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User: NotSoHeavyD3

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  1. Re:Why are you encouraging Spiegel ? on Finding a Personal Coding Trifecta · · Score: 1

    Not that I disagree with your opinion of this 'author', but I do recall the article from which this quote was taken, and my impression was somewhat different. What I think he is suggesting here is that the genius coder has chosen to write something in an obtuse-yet-better way; this seemingly magical code has since broken due to its over-dependance on a given set of conditions which have since changed, or it has since been maintained by mere mortals who did not grasp the complexity (or simplicity) of the solution -- not that anyone was planting bugs deliberately.

    I'll take a wild guess that the "genius" coder probably didn't help this out and of course didn't comment any of this since you know, that's what mere mortals do. (Ok, I've seen so many people refuse to comment non-obvious code that you have to think not commenting is the 0th law of software development or something.)

  2. Before anybody jumps to the conclusion on Girl Who Named Pluto, At 11, Dies At 90 · · Score: 2, Funny

    correlation does not imply causation, this is no proof that naming planets causes death. (Come on, someone had to say that, this is /.)

  3. Don't bet on it on IBM "Invents" 40-Minute Meetings · · Score: 1

    I mean our daily standup for scrums have gone from 15-minutes to 1/2 hr every day. (God how I hate scrum/agile development.)

  4. Considering how long on FDA Could Delay Adult Stem Cell Breakthroughs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering it took over a decade to go from the hypothesis of "bacteria cause peptic ulcers so lets use antibiotics" to it being standard practice why would anybody expect stem cells to appear with any speed at all. (I mean that example we're talking about giving people an already existing drug with already known properties in humans and it still took years. Stem cells will be MUCH slower to go from any discovery to actual treatment.)

  5. Re:Don't run -- treat it yourself. (PP & D) on New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh, that immune system going nuts thing is called a Cytokine Storm.(Although it sounds more like a video game I would have played as a kid.) More on that for anybody who cares http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm

  6. Re:Might and magic 3, or was it 4? or 5.. one of t on Strange Glitches In Games · · Score: 1

    Weird there was also another glitch in M&MII. Basically you go out of town and find that group of about 200+ trolls, goblins or whatever near the first town. When you fight them the first 10 or so are listed as individual enemies but the rest are one group. That "group" is considered by the game as an enemy that is worth a huge amount of experience, gives a huge amount of treasure, yet is extremely easy to kill. However since you can't target them they're normally impossible to hit.(Spells that hit "Everyone" miss the group and you can't select them as a target.) However there are also spells that can hit multiple enemies and also let you select which enemy to start with. (I think the spell I'm thinking of hits 4 people.) Anyway if you targeted the last guy in the list and the spell didn't kill him the next "guy" to be attacked was that huge group and the spell would pretty much kill the group. (Since as far as the game is concerned it's just another enemy with very low HP.) So I'd go do that fight pretty early in the game and afterwards my guys would be very powerful with all that experience, money, and equipment.

  7. Umm if they go out of their way to use metric on New Speed Record Set For Wind-Powered Vehicles · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't they use the metric unit of force for weight? (I mean give the weight in newtons, not kilograms. Yeah, I know just take KG and multiply by 9.8 to get newtons.)

  8. I look on the bright side on this on Huge Supernova Baffles Scientists · · Score: 1

    If they can go nova sooner that increases the chance I'll live long enough to see Betelguese go super nova and that would be spectacular.

  9. What about Rayleigh Criteria? on Amateur Astronomer Grabs Amazing ISS Picture · · Score: 4, Informative

    I mean I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting pretty close to that limit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_criterion#Explanation To make that short I kind of remember this from my physics class that ultimately the limit on being able to differentiate between 2 objects depends on the size of your main mirror/lens and the wavelength of light you use. (IE a bigger main mirror or shorter wave length of light means you can differentiate between closer and closer objects.) If I remember correctly I did the math and found out that you'd need a mirror about 250 meters across to resolve the landing site on the moon from an earth based telescope. (But I can't remember if that resolution was 1 meter or 30.)

  10. There's probably still some hold outs on Texas Vote May Challenge Teaching of Evolution · · Score: 1

    In the Vatican. I mean when I was growing up in the 70's our local priest pretty much would rip into anybody who said evolution was right and even then the Vatican was theoretically ok with it. (Of course he was the old "evil bastard" priest who was a counter point to the young "hippy" priest they had.) Yes, I made that mistake once. (But he was still a bastard.

  11. I'll be glad when they don't need all this cooling on Increase In Xbox 360 E74 Problems · · Score: 1

    I mean my NES, SNES, and Genesis all ran with AC adapters that put out I think under 10 watts. I wish they could get the systems back to that level of power usage so all these over-heating issues would go away.

  12. That's not exactly how I rationalized it. on Game Publishers Pressuring Sony For PS3 Price Cut · · Score: 1

    In my case I was getting a Blu-Ray player. I was also getting a replacement for my PS2 that worked in HD, had gigs of "memory card" space and controllers that couldn't lose the connection because the jack was dirty. Oh, and I was getting a next generation gaming system that probably wouldn't RRoD on me in a year.

  13. Since Cheating AI is so common on Believable Stupidity In Game AI · · Score: 1

    I propose a new name for it, RC or "Real Cheating"

  14. Arn't you confusing Khz and Kbit? on Young People Prefer "Sizzle Sounds" of MP3 Format · · Score: 1

    I mean when you say 192 and MP3 I think kbit/sec. I never heard of anyone sampling at a rate of 192khz. (A CD is sampled at 44100khz from what I remember which at 2 bytes per sample and left and right channels works out to 176400 bytes/sec or 1411 kbit/sec) I mean if I do the math out and use 192khz, 24bit samples (oh and figure that you're including both left and right channels in those numbers) I get a sample rate of 576kbyte/sec or 4608kbit/sec which is quite a bit higher than even an uncompressed CD.

  15. Funny, I thought Gottlieb invented on The First Phone Call Was 133 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    The pinball machine and Q-Bert. Now you tell me he invented the car too?

  16. Don't forget the inventor the clinical thermometer on The First Phone Call Was 133 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    He certainly had the right name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Allbutt

  17. But they'll just take it the wrong way on US Forgets How To Make Trident Missiles · · Score: 1

    I mean here we have a bunch of people who are rocket scientists (ok missiles) and nuclear physcists and they don't document and comment. The lesson they'll probably take out of it looking at those guys is "Hey, not only is it ok not to document but if they're not doing it that must mean it's actually a great idea."

  18. Re:Just around the corner... on Advance In Making Stem Cells From Skin · · Score: 2, Informative

    You have to remember one simple rule of thumb when you read these stories. Pretty much they'll always say "It's at least 10 years away" which is pretty much code for "I have no clue when this is coming." So the next time you read anything and you see "10 years" the guy is basically saying "I don't know."

  19. Don't forget about SN_1987 on Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Yet Detected · · Score: 1

    Basically this wikipedia article talks about a specific instance of using geometry to figure out how far a supernova was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A#SN1987A_distance_and_the_speed_of_light

  20. I can think of another major use on Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces · · Score: 1

    That'd be helping a husband keep a straight face when his wife asks "Does this make me look fat?"

  21. Oh it's worse than that on Court Rules Autism Not Caused By Childhood Vaccine · · Score: 1

    Rubella has pretty much been eliminated from the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella#Prevention Of course with idiots like this it'll come back unfortunately.(Just damn sad that if they kept up the vaccine for a little while longer then nobody would need it.)

  22. Just be careful when you talk about this on New Success For Brain-Controlled Prosthetic Arm · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now guys, just be careful not to mention that eventually this brain controlled arm could be used to masturbate or wield a gun since that would get the pubs and dems to cut funding respectively.:-)

  23. Hell, they kind of already do this on Sacrificing Accuracy For Speed and Efficiency In Processors · · Score: 1

    I mean a float isn't an exact number. (Actually they have that concept in the hard sciences as well called significant figures. To give an analogy that's based on a joke if a museum guard started working in a science museum 15 years ago and there was a fossil there that was 80 million years old when he started the fossil is not 80,000,015 years old.)

  24. Re:Except of course it isn't REALLY that simple... on Scientists Create Compound With a Single Element · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh no doubt of course. I mean they teach you that in chem 101 and that reaction go in one direction for example. Then in chem 102 they start teaching you about how the reactions actually go in 2 direction and don't really stop but hit equalibrium. Of course in orgo they start telling you how what they originally showed to you a compound with distinct single and double bounds really isn't like that and it's sort of a mixed bond. (I mean benzene for example. The first version they might show you has alternating single and double bonds. In reality all the bonds are of the same length and the bonds are actually an intermediary between single and double bonds.) Oh well, just more having fun with chemistry.

  25. Re:I don't understand on Scientists Create Compound With a Single Element · · Score: 5, Informative

    Basically an ionic compound is formed when one part has a whole positive charge and another has a whole number negative charge. So table salt consists of Sodium Chloride or a Sodium that has a +1 electric charge and a Chlorine with a -1 charge. (Opp attract so they stick.) However O2 isn't held together because one oxygen atom has one charge and the other doesn't. Instead they form a covalent bond which is basically the 2 oxygen atoms share electrons and that's what makes them stick to each other.