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Comment: Re:Napkin time (Score 1) 364


Ya gotta consider if this aircraft was flying below radar, it was guzzling Jet A like there was no tomorrow. Its range will be nowhere near 5,000 miles under the condition of low altitude flight.

I only fly the little stuff. If there's a pilot around who flies the fanjet stuff, can he comment on a possible maximum range at low altitudes?

Comment: I'm (almost) one of'em (Score 1) 268

by NikeHerc (#46425707) Attached to: It's True: Some People Just Don't Like Music
I was probably in my mid-20s when I began to realize popular music was not only boring, but stupid as well. Most songs have about 25 words that get repeated over and over and over, ad nauseam. At about the same time I ran across a Moody Blues tune (the name won't surface at the moment) that seemed to have some elements of classical music.

Intrigued, I started listening to classical and kicked the pop habit. Give me Beethoven's Ninth over anything else that's ever been recorded.

I wonder whether others who aren't fond of most "music" also don't need to be entertained passively on a 7x24 basis and can find or create their own entertainment.

Comment: an exclusively online retailer (Score 1) 423

by NikeHerc (#46399435) Attached to: RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores
If RS gives up their brick and mortar stores, I'll say adios. As an online-only retailer, they couldn't possibly compete with Mouser, DigiKey, etc.

If they keep their brick and mortar stores, they need to put specs on the parts they sell. I needed a couple of snap-on ferrite chokes recently and got them at a local RS store. The parts didn't give the first inkling of the range of frequencies they were supposed to block.

How hard can it be to add "blocks RF at 5MHz and above" (or whatever) on the package?

Comment: living forever and more (Score 0) 254

by NikeHerc (#46326581) Attached to: Ray Kurzweil Talks Google's Big Plans For Artificial Intelligence

Que the advertisement for flying cars. Wait, there aren't any.

As Niels Bohr famously said, "Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future."

Even if Kurzweil's predictions come true (which I seriously doubt), I frankly don't want or need the help of "ultra-intelligent computers."

And "beyond-cutting-edge medical technology?" What a joke. Even if obamacare doesn't cause the self-destruction of the U.S. economy, no 99%er would be able to afford that kind of medical technology.

AI reminds me of fusion power: "It's 20 years in the future. And always will be." (Sorry, don't know the attribution for that quote.)

Comment: Re:Questions (Score 1) 139

by NikeHerc (#46305451) Attached to: Dogs' Brains Have Human-like "Voice Area"

When I want to demonstrate my dog's pronounced head tilting to others, I speak to my dog (a Border Collie mix) in complete sentences. The degree of tilt she displays seems to depend on whether she understands the word and likely the importance of the word. For example, "momma" or "treat" generates noticeably more tilt than "bath".
