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Comment Sigh. Great reporting Slashdot! Woo! (Score 2) 327

At the time I write this, pirateat40 hasn't even lost the best with Vandroiy. The final date for losing the bet is tomorrow at 5:00 pacific time.

And then after that, the next deadline is the day after.

And then after that, the next deadline is Sep 9.

It's *possible* (but admittedly a stretch) that he stated BTCST defaulted so interest would no longer accrue. But since the feds won't touch it until the money's been gone for like 30 days, and he just announced his "default" today, all you're doing is feeding into the panic and driving peoples' accounts straight into the hands of the risk-friendly debt buyers.

So, it's just a tad premature to say it's "collapsed" with a "loss" with a dollar figure attached. Just a little.

Comment Re:A better name (Score 1) 298

It's called a diphthong and yes, the Canadian ear can hear it. We can tell it's a different phoneme from both the phonemes in around, and the ones in the actual "boot". It's the American ear that can't hear the difference, which is why when Canadians say it, the American ear translates it to the nearest sound they grok, which is the "oot" in boot, and why we sit there puzzled when Americans think we're saying "a boot".

Comment Would love.. (Score 1) 112

.. to share my car's data with everyone. Radar detector, geiger counters, WiFi scanners, everything. Everyone else can have direct access to this information, streaming, live, while they mesh with me on the road. I would love to be able to do that. Send them slip statistics pulled from ABS or traction-control triggering, how fast my windshield wipers are going, or just plain water collector sensors, airspeed (for crosswind detection in winter,) the whole kit.

I would love to be able to build a reputation system too: when I cut someone off, they can stamp me as a dangerous driver. When I let someone in, they can stamp me as a courteous driver. "Courteous driver ahead." "Jerk behind me." I can feel comfortable driving in the middle of a pack of "thumbs-up" drivers, or I can be more cautious when I'm stuck in the middle of a pack of ragers (or people who just refuse to participate, period.)

Comment That writer is a jerk. (Score 1) 152

That writer is a jerk.. Verbal sparring is not a pleasant way to spend a day, and it's not the best way to get someone to be honest with you. His interviewing skills even as he presents them need work, his writing is short, clipped, and irritating, and lacks rhythm and even a trace of poetry. He is also mildly cruel and says very inappropriate things at inappropriate times. I would never spend a day with someone like that.

Brutal interview. Bravo to William Shatner for dealing with him as he did. It's the only way to do it. He must have spotted him coming a mile away.

Comment How retarded. (Score 4, Insightful) 96

"Superintelligence" known as the cloud?

There's not even any need to read such tripe. In fact, I hate everyone who read that story after seeing the word "superintelligence" linked with "cloud."

There is no bound to the contempt writers of pieces like this should be shown, nor to all of the idiots who were involved in reposting it here.

Comment Such balogna. (Score 1) 979

Ask those guys what consciousness is, and what it means to be conscious. And ask them what our brains' quantum-scale structures' purposes are.

Not a single one of these guys will give you an answer, because humans don't have the answers yet. Once we can actually define these things, then we can start making these sorts of predictions. "Superhuman" intelligence indeed.. we don't even really know what human intelligence is!

Robots running around doing human tasks, flying cars, donut-shaped energy sources that power cities, and intra-solar space travel were all things people in the 1950s predicted, too, and how close to those are we now, now that we have better-defined the problems involved?

NASA

Launching Frequently Key To NASA Success 145

teeks99 writes "Even NASA could benefit from the 'Launch Often' idea that is frequently referred to in the software development community. However, in NASA's case, the 'launch' is a bit more literal. Edward Lu, writing in the New York Times, points out that by lowering the consequences of launch failure, and making frequent launches available to engineers, NASA could open up a new wave of innovation in space exploration. If there were weekly launches of a rocket, there would be many opportunities for new ideas to be tried out in communications, remote sensing, orbital debris mitigation, robotic exploration, and even in developing technology for human spaceflight. Another benefit would be that the rockets would be well understood, which would improve reliability."

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