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User: PhilHibbs

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Comments · 2,928

  1. Re:Coming from an author... on Copyright Lobby Targets "Pirate Bay For Books" · · Score: 1

    If you mail something to me, unsolicited, it's mine.

  2. Wow, HYPERlinks! on Highlights From the 2009 Google Summer of Code · · Score: 1

    Don't we just call them "links" nowadays?

  3. Re:So much for pirate ethics on How Piracy Affected the Launch of Demigod · · Score: 1

    This example muddies the waters, though, because the non-purchasers are using the company's server resources without having paid them any money.

  4. Re:WoW upside-down camera on Strange Glitches In Games · · Score: 1

    Triple-boxer here... never had that happen to me.

    I believe I have smart terrain following turned off. My guess is that one of the "automagical" camera features along those lines is to blame.

    I don't have any fancy camera options either. It usually happens when I'm flying and do a sharp turn to land in an enclosed area like a cave or building, but it's only happened two or three times.

  5. WoW upside-down camera on Strange Glitches In Games · · Score: 1

    I dualbox, with one character on /follow to the other most of the time, and occasionally the second character's camera ends up upside-down. I can't click through to the article due to work restrictions, but the cryptic clue made me think of this.

  6. Re:This is the way all info should go on Questions Linger Over Google Book Rights Registry · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh, I see, you've written so many books there's no possible way you can remember them all to fill out a web form for each one.

    So far, Google is the only company doing this. But what if another company starts doing this in China, another one in Russia, another one in South America, another one in South Africa, one in Israel, etc., how many web forms in how many languages are you prepared to fill in for each of your books? You go on from saying how simple it is to then say that other companies should be able to get into the same game, but you don't seem to have thought it through.

  7. Further Reading on Is That "Sexting" Pic Illegal? A Scientific Test · · Score: 1

    This article reminded me of the book "An introduction to general systems thinking" by Gerald Weinberg. Wikipdia has an article on systems thinking.

  8. Re:This is nothing. on Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons · · Score: 1

    Planks come in a variety of lengths, but there is only one Planck length

  9. Re:This is nothing. on Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If the feedback mechanisms are synchronised then they might behave differently to if they are asynchronous. There might be subtleties in the feedback effects that only show up in an asynchronous environment. I don't know, it's just a suspicion, but the only way to demonstrate one way or the other is to try an asynchronous approach and see if the results differ significantly to a clocked digital simulation.

  10. Re:This is nothing. on Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mod parent up. Any Turing-complete computing device, given enough memory and storage, can replicate anything this hardware can do.

    A digital system can never perfectly replicate an analog system, and a clock-driven system can never perfectly replicate an asynchronous system.

  11. Re:This is nothing. on Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons · · Score: 1

    It's not software emulation, it's analog hardware with real-time asynchronous feedback. Also, I'm not sure that it will help with modelling real systems, as you can't pause and save and restore a real-time asynchronous system.

  12. Re:A history lesson on Activists Use Wikipedia To Test Aussie Net Censors · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oops I'm wrong, they left the link in there, my bad.

  13. Re:There are some things we shouldn't see on Activists Use Wikipedia To Test Aussie Net Censors · · Score: 1

    Sorry, how can you possibly link an aborted fetus to pornography?

    Because it's grotesque. Pornography doesn't just mean sex, it also covers extreme violence. Basically it's anything that the mainstream find objectionable but some minority might find fascinating or exciting. For example, the photos of Princess Diana after the car crash are pornographic in the second meaning here.

  14. Re:A history lesson on Activists Use Wikipedia To Test Aussie Net Censors · · Score: 1

    Au contraire, Wikipedia usually stands like a rock and is not swayed in either direction. If something is included in good faith, then any attempt to remove it is treated harshly. On the other hand, if something that has been censored elsewhere is included purely in order to make a point about censorship, it is relentlessly removed despite any arguments that the includers make as to the material's relevance to the article. This case falls into the latter category. Wikipedia does not like to be used as a test case.

  15. Re:dead on arrival on Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional 2nd Ed · · Score: 1

    Are there any decent books on 2.6 yet? It's been out for 5 months, that's not long in publishing cycle terms.

  16. Re:Why use Gimp ? on Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional 2nd Ed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What the author of the review doesn't explain is the niche Gimp fills.

    He is not reviewing GIMP, he is reviewing a book about it, so that kind of commentary is outside the scope of this book review.

  17. Re:Statitics on Believable Stupidity In Game AI · · Score: 2, Informative

    Shooting accuracy is easy and has been standard in bot AI since forever.

  18. Re:Easy solution on Believable Stupidity In Game AI · · Score: 1

    I remember one of the best bots add-ons for Quake had "kill emotes" that you could customise for specific bots.

  19. Cash + assets = $6M on Sun In Talks To Be Acquired By IBM · · Score: 0

    They have $3M in cash and $3M in property, so $6.5M isn't actually over-valuing them, the market is under-valuing them if that's a 100% premium over their market cap.

  20. Re:The title should read... on UK Gov. Clueless About Own Internet Blacklist · · Score: 1

    From TFA:

    "We sent our questions over to the Home Office a day before the interview took place, to give them plenty of time to prepare."

  21. Re:The simple one. on What Filters Are Right For Kids? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That isn't going to help against accidental clicks on spam links that take you to places you didn't want to go. What the OP wants is something that prevents accidental exposure to offensive content.

  22. 403 Forbidden on Names of Advisors Cleared To Access ACTA Documents · · Score: 1

    I can't even access the blog, I get "403 Forbidden"!

  23. Re:Illegal and unethical to boot! on BBC Hijacks 22,000 PCs In Botnet Demonstration · · Score: 1

    Could a journalist kill the Queen to demonstrate a flaw in her security?

    Sure, why not? Sheesh. *Plonk*

  24. Re:It gets better on BBC Hijacks 22,000 PCs In Botnet Demonstration · · Score: 1

    (ha like it will ever go to court).

    It shouldn't go to court, it's a legitimate journalistic investigation. Ever heard of "chilling effect"? I'm astonished at the number of people in this forum advocating dragging journalists into court.

  25. Re:It gets better on BBC Hijacks 22,000 PCs In Botnet Demonstration · · Score: 1

    Well it's use of unauthorised computers for further unauthorised activity (unless they asked MS and Google first)...

    As I've already said, you might be right on the first point but not the second, I don't need to ask Google or Microsoft's permission to send as many emails as I want to my own Gmail or Hotmail account.