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User: flarb936

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  1. The Doughboys! on Slashdot Asks: Your Favorite Podcasts? And Why? · · Score: 1

    These guys are doing gods work, eating at chain restaurants and reviewing them on a weekly podcast. The highlight being an entire month where they ate nothing but Red Lobster. http://www.feralaudio.com/show...

  2. Still can't get it to work -- total system freeze on Windows 10 Anniversary Update Rollout May Not Be Done Until Early November (zdnet.com) · · Score: 2

    Despite an update to the update Microsoft claims fixes the system freeze, I have yet to get Anniversary update to work correctly. Freezes my entire machine a few minutes after login. Here's hoping there's an update to the update to the update.

  3. Into Darkness on George Takei Opposes Gay Sulu In 'Star Trek Beyond' (hollywoodreporter.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure the Enterprise being able to travel underwater in Into Darkness is more of a "a twisting of Gene's creation".

  4. A big fan of quitting without notice on Ask Slashdot: Is It Ever OK To Quit Without Giving Notice? · · Score: 1

    I've quit without notice twice. In both cases the employers were maliciously incompetent--I was sure I wanted to burn the bridge, sink the boats, and raze the village. The last thing I wanted was a good reference from these people. In both cases, the companies went out of business--shocker.

    In other cases I've given a month+ notice because I worked for great people and cool companies, I just had found a better opportunity.

  5. Re:Indies are just pioneers on Sorry, Indie Devs -- Pop Apps Are the Future of App Store (imore.com) · · Score: 1

    Or my favorite: "Pioneers get arrows in the back."

  6. Re:Hands On? on HoloLens For Developers Available For Pre-Order (thestack.com) · · Score: 1

    Heh--no NDA with the public demo! They had invite only demo events all around the country. I wrote up a review of it here:

    http://ralphbarbagallo.com/201...

  7. Re:Hands On? on HoloLens For Developers Available For Pre-Order (thestack.com) · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've spent a decent amount of time with HoloLens including trying out the included apps and I can say this is very impressive. The small FOV makes it hard to use as an extra (infinite) set of monitors. But you can definitely get the feel for how this future will work from this device--it's surprisingly fast, lightweight, and produces some great looking graphics.

    You can indeed slap windows in the real world and they'll stay there forever. And, people/objects in the real world will occlude your windows when they move in front of it.

    It's really kind of awesome.

  8. Uh, not much of a leak on Microsoft Leaks New HoloLens Details (mashable.com) · · Score: 1

    Microsoft told me this during the public demos they gave out a few months back. This isn't secret information.

    BTW it's awesome and really works--it has a low FOV, but you kind of forget about it. One question I couldn't get answered....is it running Windows RT? It's the only way I figure they can get that much battery life out of Windows on a chipset that fits in a headset.

  9. I have an idea for an app.... on Gigster Wants To Be the Uber of Software Development (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Every time someone says to me, "You make apps?? I have this idea..." I'll just refer them to this site whether it's good or not. I just need an effective way to shut down these conversations immediately.

  10. One critical innovation is necessary on Even the CEO's Job Is Susceptible To Automation, McKinsey Report Says (networkworld.com) · · Score: 5, Funny

    This will only happen when they can make robots powered by cocaine.

  11. Uh....not quite on Are We Reaching the Electric Car Tipping Point? · · Score: 1

    I don't know where the tipping point is, but having owned an EV (well, a Volt) for a year I can say it's not any time soon. Here in California, electricity is as expensive (if not more so) than gas. There's still sparse charging infrastructure, and even if there wasn't--until you can get at least 50% of a charge in the same amount of time it takes to fill a gas car's tank up, I don't think we'll see this tipping point. It still takes 30 minutes to "quick charge" a Leaf. Otherwise, EV use will still require owning a home to have your own high-speed charger, and the concept home ownership is a relic of the past for most people aside from the extremely rich (for whom a Tesla is the equivalent of a Toyota Corolla).

  12. Re:Not Holograms on Microsoft Announces Windows Holographic Platform · · Score: 2

    I think Microsoft may be able to get away with this on a technicality because the waveguide used in the glasses may be a holographic material. Kind of like this http://physicsworld.com/cws/ar...

  13. Re:Contracts on How Mission Creep Killed a Gaming Studio · · Score: 2

    There's just not a lot of funding sources for games--this is likely the only deal they could get of this size.

    Unfortunately, it's common for publishers to demand radical changes in game projecgts without any schedule or budget modification. This has sunk many studios--it's one of the reasons why there aren't many mid-sized game studios left. Large publishers always prioritize their internal projects--external developers get the shaft.

  14. Blame Apple on Kinect For Windows Is Dead; Long Live Kinect For Windows Via USB · · Score: 1

    Apple bought Primesense, which makes the sensor in the original Kinect. I bet they can't meet demand because they cant get the chips anymore. The Kinect 2 is a totally different tech. Maybe they'll sell a Windows version of that?

  15. MavenLink on Ask Slashdot: Issue Tracker For Non-Engineers? · · Score: 1

    I use MavenLink to track projects for non programmers (artists on m games, mostly). It's pretty straightforward--you pay a monthly fee per user.

  16. Foveated rendering on Smart Rendering For Virtual Reality · · Score: 1

    Regardless of lens quality, "foveated rendering" is useful for reducing rendering complexity of stuff in your peripheral vision you don't really see. But I think VR/AR Is hitting the wall with how good you can make LCD screens smashed up against your eyes look. Virtual Retina Displays seem MUCH sharper to me. Tried an Avegant Glyph awhile back and the detail was pretty great. It's super frustrating in Oculus to not be able to read text unless you move your head so that it's positioned in the center of the lens.

  17. There's a whole industry based around Elite Panic on Davos 2015: Less Innovation, More Regulation, More Unrest. Run Away! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A friend of mine got into reading investment books targeted at the extremely wealthy. They were pretty funny. These books had to trump up nearly impossible end of days events and then promote investment strategies that will keep the reader amongst the 1% when half the world's population dies from a space disease delivered by a comet impact or some other highly unlikely scenario. Elite Panic is big business.

    Maybe the new path to the middle class will be in selling doomsday bunkers to paranoid trillionaires.

  18. Re:I don't buy it. on Hands On With Microsoft's Holographic Goggles · · Score: 1

    It seems from reading the announcement, that this uses some kind of Virtual Retina Display--kind of like the Avegant Glyph. Basically painting light on your retina--with this technique, you can't block light only paint over it. (as far as I know) I'm sure TOP MEN are working on opaque VRD tech though. I haven't any myself.

  19. Re:I don't buy it. on Hands On With Microsoft's Holographic Goggles · · Score: 1

    All in the realm of possibility. You can get precise head tracking with a combination of optical and depth sensors fused with compass and gyro sensors. I haven't tried this device, but have seen promising results from similar tech.

    The video card doesn't have to be very powerful. In fact, since you aren't rendering a background you can devote all of your video card's power to the virtual objects.

    Projecting solid images on a transparent display--now THAT'S a trick.

    I can't wait to try these.

  20. Re:Still pretty affordable on Is the Tesla Model 3 Actually Going To Cost $50,000? · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not necessarily true in LA because of the way electricity is billed. If you are going for pure usage based--you will easily blow through tier 4 usage limits when charging an EV every night. This brings you into the 34 cents per kwh level. (in Los Angeles) Which also is what the rest of your house will be billed at too. This also doesn't include taxes and so-called "delivery charges" which may bring your electricity into the 50 cents per kwh range. My Volt takes like 12-14 kwh to charge. And I get maybe 40 miles range on that. So that's like $4-4.50 to charge. Maybe $6 if you add in all the fees added on top of it. I get the equivalent of a little over a gallon of premium gas in range--so maybe $5-6 of gas for $4-6 worth of electricity. I suspect the Tesla gets more miles per kwh than the Volt, though. The only way to really save money on charging your car is to get a separate meter to your garage, and have that meter billed at the time of day rate--so during the day it's 34 cents and at night (like midnight to 9 AM or something) it's 11 cents kwh. And charge only at night.

  21. Re:Still pretty affordable on Is the Tesla Model 3 Actually Going To Cost $50,000? · · Score: 1

    Thing is, in California electricity costs almost the same as gas. EVs in California are mostly about HOV lane access, carbon footprint, or status--not really cost savings.

  22. Google Voice probably lives... on Goodbye, Google Voice · · Score: 1

    I was convinced Google Voice was next on the chopping block after they canned reader. The iOS app hasn't been updated in over a year, and they broke gmail GVoice calls awhile back. But they've now added Google Voice support to Hangouts, which leads me or believe it's going to morph into a Hangouts feature instead of a standalone service.

  23. Didn't they already try this with the VUE? on The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM" · · Score: 1

    I'm lazy and don't know how to actually make coffee. In fact, I didn't drink coffee regularly until the first Keurig came out. It's like 5X more expensive than brewing your own, but 100X more convenient.

    But they already tried to come out with a DRM'ed successor to the Keurig called VUE and it totally flopped. The coffee was more expensive, and the machine just had a bunch of useless options making it not much better than the regular Keurig with much cheaper K-Cups.

  24. Can it display black? on MIT Develops Inexpensive Transparent Display Using Nanoparticles · · Score: 2

    I'm curious if this can display black. One big problem with AR glass displays is drawing the color black. This could be a big a pretty big deal for AR glasses!

  25. uWInk on Google Wants Patent On Splitting Restaurant Bills · · Score: 1

    Seems like prior art would be Nolan Bushnell's uWink restaurants. They were around the LA area, and had macs built into the tables you could order from. At the end of the meal you could select which of the items on the bill were yours and swipe a card to pay your share. Food was pretty weak, though!