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  1. So quiet you can hear the eggs crackle on Should Game Consoles Make Breakfast, Too? · · Score: 1
    Turn it on its side, and crank Doom 3 up to 1600x1200 and you'd definitely have fried eggs on the Hush PC

    Could be hard to get off those fin shaped cooking plates though.

  2. Hide the content on Wired on Defeating the Olympics Censorship · · Score: 3, Funny
    Just make sure there is an American English version and an English English title.

    OlympicsInColor.com would be for the American viewers and OlympicsInColour.co.uk would be the unfettered site. Simple, cheap, well, perhaps not effective in any way, but worth a shot.

    Security thorugh obscurity is always the best, no matter what those GnuPG people tell you. After all the biggest software company in the world is a strong advocate of this.

  3. Re:Go BBC! - I worry for it though on BBC Begins Open-Source Streaming Challenge · · Score: 1
    I agree with the parent poster.

    I'm originally from Australia, and we have advert breaks every 14.9997 minutes or less. Here in the UK there is sooo much less advertising. For every Eastenders there is a Panorama to make up for it.

    This codec is another good step. The new Director has ordered a financial audit. How is this codec going to fare?? Hopefully well. It doesn't show in this link to the Independent web version, but the print edition says the:

    total broadcasting expenditure is £2.99bn
    revenue from licence: £2.8 bn
    average staff salary: £37,275.62 wow!

  4. APIs and Libraries on The "Return" of Java Discussed · · Score: 5, Interesting
    CPAN was a real winner for Perl back in the early days of the web. Want SMTP? Net::SMTP. Want to format that email response? Text::AutoFormat. Easy templates? Template::Toolkit.

    Java now has an astounding array of libraries to use these days. Look at for some good ones.

  5. In other news... on Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The Whitehouse has announced President George W Bush will be taking less holidays

  6. Fantastic! on Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics · · Score: 1
    Those Complete Works of Shakespeare should be hot off the typewriters any minute!

    Damn lazy-arse monkeys have been procrastinating all these years.

  7. Re:Ironic... on Public Markets For Predicting Google's Market Cap · · Score: 1
    A lot of markets are not based on random data that you assert. Take Commodities such as Wheat. There the price can be based on such things as the amount of sunshine expected. There are some Commodities' Traders who have live weather feeds to price options.

    It's like gambling on someone else playing the slot machine. o.O O.o What's the point?

    So to use your example against you, it's like knowing that a slot machine has a higher payoff if the Casino Air Conditioning temperature falls below a certain point, and all the fat people just left the building.

  8. Maths on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Population of America 250 Million
    Population of World 5000+ Million, to use the American version of a Billion.

    That comes to 5%. So the 6% figure says you have 20% more than the world average.

    That's not too shabby. Especially as you have all the wealth as well. Too bad about all that polution.

  9. Re:What do you expect?? on VoIP Terms of Service May Surprise You · · Score: 1
    I said that Vonage conversation trapped a paedophile.

    I meant that it could be justified if it provided the evidence to put him away, not to casually overhear them.

  10. Re:What do you expect?? on VoIP Terms of Service May Surprise You · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    This is a tad off-topic:

    I do support greater parental responsibility, but the fact is, not all children fall under the mother-father parenting model. Perhaps your dad split when you were young, perhaps they died from terminal flatulence. Perhaps your struggling single father, doesn't have time to watch you 24/7 as well as working 4 jobs to try to feed your face.

    It is societies responsibility to ensure the safety of children as well as the parents.

  11. Re:What do you expect?? on VoIP Terms of Service May Surprise You · · Score: 1
    Okay, so they've got a good covering argument there

    But they've got an even better one waiting, that you just stepped into... What would you do about the problem of paedophiles on the internet? The silence and the subsequent flapping whilst you think of a solution is more ammunition for their argument.

    Everyone needs a complete solution and not just a one sided argument.

    Back to the topic though, Laws are for governments to make, and not private companies, and again, Vonage et alia are providing that full disclosure. Would you prefer they kept it qiet and secretly handed it over? I'm sure governments could pass laws to ensure you never found out who provided the information.

  12. What do you expect?? on VoIP Terms of Service May Surprise You · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Traditional Telcos are governed by 'Traditional Laws' built up over a long period of time

    These pioneers exist on the forefront of legal boundaries. A few years ago there was debate about whether foreign countries selling goods over the internet were bound by laws at the point of purchase or the location of the vendor.

    VOIP have the same problem of uncertain legal comeback. What happens if you're making a call to/through China, and Beijing wants to have a listen? A major international dispute could erupt, and these companies don't want to be caught in the middle. These laws haven't even solidied in any one country, let alone across borders

    It's not that they want to be Big Brother, it's just if Uncle Sam comes asking, they've let you know that they could hand over the information.

    If a Vonage conversation trapped a paedophile who was grooming children, that's a pretty darn good argument for handing over the evidence. Maybe [the tapping] not legal in some countries, but what about others?

    People who know how to construct tin foil hats should use encryption, plain and simple.

  13. Star Wars Syndrome on Dr Who, Daleks Kiss And Make Up · · Score: 1
    The Terry Nation estate was worried about diluting the Daleks' brand. It is my fear that the BBC writers may Lucas them into laughable infamy. I'm sure the BBC solved this problem with £££ and not editorial guarantees.

    White coloured 'good Dalek' converts from Evil to save the day at the last minute, sacrificing itself at the same time. [Shudder]

  14. Re:To: Mr Hoegner on City of Munich Freezes Its Linux Migration · · Score: 1
    The goal here is avert the EU from passing a directive legitimizing and legalizing software patents themselves.

    I have to disagree. Invlidation/avoidance is the only answer, because one tricky part of Patent law is that if a Patent infringing product is re-imported into a Patent protection zone, it can be stopped.

    So Munich could use fine, but if they packaged something and imported it to the US, say via Java, it could be subject to violations.

    This could aspect is what is the deterent. It is Munichs duty to its electors to sit back, draw a breath and see what the issues are and what the implications are for the future. This sounds expensive and I'm glad they're doing it.

  15. Re:This is a Good Thing(tm) on City of Munich Freezes Its Linux Migration · · Score: 1
    Oh yeah, the political party has already pegged the size as 50 issues.

    This is a great help to know that it is not 10K or 1000 problems.

  16. This is a Good Thing(tm) on City of Munich Freezes Its Linux Migration · · Score: 1
    These issues will arise. They may suck, they may be based on faulty capitalism, but they will arise.

    If Munich investigates there will be a lot of benefit to everyone, because:

    1. It is a governmental body and nominally objective
    2. All the outcomes, including all the argumentation leading to the outcomes will be published in the public domain. This would not occur in a private enterprise
    3.a) if it does still go ahead, it will open the foodgates to others accepting the argumentation in 2.
    b) if it fails, then all the failing points will be clearly marked as points to work on, approximating the size of the task and cutting down the issues to the core points. Advocates will have to spend less time with Lawyers to sift to the same result.

    Thanks Munich, thanks Munich taxpayers!

    Patents may suck, but there are ways to address problems, not just bemoan that they exist.

  17. Reception enhancing device on DEFCON WiFi Shootout Winners Set A Land Record · · Score: 1
    They must have been wind assisted.

    Seriously, at what stage does Planetary alignment, Solar Flares or wind direction start to have a bigger effect than technology??

    I did quite a few Elec Eng subjects as part of my degree, and this stuff seems mind boggling.

  18. Foreign armies adopting the same strategy on Net Addiction Gets Finnish Soldiers Out Of Army · · Score: 2, Funny

    If a foreign Army did this they'd be *cough* Finnished [ducks for cover]

  19. Australia is always about Defense and Farmers on Australia to Get Software Patents and Anti-Circumvention Laws · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If you fill out an Australian GST registration for a new company the first box is:

    1. Are you a Primary Producer? [read Farmers and Miners]

    The Primary Producers have so much sway even in this day and age. They get more access to sell Tin/ Chrome/ Wool/ Lamb and the technology and intellectual capital gets shoved under the rug.

    This is what has occurred here.

    Australia is entirely dependent on US for defence as well. The Australian Army has enough ammunition for 3-5 days of full combat. There is almost always a few days lead time before invasions, and these two combined is designed for enough time for the US to step in and back us up. This is why Australia is so closely aligned with the US.

    Australia is content having the Brain Drain. To the politicians on both sides, the net benefit outweighs the loss of innovation.

  20. Sounds interesting, but they need not manufacture on Sun Working to Eliminate Circuit Boards · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Looks like they could license this ARM style. There's a helluva lot of cross industry licensing, enforced by the ever popular Patent System.

    As an aside, I guess I'll have to stop Gaff Taping my CPU into the socket.

  21. Sabre Rattling on Vaccinated Against Vices? · · Score: 1
    1. Report due out next March
    2. Election coming very soon
    3. Sensationalist public policy distracts from disasterous causus belli
    4. Discussion is good
    5. Comedians always need new good material

    They've no intention of implementing this at all. They couldn't even reform the Lord Chancellor's role without it getting voted out in the House of Lords. There is a difference between debate and anything being tabled. Here in Britain, and other Westminster Parliament system countries, like Australia, there is no method of sneaking any motions past the keeper, as Mike Moore sensationalises that the American system permits.

  22. Ridiculous suggestion on Reverse Firewalls As An Anti-Spam Tool · · Score: 1
    When 99% of spam comes from these guys, i don't see why our rights should be curtailed or monitored for acceptible use.

    They already have this. For internal accounting they keep track of everything traffic related, ports, amounts, frequency. If you abuse it, they send you a letter. This is governed by laws [in most sensible democracies].

    Stop eroding our rights under a smokescreen of SPAM prevention.

  23. Re:I think it hasn't been explored enough on Game with God · · Score: 1
    Gershom Scolem says in On the Mystical Shape of the G-dhead that the Sephiroth is 10 parts of the shape of G-d. It is often illustrated like this Sefiroth Diagram. It gets weirder from there.

    If there's space for Madonna in the Kabbala, then I'm sure there's space for a decent FPS where you frag Golem's in Prague. The manual for the Kabbala game might take several years to read though.

  24. Competition is good on New MusE Release, A Step Toward The Linux Studio · · Score: 1
    This can act as a fomenting gorund for new ideas that don't rely on expensive outlays to get equipment. Some of the best sound coders I ever worked with did their best stuff at 15/16 years old. Where you gonna dig the cash out for the professional stuff??

    These youngsters, or just destitute people with a passion need the access to tools such as this. The barrier to entry of closed source and cost prohibits these people from expressing their genius ideas [if any I accept].

    So if they code a brilliant idea here, the big players will take that and commercialize it. Stuff like open standards are all helped here.

    Keep up the good work!

  25. Recommend-a-newbie on Software Usability As A Technical Problem · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I think that people on the project need to volunteer friends, wives, parent to accomplish the user tests.

    This is the secret to open source stuff: drawing on the community skill. This method is just in a non 'programming-skill' oriented fashion

    If you get a Chilean developer to have his grandpa, who has no stereo vision, have half a look at it, then there'll be lots more important feedback, at least after Babelfish has done its work.