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User: Defenestrar

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  1. Re:Price and glasses, most likely on Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling · · Score: 1

    Hey, thanks for checking out the options for me :) I had glanced at Newegg, but didn't spend too much time looking since I didn't see any really high pixel density displays (what I miss about the CRT was the actual physical resolution). This cinematic display only has a resolution of about 109 pixels per inch (109ppi = (2560^2+1440^2)^(1/2) / 27"). I think I remember CRT's pushing 200 ppi for the higher-mid ranged models).

    So while this display might work for viewing the image, I've only got about 20" of horizontal desk space in that lab next to the microscope.

    I guess my point is that nobody is making LCDs with the pixel density of what the high end CRTs used to be able to do. Pixel density is true resolution (pixels per sq. area) - so just making a bigger screen to get in more displayed pixels is IMHO cheating when you call it increased resolution. Not that I wouldn't mind large displays at work, there just isn't space. It sounds like device manufacturers (phones, cameras, etc...) are working on 300 to 400 pixel per inch displays - they've even been out since '07, but it's not moving up to the computer monitor level yet (aside: Apple's was late to the party this time with their '10 iPhone 326 ppi "retina" display, Toshiba had a 313 ppi phone in '07 ).

  2. Re:I Can Only Hope This Keeps Fumbling on Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling · · Score: 1

    Make sure you don't miss Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect. All are pretty cheap on Steam. I tend to play the ~2 year old strategy myself. And Nethack.

    The other option is the new cheap games still in development like Minecraft.

  3. Re:Price and glasses, most likely on Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The disappearance of CRTs is a real shame because there's nothing else out there (that I'm aware of) which offered really high resolution options. I do some imaging in one of my labs where I'd love to see the whole picture (>2500 pixels wide) at once (so I can observe patterns) without having to reduce image size (which might cause me to miss some of the artifacts I'm looking for). While I know current LCD is heading toward the 2500 pixel width mark, I don't want to have to use a 35" display to do so.

  4. Re:I know why.. lack of standardization on Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or perhaps because it's not really worth the sticker shock for all 4 movies out there you want to watch in 3D. Wait - let me correct that. Don't want to pay the sticker shock price for a 2D stereoscopic projection.

    Heck - I'm not even willing to pay that percentage of my annual income for a regular HD TV. Then again, I have different hobbies and fairly limited free time, so I probably don't spend more than two hours a week in front of a TV. So my comments should be taken with a whole spoon of salt since this I'm not the targeted demographic.

    Slightly off topic, but where do they get off calling something HD (both regular 2D and 2D stereo) that computer monitors in the early 90's were doing in a fraction of the physical viewing space?

  5. Re:Or... on FCC Will Tackle Cell Phone 'Bill Shock' · · Score: 1

    Or we could go in and bust the industry wide open with anti-trust, price-fixing, and gouging charges.

    Typical rate is $0.20 per message (sometimes $0.10) without a plan. Unlimited plans range from $5 to $15.

    SMS is sized at 1120 bits (# chars is fixed at your bitdepth of character system - 160 for 7 bit and 140 for 8 bit)

    8 bits per byte, 1024 bytes per kilobyte, and 1024 kilobytes per megabyte means there are 8388608 bits per MB

    So 8388608/1120 = 7489.828571 SMS per MB

    That means SMS bandwidth is charged at $1497.97 per MB (sometimes $748.99 per mB)

    Not such a good deal, eh?

    Not even fair or competitive with voice rates either I'd bet - and it's transmitted in a previously unused portion of the communication trunk - so effectively free bandwidth for the providers (not free equipment).

    So get an unlimited plan they say - lets look at that

    For an easy round number we'll pick 1000 messages a month (I know a teen who topped 7500 - but he's an exception). 1000 is a nice number for whatever later transformations we want to do anyway.

    1000 messages = 1120000 bits or 0.133514 MB (1120000 b = 140000 B = 136.718 kB = 0.133514 MB).

    So middle of the road unlimited plan: $10. For our example that's only $74.90 per MB! What a deal!!!

    So with the above math I don't even understand how iTunes can sell a MP3 (3-5 MB) for $0.99 to an iPhone over the same cellular system used to transmit SMS - the wireless providers must be hemorrhaging money if SMS bandwidth costs are representative of a reasonable profit margin in a competitive free market.

    I wish I had an estimate of the total data sent between Earth and the Mars Rover - it would be interesting to divide the cost of the mission by the data value to get it's price per MB.

  6. Re:Journalistic Integrity on Erasing Objects From Video In Real Time · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ed Murrow was a journalist who practiced integrity. There, I did it again. So what was supposed to happen? Perhaps I should be taken in front of a special committee hunting for non-American behavior. Except wait - they disbanded that one after some punk journalist risked his career and took out McCarthy.

    I actually think this is a pretty neat idea. I think the thing which concerns me is that, given the current state of affairs, the public will have even less reason to trust the press. If the public does not believe that the press maintains journalistic integrity we effectively lose the First Amendment check on government that a Free Press provides.

    For example: if I think News Co. X [NCX] is actually an agent of political party A, and News Co. Y [NCY] an agent of political party B, then I likely won't believe something NCX says good about A or bad about B (and visa versa with NCY). With that as a starting point, it won't be very long before I view all News as propaganda, smear, spin, or entertainment. If enough others in the republic come to the same conclusion, then we have lost two things: the ability for news to force our government to be accountable to the public, and the ability to receive accurate information to base our voting decisions upon (so we have to vote by instinct, or emotion, or some other gibberish...). If an alternative to provide both of these does not exist (accessible to the public at large) the republic will fail.

    Don't worry. Until you hear people using phrases like "I prefer to get my news from Comedy News Show Z" you still have time to pack your bags before running into the hills. Besides, it might not be all bad. Res Publica moritura before Pax Romana.

  7. Re:Journalistic Integrity on Erasing Objects From Video In Real Time · · Score: 1

    I sincerely hope you're right, but more likely cognitive dissonance will take over and people will be more likely to believe what they see even if they know it likely to be false.

    Don't worry, I'll be as optimistic as you like on a Friday afternoon. The second morning back after a three day weekend still tracks closer to Monday before caffeine for me.

  8. Re:Hmmm on Erasing Objects From Video In Real Time · · Score: 1

    Or re-edit Episode IV so that Han shoots first... again.

  9. Journalistic Integrity on Erasing Objects From Video In Real Time · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Great - it'll start off by making eyesore real estate disappear from "live coverage," then be required as a precondition for live celebrity interviews (not just makeup to cover that acne), moving on to inconvenient points to the story that would take too much time and effort to explain, then images which might "disturb the children" (number of student bodies in Tienanmen Square?), and finally develop to ubiquitous studio-in-a-cameras such that we'll have little assurance of whether live coverage is fact or fiction.

    Of course that's just pessimism speaking. Really I'm looking forward to watching live reports without those obnoxious people waving at their mothers, or holding up witty slogans about taxation.

  10. Re:Password authentication is dumb on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    Even better - pick a sea shanty which uses extended ASCII. Remembering a few three digit numbers (with the alt key) isn't that hard - especially if it's something you'd use often anyway - like the fraction symbols or the Greek letter mu for SI prefixes. All of a sudden you've gone from about 90 char options to 256. Of course I nearly got screwed over once giving a presentation when I couldn't log into the site with my files since the keyboard they gave me was some cheapo IR wireless thing that didn't recognize extended character input, luckily I had the thing on a thumb drive (which I prefer not to plug into strange computers).

  11. Re:Myth of stupid people... on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    Or even better: encrypted and stored in a safe deposit box.

  12. Re:Myth of stupid people... on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    RSA SecureID - I really wish they'd make it go viral before I've got to pull out a geeky looking Blizzard Authenticator when I want to check my personal email or bank account while at a work conference. (Although - imagine the commercials: a Mr. T Night Elf Mohawk guarding your bank account).

  13. Re:What about logging in over public WiFi? on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    She's not the only one you might have to share with

    There's also been discussion about border searches of laptops, mobile devices obtained in criminal investigations, encrypted drives, etc... Passwords seem to sometimes be a Fifth Ammendment exception. (Although other cases like Terry Childs are not).

  14. Re:Survey Shows How Stupid People Are on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 2, Funny

    Twenty percent of 10 is 0.4 right?

  15. Re:Survey Shows How Stupid People Are on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    It was very scientific too, they only asked one question in an about to be undarkened room: "Will all the stupid people please raise a hand."

  16. Re:Websites are responsible too on Survey Shows How Stupid People Are With Passwords · · Score: 1

    So how's it handle when the text of a link? Swordfish

    In other news: "How can they be jamming us if they don't know we're coming?"

  17. Re:Here comes the on Meet NELL, the Computer That Learns From the Net · · Score: 1

    Stross? Maybe.

    But this sounds more like Stephenson: the darn thing's named Nell, and it could be said to be learning from A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

  18. Re:Oh goody. on Meet NELL, the Computer That Learns From the Net · · Score: 1

    Quick! Send it here before it's too late.

  19. Re:What no spelling? on Meet NELL, the Computer That Learns From the Net · · Score: 2, Funny
    Maybe it started with Shakespeare? It would be a relief to have a well cultured robotic overlord rather than some leering nymphomaniac robotic overlord... although I suppose, instead of well cultured, we'd might just get get a mad robotic overlord vulnerable to flattery.

    Oh well, when it comes to robotic overlords of any sort I surmise discretion is the better part of valor (play dead and run away)

    It's probably much ado about nothing anyway

  20. Re:Finders Keepers? on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1

    Maybe it was some form of stimulus...

  21. Re:Finders Keepers? on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1

    He could have told the mechanic to keep it for spare parts...

  22. Re:Finders Keepers? on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1, Insightful

    See - that's the problem in 2010. People think the government has power. The truth is that people have power which they permit the government to use:

    Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness

  23. Re:OUCH on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1

    What? That the kid's mechanic found it? That the FBI can place it without a warrant? Or that the kid waived his Fifth Amendment rights when the agents told him "We'll make this much more difficult if you don't cooperate..."? If anyone else threatens you with legal action if you don't cooperate, it's called extortion (the wording matters)."

  24. Re:Finders Keepers? on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1

    I think I would have wrapped it in something to prevent transmission until unwrapped - and then mailed it off to the ACLU (or similar) and asked them if they would be able to help me find the owner of the unidentified equipment. That would be a good way to genuinely attempt to reconcile the equipment to its owner in probably the most offensive manner possible. "I would love to give your expensive device back, but not knowing who it belonged to when I found it in a location where it must have been placed accidentally because I can't imagine any probable cause - I sent it to some experts. Being experts I'm sure they will contact you."

    Seems like a nice bow-shot to speed you on your way to the supreme court.

    IINAL

    IINARAIR - I am not always realistic about inalienable rights

  25. Re:Finders Keepers? on College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It · · Score: 1

    I wonder if you could sue the FBI for stealing the stored electricity generated by the alternator from running the engine on fuel - all of which you had to pay for. It's probably a small expense, but if it shorts out your battery or alternator due to extra resistive load (or bad wiring, etc...) then you're not looking at trivial damages and would have a clear case. But even if it is trivial - it is still theft. Look at punitive damages in RIAA cases ;) (Yes I know that electricity isn't covered under IP law... so don't take that last bit too seriously).