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User: NJRoadfan

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Comments · 1,306

  1. Re:Scoring is NP-hard on Classic Nintendo Games Are NP-Hard · · Score: 1

    One situation where then "non-randomness" comes to mind is bowling games. Once you figure out the right settings (angle and speed, some of the fancy games let you choose ball weight and alley slickness too), you can pretty much score a perfect game every time by just repeating the same settings each frame.

  2. Re:Kid Icarus on Classic Nintendo Games Are NP-Hard · · Score: 1

    Battletoads was fairly well programmed by the folks at RARE. Some of the hit detection was off, but otherwise a decent game. I have read it was intentionally made hard to complete to encourage people to buy vs. renting the game. Another game that comes to mind that was well programmed and impossible to beat (mostly because it was long and lacked a save feature) is Blaster Master.

  3. Re:Don't stop there on For Windows 8 Users, Stardock Revives the Start Menu · · Score: 1

    I use it at work. nice little application. Of course if one is really pining for the classic Program Manager (why, I don't know), you can grab it (along with File Manager) from a Windows NT 4 install.

  4. Re:Intercity network connection back in 1983 on Why Didn't the Internet Take Off In 1983? · · Score: 1

    Local calls within 50 miles? Try less then 10 miles here in Northern NJ. The rate areas were ridiculously small compared to other parts of the country. Used to run into that problem with dialup all the time, The phone bill if you accidentally choose a number that would outside of your local rate area was pretty scary.

  5. Re:Ouch... Javascript is broken in a number of way on Khan Academy Chooses JavaScript As Intro Language · · Score: 1

    Pretty graphics? Isn't that one of the things that made LOGO attractive as a teaching language?

  6. Re:Copying on Microsoft Launches Windows 8 Consumer Preview · · Score: 2

    Wasn't all the changes to the file copying interface in Vista supposed to fix all that? Oh wait, it made it worse. It turn file copying into a twisted "choose your own adventure" game.

  7. Re:Rather something else on Remastered Star Trek: the Next Generation Blu-ray a Huge Leap Forward · · Score: 1

    Garek? How about Gul Dukat, hands down the best Trek villain ever. The Cardassians were one of the few aliens that Trek writers did any decent character development on. Heck, I think they did more character development for Garek and Dukat (both guest stars) then they did for all of the primary cast! (Sisko excluded)

  8. Re:Rather something else on Remastered Star Trek: the Next Generation Blu-ray a Huge Leap Forward · · Score: 1

    Voyager also suffered from a record amount of holodeck malfunctions.

  9. Re:That's the problem on Rearview Car Cameras Likely Mandated By 2014 · · Score: 1

    Instead of cameras, how about building cars people can see out of again? Backing up a "modern" car built in the past 5 years, vs one much older is a lot harder. Why? New cars have high beltlines with smaller windows. You can't see out the back of them anymore. You now have a huge blind spot in the rear of sedans where one didn't exist before, basically requiring a camera in order to safely back up. That and you can't comfortably put your arm out the window while driving.

  10. Re:Highway lights??? on UK To Dim Highway Lights To Save Money · · Score: 1

    Most states in the USA switched off the majority of their highway lighting back in the 1970s. Today the only areas lit are usually interchanges, most of which are lit by a few of those tall light towers since its more efficient then using dozens of traditional street lights.

  11. Re:Lies on YouTube Identifies Birdsong As Copyrighted Music · · Score: 1

    These are what I call copyright trolls. I had one of them claim a video I made as containing copyrighted content (look up "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" on Google). Except there was no music in the video at all, just me talking. The claim came in immediately after uploading, its quite obvious these shady organizations are using a bot and randomly tagging videos. I disputed the claim, and it immediately was removed with no dispute.

  12. Re:Won't someone think of the children? on NYC To Release Teacher Evaluation Data Over Union Protests · · Score: 1

    Used to never be like that. At one point in time, Momma would have knocked out his teeth for you.

  13. Re:Eh on Comparing Today's Computers To 1995's · · Score: 1

    The big thing in 1995 were computers that had the ability to play back QVGA (320x240) full motion MPEG-1 video without dropping frames. Also most new machines were 66Mhz or faster (133Mhz Pentium came out later in the year) and had 8-16MB of RAM. The killer app was still multimedia at the beginning of the year, changing to the internet towards the end.

  14. Re:Extreme means CABLE does not work on Almost a Million UK Homes Will Suffer 4G TV interference · · Score: 1

    I'm guessing, despite the lack of OTA TV service, the UK still requires folks in those areas to pay the TV licensing fee.

  15. Re:I dunno on Have Bad Cars Gone Extinct? · · Score: 1

    If its powered by the 4.0L six, the Jeep won't die. The rest of the truck will fall apart/rust however.

  16. Re:The Biggest Loss on Have Bad Cars Gone Extinct? · · Score: 1

    Shade Tree mechanics are still out there, except most of them have a laptop and cable to communicate with the car's onboard computer.

  17. Re:Probably because all the cars are the same... on Have Bad Cars Gone Extinct? · · Score: 1

    Jettas sold in Europe are built in Mexico too. Whats interesting is VW in Europe is considered reliable while its viewed as unreliable in the USA.

  18. Re:That's why I bought on Have Bad Cars Gone Extinct? · · Score: 1

    Actually its Bosch, Lucas' cousin that provides most of the electronics in VWs.

  19. Re:Apple was always ahead of its time... on With Push for OS X Focus, CUPS Printing May Suffer On Other Platforms · · Score: 1

    (BTW, Does anyone still make Winprinters? I haven't come across a new one in a long time.)

    They still make "dumb" printers (host machine handles rasterization of print jobs), but they generally have OS X and Linux drivers now. The only printers with actual CPUs and PCL/PS support nowadays are workgroup class and above.

  20. Re:Why are printer languages not unified? on With Push for OS X Focus, CUPS Printing May Suffer On Other Platforms · · Score: 1

    HP doesn't even license the official Adobe Postscript for most of their printers. They use PhoenixPage, a popular 3rd party implementation. The lack of PCL is to cut costs. Its cheaper to have the computer do the processing then in the printer like PCL5c/6 would require.

  21. putting in a eSATA port on their laptops would be nice too.

  22. Re:Free = no good on Security Tool HijackThis Goes Open Source · · Score: 1

    More likely he says that free stuff without vendor support is no good, and for most businesses he is right.

    It's not just about Vendor support; it's also about Tool capabilities, Tool quality, and meeting a business need. Businesses don't want to spend a lot of time manuallg "cleaning up" after malware infections; they want to prevent them.

    So whats the business need of Symantec's Endpoint Client? Malware steamrollers over it all the time, even with the latest definitions.

  23. Re:What I Want To Know... on An Early Look At Mac OS X 10.8 · · Score: 1

    when has SAMBA not been broken in OS X? Its one reason why ADmit Mac and DAVE still have a market.

  24. Re:Clutter futzing my interface, no thank you. on An Early Look At Mac OS X 10.8 · · Score: 1

    Did they ever improve that lousy program known as Finder? I haven't used a newer version of OS X then 10.5 to confirm. Apple will get props for "inventing" the notification bar, even though Windows has had a similar feature since 95. Apple used to use the bar on top for notification, it seems to have gone by the wayside since OS X came out.

  25. Re:Consoles are more often connected to a TV on An Early Look At Mac OS X 10.8 · · Score: 1

    I use my SNES controllers with one of those adapters. It has the right amount of buttons and isn't all that bulky.