Posts by thx1138v2

Top Gun display for your CAR: Heads-up fighter pilot tech

The basic problem isn't physical like what are your eyes or hands doing? It's where is your mind focused? Is it focused on the outside environment and what is going on or is it focused internally on some discussion picturing who's speaking or what they are speaking about or what the image of that coffee shop looks like and the neighborhood around it? It doesn't matter if it's a heads up display or a phone conversation or a text message.

The difference between that and auto radio is that all of those are two way communications where a response is expected. So your attention must go into composing a response while auto radio is only one way and no response is needed or expected. You can sing along or shake, rattle, and roll but a response is not expected of you so there's no need to compose a response.

Hackers' Paradise: The rise of soft options and the demise of hard choices

Re: Needs amending

"We have a worldwide anti-virus industry that for a small fee will _close your stable door after the horse has bolted._" Identity tracking has the same problem. It's only known who the bad actor is AFTER the damage is done. What is necessary is to prevent the possibilty of damage in the first place. Applying a humanistic approach to a machine is just plain silly. It's a machine. It structure and processing can be controlled.

As far as I know, there has never been a technology developed that hasn't been abused.

Govt control? Hah! It's IMPOSSIBLE to have a successful command economy

"But isn't it fun to think that communism could be made possible by the productive powers of capitalism?" In fact semi-socialism can't exist without capitalism. As the Iron Lady said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

It can be fun to think about it but implementing it always runs into the maxim, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

And it all boils down to one question: who decides? Does a government bureaucrat decide what is best for you are do you decide? When you make the decision and it is wrong, you can correct it. When the bureaucrat makes the decision and it is wrong you are stuck with their decision because they will never acknowledge that they made a bad decision.

Who decides whether you are what you make yourself or you must become an air conditioning technician because your country needs more air conditioning technicians?

Yosemite Siri? Apple might plonk chatty assistant on your desktop - report

I knew it!

That finger? I knew it! The Greys are taking over Apple as a preliminary intrusion into human space. Soon that finger will be on all human patents.

Nuts to your poncey hipster coffees, I want a TESLA ELECTRO-CAFE

After the words "Large soya latte, please." are emitted, you are due whatever you get. If you don't like their response try, "A large cup of Folgers, please." and watch their heads explode. Works particularly well in Starbucks.

But you have given me a good idea - I can take my largest Tesla coil to the loathed Starbucks and fire it up just to get that wonderful smell of the magic smoke.

"Almost, but not quite, the exact opposite of tea." comes to mind.

Just TWO climate committee MPs contradict IPCC: The two with SCIENCE degrees

Re: No Surprise

The way I've been judging it is by the accuracy of the computer models used to predict the future. The last report I saw said they could be proven to be 30% accurate. Basing any action on that data is like playing Russian Roulette with four bullets in the gun - a 66% chance of a bad outcome.

Consensus can be wrong. i.e. the earth is flat was the consensus at one time. Throw money (grants) and politics (delivering those grants) into the brew makes me think that 30% accuracy should also be in question.

Google to feed machines with evidence of human physical weaknesses – and that's a good thing

As far as I know there has never been a technolpgy developed that has not been abused.

Can it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of PUREST ... BLACK?

This might need more study

Is throwing darts at the pub while having a pint more scientifically productive than playing shuffleboard at the icehouse while having a longneck? I mean black stuff is just black stuff.

MIGHTY SOLAR FLARES fail to DESTROY CIVILISATION. Yes!

You're laughing now but...

...just wait until the next terrestrial magnetic pole shift occurs and the earth's poles are pointed right at the sun instead of parallel to the sun's magnetic poles. Then the earth's magnetic field will be sucking all that radiation right down to the surface. That's what happened before and that's why we're the descedants of cavemen. Only the one's who lived in caves survived.

Cool graphic: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

Still watching DVDs? You're a planet-killing carbon hog!

Re: So, how do I stream when

"...wouldn't let me watch it online because of my location." Which is actually the point. Once everything is streaming the content is totally controlled at which point only approved content is produced and all production companies become propaganda machine.

A friend of mine worked in the USSR and wondered why the telephone poles had so many wires. It was bacause all TV and radio went out over the wires so they could be controlled. Ditto if streaming becomes the only distribution available.

Is the answer to life, the universe and everything hidden in Adams' newly uncovered archive?

Re: The ultimate question of life the universe and everything.

Number base, shamumber base! Who needs a number base with an infinite improbability (AKA quantum) machine.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot becoming mere pimple

Surely it's anthropomorphic global warming. Since there seem to be no bounds to what it can affect I don't see why it couldn't be that.

Re: Are we sure it's disappearing?

Or is it just winking?

Apple, Beats and fools with money who trust celeb endorsements

The purchase isn't about sound

Apple is obviously buying a customer base of prequalified "marketing susceptible" consumers with more money than sense. As they say, "Priceless!"

The headphones and music are thrown in as a backup plan.

Internet of Stuff: Cleaner washing, more milk ... fewer COW FARTS?

But, but, but...

...reducing cow farts will destroy the Bovine Flatulence Credits Exchange where non-farmers who own land can get credits for the cows they don't raise and can sell or lease the credits they get for not raising cows to those farmers who do raise cows and must purchase credits to offset their cows' flatulence.

Hey, operators... 'member our edge-of-SPAAACE interwebs balloons? Help! - Google

Noble idea runs smack into geopolitics

By and large, the tyrants of the world would prefer to _not_ have their serfs connected to the internet. It just foments unrest, don't you know. In particular, see item 4 below and consider information a resource.

The rules of rule:

1. Keep them weak.

2. Keep them dumb.

3. Keep them scared.

4. Control all resources.

5. Divide and conquer.

6. Control their rhythm and pace.

7. Control their chemistry.

8. Control their sex.

9. Jack them around.

10. Use coercion routinely, brute force when necessary.

11. Use deception routinely, the Big Lie when necessary.

12. None of this can show.

13. This is the system; there shall be no other.

Generally speaking, it's the same problem Nikola Tesla ran into with his world wide power transmission idea which, interestingly, was first patented as a transmission between tethered balloons maintained at 30,000 feet. That might have been possible since there were no airplanes back then but, on the other hand, the jet stream was unknown at the time and it's +250MPH winds might wreak havoc on tethered balloons.

Sleuths find nosy NORKS drones on the Chinternet

Drones, schmones

Can we get some dragons with leathery and pointed flapping wings, PLEASE! Fire breathing, I guess, could be optional, but I'd really like to see something in the sky that looks a bit DIFFERENT, ya know?

You got your Embraer RJ145 and your Airbus A380 and everything in between but they all LOOK the same. How about a little VARIETY, you know?

Want to give the North Koreans the heebie-jeebies? Fly a few effing DRAGONS around over there, swooping in on their knobby heads at night and watch them explain THAT to Dear Leader.

Red-faced LOHAN team 'fesses up in blown SPEARS fuse fiasco

Perspective

Not as bad as running 100% oxygen in a closed, manned capsule full of eletrical switches.

IRS boss on XP migration: 'Classic fix the airplane while you're flying it attempt'

WMD's and Rice, Bush, etc

If you believe that BS you better look very hard for Peter Rabbit Sunday.

There's no doubt Saddam Hussein had the WMD's. Part of the Armistice agreement that ended the first Gulf War was that he would destroy them and document the destruction. The weapons inspectors knew what weapons he had. He only needed to document their destruction. Instaed of living up to that agreement he danced the weapons inspectors around for 12 years.

It was never up to the U.S. or the coalition or anyone else to prove he had them because they were already known.

The fact that people are still talking about the "missing" WMD's and that it was up to the Bush administration, or anyone else for that matter, to find them is nonsense. I guess it proves that if you tell a lie often enough, some people will believe anything.

So get up really early Sunday morning, like 12:01:01.001 AM and stay vigilant until 11:59:59.999 and I'm certain you'll see Peter.

So get up really early Sunday morning, like 12:01:01.001 AM and stay vigilant until 11:59:59.999 and I'm certain you'll see Peter.

So get up really early Sunday morning, like 12:01:01.001 AM and stay vigilant until 11:59:59.999 and I'm certain you'll see Peter.

So get up really early Sunday morning, like 12:01:01.001 AM and stay vigilant until 11:59:59.999 and I'm certain you'll see Peter.

Melting permafrost switches to nasty, high-gear methane release

Time for a Bovine Flatulence Credit Exchange? The money could be used to pay farmers and ranchers around the world for the cattle they could have raised but didn't.

UFO, cosmic ray or flasher? NASA rules on Curiosity curiosity

Is "cosmic ray hit" the 21st century equivalent of a 1947 "weather balloon"?

How Microsoft can keep Win XP alive – and WHY: A real-world example

You can bet your bottom dollar that there isn't a programmer at MS right now that _wants_ to work on XP. It's a career dead end. And I imagine MS might be able to find some retired old fogeys like myself that _might_ be willing to work on it but they would be few and far between. So I'm not sure MS could even find the personnel to do this.

RISE of the LIVING CHAIR: Boffins recruit E coli to build futuristic materials

One small step for slime

Once the chair relieves the stress points in your bum and you snooze off, the chair arms encircle you and the gold nano wire snakes up your neck and burrows into your spinal cord and you are a part of THE MATRIX. No need for light sensitive growth. The slime will now have human batteries so there's no need to worry about cloudy days.

Has anybody checked the MIT boffins for such attachments yet? Are the boffins "programming" the slime or is the slime already "programming" them to accomplish its domination of the world?

Tornado-chasing stealth Batmobile set to invade killer vortices

...seeks twisters, data, and adrenaline

And more than likely some blood.

5 Eyes in the Sky: The TRUTH about Flight MH370 and SPOOKSATS

Far too much power in far too few hands

"But mistakes like the ones recorded here are particularly unhelpful if they heighten public paranoia." IMO, the public's paranoia is intolerably low and needs a bit of prodding with a sharp stick. There have been stories about being able to read license plates from satellites for years and you can pretty much assume tha there is a large degree of accuracy in them if commercial satellites are "allowed" to operate at 0.25m.

I'm not really worried about myself because I'm a nobody and really have no effect on government functions. But apply those same technologies (NSA, satellites, etc.) to the portion of the populace that DOES have responsibility for implementing laws and rules of government contrivance and I see real problems. That level of data can be used to influence everyone in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government at all levels - national, state, county, city, and school district. And not just the primary parties but their families and relatives. That is far, far more power in the hands of far, far too few people.

Yes, Mrs. Feinstein, you are a member of "all Americans" and so are your family members and you aides and their family members.

Without a level of paranoia commensurate to the degree of intrusion we are doing nothing more than skipping down the yellow brick road like the Straw Man singing, "If I Only had a Brain".

A bit more public paranoia could have prevented or, at the very least reduced, the impact of the events of 09/11/2001.

Actually, there is an Arapaho word for 'pliers'

Re: Is there an Arapaho word for this?

Silly you. Those screw drivers do not disappear forever. They morph into those single socks found in the dryer which I hope everyone knows are the larval stage of wire coat hangers. It's true because C3P0 said so. Or was it Marvin? Anyway, the next time you're missing a screw driver look in the dryer and if you find no single sock check the closet for a wire coat hanger.

RE language: vegetarian - Hopi Indian word for bad hunter.

NSA's TURBINE robot can pump 'malware into MILLIONS of PCs'

"...be collected exclusively where there is a foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purpose to support national and departmental missions, and not for any other purposes." When the government decides to control every aspect of every citizen's life this covers everything, as Diane Feinstein is finding out.

LOHAN chap hooks up with busty stratominx in cosmic pleasure cruise

Re: Subject START . More tittilation is clearly the way to go..with Sin and Vice ProScribed

Dana, is that you?! Where the hell have you been since Dispatches?

Ballmer: 'Microsoft would have a stronger position if I could redo the last TEN YEARS'

Having been in PC development for over 30 years, I've been telling parents for the last 10 that the one thing they need to teach their children about computers is that there is no Undo button on real life. With more and more children spending more and more time in the virtual world at earlier and earlier ages it's going to be a big problem at some point. It seems Ballmer missed that lesson also.

Boffins: You'll see, TWITTERNET! We'll get the TRUTH out of you...

Fingerprints, schmingerprints - they want access to you fingernails

NOW we know the truth about why touchscreens are being pushed so hard! They want to get closer to your fingernails in case they need to pull a few to get your attention. I knew all along it was one way of building a fingerprint database for everyone in the world but this is just going too far!

'The Mystery of the Martian Doughnut' solved by NASA sleuths

Amazing times we live in

Finally an answer to, Which came first the cop or the donut? Now to see a real martian you need the rover to lay out a solitare spread and a martian will be along in a moment to tell the rover how to play it.

Is modern life possible without a smartphone?

I've become convinced that the primary purpose of a "smart" phone is to transfer money from the user's bank account to someone else's all under the guise of "convenience". Just how much convenience does anyone need? All they can possibly afford? Pooh.

MIT scientists craft a storage system fit for THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE

What a wonderful way to make first contact. Now that the performance is getting sufficiently fast, free storage can be offered to ET by Google. They'll no doubt be coming in droves.

Eight EXCELLENT languages for the fondleslab-friendly Intranet of Thingies

"...2.67 times na" Ahem! that would be 1.618^na

Supermassive BLACK HOLE to stuff MYSTERY gas BLOB into open maw

Look out!

What if it's just a fart and the black hole doesn't like the taste of it? I mean it could be laughing gas but what if it's not and it gets spit out right in our direction after the black hole's gravity compresses it? It could be the end of the earth...in 26,000 years or so.

Time travellers outsmart the NSA

Re: Personally I'd of hoped

Every time I get to thinking that humanity has a chance of survival something comes along to make it once again dubious. This, however, whould be proof. The reason they won't be detected with the twitter methodology is that they would have probably only jumped about 3 seconds into the future with their device. I'm not sure tweeter twits have attention spans much longer than that.

Re: Personally I'd of hoped

It would be really, really sad if they had not.

'Climate change is like Y2k!' - Oz senator

Male bovine fecal matter

What a load of crap. Y2K was a man made problem. Global climate change is a natural phenomena that has occurred since the planet was formed. The climate has always changed and always will change. The point being adapt or die.

If we compare man's ability to change the climate to man's ability to program computers pre-1999 we can estimate the calamity that will occur with man's manipulation of the climate. Going down that road could very well lead to a large ball of ice orbiting the sun. Oopsie.

The computer models used in the global warming scenario can be proven to be 30% accurate. Basing policy decisions on data that weak is like playing Russian roulette with four bullets in the gun - a 66% of disaster.

The best analysis I've seen on climate change ties it to a 100,000 year cycle in the variance of th earth's orbit around the sun. What is anyone going to do about that, pray tell?

Martians yet to retaliate after Curiosity's 100,000th laser strike

Re: Speculative Conclusions do not Compute.....

He's got you right where he wants you - thinking that all is right with the world.

Boffins find MEXICAN WAVE pattern in random climate wobbles

Earth's orbit is not circular

The sun provides +99% of the planet's heat. The sun's output is variable. The earth's orbit wobbles around the sun. But the sun has no infuence?

Geologist Connects Regular Changes of Earth's Orbital Cycle to Changes in Climate

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406133707.htm

But 100,000 year variations don't fit the dialog so IPCC report is basically bovine scatology.

Douglas Adams was RIGHT! TINY ALIENS are invading Earth, say boffins

IID

Well, it may not prove life arrived from outer space but a strong case could be made that the Infinite Improbability Drive does, indeed, exist and that Ford has recently visited - dirty towel and all.