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User: Dr.+Spork

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  1. Re:Thats...thats just great on Kerry Film Free To Download · · Score: 1

    OK, exactly you need to watch the movie. I'm uploading it at full bandwidth on through eMule as are many others, apparently, so it should come in fast. If you see in an come back and say "But really, who cares?" I'll be impressed.

  2. Re:You know what would make a good movie? on Kerry Film Free To Download · · Score: 1

    No, he said "insurgents and terrorists". In F911, it looked like they were just shooting arbitrarily. Also worth seeing, but for a very different reason. We don't yet have the technology to detect evil before we fire bullets and bombs, and a lot of our faith that we are killing and maiming "insurgents and terrorists" is blind faith. That's also why it's hard to make what was described into a movie. A film of a human tragedy where innocent people are mass-murdered would look about the same to the camera as a movie of "American soldiers gunning down and blowing up Iraqi insurgents and terrorists".

  3. Re:Other political information movies: on Kerry Film Free To Download · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OK, Japan and Germany had an alliance; you couldn't just fight one of the allies. The analogy might hold if the regime in Iraq had any connection with the attackers of 9/11. But there wasn't any connection. Even Cheney admitted that on Tuesday, and he was the last holdout to do so. Bush and Rummsfeld admitted this many months ago. Now the American people need to catch up. (The rest of the world doesn't seem to be having trouble seeing the former Iraqi government as being totally distinct from Al Quaeda, as they are. In fact, they were enemies; Saddam hated Islamicists more than he hated the Bushes!)

  4. Re:Bittorrent and eDonkey/eMule links for the lazy on Kerry Film Free To Download · · Score: 1
    OK, I can't get that .torrent to start downloading, but my DL on eMule is well over 100Kbps, so no big problem. This is a great way for Kerry supporters (and neutral people) with decent connections to help people learn more about Kerry. Let's show some community spirit like we're supposed to!

    BTW, this is not a propaganda movie. In fact, it has no narration from what I understand. It's just swiftboat footage from the 60's, much of which involves Kerry. The filmmaker is the same guy who made Pumping Iron with Arnie; it's not some hack. I heard from people who saw a theater preview that it was incredibly moving and worth seeing for the uninterpreted visuals alone.

  5. Re:should read "Alternatives to..." on Redmondmag on Dumping IE · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While you're at it, install adblock and upload your list of blocked strings, and install mouse gestures so they work when middle-clicking. Noobs might not ever use it, but then again, they might, and find themselves puzzled how they could ever have used IE. These are features that I can't browse without once I got used to them, which was very fast.

  6. Re:This is a good thing on Europeans To Monitor American Voters · · Score: 1

    Good point.

  7. Re:Wine is a godsend....but..... on Interview - Jim White of the Darwine project · · Score: 1
    Yeah, sure, the bottleneck of the whole project may be Wine itself. I think that's what the guy said in the interview: several years before DarWINE works right, but maybe only one year before it runs apps as well as WINE on Linux. If this is so, there will be many very excited mac fans in about a year, because WINE works pretty well now, and in a year it will be even better. If DarWINE can smooth out the PPC backend for WINE by then, many people will find the result useful.

    The point is that the structure of DarWINE allows for the best intergration of non-native apps and the best performance, almost near-native in some cases. And DarWINE will more than double the potential userbase of WINE code. I think this is a big deal, and if in a year it could be running as well as WINE on Linux, that would make switching to Apple much easier for many Windows users.

  8. Re:Well... on Bypassing Intel's Overclock Limit Reveals DDR2-667 · · Score: 1

    Of course, there could be other motivations. The DDR2 available now is not being made in the mass production lines; it's still mainly samples for benchmarkers and other testing. When full scale production ramps up, the controls will (at first) probably be less reliable than they are now. Also, if I made hardware, I'd send the stuff that specced best to the benchmarkers, instead of sending them a representative sample. So real production DDR2 might not be able to take the same beating this "for benchmarks" stuff can take. Then again, it might, but playing it safe might not necessarily involve deliberate deception on Intel's part. It might just be based on ignorance of how the mass production silicon will pan out, plus aversion to DDR2 getting a bad reputation before most people get to try it.

  9. Firefox people should consider default extensions. on Building a Better Mozilla With Plugins · · Score: 1

    Shipping the best extensions by default is something Firefox should seriously consider doing. Of course they would be optional, but the install wouldn't be that much harder if there were a screen that lets you select Adblock, Gestures, and some of the other super-extensions. The ones you select would download and install automatically with the browser install. Most people trying out Firefox aren't even aware of what extensions can do for them, and featuring them prominently (and with good descriptions) would really improve that. I find that most people don't refuse small program bonuses if they sound halfway useful. Also, once a few extensions are installed, I think that would encourage the typical user to seek out more, and then they're hooked!

  10. How to manipulate nanotubes? on GE Claims Ten-Atom Wide Nanotube · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The article mentioned it would be hard to build anything out of these... I can just imagine! Also, there was no mention of how long these thing are. We are a long time from being able to assemble anything useful from these things.

  11. Re:Beggars and Choosers on Moore Approves Fahrenheit 9/11 Downloads · · Score: 1

    Agreed! And maybe if you see a bootleg and realize it's an important and patriotic piece of work, you will go see it in the theater/buy the DVD because now you are prepared to make that statement.

  12. Re:More interested in 32kbps speech on Dial-Up Audio Public Listening Test Opened · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, I think that if it's not as universally compatible as mp3, it's worthless for my purposes. If speex at 32kbps sounds as clear as a properly optimized mp3 at 48 kbps, I'd take the mp3 anyday! A project like mine would be doomed from day one if it used any file that didn't play in ipods, dvd players, and mp3-aware car cd players. I'd much rather see the speex developers take the lessons they learned and modify the LAME codebase to improve mp3 quality.

  13. Re:More interested in 32kbps speech on Dial-Up Audio Public Listening Test Opened · · Score: 1

    Nooo! On the tradeoff between quality and compatibility, I'll take compatibility any day. Lame is already good enough to be useful. Students load their assignments in their ipods, on CDs they play back in MP3-aware cd-players (or dvd players), and a million other things. For any audio book project, it's mp3 or nuthing. I'd be stupid to use anything else.

  14. Re:Beggars and Choosers on Moore Approves Fahrenheit 9/11 Downloads · · Score: 1

    Don't forget that there is a political statement in going to see this movie in the theater and letting your $8 contribute to the earnings records of the movie. It's a pretty strong message that more people are seeing this than the Hollywood films whose production costs are far higher. It's because the theaters are full that the media is taking the movie seriously (which is good for it, and for the country). Yeah, I know, it's a stupid standard for what's worth taking seriously, but we have to pick our battles, and this year, the battle we must win is to get back the control of our government.

  15. Re:Not a documentary on Moore Approves Fahrenheit 9/11 Downloads · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Saying it's not a documentary does not make its content false. Not if you say it a thousand times or more.

  16. More interested in 32kbps speech on Dial-Up Audio Public Listening Test Opened · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I am in the process of starting a project which needs accurate speech encoding at 32kbps. For now we're going with LAME at --alt-preset -b 32 -a --resample 22 --lowpass 6 -Z based on informal tests we did (ideas also came from here), but I'd love to see something more formal.

    Notice all the different non-standard switches I had to use, which together help noticably. That's the sort of stuff you need to do to LAME before it produces acceptable results at very low bitrates. It is optimized only for 44.1KHz, so we should keep that in mind when we see the results. Notice now that none of these switches are being used for this test, so I'm almost certain that LAME will come out looking much worse than it is.

    I would love for there to be a LAME-based encoder that is optimized for speech, low bitrates and sample rates. If it is made, I am prepared to re-encode all the readings that are (and are about to be) posted on my site.

  17. So Firefox is gonna change the plugin API again? on New Alliance Hopes To Standardize Web Plug-Ins · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Grr! The transition from Firefox 0.8 to 0.9 was a big pain, as you had to wait for all the extensions to get repackaged before you could upgrade. It was a pretty big headache, because it wasn't clearly marked what works with 0.9 and what doesn't.

    On the other hand, I expect that plugins will get even better once they have an audience beyond the standard Mozilla browsers. And I'm happy they're leaving out Microsoft. Let's finally put to rest that tired Internet Explorer!

  18. Re:Adblock... on Firefox 0.9.1 and Thunderbird 0.7.1 Released · · Score: 1

    I think that there should be a screen of the installation wizard that lets you choose certain certified and great extensions at install time just by clicking checkboxes. Adblock would certainly be one of these, as would mouse gestures and several others. That would not compromise the sleekness and bareness of the browser, but it definitely would give new users a much less intimidating way to install the stuff that makes Firefox such a great browser.

  19. Re:Truth? on Fahrenheit 9/11 Discussion · · Score: 1
    Will you stupid pieces of shit just shut the fuck up about the tie? Don't you see how fucking stupid you are? He had other footage between the two segments of the two speeches, and made no implication they came from the same speech. But suppose that, for the benefit of mentally "slow" people like you, Moore added a little voiceover that said

    "And just three days earlier, Heston said:"

    Wow, that would have totally removed all impact from the Bowling for Columbine movie. Yeah, people were moved by it only because of the villanous "tie deception", and once it's uncovered that some time passed between Heston's sentences (none of which he took back), the movie's whole argument falls apart.

    Is that what you think you fucking pinhead? I bet you do. Go sterilize yourself.

  20. Re:no time travel on Official Firefly Movie Web Site Launched · · Score: 1
    Good, relevant points, all of them...

    I would add to the comment about other planets having an earth-like atmospheres: In Firefly, the explanation is that the planets are terraformed (in a process that's not explained). So they didn't begin with a breathable atmosphere, presumably.

    Of course, one may wonder why the surely immense cost of terraforming would be justified if the planets were subsequently used only for primitive and impoverished sharecropping. I bet that would have been answered in Season 2. Damn you again, Fox!

  21. Re:Moving parts are soooo 2000 on MRAM Inches Towards Prime Time · · Score: 1

    I used to think this until I bought lots of ram for my computer. Now the disk hardly does anything except load programs into memory, which doesn't happen that often. To me it seems the real challenge is to write software that intelligently predicts what data on the disk you might need to read next, and intelligently loads it into memory before you actually need it. There are some games that make me wait while the next level is being read from disk. But I have enough ram so that if it was loaded earlier when the disk was idle, it wouldn't have interfered with anything. As crazy amounts of ram become more common, this sort of background pre-loading will become a normal thing, and you'll hardly notice the slowness of the disk. For example, a 4Gig video game will fit into the memory in an average new computer of 2007. Sure, it may take a while, so that's why you start with the stuff you'll need first. The big bottleneck in a high-ram computer with proper software will again be the cpu, gpu and bus.

  22. Re:Moving parts are soooo 2000 on MRAM Inches Towards Prime Time · · Score: 1

    You're so 1337! This is the place for you, buddy. I can't believe you don't have an account yet!

  23. Re:no time travel on Official Firefly Movie Web Site Launched · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, City on the Edge of Forever was cool. I took the original poster to be complaining about the new Enterprise stuff, not the classics

  24. Re:Why not? on Linux in Iraq · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Gee, that all sounds pretty, well, weak - but a million times better than what they actually told us, which was that Saddam was connected to 9-11, posed an imminent threat, and has large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

    As to your very weak points, though they are much more reasonable than the justification Bush gave, they have serious problems. The first one is an outright lie unless you mean something very special by "security concern." Could you name three military dictators (out of dozens) who are a smaller security concern than a Saddam with unimpeded weapons inspectors crawling around every Iraqi warehouse? As we now see, he was completely disarmed, unless you happen to walk into RPG range of his people, which we stupidly did, and now we're dying.

    Your second point is silly, because it suggests that we have an obligation to blow up anyone who violates the letter of some international agreement. But that's stupid, because we'd be equally obligated to bomb Israel, North Korea, China and a bunch of other places (including probably ourselves). To attack someone you need a further reason, otherwise, all of these other countries would have to be bombed. And I'm still looking for a good further reason.

    Your third point reveals your ignorance about the secular nature of Saddam's government. Yes, he hated the USA, and according to documents he flirted with the idea of collaborating with Islamic extremists, but then completely rejected it, because he hates them more than the Americans (that might have changed since his capture). To speculate that he might colaborate with them is no reason to kill people, but apart from that, the speculation is based on complete bullshit. There is a far higher chance of fundamentalist Christian terrorists based in the USA cooperating with Al Quaeda than there is with Saddam ever doing so. And much more danger, btw, because these home-grown fundamentalists don't have to enter our country at an airport, and nobody looks at them with suspicion when they rent big trucks and buy lots of guns and fertilizer.

    It's not because people are naturally prone to conspiracy theories that makes them think Bush is in Iraq to fill the wallets of his buddies, and for the political capital of calling himself a "wartime president". The reason why so many people think these are the reasons is because they realize there are no good reasons for this war to have been fought. Oh, and don't give me that "geopolitical" crap as a reason. The only geopolitical upshot of this is that we've made ourselves look like assholes and when we travel, waiters spit in our food. That, and Al Quaeda recruitment is through the roof, the Dollar is in the crapper, gas is expensive, we have the worst debt in world history, and foreign governments who support us are getting replaced by those who won't lift a finger to help us secure our country, making us far less safe. So I take it back, there are geopolitical implications of this war. Sorry, you're quite wrong to be an apologist for it.

  25. Re:no time travel on Official Firefly Movie Web Site Launched · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is actually possible to make good time travel stories. I just read an amazing one in Axiomatic by Greg Egan. Others, like 12 Monkeys and Heinlein's "All You Zombies" are at also entertaining and well-conceived. What ruins Star Trek is just bad writing, not time travel per se. Read this paper if you're really interested in the conceptual issues in Time Travel. It will make you hate that cheapo Star Trek crap even more, because you'll realize exactly why that "second time 'round" crap they always pull with time travel is completely incoherent.