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User: nomel

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  1. Re:What's a gamer to do? on Hands-On With Windows 7's New Features · · Score: 1

    I know what you mean--they all hobble performance. Anything past the BIOS is just bells and whistles that ruins my gaming experience completely.

    I agree. Back when Half Life first came out, I would go into the Win95 registry and change the shell to be Half Life! Gained me about 7 FPS...much better than any of the overclocking people could get.

    Wouldn't be surprised if windows ended up with a quick boot "gaming mode" with a minimal number of services, etc. Oh wait...that's a good idea...never mind.

  2. Re:This is... on Simple Device Claimed To Boost Fuel Efficiency By Up To 20% · · Score: 1

    what about on old shitty engines that run wayy to rich all the time? :) I run some through maybe once a year. After I do, I notice my car is much smoother during idle...although...it could just be from cleaning the surfaces on the spark plugs...

  3. Re:This is... on Simple Device Claimed To Boost Fuel Efficiency By Up To 20% · · Score: 1

    I completely disagree...

    Clogged injectors...my gas mileage goes down a few miles per gallon at most.

    Bad driving...my gas mileage easily HALFS. I'll never understand why we don't use water injection at high loads to cool the chamber, and for volumetric expansion, so we don't have to dump so much friggin fuel (rich mixture) in at high loads. Include a distiller in the car, using the exaust heat, if you have to. I don't care if I have to fill the water when I fill the gas.

    Seriously...someone tell me why we don't do this?

  4. Re:sensors... on Homeland Security Department Testing "Pre-Crime" Detector · · Score: 1

    Seriously, is there anything a device like this can do that's either more useful

    Yes! Detect joggers with 99% accuracy!

  5. Re:Non-Tech Percent of Web Traffic from Chrome on Google Chrome, Day 2 · · Score: 1

    I agree.

    Plus, Firefox is much faster with Google maps!

    I find that very interesting and odd. You'd think they'd super optimize any javascript dealing with their pages.

  6. Re:Who cares? It's over. on How Microsoft Plans To Get Its Groove Back With Win7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And...I'm all for them trying something new. Start over! Look at apple. They've started over a few times, and I think it's been worth it...there's just not as much community pain felt because the install base is relatively small.

    If you want a stable, mostly command line, system that'll be backwards compatible for decades to come, use your flavor of *nix...but if you want a fancy graphical interface with pretties (targeted at an audience who enjoys them)...you're gunna have to deal with sdk's and API's...that's just smart/efficient programming...where have you seen anything else?

    In my opinion, it's marketing that screws the tech of MS. They come out with stupid as claims before knowing what the final product will be, over hype everything, and seem to get their hands in determining code paths. Their sdk's and api's (directshow for instance) and are mostly pretty neat. Marketing makes it so abstract and burried in coined tech terms that somehow make their way into the msdn (I consider this in the marketing goup...cause an intelligent software engineer would never make something like msdn) that it takes all the fun, desire, and some ability to learn it (at least for me)!

    I agree, they are admitting defeat...but that comes with a realization that the customers (us) obviously want something better (sales of vista), but are limited with the current platform/code organization/model that they use now. Sounds like innovation/renovation to me...and that should be something constant in any field.

  7. Re:So, what's actually accelerated here? on All GeForce 8 Graphics Cards to Gain PhysX Support · · Score: 1

    With multi core cpu's coming out..i still say it's best left to the cpu. I rarely see a game that uses 100% cpu...all cores included.

  8. Re:Huh? on Chemical Reaction Changes Color Over and Over · · Score: 1

    This same type of reaction was shown on Mr. Wizard when I was a kid!
    In his, a pH indicator was added to a solution and it would go back and fourth between acidic and basic...can't remember the cause, but he explained it just fine. I think it had to do with the creation of crystals in the solution, which is why it had to be continually mixed. Could say I have a bad memory, but that was about 15 years ago.

  9. Re:One unanswered question? on AMD Fusion To Add To x86 ISA · · Score: 1

    Does it run linux? Well, with the processing power of some of the GPU cards used for things like SETI@Home, I imagine that's not all that far fetched. Could use the GPU as a second processor perhaps! :D

  10. real magazine on Is PC World Still Worth the Subscription? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Subscribe to a real magazine! Say...New Scientist! Once a week...incredibly up to date. There's been MANY times where I read something in it to hear it on the news a few days later. Seems to be a source that everyone (including Slashdot) seems to use.

  11. Re:Beta is the new Alpha and RC is the new Beta on Vista RC1 Build 5728 Publicly Released · · Score: 1

    duh...why do you think the little crash report submital box is in the "official" releases of windows now when they used to only be in the beta versions?

  12. get out of the way! on Slashdot Discussion2 In Beta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ok, the little control box either needs to be movable, or on the right hand side where it'll be less likely to cover text. It makes a big part of the screen useless as it is now.

  13. easily my favorite on Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest Update · · Score: 1

    wow...the one you mentioned is easily my favorite.

  14. not far off on Chip Power Breakthrough Reported by Startup · · Score: 2, Informative

    actually...sharp turns are a problem for high frequency circuits. when the frequencies get very high compared to the wires length, the waves *do* actually reflect back from sharp corners and will favor a straight path. this is the basis for things such as tdr (when finding kinks) and directional couplers.

  15. Re:Physics Good, Fire Bad on PhysX Dedicated Physics Processor Explored · · Score: 1

    yeah. that's why I bought an athlon dual core chip damnit!

  16. Re:May the best X win! on Lara Croft As The Final Girl · · Score: 2, Interesting

    But cheering for the last remaining female is also a survival trait. :) I know when I'm with girls in "hostile" environments, I feel a very strong urge (instinct I'm presuming since it happens without choice or forethought) to protect them. Makes sense if we do that, on a more subconscious level of course, in video games where you're helping, guiding, and making decisions about a womans well being that's standing there in third person in front of you. If she wasn't in third person, then there would be nothing for our brain to tell us to protect and reward for protecting. Obviously, the game wouldn't sell as well if it wasn't in third person for other reasons too ;)

  17. Re:So many questions on Riot Control Ray-Gun for Use in Iraq · · Score: 1

    My first thought,
    Invest in conductive skin paint!

    Something like a therapeutic face mask with a metallic powder, carbon, or something else to make it fairly conductive at the crazy high frequencies (easy to do) would do the trick.

  18. or...you could on 3D Face Cameras · · Score: 1

    sweep a laser line across the persons face recorded by a fairly high res digital camera at an azimuth offset relative to the persons face. Then, you could use some simple software and trig to calculate the 3d position of any of the points on the face using the laser line position in the images from the digicam. Just shut the laser off to get the 3d image.

    I happened to start making this system two days ago...would be funny if that's how the actually did it.

  19. Re:Similar scenario on Back and Forth Between Qwerty and Dvorak? · · Score: 1

    Well, I know I can type much faster in dvorak than qwerty. I grew up with qwerty (since 5th grade). Switched while I was in highschool. Been using it for a few years now. Typing speed is in the 85 range without errors compared to 65 or so in qwerty. I'm surprised you only made it to 20 in two weeks. I was in that range after the first week (yes, I did online typing tests to track my progress).

  20. Re:Forget Dvorak on Back and Forth Between Qwerty and Dvorak? · · Score: 1

    I can say that's not true. Not that it helps, but, M$ even suggests to switch to a Dvorak layout for ergonomic reasons. I was getting RSI a few years ago, so I switched to Dvorak. My joints and wrist stopped hurting when I stopped using Qwerty. No change in seating, posture, screen, or anything like that.

    I've found that the "ergonomic" keyboards are a bad idea. Sit in front of a normal keyboard with your arms at the normal 40 degree angle or so. You'll see that sitting like this causes your fingers to align with the home row perfectly since our pointer finger is longer than our pinky fingers. Bringing any finger forward or back in it's natural direction causes a key to be right under it. With the "ergonomic" keyboards, this isn't so...your fingers have to go at funny angles
    since the keys ARE NOT straight up and down from each other even though, with the seperation and rotation of each half, they should be. The flat keyboards are meant to be used with our arms at nateral sitting angles...ergonomic keyboards are meant to be used at extreme angles since you must compensate for the aditional rotation they put into each half.

    I used an ergonomic keyboard for a few years until I actually looked down at my fingers moving around on it.

    And, to answer the main question, switching between qwerty and dvorak is extremely easy. Takes me about one or two minutes to get back to full qwerty speed (same as it was before I used dvorak) after switching to a qwerty keyboard. Once you start using dvorak, you realise how silly qwerty actually is/feels. Try it before you knock it...it really is WAY different. I've only been able to "convert" two people, but, that's because none of my other friends have the patience to learn dvorak...just like anything, at first it is hard :)

    I think the ultimate setup for wearable computers would be two small keyboards, one for each hand. Dvorak left hand for the left and dvorak right hand for the right.

  21. Re:More reasons for Outsourcing on HP Contract Workers Sue For Recognition · · Score: 1

    When I first started as an intern at some big company, I had to sign an agreement that said I couldn't sue the company for any reason. :-/. Surprised they didn't do the same.

  22. Re:yeeeeeeehaw on Using Air to Recharge Your Cell Phone · · Score: 1

    could stick it out the car window for us urban cowboys.

  23. Re:I don't get it on More Cell Processor Details And First Pictures · · Score: 1

    When I do complicated real time video processing, I need lots of power.

  24. Re:Fraud Alert! on Nanotech Brings Battery Life Extender for Mobiles · · Score: 1

    Apparently, they're not too sure about their product.

    From the Terms and Conditions:
    "BatMax Corporation has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content of the web site and manuals. However, it is possible that it may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical or other errors. BatMax Corporation will assume no liability for any inaccuracy found in the web site, documentations, packaging, photos, images, graphs, manuals, advertising, promotional material, publications, nor for any damages, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or otherwise, that may result from such an inaccuracy, including without limitation loss of data or profits."

  25. Re:My thoughts on Mystery Phenomenon Cleans Mars Opportunity Rover · · Score: 1

    He probably secretly installed something like a windshield wiper on the solar arrays.

    damn idiots.