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User: prometx42

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  1. Re:When people who've never seen it write the rule on House Bill Would Mandate Smart Gun Tech By U.S. Manufacturers · · Score: 1

    You would only need to watch the gripping, tour de force film, "Drugstore Cowboy", and you would know all of these things, intimately, and relatively instantly. To Netflix my good scholar, to Netflix!

  2. Writing an article saying "we are finally cool"... on Has Apple Made Programmers Cool? · · Score: 2

    ...that is, like, so not cool...

  3. Re:Cancer be damned! on NASA Creates Super-Black Carbon Nanotube Coating · · Score: 1

    Being, essentially, just carbon, it probably wouldn't be all that carcinogenic. Though I suppose it could have weird effects at the "nano" scale....

  4. No SDCard? on Amazon Kindle Fire Surfaces · · Score: 1

    You have broken my already tiny, coal-black, heart Amazon, just broken it in half...

  5. Re:Stop this BS on Sprint Customers Face 5GB Hotspot Data Cap, As of Oct. 2 · · Score: 1

    You speak with alarming accuracy and vision Anonymous Coward, you should consider marking that with your "X"...

    Also, would it be the Federal Communications Commission to whom we would express our concerns on this? Because, I for one, am ready to raise a stink...

  6. Yes, but why? on Seagulls Spreading Resistant Bacteria On Beaches · · Score: 1

    They've come to regard the birds as a vector. It seems like a crucial facet of all this would be, how, did the birds become an, apparently, very robust, vector?

    Are these brids scavenging anti-bacterials from various human food sources? are they absorbsing same from the sewer effluvia that we know eventually makes its way into many coastal waters?

    I'm always suspicious of these quirky "end reports" that seem to be spread without a context that might lead to some actual solution, or at least, amendment.

  7. "Spectacular", is not the same as... on Are Games Worth Complaining About? · · Score: 1

    ..."of excellent quality". I would agree that, in many ways, these are the "Salad Days" of gaming potential. There are more bells, whistles and gizmos to make gaming experiences mind-blowing than ever before.

    In contrast though, I think that the myriad pressures that studios are under against their parent companies, publishers and, to some degree, their customers, are forcing them to take less time and care to put the aforementioned bells, whistles and gizmos to proper effective use.

    To a large degree, it does seem like simple market pressures are to be most clearly blamed for this. Eventually though, you've just got to call a spade a spade and accept the fact that overall gamequality is demonstrably lower than it could be.

    Some large publishers and parent companies will hopefully understand this appropriately at some point and stop scaring the crap out of excellent studios with the proverbial "Sword of Damacles" that is quarterly profits (or whatever internal economic pressures; or simply greed) constantly hanging over them.

    An example, which I'm sure everyone is sick of, but that I will cram down your unwilling intertubes anyway:

    I was in love with Fallout 2. I believe that game was superb. A 2D, isometric view game, "dated" many people would call it now. If you go back and look at the graphical and audio assets for that game; set scenes, item art, character art, atmospheric sounds, musical assets, etc. It created an amazing "piece" in and of itself. Truly, the difference between a labor of love, and the spectacle the Fallout 3 became.

    I bought Fallout 3, I played it through, I didn't even have any exceptional beef with it. But it's lessened nuance (Studio and creative staff differences notwithstanding) was a little dissappointing. With all of the 3D makeover, etc., I mean, it was quite a feat, and I enjoyed it on those levels; but it didn't have the same impact.

    The artwork for weapons, ammo, and incidental items in Fallout 3 for the Pipboy and merchant interactions were monochrome, many of them generic. Just compare that aspect alone, if you've got a working copy, to the, still exquisite renderings of the items for Fallout 2, or Fallout Tactics, for that matter.

    Forgive me for beating that particular dead horse, but it's a just a common example of my point. You should consider tempering the "shock and awe" of your new techonogies, with richness and playability. You could have the "perfect storm" a "Platinum Age" of gaming, if you really wanted it...

  8. How do they know? on Swiss Researchers Try to Make it Rain With Lasers · · Score: 1

    Fascinating story but, my question is, what sensory apparatus are they using to measure "stable drops a few thousandths of a millimeter in diameter" in the resulting atmosphere?

    They seem to have neglected to mention their prior discovery, The Star Trek Duotronic Sensor Array...

  9. Indeed Mr. Wang... on Acer CEO Declares a Tablets Bubble · · Score: 1

    ...and I wish you would pipe down about it, so that the industry would keep pumping out hardware and driving down prices until they reach my "impulse price". I mean come on, stop tablet-shop-blockin'!

  10. Traffic Only? on NYC Mayor Wants Traffic Camera On Every Corner · · Score: 1

    One wonders what the Field of View and other technical details on these cameras would be. That is to say, how much, collectively, of the city streets would these be able to cover above and beyond the license plate of an alleged offender? Would they be inter-networked? To the citizenry, it seems like folly, but to governments, broad data collection rarely does seem like folly. I worry about the details though, you know, where "The Devil" rents a condo...

  11. Let me think for a moment... on Download.com Now Wraps Downloads In Bloatware · · Score: 1

    Ummmmmmm, no.

  12. Ubuntu Variant on Ask Slashdot: What OS For a Donated Computer? · · Score: 1

    I am also in the Linux (Ubuntu) camp as a choice. However, I would recommend the "Lubuntu" variant, which is a newer, remixed, flavor of Ubuntu designed to be lightweight, in order to accommodate "humbler" hardware. I have tried it, and it performs admirably on older (within reason) machines.

  13. Re:Why? - Why indeed? on Space Station To Be Deorbited After 2020 · · Score: 1

    It should be put into a reasonable "cold shutdown" and pushed out to a Lagrange Point between the Earth and the Moon at least. Perhaps some future and more capable program maybe able to leverage its equipment/resources.

    The idea of having expended multiple billions of dollars across the space agencies of several nations, only to have the fruits de-orbited into the ocean speaks volumes about the attitudes, planning, and thus the capabilities, of human space flight.

    With this sort of thinking, a "manned" mission to Mars will forever remain a fond notion and never become the reality that it should already have been. Essentially, WTF are you people doing with our collective resources and hopes? It's absurd...

  14. A touch paranoid, perhaps? on Cheap Games a Risk To the Industry, Says Nintendo President · · Score: 1

    I, myself, am a "full-scale" RPG person. Mobile games, up to this point, are, at best, pleasant distractions and, more often, annoying, in my experience. I think it will be awhile before I will be engaged enough by a mobile "piece of experience", that it will prevent me from dropping $49.99 on a quality RPG. Plus a "quality" RPG is often a 1 to 4 year wait between worthwhile titles to begin with.

    If I were Reggie Fils-Aime, I would hold off on the negative prognostications and just focus on making solid, innovative, full-scale titles. Render unto mobile that which is mobile's, render unto the Nintendo Lords that which is the Nintendo Lords’. Also, Reggie, more RPGs please... ;)

  15. The "Stigmata" of Tolkien on Peter Jackson Hospitalized w/ Stomach Ulcer · · Score: 1

    That is an augurous doom indeed...

  16. Well, duh... on Does the Moon Have Military Value? · · Score: 1

    Being at "the top" of Earth's gravity well, the moon is, sort of, the "ultimate trebuchet". Once a beachhead had been established, so to speak, with some relatively simple calculations (well, simple for the sorts of people that are capable of establishing a functioning moon base), one could simply lob largish rocks down at earth with enough precision and devastating kinetic energy to be a serious problem.

    And, as far as tactical highground goes, it's profoundly defensible. One would need a very expensive and very rare, also very heavy, lifting rocket boosters to get from "the bottom" of said gravity well, to take any kind of meaningful offensive action against the installation (though the supporting ground-crew could find themsleves in a bit of a sticky situation I suppose).

    That's just a simple scenario. I don't think the tactical potential of the moon has escaped anyone who gets paid to think about outlandish (but possible) wastes of tax revenue. i.e. Andrew Marshell, Director of the Defense Deparment's Office of Net Assessment.

  17. Aw, Snap! on MySpace Lays Off 47% of Employees · · Score: 1

    I mean, Daaaaaaaaaaaaa --*cough, cough!*-- aaaaaaamn!

  18. Face...numb... on Will Facebook Become the Net's SSO? · · Score: 1

    My cranial area throbs with rage when people "muse" about asinine contrivances, around which they expect all of mankind to fall into line. I mean, wtf, Facebook is quickly becoming the most overrated object/event in recent human history.

    How in the hell is someone as smart as Garfinkel, who probably has more salient and complex thoughts over waffles, than the entire intellectual significance of Facebook, into perpetuity, even entertaining an insipid notion like this?

    AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

  19. The most diabolically clever... on Prepare To Be Watched While You Watch a Movie · · Score: 1

    ...and super-genius plan ever by the movie theater industry to grow the use of Newsgroups and Bittorent, and raise them to Olympian Heights, ever devised. Seriously, ever...

  20. The Land of Negative Hyperbole... on Desktop Linux Is Dead · · Score: 1

    I agree that this "prophecy" will probably fulfill itself; for you. For me, I am not put off by the slow adoption of Linux as a desktop OS by the entire rest of the world.

    I am, primarily, just greatful that, pretty clever, groups of people around the world are diligently building and refining an alternative that is working very well for me, personally. Also that, I believe, they will continue to do so.

    I kinda don't want Linux to "become" Microsoft, actually...

    It ain't really broke, and I'm not bucking for mainstream adoption to "fix" it...

  21. I sense great wisdom in this... on Ubuntu Won't Moan To EU About Microsoft · · Score: 1

    So few companies have the foresight to turn away from the urge to spend too much of their resources on marketing, this is doubley important when dealing with the bloated, Wizard-of-Oz-like machinations of Microsoft, which seem less and less fathomable [seriously] by the week.

    Canonical putting that effort and those resources toward the maturity and refinement of their core product just speaks to some really sound thinking on their part. I mean, honestly, they may not even win the fight; many a valiant hero has been slain by vain, syphalitically mad, emporers and kings in the throes of their criminal excesses.

    Still, I think it's a very smart move...

    Huzzah, Ubuntu Huzzah!

  22. Re:App Storage on Google's Nexus One Phone Launches · · Score: 1

    I see your point, but there is a little room for play between what I'm forecasting and a "20MB executable anytime soon".

    An, even nominal, increase in app size (which will happen) and a probable desire for many apps on a device as they become available (will also happen - is, indeed happening now), is more the scenario I'm looking at.

    With smartphone apps, it's about "nickles and dimes" , not "20's and 50's".

    Again, point taken though, I am actually reassured that you don't see a problem there.

  23. I can see your boobs... on Mars Images Reveal Evidence of Ancient Lakes · · Score: 1

    ...aaaaaaand...now we're safe from terror...

  24. Don't fear the panty-bomb on Can Imaging Technologies Save Us From Terrorists? · · Score: 1

    Embrace the panty-bomb.

    The seasons don't fear The Reaper
    neither do the wind, the sun or the rain
    we can be like they are
    come on baby
    don't fear The Reaper
    baby take my (kevlar-mitted) hand...

  25. Re:The unlocked phone comes at quite the premium. on Google's Nexus One Phone Launches · · Score: 1

    Bingo and...bingo!

    Telecommunications companies are really just...yeah, I'm at a loss for adequate pejoratives...