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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:It redefined the RTS genre?? on Reverse-Engineering a Frame of "Supreme Commander" · · Score: 1

    First thing I thought of. "It redefined the RTS genre, with its real-time strategic zoom and its epic battles involving several thousands of units at once"? Total Annihilation did that, years earlier.

  2. If it needs to plug into a wall to power on... on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 1

    ...it can plug into a router for ethernet. My WiFi is dispensed by my own private router. It is not open and used only by my mobile devices (cell phones, laptops and hand-held game consoles). My main computers and game consoles get a wire.

  3. Re:Shades of Methuselah's Children on NHS To Give Volunteers "Synthetic Blood" Made In a Laboratory Within Two Years · · Score: 1

    Or we could go forward to artificial blood, which completely bypasses this problem.

  4. Re:Shades of Methuselah's Children on NHS To Give Volunteers "Synthetic Blood" Made In a Laboratory Within Two Years · · Score: 1

    You missed the OP's point. Yes, HIV is screened for now. When the AIDS epidemic started, it wasn't screened for because nobody knew it existed. What pathogen that isn't tested for because nobody knows it exists could be in blood supply now?

  5. Re:The definition of insanity on Warner Bros. Halts Sales of AAA Batman PC Game Over Technical Problems · · Score: 2, Funny

    Grammer Nazi Edit: Their = They're

    Spelling Nazi Edit: Grammer = Grammar

  6. Re:Opt out sneakware crap and Oracle suck. on The Next Java Update Could Make Yahoo Your Default Search Provider · · Score: 1

    So you've been up, what, three, four days now?

  7. Apparently it mean you can get arrested on The Open Container Project and What It Means · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least in a lot of places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  8. Re:Is that English? on US Military To Develop Star Wars-Style Hoverbikes With British company · · Score: 1

    Makes more sense if you replace "in" with "as". Probably intended to edit it from "in both a manned and unmanned manner" but didn't catch all the needed changes.

  9. One problem I see... on Judge Orders Dutch Government To Finally Take Action On Climate Promises · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...the government can't just wave its arms and say, "Emissions be gone!" So the date gets here and the reduction isn't achieved, the court will do...what, exactly?

  10. Re:Memory Safe Languages As Countermeasure on Car Hacking is 'Distressingly Easy' · · Score: 5, Funny

    Five letters generally prevent most of the software *coding* issues found in critical automotive software: MISRA.

    Or possibly XYZZY or PLUGH. I forget which.

  11. Re:People need to learn to stop giving a shit on The Town That Banned Wi-Fi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Are they interfering with your life?
    No?

    Yes, apparently. They are insisting the residents change their own electrical fixtures to accomodate their own little neuroses, for one thing.

  12. Re:Makes sense on YouTube Algorithm Can Decide Your Channel URL Now Belongs To Someone Else · · Score: 1

    URLs should not change meaning except in extreme circumstances. Google's inability to understand that is baffling given their position as the web's defacto gatekeeper.

    Google's ability to understand this is because of their position as the web's defacto gatekeeper. If people can't find things from their URL, they're forced to Google it to find things.

  13. Re:Where are the round-abouts on "Vision Zero" Aims To Eliminate Traffic Fatalities In San Diego · · Score: 1

    Roundabouts/traffic circles are not difficult. If you can manage a reverse parallel park then they are trivial.

    This just in: Maryland has just dropped the requirement to be able to parallel park to get a driver's license. With this, you can get a driver's license anywhere in the metro Washington DC area without being able to parallel park at all.

  14. Re:Placebos on Is the End of Government Acceptance of Homeopathy In Sight? · · Score: 1

    If placebos were statistical background noise, they wouldn't all be in one direction. They make things better. They almost never make things worse. If placebos didn't work, we could simply test against doing nothing.

  15. Re:Placebos on Is the End of Government Acceptance of Homeopathy In Sight? · · Score: 1

    No placebos do not work. They are the very definition of not working. There is a reason we use placebos as the control group when doing double blind tests.

    That reason being that placebos work. It is necessary to separate out the placebo effect from the actual function of the drug.

  16. Re:Floating point on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 2

    Well, you're fighting against the people whose opinion is, "God, I just want my program to compile and run so I can go home! Who cares if it gives stupidly incorrect answers!"

  17. Re:I want my division by zero errors to be errors on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 2

    Well in Java, integer div by zero causes an ArithmeticException, whereas div by a floating-point zero results in +/-Infinity but no exception. Why should only integer code generate exceptions and not floating point code? Do floating point errors not matter?

    Because while 0/0 is undefined and an error everywhere, 1/0 is indeed infinity. Floating point has a representation for infinity, so you get that back. Integer types have no representation for infinity, so you get back an error instead. INT_MAX and INT_MIN are not infinity and would be dangerous incorrect to treat them as such, no matter how large their magnitude.

  18. Re:Infinity on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    Yes. It. Is. Different. f(x)/g(x) is undefined if f(x) and g(x) are both zero, and pretending it can ever be anything else is going to get you in a lot of hot water very fast. Now, then L'Hopital's Rule can help you find the limit as a approaches x of f(a)/g(a), but that is something different, and you have to be aware it's different.

  19. Re:A bit disappointed on An AI Learned Magic: the Gathering, Now Creates Thousands of New Cards · · Score: 1

    I can also add that *all* multicolor angels count white as one of their colors.

  20. Okay, poll... on Swift: Apple's Biggest Achievement For Coders · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How much did Apple pay for this article?

  21. Re:A bit disappointed on An AI Learned Magic: the Gathering, Now Creates Thousands of New Cards · · Score: 1

    Well, he phrased it poorly. There are multicolored Angels that include Green (they're all also white, which has always been the preferred Angel color). There are no mono-colored Green Angels; there are three in black (and last seen with the reprint of Fallen Angel in Eighth Edition), and one in red (Akroma, Angel of Wrath) and one in blue (Illusory Angel). White, meanwhile, has *84* mono-colored angels.

  22. Re:Let's go to the next level on Drone Racing Poised To Go Mainstream · · Score: 1

    Model planes owners do this, though not with projectiles. You attach a streamer to the tail of each model/drone and the first one who can clip off the opponents with his prop wins.

  23. Re:Makes sense on So Long Voicemail, Give My Regards To the Fax Machine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Our great-grandparents would be baffled.

    Actually, our great-grandparents often tended to be meticulous about sending (and acknowledging) invitations.

  24. Re:Coming next ... Office desk telephones on So Long Voicemail, Give My Regards To the Fax Machine · · Score: 1

    The problem comes when you talk about implementing it. Old fashioned phone switches--that was specialized hardware and the client would generally get what the implementer recommended. VOIP *should* use proper hardware as well--but all too often the client says, "It runs on computers? Great! We have a PC down the hall we're not using. We can put it on that."

  25. Re:Back doors are weak for everyone on US Tech Giants Ask Obama Not To Compromise Encryption · · Score: 1

    The point here is that the backdoor could be a second key instead of a way to break your key. Assuming that second key is also resistant to breaking then you haven't introduced any vulnerabilities to an outsider--assuming that the second key is kept secure. And that, it must be admitted, is a pretty damn big if.