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User: pmancini

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Comments · 216

  1. Re:Delay reasons... on Half-Life 2 Targeted for Summer Release · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I totally agree... this stinks of hoax. I didn't believe them at all when I heard about the introduction of keyloggers on their system. I mean honestly, they don't have norton or mcafee installed on their systems? Right! And no one has been caught after a "thorough investigation?"

    But, hey, this is just speculation. For all I know they did leave their network wide open and they did have a hacker and the release of code wasn't a nice teaser for the final game.

    Hopefully they won't now have a FIRE and have to push the release date back to next Christmas when they will be forced to push it back after a nuclear accident at Black Mesa Lab...

  2. Re:Code Rewrite -- Rational Reasons For It on Rewrites Considered Harmful? · · Score: 1

    To further expand on this comment I would say also that tools get better, methods get better and believe it or not, programmers get better. Take a look at something complex like the game "Freelancer." That is basically a top to bottom rewrite of "Privateer." In every way it is a better game than Privateer. If it had been built on the code base of privateer it would have been much harder to introduce all of the fantastic changes the world of computing has made in the last decade.

    There is another benefit to rewriting simple tools from scratch - you learn more about why they are important AND when you re-write them you do them in a different context than when they were originally created. This allows you to objectively assess the merits of the critical assumptions that went into the creating of the tool in the first place and make interesting and sometimes radical changes.

  3. Re:Nothing like building a market for yourself. on David Brin On LOTR · · Score: 2

    Thank You! That was exactly what I was thinking. The article was a load of crap. Next thing you know is he'll start waxing on why women should date short, bald, science fiction writers instead of tall, muscular guys. ;)

  4. Re:Home radar jamming? on DOD vs. 802.11b · · Score: 2

    There is a reason why they have transponders on Air Craft. It makes the aircraft stick out and above the noise. I've had a few tours of FAA ATC facilities and I got one of the last civilian tours on Sept. 8th 2001. I have seen both the old tech and the new stuff and I can say this - radar's pick up lots of stuff. Like what, you ask? Signs. Trucks on the highway. Church Steeples. Yeah, no kidding. Luckily the ATC consoles allow you to filter out most of this stuff, though some controllers keep some of it in as it provides a handy map reference... :)

    I hear that the FAA is looking for anyone with knowlege of porting software from jovial to C++. Heh, now there is an esoteric job requirement!

  5. Re:Where's Whitey? on FBI To Use Ad Banners to Find Criminals · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Being originally from Massachusetts and having lived near Winterhill myself, I wanted to chime in. Whitey is a notorious criminal who had managed to corrupt the FBI, literally get a way with murder, theft, assault and other crimes. He's not one of the good ones.

    I don't think this will work as a general tool for crime fighting (America's Most Wanted will probably prove to be more successful for example) -- the point is, he most likely isn't in the United States. He's been seen in Mexico and South America. Wave a few million in reward money in US dollars and you will start to get some hits. Who knows. The criminal underworld down there my have to decide if they are more sympathetic to him than to some easy money selling him out.

    Maybe they should (if it hasn't already happened) open a Dunkin' Donuts in Mexico City and see what happens... Just save me a Cruller, or is that El Crulleo?, for me.

  6. Re:Proof in the pudding. on Should You Trust Website Customer Reviews? · · Score: 2

    They might be. Perhaps they have 38" of money like I have 38" of waist!

  7. Re:I don't know on New Mad Max Film · · Score: 3, Informative

    Um, Spongebob is not gay. He has a rather attractive squiril girlfriend. (how do you spell the name of that rodent???)

    While the gay-ultra-left may push for Good 'ole Spongebob to be gay, he ain't!

    Plus, who cares? The Pirate is the real star of the show!

  8. It is clearly NOT Vigilante justice on HOWTO: Annoy a Spammer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vigilanties are self elected groups (which is the case here) that declare themselves outside of the state and federal courts (not done here) that proclaim the right to arrest, judge and kill or otherwise punish their subjects (also not done here).

    What this is a case of is the State and Federal Courts claiming that mass mailing is ok. It is also ok for mass mailers to find email and physical addresses by any means and to send material in bulk without solicitation. All this group of alleged vigilanties did was exactly what the alleged spammer did. They acted as independent agents for legitimate bulk mailing firms and supplied his information to them. The material sent to the alleged spammer was legitimate commercial solicitation, the very same type he himself has proclaimed to make a living sending to others.

    The alleged spammer can sue in civil court (which allows suits for almost any reason). There are a variety of tactics he can employ to allege damage and seek retribution. I don't think it will be a very interesting case or at all successful.

    It is the type of low-curb protection that tends to get the courts to look at a social problem and then the next thing you know you have government regulation.

    Personally, I watched my own email box for a 24 hour period. Of 112 emails recieved, only 9 were actual emails. The rest were a varity of unsolicited commercial mail, many of an extremely purile nature.

    I didn't participate in the group that set this guy up for getting all of this unsolicited commercial mail, but I fully sympathize with the group.

  9. That was beautiful on William Shatner Replies · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "Regret is the worst of human emotions. There is no going back with regret. There is no future with regret. Regret is not something I live with. If there is something I wished I hadn't done, I don't do it anymore or I forgive myself and try better.

    "My life is my statement and I try to be true to myself and thusly to other people. Whatever my failings are, they are human and I try to perfect it each day."

    Wow, my respect for Mr. Shatner just tripled. So well said. Such great words to live by. I thought overall his responses were a bit short (but the questions were pretty awful to begin with), however there was a great sense of humor and insight that I wasn't expecting. My hat is off for him. --P

  10. Colonels and Horny Aliens on Spielberg's Taken · · Score: 2

    Colonels are very powerful. Management of a project like this could easily fall under a colonel while Generals did the overseeing of the project. I am not surprised by this. There have been many historical projects run by colonels that seem to scale to this one in size (though nothing would scale to it in importance).

    On the point of horny aliens making lonely housewives pregnant, this too jives. The source material is American Mythology, not Science. It certainly fits in with the UFO mythology.

    Further they take the story and successfully kill Roswell's part in it! It needed to be done. Mogul needed to be put in it's proper place. I give them a huge thumbs up for that. The smoking gun on Roswell has always been what was recovered. Even Dee Proctor admits it could only fill two (2) wheel barrows. That couldn't possibly be enough material for the alleged UFO. By confirming that what hit Corona (the actual site of the crash is Corona but Roswell has and AFB so it got the name recognition) the writers have breathed fresh air into a story that would otherwise have had a very tough time allowing people like me to suspend disbelief.

  11. Re:Gotta ask on Ask William Shatner · · Score: 1

    How bagged more Moon Mistresses? You or Hugh Heffner?

  12. Dark Reign II Rip Off on Landshark · · Score: 1

    I've seen this design in many video games. This is a rip off!

  13. Re:Uh...we did this twenty years ago on IBM Wants CPU Time To Be A Metered Utility · · Score: 2

    Not only that, some of the older boxen had a switch on them that you could set to put the box in a higher mode of operation. It cost more but you got more speed. Of course you had to involve the nasty suits in on the decision because it cost money. Was it worth the Pepto? I say no.

    If you really need super computing time, just create a BrandX@home screen saver... :-P

    --Peter

  14. Back in the old days... on Quiet Desk (Not Desktop) PC · · Score: 2

    Back in the old days, when none of you young whipper snappers were around, PRINTERS were so darn noisy we had to build entire foam padded cases for them with plexiglass lift shields and slotted access to paper supply below. Oh, and if the noise didn't get you the CHAD would. No, Starfish, I am not talking about Tom Green's character in Charlie's Angels. Chad is this paper waste you got from printing on paper. Back then, paper had tracks built into it so that cogged wheels could push it throught to the print head (which consisted of a matrix of ink dipped needles.) You then had to remove this stuff by hand and hope you didn't tear up your page (which took you several minutes to print out on slower dot matrix printers.) How many decibiles is this guy complaining about? Flibbidy Flue! Jet engine noise was comparable to an old printer capable of printing on 8 part form! Let's see you try that with your gosh darn quiet laser jet thingamabobs!

    --Grumpy

  15. Re:Remake BAD movies, not GOOD ones on Live-Action Remake of Akira · · Score: 2

    Well, when can we expect a remake of "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things"? Also, does your theory really hold any water? They re-did "Lost in Space" as a movie and for the first 5 minutes I thought it was going to be great and then the whole damn thing slid rapidly down the drain! What a Godforsaken movie tht was!

    However, I would love it if they redid "Collosus: The Forbin Project" as basically it is the preqeul to "The Terminator". If you don't believe me, rent it and tell me I am wrong. The only thing it is lacking are robots.

    --Peter

  16. Re:Gorf, Not Gorp on High Score · · Score: 2

    Thank you!!! I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find that game online! I've probably been misspelling it for 10 years! Gorf... geez.

    Yes, it was an epic of 8 bit magic.

    Again, thanks!
    --Pete

  17. GORP -- Greatest Video Game of All Time on High Score · · Score: 2

    Everyone has a favorite. My favorite standup games were GORP (rare), Sinistar and Discs of Tron.

    My favorite console/computer games were Bilestoad (http://www.classicgaming.com/vault/roms/appleiiro ms.Bilestoad33395.shtml) It was the original bloody mess, get your mothers pantyhose in a knot, violent game. Aztec (http://www.classicgaming.com/vault/roms/appleiiro ms.Aztec33405.shtml), a Indiana Jones-esque adventure. Zork (http://www.classicgaming.com/vault/roms/appleiiro ms.Zork33393.shtml), now that was a truely classic game.

    All of them suck in comparison to modern games but at the time when I was a kid, I was all over them like white on rice!

  18. Re:misnomer on FSF Issues GNU/Linux Name FAQ · · Score: 2

    Yes, I probably should have! I wish web browsers would add the feature to text and areatext boxes.

    Thanks for the comment.

  19. Re:misnomer on FSF Issues GNU/Linux Name FAQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stallman sits in a basement, arguing with himself. He then writes the argument out (bad grammer and all - maybe he should have used a Microsoft product with helpful features like spell check and grammer check.) Finally, the dopes^H^H^H^H^Hfine people at Slashdot decide to give the fool an even bigger audience. *sigh*

    What is a bigger waste of the Internet? Stallman's rants or those Bumfight tapes?

  20. The article is a hoax on Lego Addictions · · Score: 3, Funny

    It must be. It says he's had kids. Via what method? Sperm donation? Come on! They guy's house is FULL of Legos! It's not crack guys, its A TOY! (to paraphrase Woody from Toy Story).

    I can imagine the scene where he procreated his kids...

    "Come on babe, let's shag! Lay here next to Lego Larry!"
    "Why is the bed so hard and rough?"
    "it's made of legos! Just like these restraints!"

    Now if you want to talk about a Real Man's collection, come on by my place and let me show you my collection of SPAWN(R) action figures...

  21. Re:Just like... on The Days of SysAdmin Numbered? · · Score: 2

    I've met the real life Eliza and I think she'd take that personally in a VERY bad way.

    --P

  22. Keanu Reeves on Harry Potter strikes back · · Score: 2

    Ok, the Slashdot community basically slammed the idea of Keanu as Superman. But how about Keanu as an older, wiser Harry Potter.

    "I know Kung-fu!"

  23. Forget Superman, they need to do Megaton Man! on Keanu Reeves as Superman · · Score: 2
    Yes, that is right, they need to make a movie about Megaton Man! America's Nuclear Powered Superhero!


    I'd sell my first born just to see that project get off the ground. They could use one of the better short stories to base the movie on:


    Farley Phloog (The Golden Age Megaton Man) is teamed with Professor Rex (Rigid) and a group of teenage mutants, hence the flimsy excuse to cash in on a cultural phenomenon. Some idiot sets off The Collision Of All Conceivable Comic Book Universes At Once Wars which results in another half-hearted restoration of Megaton Man. But wait--Clarissa James has an origin herself and becomes Ms. Megaton Man, and everyone wonders if it might not be because she'd been sleeping with Yarn Man!


    Oh this moview would be packed with goody goodness and Keaneu would be perfect in the role!

  24. Re:Why 'Kahn is so great on Star Trek: Pick A Plot · · Score: 1

    Beautifully said.

    Hadn't thought about the Bush/Saddam, Kirk/Kahn think. Might have some merit.

    Spock wasn't big on admiting there was something he didn't know. He usually would state the obvious. "It's an energy field", "It's a giant space worm", "why are you wearing your underwear outside of your pants?" (oops, that last one was from a "comedy" short at atom films. Quite silly.)

  25. The only ones to get it... on Star Trek: Pick A Plot · · Score: 2

    The only ones to get your cryptic reference are those born to laugh at tornados.

    Was(!Was)