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User: pelrun

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Comments · 149

  1. Yes... on NASA's New Bag Turns Urine Into Sports Drink · · Score: 3, Funny

    Twice!

  2. Re:Uh yeah... on Ask Slashdot: Is It Time For SyFy To Go Premium? · · Score: 2

    Absolutely - the lepers deserve better than to be stuck with those people.

  3. Re:This does seem a bit excessive. on Google Faces Privacy Audits For Next 20 Years · · Score: 1

    No, it's not marked "Download Internet Explorer 9". It's marked "Internet Explorer 9", which is the search term that the ad is targeted at. And it explicitly shows the true destination of the ad link - which is pretty much the polar opposite of 'deceptive'.

  4. Re:facebook on Google Faces Privacy Audits For Next 20 Years · · Score: 2

    You seem to misunderstand what 'privacy' actually means here. It's nothing to do with what information they may or may not collect about you - it's what they DO with that information. That means not letting other people have access to it without your explicit permission or a court order.

  5. Re:So basically... on Blizzard Won't Stop World of StarCraft Mod · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except when you send out a C&D that gets your law firm fired...

    Seriously, a little due diligence goes a long way here.

  6. Re:Troubleshooting this would be ... difficult. on First Ceiling Light Internet Systems Installed · · Score: 1

    There... are... four... lights!

  7. Re:I wouldn't say their security was terrible on Sony Files Lawsuit Against PS3 Hacker GeoHot · · Score: 1

    And by "dismantle it", I mean break it irrevocably in a way that no other code-signed console has ever, EVER, been broken before. All their private keys are known - hell, they were *reverse engineered* mathematically, which even the simplest public key crypto should be able to prevent when implemented properly.

  8. Re:I am reminded.. on Sony Files Lawsuit Against PS3 Hacker GeoHot · · Score: 1

    Nah. There's been rampant piracy on all the other CD/DVD based consoles too, and that didn't stop them from gaining a large marketshare. Sega just completely screwed the pooch on the marketing side. Ever try actually finding someone who isn't a console geek who even recognises the word "Dreamcast"?

  9. Re:I wouldn't say their security was terrible on Sony Files Lawsuit Against PS3 Hacker GeoHot · · Score: 1

    Bollocks. The only reason the PS3 lasted so long was because nobody who *actually* had the skill required to break the security had any desire to do so. Once Sony poked them in the eye, it took them bugger-all time to completely dismantle it.

  10. Re:Wait, you mean THIS key? on Sony Files Lawsuit Against PS3 Hacker GeoHot · · Score: 2

    Dammit - I typed that in and it turned out to be Goatse XP

  11. Re:anyone who believes Google did this by accident on Google Broke the Law, Say South Korean Police · · Score: 1

    Bollocks. This is Google, not Facebook.

  12. Re:Jeri Ellsworth on Sciencey Heroes For Young Children? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, Ladyada is Limor Fried.

    But both of them are absolutely hero material.

  13. Re:Australian Banks Are Terrible on Google Scares Aussie Banks · · Score: 1

    Yup, aussie banks treat us customers like walking cash machines. Deposit? Fee! Interest? Fee! Showing up at a branch? Fee! Record profit for nth year running, literally a not-insignificant fraction of our total GDP? Fee increases across the board!

  14. Re:Physical access on Google Scares Aussie Banks · · Score: 1

    Careful about tarring both Google and Paypal with the same brush here - Paypal has a long and gruesome history of being extremely quick to freeze accounts and confiscate funds and extremely (or impossibly) slow to release them, though here in Oz it's less prevalent because they're forced to *actually be a bank*. I don't think Google has been nearly as nasty in their similar role.

  15. Re:Aussie! on Australia Adopts EU's Geographical Indicator System For Wine · · Score: 1

    Aussie!

    (slashcodeoriginalcommentdammit)

  16. Re:Symbols on Australia Adopts EU's Geographical Indicator System For Wine · · Score: 1

    They're just pissed off that us Aussies are producing better wines than they are.

  17. Re:Perhaps not as much as you think on Australia Adopts EU's Geographical Indicator System For Wine · · Score: 1

    Just like only a board of audiophiles can tell me that that $3000 block of wood can make my CDs sound more 'danceable'.

  18. Re:Application developers fault on Windows DLL Vulnerability Exploit In the Wild · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, and what happens when that DLL gets updated due to a different vulnerability, but the app doesn't? You either get a broken app or one using an insecure library *anyway*.

  19. Re:MIDI device on The Chipophone — an 8-Bit Chiptune Organ · · Score: 1

    Uh, so converting this organ into a boring old midi keyboard similar to what everyone already has is more awesome than making a unique instrument perfect for playing back old chiptune music?

    I disagree.

  20. Re:Is it really so difficult... on Catching Satnav Errors On Google Street View · · Score: 4, Informative

    Long distance travel is pretty easy; there is ample signage and you rarely have to make more than a few direction decisions along the way. It's dense urban routefinding that's the problem - you can potentially have to remember an incredible serpentine route with a turn every twenty seconds, all sorts of special-case turn restrictions, and no signs pointing the way to the specific place you're headed to.

  21. Re:Free as in beer; comes with required crapware on Valve Releases Updated Alien Swarm For Free With Code Base · · Score: 1

    If you deliberately exclude the discounts when evaluating Steam's prices, then you're missing the point. Unless someone is holding a gun to your head and making you buy every game at full price, there's nothing stopping you from stuffing your account full of AAA games at prices you just don't find anywhere else.

  22. Re:Free as in beer; comes with required crapware on Valve Releases Updated Alien Swarm For Free With Code Base · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sorry, but "All DRM is evil, period" is just plain wrong, and speaks to your prejudices more than anything else. Of course, it's perfectly understandable why you have those prejudices in the first place, considering how abusively the technology has been used by the entertainment industry, but still.

    The issues with the first sale doctrine are valid - but honestly, the real reason people want to sell these items second-hand is to recover some of the punishing prices that the games are being sold for new. Valve goes some way to address this with the deep discounts they offer on a lot of their products. I don't buy a game unless a) I want it badly enough to justify swallowing the initial high price, or b) it gets discounted to where it's undeniably good value. Considering the ridiculously low prices Valve sells games for on a regular basis, I think this is perfectly acceptable.

    The games that charge an obscene amount for little other reason than they can (*cough*MW2*cough*) don't find their way onto my account.

    And "Steam is the most onerous DRM out there today" - hyperbole much? Not to mention it's just outright wrong. *cough*Ubisoft*cough*

  23. Re:It's in their best interests on 4 Cores? 6 Cores? Do You Care? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yep, much like the mobile phone industry - make the whole mess so utterly confusing that instead of picking an appropriate product that suits your budget, you're tricked into buying at an inflated price.

  24. Re:Free as in beer; comes with required crapware on Valve Releases Updated Alien Swarm For Free With Code Base · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Strictly speaking it is DRM, but it's in a form that isn't about punishing the end user to make some high-rent manager with delusions of IP feel better.

  25. Re:Not conclusive on Toyota Sudden Acceleration Is Driver Error · · Score: 1

    "Presumably"? No, you're making a completely incorrect assumption. The black box doesn't just record 'throttle position', which is the output from the computer to the engine, it records each individual input, which includes pedal position and cruise control output.

    Of course, the cruise control also drives a motor to give your foot feedback through the pedal as to where the cruise control is set, but don't fool yourself into thinking that means it doesn't know what the physical position of the pedal is too.

    Brakes are a different beast, and (iirc) are never -by-wire devices, they're mechanically linked to the physical brake mechanism. Which is why your cruise control doesn't touch the brakes (except in the very newest cars with look-ahead radar). But the brake position is recorded too, and even if the car was designed by incompetents who couldn't distinguish the throttle inputs, it'd still be REALLY OBVIOUS that the brake pedal wasn't being pressed.