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User: groke

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Comments · 73

  1. Funny math on Star Wars Sickout · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Using the numbers on the article, each of the 4.8 million employed people who will see the movie will play hooky for the full day.

    So, if I want to go to a 7pm showing, I'll be costing my company my time for the whole day?

    Something smells a little fishy..

  2. Re:Woo CSU! on Wind Power Falls Under $0.01/kwh · · Score: 1

    How big is your dorm room if you can fit more than one car in it?

  3. Re:Son of a... on iPod Generation 4 Released · · Score: 1

    of course, if it impossible to conserve power by using components with lower consumption, or setting up hardware low-power modes, etc, etc.

  4. Re:My personal itch as yet unscratched... on Jobs Previews Displays, Tiger at WWDC · · Score: 1

    sure there is... your idisk is simply a webdav site. OSX client ships with apache with mod_webdav. I haven't tried it, but you should be able to put an entry into your /etc/hosts, if nothing else

  5. Re:Quake on On The Quality Of Licensed Game Soundtracks · · Score: 1

    Sonic Mayhem did the Quake 2 soundtrack

  6. Re:Neilsen... on Gaming Communities Cause Of TV Ratings Decline? · · Score: 1

    I don't know where you got this from, but I can pretty much promise you that it isn't true. My roommates and I were a Nielson family for a while, and were told that they like to have people that don't watch much TV too, because otherwise their statistics are pretty useless.

    They did say that in the first week that we had the box, we needed to have the TV on for at least 30 minutes straight so they could make sure their box was working.

    I think during the entire time (about 6 months) that we had the box, the TV was on for about an hour without the DVD player running.

  7. Re:How Appropriate on TurboTax DRM Writes to Your Boot Sector?! · · Score: 0, Troll

    ... you fight like a cow

  8. Re:Hunh... on Father of Video Games turning 60 · · Score: 1

    *purchase* pr0n?

    who the fuck pays money for porn?

    you ever hear of the internet? they've got it free there.

  9. Re:Deus Ex on Infinite Games? · · Score: 1

    As I recall... he dies if you go out through the window. Otherwise he lives. Although I may be off in as that you need to "die" before he does... but since you don't really die, it's not that big a sacrifice :)

  10. Re:Only organs so far on Produce Organs...From Printer · · Score: 1

    Maybe once they print organs, they'll start working on printing orgasms?

    Skip the whole "girl" step. Much more efficient.

  11. Re:LOL! I have a nice **Fake**ID for ya on Congress To Consider Age Limits On Violent Games · · Score: 1

    I remember once upon a time, I went to buy Braveheart on DVD. I was 17 at the time, and the local Walmart had the lowest price. So I went in to buy it, and the lady at the counter asked to see some ID for the movie. I was annoyed.. but presented my license.

    The damn woman thought I had went out and bought a fake ID that said I was 17. 17. come on, if I'm gonna bother with a fake, don't you think I'll get something that I can at least buy cigs with? or porn? or booze? Or something more than damn rated R movies?

    This would be why I haven't been in a walmart since.

  12. Re:Pixar and plug-ins... on Trailer of Pixar Movie 'Finding Nemo' · · Score: 1

    not only is it a movie based on a stupid pun.. it's a SEQUEL to a movie based on a stupid pun. much much worse. :)

  13. Re:Interesting on Antimatter Space Drive · · Score: 1

    in the star trek next gen Technical Manual, a rather neat little paperback, antimatter was described in a footnote as being impossible to use transporters on, except in very very minute quantities (ie, femtograms). it was admitted this rule was made for dramatic effect :)

  14. Re:California Laws on California Bans Mobile Phone Spam · · Score: 1

    Verizon charges me 2 cents to receive a message, and 10 to send one. they also have "monthy plans" which are packages of 100 (send or receive) for $1.99 or something like that.

    I signed up about 3 months ago, some of their older calling plans may have included SMS-type service free of charge, but I don't know

  15. Re:Movies, too? on Spoofing P2P Networks as Marketing Plot · · Score: 5, Informative

    actually, the reason for these file sizes is that they're meant to be burnt as VCD -- video CD -- (or sometimes SVCD (the S is for super)).. said movie is most likely a VCD-compliant (happens to fit the bitrate and resolution requirements) MPEG-1. (S)VCDs are in mode II, which allows for about 740 meg on a 74-minute CD, and 800 meg on an 80 minute one. This is all spec-happy, and just about any recent burning software will be happy to burn said mpegs to VCD (I know Roxio EasyCD creator does (starting with version 5) and Nero, of course). The added space comes from less error-correction in the data tracks, so it's slightly less robust.. but it allows for more data to be burned.

    as a side note: almost all regular DVD players (you know, the ones for your TV) will play VCDs, some will play SVCDs (which are VCDs but with MPEG2 instead of MPEG1, and a bit more advanced menus possible). Some will play them off of CDRs, some not so much. visit http://www.vcdhelp.com for more information on players and how to make VCDs.

    And for the record, centropy tends to release pretty damn fine quality screeners. It's true that many suck, and they do make me want to wait for theater (or just until the DVD comes out, and then get a DVD rip :) ), and I won't discount the possibility that the studios play games with bad released from time to time.

    That is all, thank you for your time.

  16. Re:Open Source? More Like Openly Racist on Knuth: All Questions Answered · · Score: 0

    mmmmmm.... stale pizza.....

    besides, I've got character! hell, he's almost level 12!

  17. Re:Pay for the right to post anonymously on Announcing Slashdot Subscriptions · · Score: 1

    one of the things that make slashdot great is that the anonymous cowards truly are anonymous. I'm not sure where I saw this (I'm sure someone less lazy than I could find it in an instant), but I'm pretty sure that the system in place doesn't record, in any way, who posted something as anonymous. This allows for people to troll, sure.. but so what? It also allows for many insightful and interesting comments that people would otherwise be afraid to post.

    just my unimportant opinion, posted too late to be noticed.

  18. Re:A thought parodies were protected ? on 007 Dis(Gold)members Austin Powers · · Score: 3, Informative
    Weird Al certainly *can* release parodies without permission. From the FAQ at Weird Al's website:

    Does Al get permission to do his parodies?
    Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important for him to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.
    What do the original artists think of the parodies?
    Most artists are genuinely flattered and consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody their work. Some groups (including Nirvana) claim that they didn't realize that they had really "made it" until Weird Al did a parody of them!
    What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."
    That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. Al immediately sent Coolio a very sincere letter of apology for the misunderstanding, but has yet to hear back from him.
    Have any artists ever turned Al down for a parody?
    Even though most recording artists really do have a pretty good sense of humor, on a few very rare occasions Al has been denied permission to do a parody. Actually, the only artist to turn Al down consistently over the years has been... well, I would tell you, but my keyboard doesn't have that little "symbol thingy" on it.

    Additionally, he does need permission for songs like The Saga Begins, because the use of American Pie to parody Star Wars doesn't count like that.

  19. Re:Extra footage pros, cons on Info on the LOTR:FOTR DVD · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They do do this.. and there are several titles which do. It's called seamless branching. It replaces chapters between versions of a movie.. two that are on my shelf that use this are the Abyss and Terminator 2. I would suspect that the FotR DVD would use this technique.

  20. Re:Download address for the confused on Fast Alpha-Blending In Your GUI · · Score: 1

    I've been getting a 404 all day.. really pissing me off.

  21. Re:Terriorist ID's on McNealy Calls for National ID Card Too · · Score: 1

    In order to buy alcohol, you have to be of a certain age. To prove that, you may be asked to present a valid ID. An expired ID is not valid. The theory is that you could sell your old, expired ID to your little brother or sister or somebody that looked something like you, and then get a new one. They want to prevent that.

  22. Re:Spoiler-tastic on Star Trek: Enterprise Reactions? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    All I'm going to say about it was "okay for a pilot." Another poster mentioned that the Klingon appearance wasn't explained, merely brushed away for later. About the first contact though.. it has been hinted at that those bad guys are time travelish. Which would suggest they can play god with the ST universe, as this is different than what happened. Or something.

    Besides, there weren't any spoilers on the top page. Bad theme music, that somebody doesn't have a developed character, that they'd abuse the Vulcan/human relationship, that there was space combat, and they used a little skin to get their young male demographic to like the show. Are these things that you hadn't come to expect?

  23. Re:Telocity on Judge Sues ISP for Poor Service · · Score: 1
    I've had my own interesting experiences with telocity. The service itself is okay, although their mail servers suck (thus I do not use them). Unfortuantly, installation has never really been completed. Since October, when we finally got them to connect us, one of the extentions of a voice phone line (the one running with the DSL connection) has been broken. The guy they sent to wire the house broke it. Since then, I've called their tech support (which has been okay, although the wait time is unacceptable). I explain the problem, and sometimes am able to convince them that their (well, their contracted) tech broke it, and it is their responsibility, not the local phone company. The phone tech elevates the ticket, and the next guy appariently just pings my IP, sees that it works (ignoring the fact that the VOICE line is the problem), and closes the ticket. I've called them every month for 9 months now. Still unresolved.

    Of course, I can only complain so much, we haven't gotten into their billing computers, as we haven't yet received a bill. :)

  24. Re:CC = Proof of Age? on Yahoo! To Start Selling Porn · · Score: 1

    Now, I could be making this up, but I'm pretty sure that one of the results of the CDA fiasco was a ruling that a credit card was a valid proof of age.

  25. Re:What is the point? on FCC Lays Down the Law On Decency · · Score: 1

    Many libraries don't filter because of kids. I was actually reading the selection policy for the public library that I go to yesterday, and the explicitly say that the chance of a young'un being exposed was not grounds for deselecting a work. Now, of course they're not going to be carrying hardcore porn or anything, but still, I thought it was kinda cool.