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Comment: Re:Mythbusters show just how impaired you are at . (Score 1) 996

Perhaps YOU are impaired at .08%, but a percentage of alcohol in the blood doesn't tell the whole story. I recently gave up drinking (unless it's a social event), and I used to consume 8+ beers and be pretty much fine (daily). I just had a beer and a large glass of wine after dinner (after losing 50 lbs and cutting drinking for 4 months) and I'm ready for a nap. I wouldn't trust me with a wooden spoon, much less a 5,000lb automobile.

Comment: Re:Playing devils advocate here... (Score 1) 379

by notdotcom.com (#42564785) Attached to: Crowd Funding For Crank Physics

What happens with this design if the pedals are at TDC and BDC, with a weight hanging off the top pedal? It should go forward as that is the direction of the "Z" arm. By my understanding that is one of his design goals, to eliminate the dead spots as with regular straight arms in the same situation nothing happens (you would need forward motion to move the arm).

No, no it won't go forward with balanced weights on each equal-length lever attached to a pivot in the center.

The #$#@ dead spots are STILL THERE, they just happen to "look" like they are in a different place.

Comment: Losing any faith in Slashdot (Score 1) 379

by notdotcom.com (#42564665) Attached to: Crowd Funding For Crank Physics

Really? Slashdot can't even understand something that would be taught in week one or two of high school physics? Doesn't anyone remember the calculations for torque and how when "johnny" ties a rope to the end of the wrench and pulls on that for "torque", it doesn't actually change anything?

Also, this has been all over the internet quite literally for months. Slashdot is getting this story after it is how many months old?

Comment: Donate what you can. I give 20 bucks, maybe 40. (Score 1, Interesting) 113


Wikipedia is so obnoxious with their fundraising, I've stopped donating. The local news recently reported that the most visited page on Wikipedia was "Facebook", and I rarely use it. I did get a kick out of their previous campaign where the staffers photos were above the article - deceptively close to the subject. Searches returned some pretty funny results.

Comment: Re:Qualcomm is but a shadow of AMD (Score 1) 331

by notdotcom.com (#41718767) Attached to: Is Qualcomm the New AMD?

In AMD's defence - CPU speed doesn't actually matter that much. This is one of those odd quirks of where we are in the software - hardware cycles. A good GPU will likely have *much* more impact on your noticeable computer performance than a 10% faster CPU. It's really bad form to release a brand new CPU that is actually slower than your old one (clock for clock, in absolute terms, etc.) and the tech press pounced on them for it. But AMD *could* have and should have made the argument probably correctly that you're better off with an AMD Fusion product than an Intel i5 with on chip piece of shit HD graphics 3000 from intel. Granted intel has improved a lot now that they've given up on Larrabee but their HD graphics chips are still horrible compared to what AMD (ATI) can bring to the table.

Well, the benefit to using Intel for "everything" is that at least their drivers are open source. I have a brand new i5 laptop for work. While they are handed out with windows, they do allow you to use any OS that you'd like (unsupported). Using Linux with the i5 machine showed intel for Proc, Wireless, and graphics, and I didn't have to mess with or agree to use "non-free" drivers to operate the machine's wireless or to run dual 24-inch 1920x1200 monitors with no problems.

Of course, I'm a 2D kind of guy for work, but when the machine "just works" with almost any OS that you can throw at it, I'm happy.


by notdotcom.com (#41718697) Attached to: Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever

Is this a common tactic for stealing phones?

Maybe. If you handed it to him, he'd probably run. If it was still in your pocket, instinct causes many people to reach for it to see if its still there. Even if you refuse the request, his buddy the pickpocket knows where it is now.

Indeed, I was VERY careful to be aware of where my phone was for the remainder of that trip, and I be "aware" while getting off the last train and walking to my truck.

I'm about 6'5, 265lbs, with a 36 inch waist,

These people work in gangs. So unless you want to add 'skilled at practical self defense' to that (not all martial arts qualifies) that won't matter much. One guy grabs your phone and runs, two or three trip you, knock you down and kick the crap out of you.

I would not add "skilled at practical self defense against multiple attackers with nothing to lose" to my resume. I was in that situation when I was 18, and 75 lbs lighter, and I wouldn't want to play that game again. I have "good" health insurance, but it's not worth $700 to get a new set of teeth, and I also have homeowners, auto, and phone insurance. At that point, I'd let 'em have it. Hell, I might show them how to use it.

My bigger question is if this was common "step 1" to stealing a smartphone. The person was able to display a (cheap) phone and state that their battery was dead. But, if I had my phone die, I couldn't call anyone because I don't know any phone numbers!

I came to the conclusion that future protocol would be to ask if it was an "emergency" and offer to dial 911 for them MYSELF while they waited. Otherwise, no, you're not using my phone.

Comment: Re:Naw... (Score 2) 140

by notdotcom.com (#41718345) Attached to: Visa and MasterCard Take Fight To Scammers

It's also worth mentioning that the rich just get thier drugs by making appointments. If they are paying $500 cash to their psychiatrist or neurologist for thier "ADHD" or "Migraines", you can bet that they will walk away with prescriptions for amphetimines (adderal), or narcotics (morphine, oxycontin, etc). It just happens to be "legal" for the rich if they pay someone to tell them that they need to take it.

If you're poor and do some meth or heroin for basically the same reasons, you're going to jail.

Big Pharma made a ton of money pushing Valium to women in the 60s/70s for "life's everyday stresses". Turns out that it's highly addictive and creates dependency. It's also highly abused, even today (and the analogues - Xanax, Ativan, etc)

Comment: Re:BEWARE !! THE SMARTPHONE BANDIT STRIKES AT WILL (Score 5, Interesting) 285

by notdotcom.com (#41718291) Attached to: Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever

I had somebody ask me to use my smartphone at a light rail station in a reasonably nice part of Denver (at 11pm). I politely refused, but I couldn't help but wonder if this person was out to 1) just make a call, which was obviously not an emergency, 2) call some sort of pay-per-call or txt number that would put $20 on my phone bill and the person would get a commission, or 3) just start running, or pull out a weapon, and steal my phone.

Is this a common tactic for stealing phones?

I couldn't help but wonder if I should have let the person use it (I'm about 6'5, 265lbs, with a 36 inch waist, I exercise, etc - so it's not like I was picked out as being the "easy target")

In the end, I concluded that I was right to refuse a stranger access to my $700 "pocket computer" which contains all of my personal information, and costs about a hundred bucks a month to keep services to, in addition to the cost of the device.

Comment: Re:I am wary of these (Score 1) 391

by notdotcom.com (#41688519) Attached to: Nissan Develops Emergency Auto-Steering System

Have you ever considered that these systems might be connected to other systems?

If you're in a low area of Florida, near a coast, river, ocean, etc (determined by GPS), during a wet/hurricane season (determined by date/time, humidity and temp sensors), crossing standing water (determined by moisture, humidity sensors, on-board cameras, input from differential and traction control sensors, engine speed, load, and RPM, emergency warning systems via radio), and going less than 25 MPH (speed sensors, GPS, cameras, etc)... then perhaps the system could be bypassed for those occasions when you needed to cross a foot of water over the road.

Maybe it also just has an "off road" mode that would disable it (after a nice lawyer screen).

Comment: Re:And this is why the USA is in trouble (Score 1) 234

by notdotcom.com (#41688365) Attached to: Malware Is 'Rampant' On Medical Devices In Hospitals

If you're actually poor, and you have a medical EMERGENCY or something that you could go to the emergency room for (a child's fever), do you really think that your credit is the first thing that comes to mind? If I can go and get my broken arm fixed, or my child's fever treated without paying on the spot (or through insurance), and I'm really broke, how do I act when the (enormous) bill arrives?

If I were worried about where food or shelter was coming from, I'd toss it in the trash... I'd never pay.

I had (some) money, and I was insured. When I went to the ER after tweaking my back moving, I was "rewarded" with a black mark on my credit report because I needed more insurance paperwork, and at the time I was covered under my parent's insurance and in college (with many mailing addresses per year). This was almost 20 years ago, but still... Something like "could not contact payor" (I never got a bill, nor did my parents), and a $275 mark on my credit for some vioxx and advice to rest, was my "scar" for trying to deal with a hospital ER and our insurance "systems".

Comment: Re:What about networks (Score 1) 234

by notdotcom.com (#41688267) Attached to: Malware Is 'Rampant' On Medical Devices In Hospitals

$50k seems excessive, but...

We paid ~$900k for a tiered SAN with about 100TB of (fast) capacity. We paid another 350k+ for the ability to back it up (quantum / tapes), and we paid about 100k in fibre channel switches, HBAs, and the rest of the package. We also funded a DR site with almost identical hardware and licenses for $600k (plus high speed data dupe to the DR site links). So if it costs "IT" 1.9 million dollars for SAN storage hardware, back-ups, off-site HIPAA-compliant tape storage, backup media, and associated hardware (NOT including time for deployment, admin, backup, enterprise level backup software and servers, restore, cooling, power, security), how much do you think is fair? That's the "raw" cost of about $20k/TB in this particular instance for just the hardware.

Comment: Re:Not really a news story (Score 2) 334

by notdotcom.com (#41431881) Attached to: Apple Reportedly Luring Ex-Google Mappers With Jobs

Exactly this. I had signed a "non-compete" agreement with an employer, and I wanted to move. Not only did they officially void the non-compete, but they also told me that it was "essentially impossible to enforce" - particularly in a right-to-work state.

It was intended to intimidate. It failed.
