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User: bytestorm

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Comments · 128

  1. Re:Need to model science after sports. on Why Do So Many College Science Majors Drop Out? · · Score: 1

    "Normal" people don't care about science beyond what it can do for them. Sports/Football is about entertaining people. Entertainment is a marketable good that brings in money to the programs. If you can make science competitive and thus entertaining to adults, you'll be closer to making this model work.

  2. Make them give it back? on NASA To Continue Funding Canceled Ares Project Until March · · Score: 1

    Since they know the program is cancelled, I hope they're not actually spending any of that money continuing the project. Can the government request for/force them to pay the money back?

  3. Can refuse service for any reason on How Hulu, NBC, and Other Sites Block Google TV · · Score: 1

    Businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. I don't see how a website refusing service is any different.

  4. She puts it on your phone, you put it on hers... on Google Bans Sale of Android Spying App · · Score: 1

    Pretty soon, you've got thousands of spam SMS messages from each other at 10 ct/each and you're both to blame.

  5. Re:Smart Move? on Google Sues US Gov't For Only Considering Microsoft · · Score: 5, Informative

    A plaintiff company Onix apparently does have a GSA Schedule 70 and provides solutions based on google docs. Since they (google) are not providing the service directly, however, they shouldn't need one. According to the complaint, the companies have been courting this since june 2009, so there was plenty of time to get one if they needed it. The deal is that when the RFQ went out, it was specifically worded such that google docs were not a usable cloud platform, even though google docs is FISMA certified, which was the DOI's primary complaint to them in the first place (or so they claim in the filing).

  6. Re:Ok, so google buys up oracle stock .. on Oracle Claims Google 'Directly Copied' Our Java Code · · Score: 1

    The actual number for google's assets on hand as of 9/30 is 39.4B, which is much much less than the 146B market cap for oracle.

  7. Dopamine receptor DRD4, 7R variant on Researchers Find a 'Liberal Gene' · · Score: 1

    I was curious as to what this gene actually did.

    This article says it's the 7R variant, which is tends to cause a "novelty seeking" personality type.
    Here's the wikipedia article on DRD4

  8. Replace tinfoil hats on Inside a Full-Body-Scanning X-Ray Van · · Score: 1

    ... With tinfoil clothing? (or substitute your favorite x-ray opaque material)

  9. Re:Not equal on StarCraft AI Competition Results · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ideally, you can watch your opponents prior matches and tailor your strategy to defeating him. A computer might have a harder time doing that, but a person would be able to recognize the weaknesses of a strategy on the spot. Starcraft is very much rock-paper-scissors.

  10. Technique already in use in radar systems on High-Tech Microphone Picks Voices From a Crowd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a cool application of a well used technique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array

  11. Re:Yes, learn to grow up folks on Lighthearted Facebook Friends Could Make You Join NAMBLA Group · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The tool should allow me to disable tagging of me by others in groups, pictures, notes, thus becoming more versatile, allowing me to also communicate with acquaintances and the general public with tiered levels of access.

  12. Re:Killer feature. on Dual-Core CPU Opens Door To 1080p On Smartphones · · Score: 1

    Power usage has always been a function of frequency squared. n*A*x will pretty much always beat A*(n*x)^2. To see advantages from your statement though, we would have to make current chips dual core with half the frequency. You won't get energy savings from adding an additional core at the same clock frequency.

  13. Not as useful as you'd think for the same reasons on Canon Unveils 120-Megapixel Camera Sensor · · Score: 1

    What you suggest has the same problems this high pixel density sensor has. The physics of optics require a large area to get high performance out of those megapixels or else diffraction comes in to play and a given input pixel will get mixed up with all of the pixels around it on the sensor. On a small device like a phone or ipod, you don't get a lot of sensor area due to the size limitations of the device so this problem comes into play much earlier. This is part of the reason why you don't see more than a few megapixels on embedded devices.

  14. Re:$170 on PS3 Hacked via USB Dongle · · Score: 1

    It's actually ~150 USD, and includes a 10% tax that out-of-country purchasers do not have to pay, however once you add shipping on, it'll probably be a bit more.

  15. Re:the command line on Open Source Transcription Software? · · Score: 1

    left arrow is 5 sec by default, iirc. This page from the manual will let you set the seek to whatever you want. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/control.html

  16. Re:Pillars on StarCraft II Cost $100 Million To Develop · · Score: 1

    You're on to something here. I figure it's something like...
    1. Pride (Starcraft)
    2. Greed (WoW)
    3. Gluttony (Blizzard's "secret new MMO")
    4. Lust (Diablo)
    5. Sloth (Bungie IP [unnannounced])
    6. Envy (Guitar Hero)
    7. Wrath (Call of Duty)

  17. Re:Look for the upside on NASA Ends Plan To Put Man Back On Moon · · Score: 1

    People can't legally stop paying social security if they want to keep their rights. I would gladly withhold my SS payments and invest that same amount in my own future (securities, retirement funds, etc) if I could.

  18. Re:The bottom line is... on Spanish Judges Liken File Sharing To Lending Books · · Score: 1

    At 1 EUR per episode, do you think you can find 300K people (assuming 250k production, localization, distribution & maintenance costs per episode) who would buy each one to cover costs then make some profit on top? That seems like a lot of people for what strikes me as a niche market. I guess it'd work for your big market segment shows like naruto or code geass, but people who don't like that genre would be screwed.

  19. Re:I do not get it... on The iPad As In-Car Entertainment System Killer · · Score: 1

    Not just kids, this is how I get when you take away my /.

  20. Re:The Final Cut on Life Recorder · · Score: 1

    Comes complete with a real-life blooper reel!

  21. Re:Wikipedia proposes deletion of Go! page on Google Under Fire For Calling Their Language "Go" · · Score: 1

    Given that the article was created 2009-11-11, I'd guess that the language only came to light because of the naming controversy surrounding it, and the deletion because it is a "non-notable language" seems justified. (Anecdotally: I'd never heard of it, and neither had any of my developer co-workers)

  22. Great news! Now they just need to fix... on Palm Frees Up webOS Development · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...framebuffer support. Seriously, there's only so much you can do when all you get is a javascript engine and html for your UI elements. I love my Pre as a phone, but the environment doesn't suit my developer needs.

  23. Re:Application signing on Nokia Leaks Phone With Full GNU/Linux Distribution · · Score: 1

    Previous releases of the Maemo OS have not required any kind of application signing. That said, it's possible they added it to the new device, but I think it's extremely unlikely.

  24. Re:You know what company is shamefully absent? on The Myth of the Isolated Kernel Hacker · · Score: 1

    Google is on the list, on table 9, (page 12) contributing 1,261 changes, which is approximately 0.9% of the total, ranked 18th among contributing companies.

  25. Re:Of course the price will drop on White Knight Two Unveiled · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's just the deposit price; full ticket price is still 200,000.