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User: Hadlock

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  1. Re:SSL hardware acceleration? on Facebook Switching To HTTPS By Default · · Score: 4, Informative

    Crystal Forest is supposed to have SSL acceleration built in. Ivy Bridge (2012) has AES acceleration built in on midrange i5s and up, and I think AES was supported by some processors as early as Sandy Bridge (2011). Crystal Forest is a platform rather than microarchitecture, and I'm not sure exactly when it will be released.

  2. Re:If he is so confident in his innocence on John McAfee Launches Blog, Offers $25K Reward For "Real Killers" · · Score: 1

    That, of course, presumes he's actually being falsely accused.

    Innocent until proven guilty. That is, here in the states anyways. Besides the philosophical reasoning behind that statement, it gives the accused a proper fighting chance. People who are guilty tend to be very exceedingly guilty; there are very few violent criminal cases where someone was only marginally or technically guilty, and in that case we err on the side of "beyond a reasonable doubt". Removing someone's freedom without erring on the side of caution sets a poor precedent for us all.

  3. Re:But how does it sound? on GIF Becomes Word of the Year 2012 · · Score: 1

    Cue the gibs vs jibs Quake/John Carmack pronunciation argument from 1996

  4. Betting on hurricanes on Legalizing Online Futures Betting · · Score: 1

    There's been an ongoing doctoral study in (at?) the University of Miami for about a decade now, it's a futures market where you can buy and sell futures of whether or not the hurricane will hit a particular region. I think it's still going on, but the idea was to see if the free market could accurately predict weather phenomenon among other things.

  5. Re:Not according to my British friends. on Wayback Machine Trumps FOI Tribunal · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's a cultural thing, but everyone I know here in America lets phone calls go to VM if it's not from a number they recognize. Even more so if they have google voice because then you don't even have to listen to it.

  6. Re:So? on Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive · · Score: 1

    I'm sure the new Xbox 720 that's coming in fall/winter/xmas 2013 will have a bunch of "hot new titles" which will end up with PC ports... Borderlands 3, Skyrim 2, Quake 5, Halo 5, Gotham Racing 9 etc etc which will all require DX 11.1a because that's what will be the native environment for the Xbox 720 dev kits. The 360 will forever support DX9 which is largely why PCs weren't affected by DX10 etc due to the huge number of console ports. Once DX11 is enshrined as the new console standard, there'll be a bigger rush for computer owners to be in compliance so that they can play the latest and greatest games.

  7. Re:Standard Operating Procedure on Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive · · Score: 1

    Yes, I pointed out in the very first sentence of the post you replied to that this is what they did with Vista.
     
    -1, low content
    -1, redundant

  8. Re:I still can't tell the difference betwen DX9 an on Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive · · Score: 2

    And yet in your example, the developers still felt the need to clearly label in ALL CAPS which one was which.

  9. Re:I still can't tell the difference betwen DX9 an on Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive · · Score: 1

    EA and Activision both predate Quake 1 by a number of years. It's not as if the game industry popped up overnight and delivered us the Xbox 360 and PS3, followed shortly by lolcats and image macros on Reddit. Fallout 3 is not built on a new IP, nor is Quake 4 or Skyrim for that matter. John Carmack was making smart commentary about the gaming industry in his .plan files almost two decades ago.
     
    I see that you're trying to make a point... but I think you need to reach back about ten years prior to the era you're thinking of.

  10. I still can't tell the difference betwen DX9 and10 on Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Supposedly the big draw for Vista was the coming of DX10 and all that entailed. Side by side comparisons of DX9 vs DX10 were so minor the magazines (yes, those still existed in 2006) had to draw red circles around the detail, they made wireframe renders of DiRT so you could see all the extra triangles in the flags and water... that you couldn't see without the help, along with paragraphs explaining how what you couldn't see was so high tech.
     
    I certainly can't tell the difference between DX10 and DX11, and 11.1a has got to be so minor as to be ignored by developers -- why would you want to alienate your customer base like that? Like microsoft, they're in the business to make money too. Whatever gains were had with the tessellation improvements in DX10 were offset by the improvements in technology; it's just too hard to tell the difference between DX versions these days.
     
    Has rendering technology finally matured?

  11. Re:Free speech is for useful speech. on Man Arrested For Photo of Burning Poppy On Facebook · · Score: 2

    Slippery Slope Argument.
     
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

  12. Re:NIce on Neil deGrasse Tyson Pinpoints Superman's Home Star System · · Score: 1

    Science Stars are better than NASA's current PR strategy. Go watch SpaceX coverage of a rocket launch, then go watch NASA's coverage some time. Night and day.

  13. Re:As a classic car enthusiast... on Massachusetts "Right To Repair" Initiative On Ballot, May Override Compromise · · Score: 2

    Antique vehicles start at 1982 here in Texas (30 years). Cadillacs already had electronic diagnostic software by then (starting in 1979, I think). EFI on other GM vehicles wasn't far behind after the gas crisis. The venerable BMW E30 has had it's computer well mapped, but it's very primitive compared to what is going in to cars now. A ten year old 750i is only worth about $1200, nobody is going to pay a BMW dealership at dealership rates to diagnose it in twenty more years.

  14. Compared to Intel's offerings, how do these compar on AMD Launches Piledriver-Based 12 and 16-Core Opteron 6300 Family · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not even sure how you could post a story about AMD, what with it's recent decline this entire last decade, and not directly compare them to intel.
     
    Are these even desktop or server chips? It's been so long since I bought AMD, I really couldn't tell you which line Piledriver sits in anymore, or if they've consolidated them.
     
    The general gist I've read is that AMD is cheaper than Intel, and in the past has been "more green" due to power consumption, but with Ivy Bridge, your bang for the buck and much, much smaller lithography process has given intel the advantage in both areas.

  15. Re:Did I miss something? on Boeing 787 Makes US Debut · · Score: 1

    Alternately, a visual inspection is impossible to see any cracks except those on the surface (without specialized x-ray equipment). Second, these are giant parts that must be baked at high temperatures. While I'm sure they're quite good at it, the total number of commercial jetliners flying around using this technology is under a thousand - problems in the construction can crop up over time. As I said, this is the first model. I'm sure the second, and particularly third family of jets will be particularly safe and well designed - for exactly the reasons you pointed out.

  16. Re:Did I miss something? on Boeing 787 Makes US Debut · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ah, Anonymous Coward, we meet again! This is where I link to two very amusing CF stress test videos
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xreZdUBqpJs
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjId0-K-Ts
     
    Hooray for science and/or standardized testing based on Real Science.
     
    On that first video, skip ahead to the 5 minute mark where they're just beating the frame against a concrete wall/corner.

  17. Re:Did I miss something? on Boeing 787 Makes US Debut · · Score: 3, Interesting

    First American carrier to use an american-built plane made mostly of composite materials.
     
    Don't get me wrong, Carbon Fiber is absurdly strong, and computer models help negate design flaws.... but CF's failure mode tends to be sudden and...explosive. Steel bends long before it breaks, and Aluminum is somewhere in the middle, but CF just.... goes when it fails. I think Airbus has been including CF on their tail fins for a while (with some failures) and the technology is supposedly mature... but it's hard to ignore Aluminum's nearly 100 year reputation. Maybe I'm just getting old.

  18. Re:Editor Fail on Most US Drones Still Beam Video Unencrypted · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    We got a Glenn Beck link earlier today in the form of a voting machine calibration story. This does not bode well for Slashdot. Either that, or they've been hacked, and they haven't been able to tell anyone yet. I'm not sure which has happened.
     
    When they start linking to dodgy russian warez sites, it'll become more obvious who's in control of the site.

  19. Re:Rat bait stations on Ask Slashdot: Little Boxes Around the Edge of the Data Center? · · Score: 1

    What is it rats eat at a data center? Outside of the fishbowl there shouldn't be any water or food (except maybe for the cardboard boxes and packing peanuts servers come in)

  20. Collapse? on Nexus 7 and Android Convertibles Drive Massive Asus Profit · · Score: 1

    Really? The PC market has collapsed? They haven't started handing out iPads at work, and I don't know of a store that will sell you microsoft office to load on your iPad. At worst, I would call it a "Gradual tapering off of the incredible growth over the last twenty five years". iPad growth has exploded, but I have yet to see any numbers that show PCs actually decline in double digit numbers. The worst I've seen has been 4% year over year... which is about how the economy is doing depending on how you look at the numbers.

  21. Re:Huh? on Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm, Star Wars Episode 7 Due In 2015 · · Score: 1

    Goofy is the only mainline disney character tall enough to pull off Vader (and probably Chewbacca)

  22. Re:Ocean Air - Corrosive? on Steve Jobs' Yacht Revealed · · Score: 2

    I'm sure there's triple redundant navigation systems onboard. While the custom iMac thing is flashy, a backup Garmin or similar commercial system is only going to add $40-60,000 to the cost of the boat. The bridge (as well as the rest of the boat) is likely climate controlled (my friend's $15,000 sailboat is, at least) and corrosion is going to be pretty minimal over the 20 year lifespan of this boat (megayachts seem to have a pretty short lifespan for whatever reason; styles change).

  23. Re:18 day mission? on Dragon Capsule Heads Home From ISS · · Score: 1

    [blockquote]So they still had people on board the ISS operating the Canadarm. Where did you get the impression that the undocking was automated?[/blockquote]My source comes from the SpaceX employee who was narrating the live video feed of the automated undocking. They may have pushed the actual button for the final detach, but the process of moving the five ton spacecraft to it's final release location was automated. Astronauts were on hand to make sure nothing went awry.

  24. Re:18 day mission? on Dragon Capsule Heads Home From ISS · · Score: 2

    Astronauts regularly claim unused cargo containers as private bedrooms. Apparently they're the quietest parts of the station by a wide margin (cooling the ISS is a noisy job, apparently) and thus make sleeping a lot easier.
     
    The Soyuz is a better option as a lifeboat (That's what it's designed to do) but you'll note today the undocking was completely automated. Eventually these will carry humans and possibly will carry the last humans off the space station when they deorbit the ISS in 10-20 years.
     
    Finally, there's a Soyuz craft that will be docking there at the end of the month, so they need to clear the spot in time to avoid a delay in Russia's launch schedule.

  25. Re: loss of focus on Dragon Capsule Heads Home From ISS · · Score: 2

    Wind back the clock about two decades. Congress killed the highly successful NERVA engine in the early/mid 70's because it was way too successful and had they let the project finish we would have been going to mars in another ten years, which was way too expensive at the time after the Apollo program.