhone, rather than that they wiped it when lawfully ordered to unlock their phone. We have witnesses who have email saying it was sent from the defendant's iPhone. We have witnesses who have seen the defendant use their iPhone to send email. Can you honestly believe any of the things they've said now, in the face of all this evidence that they lied to you and this very court?"

Defense: "I'm not sure why this prosecutor guy keeps yelling "never" at us, but my client had an issue with his phone recently and had to restore it back to factory settings. As anyone who owns a cellphone knows, this is not uncommon."

"Right index finger unlocks, left index finger wipes most things, then unlocks."

Perhaps, it should be "Right index finger unlocks, left index finger overwrites all data 3 times, then presents an error indicating it tried to unlock, but data appears to be corrupted."

Comment Re:I'm betting on balloons (Score 5, Informative) 99

The altitude record for a zeppelin is 7.6 km or 4.7 miles. Large hurricanes can reach an altitude of 50 000 feet or 9.5 miles or 15.25 km. Zeppelins couldn't clear a large hurricane.

All balloons are not "zeppelins". High altitude balloons can reach 32 km.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

Here is one that can reach between 29km and 32 km you can buy today for $60.

http://www.highaltitudescience...

I would agree that drones are preferable, but we do have better balloons that we did in the 1890's

Comment Re:The essence of enterprise (Score 1) 148

I don't know how to make those downsides go away without wrecking the competitiveness of enterprises. But I suspect it will involve a realignment in the balance of power between labour and capital.

One way of achieving this is through the use of force. Also known as "legislation". Fortunately we have a mechanism in place for effecting change. It's called Politics. But what actual policy should be enacted through Politics? If knew (and could prove it) I'd tell you, but I don't.

Good thing our political system doesn't also have a large power imbalance favoring capital!

Comment Re:In short... (Score 1) 232

Straw man fallacy, we all know that he is saying that due to Comcast's financial influence, they have purchased an 'appeals' process at a higher (state or federal) level that nearly guarantees their victory. It doesn't matter what anyone in the town says or wants, Comcast purchased the right to rape them long ago.

Comment Re:Light on details, however... (Score 2) 395

Ah but heat waste will be a serious issue. Our electric cars today charge efficiently because the internal resistance of the battery is much higher than the resistance in the rest of the charging circuit (basically the copper wire between the electric meter and battery, from our point of view) Maximum Power transfer theorem tells us that we will achieve maximum power transfer when the resistance of the load (battery) is equal to the resistance of the rest of the circuit. However, when we reach that point, half the power will be used by the load (battery) and half will be converted to heat as a result of resistance in the rest of the circuit. So when we transfer maximum power, we do so at 50% efficiency. The lower the internal resistance of these batteries may mean we can charge them faster, but we will pay a price in efficiency to do so. I'd also be concerned about safety. Low internal resistance is what makes Lithium-Ion batteries so dangerous. It's why, when shorted, they essentially become electrically powered hand grenades. I could certainly see that being even worse with these, but we'd need details to make those determinations, and I can't click on the link prior to commenting per slashdot TOS.

Comment Criminals don't want these (Score 2) 314

What criminal wants to be paid with a bunch of $500 bills. How do you launder that? Wouldn't it be preferable to have a bunch of $20's which you could use anywhere without anyone batting an eye? Sure the larger bills are easier to sneak through a border or something, but they come with their own set of problems too. If my extensive knowledge is to be believed, and I've seen a lot of movies, criminals prefer a variety of small unmarked bills with non-sequential serial numbers.

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