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User: stonecypher

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  1. Re:Riiight on Why LEDs Don't Beat CFLs Even Though They Should · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, it's valid if they're both made extra-nationally, but in different places. Most incandescents are actually made in the United States by GE, but the vast bulk of the remainder are made in Mexico, and shipped up by rail, which is far more efficient than slow-boating them from China. It turns out that there are more than one country outside of America, and that those countries aren't actually all in the same location.

    Of course, if anyone actually did the math, they'd find out that the energy cost of shipping is offset by the energy savings in usage in under three days; sometimes I wonder whether people have any idea how many lightbulbs fit on a large boat, or how little fuel a large boat actually needs.

    But hey, made up math is great for making arguments, right?

  2. Well, there are other options on The Best Keyboards For Every Occasion · · Score: 1

    Speaking as an old IBM Model M user, I must say I'm quite happy with my Das Keyboard. Also, the lack of markings is pretty woot.

    Still, this all strikes me largely as a matter of preference.

  3. A short list on Your Favorite Tech / Eng. / CS Books? · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Art of Computer Programming, Design Patterns, Domain Driven Design, Refactoring, Modern C++ Design, C++ Gotchas, The Mythical Man Month, Applied Cryptography, Introduction to Algorithms, Intro to Personal Software Process.

  4. Lel. on Nobel Winner Says Internet Might Have Stopped Hitler · · Score: 0, Troll

    Didn't stop Bush.

  5. Re:What if everyone got a piece? on Canadian Groups Call For Massive Net Regulation · · Score: 1

    People from Canada are already paying taxes on music supplies, such as blank CDs and blank tapes. Those people, known as "Canadians", are to whom I refer.

  6. What if everyone got a piece? on Canadian Groups Call For Massive Net Regulation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how Canadians would react if the other industries that get pirated off of the internet started getting a cut, too. Start snapping up 2% to movies, 3% to games, some money for tv and radio, et cetera. Then maybe pornography could get a free slice, then the books and magazine articles who are getting wholesale copied, et cetera. Suddenly people might start saying "hey, I've never pirated one of those, I don't even play games" or whatever. It's not like music is significantly more pirated than other things are.

    I honestly don't understand why the music industry gets to tax Canadians as a whole for the behavior of a few. Why do media sources get different treatment than the other industries? Shouldn't canadians be paying a Photoshop tax at this point?

  7. Re:I wouldn't hold my breath on Time To Discuss Drug Prohibition? · · Score: 1

    Legal drugs make a whole lot of money for big tobacco and big alcohol, too. I don't have numbers, but I'd be willing to bet the legal drugs are taking down a whole lot more cash due to scale.

  8. Re:Well Duh on Bittorrent To Cause Internet Meltdown · · Score: 1

    Ask your friends in Phoenix or Las Vegas about their water situation. Yes, they pay for what they get, but there's also a sort of required community baseline behavior to not overload the resource itself.

  9. Re:Well Duh on Bittorrent To Cause Internet Meltdown · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That ISPs will start shutting BitTorrent users down, including legitimate ones, when they realize that BitTorrent users have forced them into a 95/5 choice. It isn't appropriate for legitimate bittorrent users to be driving other TCP off the network, let alone the vast bulk of what BitTorrent is really used for. You're not backed into a corner, getting stabbed in the face, or being locked in the bedroom; you just want to bully other people out of their bandwidth so you get more. It's about to explode in your face. There's no need or reason for this switch to UDP. This will, however, create a serious reason for ISPs to want rid of BitTorrent.

    BitTorrent is going to find out, very soon, that it shouldn't try to be a bully; it's making other customers vote with their wallets, and if you force the point, there are actually a ton of ways to stop this cold (which unfortunately hurt the rest of us too, like caps). Unfortunately, BitTorrent fascinated mods are about to call me a troll or say I'm promoting flamebait, when I'm doing neither, because I'm telling them something they don't want to hear, but whatever.

    This isn't the right way for BitTorrent to move forward, even when you only look at it as a collection of people using a protocol for legitimate purposes. You're just being greedy.

  10. Nope. on Entertainment Software Association Following RIAA? · · Score: 0, Troll

    Are they following the RIAA's lead and pursuing litigation for peer-to-peer piracy?

    No: the ESA was doing this twenty years ago, whereas the RIAA has only been at it for a few years. The ESA also only goes after people when they have good, solid proof, and they win most of their cases. The ESA aren't thugs, they're just protecting their members from pirates.

    Yo ho ho, and a barrel of you got caught red handed.

  11. Re:Nope. on Triple-Engine Browser Released As Alpha · · Score: 1

    This may be the first genuinely funny thing I've ever seen an anonymous coward say. If you had logged in, I would totally fan you right now.

  12. Re:Nope. on Triple-Engine Browser Released As Alpha · · Score: 1

    I don't count versions as separate browsers. I meant Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, Chrome and Safari/iPhone (I count that as separate, whereas I don't count mac/win separate, because the interface and experience are pretty radically different.)

  13. Okay? on Samsung Mass Produces Fast 256GB SSDs · · Score: 1

    Drives using interleaved storage methodology have already been available as PCI-e x4 cards for some time now; the FusionIO ioDrive can saturate most PCI busses, and has been available for more than a year. It also blows the doors off of these claimed specs. If I remember correctly, the ioDrive is 64 devices in parallel.

    So yeah, way to go playing halfway catchup, Samsung.

  14. Re:It's too much to discourage anyone. on Facebook Wins $873 Million Lawsuit Against Spammer · · Score: 1

    Basic psychology dictates that once you get above a certain risk people will start to ignore it because there's no difference between that and "everything".

    Losing everything you own and having a permanent lien against everything you will ever make for the rest of your life turns out to be a relatively effective deterrent.

  15. Nope. on Triple-Engine Browser Released As Alpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This isn't really useful as a diagnostic browser.

    There are significant rendering differences between the various KHTML/Webkit implementations (eg Apple uses its own font renderer, which gives seriously different results than most host OS renderers, and Google has provided its own viewport code which gets several things incorrect, such as the placement of background coloration on absolutely positioned bodies, which aren't as silly as they might initially sound once you look into scalable viewports.) It also misses Opera, which still has more market share than Safari on Windows, as well as a variety of small browsers.

    On top of that, there's the significant likelihood that this browser injects new differences into the rendering process.

    Short version? Switch if you find the browser compelling (does an, but this doesn't substitute for actual browser case testing (it neither correctly nor completely covers the playing field.)

    I won't be adding it to my standard six, that's for sure. The last thing I need is another also-ran browser to check.

  16. Re:Huh? on EU Strikes Down French "3 Strikes" Copyright Infringement Law · · Score: 1

    Oh, see, that I didn't know. Are you certain that it's not three convictions? Can you cite? That seems ... pretty remarkable.

  17. Re:Huh? on EU Strikes Down French "3 Strikes" Copyright Infringement Law · · Score: 1

    How is that trolling? It's an honest question.

  18. Huh? on EU Strikes Down French "3 Strikes" Copyright Infringement Law · · Score: 3, Funny

    that throttling its use through crude instruments like the "three strikes and you're out" is exactly the wrong thing to do.'"

    Why? Repeat offender laws are remarkably effective in normal crime control; what makes this different?

  19. An already solved problem. on Integrating the Web Into Games · · Score: 1

    Uh, you could already do this on Windows by embedding MSHTML, and quite a few games do - many games are rendered in IE directly, in fact. Civ4 uses IE, for example, as does Stars!, as does Master of Orion 3. On Mac, substitute Safari; on Linux, substitute KHTML. Also, Apollo did this portably within Flash something like a year and a half ago. Or you could use Dillo, or etc.

    I mean, it's a cute little technology and all, but it's nothing new; this is just more Slashvertising, no?

  20. Re:Erlang on NVIDIA's $10K Tesla GPU-Based Personal Supercomputer · · Score: 1

    You don't. The cores in these cards need to run the same function. It's not a bunch of discrete cores, it's a large matrix processor. This card cannot meaningfully run distinct processes. Erlang will not run here.

    I'm sorry, Mario, but your princess is in another castle.

  21. Re:This summary is already out of date on Charity Refuses Donation Because of D&D Connection · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Nothing to see hear"

    ... but much to taste?

  22. Re:Guess what? on Sprint Cuts Cogent Off the Internet · · Score: 1

    Lawyers don't cause litigation.

    Good lawyers don't cause litigation. Just because you aren't Jack Thompson doesn't mean other laywers aren't. Many lawyers litigate on behalf of clients that have never even heard of them in some states, though as a lawyer, I'm sure you already know that.

    Don't confuse that you're a reasonable person with that other people are too.

  23. Re:empty threats on Sprint Cuts Cogent Off the Internet · · Score: 1

    Generally speaking, you can get a T1 in most major metros same-day with a $200 or so extra fee. Telcos sell that kind of bump for people whose physical lines have severed; waiting weeks can kill some businesses.

  24. Re:Really? on Evolutionary Scientists Test-Drive Spore, Gripe · · Score: 1

    Oh, I see, you listened to EA's marketers. No wonder you're confused about something that's obviously false to everyone who hasn't.

    I also recommend not asking Cthulhu about the game, though he'll at least be somewhat more honest.

  25. Writing quality? on Anatomy of the First Video Game, Born 1958 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The prefix "gyn" means female. Maybe you meant "ginormous", but even so...