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User: CyrusOmega

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  1. They'll be missed on Ubisoft Says No More Game Manuals · · Score: 1

    I might be among the few but I really enjoy a good quality hard-copy of a manual. It's one reason I buy a game rather than just download it. And lets face it, sometimes a flip through a book is just easier than poking through a poorly made in-game help system.

  2. Re:Oh well on NY Times To Charge For Online Content · · Score: 1

    As much as we don't like paying for content, someone has to pay for for the journalist to do their job. If that can be done through ad money, great. These big mega news corps have found that putting content online ain't cheap. Adding any channel costs money and if the ROI isn't there the channel dies.

    I would be interested in the number of *journalists* the sites above have employed. Some do I am sure, but news usually has to bubble up to these purely online news sites which usually comes from places like the NYT (think slashdot).

    I'm not saying money can't be made via free online content, but having close ties to the news world, I can say with confidence that they are hurting. It's an industry shift that started with the Internet and will continue until most content is purely online. How much will this content cost? I have no idea, but someone will pay for it.

  3. Re:Bible Code? on 8% of Your DNA Comes From a Virus · · Score: 1

    Isn't it also possible that viruses come from 8% of our DNA rather than contributing to it? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus#Origins "Cellular origin hypothesis" sub section...

  4. Re:Does Google give coade back on How Google Uses Linux · · Score: 3, Informative

    A lot of companies will also use a single employee for all of their commits too. I know the company I used to work for made one man look like a code factory to a certain open source project, but, in fact, it was a team of 20 or so devs behind him doing the real work.

  5. Re:ASCIIMathML on How To Enter Equations Quickly In Class? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wow, never thought I would see that again. I actually used this for a web site in high school several years ago and it did very well. I am actually the one that ended up making the little logo that's at the bottom of that page so I could advertise it on our site in the "powered by/this-site-uses" section. Don't go bashing my artistic abilities from the 9th grade :)

  6. Time to learn... on Can We Build a Human Brain Into a Microchip? · · Score: 1

    Building the structure of the brain is vastly different from the uses of the brain. The human brain develops over time in ways that would be very difficult to reproduce. That, mixed with the fact that learning takes place during this development makes the puzzle even more difficult. Remember too, that it takes our brains 10+ years, at the earliest, to produce thought patterns complex enough to solve modestly difficult logic problems (and in some cases it never happens). So, if man managed to build a brain like structure, we would probably spend several years just training it.

  7. Re:Code::Blocks on What Free IDE Do You Use? · · Score: 1

    I use Code::Blocks quit a bit on Linux and Windows and love it. Just don't get the "stable" package and opt for compiling it from svn or grabbing a nightly build from the forum since the official package builds are years behind the trunk (or was last time I checked).

  8. Re:about:buildconfig on Firefox Faster In Wine Than Native · · Score: 2, Funny

    I am no expert here, but when I look at this I don't see any -Ox and I am pretty sure the default is -O0...

  9. *Could* just be random data? on UK Court Rejects Encryption Key Disclosure Defense · · Score: 1

    Most encrypted data looks random right? How is one to know if the data is a meaningful arrangements of bits hidden behind a key? I am thinking in terms of truecrypt where you don't even know if the file is a truecrypt file or not without poking it with the correct password first.

    So *my* defense would be to be silent about the file(s) in the first place (since that seems to be an option in this case). If they can't tell it's even encrypted then they certainly can't accuse me of not handing over a key.

  10. Re:Short summary isn't always good on How Mobile Phones Work Behind the Scenes · · Score: 1

    Actually the site came up fine and I didn't notice any ads. Furthermore the content was non-trivially interesting

    For example (2) isn't just distance but also signaling competition with other phones in the area.

    The writer expands (3) to the include technical issues as well.

  11. Re:Call me when it's reliable on Replacing Fiber With 10 Gigabit/Second Wireless · · Score: 1

    That would be great until in came a bad storm. Wonder what heavy snow would do to line of sight connections...

  12. Re:Who profits? Peek at the Terms of Service on Google To Fund Ideas That Will Change the World · · Score: 3, Informative

    Replying to self, this is bad but I also just found this http://www.project10tothe100.com/faq.html...

    "Q: What do I get if my idea is chosen? A: You get good karma and the satisfaction of knowing that your idea might truly help a lot of people."

    Doesn't sound like profit is the name of the game here.

  13. Re:Who profits? Peek at the Terms of Service on Google To Fund Ideas That Will Change the World · · Score: 2, Informative

    From http://www.project10tothe100.com/tos.html

    "As between you and Google, you retain ownership of any intellectual and industrial property rights (including moral rights) you have in and to your submission."

    It would seem that the creator of the idea *may* profit.

  14. DeadMini? on Fast-Booting Text-Editor Operating System? · · Score: 1

    I haven't personally tried it but from this about DeadMini http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/DeadMini-11601.shtml might have something you can use...

    "The main advantage is that it boots anywhere - wherever you can stick the files, use something like syslinux or isolinux to make it boot - and of course make bios boot the medium - it will boot without a trouble. This is because the whole system (currently 5MB, including booting overhead) is copied in RAM without the need to seek the source device. It also boots very fast - minimal bootup time is about 3s (further testing will be done)."

  15. TD Ameritrade has API on Trading the Markets With FOSS Software? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I use TD Ameritrade's API (and really nice Java based real-time market tool) which has everything I need for gathering data. Beyond running some perl scripts on the data to generate some basic statistical plots for gnuplot I don't use many other tools. I found that most success in the markets isn't how well you read the past but rather how well you understand the present and can forecast reasonable risk/reward actions.

    I know I don't actually mention any FOSS solutions but as a mostly FOSS user this is how I trade.

  16. *could* this affect Phoenix? on Phoenix Lander Photographs Martian Whirlwinds · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder what would happen if one of these little devils ran over the lander!?

  17. Limited right now? on A Hardware Mashup Device Running Linux · · Score: 3, Informative

    When looking at http://buglabs.net/products it would seem that there are only 4 modules right now and they aren't cheap (at least for what you *can* get then for). I can see where this might be good for a very simple classroom style project, but not much more.

    Also, hasn't this already be on Slashdot?

  18. Where does "law" fit into this? on CC Companies Scotch Mythbusters Show On RFID Security · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Alright, showing my ignorance of our legal system here, but where does law fit in here? I don't see how the DC could get sued over this info. I *do* see the issue of ticking off their sponsors, but why are the lawyers involved?

    Let's hope they don't run a segment on how bad fast food is for you any time soon...

  19. Re:More for less is an easy sale... on SSD Won't Make Sense In Laptops For Two Years · · Score: 1

    The noise factor alone *could* sell SSD far better than most think. I know at my place of work, drive space isn't a big deal but having 15 different hard-drives rattling on during a meeting can get quite annoying, especially if a meeting runs till noon when everyone's laptop starts doing the "mandatory" virus scan.

  20. Re:Moore-Otsuka-Helkenberg prime number sieve on 45th Known Mersenne Prime Found? · · Score: 1

    I actually do think the end runtime will be O(n). The lg was a slip, should have been ln. I was trying to show that it will grow exponentially by the base of n.

    That aside, I can assure you this will not be faster than the MQS. There is nothing magical with base 10 when it comes to factoring. Integer bases are equvilant in meaning in factoring. That is, if you do something in base 10 you should be able to re-write it in base 2 and see no logical difference.

    If you rewrite this to base 2 you will see that it is a simple decision tree that has 2^lg(n)-4 choices to make (correct use of lg here and yes I know it simplifies). If I could see ANY semi-prime greater than say 2^64 factored faster than the QS I might be more interested.

    Finally, I not going to claim this is fact, but I am pretty sure it is proven that factoring in lg n time is impossible. Though there are still many runtimes slower than lg n that are still exciting.

  21. Detecting WIMPs? on New Map From Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakly_interacting_massive_particle

    "Because they [WIMPs] do not interact with electromagnetism they cannot be seen directly"

    and

    "As more and more WIMPs thermalize inside the Sun, they begin to annihilate with each other, forming a variety of particles including high-energy neutrinos.[1] These neutrinos may then travel to the Earth to be detected in one of the many neutrino telescopes, such as the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan"

    It would seem impossible to actually "detect" WIMPs, but rather their possible effects which is also dependent on the mass of the Higgs boson particle. Maybe I am missing something?

  22. Re:Moore-Otsuka-Helkenberg prime number sieve on 45th Known Mersenne Prime Found? · · Score: 1

    Your algorithm also has a decision tree problem. In your paper you show that for RSA-100 you have 3 choices for the first digit which makes the runtime on par with O(exp(lg n)) since you will find that you have on average 3 choices per digit. Since you can't prune any branches until you are *way* down the tree the runtime is going to be too large. Though proving a number to be prime and factoring a semi prime are loosely related this has little to do with TFA so I digress.