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Comment Re:Hit and Miss (Score 1) 61

It did not. For Your Eyes Only is one of the best Bond films if, for no other reason, it offered the most realistic plot. A Royal Navy encryption device is stolen and Bond has to track it down. You know, do some actual detective/anti-espionage work, instead of having to kill some lunatic threatening nuclear blackmail for the nth time.

Agreed totally. It had one of the best "James Bond" kills when Bond takes care of Locque. Rodger Moore hated it, but it was absolutely the best scene he ever did as Bond. Link to scene here: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...

Comment Re:And (Score 1) 23

Actually, we do care under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, that week was the epitome of "non normal" circumstances. So this event, which I normally would have most enthusiastically followed, got interrupted by the greatest two day drop in Stock Market History and the gnawing knowledge that we have a madman in charge of our country who is giving power to another madman (Musk).

I used to defend Musk and his eccentricities. No more. I cannot support him and any of his companies now, even though I am a huge supporter of space travel.

Comment Not Surprising at All. That is Britain. (Score 1) 11

From everything I have read, Britain, more than most countries, puts in charge non-technical people who are totally unqualified for either leadership or their positions. I suspect this has something to do with their "Lords/peasants" society/history, but there are probably people who frequent this Website that could enlighten us for the reasons much better than me. I'll just relate what happened to Reginald Victor (known as R.V.) Jones. He became the head of British MI6 Scientific Intelligence/Investigation during WWII, making major contributions that directly helped Britain in their effort to win the war. After the war ended, his organization was "re-organized" such that he no longer headed it, he was part of a 14 person directional committee. Only one other person in the committee was in any ways qualified. He left soon after.

And yes, I'm very aware that the US is now headed down that unqualified leader pathway with our current administration. Being unqualified seems to be a specific trait that they are looking for to get you a job.

Comment Re:This is proof (Score -1) 209

Waiting - fascinated - to see when someone from the NRA designs a way of injecting someone with a vaccine from a distance - possibly several hundred metres ; and since it's an NRA member doing it, the system developed would be hard to distinguish from a rifle. Or maybe, a shotgun.

When (not if) other NRA members decide to suppress this technology using high velocity metal neural network disruptors, nobody is going to be surprised. Or, on a global average, upset.

God, there is so many incorrect/dumb things here to refute that it's kinda hard to choose which one. Firstly, one does not purposely create/design such a device of injecting something to someone without their consent. No NRA member that I know of (used to be one, left after they admittedly went a bit nutso on some of their postions) would ever want or allow such a thing. 2ndly, just because there are a bunch of anti-vaccine people in this world and one of them has (temporarily) become head of the Heath and Human Services Branch of the Government, don't assume that the vast majority of NRA members/people are going to join him in this anti-vaccine push. Most NRA members (not all) are actually quite sane and are very versed in looking at the data and making informed decisions based on that and will want their families/children vaccinated. That's why they own guns and want you to responsibly own one also. The problem with you rabid gun hating people is that your not into informed decisions. You don't look into the fundamental reasons of giving you/the public a right/freedom. Your into emotion and "LOOK AT THE DEAD BODIES!!!". Let me give you a clue. Every right, every freedom that the government gives you has a downside. Every right/freedom can be abused and made to hurt/kill another human being. The question one has to ask is "Do we want the public to have this right/freedom, even with the possible downside?". And just about every NRA member has said "Yes, we want the public to have this right". Please note that they are NOT saying that only THEY should have that right. They want EVERYONE (including your ignorant ass) to have that right.

Comment What About Compatibility and Edge Cases? (Score 2, Insightful) 150

The program worked in one work environment. What about all the edge cases that the old program was tested for and had to successfully work in before it was published? I doubt that the "new" program was fully tested to ensure that it meets all of the compatibility of the old program.

Comment Re: You don't want your dog to die, do you? (Score 1) 48

I also don't want to say it was malice for money but I think it's a dangerous combo of the owners are upset and wants an option, the vet doesn't want to upset the person more and maybe think they can actually help (and like most people in our own professions we want to push what we think we are capable of) but I think that ends up being the people helping the people and the animal suffers for it.

That thinking is not confined to people and pet interactions. My wife's mother was in the medical field and she many times saw a situation where the Husband/Mother/Daughter/Son wanted for their loved one to undergo a procedure (even if it would dramatically lower their quality of life) because "They couldn't live without them". Basically, putting their needs above what was good for the patient. My wife, who is sadly no longer with us, was very blunt with me and told me that if that situation ever arose with her, I was to put her needs and wishes above what I wanted. I thankfully didn't have to make that decision but if I would have had to, I would have done it for the benefit of my wife and not for me.

Comment Re:Well, duh. (Score 4, Informative) 73

Given everything I have read about the water crisis affecting S California, the states that siphon off the Colorado river, and the drained underground aquifers in S California, they most certainly should build an interconnected pipeline. Not for just fighting fires, but for equalizing water levels across the state. CA is hiding the fact you have more population in the south than you can actually sustain. This water problem will turn into riots if better planning doesn't happen in the next 10 years. I would even dedicate a solar farm or wind farm to powering massive desalination. Perhaps ocean powered if feasible.

No disrespect intended, but California realized a very long time ago the issues you are highlighting and actually does have an interconnected water system. It's just not a pipeline. It is the California Aqueduct system (Info here: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Feducation.nationalgeog... ). Because it is an open canal system, it very admittedly suffers from evaporation issues (which a pipeline would not suffer from). Some solutions to the evaporation problem are currently being tested, the best one (IMHO) being to shield the open canals with solar panels that would be connected to the grid.

Your call for desalination plants was also acted upon in certain regions, specifically San Diego. The largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere was constructed in Carlsbad at the cost of approximately $1 Billion Dollars and feeds into the San Diego Country Water system. It provides approximately 7% of the counties needs. ( https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... )

Comment Science X Science Class (Score 4, Interesting) 192

It was not a computer room, it was the Grade 7 and 8 "Science X" class. This class was basically an R&D class for students Grade 7 and 8. You could do literally ANYTHING in that class. Chemistry, Physics, Electronics, you name it, it was fair game. You just had to apply common sense safety principles. You had to tell the teacher what you wanted to do, do it, and hand write up a report on what you did and what you learned. It was fantastic and I learned SO much :) .

Comment Re:Idiots do not understand science (Score 1) 88

Science is (simplified) the process of experimentation.

Negative results, i.e. failures are PART of the process, in fact they are almost a requirement.

This is why government pays for experiments rather than corporations that do not want to fail.

Negative results are GOOD for the system. We need them.

Stop trying to end science by pointing to 'failed' experiments. This is a 'fail fast' mentality that is needed for successes.

This. SOOOOOOOOO much this. The government used to fund so much more basic research. I was part of that system. The government said "we want someone to try X", with "X" being some bleeding edge concept or idea. Companies (including mine) would bid for that research and attempt to do it. Sometimes we succeeded beyond all expectations. A lot of times we failed. But we LEARNED from the failure, so the next time the Government wanted to do "X", we would bid for it again and say "Hey, we failed last time but we made a good faith effort, here is what we learned and here is how we will succeed next time". And the government people were pretty sharp and would know if you actually did made a good faith effort (which my company always did) and we'd get another contract. And that funding model eventually lead to multi-billion dollar contracts for my company for equipment that benefited both the government and us. Was a fun time.

Comment Re:PV is killing thermal solar (Score 1) 88

The falling cost of photo-voltaic solar is killing thermal solar.

It's cheaper to shut down Ivanpah and replace it with PV than to continue maintaining it.

The same thing is happening to solar thermal in Spain.

Indeed you are correct Sir. Most people forget that before Ivanpah, there was the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) in California (Wiki Link here: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... ). These were working thermal to electric solar systems and worked quite well for over 30 years. I routinely passed the Kramer Junction Facility. They have now all been decommissioned and replaced with Solar Panels. While the Practical part of myself understand this, the Mechanical Engineer part of my self was a bit sad. Technology marches on.

Comment The Problem Is the Current Treatment Options (Score 4, Informative) 87

Prostate Cancer Survivor here. As noted in the summary, the reason that Doctors want to relabel it is because of the current aggressive treatment options. And by "current treatment options", I mean the options that insurance pays for. There are (except in certain exceptions) two: Radiation or surgery. Both of these options have major quality of life issues. Fortunately, many leading edge treatments are in the medical pipeline. Unfortunately, because of lack of long term data on treatment efficiency rates, they are not covered by normal insurance.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the relatively early age of 55. Luckily, my primary care doctor started PSA testing on me when I turned 50 (which is 5 years earlier than medically recommended). After looking at all the options, I opted to get a High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Treatment. But I had to pay for it out of pocket, which was a $25K cost.

HIFU is not perfect and they don't claim it is. It has an 85% success rate and I was unfortunately in the 15% of people where the cancer came back and I'm under surveillance now. But I can highly recommend the procedure to anyone considering it as it was an outpatient procedure, I had no complications, still have bladder control and yes an erection. And I can be re-treated in the future. I'm already looking at some of the immune therapy options for "post treatment" cleaning up of any remaining cancer cells.

FYI, if you have prostate cancer and live on the west coast of the United States, I can highly recommend the UCLA Urology Department, which is where I got my HIFU treatment.

Submission + - Thomas E. Kurtz, Co-Inventor of BASIC, Passes Away at Age 96 (hackaday.com)

GFS666 writes: It’s with sadness that we note the passing of Thomas E. Kurtz, on November 12th. He was co-inventor of the BASIC programming language back in the 1960s, and though his creation may not receive the attention in 2024 that it would have done in 1984, the legacy of his work lives on in the generation of technologists who gained their first taste of computer programming through it. Link Here: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhackaday.com%2F2024%2F11%2F1... and here: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomputerhistory.org%2Fbl...

Comment Re:Do young people still use watches? (Score 1) 78

Do young people still use watches?

I thought the cellphone was the new watch.

Yes, they do. However, they are more fashion accessories now. They are large and "blingy". I hate them. My Go To watch now is a Casio MRW-200H ( https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.casio.com%2Fus%2Fwatch... )

Comment This Brings me Back to the mid 1980's (Score 4, Interesting) 78

When I started at UCLA in 1985 for my first degree I did not have a lot of extra cash, so I got a used calculator watch as my first calculator. It worked quite well for the limited calculations I needed that first tri-mester. Alas, the watch battery died the morning before my Chemistry Final and I hurriedly bought a Sharp EL-506P Scientific Calculator for the final. I still have it. For the 2nd Degree I tried out an HP-41C that had been given to me. Used it for the Semester and during the last final for that year I accidentally dropped and broke it. Bought a HP-48G during Christmas break and have used those ever since.

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