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Computer Scientist Parachutes From 135,908 Feet, Breaking Record 175

Posted by Soulskill from the touching-space dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times reports that Alan Eustace, a computer scientist and senior VP at Google, has successfully broken the record for highest freefall jump, set by Felix Baumgartner in 2012. "For a little over two hours, the balloon ascended at speeds up to 1,600 feet per minute to an altitude of 135,908 feet, more than 25 miles. Mr. Eustace dangled underneath in a specially designed spacesuit with an elaborate life-support system. He returned to earth just 15 minutes after starting his fall. ... Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground. ... His technical team had designed a carbon-fiber attachment that kept him from becoming entangled in the main parachute before it opened. About four-and-a-half minutes into his flight, he opened the main parachute and glided to a landing 70 miles from the launch site."
Biotech

Scanning Embryos For Super-Intelligent Kids Is On the Horizon 366

Posted by Soulskill from the might-be-easier-on-us-to-make-them-super-dumb dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Stephen Hsu, a professor in theoretical physics at Michigan State University, has an article discussing the genetic underpinnings of intelligence, and how our understanding of it will eventually lead to smarter children. Researchers have detected genes that influence cognitive ability, but the effect of any one gene is very small — less than 1 IQ point at best. Genetically modifying such genes is unlikely to happen any time soon, but our ability to analyze an embryo's genome is becoming quick and cheap. As we isolate more and more genes that affect intelligence, this means prospective parents will soon be able to analyze a batch of zygotes and figure out which ones are likely to be the smartest. Hsu says a batch of 10 zygotes will probably have an IQ range of 15 points or more. As our understanding of intelligence genetics grows, that range will only expand. He adds, "The corresponding ethical issues are complex and deserve serious attention in what may be a relatively short interval before these capabilities become a reality."

Comment Re:Elementary OS (Score 1) 346

by mverwijs (#45548355) Attached to: The Burning Bridges of Ubuntu

Please provide links and citations as they are not in an obvious place on the website of elementaryos.org.

I have been using it for the past 3 months and other than a fine smooth desktop experience, I have yet to come across any of those issues you mention.

NFS works just fine. Underneath it's Ubuntu 12.04. If it does not work properly on Elementary, please.

Comment Re:OR System76 (Score 1) 166

by mverwijs (#45449057) Attached to: Dell's New Sputnik 3 Mates Touchscreen With Ubuntu

> Unplug! The Darter UltraThin is designed for over five hours of continuous
> work or play on the go.

I do not understand how this is worth mentioning. At least not without being followed by 'Sorry about that'.

The only reason for me to have a laptop is to be able to have it work constantly, for at least 8 hours a day. Preferably longer.

5 Hours. Yagh. Might as well not ship with a battery at all.

Submission + - Radiohead's Thom Yorke pulls Spotify albums (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by rpopescu
rpopescu writes: Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame has pulled his solo album "Eraser" (as well as music made as Atoms for Peace) from the music streaming service Spotify, as a protest at how much it pays the artists. Read on the BBC website for his and producer Nigel Godrich's comments.

Comment Re:Question (Score 1) 780

by rpopescu (#42285143) Attached to: Schmidt On Why Tax Avoidance is Good, Robot Workers, and Google Fiber
Man On Pink Corner:
> How many people reading this intentionally pay more tax than they are strictly required to?

Strict requirements in society are the lowest common denominator, the thin line that separates a normal person from a sociopath.
They are not what one should aim for, but merely the required minimum for the notion of society to exist.
Progress is not achieved by doing as little as possible, by staying a shade away from illegality, by hiding unethical behaviour behind the imperfection of the law.
Imagine that every mom & pop shop out there did what Google does (and the far too many other corporations guilty of this).
This is a sad farce, and they're fucking everyone - not just the people they "avoid" paying those taxes to, but also every other business that hasn't got the means or the will to engage in the same tax avoidance scheme.

Comment Re:This is a good thing (Score 2) 273

by mverwijs (#42236429) Attached to: Ubuntu 13.04 Will Allow Instant Purchasing, Right From the Dash

> But the relative complexity of the installation process,....

Funny story.

My first job in IT was for Cistron Internet Services in the Netherlands. They were one of the first ISP's in NL. And had a few Debian developers working there. They had built this CD-Rom that, when inserted into your Windows 9x PC would autorun some installer that would setup your dial-in modem and stuff. Since the diskspace on the CD-rom was about 99% unused, they also included a complete copy of the first disc of Debian. Which was worth it's weight in gold at the time. I think it was Slink-1-and-a-half, but it could be Potato.

Now, this was a bootable CD, for obvious reasons.

I was on the helpdesk at the time. I had 2 new customers a year that would phone up and ask how they should proceed onto the internet now that they had finished the installer. After talking to them a few minutes I realized that they had actually managed to fully install Debian. They had rebooted their PC for some reason, with the bootable CD in it. They had managed to re-partition their drives, enter root passwords, enter user details, completely installing the whole shebang. They were looking at a Debian login screen and wondering how to proceed now. And then, and only then, did they bother to call the helpdesk as they couldn't figure out what to do next.

These were not tech-savvy people. These were small business owners that wanted to see what was up with that whole internet thing. And yet they managed that in 2001 and

Every time I hear someone say 'the $Distro installer is complicated', it brings back a fond memory of great times at Cistron. So thanks for that.

Kindly,

mverwijs

Ps: Cistron ADSL will come to YOUR area within two weeks! Really!

Comment Re:The Brain is Plastic (Score 1) 317

by rpopescu (#41878353) Attached to: Why Coding At Fifty May Be Nifty
>>    Is that why so many over 50 demand handholding for the most basic tasks?  I'm talkin REAL BASIC stuff here.  Tasks they somehow manage to do themselves anyway if no handholding is available?
>>    And here I was thinking it was just their massive entitlement mentality.

Pray tell, what part of the programming world does your experience apply to? Thanks.

Comment Re:Any other variables..? (Score 1) 206

by mverwijs (#41815421) Attached to: Brain Scans Show the Impact of Neglect On a Child's Brain Size

FYI, a newborn requires feeding every 3 hours, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the first two months of their life. After about 8 or 9 weeks, if you are lucky, your child will (hopefully!) sleep for 5 to 6 hours at a time, so Mom can finally start getting more than 3 hours of sleep then.

It's even worse, since you forgot the actual feeding time.

A newborn requires feeding every 3 hours, where 3 hours is the time since the start of the last feed. In other words: if a newborn is a slow drinker/feeder and takes up to (or over!) an hour for a full feed, Mom now only has 2 hours to herself.

On a sidenote: I never thought I'd be writing this type of comment. Especiallly on /.. Ain't life grand!

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