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User: Hadlock

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Comments · 4,653

  1. Re:The end of an era. on John Carmack Leaves id Software · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pretty much every year at Quakecon, JC spoke about how he hated getting bogged down with business details and wanted to get back to working on low level hardware/software, decreasing latency etc. i.e. he had gotten way too high level for his liking and all of his projects were tinkering R&D type stuff - he seems to have always shrugged off management roles that were cast upon him. He complained one year that iD Software and Rage had torn him too far from Armadillo Aerospace and (commentating here) the company had sort of flatlined without him as a constant presence there.
     
    Wouldn't shock me to see him do a new start up company in the mobile games space and re-invest himself in Armadillo Aerospace again. iD software obviously had long been somewhere where he no longer fit in.

  2. Re:Booze Bus on Texas Drivers Stopped At Roadblock, Asked For Saliva, Blood · · Score: 4, Funny

    I get all my legal advice from anonymous strangers on the internet.

  3. * of Death meme on Blue Light of Death Plagues PlayStation 4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Where did this start? On Windows it was obviously the "Blue Screen of Death", Zip Drives had the "Click of Death". Did this phrase have any widespread use before Microsoft/IBM? Wikipedia points to OS/2 as the original BSoD monkier, but I'm wondering if it has roots that go back further than the late 1980s/early 90s.

  4. Re:New possibilities on Solid Concepts Manufactures First 3D-Printed Metal Pistol · · Score: 1

    They specified in their press release that parts would have a 5 day lead time.

  5. Re:What's the point? on Nintendo Announces $99 Wii Mini For US Release · · Score: 1

    More importantly, it doesn't have internet access, which blows my mind. Why include Mario Kart Wii when you can't do internet play with it? In 2013? Are they serious?

  6. Re:Did he buy the mirror, or make it? on Cold War Spoils: Amateur Builds Telescope With 70-Inch Lens · · Score: 2

    If you stick a 900 lb piece of glass on top of a rumbling shaking rocket and expose it to 5Gs of acceleration, rapid heating and cooling cycles etc, you probably don't want a chip in the glass where forces can propagate a crack. It's easier to make a new one rather than wait for it to fail in space.
     
    For something that will only see occasional use with slow temperature changes it's ideal for a "low cost" telescope. It will still fail eventually, but it won't shatter in orbit while imaging a North Korean missile base (or whatever).

  7. Re:Or maybe the young folks just hate meetings? on 20-Somethings Think It's OK To Text and Answer Calls In Business Meetings · · Score: 1

    Generally I have noticed (in IT meetings) people will show up for the first 10 minutes, start checking email on their blackberry, then leave if they aren't truly needed. If you stick around for 30 minutes and aren't needed, you're wasting everyone's time by sticking around. Sales or other types of meetings might be different where it's largely a motivational speech.

  8. Re:Fast shiny expensive thin computer is fast on Apple 27-inch iMac With Intel's Haswell Inside Tested · · Score: 1

    I don't really care what resolution it's at; unless you write code or do print design work there's little advantage for the average user above 1080p*. It's pretty blatantly obvious that this device is marketed towards people who want shiny, fast high end stuff. Other than a single programmer in the UK, I don't know anyone who's bought a large format iMac in years, and he bought it primarily for the "shiny, fast, high end stuff" card, along with his vintage land rover. This device doesn't really bring anything to the table (no pun intended) for the average user.
     
    Would you have prefered I said "halo product is halo product"?
     
    *yes I totally did pull the "1080p is high enough resolution for anyone card, and I'd do it again

  9. Fast shiny expensive thin computer is fast on Apple 27-inch iMac With Intel's Haswell Inside Tested · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    News at 11.
     
    Seriously how is this news?

  10. Re:OMG enough on The Linux Backdoor Attempt of 2003 · · Score: 1

    I would probably be more apt to name the Chinese or the Russians before the NSA, after all, the Chinese have a decent financial stake in linux development, and have had for some time. Red Flag Linux (est. Jan 2000) has it's roots in Chinese state-funded computer science.

  11. Re:An open system on Valve Announces Hardware Beta Test For 'Steam Machine' · · Score: 1

    I own some 300 games through Steam, most of which I either bought in a bundle outside of steam, or during a steam sale, I am in no rush to run out and play GTA V, I still need to get through GTA1-4 + San Andreas, Fallout 3, New Vegas and whatever else I bought for under $9.99. Plus in a year or two the new games will run better on my (finally) upgraded equipment.

  12. Re:Oh yea, it's fantastic on Come Try Out Slashdot's New Design (In Beta) · · Score: 2

    I asked for strikeout text support. Someone from Slashdot actually replied and said it would make it in to the next release. That was three years ago...

  13. Re:They've got a good shot at it on Valve Announces Steambox, Sort Of · · Score: 2

    If Valve managed to talk Rockstar in to developing a linux/steambox edition of GTA V, that alone would cement them as a Real Console manufacturer. GTA V PC is supposed to launch around the same time as the Steam Box is. Just sayin'...

  14. Re:Yeah right on Wi-Fi Sniffing Lets Researchers Build Graph of Offline Social Networks · · Score: 1

    You can pry my AIM Screenname created in 1995 from my cold, cramped and carpal tunnel syndrome'd hands.

  15. Re:Seriously? Spaceplanes are a dead-end technolog on DARPA Launches Military Spaceplane Project · · Score: 1

    No, the problem is that the shuttle weighed almost a quarter million pounds dry. That is a quarter million pounds of lost launch capacity. Look at the tiny tin cans that the ISS is made of, all glued together. SkyLab had the same internal volume as the entire ISS put together, and it went up on a single rocket. That is the kind of inefficencies you see when you put things up piecemeal with a reusable orbiter instead of a dedicated rocket.

  16. Seriously? Spaceplanes are a dead-end technology on DARPA Launches Military Spaceplane Project · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The US Space Shuttle and USSR Buran proved conclusively that resusable spaceplanes are hugely wasteful. The only way the X-37B (the current "shuttle") could be considered successful is that it spends more time in the air than on the ground, since it's up for about 6-18 months at a time.
     
    Spaceplane mass is wasted mass that can't be used for payload mass. Launch electronics are cheap these days, I am honestly very curious what good a reusable spaceplane provides over existing expendable rockets. As Tsotha mentioned the Falcon 9 will be fully reusable in 4-5 years if everything goes according to plan. Spaceplanes are hugely wasteful, even if they aren't manned.

  17. Re:For those of you that don't RTFA... on TSA Reminds You Not To Travel With Hand Grenades · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Plane hijackings and bombings are so notable because they're so exceedingly rare. I think in the entire history of flight the total number of documented cases is under 100. Worldwide.
     
    Hyping up a climate of fear over something that's less than a rounding error isn't productive, but I congratulate you on your patriotism.

  18. Re:Now.. on Intel's Haswell Chips Pushing Windows RT Into Oblivion · · Score: 1

    There's already an experimental branch of VirtualBox for android (on x86 processors). It's not unfathomable that you could run an XP VM on your x86 (probably Atom) powered tablet, pause and resume as needed due to battery life.

  19. Re:Why is this even on Slashdot? on British TV Show 'Blackout' Triggers Online LOLs · · Score: 1

    DHS and FEMA are doing a drill in the middle of november regarding this exact subject. I think it's called Grid-X2 or something like that. They are not actually switching anything off though, it's just a glorified conference call.
     
    There were some panic articles last month about FEMA ordering a bunch of food, medicine and ammo in preparation for the drill due on Oct 1st.

  20. Re:Sorry.. on Xbox One Set To Launch On November 22 · · Score: 1

    I guess that just goes to show that Sony is more in tune with how draconian DRM is perceived in the marketplace? The fact at stake here is that Sony acknowledged it and acted on it, while Microsoft didn't think the market cared enough to leverage consumer consideration to push their platform in the lead. Microsoft may have adopted a more consumer friendly stance on paper, but the management hasn't suddenly been switched out with gamer DRM hippies. Those PHB types are still making decisions at microsoft...

  21. Re:Sorry.. on Xbox One Set To Launch On November 22 · · Score: 3, Informative

    PS4 has less DRM and Sony is decidedly less hostile towards their customers. Microsoft had to be cowed in to eating their own words and finally reversing fully on a lot of anti-consumer policies. Vote with your dollars, get the same (basic) product, everybody wins!

  22. Re:Another marginal perf iteration of Core on Intel Launches Core I7-4960X Flagship CPU · · Score: 1

    And yet nobody is buying AMD products in the desktop or server space. AMD has consistently been below 10% for over a decade I believe.
     
    Price/performance doesn't matter a whole lot when the difference in price on the chips is less than $100. If you're buying i3/i5/i7-class chips you're already looking at real world performance rather than budget.

  23. Re:Pot calling kettle black on Online Law Banning Discussion of Current Affairs Comes Into Force In Vietnam · · Score: 1

    They're only upset about this because the NSA didn't think of it first. Second, if you aren't discussing current events, how are they going to track citizens for abnormal opinions and mark them for additional surveillance?

  24. Battery drivers on LG Reportedly Working On a Firefox OS Phone · · Score: 1

    While they're at it, tell LG to make some battery drivers that aren't completely terrible. Like, 10 seconds worth of effort. The Nexus 4, a google flagship phone should not have these problems, yet LG apparently can't write battery drivers worth a damn. Glad to hear the Nexus 5 won't be made by LG.

  25. Re:Not at their grocery prices on Amazon Angling For Same-Day Delivery Beyond Groceries · · Score: 1

    Because convenience. Every two months Amazon ships me my two cases of tea and clif bars, and a case of paper towels and a bottle of dish soap. I don't even have to think about it, and it's just a line item in my budget.