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User: shawnmchorse

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  1. Re:bad summary on POV-Ray Is Now FLOSS · · Score: 4, Informative

    Very old timers remember using DKBTrace before it turned into POV-Ray. I actually called the "You Can Call Me Ray" BBS that originally hosted all of this, too. It's nice sometimes when a project like this from a completely different era is still alive and kicking.

  2. Better quality from game consoles on Aging Consoles Find New Life As Video Streamers · · Score: 1

    I just recently started using my Xbox 360 for streaming Netflix, primarily because it supports 5.1 sound but also because of the better interface. My blu-ray player will do streaming also, but is rather more limited and only does stereo. The downside though is that Microsoft requires you to have an Xbox Live Gold account to do this, which is a whole other subscription on top of the Netflix subscription.

  3. $12.5 Bill on Google To Acquire Motorola Mobility For $12.5 Bill · · Score: 0

    And here I was wondering what exactly a $12.5 bill looked like. Or if it was a custom bill printed just for this transaction, with someone from Google instead of a U.S. President.

  4. Thank you for lowering my monthly fee on Netflix Announces Streaming Only Plans and Higher Prices for DVDs · · Score: 1

    My price dropped $4/month by switching to a DVD/Blu-Ray only plan, getting rid of the streaming option that I never actually use. The streaming was too annoying for me to use in practice, really. Thank you Netflix and Slashdot!

  5. Validation on DC Reboots Universe · · Score: 1

    This just validates my long held view that DC never publishes much of anything worth reading in the first place.

  6. Alamo Drafthouse on Google Patent Proposes $2 Fee To Skip Commercials · · Score: 4, Informative

    Case in point: The Alamo Drafthouse. They play first run movies (as well as cult films and other such), serve food and alcohol, and have actual pre-show video entertainment (not commercials). If a movie isn't playing at the Drafthouse, I generally don't bother going. It's not worth putting up with general obnoxiousness of the large corporate theater chains like Cinemark.

  7. Time to upgrade the home network? on Google's Experimental Fiber Network · · Score: 1

    Almost everything inside my house is still running at 100Mbps (or less, over 802.11g/n wireless bridges). And even then, my router still melts if I actually let BitTorrent run full out. I sense a lot of upgrades needed before I could even come close to taking full advantage of a 1Gbps line.

  8. Re:I don't have a degree... on Is Programming a Lucrative Profession? · · Score: 1

    $87k here, and no degree either (I dropped out of college three separate times). Finding that first programming position was quite difficult. It was mostly a matter of finding a company willing to pay me little (~$30k) in exchange for the fact that I had no job experience and no degree. Once I had two years work experience there (with a couple of raises), I moved to another company and doubled my salary overnight.

    The lack of a degree never really came up again, once I had a good amount of work experience. There are some positions where having a degree is an absolute requirement, but most of them are with state level government or similar... and are probably places I wouldn't really want to work anyway.

  9. Re:I see the other end of this problem rather ofte on Best Way To Clear Your Name Online? · · Score: 1

    Why would I need to do any of this? Cast members are performing on stage in a public place, with no reasonable expectation of privacy whatsoever. Audience members are allowed to take all the photos they like as well. Should every audience member also be required to jump through these hoops before being allowed to post photos they took online somewhere?

  10. I see the other end of this problem rather often on Best Way To Clear Your Name Online? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm a long-term Rocky Horror Picture Show cast member, and I run a web site for our local cast in Austin. I've been running this web site for over a decade now.

    Cast members are frequently very interested to see photographs of themselves performing in the show. And since it's Rocky Horror, they're usually wearing lingerie of some sort. At the time the photos are posted, they're invariably very excited about this. Especially because I take pride in my photography, and most people haven't seen photos of themselves prior to this that someone had actually put significant work into.

    A few years later though, these same people have frequently quit the cast, possibly graduated from college, and moved on to other activities. They may decide they want to apply for jobs in education, as music minister of a church, etc. They do some vanity searching on Google and are shocked... shocked I tell you!... that the Rocky Horror cast web site is still online and kicking with what had been posted some years previously.

    Now keep in mind this is a hobby web site that I do purely for the enjoyment of myself and other cast members. It's done in my spare time, and I've always paid for it out of pocket.

    I'm sure I could honor requests to remove all of these photos, but I simply don't want to. It involves a lot of time and effort on my end, to accomplish something that's actively taking away from things I take pride in myself. I get probably a half dozen requests per year on average at this point all basically saying the same thing: "Take down my photos now! You're causing damage to my reputation!". At some point I just had to say to hell with them all and whip up a form letter response saying "Sorry, but I'm just not going to do anything about it".

  11. Re:Well said on Go, Google's New Open Source Programming Language · · Score: 1

    With the board game you basically have to search for the Chinese and/or Korean name equivalents instead, which are "weiqi" and "baduk". Perhaps Google Asia can can come up with different names that people can actually search for also...:-)

  12. Reforms? on CRIA, MPAA Demand Expanded DMCA For Canada · · Score: 1

    Why the hell would adding draconian laws favorable only to certain industries be called "reforms"?

  13. Re:Are you freaking kidding me? on 26 Years Old and Can't Write In Cursive · · Score: 1

    I'm a bit younger (34), but yes... I've never used cursive as an adult. In fact while I was still in high school I stopped competing in UIL spelling contests because of the requirement that all the words you spelled be written in cursive. If you printed the word (and spelled it correctly), it was still counted as wrong. I thought that was insane, so I stopped bothering with it.

  14. I'd normally side with the family, but... on LoTR Lawsuit Threatens Hobbit Production · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If it weren't for the deal that J.R.R. made with Saul Zaentz way back when, we wouldn't have any of the Lord of the Rings movies in the first place. Nor the Lord of the Rings Online game (which I happen to play). Nor any number of other things that may have first turned people on to Tolkien, including the old pen and paper Middle Earth RPG system.

    Christopher Tolkien has had control over the rights to things like The Silmarillion, and is notoriously limited in what he'll allow people to do in relation to it. I'd hate to think of what would happen (or more to the point, not happen) if he were able to somehow get back control over The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings also.

  15. Last I checked, I couldn't upgrade on YouTube Phasing Out Support For IE6 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IE7 doesn't run on Windows 2000.

  16. Was encouraged to do this in credit card industry on Verizon Employees Fired For Snooping Obama's Record · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to work doing telephone customer service for First USA Bank. In our training class, they actually encouraged us to look up the accounts of random celebrities. My whole class would come up with names and type them in to see if they had an account with us. We'd also frequently show each other particularly bad credit reports that came up on applications.

  17. I found a start-up company on Getting Hired As an Entry-Level Programmer? · · Score: 1

    I didn't even finish my CS degree, and now have a decade of work experience programming. My first company was a small start-up that couldn't afford to pay much and was willing to accept my insistence that I could do the job they needed. Yes, my salary started at $30k. Two years later at the same company, it was $45k. And with that two years of work experience I found a job at a new company... for $75k. It worked for me, at least!

  18. And it requires some thought! on How Do Geeks Exercise? · · Score: 3, Informative

    The primary reasons martial arts are my preferred form of exercise:

    1. You have to actually think about what you're doing quite often. You're not just doing mindless aerobics.
    2. The group situation pushes you farther than you'd normally push yourself, and encourages you to reach new plateaus.
    3. Classes are generally directed at all times. It's kind of like having personal trainers with you at all times, in that there's always a series of directed activities and you're not casting about for what to do next.

    With that said, there are MANY bad martial arts schools out there. I generally avoid any place that doesn't seem to have any women or older men participating, that sees fit to display huge numbers of trophies on entry, or that has a master whose personality I don't think I could get along with. There are a lot of arrogant pricks in the martial arts world, and there's no need to pay for and encourage them. Similarly, there are plenty of schools out there that seem to exist so that young 20s males can beat the crap out of each other. Let them... and go somewhere else.

  19. Call them and tell them to put a stop to this on New FISA Bill Would Grant Telcoms Immunity; Vote Is Tomorrow · · Score: 2, Informative
    Appropriate info copied from DailyKos:

    Call Barack Obama and urge him to make a public statement reiterating his opposition to telco amnesty. His opposition could kill this deal: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260

    Call Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal: Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300

    Call Nancy Pelosi and urge her to pull the bill from the House schedule: Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259

    Call your representative and tell them to vote no on the FISA rewrite tomorrow.
  20. Re:maxmind.com on How To Clean Up Incorrect Geolocation Information? · · Score: 1

    Every web application I've ever used that did geotargeting used the MaxMind databases. I'd certainly recommend contacting them.

  21. Re:Are you crazy on Getting Rid of Staff With High Access? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have you ever had nothing to do at work for that long? I can handle surfing the Internet at work for maybe a week. After that, the boredom is excruciating. Believe me, being completely ignored by your company can sometimes be almost as bad as other things.

  22. Please let Apple software update be on there... on The Most Annoying Software Out There · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm almost to the point where I want to remove Quicktime from all of my machines, because I'm so tired of being asked to "upgrade" to Safari and iTunes.

  23. Re:Age of conan has been a blast on Age of Conan's "Kinda" Launch and Massive Pre-Orders · · Score: 1

    A lot of early adopters in MMO sound like this. Wait a bit, and you'll see them posting something very similar about Warhammer and how it blows away Age of Conan.

  24. Re:No, there is pvp for both pve and pvp on Age of Conan's "Kinda" Launch and Massive Pre-Orders · · Score: 1

    "pve server will have the same kind of endgame pvp"

    That's what tells me I won't be happy there. I liked Dark Age of Camelot an awful lot, but that 'endgame pvp' phrase was what ended up killing it for me. Too many changes were made based on the PvP side of the game that affected me negatively, despite the fact that I didn't participate in it.

  25. Re:Please dont comment without knowing about on Age of Conan's "Kinda" Launch and Massive Pre-Orders · · Score: 1

    The thing is, I've seen this sort of thing with Dark Age of Camelot. I actually played on a PvE-only (cooperative) server, which had no PvP of any kind other than duels. And yet, PvP affected me on a constant basis. Powers that were too good in PvP would be "adjusted" (aka nerfed). Powers would be added that were really only useful in PvP play. Etc. Everything I've seen about Age of Conan leads me to believe that they'll be concentrating more on PvP play, and there's no reason for me to believe that there won't be similar trickle down problems there. I'm much happier with games where PvP is just a sideline.