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User: Soch

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  1. "Survival of the fitest"?!? No way! on Genetically Engineered "Smart" Mice · · Score: 2

    When has nature ever proven it knows better than us? I can't think of a case, can you? Inteligence hasn't been an "alpha" trait in any species for long enough to matter. Human's started that with breeding programs - and THAT has affected certain species in what seems to me to be a positive manner. I've never mat a truly wild dog, and I never want to! I even believe a domestic guard dog would beat one in a fight by being more aware - and, likely, healthier.

    "Survival of the fitest" - at best a gross oversiplification - no loger applies to humans. The "alpha -male" bit still does, but it does not focus on pure inteligence - I'd more call it ingenuity, or "Savvy" maybe. Think about it, Bill Gates is a great business man... his daughter is gonna be prime meat too... (sorry for the slur - it seemed fitting).

    Anyway, if anything, animal breeding results has shown we're not actually wrong about wanting to encourage specific traits, and I'd bet we could apply it to ourselves sucsessfully. Anyway, if you wanna think Drawback, read the new Ender book "Ender's Shaddow" By Orson Scott Card.

  2. a vote for censorship on a /. post !?! on Recombinant DNA For The Home Hobbyist · · Score: 1

    Why should this stuff be given only to the pro's?
    1) Who judges at what point one is expert enough?
    2)Since when are the pro's so responsable that you'd trust them? didn't a building fall down or something because of a faulty pentium 75 when it first came out? THAT kind of thing can happen by accident - what if you have a malicious (sp?) pro?
    3) How could you maintain even the image of a free market society if you began to limit the simple stuff (I call this simple because there are easy enough instructions out there and available parts, *I* don't understand it myself).

    Anyway, even before you Q1 - who would be holding this info back? anybody with a biochem degree could figure it out (I'm guessing) - it's not like this stuff is freshly out of some secret government lab. OK, so someone owns a pattent on some of the method, but that only covers MARKETABLE use. This might even be in last years "science year" for all we know. So Sci Am printed this recently, but how long has this kind of info been easily available from other sources?

    I'm raving a bit - sorry. I get rather excited when someone mistakenly thinks that holding back information - especially non-dangerous but highly educational information - can be to anyone's good.

  3. *snif-snif* on Is Pinball Dying? · · Score: 1

    Rather than staying old school, the companies tried to compete with video games. "They gave pinball lots of glitz and gizmos," Levine said. "But they had games with very little soul."

    I was about 1 when my brother got a Pinball Machine for his 13th Birthday. As soon as I was tall enough to play it, they (my brothers) showed me the ropes. The ONLY fond memories of my brothers at that time are of pinball (I'm the youngest of four - I got beaten or ignored a whole lot).
    Since then, I've been a pinball maniac, and when they say that pinball soul has died, I can't help but agree. If we were talking about the pinball machines of the 70's and 80's, I'd be angry at the loss, but modern pinball almost deserves to die - have you TRIED the southpark game?!?

    Anyway, CT, if you've got Diablo2 stress tester AND a good pinball machine - Can I move in with you? pretty please! I won't be much trouble - so long as you don't need your computer much.

  4. What the hell... on Diablo 2 Goes Gold · · Score: 1

    ... are some of you talking about? I'm not much of a gamer, and there's only one reason for it.

    Before I delve too far into that, let me ask, who remembers Moria? this includes UMoria, JMoria, MacMoria, etc. et al...

    The reason Moria was (and still is!!!) great is NOT the graf/x. For thoes of you who don't know, Moria has some very advanced graf/x - ASCII graf/x that is. It rocks though because it is a game I can enjoy for hours. In fact, Diablo is almost exactly like Moria with graf/x. I loved it. I have been playing Moria for about 15 years... it started on an apple II when my bro brought it home from college and I was, what? 5? 6? and the game is still entertaining. If they have added more levels, more characters, and more things to randomize (oh yeah, and maybe a little chaleng -that would be good too - diablo was too easy to keep being entertaining) than I might play it untill I go blind. I'll start again as soon as I can hardwire my comp up into my brain... I don't "Game" I PLAY and ONLY if it's FUN!!! fuck graf/x.

    This has been written by a man who takes money for graf/x work. Need a quick 3d movie?

  5. Re:MPEG4 ~ ASF? on Video Shrinks With MP4 · · Score: 1

    Actually, while you're right about mpeg-4 being asf (close enough anyway), it doesn't kill the darks if you're using a very fast computer with a bright enough monitor. You get thoes 'artifacts' (I like that name - well done) even in brighter scenes.

    ANY video format can fit 2hours onto one CD, but at different sizes. I have seen a standard *.mpg movie (2 hours) on a cd, but the picture resolution was tiny. I have seen a 1300 MB *.asf on 2 CD's that had a very high resolution. The difference was that while the *.asf required a faster processor to run smoothly, it took less space/time/res than the *.mpg . One can't overlook the resolution factor.

  6. Re:Haiku on Video Shrinks With MP4 · · Score: 1

    a Haiku is 5, 7, 5 - not 6,7,6
    I've heard the stuff about different dialects, but I don't buy it - and who cares what the sportscaster on ESPN sounds like?

  7. Re:Windows support on Thoughts On The Pike Programming Language? · · Score: 1

    you COULD always just give up using the OS from hell - join us Mac users in purgatory... give up on scripting... to hell with it. (OKOK I also have PC, but I don't tell my friends that, and neither should you!!!)

  8. Re:158M$ is a lot on Why Dr. Tom Dislikes Rambus, Inc. · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter how much you have, or controll. Sales is a misleading accounting number anyway. US$158,000.00 would catch attention anywhere! I hate to break the myth, but big numbers are big numbrs even to the big boys. The difference between us and the big boys is that to them, the little numbers mean less.