Kelbit

9 ms·

31.
by Kelbit 9y ago
This is fairly common practice in the medical device field. Volumes for specialized equipment are far too low to justify the NRE on custom solutions, so many low-volume medical devices integrate COTS solutions wherever possible. It doesn&#x
32.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Or in the case of Chrome, that the extension didn't auto-install on a work device when they logged in.
33.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Aren't these PCR tests against known sequences of base pairs? It's not like they're sequencing your DNA or anything, they are just testing for the presence of selected markers. I don't think the data they have is meaning
34.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Yes, hence why I pointed out it didn't help in this case (there's already an NPE demanding license fees). I don't know if the second point is a big deal. Even if they choose to settle, you've still mitigated your risk wi
35.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Other countries also have a loser-pays-costs rule for lawsuits, so the risk to NPEs are much higher if they lose an expensive case.
36.
by Kelbit 9y ago
While it doesn't help in this case (since there is already a looming legal threat from an NPE), you can buy patent troll insurance now: https://www.rpxcorp.com/ . This covers your legal fees in the event of litigation,
37.
by Kelbit 9y ago
More likely it was a floating ITAR export risk than a major threat to marine safety.
38.
by Kelbit 9y ago
I am surprised that an article on CRT displays mentions John Logie Baird but not Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin. Baird's TV was electromechanical, whereas the Farnsworth/Zworykin designs (the two were competitors) were all
39.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Yep. As weak as union laws are in the US, firing workers for attempting to organize is a surefire way to run afoul of the Wagner Act. As per the article: > Outsourcing jobs abroad for the purpose of punishing or discouraging union organi
40.
by Kelbit 9y ago
True to a point. The difficulty arises when trying to implement something in ladder that is too complex for simple Boolean operations, and would probably be much clearer if written in a few dozen lines of Structured Text (assuming an IEC 61
41.
by Kelbit 9y ago
I've always thought the concern of future generations finding a radioactive waste disposal site is overblown and is one of the weaker arguments advanced by the anti-nuclear movement. If civilization remains on an upward trajectory of t
42.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Except excess hydroelectric production is extremely valuable to other utilities on the interconnection who run primarily thermal plants. Hydro is one of the few forms of baseload power that can be ramped in a hurry: you can increase or decr
43.
by Kelbit 9y ago
No kidding. Blockchain is the new hotness right now, shouldn't be difficult to raise a seed round for a crypto startup if your product is genuinely interesting.
44.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Except in a real fractional reserve system, the central bank usually sets reserve and/or capital requirements.
45.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Correct, the decay is not affected by the amount of charge you've pulled out of the cell. What I meant (and should have expressed more clearly) is that the pacemaker will have some minimum current it needs to be able to draw from the T
46.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Rumor is Medtronic pacemakers still use 6502 processors (albeit on modernized custom silicon) with code written in the 80s. Big medical OEMs are loathe to change.
47.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Easier to replace the whole pacemaker than the battery, for a couple of reasons: * Pacemakers are hermetically sealed, usually laser-welded in a titanium case. Adding a replaceable battery with seals would complicate this arrangement. * By
48.
by Kelbit 9y ago
It's been speculated that advanced spy satellites carry thrusters and fuel to conduct frequent orbit changes. I think it's pretty telling that the DoD just did a SBIR competition for software to detect evasive behavior in space ju
49.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Do make sure to check the leakage specs on a supercap, though. They tend to have pretty high leakage current, which may clobber your power budget in low duty cycle applications.
50.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Meanwhile, Visa is about 1.5-2% plus $0.10 flat interchange. To break even with BTC against Visa, we're talking an average transaction of over $200. That's not feasible for the vast majority of merchants. Not to mention that the c
51.
by Kelbit 9y ago
As a Canadian... :(. We get European tech salaries with rapidly-approaching American cost of living. On a median-income vs cost-of-living basis, Vancouver is actually now more expensive than SF and NYC. We lose all of our good talent south
52.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Has anyone ever been successfully pursued in court over that? You don't own employees when they're off the clock.
53.
by Kelbit 9y ago
"Never" is far too strong a word here. There's more to the startup world than SaaS. Good luck launching a consumer hardware product without raising money if you're not independently wealthy. Even getting a relatively sim
54.
by Kelbit 9y ago
I don't think most users of FreeRTOS particularly care about the somewhat wonky license. It certainly hasn't damaged its commercial adoption. FreeRTOS' license is GPLv2 plus an addendum to permit its incorporation in commerci
55.
by Kelbit 9y ago
That's a huge amount of RAM for most microcontrollers.
56.
by Kelbit 9y ago
There's a ridiculous amount of consolidation going on the semiconductor industry these days. Freescale (formerly Motorola) was purchased by NXP (formerly Phillips) in 2015. Qualcomm is in the process of buying NXP, although apparently
57.
by Kelbit 9y ago
That would be a circular waveguide. Very common for radar setups.
58.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Young people move out to the sticks in many industries, especially at the start of their careers (for example, teachers, doctors, nurses, and police often have to start out in small communities to build experience). I don't think age i
59.
by Kelbit 9y ago
Anecdotally, Facebook battery performance is pretty poor, it's always the app that drains my battery the fastest. I don't think they care about power consumption.
60.
by Kelbit 9y ago
You can get some pretty impressive dynamic range out of the new silicon photomultiplier detectors that companies like SensL, Hamamatsu, and Ketek have been putting out. Despite the name, they aren't related to old-school photomultiplie

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