I dare say you're probably right. However, stick around and we see how it goes. :-/

From Douglas Hofstadter: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gwern.net%2Fdocs%2Fmat... The renowned cosmogonist Professor Bignumska, lecturing on the future ofthe universe, hadjust stated that in about a billion years, according to her calculations, the earth would fall into the sun in a fiery death. In the back ofthe auditorium a tremulous voice piped up: "Excuse me, Professor, but h-h-how long did you say it would be?" Professor Bignumska calmly replied, "About a billion years." A sigh ofrelief was heard. "Whew! For a minute there, I thought you'd said a million years."

In Scandinavia, at least in Norway, virtual all drivers stop for pedestrians waiting at a crosswalk.

This is BS! Don't be prejudicial about other's motives. Europeans value their privacy highly. However, there are concerns on bit multi-national companies, but that is about tax evasion. /Jon

I always thought that nuclear power also needed storage systems because the need for electricity during daytime is much higher than during the night, and you cannot reduce the output of a nuclear power plant at will as you can do with hydro power. Which leads to the obvious solution: Connect the nuclear plant with a hydro power plant and pump water back up during the night. This is already done, isn't it?

Solar and wind power can do the same: Pump water up to a reservoir that can be utilized when it is overcast, night time, no wind etc.

I feel like I'm in the middle of a lengthy small talk social meeting, (* yawn *) "How interesting!"

Seriously, have they really taken into account all confounding factors? E.g. there might be a bit more health aware people in the no soda group? Like eating a bit less meat for instance.

There are huge amounts of unused potentials, I believe. See, e.g. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.carbonbrief.org%2Feu...

/Jon

PS A quote I cannot properly remember goes something like this "If an old and renowned scientist says something is possible, you should listen, because he is probably right. However, if an old and renowned scientist says something is impossible, he is certainly wrong."

Any Real Programmer (TM) hates keyboards with the alt key to the right of the W*ndows key! Really awkward to fast type common key combinations in e.g. emacs.

And in North of Norway, it matters as well. When it is warm, say 25 C and up, it is usually in the afternoon, as I guess it is all over the world in the temperate zones/subarctic zones. The midnight sun up there doesn't warm you or give you a tan, it is just nice to have and encourage you to stay up all night. Which is what it is all about -- at least for me. When I moved from that area to the south of Norway, I was shocked to learn that during the summer, when it got dark, people actually went to bed! /Jon

The emoji "Thumbs up" is a useful emoji used to put an end to a conversation. Pretty cumbersome to write (ascii art follows):

(It got deleted on "preview", found here: http://textart4u.blogspot.no/2...) Don't tell me you end your email interchange with: "I love you. Over and out!" /Jon

Yes, of course. That fell out. Thanks. We also use automatic unlock after N minutes so brute force attacks don't work.

"Passwords must be changed frequently and must contain at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one special character, and must never be written down" must be the worst security advice ever.

Bad:
* The probability of guessing someone's password increases only marginally if it is unchanged.
* Frequent password change just makes the users add sequence number or the month name to the passwords.
* All the character category requirements induce only bad passwords in order to be able to remember them.

Better:
* Write down complex passwords and keep it in your wallet along with your 100 € notes, which you never want to lose anyway.
* Simple password complexity evaluation algorithm, e.g. adding points to length, and the number of different characters and such.
* Lock any account that is not used in some time interval, and use some other mechanism to unlock it, e.g. human administrator, email, SMS or extra long password for this purpose.

(Previously posted on forums.xkcd.com.)

Here is an app idea for you. Viewers watching a sports event push a "Wow!" button whenever there is something interesting happening in the game. These are the "producers". A "consumer" records a number of sports events and the playback device (a PC) shows only the interesting parts. You can now watch a lot of games simultaneously! (And of course skipping the commercials. Remember Carl Sagan's Adnix?) /Jon

Reminds me of a poem by a Norwegian poet, Arnulf Øverland: "Dare not to sleep!", with the most famous lines:

You cannot permit it! You dare not, at all.
Accepting that outrage on all else may fall!

Complete poem: http://www.barnasrett.no/Dikt/...
Translation in subtitles in youtube: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...
(Disclaimer: Yes, he was a communist. No, I am not.)

Yep. The obligatory Windows bundle encourages Linux users to break the law. Why, because whenever they actually /need/ a Windows OS, they steal it, as they have already paid for a dozen of those licences. Bill Gates is honored around the world for giving from his personal fortune to health and education. While this in fact IS good, it is still my money he is praised for. /J