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It’s not the coding.

It’s the hardware.

You are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars worth of hardware.

Lotsa Luck.

5 days ago on Internet advocates say the TPP is the biggest threat yet to open web 1 reply 1 recommend

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“what happens from here on still matters to climate, and it’s still under our control.”

Hahahaha… what a tool.

Seriously, the planet is not Gaia. It’s a huge collection of mass inhabited by a series of systems, many interconnected that no one yet comprehends in its entirety. And I assure you that “the planet” could give two s’s and a f about us or any other life on the surface, that’s for sure. We overestimate our ability to impact the planet.

Now, as for killing or poisoning ourselves, well….

Conservation and efficiency is good. Pollution is bad. How about we start with these two near-universal truths and leave the neo-cultism crap alone?

9 days ago on Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reach milestone high as global warming worsens 2 replies 8 recommends

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Yeah, so… FSO might be good for backhaul, but inside a building? This just seems like a super waste. What’s the point of this when you can just put in an iDAS? The only possible argument I can see for this is not having to make wall penetrations for ethernet drops, but a lot of buildings snake all that stuff through the ceiling and drop down using surface mount anyways.

This looks like a waste of investor money since the market for this device is very, very small. Unless they got a .mil contract.

10 days ago on Beamcaster blasts the internet along lasers through the open air 1 reply

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They won’t ever be scalable to base load, unless you plan on reducing the average US usage by 50% and then ensuring that the RoW never gets to that level.

Not enough energy density. Unless you plan on putting giant solar sails in spaces and microwaving the power down or something. We’re not building any more dams, we’re not building enough nuclear plants to replace ones aging out, I don’t see geothermal being actively exploited. What other technologies are you talking about? Biofuel is a net energy loss, algae is not ready for prime time although it may be sooner rather than later but that still remains to be seen (and you’re still burning carbon at that point). What else? Fusion? Anti-matter? Orgone?

17 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 1 recommend

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Actually, R=V/I.

17 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 1 reply

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The “emergent technologies” (solar and wind, I presume?) don’t scale well and have trouble with base load.

Now, the new Natural gas powered plants coming online, those do scale and provide base load. They actually are what’s installed at wind warms and solar fields as backup power for when the sun doesn’t shine quite as bright or the wind doesn’t blow quite as hard.

17 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 1 reply 1 recommend

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There’s something called “Rate of Return”. It’s related to the time value of money. If you are making .5 or even 1.5% profit YoY and inflation is 2%, you’re losing money. Considering the capital expenditures required and the amount of time required to break even, even a moderate profit in net terms can be a loss.

17 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 1 reply

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Let’s see…. .45 beats 9 all day, e’ery day.

Game, set, match.

17 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram 1 reply

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Pardon me, good sir, but you seem to have misspelled a-w-e-s-o-m-e. It looks like you’ve got it all wrong as r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d.

As for the rest of the world,

Where did Tesla build his free electricity tower? New Fucking Jersey, that’s where.

I rest my case.

17 days ago on Scientists are building a better kilogram 2 replies 2 recommends

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citation needed. And don’t include suicides.

17 days ago on Defense Distributed claims to have created the world's first fully 3D-printed gun 4 recommends

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In a safe or on your person. Always have positive control of your weapon. Next.

17 days ago on Defense Distributed claims to have created the world's first fully 3D-printed gun 7 recommends

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I mean really, where’s your head at?

18 days ago on Facebook backtracks on beheading videos, promises to delete reported instances

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What’s this?

Oh, could you guys just stop development so we can catch up… I mean “such time as an internationally agreed upon framework” can be established….

And nothing says authoritative like a non-binding draft report! I mean just look at it, with all those pages and footnotes and stuff!

18 days ago on Automated killer robot development should be paused, says UN report

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You must be new to politics. Harry Reid did the same kind of deal to Bush to prevent recess appointments.

19 days ago on Sources: Obama will name former telecom lobbyist Tom Wheeler as FCC head 1 reply 3 recommends

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You know that Americans and Republicans are not mutually exclusive terms, right? The way you worded that sentence kind of leans otherwise.

19 days ago on Sources: Obama will name former telecom lobbyist Tom Wheeler as FCC head 1 reply 2 recommends

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I don’t know, I always wanted to see parts of Evangelion get the live action treatment.

You know, the not weird parts.

Or at least the fighting.

Okay, maybe the first few episodes? Those were pretty non-weird.

21 days ago on New 'Pacific Rim' trailer shows off even more of Guillermo del Toro's giant monsters and robots 2 recommends

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Nope, most of the victims are still alive, and now have to deal with very real and apparent physical scars and loss of limbs, and also just as real but far less apparent mental trauma.

F this guy. He walked up behind a family and placed a bomb right behind them designed to cause maximum damage to soft targets (flesh).

Do you give as much sympathy to a 19 year old US Marine or Soldier who has to make a difficult snap decision at a checkpoint as to whether engage a mobile target or not? I bet you don’t give him the same benefit of the doubt.

27 days ago on Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged as civilian, will be tried in federal court (updated)

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Whelp, I see the conspiracy folks going nuts on this one because the motive was so … odd. Having met and known Chechens outside of the United States, I have absolutely no problem believing that at least the older one self-radicalized (or got pushed a bit) and dragged his younger brother with him. Doesn’t matter, the younger brother set the bomb down that killed the 8 year old. While I might be able to understand there are some mitigating factors, the aggravating factors are just too many.

The only thing I want to know from this kid before we zap him is: why there, and why then? Because it was a soft target? Was this just some watch the world burn crap?

28 days ago on Sympathy for the devil: #freejahar spreads across Twitter as Boston bombing suspect charged 1 reply 6 recommends