Correct. Google gained the $1.65Bn back (and change) as the share price went up from $423 to $429 within hours of the announcement on Monday morning. At 304 million shares outstanding the "change" adds up to almost 200 million...
I've never installed Ubuntu (it came installed on my loaner laptop). But the fact is, getting the simplest, most basic things to work on Ubuntu took quite a while, and I'm very computer (well, Windoze) literate. Flash was a major pain and required for most people's websurfing (pandora.com for me). And installing fully working codecs for various "entertainment" video purposes was even more of a pain as there's no ffdshow filters which have all-in-one.
I still don't fully understand why there's a need for both Synaptics and add/remove programs as both could be integrated into one.
Now I'm quite comfortable with Ubuntu (a month of use). But I will go back to XP whether I like it or not as there's no Photoshop CS (GIMP doesn't have 16-bit support (FOR HOW MANY FRICKING _YEARS_ NOW?) and lacks some advanced essential (to me) photo editing tools and libraries of pro actions/filters) or iTunes for my music and iPod connection (smart playlists is the #1 reason why I use and miss iTunes). These two issues are big enough for me and although I'd be quite happy to stay with Ubuntu I doubt I will. I just don't see the need for a dual-boot system as I can do everything without hassles in XP.
"Maybe they can make an easier distribution called Noobuntu?"
While the parent is supposed to be (and admittedly succeeds at being) funny, this kind of condascending attitude by lunix zealots is one of the major reasons why Linux and its incarnations will still take years (if ever) to really reach a point where anyone can use it. User friendliness, ease of use, painless installation, smooth UI and user experience are all things that still seem to be curse words for most Linux users and especially the developers. Documentation and user support is lacking or non-existent. Although it appears that there's been quite some progress in recent time and most of the hardcore zealots have started to accept that it might be actually a Good Thing to have more people using Linux.
"1600 DPI, twice that of conventional high performance sensors
How many pixels (of pointer travel on screen) per point of movement? I mean, if I have a screen of 1600x1200, moving the mouse an inch would send the pointer across the whole screen width with 1:1 mapping. Pretty much unplayable, aim at a 16x16px icon with that, you need 0.01 inch hand movement precision. Of course the points get downsampled, and as result the extra resolution - wasted. Useless."
I have Logitech® MX(TM)518 Gaming-Grade(TM) Optical Mouse and it also has 1600 dpi resolution. I always use it at top res and it indeed moves my mouse pointer across my 1600x1200 screen with about an inch of movement. My friends are always shocked how sensitive my mouse is, but I love it. It makes for faster reaction in any game and reduces movement while doing Photoshop work, ie. less RSI. Sure, it does take a few hours to get used to, but now I hate mice which require me to move my whole arm to get to to the menu bar.
So, while most of the Razer mouse talk is pure dreck and marketing hype, I can vouch for the usefulness of 1600 dpi. In fact, I think I'd like a mouse with even more dpi now that I'm used to this.
Oh, one more thing: the really annoying thing about Das Keyboard is that it lacks a key between left shift and z. I don't remember if this is standard in the US, but it's an important key in most non-English layouts.
the original. I really like it. The only time the blank keys are a problem is when you're typing with one hand (haa haa) or hunt and peck; since it's more difficult to see which letters you are hitting you will make mistakes. That's why I prefer to always put my hand on the f or j buttons so I have tactile feedback.
A bit off-topic: I cleaned the keyboard and took the space bar off. I didn't manage to put it back correctly and now it's a bit "lazy." Any websites which describe in detail how to properly put the space bar back?
"But seriously, what if in the ocean the waterflow is spinning very hard itself under certain conditions, wouldn't that be a possible explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?"
Yeah, that would explain it. If I was piloting a DC-9 full of people and saw a huge triangle-shaped hole in the ocean below I'd surely fly down the friggin' hole to see what's at the bottom.
Heh. But if that's really a problem for you, I'd suggest running all your mp3s through a free program called mp3gain. You have to do it only once and it works wonderfully. And best of all, the process is fast, non-lossy _and_ reversable.
So, let me get this straight: you have a PSP ($199), iPod ($200+) and ER6 earbuds ($139) yet you still have a sig that says "help a _poor_ college student." It really must be a tough, rough life missing that AIBO and a Hummer.
I saw a documentary on chaos theory around the time James Gleick's book on the subject came out and this was something they addressed. These researches set two cylinders inside each other and poured colored liquid with particles in it between them. Then they rotated the other cylinder at different speeds. Quite surprisingly at some speed - which of course I can't remember - a steady spot appeared and travelled around, very much like what we see in Jupiter today.
This was yet another example how chaos sometimes begets (relative) order.
"Er, uhm, no. The second lens in a twin lens reflex is for the viewfinder, not to provide a second, different lens for the film as is the cae with the new Kodak camera."
That's why the grandparent called it a "tribute," not a remake.
No, it's not. I'm aware of such systems and have fired and own such guns. Such systems do _not_ take away the recoil, they just either make it smoother (different spring mechanisms, buttpads) so it doesn't hit like a hammer, or divert it (muzzle brakes) so the muzzle doesn't jump as much. But the recoil is still there.
BTW, floating barrel doesn't mean it moves back after each shot. There's no shoulder-fired mass-production rifles available that has a barrel that moves back, AFAIK. Moving barrels are used in large-caliber guns (cannons), though. While Barret's do have floating barrels, they don't move anywhere. The floating barrel design is for accuracy purposes, not for recoil absorption. Look it up if you don't believe me. And although this is slashdot, please don't spread misinformation on things you don't know or understand.
The fact that the parent comment and another with similar content are both +5 Insightful gives me some hope that our values might not be utterly bankrupt as I thought they were. Thanks for giving me hope.
Yeah, you only have to look at what's happening in New Orleans to see that.
People looting, raping and pillaging under the conditions when they should be pulling together is abhorrent behavior and not fit for homo sapiens. The Asian tsunami last year was a MUCH worse catastrophe and all we heard from there were how people did everything they could to help their fellow man. Sad day for America and I hope it's not indicative of how morally corrupt the unwashed masses are.
Go ahead, mod me down as flamebait. I'm still right and you know it.
"I still play this game 2 years after it came out. The only other game I have ever done that with was Diablo II."
If you play Diablo II two years after its release, that doesn't convince me how good this game is; it merely reveals how crappy your taste in games is.
Would you like to back this up with some legitimate sources? I did a quick google search and all I could come up with were lots of (mainly Swedish) pages about how funny the Fitta/Jazz faux pas was. Sounds like the Nova "incident" or the Sonta/Sonata hoax a Finn in another reply tries to spread.
Over 20 years for me, as well. I'm aware the a almost-without-rules RPGing requires a lot of trust in the GM. If that trust exists and he has a hands-off approach, it works. It works for us, and we'd never turn back to page 34, paragraph 3 about blocking a blow. Useless.
If I want to play chess, I'll play it. If I want to have a blast with my friends, I play RPGs.
Whippersnappers like you rely on game rules. When you've played enough (I don't care to reveal how many years it's been) you'll notice that rules just get in the way. All you need is some very basic rules for skill checks and combat, everything else can be done by the GM. Hell, sometimes we don't have any books whatsoever and the GM jus states that to succeed you have to roll, say, 75 or better to pass a skill check.
The rules don't make the game. The background, the GM and especially the players make the game. Don't let the rules get in the way of fun or slow you down.
If you keep that in mind this is easier to understand. And it goes through iterations; even out of the good rare games which you play for a few nights, or epics which you play for months (Doom, TIE Fighter, Hitman series) only a small minority are so good as to be of legendary (Nethack) quality which are good for literally decades.
Slashdot Mirror
Correct. Google gained the $1.65Bn back (and change) as the share price went up from $423 to $429 within hours of the announcement on Monday morning. At 304 million shares outstanding the "change" adds up to almost 200 million...
I've never installed Ubuntu (it came installed on my loaner laptop). But the fact is, getting the simplest, most basic things to work on Ubuntu took quite a while, and I'm very computer (well, Windoze) literate. Flash was a major pain and required for most people's websurfing (pandora.com for me). And installing fully working codecs for various "entertainment" video purposes was even more of a pain as there's no ffdshow filters which have all-in-one.
I still don't fully understand why there's a need for both Synaptics and add/remove programs as both could be integrated into one.
Now I'm quite comfortable with Ubuntu (a month of use). But I will go back to XP whether I like it or not as there's no Photoshop CS (GIMP doesn't have 16-bit support (FOR HOW MANY FRICKING _YEARS_ NOW?) and lacks some advanced essential (to me) photo editing tools and libraries of pro actions/filters) or iTunes for my music and iPod connection (smart playlists is the #1 reason why I use and miss iTunes). These two issues are big enough for me and although I'd be quite happy to stay with Ubuntu I doubt I will. I just don't see the need for a dual-boot system as I can do everything without hassles in XP.
Yes, the one that has been present for as long as I've been using FireFox (2+ years).
"Maybe they can make an easier distribution called Noobuntu?"
While the parent is supposed to be (and admittedly succeeds at being) funny, this kind of condascending attitude by lunix zealots is one of the major reasons why Linux and its incarnations will still take years (if ever) to really reach a point where anyone can use it. User friendliness, ease of use, painless installation, smooth UI and user experience are all things that still seem to be curse words for most Linux users and especially the developers. Documentation and user support is lacking or non-existent. Although it appears that there's been quite some progress in recent time and most of the hardcore zealots have started to accept that it might be actually a Good Thing to have more people using Linux.
"1600 DPI, twice that of conventional high performance sensors
How many pixels (of pointer travel on screen) per point of movement? I mean, if I have a screen of 1600x1200, moving the mouse an inch would send the pointer across the whole screen width with 1:1 mapping. Pretty much unplayable, aim at a 16x16px icon with that, you need 0.01 inch hand movement precision. Of course the points get downsampled, and as result the extra resolution - wasted. Useless."
I have Logitech® MX(TM)518 Gaming-Grade(TM) Optical Mouse and it also has 1600 dpi resolution. I always use it at top res and it indeed moves my mouse pointer across my 1600x1200 screen with about an inch of movement. My friends are always shocked how sensitive my mouse is, but I love it. It makes for faster reaction in any game and reduces movement while doing Photoshop work, ie. less RSI. Sure, it does take a few hours to get used to, but now I hate mice which require me to move my whole arm to get to to the menu bar.
So, while most of the Razer mouse talk is pure dreck and marketing hype, I can vouch for the usefulness of 1600 dpi. In fact, I think I'd like a mouse with even more dpi now that I'm used to this.
On keyboards I use it's the key with > and characters.
Oh, one more thing: the really annoying thing about Das Keyboard is that it lacks a key between left shift and z. I don't remember if this is standard in the US, but it's an important key in most non-English layouts.
the original. I really like it. The only time the blank keys are a problem is when you're typing with one hand (haa haa) or hunt and peck; since it's more difficult to see which letters you are hitting you will make mistakes. That's why I prefer to always put my hand on the f or j buttons so I have tactile feedback.
A bit off-topic: I cleaned the keyboard and took the space bar off. I didn't manage to put it back correctly and now it's a bit "lazy." Any websites which describe in detail how to properly put the space bar back?
"But seriously, what if in the ocean the waterflow is spinning very hard itself under certain conditions, wouldn't that be a possible explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?"
Yeah, that would explain it. If I was piloting a DC-9 full of people and saw a huge triangle-shaped hole in the ocean below I'd surely fly down the friggin' hole to see what's at the bottom.
Heh. But if that's really a problem for you, I'd suggest running all your mp3s through a free program called mp3gain. You have to do it only once and it works wonderfully. And best of all, the process is fast, non-lossy _and_ reversable.
So, let me get this straight: you have a PSP ($199), iPod ($200+) and ER6 earbuds ($139) yet you still have a sig that says "help a _poor_ college student." It really must be a tough, rough life missing that AIBO and a Hummer.
Fucking entitlement generation.
Gotta love the irony of an USian calling another country's legal system corrupt.
I saw a documentary on chaos theory around the time James Gleick's book on the subject came out and this was something they addressed. These researches set two cylinders inside each other and poured colored liquid with particles in it between them. Then they rotated the other cylinder at different speeds. Quite surprisingly at some speed - which of course I can't remember - a steady spot appeared and travelled around, very much like what we see in Jupiter today.
This was yet another example how chaos sometimes begets (relative) order.
"At the current rate of consumption, there is only enough Uranium on the planet for the next 50 years"
Just like there's been enough oil on the planet for the next generation, for at least 3 generations?
"Er, uhm, no. The second lens in a twin lens reflex is for the viewfinder, not to provide a second, different lens for the film as is the cae with the new Kodak camera."
That's why the grandparent called it a "tribute," not a remake.
No, it's not. I'm aware of such systems and have fired and own such guns. Such systems do _not_ take away the recoil, they just either make it smoother (different spring mechanisms, buttpads) so it doesn't hit like a hammer, or divert it (muzzle brakes) so the muzzle doesn't jump as much. But the recoil is still there.
BTW, floating barrel doesn't mean it moves back after each shot. There's no shoulder-fired mass-production rifles available that has a barrel that moves back, AFAIK. Moving barrels are used in large-caliber guns (cannons), though. While Barret's do have floating barrels, they don't move anywhere. The floating barrel design is for accuracy purposes, not for recoil absorption. Look it up if you don't believe me. And although this is slashdot, please don't spread misinformation on things you don't know or understand.
"do some research - the soldier firing a rifle round does NOT receive the full kinetic energy the round delivers to the gun."
Oh really? Why don't you enlighten us with your superior knowledge of physics?
The fact that the parent comment and another with similar content are both +5 Insightful gives me some hope that our values might not be utterly bankrupt as I thought they were. Thanks for giving me hope.
Yeah, you only have to look at what's happening in New Orleans to see that.
People looting, raping and pillaging under the conditions when they should be pulling together is abhorrent behavior and not fit for homo sapiens. The Asian tsunami last year was a MUCH worse catastrophe and all we heard from there were how people did everything they could to help their fellow man. Sad day for America and I hope it's not indicative of how morally corrupt the unwashed masses are.
Go ahead, mod me down as flamebait. I'm still right and you know it.
"I still play this game 2 years after it came out. The only other game I have ever done that with was Diablo II."
If you play Diablo II two years after its release, that doesn't convince me how good this game is; it merely reveals how crappy your taste in games is.
Would you like to back this up with some legitimate sources? I did a quick google search and all I could come up with were lots of (mainly Swedish) pages about how funny the Fitta/Jazz faux pas was. Sounds like the Nova "incident" or the Sonta/Sonata hoax a Finn in another reply tries to spread.
Yet another urban car name translation myth.
Over 20 years for me, as well. I'm aware the a almost-without-rules RPGing requires a lot of trust in the GM. If that trust exists and he has a hands-off approach, it works. It works for us, and we'd never turn back to page 34, paragraph 3 about blocking a blow. Useless.
If I want to play chess, I'll play it. If I want to have a blast with my friends, I play RPGs.
Whippersnappers like you rely on game rules. When you've played enough (I don't care to reveal how many years it's been) you'll notice that rules just get in the way. All you need is some very basic rules for skill checks and combat, everything else can be done by the GM. Hell, sometimes we don't have any books whatsoever and the GM jus states that to succeed you have to roll, say, 75 or better to pass a skill check.
The rules don't make the game. The background, the GM and especially the players make the game. Don't let the rules get in the way of fun or slow you down.
If you keep that in mind this is easier to understand. And it goes through iterations; even out of the good rare games which you play for a few nights, or epics which you play for months (Doom, TIE Fighter, Hitman series) only a small minority are so good as to be of legendary (Nethack) quality which are good for literally decades.