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User: webrunner

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  1. Re:Write still present, at least as a proxy on Windows 1.0: the Power of DOS, Plus Tiled Windows · · Score: 2

    Wordpad is basically Write- they more or less just renamed the application for 95.

  2. "at least with current technologies" on Forget Space Travel, It's Just a Dream · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So basically something we haven't invented the technology for is impossible until the technology is invented.

    I'm so shocked.

  3. Re:This is why I have given up on Adobe on Inducement To Piracy, Adobe Style · · Score: 1

    Gimp is not just not "exactly like photoshop", it's not layed out like any other Windows application. If you're on Mac or Linux is fine, but someone accustomed to Gimp will struggle needlessly with the (incidentally monstrously ugly [to the point of making it difficult to use]) interface. Gimpshop and gimphoto are fine but are several major revisions behind gimp proper.

  4. The ultimate irony on Google Fights Back Against Android Fragmentation · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Google wants to close android in order to keep the manufacturers from closing android further.
    Openness advocates are fighting to protect the rights of the manufacturers (that of closing Android)

    I'm not sure who to root for here, so I'll just say GO LOCAL SPORTS TEAM

  5. The universe is big. on Solar Systems Like Ours Are Likely To Be Rare · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Really, in terms of the universe, EVERYTHING is rare. Galaxies are rare. Stars are rare. Matter is rare. About the only thing that isn't rare is space itself. Draw a line segment across the universe, make it trillions of miles long. How many atoms did you actually touch with that line?

  6. Koodo Mobile on Judge Rules Sprint Early Termination Fees Illegal · · Score: 1

    There's a Cell company in Canada called Koodo Mobile which advertises the following system:

    - You don't have a locked-in contract
    - You instead get the cost of the free phone added to your account.
    - This amount is lowered as you use your phone and pay your regular phone bills.

    I'm not sure if the system 'works' or anything, I'm currently locked in on another provider, but it might be what people are really looking for: AN actual, explicitly subsidized phone, instead of having it 'magically' tied just in to how many months you have left and not have anything to do with the actual cost of the phone or the cost of the plan.

  7. "he knew it wouldn't"? on LifeLock Spokesperson's Stolen ID Inspires Lawsuits · · Score: 4, Insightful

    claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.


    Isn't the fact that he got his identity stolen due to use of the system more or less hard proof that he didn't know it wouldn't work?
  8. Re:just another take... on IBM Patents Putting Handprints On Laptops · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They try to downplay actual lap-top use (in case of another burn lawsuit) to the point that they almost say "do not use this on your legs"

    Notice how companies never actually call them "laptops"? They'll call them either "notebook computer" or "labtop" (as in: put on the counter of a research lab).

    Releasing one with leg grooves would be rather strange, given that.

  9. Re:one question on D&D 4th Edition Game System License Announced · · Score: 1

    def skillCheck(target):

            return rollD20() >= target def skillCheck(target, modifier):
            roll = rollD20();
            return (((roll==20) || (roll+modifier) >= target) && (roll != 1))
  10. Re:*facepalm* on Oklahoma Leaks 10,000 Social Security Numbers · · Score: 1

    In Oklahoma, the age of the earth is 6000 years. Nuff said. At least until someone hacks into the database to change the number
  11. Re:Monster cable has been taking advantage... on Monster Cables Pushes Around the Wrong Small Company · · Score: 5, Funny

    How ironic is it, that a company known for it's cables really only does good work in wireless?

  12. Re:the pause between llight changes on Cities Tampering With Traffic Lights To Generate Revenue · · Score: 1

    No, then you just have the result where cars jump the light knowing that there is a pause.

    Doesn't this already happen in Boston? This is true- actually. The "Everybody's Red" phase actually causes more accidents then it solves, since it makes people far more likely to speed up on a yellow. I heard about it on CBC Radio one night.
  13. Wrong video? on Purdue Students Win Rube Goldberg Contest · · Score: 1

    The video seems to be of last year's Perdue entry (which was an Orange Juice machine)

  14. Re:Also from the article... on China to Use Silver Iodide & Dry Ice to Control the Weather · · Score: 1

    Nothing that happened in New Orleans really had anything to do with where everyone's ancestors are from. If you were in New Orleans you got fucked by a hurricane. Black or white. And it doesn't matter whether so and so up the chain of aid was black or white. A corrupt official is a corrupt official. The only color that really mattered to them was green.

  15. Routers with on MD Bill Would Criminalize Theft of Wireless Access · · Score: 1

    There are some consumer routers that take you through a when you first plug them in you have to go through the wizard. Tt won't let you even access the internet because it'll route ANY request directly to the setup screen.

    The only way this law could ever be considered realistic is if every router were regulated to have to have a feature such as that one- namely that you have to explicitly say "yes" to enable an open router.

  16. Re:You can't make this stuff up... on Ohio Investigating Possible Vote Machine Tampering Last Year · · Score: 1

    One has to wonder though.. counting is like, the most basic thing a computer can do with complete and total reliability. Human eyes can be used to verify, but wouldn't you trust a computer count more than a human one for anything other than voting? So what makes voting so different?

    A properly developed voting system is not farfetched, it's the security that's the issue, and the companies currently making voting machines seem to be extremely bad at making verifyiably secure machines.

  17. Re:Hm on Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival · · Score: 5, Informative

    So.. it's less toxic than one of the world's most famous deadly poisons

    That's really reassuring.

  18. Re:iPhone quality? on Higher-Resolution YouTube Videos Currently In Testing · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Something is weird... whenever I look at a fmt=18 video it's noticeably blurrier with heavier artifacting then the regular video. And usually fmt=6 doesn't work for those same videos. Some individual frames seem a little sharper, but generally the video is worse on fmt=18 then no fmt at all.

  19. Re:Given that Nintendo has already blocked Freeloa on Wii Homebrew Takes Several Leaps Forward · · Score: 1

    360s support divx natively as of the latest Dashboard update, so if you want a Divx player one of the easiest thing to right now is to just buy a cheap 360 (about the same price as a wii) and stick em on a USB flash drive or external HD or something.

  20. Re:I think I speak for everyone... on DivX Pulls Plug on Stage6 · · Score: 1

    Is there a single other site that can compare to stage 6 in terms of quality and video length?

  21. Strange occurances on Steve Fossett Declared Dead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It seems a lot of people who are known for risking their lives are dying doing pretty normal things... a man who rides high-tech experimental aircraft to world records died crashing a normal single-engine plane. An adventurer who spent his time mostly around horribly dangerous animals was killed by what was supposed to be a completely harmless stingray. There was another recent example I remember but I don't remember the specifics. It's kind of wierd, although I know there's no connections or anything

  22. Recursion on One Computer to Rule Them All · · Score: 5, Funny

    What happens when they put it on the Internet, and then has to also serve itself?

  23. Wait.. huh? on Hasbro Using DMCA on Facebook Game Apps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm confused here.. DMCA is for copyright, that's what the C stands for.. but no part of what was taken was? It's possible it was patented (I believe game mechanics are patented) but there is no DMPA is there? TFA says that they have a "solid case" but I'm not seeing that this "solid case" is what is trying to be used here.. There is no copyright on scrabble. There's a copyright on the scrabble box design, and the scrabble instructions, and perhaps even on the actual design of the board, but not the overall layout of it. There's a trademark on "Scrabble" probably as well, on which "Scrabulous" might infringe.

    I can see a pretty solid case on Trademark or Patent grounds, but copyright is the one thing that WASN'T infringed.

  24. Re:Other Similar Systems: Signal Pre-emption on 14-Year-Old Turns Tram System Into Personal Train Set · · Score: 1

    Here, (southern Ont) it seems to be tied to the siren, and seems to basically just to be to disable the red light camera. A lot of the time I'll see a police car come up to a red light, put on their siren for just long enough to get through, and then turn it off again.

  25. The BIG problem on Paramount to Drop HD DVD? · · Score: 1

    People compare the adoption of HD video format discs to the adoption of other formats, but there's something that never gets brought up enough, and in my experience is what really drove DVD in it's early days:

    DVD was a far more usable format than tapes. You didn't have to rewind it, it was smaller, harder to ruin, didn't get tangled up all the time, allowed extra content to be easily accessible, allowed other multimedia content (such as pictures), alternate video and audio tracks, and even interactive features. A lot of people that I met, from vastly different walks of life, were most interested in the features that DVDs had over tapes, and not so much the increased video and audio fidelity.

    In contrast, the HD formats, basically ONLY have higher quality. As a result, people don't want to buy HD discs because they don't care enough, but they realize they will in the future be buying HD versions of every DVD they own, so they're also holding off buying original DVDs. There's more to the issues in the current market than the format war.