With LCDs, assuming the viewing position is the same, the viewing angle changes slightly between those two screen locations, and the color is altered.
You're absolutely correct. Color reproduction on LCDs sucks in general. Which is why Real Graphic Design People simply cannot use laptop displays. There ARE NO CRT (or plasma, plasma has excellent color reproduction) laptops. Every Real Graphic Design Person is using an external monitor hooked to their laptop or a desktop.
The crappy screens in laptops aren't suitable for graphic design period, glossy vs. matte has nothing to do with it.
That's true if the environment you're working in doesn't have any constraints on which way you're sitting, which is often not the case. And I don't want to spend time futzing around with avoiding glare. I have other things to do with this machine I've bought.
If you're computing from a fixed seating position you're probably sitting at a desk. Get an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, there are plenty of matte monitors available. Sure it costs extra, but you're already paying extra for the Apple logo, what's another $500?
37signals is a 10 man shop. Why is this guy considered an organizational guru given that he runs such a tiny organization? Your average World of Warcraft raid beats the organizational challenges he is facing.
Why should PC games be different? The disc is SCRATCHED. It's not like you're pirating the game and then returning it. Even if you are, then I guess it sucks to be the retailer because there is no way to follow the LAW (which in many states, including mine, requires retailers to have a 30-day "no questions asked" return policy on everything) and have such a policy.
And as you pointed out, other retailers like Costco (Target, etc.) somehow manage to have a LEGAL return policy. It's just Gamestop that tries to screw their patrons.
I realized this as soon as I hit 'Submit', that Chrome is WebKit (Konquerer/Safari) based so my reply might not have made a lot of sense. I still don't see the need for another browser on Windows. And I see no reason why they couldn't roll their Javascript engine into other products. It seems the sole reason for Chrome is as a front-end for Google's web apps, so they won't have to support their apps on non-Webkit browsers when they leave beta.
Even if we assume that there are no problems with air circulation and proper cooling
It's very difficult for me to believe that an open-air case with a big fan blowing out of the top (heat rises) will have inferior thermal characteristics to virtually ANY enclosed case. Give me a link to an enclosed, fans-only, case that has better thermal characteristics. Liquid cooling doesn't count.
cannot be used like a destop type case
This *IS* a desktop-type case. It's an open-air desktop case. It's taller than the normal desktop because of the fan and you can't stack stuff on top of it. A case you can stack stuff on does not define "desktop" case. The iMac is a desktop.
Even for someone who likes fiddling with the parts a big tower without the left side panel
A big tower would be bigger, heavier, and less accessible than this case. Removing only the left panel wouldn't let you swap drives easily.
This case strikes me as being very light and has handles, which makes it very east to move (much moreso than the desktop or tower case you're discussing). For a test rig that people are likely to move around the office it would be very handy.
I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of this case. This case doesn't replace other cases. It replaces "bunch of components sitting on a desktop in a test environment".
There is absolutely no evidence to prove that people who have flashed their drives on their xbox with the latest firmware will recieve a live ban. Hence why no firmware update for almost a year now.
But XBOX Live updates HAVE blocked users with modded firmware in the past. It's just a fact. There haven't been many XBOX Live updates for the past year due to all the effort put in to the new XBOX Live Experience (with avatars and other crap) due out in November. That update will possibly affect current modders and if not, there is noting to prevent Microsoft from pushing out new updates. We certainly can't say that Microsoft has "given up" on
Flashed drives can only play exact replica games not ones moded for cheats.
This is simply wrong. Flashing drives breaks the "locking" that requires you to have an exact boot image. You can boot altered game images for this reason. I've seen modded copies of Halo 3 with different menu screens, so I have to believe you can make other changes. Though, as you pointed out, chipping defeats even the limited anti-cheat measures.
But why chip? Only losers would really be that bothered about cheating online, a flashed drive is free
I'm not recommending cheating in online games, I'm just saying that it's possible. And to be blunt, I'm virtually certain many of the players on the Halo 3 leaderboards are cheating with a combination of mod chips and XFPS keyboard/mouse adapters.
And I point out in my other posts, there are good reasons to go with a chip. A chip is a lot cheaper than a new console if yours gets banned.
"Modding" the 360 involves removing, or partially removing, the DVD-ROM drive and flashing the firmware on the DVD-ROM drive using a Windows PC (I do not know if there are Linux or MacOS tools available).
You CAN buy mod chips that DO require soldering. Most of these work by effectively putting new DVD-ROM drive firmware "inline". This has a couple advantages:
1) Different 360s have different DVD-ROM drives and some are more "hacker-friendly" than others. Using a chip will allow you to bypass these restrictions.
2) Most of the chips have a USB port that will allow you to flash the firmware on the chip, which is more convenient.
3) Most importantly, using a chip allows you to TURN OFF the hacked firmware. This is very handy if you want to go on XBOX Live.
You're definitely better off with the chip, but it's not required.
It is true that nuclear plants aren't supposed to leak radiation, but that is part of what makes them expensive. A nuclear plant that costed as little per kw as a coal fired plant probably would leak radiation -- just not be design.
No, the #1 thing that makes nuclear plants expensive is the insurance required in the event of a "nuclear disaster". Oil and coal plants are not required to pay insurance. If they cause a disaster the state soaks up every penny, look at refinery fires.
If you build a huge plant in the middle of a major population center (as increasingly the US has become a series of geographical megacities), you have to amortize the statistical cost of any accidents into the design.
The only major nuclear disaster in recent memory was Chernobyl and that was largely because it was an old graphite-moderated reactor. Such reactors were decommissioned a long time ago in Western countries due to safety concerns. A Chernobyl-style accident is literally impossible with current Western reactors, new designs are even safer. So the statistical cost of accidents is basically zero.
Firmware flashing is not "hardware modification". It simply IS NOT. Flashing firmware is rewriting the SOFTWARE stored in flash memory. The original poster was concerned about opening the case on his 360 because doing so would void the warranty. He wanted a solution to play backups on the 360 without opening the case (this currently does not exist). Simply opening the case of a 360 IS NOT hardware modification, and that's all we're talking about here.
No, you have to open the case. There are add-ons like the Xeno Top Gear that insure you only have to open the case once, but open it you must to flash the firmware on the 360.
Contrary to what you're being told, Microsoft DOES ban consoles with modded firmware on Xbox LIVE. Not all consoles all of the time (certain older consoles are unblockable). However, my understanding is they'll kill your Xbox Live Gold account (cancel it with no refund), so you'll want to keep the modded hardware off XBOX Live. This means, as a practical measure, many people will need 2 360s and if you want to play games online, you're probably going to have to buy them.
BTW, The are reasons for banning other than piracy. Some people use firmware hacks to cheat in online games, notably Halo 3.
I'd also point out that you're typically not allowed to return video games after purchase. If you buy it and you're unhappy, you're SOL. Some retailers (Gamestop) will refuse to return games that are defective. I found this out with Lost Odyssey, where the 3rd disk on every single copy in the store was scratched. It took legal threats for them to give me a store credit.
It's crap like this that drives people into piracy.
What boggles my mind is why sit on the game until some arbitrary release date and why not sell it sooner?
They don't. You don't understand game development.
The fact is, virtually all "big" games like Fallout 3 ship late. Usually VERY late. This is because of unforeseen problems that arise during development which stretch out development times. Typically development times are stretched to fix bugs and add features as long as possible, and even then the game is "rushed out the door" with engineers working very long hours to fix bugs and finalize code. Much of the time the release date is picked because that's the day when the company runs out of money to keep moving the project forward (really). Developers are also rewarded for shipping a game "early" (which, in general, means not as late as usual), but more often than not they don't meet these targets.
Only games with deep multimedia connections, like Force Unleashed, are delayed due to the marketing and the tie-in products not being ready.
And finally, as many posters pointed out, games in general tend to be released between late October - early December to take advantage of the holiday season.
Chrome is pretty buggy for what amounts to a Firefox skin. It's always seemed more reasonable to me that Google should try to offer it's suggestions and development time to Mozilla rather than fork, since Chrome is required to be open-source anyway.
The most you're going to save is between 3-5 MPG, even less if you're in a big gas guzzler.
My assumption here is that most "hypermilers" are single-occupancy commuters. So here are my suggestions:
1) Carpool. 4 people in your pool saves you 75% in mileage.
and/or
2) Buy a cheap, small, fuel-efficent car (like Honda Civic), you can get 'em used for $500 and you WANT one that's fucked up. All that really matters is the engine. Then start losing weight. Strip out the interior including the back seats. Look at losing the bumpers and some of the panels if you can get away with it.
That's basically it. You can get 50 mpg out of a 1985 Honda Civic with little effort.
But is it cost-effective? In "normal" HTPC environment are you better off buying this or a slightly faster CPU? I suspect this card will cost in the $200 range, but even in the $100 range it makes sense to buy a faster CPU. In your scenario (I'm not sure what you mean by "lightweight") I think the thermal output will be similar, maybe the CPU would be a little hotter. I suppose if you're very tightly physically constrained on the CPU heatsink to the point that you can't switch to a faster CPU this might be an idea. Otherwise, as I said previously, these seem to be for dedicated encoding boxes.
These intercepts were happening in realtime and were focused on an area of military operations.
Not true. Surveillance was not restricted to military staff and they were not looking for leaks of classified information (perfectly legitimate activity). They were conducting intelligence gathering on diplomatic and human rights organizations, and most importantly, journalists. This is both illegal and IMMORAL. The ability of reporters to operate without government surveillance is critical to the survival of any democracy. And yes, protecting reporters is certainly worth a few soldiers getting killed. Their lives are on the line telling us the truth about the situation in Iraq. Democracy and free expression is supposedly what we're fighting for in Iraq.
The distinction about where and how such communication might occur can't easily be made, and thus often falls to NSA -- which should then make the appropriate determination as to the disposition of the communication and act accordingly. That can include conversations of an embarrassing or personal nature. These are all humans here, not robots. Yes, they are trained professionals. But they're still human, with all the foibles and flaws we all share.
What bullshit. Just a few bad eggs, right? Why then were the techs cited ORDERED by their superiors to record, transcribe, and forward conversations they had identified as personal? Sounds like blackmail or political surveillance to me. Did you read the article? The whistleblowers were saying, just like Abu Ghraib, that they were being ORDERED to commit crimes. Either they're lying, and they have no incentive to do so, or General Hayden and the higher ups are lying. Unlike the whistleblowers, General Hayden and other senior members of the Bush administration are proven liars that have lied repeatedly to Congress about surveillance and other activities.
A spokesman for General Hayden said, "At NSA, the law was followed assiduously. The notion that General Hayden sanctioned or tolerated illegalities of any sort is ridiculous on its face." Those of you who laugh at this comment and think you know everything about the illegality of NSA surveillance would be well served to educate yourselves a bit.
General Hayden should go to prison for this. Retaining the entire contents of conversations of Red Cross employees is blatantly illegal. Even recording the names, numbers, and durations of the calls is illegal. According to the whistleblowers they specifically informed their superiors that these conversations were not intelligence-related and the continued surveillance was probably illegal, but they kept doing it anyway. A quote from the other post:
Also, TSP, in its entirety, was never as clear cut as being simply "legal" or "illegal" (court decisions on individual aspects aside). Those who claimed that it was "illegal" did so largely for political reasons.
Those who claimed it was legal did so largely to protect themselves against prosecution. The FISA statue was crystalline clear, FISA has SOLE jurisdiction over surveillance. No exceptions except those defined in the statue. In order to expand surveillance the President must go to Congress. The FISA law was specifically created to prevent Presidents from conducting surveillance programs outside of Congressional oversight.
The Protect America Act legalized EX POST FACTO certain parts of the surveillance program President Bush was previously conducting. His surveillance program was clearly illegal before then (ipso facto, that's why new law was necessary). The Protect America Act did not legalize any form of political surveillance. President Bush has conducted political surveillance. Nor did it authorize treaty violations to conduct surveillance on foreign diplomats (as with the UN Security Council). There is far more going on here than just one limited program, as Bush claims.
There are people who use Macs for gaming? Really? Apple has done a pretty good job of killing 3D gaming on their platforms. I'd be pretty shocked if they invested the $100 per box a that a decent gaming video chipset would cost, I seriously doubt there are enough Mac users interested in 3D gaming to justify the cost. IOW I don't think there are a lot of Mac users crowing to play Crysis and if you're one of them you should give up.
Not according to Interpol or the FBI. Protection rackets, drug smuggling, counterfeit goods, and especially computer crime are rampant in Russia and some of the former Soviet satellites. This is to the point that the "Russian mob hacker" is a security industry cliche. Russia's unwillingness to extradite or prosecute organized crime figures is the key reason Russia is seen as a "haven". For a graphic example, look up "Estonia cyberwar" in Google. Russia did not prosecute or even investigate anyone for their involvement. In the Alexander Litvinenko case Russia has refused to cooperate with British authorities in the case (though that was a political assassination, and not organized crime).
As many have said, this isn't cost-effective for the hobbyist (assuming there is proper Linux support, which is unlikely) unless he's encoding shitloads of video i.e. he as at least 4 HD streams he's encoding. This is more for content providers making dedicated encoding boxes.
With that logic, nothing can ever be proven. Everything is taken based on someone else's authority. You can't even be sure you actually exist, and that any of this is real.
Completely false. This is the difference between SCIENCE and other forms of knowledge. With science, you can replicate the work. If I say you can combine certain chemicals to make dynamite, ANYONE can verify this by combining those same chemicals.
Decartes developed logical proofs to prove that he existed "I think therefore I am". They have serious flaws, but that's not your point.
In any event, you've failed to properly distinguish why you think the Bible is an accurate history and the Iliad is not.
I guess that depends on which 'orthodox Christianity' you're referring to. What I'm talking about is the original true Christianity described in the Bible.
What "original true Christianity"? The first Christians were messianic Jews, never read one page of the Bible, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and strictly followed the Jewish law. Or maybe you mean the Gnostics, who closely followed the Messianic Jews. The Bible reflects the views of 4th century orthodox (as distinct from Arianism, Gnosticism, and Messianic Judaism) Christian bishops before the assertion of apostolic succession by the Bishop of Rome.
When you lead by example, it means you lead by doing instead of telling.
This is gibberish. You're not aware of the events in the lives of early Christian leaders, just their teachings. And it's not even consistent. Do you change you religious beliefs based on the actions of those around you? So if a Muslim is nice to you today you'll convert to Islam tomorrow? Really?
I'm just pointing out the most basic core elements of Christianity.
There are bloody, violent debates among Christians as to what those elements are. Look up "consubstantiation".
It's right there in that book known as the Bible,
The Bible isn't "a book". It's a COLLECTION of books written over a thousand years. Like many Christians who don't understand their own religion, you're trying to simplify a complex, conflicted history.
It hasn't changed in 2,000 years.
The Bible was compiled about 1600 years ago. There were fierce (and once again, bloody) debates as to which books made it into the canon. The Bible HAS changed in later translations, but mostly these revisions are minor due to the great care taken in the original preparation. Simply because they haven't been adulterated (much) since the 4th century doesn't mean they weren't adulterated before then or that they were accurate to begin with.
To evaluate your sincerity. Oblivion was widely-praised by most everyone, with the notable exception of some Japanese style console RPG fans, in particular those who favored old SNES rpgs like Final Fantasy VI. Much the same was true of Morrowind. You also attacked the graphics as "shiny", implying to me that you haven't favored many modern RPGs. By not mentioning a modern RPG you're confirming my suspicion that you're mainly influenced by nostalgia, not valid critique.
Personally, I think the 'open world' aspects of Oblivion were ALONE enough to make it the RPG of the year. I never finished the main quest, I just ran around collecting crap and going on sidequests. There were annoying aspects to the gameplay, the scaling enemies tended to make the game more difficult than it should have been (especially for me) because I leveled up so much with sidequests, but didn't get any money, that by the time I went back to the main quest I kept getting slaughtered. And I think fighting with melee weapons was a little awkward.
Russia has always been a favorite target for average American in cases like that.... What you see in the original post is the product of that malfunction.
No, Russia has an established reputation as being a haven for organized crime. Like Sicily on a grand scale. This has nothing to do with anti-Communism.
Russia as a nation, and the KGB in particular, have a reputation for fostering, or at least "turning a blind eye", to hackers and hacking in Russia. In particular, they refuse to extradite hackers to other countries.
The most famous example of this is the recent "cyberwar" against Estonia by Russian hackers. Russia has made no attempt to catch the Russians responsible and in the eyes of many observers the Russian government organized and endorsed the attacks.
I'm sorry Russians might get offended by this. Maybe you should do something about actually stopping the hackers in your country. You should start with getting rid of that whacko Stalinist Putin.
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With LCDs, assuming the viewing position is the same, the viewing angle changes slightly between those two screen locations, and the color is altered.
You're absolutely correct. Color reproduction on LCDs sucks in general. Which is why Real Graphic Design People simply cannot use laptop displays. There ARE NO CRT (or plasma, plasma has excellent color reproduction) laptops. Every Real Graphic Design Person is using an external monitor hooked to their laptop or a desktop.
The crappy screens in laptops aren't suitable for graphic design period, glossy vs. matte has nothing to do with it.
That's true if the environment you're working in doesn't have any constraints on which way you're sitting, which is often not the case. And I don't want to spend time futzing around with avoiding glare. I have other things to do with this machine I've bought.
If you're computing from a fixed seating position you're probably sitting at a desk. Get an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, there are plenty of matte monitors available. Sure it costs extra, but you're already paying extra for the Apple logo, what's another $500?
37signals is a 10 man shop. Why is this guy considered an organizational guru given that he runs such a tiny organization? Your average World of Warcraft raid beats the organizational challenges he is facing.
Why should PC games be different? The disc is SCRATCHED. It's not like you're pirating the game and then returning it. Even if you are, then I guess it sucks to be the retailer because there is no way to follow the LAW (which in many states, including mine, requires retailers to have a 30-day "no questions asked" return policy on everything) and have such a policy.
And as you pointed out, other retailers like Costco (Target, etc.) somehow manage to have a LEGAL return policy. It's just Gamestop that tries to screw their patrons.
I realized this as soon as I hit 'Submit', that Chrome is WebKit (Konquerer/Safari) based so my reply might not have made a lot of sense. I still don't see the need for another browser on Windows. And I see no reason why they couldn't roll their Javascript engine into other products. It seems the sole reason for Chrome is as a front-end for Google's web apps, so they won't have to support their apps on non-Webkit browsers when they leave beta.
Even if we assume that there are no problems with air circulation and proper cooling
It's very difficult for me to believe that an open-air case with a big fan blowing out of the top (heat rises) will have inferior thermal characteristics to virtually ANY enclosed case. Give me a link to an enclosed, fans-only, case that has better thermal characteristics. Liquid cooling doesn't count.
cannot be used like a destop type case
This *IS* a desktop-type case. It's an open-air desktop case. It's taller than the normal desktop because of the fan and you can't stack stuff on top of it. A case you can stack stuff on does not define "desktop" case. The iMac is a desktop.
Even for someone who likes fiddling with the parts a big tower without the left side panel
A big tower would be bigger, heavier, and less accessible than this case. Removing only the left panel wouldn't let you swap drives easily.
This case strikes me as being very light and has handles, which makes it very east to move (much moreso than the desktop or tower case you're discussing). For a test rig that people are likely to move around the office it would be very handy.
I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of this case. This case doesn't replace other cases. It replaces "bunch of components sitting on a desktop in a test environment".
There is absolutely no evidence to prove that people who have flashed their drives on their xbox with the latest firmware will recieve a live ban. Hence why no firmware update for almost a year now.
But XBOX Live updates HAVE blocked users with modded firmware in the past. It's just a fact. There haven't been many XBOX Live updates for the past year due to all the effort put in to the new XBOX Live Experience (with avatars and other crap) due out in November. That update will possibly affect current modders and if not, there is noting to prevent Microsoft from pushing out new updates. We certainly can't say that Microsoft has "given up" on
Flashed drives can only play exact replica games not ones moded for cheats.
This is simply wrong. Flashing drives breaks the "locking" that requires you to have an exact boot image. You can boot altered game images for this reason. I've seen modded copies of Halo 3 with different menu screens, so I have to believe you can make other changes. Though, as you pointed out, chipping defeats even the limited anti-cheat measures.
But why chip? Only losers would really be that bothered about cheating online, a flashed drive is free
I'm not recommending cheating in online games, I'm just saying that it's possible. And to be blunt, I'm virtually certain many of the players on the Halo 3 leaderboards are cheating with a combination of mod chips and XFPS keyboard/mouse adapters.
And I point out in my other posts, there are good reasons to go with a chip. A chip is a lot cheaper than a new console if yours gets banned.
No soldering is required.
"Modding" the 360 involves removing, or partially removing, the DVD-ROM drive and flashing the firmware on the DVD-ROM drive using a Windows PC (I do not know if there are Linux or MacOS tools available).
You CAN buy mod chips that DO require soldering. Most of these work by effectively putting new DVD-ROM drive firmware "inline". This has a couple advantages:
1) Different 360s have different DVD-ROM drives and some are more "hacker-friendly" than others. Using a chip will allow you to bypass these restrictions.
2) Most of the chips have a USB port that will allow you to flash the firmware on the chip, which is more convenient.
3) Most importantly, using a chip allows you to TURN OFF the hacked firmware. This is very handy if you want to go on XBOX Live.
You're definitely better off with the chip, but it's not required.
It is true that nuclear plants aren't supposed to leak radiation, but that is part of what makes them expensive. A nuclear plant that costed as little per kw as a coal fired plant probably would leak radiation -- just not be design.
No, the #1 thing that makes nuclear plants expensive is the insurance required in the event of a "nuclear disaster". Oil and coal plants are not required to pay insurance. If they cause a disaster the state soaks up every penny, look at refinery fires.
If you build a huge plant in the middle of a major population center (as increasingly the US has become a series of geographical megacities), you have to amortize the statistical cost of any accidents into the design.
The only major nuclear disaster in recent memory was Chernobyl and that was largely because it was an old graphite-moderated reactor. Such reactors were decommissioned a long time ago in Western countries due to safety concerns. A Chernobyl-style accident is literally impossible with current Western reactors, new designs are even safer. So the statistical cost of accidents is basically zero.
Firmware flashing is not "hardware modification". It simply IS NOT. Flashing firmware is rewriting the SOFTWARE stored in flash memory. The original poster was concerned about opening the case on his 360 because doing so would void the warranty. He wanted a solution to play backups on the 360 without opening the case (this currently does not exist). Simply opening the case of a 360 IS NOT hardware modification, and that's all we're talking about here.
No, you have to open the case. There are add-ons like the Xeno Top Gear that insure you only have to open the case once, but open it you must to flash the firmware on the 360.
Contrary to what you're being told, Microsoft DOES ban consoles with modded firmware on Xbox LIVE. Not all consoles all of the time (certain older consoles are unblockable). However, my understanding is they'll kill your Xbox Live Gold account (cancel it with no refund), so you'll want to keep the modded hardware off XBOX Live. This means, as a practical measure, many people will need 2 360s and if you want to play games online, you're probably going to have to buy them.
BTW, The are reasons for banning other than piracy. Some people use firmware hacks to cheat in online games, notably Halo 3.
I'd also point out that you're typically not allowed to return video games after purchase. If you buy it and you're unhappy, you're SOL. Some retailers (Gamestop) will refuse to return games that are defective. I found this out with Lost Odyssey, where the 3rd disk on every single copy in the store was scratched. It took legal threats for them to give me a store credit.
It's crap like this that drives people into piracy.
What boggles my mind is why sit on the game until some arbitrary release date and why not sell it sooner?
They don't. You don't understand game development.
The fact is, virtually all "big" games like Fallout 3 ship late. Usually VERY late. This is because of unforeseen problems that arise during development which stretch out development times. Typically development times are stretched to fix bugs and add features as long as possible, and even then the game is "rushed out the door" with engineers working very long hours to fix bugs and finalize code. Much of the time the release date is picked because that's the day when the company runs out of money to keep moving the project forward (really). Developers are also rewarded for shipping a game "early" (which, in general, means not as late as usual), but more often than not they don't meet these targets.
Only games with deep multimedia connections, like Force Unleashed, are delayed due to the marketing and the tie-in products not being ready.
And finally, as many posters pointed out, games in general tend to be released between late October - early December to take advantage of the holiday season.
Chrome is pretty buggy for what amounts to a Firefox skin. It's always seemed more reasonable to me that Google should try to offer it's suggestions and development time to Mozilla rather than fork, since Chrome is required to be open-source anyway.
The most you're going to save is between 3-5 MPG, even less if you're in a big gas guzzler.
My assumption here is that most "hypermilers" are single-occupancy commuters. So here are my suggestions:
1) Carpool. 4 people in your pool saves you 75% in mileage.
and/or
2) Buy a cheap, small, fuel-efficent car (like Honda Civic), you can get 'em used for $500 and you WANT one that's fucked up. All that really matters is the engine. Then start losing weight. Strip out the interior including the back seats. Look at losing the bumpers and some of the panels if you can get away with it.
That's basically it. You can get 50 mpg out of a 1985 Honda Civic with little effort.
But is it cost-effective? In "normal" HTPC environment are you better off buying this or a slightly faster CPU? I suspect this card will cost in the $200 range, but even in the $100 range it makes sense to buy a faster CPU. In your scenario (I'm not sure what you mean by "lightweight") I think the thermal output will be similar, maybe the CPU would be a little hotter. I suppose if you're very tightly physically constrained on the CPU heatsink to the point that you can't switch to a faster CPU this might be an idea. Otherwise, as I said previously, these seem to be for dedicated encoding boxes.
These intercepts were happening in realtime and were focused on an area of military operations.
Not true. Surveillance was not restricted to military staff and they were not looking for leaks of classified information (perfectly legitimate activity). They were conducting intelligence gathering on diplomatic and human rights organizations, and most importantly, journalists. This is both illegal and IMMORAL. The ability of reporters to operate without government surveillance is critical to the survival of any democracy. And yes, protecting reporters is certainly worth a few soldiers getting killed. Their lives are on the line telling us the truth about the situation in Iraq. Democracy and free expression is supposedly what we're fighting for in Iraq.
The distinction about where and how such communication might occur can't easily be made, and thus often falls to NSA -- which should then make the appropriate determination as to the disposition of the communication and act accordingly. That can include conversations of an embarrassing or personal nature. These are all humans here, not robots. Yes, they are trained professionals. But they're still human, with all the foibles and flaws we all share.
What bullshit. Just a few bad eggs, right? Why then were the techs cited ORDERED by their superiors to record, transcribe, and forward conversations they had identified as personal? Sounds like blackmail or political surveillance to me. Did you read the article? The whistleblowers were saying, just like Abu Ghraib, that they were being ORDERED to commit crimes. Either they're lying, and they have no incentive to do so, or General Hayden and the higher ups are lying. Unlike the whistleblowers, General Hayden and other senior members of the Bush administration are proven liars that have lied repeatedly to Congress about surveillance and other activities.
A spokesman for General Hayden said, "At NSA, the law was followed assiduously. The notion that General Hayden sanctioned or tolerated illegalities of any sort is ridiculous on its face." Those of you who laugh at this comment and think you know everything about the illegality of NSA surveillance would be well served to educate yourselves a bit.
General Hayden should go to prison for this. Retaining the entire contents of conversations of Red Cross employees is blatantly illegal. Even recording the names, numbers, and durations of the calls is illegal. According to the whistleblowers they specifically informed their superiors that these conversations were not intelligence-related and the continued surveillance was probably illegal, but they kept doing it anyway. A quote from the other post:
Also, TSP, in its entirety, was never as clear cut as being simply "legal" or "illegal" (court decisions on individual aspects aside). Those who claimed that it was "illegal" did so largely for political reasons.
Those who claimed it was legal did so largely to protect themselves against prosecution. The FISA statue was crystalline clear, FISA has SOLE jurisdiction over surveillance. No exceptions except those defined in the statue. In order to expand surveillance the President must go to Congress. The FISA law was specifically created to prevent Presidents from conducting surveillance programs outside of Congressional oversight.
The Protect America Act legalized EX POST FACTO certain parts of the surveillance program President Bush was previously conducting. His surveillance program was clearly illegal before then (ipso facto, that's why new law was necessary). The Protect America Act did not legalize any form of political surveillance. President Bush has conducted political surveillance. Nor did it authorize treaty violations to conduct surveillance on foreign diplomats (as with the UN Security Council). There is far more going on here than just one limited program, as Bush claims.
This story is to surveillan
There are people who use Macs for gaming? Really? Apple has done a pretty good job of killing 3D gaming on their platforms. I'd be pretty shocked if they invested the $100 per box a that a decent gaming video chipset would cost, I seriously doubt there are enough Mac users interested in 3D gaming to justify the cost. IOW I don't think there are a lot of Mac users crowing to play Crysis and if you're one of them you should give up.
Not according to Interpol or the FBI. Protection rackets, drug smuggling, counterfeit goods, and especially computer crime are rampant in Russia and some of the former Soviet satellites. This is to the point that the "Russian mob hacker" is a security industry cliche. Russia's unwillingness to extradite or prosecute organized crime figures is the key reason Russia is seen as a "haven". For a graphic example, look up "Estonia cyberwar" in Google. Russia did not prosecute or even investigate anyone for their involvement. In the Alexander Litvinenko case Russia has refused to cooperate with British authorities in the case (though that was a political assassination, and not organized crime).
Ever heard of a penis pump? The article is complete bullshit.
As many have said, this isn't cost-effective for the hobbyist (assuming there is proper Linux support, which is unlikely) unless he's encoding shitloads of video i.e. he as at least 4 HD streams he's encoding. This is more for content providers making dedicated encoding boxes.
With that logic, nothing can ever be proven. Everything is taken based on someone else's authority. You can't even be sure you actually exist, and that any of this is real.
Completely false. This is the difference between SCIENCE and other forms of knowledge. With science, you can replicate the work. If I say you can combine certain chemicals to make dynamite, ANYONE can verify this by combining those same chemicals.
Decartes developed logical proofs to prove that he existed "I think therefore I am". They have serious flaws, but that's not your point.
In any event, you've failed to properly distinguish why you think the Bible is an accurate history and the Iliad is not.
I guess that depends on which 'orthodox Christianity' you're referring to. What I'm talking about is the original true Christianity described in the Bible.
What "original true Christianity"? The first Christians were messianic Jews, never read one page of the Bible, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and strictly followed the Jewish law. Or maybe you mean the Gnostics, who closely followed the Messianic Jews. The Bible reflects the views of 4th century orthodox (as distinct from Arianism, Gnosticism, and Messianic Judaism) Christian bishops before the assertion of apostolic succession by the Bishop of Rome.
When you lead by example, it means you lead by doing instead of telling.
This is gibberish. You're not aware of the events in the lives of early Christian leaders, just their teachings. And it's not even consistent. Do you change you religious beliefs based on the actions of those around you? So if a Muslim is nice to you today you'll convert to Islam tomorrow? Really?
I'm just pointing out the most basic core elements of Christianity.
There are bloody, violent debates among Christians as to what those elements are. Look up "consubstantiation".
It's right there in that book known as the Bible,
The Bible isn't "a book". It's a COLLECTION of books written over a thousand years. Like many Christians who don't understand their own religion, you're trying to simplify a complex, conflicted history.
It hasn't changed in 2,000 years.
The Bible was compiled about 1600 years ago. There were fierce (and once again, bloody) debates as to which books made it into the canon. The Bible HAS changed in later translations, but mostly these revisions are minor due to the great care taken in the original preparation. Simply because they haven't been adulterated (much) since the 4th century doesn't mean they weren't adulterated before then or that they were accurate to begin with.
To evaluate your sincerity. Oblivion was widely-praised by most everyone, with the notable exception of some Japanese style console RPG fans, in particular those who favored old SNES rpgs like Final Fantasy VI. Much the same was true of Morrowind. You also attacked the graphics as "shiny", implying to me that you haven't favored many modern RPGs. By not mentioning a modern RPG you're confirming my suspicion that you're mainly influenced by nostalgia, not valid critique.
Personally, I think the 'open world' aspects of Oblivion were ALONE enough to make it the RPG of the year. I never finished the main quest, I just ran around collecting crap and going on sidequests. There were annoying aspects to the gameplay, the scaling enemies tended to make the game more difficult than it should have been (especially for me) because I leveled up so much with sidequests, but didn't get any money, that by the time I went back to the main quest I kept getting slaughtered. And I think fighting with melee weapons was a little awkward.
And graphics matter. They're called VIDEO games.
Russia has always been a favorite target for average American in cases like that. ... What you see in the original post is the product of that malfunction.
No, Russia has an established reputation as being a haven for organized crime. Like Sicily on a grand scale. This has nothing to do with anti-Communism.
Russia as a nation, and the KGB in particular, have a reputation for fostering, or at least "turning a blind eye", to hackers and hacking in Russia. In particular, they refuse to extradite hackers to other countries.
The most famous example of this is the recent "cyberwar" against Estonia by Russian hackers. Russia has made no attempt to catch the Russians responsible and in the eyes of many observers the Russian government organized and endorsed the attacks.
I'm sorry Russians might get offended by this. Maybe you should do something about actually stopping the hackers in your country. You should start with getting rid of that whacko Stalinist Putin.