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User: Molt

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  1. Re:Michigan..... on Last January Was the Hottest Global Temperature Anomaly In Recorded History · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair Flint used to have people, but then they drank the water.

  2. Re:Sounds like ... on Intel Launches Onslaught of Skylake CPUs For Laptops, Hybrids and Compute Stick · · Score: 1

    Apple have a TV-thing series, a watch series, a phone series, small tablets, larger tablets, small laptops, the large laptops, the desktop all-in-ones, and high-end desktop workstations. They are even apparently working on a car.

    This is exactly the same as Intel, different products for different spaces. Intel have not yet made a CPU which looks like a bin, though.

  3. You already have a source.. on Ask Slashdot: Tips For Getting Into Model Railroading? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your relative has a hobby, and they think you'd enjoy it too. Why not share it with them instead of going solo?

    Let them guide you through the novice stage, it may not be as efficient as asking for help on forums but it'll probably be more enjoyable for both of you and be a good chance to generally chat- even if it's just by phone or email if they don't live locally. It'll probably be good for them to see someone else sharing their interests, it doesn't happen too often with minority hobbies.

    If you are likely to inherit their setup it'd also make sense to talk, find out what they have, and make sure you get things which will be compatible and complement their existing track.

  4. Re:Yes? on Man Arrested After Charging iPhone On London Overground Train · · Score: 1
    From the article:

    On a forum dedicated to the London Underground, members have pointed out that plug sockets on the trains are for cleaning equipment deployed when trains are in depots. They recommend not charging electronic equipment as there is a risk of power surge: “If something was directly plugged into it (for example a standard computer, or a laptop without a battery in) the equipment would probably be damaged at any section gaps where the power supply changes from one substation to another!”

    This isn't necessarily a standard plug socket, it's intended to be safe for cleaners to use in stations (likely where the at-seat passenger outlets aren't working due to the train's main electrics being switched off) but there's no such guarantee whilst in motion. Many phone chargers won't handle the erratic power supply well. That is a fire risk.

  5. Re:Yes? on Man Arrested After Charging iPhone On London Overground Train · · Score: 1

    Yes. Plugging a crappy phone charger into a circuit which could be surging wildly due to the section gaps described in the article is a fire risk.

  6. Re:Tax dollars at work. on Man Arrested After Charging iPhone On London Overground Train · · Score: 1

    I doubt the charger or phone will have been tested with the type of erratic currents this could produce and could well catch fire. The policewoman does seem have been an idiot about it but on the whole I'd rather the train I was travelling on to not be on fire.

  7. Re:Typo: Digital Rights Management on Firefox 38 Arrives With DRM Required To Watch Netflix · · Score: 1

    Here's at least one example of a piece of software which can be purchased, installed, and launched via Steam which then doesn't have the Steam DRM applied Art Rage.

    Now that's just one example, and one where they do apply non-Steam CD Key checks, but there are a decent number of games which just work without the Steam client service running and so can't be using the Steam DRM.

  8. Re:Why don't climate scientists... on Mystery "Warm Blob" In the Pacific Ocean Could Be Causing California's Drought · · Score: 1

    Because that'd put politicians out of work.

  9. Re:Boxen? WTF? on To Avoid NSA Interception, Cisco Will Ship To Decoy Addresses · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I view it more as required reading for anyone who plans to spend time at MIT in the 1960s.

  10. Re:Buggy whip makers said automobiles aren't... on Lyft CEO: Self-Driving Cars Aren't the Future · · Score: 1

    Fit the car with forward-facing LIDAR to scan the road and it can fully gauge potholes a lot better than any driver, give it a twin LIDAR system to compare the reflections from two heights above the road and it can detect water and differing surfaces and suddenly has an amazing amount of information to plan from.

    I do think computer controlled cars are going to happen but there are a lot of obstacles to overcome first such as handling non-automated vehicles, the legal framework, and developing 'sufficiently cheap' sensor arrays. I don't expect that difficult road surfaces or conditions to be one of the more difficult ones to solve, though.

  11. Re:Buggy whip makers said automobiles aren't... on Lyft CEO: Self-Driving Cars Aren't the Future · · Score: 1

    The AI doesn't have to be on par with humans in general, just in the specific case of driving- which from what we've seen is a lot simpler for them than software development.

    It would have been a lot more profitable to develop a computer which can develop software better than an average developer than one which could beat a grandmaster at chess, and yet what do we have?

  12. Re:Buggy whip makers said automobiles aren't... on Lyft CEO: Self-Driving Cars Aren't the Future · · Score: 1

    RIGHT

    The computer will be tracking the motions of pedestrians in case they step into the road, and will likely have noted that many are below statistical average. It will also have access to full demographic information so it'll know exactly what type of neighborhood it's driving through to adopt a driving strategy.

    Most importantly the delay between a computer sensing something and reacting makes even the fastest reacting human look ridiculously slow.

  13. Re:As a PhD in particle physics... on Ask Slashdot: Choosing a Laptop To Support Physics Research? · · Score: 2

    I think awful Python is a lot more manageable than awful C++, and I've seen enough of both.

    (Probably wrote enough of both too, but I'm too smart to admit that here).

  14. Re:Dry Counties? on Colorado Sued By Neighboring States Over Legal Pot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you misread slightly, they said it was like 'dry counties' not 'dry countries' - as in a county in a US state where alcohol is prohibited, and which will often border another county in the same state where alcohol is freely available.

  15. Why either/or? on The Driverless Future: Buses, Not Taxis · · Score: 1

    Why does the answer have to be either 'taxi' or 'bus' when it's possible to combine the two and have a sensible multi-drop scheme? This would need a decent number of users (Higher than that needed to sustain a local bus company, I'd guess), but would manage to combine the two nicely, and with computerised routing of vehicles should be practical.

    Like a taxi you book from where you are, and it'll come to collect you there and drop you off at your requested destination. Unlike a taxi though there could be others riding already, and the vehicle may divert to make pick ups/drop offs on the way within reason.

    The result is something which is similar to a less direct taxi, but will be a a lot cheaper as it's multi-occupant and will have passengers almost continually, similar to a bus. It also means that there are less vehicles on the road as each one is carrying more people, and this reduction would actually improve as the service became more popular- it's easier to have efficient routes when there are more options available. Vehicles would likely range from large cars to small buses, things small enough to get through residential areas (I'm in the UK where getting something the size of a full bus down a side street would be impressive) but large enough to carry a few small groups of people.

    If you want to keep the 'bus' mentality too then have scheduled pick-ups over the most-used routes, so 'There will be a vehicle arriving at Easterly School every ten minutes traveling to the city center, and arriving forty minutes later'. This may also do other pickups and drop-offs on the way but will arrive more or less when it says unless there are problems.

  16. Re:Mods anyone? on Three-Way Comparison Shows PCs Slaying Consoles In Dragon Age Inquisition · · Score: 2

    Some are a pain, most aren't.

    A lot of titles have nice (often 3rd party) mod managers now which'll download mods, keep them updated, and allow you to selectively disable them- all from a simple GUI. When I recently replayed Skyrim I spent about an hour or so browsing through all of the mods on Nexus, and installing those that look interesting, and in my mind it made the game a lot more fun.

    I admit there were a couple that were slightly broken in odds ways, such as a custom weapon which was heavily overpowered, but it didn't take much effort to just turn them off again.

  17. Re:How important is that at this point? on Adobe Photoshop Is Coming To Linux, Through Chromebooks · · Score: 1

    Hmm.. Minesweeper meets Minecraft. It suddenly all makes sense.

  18. Easy DroneShield countermeasure on Star Wars Producers Want a 'DroneShield' To Prevent Leaks On Set · · Score: 4, Funny

    "These are not the drones you are looking for.."

  19. Re:Football Manager on Soccer Talent Scouting Application Teams Up With Video Game Publisher · · Score: 1

    That game wasn't part of the same series, as made clear at the start of the Football Manager writeup. The CM/FM series only had text descriptions of matches to start with and there were a lot of traditionalists who complained when they announced there were to be graphics added.

  20. Re:So the Chinese have created a free market econo on Oculus Suspends Oculus Rift Dev Kit Sales In China · · Score: 1

    If they're taking money for it and selling it openly to the public then it's been released, it doesn't matter that the technology is labelled as being 'for development'. Were they to restricting sale to people who qualified as a developer in some way then maybe, but as it is most of these are finding their way into the hands of people who use them to play HL2, another couple of games, and then take up some space in the wardrobe.

    Dev companies won't care too much, they'll take the $120 hit on a device if it's something they're going to make a lot more from. Getting the paperwork sorted to buy them may be more hassle, but most will do it.

  21. Re:Unreal 4 on Ask Slashdot: Best Way to Learn C# For Game Programming? · · Score: 1

    Agreed. Writing a game is something that one enthusiastic developer can at least sensibly aspire to in their spare time, trying to build a game on top of a custom engine is something else entirely- the amount of rendering code, tools, integration, and other side tasks just pile up too quickly.

  22. Re:Choose another language on Ask Slashdot: Best Way to Learn C# For Game Programming? · · Score: 1

    A lot of the mobile games are written using Unity which allows C# to be used on all platforms, from mobile, through PC, and even consoles if you have the dev license for them.

    The only issue with Unity is if you need the Pro version be ready to pay some serious money, but for a lot of mobile games the Indie/Free version is fine.

  23. Re:C# MMO on Ask Slashdot: Best Way to Learn C# For Game Programming? · · Score: 1

    Microsoft are no longer actively developing XNA, and haven't been for quite some time now. Better to go with something which is going to support the systems which will be available when your development's finished.

  24. Re:A taste of things to come? on France Cries Foul At World Cup "Spy Drone" · · Score: 5, Informative

    The use of the word drone to describe these is correct.

    The Oxford English Dictionary includes the definition for a Drone as 'A pilotless aircraft or missile directed by remote control', a use that dates back at least to 1946 ("The Navy's drones will be..led—by radio control, of course—to a landing field at Roi."). There's no definition listed for a completely autonomous unit.

  25. Re:That's nice. on SteamBoy Machine Team Promises a Portable Console for Valve's Steam Games · · Score: 4, Informative

    Been using Steam since shortly after HL2 was released, and the few minor problems I've had with it have been sorted out quickly. Sorry your friend's had problems but personally it's my preferred way to buy games now.