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User: wizardforce

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Comments · 2,269

  1. Re:Corporate Shills on US Gamers Spend $3.8 Billion On MMOs Yearly · · Score: 1

    Luckily there are other people just like you for whom a market for other kinds of games exists.

  2. Re:Oh the math... on US Gamers Spend $3.8 Billion On MMOs Yearly · · Score: 1

    140$/1 year = 11.67$ per month which is not that bad. Just try finding decent internet access or cable tv that cheap.

  3. Re:I'd prefer to see lost productivity on US Gamers Spend $3.8 Billion On MMOs Yearly · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems to me that someone that substitutes time working at their job for playing various games at said job isn't going to be doing much productive either way.

  4. Re:Farmville on US Gamers Spend $3.8 Billion On MMOs Yearly · · Score: 2, Informative

    TFA seems to use MMOs and Virtual Worlds interchangeably so it seems that at least in this study, various Facebook games were probably not considered MMOs.

  5. Re:Daring? Really? on Doctors Skirt FDA To Heal Patients With Stem Cells · · Score: 1

    It is very difficult to protect people from themselves. The drug war being a good example of this.

  6. Re:How great on Doctors Skirt FDA To Heal Patients With Stem Cells · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is a good idea but I doubt that there's much chance of it being allowed for any amount of time because it doesn't allow for forcibly protecting people from themselves. See the drug war for details.

  7. Re:Kelvins are degrees on an absolute scale... on MIT Produces Electricity Using Thermopower Waves · · Score: 1

    Thermodynamic systems are more often than not quoted in Kelvin. The only times they're ever really converted to Fahrenheit or Celcius is for the public's convenience. Very nearly every equation in thermodynamics works best in Kelvin as it is an absolute scale from absolute zero.

  8. Re:The very definition of irony on US Eases Internet Export Rules To Iran, Sudan, Cuba · · Score: 1

    I would imagine that licensed export is better than banning export entirely although it is still ridiculous to restrict trade in any case as the software in question isn't classified.

  9. Re:Fricken Lasers on MIT Produces Electricity Using Thermopower Waves · · Score: 1

    It's more like a fuel cell in that it uses fuel to produce a current but it is small enough and light enough to be potentially usable in devices that otherwise would use a battery. Also, the mechanism by which it produces a current implies that it can use a variety of fuels; pretty much anything that burns hot enough which is extremely useful.

  10. Re:Kelvins are degrees on an absolute scale... on MIT Produces Electricity Using Thermopower Waves · · Score: 3, Informative

    3000-273=2727C They were rounding. Also thermodynamic efficiency is easier to calculate in kelvins and is standard practice in thermodynamics; see carnot cycle for details.

  11. Re:Paypal AUP only states sales of infringing good on PayPal Freezes Cryptome's Account · · Score: 1, Interesting

    PayPal, being a business, also has the right to refuse any business they want.

    Not if it is a contract they don't. The GP might be a bit pedantic with the AUP but it does bring up questions regarding Paypal's doings in this case.

  12. Re:What's a Paypal? on PayPal Freezes Cryptome's Account · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Paypal may be able to refuse to do business with whomever they like but so do we. Every time Paypal pulls a stunt like this, we as private individuals have a right to call them on it.

  13. Re:Fire teachers? Good luck on Improving Education Through Better Teachers · · Score: 1

    Several independent accusations and a finding of misconduct were not enough to remove this teacher. This after 7 years of legal battle with the teacher in question. Take another look at the GP's link, it's not just the fact that it takes years in some cases to remove problem teachers, it's also the huge interference by teachers' unions causing problems.

  14. Re:Hmm.. on California Lake's Arsenic Hints At a Shadow Biosphere · · Score: 5, Informative

    but I'm not nearly chemist enough to know if there are messy details preventing a suitably evolved biological system from substituting one for the other.

    Well for one, a great deal of biochemistry involves ATP in normal life forms that has little to do with energy transport. Proteins can be activated through phosphorylation by ATP. DNA is constructed using ATP and its base analogues. Glucose must be phosphorylated twice before it is done being biochemically broken down to reducing equivalents and CO2. These processes especially phosphorylation of proteins and DNA structure, all work because PO4 is the right size. A system based on AsO4 would have proteins and genetic structure much different than our own structurally speaking. Also, the triarsenate analogues could very well be markedly unstable.

  15. Re:This is sheer speculation so far! on California Lake's Arsenic Hints At a Shadow Biosphere · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why should this merit our attention?

    For the same reason archea do: a fundamentally new form of life is of interest to us scientifically. Right now it's mostly speculation but that is why experiments are being done; to test hypotheses and support or discredit speculation on the subject. It is certainly worth looking into at the least.

  16. Re:History repeats itself on California To Create Public Animal Abuser Registry · · Score: 4, Informative

    The title means "miserable ones" It's about a guy that was in jail, served his time and had to carry a document identifying him as a former criminal. Then pretty much everyone in society that knew he was a former criminal because of that identification made his life outside of prison a living hell. There is a lot more to it that comes later but that is the gist of the beginning.

  17. Re:Politicians and the public are.. on California To Create Public Animal Abuser Registry · · Score: 1

    The registry is just a new way to levy another tax (on pet food) that said, the registry applies to *felony convictions of animal abuse* in California. Unless hunting is now a felony in California, it will not show up on this list.

  18. Re:Sounds Good To Me on California To Create Public Animal Abuser Registry · · Score: 1, Informative

    Veal comes pretty close.

  19. there's a new tax too on California To Create Public Animal Abuser Registry · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Apparently they estimate that it will take several hundred thousand dollars to run the registry annually and claim that the number of federal convictions for animal abuse in California is not large enough to levy enough fees on the convicted to fund the registry. In short, they want to levy a tax on pet food to pay for the registry.

  20. Re:magnetic field? on New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Solder Could Revolutionize Chip Design · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can't apply a magnetic field to a material where a field didn't previously act without having the field intensity fluctuate (flux).

  21. Re:iron, huh? on New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Solder Could Revolutionize Chip Design · · Score: 1

    Coat the Iron particles with a corrosion resistant film.

  22. Re:Why? on Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store · · Score: 1

    Attention on Slashdot apparently. I would imagine that by now most people expect this as part of the cost of owning an iphone.

  23. Re:Great, but don't go overboard on Venezuela Bans Hostile Videogames and Toys · · Score: 1

    As a parent I applaud the effort.

    How so? It is *your job* as a parent to raise your kids and it is not the government's job to harass the rest of us.

  24. Re:Microsoft is... on IO Data Licenses Microsoft's "Linux Patents" · · Score: 1

    It makes sense to fix or eliminate a corrupt system. Patent law is broken and often does more harm than good. The same is true of copyright law; most of the time it's used to extort instead of encourage innovation in the arts. The justice system O.T.O.H. is still somewhat useful and would be easier to fix than being unreasonable and eliminating it.

  25. Re:Article == Summary on Researchers Find Way To Zap RSA Algorithm · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are two articles, one is mostly worthless. The other is a PDF which is actually much more informative. The attack focuses on the implementation of RSA in OpenSSL and uses a cluster of processors to carry out the attack. All in all TFA notes that about a year of computing time is actually required to extract the key. The voltage manipulation causes faults which are used to extract the key after quite some time.