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User: Wraithlyn

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  1. Re:It's mere gas on Monster Hypergiant Star Discovered · · Score: 2

    Jupiter is not thought to be composed of any significant amount of rock. Last I heard it doesn't even have a solid surface.

    Thought by whom? Heard from where? An Anonymous Coward on a random discussion board?

    "The core is often described as rocky, but its detailed composition is unknown, as are the properties of materials at the temperatures and pressures of those depths (see below). In 1997, the existence of the core was suggested by gravitational measurements,[31] indicating a mass of from 12 to 45 times the Earth's mass or roughly 4%–14% of the total mass of Jupiter.[30][33] The presence of a core during at least part of Jupiter's history is suggested by models of planetary formation involving initial formation of a rocky or icy core that is massive enough to collect its bulk of hydrogen and helium from the protosolar nebula."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J...

  2. Not in 3D, jackass on Zero Point: The First 360-Degree Movie Made For the Oculus Rift · · Score: 1

    Being in a big round room with screens all around you is not at all the same thing as stereoscopic VR.

  3. Re:Work on the basics on Ask Slashdot: It's 2014 -- Which New Technologies Should I Learn? · · Score: 1

    Well they do overlap for the first 128 characters... so all UTF-8, by definition, "uses ASCII".

    I frequently see stuff that has been encoded to UTF-8 *twice*. This results in all special (ie, multibyte) characters turning to gibberish. Running UTF8->Latin1 will convert it back to proper UTF-8.

    WTF-8 is a great name for this phenomenon though, totally going to use that. :)

  4. Re:Nintendo is the last company that understands c on How Can Nintendo Recover? · · Score: 1

    Ah Red Fang... great band.

  5. Re:And? on Microsoft Paying for Positive Xbox One Coverage on YouTube · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're right that the headline overstates things, but on the flip side, this isn't a court of law. We are entitled to educated guesses as to where such a "positive endorsement clause" most likely originated from.

    If YOUR guess is, "I bet Machinima did that by themselves", my opinion is that you're fucking naive. I could be wrong of course.

    Have a nice day.

  6. Re:sscutchen on HP Brings Back Windows 7 'By Popular Demand' As Buyers Shun Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    The ribbon was introduced in Office 2007, which was first released in Nov 2006.

    Not even the original iPhone was out (or even announced) yet, much less tablets. Touchscreen devices at the time (PalmPilot, etc) used styluses, not "fat fingers".

    So no, they most certainly did not introduce the ribbon as something optimized for touchscreens. The marketing hype at the time hailed it as "more discoverable" than the previous system of nested menus and unlabelled toolbar icons.

  7. Re:Yup, and it doesn't matter. on Google: Our Robot Cars Are Better Drivers Than You · · Score: 1

    I can imagine how this went about a century ago...

    Your assertion that automobiles will take over fails to take into account one of the major reasons we have such a large horse industry - people like to ride horses. They like to buy new horses, take care of old horses, and do stupid tricks with horses. At most, an automobile would be a convenience feature for the daily commute, but so long as people get an adrenaline rush when they ride horses at a full gallop, this will not change.

  8. Re:Correlation, causation etc. on Probe of Einstein's Brain Reveals Clues To His Genius · · Score: 1

    Certainly another possibility. Emphasis on "may have" in my original post. :)

  9. Re:Yet Another Einstein Article on Probe of Einstein's Brain Reveals Clues To His Genius · · Score: 1

    Probably this one?

    “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein.

    But you know, his subjectively modest opinion of his own relative intelligence, doesn't disprove that his brain had unusual features which may have provided certain advantages. Saying "anybody who works hard and has a good sense of curiosity has the potential to be an Einstein" is a nice thought, but that doesn't actually make it true.

  10. Re:How robust is Twitter on Twitter Launches Emergency Alerts · · Score: 1

    Good question. This is where trends actually become useful. During the height of the flooding, we had four topics trending on the top 10.. #yycflood, #abflood, Calgary, and Alberta.

    I "manned" #yycflood and #abflood long into the night, passing along important information and answering any questions I saw anyone asking (eg "Is the tapwater safe to drink?" was a continually asked question, and monitored situation, all night). It was an absolute lifeline of information.

    Calgary Police were incredibly responsive on it as well which was amazing to see. Somebody asks a question and everybody can see the answer. And our kickass Mayor Nenshi (who was a rockstar before, but is now a deity) was tweeting status updates from a helicopter. After he was awake for 43 hours straight, #nap4nenshi started trending. He complied. How's that for community feedback? :)

    You're correct of course about it being primarily useful as a self-organizing tool, requiring a functioning internet to work, but I will dispute you on one point there; it's not (necessarily) the first thing to go down. Tons of people from areas with power outages were still using their cells to communicate. But then again, I suppose it depends on the particulars of your cell provider's infrastructure.

  11. Re:Your Fingerprint isn't ever stored in flash on German Data Protection Expert Warns Against Using iPhone5S Fingerprint Function · · Score: 1

    That's why I started my post with "In theory".

  12. Re:How robust is Twitter on Twitter Launches Emergency Alerts · · Score: 1

    Ditto for the recent floods in Calgary, Twitter was an absolute godsend. I felt like I had never really USED Twitter before that day.

    Obviously you're only going to get so much from your personal feed, but just hop on a popular hashtag for a major event and suddenly you're reading 1000s of people describing conditions in real-time around the city. Just incredible. Checking the mainstream news was an afterthought... a formality. Twitter was moving 100x faster (it helped that the police and mayor were using it heavily).

    In fact the police used it so heavily that their account was blocked temporarily. Funnily enough at the time, one thing we were thinking was how useful it would be if Twitter actually had formal support for emergency communications.

  13. Re:No PC yet on GTA V Makes $800 Million In 24 Hours · · Score: 1

    GTA4 was buggy as shit when it first came out on PC. Seriously, probably the buggiest AAA title I've even seen.

    So no, I don't think the delay is (primarily, anyway) to make it "refined and bug free"... it's because it's so much easier to pirate on PC, ergo a simultaneous release would hurt console sales.

    Simply stated, X number of people would download the Skidrow crack instead of rushing out to buy the XBOX or PS version, where X is some value greater than zero.

  14. Re:The short version... on Ars Technica Reviews iOS 7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh yes. Your poor, poor karma. Because Slashdot adores Apple and hates Android. What a brave, bold stance you have taken.

    Are you fucking high? Or just playing the old cliched "I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but..." karma whoring trick?

  15. Re:Your Fingerprint isn't ever stored in flash on German Data Protection Expert Warns Against Using iPhone5S Fingerprint Function · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In theory, yes.

    From what I understand, The secure region of the A7 chip that the fingerprint profile is stored on has a WRITE function, and an AUTHENTICATE function. There is no READ function.

    So yeah... because it is protected like this at the hardware level, you're not getting that information out again, period (short of physically breaking into the NVRAM with some sort of forensics tech).

  16. Re:Wrong Question on Can the iPhone Popularize Fingerprint Readers? · · Score: 1

    So that makes this exactly the same?

    As numerous people have pointed out, ATRIX used an optical scanner, on the back of the phone, that you had to swipe across with your finger.

    As opposed to a capacitance scanner, built right into the home button, that you don't need to swipe, just touch like you always do.

    Night and day.

  17. Re:Simple hack - use a 3D printer on Can the iPhone Popularize Fingerprint Readers? · · Score: 1

    Nope.

    Apple's scanner measures capacitance, not optics. So you need to precisely mimic the electrical conductivity signature, not just the physical structure.

    Should be interesting to see how easy/hard it is to fake out.

  18. Re:NSA on Can the iPhone Popularize Fingerprint Readers? · · Score: 1

    The only valid concern is whether or not someone can take an existing copy of your fingerprint and gain access to the device.

    Considering the fingerprint scanner on the new iPhone uses capacitance (ie, minute differences in electrical conductivity) instead of optical imaging, it will be very interesting to see how "hackable" this is.

    I don't have many devices lying around that can simulate the electrical conductivity signature of a fingerprint, do you?

    Of course it's technically possible, but the chicken littles running around squawking about how easy it will be to fake this out are pretty hilarious.

  19. Re:I wish them godspeed on New, Canon-Faithful Star Trek Series Is In Pre-Production · · Score: 1

    Why must we continue to flog dead horses?

    Says the guy flogging George Lucas in his signature? ;)

  20. Re:What makes him think this can be done? on Elon Musk's 'Hyperloop': More Details Revealed · · Score: 1

    Did you just seriously compare your six year-old's daydreaming, to a 57-page proposal document written by the guy behind SpaceX and Tesla?

    Maybe if you actually read the aforementioned paper, you'd have a fucking clue about "why he thinks this can be done", instead of asininely comparing it to "dreaming".

  21. Re:Absolutely Nothing on MIT Project Reveals What PRISM Knows About You · · Score: 2

    trying to separately store and analyze each separate event takes vastly more resources than doing periodic static analysis of the contents of your email folder

    Scanning the 10,000 pieces of email in my inbox, over and over again, is more efficient than tracking each individual piece as it comes in? That doesn't really follow.

  22. Re:Hooray! on BBC Gives Up On 3-D Television Programming · · Score: 1

    Hugo is, without a doubt, the finest use of 3D film (as an actual ART form) yet. Scorcese masterfully uses 3D as a new composition plane... a new form of texture to each and every shot.

  23. Re:I would use Gnome 3 instead on Android On the Desktop · · Score: 2

    Since Office only runs on Windows

    Er.. what? Office runs on Mac too.

  24. Re:Bad science on Death of Trees Correlated With Human Cardiovascular & Respiratory Disease · · Score: 2

    It takes a special kind of arrogance to assume these scientists (including the ones that peer reviewed the work for publication) aren't aware that "correlation doesn't prove causation". I mean seriously? You really think nobody thought of this incredibly obvious fact you're pointing out? You think the "after accounting for all variables" right there in the summary, means absolutely nothing at all?

    As others (like Baloroth below) have pointed out, you clearly HAVEN'T "taken a good look" at the study, and the things they DID control for. Or in other words... you started with a conclusion of your own ("this study is BS"), and didn't even BOTHER looking for supporting facts.

    to start with a conclusion and work his way back to find supporting facts

    He started with a HYPOTHESIS, and established a method to test it. An intelligent critique of his specific methodology and control factors would require you to actually read the study. But knee-jerk reactions sure are more fun, aren't they?

    When you've identified actual factors he hasn't controlled for that might explain the correlation, perhaps you can submit your own paper. I'll be right here holding my breath.

  25. Re:Microsoft and gaming on Can Microsoft Survive If Windows Doesn't Dominate? · · Score: 1

    First of all, that's not even close to what you said. You said (emphasis yours) "MSDOS machines were pretty much only good for Doom". Now it's "ohh... what I REALLY meant was that other gaming platforms were more popular than PCs". Um, DUH. But that's not what you said.

    Second, your new argument doesn't hold water either. Off the top of my head...

    Civilization, Sim City, Command & Conquer, Warcraft I & II, Ultima, Commander Keen series, Duke Nukem series, King's Quest series, Space Quest series, Wolfenstein, Test Drive series, Master of Orion, X-Wing/Tie Fighter series, the early Wing Commander games, Maniac Mansion/Day of the Tentacle/Monkey Island/other Lucasarts titles, Prince of Persia...

    Yeah, just a gigantic pile of "irrelevant edge-cases" there that nobody played on PC. Sorry, but you're on crack.