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Comment: Obvious Evolution (Score 1) 414

by Mr Bubble (#45106313) Attached to: Shuttleworth: Apple Will Merge Mac and iPhone

It is an obvious evolution, I believe. Once mobile processors are as powerful as most desktop processors ( and how far off can that really be? ) it won't make sense to have a computer and a phone. The phone will be your computer. It will automatically pair up with your large screen monitor and keyboard when you are at home - and you can move the experience from screen to screen throughout your home or business. In the not too distant future, we will have flexible screens, so I can unfurl a 20" screen anywhere I need it. Also, Apple has been making more moves towards appliance computing than just adopting things like Launchpad. Starting with Lion, they are changing the way users think about documents - where they live, how they are saved. Apple's long term view is definitely about making computing easier and challenging existing paradigms. The danger is making something that doesn't appeal to power users. I for one think Apple can pull it off though.


by Mr Bubble (#45055501) Attached to: Slashdot Asks: How Does the US Gov't Budget Crunch Affect You?

No no no. This isn't about spending levels, this is about the Affordable Care Act. Besides, we are already at sequester levels. This is already a compromise. But, again, they aren't debating spending levels, they are specifically talking about defunding or delaying Obamacare. Let's not be disingenuous.




Comment: Re:Krugman (Score 4, Interesting) 540

by Mr Bubble (#42401841) Attached to: Krugman: Is the Computer Revolution Coming To a Close?

You should probably read the article. Krugman is not saying these things, Gordon is. Krugman disagrees with him.

What Gordon then does is suggest that IR #3 has already mostly run its course, that all our mobile devices and all that are new and fun but not that fundamental. Itâ(TM)s good to have someone questioning the tech euphoria; but Iâ(TM)ve been looking into technology issues a lot lately, and Iâ(TM)m pretty sure heâ(TM)s wrong, that the IT revolution has only begun to have its impact.

Comment: Particles (Score 1) 210

by Mr Bubble (#41985689) Attached to: Fukushima Ocean Radiation Won't Quit

Perhaps someone who has more knowledge can elucidate me, but when they say "diluted by the Pacific ocean", I think the implication is that it is like dumping a million gallons of Kool-Aid in the ocean - it would disperse so much that the things that identify it as Kool-Aid - color and sweetness - would essentially disappear into the soup.

However, as I understand it, we are talking about irradiated particles. The radiation does not "dilute", right? It is like adding 2-3 deadly ping pong balls to a sports arena full of ping pong balls. The chances of encountering one are slim, but, if you do, you could die or be seriously hurt. ( I am talking about ingestion ).

And, it's not like the risk of ingestion is a function of the volume of the ocean necessarily, as there are specific vectors of distribution - mainly things like seaweed, krill, tuna, etc. that are small compared to the mass of the ocean, but significant in likeliness of human contact due to the over fishing and reliance on the ocean for food.

So, am I looking at a greater risk of ingesting a particle of cesium when I eat my canned tuna and having it give me cancer - or are we really saying that the properties of radiation are somehow lessened by contact with so much sea water?

Long computations which yield zero are probably all for naught.