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Comments · 6,325

  1. Re:Poor Bastards on HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt · · Score: 1

    Go to hell! LaserDisc is the one true way!!! =)

    Dude, analog is dated. Get with digital already!

    (Yes, LaserDisc really is analog)

  2. Re:sales on HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt · · Score: 1

    When Dreamcast prices (for systems and games) were slashed people went and bought the things in droves. Sure they will not be any more games, but when the system was $29 and the games are all $5, it really didn't matter. For less than $100 you could have a Dreamcast and a dozen games, which is probably about as much as your average person ever buys for any one system anyways.

    Yeah, but with a game console, most games are exclusives, so if you wanted to play them, you'd be getting a Dreamcast one way or another. But with the HD-DVD player, you could just get the titles on Blu Ray and not have another stupid box cluttering up your TV area.

  3. Re:Effective by design on Pirate Yourself, Become a Best-Seller · · Score: 1

    Could you or someone else just briefly remind me what about copyright law makes his business model impossible, and therefore enables this event to be an argument for eliminating or reducing copyright terms?

    If copyright isn't essential for commercial production of such works, then the government shouldn't be wasting resources doing policing for it.

    Intellectual property is exactly as imaginary as physical property. Both refer to "rights". Rights are inherently intangible. And contrary to their names, they both have physical ("real") referents.

    Except the fundamental distinction that a piece of physical property can only be used by a limited number of people at a time (whether an apple, piece of land, or house), whereas imaginary property can be used by the whole world at once, without any strain on the original "owner". It's senseless to try to make the latter behave like the former, when its limitless nature is a prime asset.

  4. Re:Wikinuke? on Cell Phone Radiation Detectors Proposed to Protect Against Nukes · · Score: 1

    You are overlooking a small detail here: If you put it in streetlights, it is no longer the consumer who is paying for your scheme...

    Yeah, it's the people who pay for the streetlights, which are... the same people.

  5. Re:Just what is stopping law enforcement? on Phishing Group Caught Stealing From Other Phishers · · Score: 1

    You do remember how the FBI's last few technology initiatives turned out, right? The penultimate example being "Virtual Case File," a/k/a "Virtual Money Sink."

    No, but it makes me curious of the ultimate example.

  6. Re:Page specific tuning on IE8 May Not Pass the Acid2 Test After All · · Score: 1

    It's possible that IE8 will contain code that detects the presence of an ACID test and switches to the proper renderer to pass the test.

    Hell, if it's going to do that, why not just have it show a fake "Passed tests" ending screen immediately? Would give it a great speed score too.

  7. Re:Low memory requirements from ms... on Windows 7 To Be Released Next Year? · · Score: 1

    I've obviously been in *nix land for too long, I'm still of the impression that 256 Mb is pretty much all one needs for most tasks. Even EMACS!

    You're forgetting that Windows supports a whole class of ma..software that Unix doesn't.

  8. Pull over car analogies; bring on the condiments! on Is Tech Bringing Us Closer Together Instead of Allowing Us to Sprawl? · · Score: 1

    Can we expect more condiment analogies on /., instead of car analogies? Net neutrality in terms of mustard and ketchup, open WiFi in terms of spice shakers on the table of a restuarant? Bring them on!

  9. Re:I have the best advice of all!!! on Training From America's Army Game Saved a Life · · Score: 1

    don't take first aid advice from /. comments. go get training or information from a more reputable source

    One can never be reminded enough of this. I took the parent comment seriously, but now I'm a bit disappointed that I did so, just because it was a serious topic. It's not to say it's false, just that I can't know one way or the other. So the best it can do is prompt me to find an authoritative answer.

    Thanks.

  10. Ultralight 2.5 pound on Thinkpad X300 Specs Leaked · · Score: 2, Funny

    At a glance, some of the major features include [...] an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor

    Good it's not one of those ultraheavy 2.5 pound laptops.

  11. Re:This could be a problem. on Researchers Work To Perfect Computerized Lip Reading · · Score: 1

    Go in the D pod with Frank.
    There's no "Frank" here.

    Wow, it's like a 2001 text adventure. Ummm, ask the other guy what his name is.

  12. Re:Anthropomorphizing obvious simulation result on Robots Learn To Lie · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, I hate it when people imagine their values to exist where they don't. These bots have just found another way to make food accessible. Boulder in the way? Move it aside. Other bots in the way? Flash my light away from food and they go away. It's just another response of the environment that they make use of.

  13. Re:The Market Speaks! on Texas Creationist Museum Facing Extinction · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I had a 20-something in my town use a calculator at a checkout line 2 weeks ago when I gave her $21.01 for a $6.06 charge. Unbelievable.

    There's more than just math skill while manning a checkout and giving proper change. Lots of other things to be worrying about, not the least of which people like you who assume any problems calculating it are due to being an idiot, which just makes using a calculator all the more desirable. Being able to do quick, accurate mental arithmetic while under pressure is a skill like any other, that takes time to get good at. I think your attitude is unbelievable.

  14. Re:Technically it's bad design... on New Dell Laptops Give Users a Literal Shock · · Score: 1

    Wow, nevermind, I had a case of awful reading comprehension (or more probably, anticipating what would be said, then even quoting the text I didn't read and replying almost exactly what the text says already).

  15. Re:Technically it's bad design... on New Dell Laptops Give Users a Literal Shock · · Score: 1

    ...after all, no part of the casing *should* be making contact with the electrical parts at all. The whole thing with making the casing grounded is for the unfortunate event that it does; typically as the result of some manner of physical malfunction within (e.g. a wire coming loose).

    For heavy electrical equipment, the logic goes the other way. The casing and everything should be grounded, so when something eventually comes loose inside and shorts out with the case, the path for current will be through the ground connection to the case, not through the operator touching/holding the device. Shouldn't the same apply here?

  16. Re:Not faster... more efficient on Prosthetic-Limbed Runner Disqualified from Olympic Games · · Score: 1

    Yes, it seems pretty clear-cut to me too. The circumstances that led to the decision to add prosthetic elements doesn't matter, simply the performance effect; what's the difference between losing one's feet through accident then getting artificial replacement, and losing one's feet intentionally as part of an operation to get enhanced ones? It would suck to be him, unable to compete in any olympics (well, until we have the cyborg olympics...).

  17. Re:Wha-d-ya-mean "power cable?" on Spec Will Cut External Drive Power Cords · · Score: 1

    I went over there and quickly spied the problem... the data cable was connected, but there was no power cable hooked up.

    She quite innocently and logically asked, "why do I need a separate power cable?"

    For the same reason your house needs a separate hookup for phone and electricity. Or alternately, for the same reason you have a toaster for small things and a full-sized oven for big things. And I'd like to keep these things separate, rather than try to cram them all into one thing. Though with hard drive power, there's little downside to having power delivered over the data cable.

  18. Re:Air on Apple Announces MacBook Air · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But really, a non-replaceable battery in a LAPTOP? Especially when Apple says that the batteries are rated for 18 months with "ideal usage"? That seems... a bit off to me.

    Kind of like the non-replaceable battery in the iPod?

  19. Re:I'm underwhelmed on Apple Announces MacBook Air · · Score: 1

    I'm just happy he appears to be over that whole "cube" fetish. I was worried we were two years away from an iBook the size of a milk crate.

    That was the Mac Portable.

  20. Sued by hardware? on HP & Dell Face Lawsuits From Exploding Hardware · · Score: 3, Funny

    HP & Dell Face Lawsuits From Exploding Hardware

    I hate it when my computer sues me!

  21. Re:If you don't like the ads... on Microsoft Will Stream Ads To Grocery Carts · · Score: 1

    ...just pick the shopping card displaying the Blue Screen of Death.

    But that's the secret ad for Blue Bell Ice Cream! That or a deoderant strong enough for a man, but pH balanced for a woman.

  22. Re:Not surprising... on Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back · · Score: 1

    A hot CD doesn't do justice to bands like Arcade Fire, so I'm willing to go out of my way to get the vinyl versions of certain albums even if it means I now have to worry about things like dust and needle wear.

    So the solution is for one person to carefully digitize the vinyl version, then make it available to everyone. What, that's copyright infringement? Well, the solution to that is for the holders to distribute non-crappy mixes in digital form in the first place.

  23. Slashdotted on SimCity Source Code Is Now Open · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess a new disaster needs to be added: Slashdotting

  24. Re:Economics? on California Utilities to Control Thermostats? · · Score: 1

    Simple way to accomplish the same means: raise the price during peak hours. Works for cell phones, right?

    And that's what they do, when they install the newer electric meters which can keep track of when usage occurs. Until then, it's probably cheaper to install a new thermostat than a new meter. They've had something like that in Austin, Texas for years. You can opt-in for a free electronic thermostat and installation, if you accept that it will limit A/C usage during peak times.

  25. When is acoustic shape same as physical anyway? on "Cone of Silence" Possible Say Scientists · · Score: 4, Insightful

    'It opens up the door to make the physical shape of an object different from its acoustic shape.'

    Since when has an object's acoustic shape ever matched its physical shape to begin with? It's usually more like a sphere.