If I'm not wrong, the Barrett M82A1.50 rifles that the US military uses, was only meant to be used on equipment. For example, damaging radar dishes, or setting off identified landminds, or shooting the engine blocks of vehicles, etc. The weapon has been used on soldiers before (which was not supposed to happen) and if what I've read about it is correct, the rationale behind it is that the soldiers were trying to shoot the enemy soldiers' uniforms, helmets, etc. Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.
nah...they spent millions getting there, and getting the rocks back so its theirs.
i went to china and i stole a piece of brick i broke off the great wall of china. after paying the airfare to and fro, the brick is mine! now i have a piece of chinese culture sitting in my trophy cabinet, not to mention the loose iron bar i plucked off the base of the eiffel tower when i went there last year.
I live in Singapore, and VCDs have already been widely used in schools to replace VHS tapes, for quite some time now. If I'm not wrong, VCDs and CD-ROMs have already been in use in schools here since about 5 years ago.
I suspect the reason why the US has not yet widely adopted VCDs is due to the large size of the country, hence the disability to change standards every once in a while, as compared to Asian countries. This is probably also why the handphone standards in US still lag behind Asian countries in general, which normally use the GSM digital standard.
A good development, nonetheless. At least VCDs don't have all the restrictions like region coding or encryption that DVDs suffer from. No RIAA or MPAA or whatever to try to reap profits from the education system.
"A conventional movie works by flashing a series of 24 pictures on the screen every second, creating the illusion of motion. All Maxivision48 does is squeeze in 48 frames per second and doubles the speed of the projector.
The effect is twofold: The faster speed provides a stronger illusion and the shorter film exposure creates a sharper picture.
It's a simple change that filmmakers and industry analysts say makes a dramatic difference. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that watching a movie in Maxivision48 is like looking through a window at the world."
As far as I know, that's bullshit. Increasing the number of exposures to 48 per second instead of 24, would only reduce the trademark flickering of conventional film projectors.
The reason for this is that a technique called motion blur has been used for as long as I remember, to negate the low frame rate of normal movie projectors. Notice if you pause a movie during a high-motion scene, the image is blurred. This is done in order to create the illusion of motion even in a still frame.
A high-motion scene projected with a normal 24fps film projector definitely looks much more fluid than playing a high-paced game of quake with 24fps for this reason.
Basically, film makers have created the illusion of fluid motion within the constraints of only having 24 frames per second by using motion blur, and video games have created the illusion of fluid motion within the constraints of not having motion blur by increasing the frame rate to levels way beyond 24fps.
In view of this, I can see why "not a single theater or movie studio has invested in Goodhill's Maxivision48 technology". Technology? Overclocking conventional movie projectors to show 48fps instead of 24fps is not exactly "technology". I know if I owned a movie theater, I wouldn't pay for "technology" like this.
Alright, I just re-read the post I replied to and I don't believe I'm mistaken. I'll quote him for your sake:
"That wasn't the point I was making. I agree that the film cameras will pick up all the flashes but, from the stills camera's point of view, the flash will be insufficient to affect the outcome of the exposure and is, therefore, pointless."
What the poster stated obviously doesn't say that he was "poking fun at people who think that a tiny flash will somehow illuminate a giant outdoor area."
The poster's original post does imply what you mentioned, but not the post that I replied to specifically.
You should re-read my post and the post I replied to, since I think you are the who seems to be completely missing my point.
All I've said above though, was after giving you the benefit of the doubt that all you did was overlook the specific post I replied to, and not that you just completely missed the point. I hope I'm not mistaken in this aspect.
well, since the director was upset because the flashes would show up on the scenes taken and not because they would ruin the exposure, therefore you don't really have a point. you're addressing a concern that the director probably didn't have, no?
if i'm not wrong the helicopter was carrying the people filming the show, and it was just for a scene for the movie showing a bunch of empty and deserted streets.
neo wasn't fighting with agent smith in the helicopter since none of the actors were on site as many fans hoped they would be, as stated in the article.
Yup, but that's a small sacrifice to make for the superior quality to file size ratio (if its just for playback). I just had to vent out that bit of pent up anger at audio and videophiles, or maybe just elitists in general. It was just him referring to "crappy looking DivX" that got me up.
btw, I think 60GB hard drives are going for pretty cheap now....might be time to upgrade:)
I beg to differ in reference to your remark about DivX.
DivX only looks crappy if encoded crappily. Well-encoded DivX files look no different than the DVD or whatever it was copied from.
DivX is really just the mp3 of video. If well encoded, it is really undistinguishable from the original. Don't let audiophiles and videophiles tell you otherwise. 95% of them are elitists who can't really tell apart a non-compressed CD track and the 320kbit mp3 compressed version of it.
1.The reason hard drives have been getting hotter and noiser, is due to the rpm getting higher and higher, in order to increase the data transfer rate. Now, since what this new technology does is increase the density of data stored on the hard drive by about 10 times, and subsequently by almost 50 times, more data would be able to be read by the read/write heads of the hard drive in one pass. Therefore, the hard drives's data transfer rate would increase when operating at the same rpm as your current hard drive, without needing to get any faster. The data transfer rate would still be faster even if you slowed it down by a bit. So basically, the hard drive probably wouldn't get any hotter than what's available today, since there's no need for the rpm to increase and even if it does get faster (and thus, hotter), the noise and heat increase caused by the faster rpm would be well be worth it when considering the very substantial increase in the resulting data transfer rate.
A 5,400rpm 160GB hard drive would have a higher transfer rate than a 7,200rpm 20GB hard drive, assuming they both use the same number of discs and read-write heads, etc. If what IBM & GE predict comes true, then such a hard drive with the predicted initial 10 times increase in data density would only have to spin at around 540rpm, in order to get the data transfer rate as the 5,400rpm 160GB hard drive I mentioned earlier. This is of course assuming the storage capacity remains the same (160GB). Therefore, noise and heat would both go down since this imagined hard drive of mine would spin at one tenth the speed of a 5,400rpm hard drive, which is already considered slow now.
2.That's assuming you do store a terabyte on your laptop. And it does state in the article that the technology is predicted to be ready for the market by around 2008. By then, I think it would be very safe to assume that optical storage would have made substantial leaps and bounds by then. Most probably, by that time 27GB writable or re-writable blu-ray discs might have already become commonplace and backing up a terrabyte hard drive wouldn't be much harder than backing up a 45GB hard drive today with 700MB CD-R or CD-RW discs. Easier, in fact.
Basically, if this new technogloy works as planned, I really don't see how its going to pose any new problems that we don't already have with magnetic data storage. In fact it would more likely alleviate and lessen some of the problems we do have, such as the problems of noise and heat. Power consumption might go up though, due to the smaller footprint of the bits being stored and hence the stronger amplification needed to read the bit, though a lower rpm might make up for this (suspected) increase in power consumption. However I'm not too sure about this, so someone correct me or enlighten me if I'm wrong. Also, seek times might go up but then again, they will most probably have solved this problem as well by the time this new technology becomes available.
In conclusion, you either aren't familiar with how hard drives work, or haven't yet read the article properly. In either case, your fears are rather unfounded.
I'm living in Singapore, and when net access started becoming more and more common, proxy servers were implemented to censor certain porn sites like penthouse, etc.
For the most part, I don't really notice sites that are blocked, and it certainly doesn't do an effective job. Its most probably just lip service to "concerned parents" as usual, as is the case in Australia which the parent post suggests.
As a sidenote, all ISPs in Singapore require the use of proxy servers, except the SCV (Singapore Cable Vision) cable service, which does not block any sites.
A fuss was kicked up about it a few years ago, but after a while it died down and if I'm not wrong, sites are still not blocked through the cable service. Once the public outcry died out, so did any efforts to block those sites.
What's more, SCV is one of the most widely used broadband services, next to other ISPs that provide ADSL. Reason being, most people living in public housing, subscribe to the cable service as all public housing flats have cable access points. It was only recently that there were complaints about slow access due to the large amount of new subscribers to the SCV cable service, so its not as if SCV users make up a small percentage of net users, which would otherwise warrant the lack of censorship.
It just enforces my belief that the blocking of websites was merely just done just to please "concerned parents" because if they were really concerned, they would have made an effort to require SCV to filter out whatever sites the rest of the ISPs were filtering.
So long as the "concerned parents" (which make up the majority of voters) are happy, no one really cares. Internet censorship is one of many stupid laws that concerned parent voters have helped put in place, and this is not just in Singapore, I believe.
I personally think sound cards are over-rated. What's more important to a good audio setup is a set of good speakers.
The "sound card" I'm using now is the onboard AC97 sound on my mainboard, and I've hooked it up to a proper pair of hi-fi stereo speakers (NOT computer "multimedia" speakers) and it sounds better than any other audio setup that consist of expensive Creative Audigy sound cards and cool looking Altec Lansing speakers that don't sound half as good as they look.
I've had people listen to it and ask me if I'm using a Creative Audigy (or some other expensive sound card) and you should see the look on their faces when I tell them I'm using the onboard AC97 sound of my mainboard.
So my advice is, unless you're an avid gamer who needs the A3D or EAX sound or absolutely must have the 5.1 digital sound, you should just settle on a cheap sound card or the onboard sound if your mainboard has one, and invest the money saved on a good set of speakers.
yea.....i have to agree with you. i HATED LOTR, i had -no- interest in star wars episode 1 (i have the divx copy on my comp but i refuse to watch it), and i'm not all that keen on star wars episode 2 either. but that's just me:) you should check out "ghost in the shell though", i thought that was pretty good. and btw, fight club -was- a good show and the acting wasn't cheesy or phony. i'd dare say that the acting in LOTR was even more phony and the computer generated special effects were really cheesy.
is booking an entire movie theater this coming friday, for all the year 1, 2 and 3 students to go watch AOTC as a whole school, as part of their post-exam activities. I and the rest of the year 4 students don't get to go though, cos we still have more (major) exams coming up.
I'm not surprised if you get added to spam lists, seeing the way you just posted your email address here. Can you hear the spambots scuttling around already? doh....
Reading the mail that yahoo sent you is your problem, not yahoo's. Besides sending you an email informing you of the changes, what else do you expect them to do?? Call you up? Oh but then everyone will get even more pissed. All the people here complaining about yahoo being irresponsible, are just being self-righteous bigots. They don't seem to know how to look at their own actions before blaming everyone else.
And about the yahoo junk filters filtering out its own mail, isn't it a good thing? To me it shows that they are being rather transparent with regards to their policies about spam. If you don't want spam, they'll do their best to filter it from your inbox, even if its means filtering out their own spam, which they stand to lose money from. If they really are the big bullying megacorporation everyone likes to believe they are that doesn't give two hoots and a fuck about peoples' privacy, I think they would have already rigged the filters to allow only their spam mail through, doncha think so?
Next, how else do you expect them to make money off you? Yes free stuff is nice, as in like free beer but that's just a pipe dream. Income -has- to come from somewhere. if you aren't willing to make some sacrifices for the free service they offer you, then bug off; no one's forcing you to use their services. I think this sentiment has been echoed many times by many other posters already.
And lastly, I believe the reason they changed the default settings and sent an email notifying users of the changes and how to change it back if they wanted to, was to cash in on the large number of users who either don't care about the spam they get, can't be bothered to change the settings and don't care as well, or those who can see the tradeoff they're making and try to appreciate the service they're getting. Is anything really wrong with that in the business world? They saw an opportunity to generate more revenue, so they took it! Again, what did you expect them to do? Pretend they didn't see it and go into denial about the morality of it? I suppose the next time Ariel Sharon gets a chance to bomb Yassar Arafat, should he stop and ponder about the morality of it, and then pretend he didn't know about the opportunity?? Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying morality is wrong; just that for the most part in politics and business, its no different from free beer, in that its a pipe dream. I would find it nice as well if everyone wanted to just be a nice guy and shoo customers from his $5.00 hotdog stall to the $0.50 one down the street cos he felt bad. But do you think that's gonna happen? Me neither. So quit whining about it unless you have a better idea.
About hovercraft in the military, if i'm not wrong they're use mostly for transport, because they're just too damn noisy, and consume too much fuel. That's probably why you don't see many militaries having hovercraft in their arsenal, if the extra speed was really such a big plus when compared to its disadvantages.
The Singapore military or coast guard (sorry I forgot) has some in their inventory, and most of the time you can hear them coming before you actually see them. Definitely not a stealth ship of any sort:)
The army's new standard issue berets were mostly manufactured in China, as well as the US flags that were in sudden demand after the September 11th events.
If I'm not wrong, the nVidia chipets are made in Taiwan. Taiwan an enemy of the US? I seriously don't think so, buddy. If they were I don't think the US would have promised to send an aircraft carrier battle group should China try anything funny with Taiwan.
For AMD processors, I don't think they are manufactured in Malaysia; they are merely ASSEMBLED there, as stated on the processor packaging. Intel has been outsourcing the production(? not too sure about this) and assembly of their processors for a long time, to countries like the Phillipines and Malaysia. Malaysia held some small-scale exercies with the US military last year, and the Phillipines was a former US colony, and the US is now sending military aid to the Phillipines to help them combat terrorism there. Enemies? urmm.....haven't you been reading the news?
& just btw, the last time I visited China which was a few years go, most offices used MS Windows 3.1 (Chinese version, of course) and MS Windows 95. Chinese Communist RedHat Linux software? Linus Torvalds doesn't sound like a Chinese name to me and last time I checked he wasn't a Chinese mainland citizen.
Well, actually as far as I know, police departments already use airsoft games to simulate training, as a more cost-effective and realistic alternative to paintball or computer games.
For those who don't know what airsoft is, its a team based game very similar to paintball, except it focuses more on simulation, so players dress up in military fatigues, and the weapons are typically 1:1 scale replicas of real life weapons, like MP5s, M16s, etc, etc.
I almost wanted to post wanted to post a url to an airsoft website to let the slashdot effect screw them but decided against it:) try using google.
In the Singapore military though, computer simulations are used to train pilots, armour divisions, etc, but for army, they use laser devices attached to their rifles, which shoot lasers when blanks are fired through it, and you have to wear a vest with sensors on them.
In conclusion, I can see how computer simulations would serve as an effective and realistic form of training for pilots or drivers, but this doesn't hold true for foot soldiers. Humping a 50kg of equipment over a few miles and still having to have the energy and concentration required to engage in a firefight just isn't the same as holding your finger on the W button on your keyboard for half an hour and clicking your mouse button.
Yup.
A few years ago when the Hubble telescope was upgraded, the swapped the processor with an Intel 486 processor that had been retrofitted with shielding stuff, etc. I don't see why they should bother developing something when there's already a ready product on the market that works fine.
I think people would also be happier that their tax dollars are being spent on developing stuff that really needs developing, like new missles, weapons, rather than equipment that can already be bought off the shelf. Furthermore, I believe no amount of testing the military does can exceed the amount of testing that a graphics chip is subject to, when released to the millions of gamers in the consumer market.
i'm using a global win WBK68-II and its really really quiet...i haven't had my computer this quiet since i stopped using my PII450 with the stock intel hsf
its rated as supporting up to the xp2000+ so i'm guessing the performance should be more than adequate unless you overclock your processor a lot.
and btw 50 to 56 degrees is still pretty ok...your cpu isn't going to burn up anytime soon so don't worry
its only hot by overclocker standards. no offence to any of them but a lot of them are pretty clueless about the actual critical temperatures, etc, and just follow whatever those overclocking guides tell them.
cheers =]
Slashdot Mirror
If I'm not wrong, the Barrett M82A1 .50 rifles that the US military uses, was only meant to be used on equipment. For example, damaging radar dishes, or setting off identified landminds, or shooting the engine blocks of vehicles, etc. The weapon has been used on soldiers before (which was not supposed to happen) and if what I've read about it is correct, the rationale behind it is that the soldiers were trying to shoot the enemy soldiers' uniforms, helmets, etc. Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.
nah...they spent millions getting there, and getting the rocks back so its theirs.
i went to china and i stole a piece of brick i broke off the great wall of china. after paying the airfare to and fro, the brick is mine! now i have a piece of chinese culture sitting in my trophy cabinet, not to mention the loose iron bar i plucked off the base of the eiffel tower when i went there last year.
"or are you a MIB denying the existence of ali.."
no he didn't; everyone knows ali g is in da house.
I live in Singapore, and VCDs have already been widely used in schools to replace VHS tapes, for quite some time now. If I'm not wrong, VCDs and CD-ROMs have already been in use in schools here since about 5 years ago.
I suspect the reason why the US has not yet widely adopted VCDs is due to the large size of the country, hence the disability to change standards every once in a while, as compared to Asian countries. This is probably also why the handphone standards in US still lag behind Asian countries in general, which normally use the GSM digital standard.
A good development, nonetheless. At least VCDs don't have all the restrictions like region coding or encryption that DVDs suffer from. No RIAA or MPAA or whatever to try to reap profits from the education system.
"A conventional movie works by flashing a series of 24 pictures on the screen every second, creating the illusion of motion. All Maxivision48 does is squeeze in 48 frames per second and doubles the speed of the projector.
The effect is twofold: The faster speed provides a stronger illusion and the shorter film exposure creates a sharper picture.
It's a simple change that filmmakers and industry analysts say makes a dramatic difference. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that watching a movie in Maxivision48 is like looking through a window at the world."
As far as I know, that's bullshit. Increasing the number of exposures to 48 per second instead of 24, would only reduce the trademark flickering of conventional film projectors.
The reason for this is that a technique called motion blur has been used for as long as I remember, to negate the low frame rate of normal movie projectors. Notice if you pause a movie during a high-motion scene, the image is blurred. This is done in order to create the illusion of motion even in a still frame.
A high-motion scene projected with a normal 24fps film projector definitely looks much more fluid than playing a high-paced game of quake with 24fps for this reason.
Basically, film makers have created the illusion of fluid motion within the constraints of only having 24 frames per second by using motion blur, and video games have created the illusion of fluid motion within the constraints of not having motion blur by increasing the frame rate to levels way beyond 24fps.
In view of this, I can see why "not a single theater or movie studio has invested in Goodhill's Maxivision48 technology". Technology? Overclocking conventional movie projectors to show 48fps instead of 24fps is not exactly "technology". I know if I owned a movie theater, I wouldn't pay for "technology" like this.
Alright, I just re-read the post I replied to and I don't believe I'm mistaken. I'll quote him for your sake:
"That wasn't the point I was making. I agree that the film cameras will pick up all the flashes but, from the stills camera's point of view, the flash will be insufficient to affect the outcome of the exposure and is, therefore, pointless."
What the poster stated obviously doesn't say that he was "poking fun at people who think that a tiny flash will somehow illuminate a giant outdoor area."
The poster's original post does imply what you mentioned, but not the post that I replied to specifically.
You should re-read my post and the post I replied to, since I think you are the who seems to be completely missing my point.
All I've said above though, was after giving you the benefit of the doubt that all you did was overlook the specific post I replied to, and not that you just completely missed the point. I hope I'm not mistaken in this aspect.
well, since the director was upset because the flashes would show up on the scenes taken and not because they would ruin the exposure, therefore you don't really have a point. you're addressing a concern that the director probably didn't have, no?
if i'm not wrong the helicopter was carrying the people filming the show, and it was just for a scene for the movie showing a bunch of empty and deserted streets.
neo wasn't fighting with agent smith in the helicopter since none of the actors were on site as many fans hoped they would be, as stated in the article.
read the article first man.
"Then suddenly, at above 12,500 feet, Leonardo Diaz hears a familiar ring."
was his girlfriend by any chance named Cameron Dicaprio?
anyway can someone shed some light on how cellphone batteries get recharged by cold temperatures?
I wasn't mad or anything, and no offence was taken at all =)
Yup, but that's a small sacrifice to make for the superior quality to file size ratio (if its just for playback). I just had to vent out that bit of pent up anger at audio and videophiles, or maybe just elitists in general. It was just him referring to "crappy looking DivX" that got me up.
:)
btw, I think 60GB hard drives are going for pretty cheap now....might be time to upgrade
I beg to differ in reference to your remark about DivX.
DivX only looks crappy if encoded crappily. Well-encoded DivX files look no different than the DVD or whatever it was copied from.
DivX is really just the mp3 of video. If well encoded, it is really undistinguishable from the original. Don't let audiophiles and videophiles tell you otherwise. 95% of them are elitists who can't really tell apart a non-compressed CD track and the 320kbit mp3 compressed version of it.
Well,
1.The reason hard drives have been getting hotter and noiser, is due to the rpm getting higher and higher, in order to increase the data transfer rate. Now, since what this new technology does is increase the density of data stored on the hard drive by about 10 times, and subsequently by almost 50 times, more data would be able to be read by the read/write heads of the hard drive in one pass. Therefore, the hard drives's data transfer rate would increase when operating at the same rpm as your current hard drive, without needing to get any faster. The data transfer rate would still be faster even if you slowed it down by a bit. So basically, the hard drive probably wouldn't get any hotter than what's available today, since there's no need for the rpm to increase and even if it does get faster (and thus, hotter), the noise and heat increase caused by the faster rpm would be well be worth it when considering the very substantial increase in the resulting data transfer rate.
A 5,400rpm 160GB hard drive would have a higher transfer rate than a 7,200rpm 20GB hard drive, assuming they both use the same number of discs and read-write heads, etc. If what IBM & GE predict comes true, then such a hard drive with the predicted initial 10 times increase in data density would only have to spin at around 540rpm, in order to get the data transfer rate as the 5,400rpm 160GB hard drive I mentioned earlier. This is of course assuming the storage capacity remains the same (160GB). Therefore, noise and heat would both go down since this imagined hard drive of mine would spin at one tenth the speed of a 5,400rpm hard drive, which is already considered slow now.
2.That's assuming you do store a terabyte on your laptop. And it does state in the article that the technology is predicted to be ready for the market by around 2008. By then, I think it would be very safe to assume that optical storage would have made substantial leaps and bounds by then. Most probably, by that time 27GB writable or re-writable blu-ray discs might have already become commonplace and backing up a terrabyte hard drive wouldn't be much harder than backing up a 45GB hard drive today with 700MB CD-R or CD-RW discs. Easier, in fact.
Basically, if this new technogloy works as planned, I really don't see how its going to pose any new problems that we don't already have with magnetic data storage. In fact it would more likely alleviate and lessen some of the problems we do have, such as the problems of noise and heat. Power consumption might go up though, due to the smaller footprint of the bits being stored and hence the stronger amplification needed to read the bit, though a lower rpm might make up for this (suspected) increase in power consumption. However I'm not too sure about this, so someone correct me or enlighten me if I'm wrong. Also, seek times might go up but then again, they will most probably have solved this problem as well by the time this new technology becomes available.
In conclusion, you either aren't familiar with how hard drives work, or haven't yet read the article properly. In either case, your fears are rather unfounded.
I'm living in Singapore, and when net access started becoming more and more common, proxy servers were implemented to censor certain porn sites like penthouse, etc.
For the most part, I don't really notice sites that are blocked, and it certainly doesn't do an effective job. Its most probably just lip service to "concerned parents" as usual, as is the case in Australia which the parent post suggests.
As a sidenote, all ISPs in Singapore require the use of proxy servers, except the SCV (Singapore Cable Vision) cable service, which does not block any sites.
A fuss was kicked up about it a few years ago, but after a while it died down and if I'm not wrong, sites are still not blocked through the cable service. Once the public outcry died out, so did any efforts to block those sites.
What's more, SCV is one of the most widely used broadband services, next to other ISPs that provide ADSL. Reason being, most people living in public housing, subscribe to the cable service as all public housing flats have cable access points. It was only recently that there were complaints about slow access due to the large amount of new subscribers to the SCV cable service, so its not as if SCV users make up a small percentage of net users, which would otherwise warrant the lack of censorship.
It just enforces my belief that the blocking of websites was merely just done just to please "concerned parents" because if they were really concerned, they would have made an effort to require SCV to filter out whatever sites the rest of the ISPs were filtering.
So long as the "concerned parents" (which make up the majority of voters) are happy, no one really cares. Internet censorship is one of many stupid laws that concerned parent voters have helped put in place, and this is not just in Singapore, I believe.
I personally think sound cards are over-rated. What's more important to a good audio setup is a set of good speakers.
The "sound card" I'm using now is the onboard AC97 sound on my mainboard, and I've hooked it up to a proper pair of hi-fi stereo speakers (NOT computer "multimedia" speakers) and it sounds better than any other audio setup that consist of expensive Creative Audigy sound cards and cool looking Altec Lansing speakers that don't sound half as good as they look.
I've had people listen to it and ask me if I'm using a Creative Audigy (or some other expensive sound card) and you should see the look on their faces when I tell them I'm using the onboard AC97 sound of my mainboard.
So my advice is, unless you're an avid gamer who needs the A3D or EAX sound or absolutely must have the 5.1 digital sound, you should just settle on a cheap sound card or the onboard sound if your mainboard has one, and invest the money saved on a good set of speakers.
yea.....i have to agree with you. i HATED LOTR, i had -no- interest in star wars episode 1 (i have the divx copy on my comp but i refuse to watch it), and i'm not all that keen on star wars episode 2 either. but that's just me :) you should check out "ghost in the shell though", i thought that was pretty good. and btw, fight club -was- a good show and the acting wasn't cheesy or phony. i'd dare say that the acting in LOTR was even more phony and the computer generated special effects were really cheesy.
is booking an entire movie theater this coming friday, for all the year 1, 2 and 3 students to go watch AOTC as a whole school, as part of their post-exam activities. I and the rest of the year 4 students don't get to go though, cos we still have more (major) exams coming up.
I'm not surprised if you get added to spam lists, seeing the way you just posted your email address here. Can you hear the spambots scuttling around already? doh....
Reading the mail that yahoo sent you is your problem, not yahoo's. Besides sending you an email informing you of the changes, what else do you expect them to do?? Call you up? Oh but then everyone will get even more pissed. All the people here complaining about yahoo being irresponsible, are just being self-righteous bigots. They don't seem to know how to look at their own actions before blaming everyone else.
And about the yahoo junk filters filtering out its own mail, isn't it a good thing? To me it shows that they are being rather transparent with regards to their policies about spam. If you don't want spam, they'll do their best to filter it from your inbox, even if its means filtering out their own spam, which they stand to lose money from. If they really are the big bullying megacorporation everyone likes to believe they are that doesn't give two hoots and a fuck about peoples' privacy, I think they would have already rigged the filters to allow only their spam mail through, doncha think so?
Next, how else do you expect them to make money off you? Yes free stuff is nice, as in like free beer but that's just a pipe dream. Income -has- to come from somewhere. if you aren't willing to make some sacrifices for the free service they offer you, then bug off; no one's forcing you to use their services. I think this sentiment has been echoed many times by many other posters already.
And lastly, I believe the reason they changed the default settings and sent an email notifying users of the changes and how to change it back if they wanted to, was to cash in on the large number of users who either don't care about the spam they get, can't be bothered to change the settings and don't care as well, or those who can see the tradeoff they're making and try to appreciate the service they're getting. Is anything really wrong with that in the business world? They saw an opportunity to generate more revenue, so they took it! Again, what did you expect them to do? Pretend they didn't see it and go into denial about the morality of it? I suppose the next time Ariel Sharon gets a chance to bomb Yassar Arafat, should he stop and ponder about the morality of it, and then pretend he didn't know about the opportunity?? Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying morality is wrong; just that for the most part in politics and business, its no different from free beer, in that its a pipe dream. I would find it nice as well if everyone wanted to just be a nice guy and shoo customers from his $5.00 hotdog stall to the $0.50 one down the street cos he felt bad. But do you think that's gonna happen? Me neither. So quit whining about it unless you have a better idea.
was the guy who demonstrated it called Madison Priest by any chance?
About hovercraft in the military, if i'm not wrong they're use mostly for transport, because they're just too damn noisy, and consume too much fuel. That's probably why you don't see many militaries having hovercraft in their arsenal, if the extra speed was really such a big plus when compared to its disadvantages.
:)
The Singapore military or coast guard (sorry I forgot) has some in their inventory, and most of the time you can hear them coming before you actually see them. Definitely not a stealth ship of any sort
Sheesh...
The army's new standard issue berets were mostly manufactured in China, as well as the US flags that were in sudden demand after the September 11th events.
If I'm not wrong, the nVidia chipets are made in Taiwan. Taiwan an enemy of the US? I seriously don't think so, buddy. If they were I don't think the US would have promised to send an aircraft carrier battle group should China try anything funny with Taiwan.
For AMD processors, I don't think they are manufactured in Malaysia; they are merely ASSEMBLED there, as stated on the processor packaging. Intel has been outsourcing the production(? not too sure about this) and assembly of their processors for a long time, to countries like the Phillipines and Malaysia. Malaysia held some small-scale exercies with the US military last year, and the Phillipines was a former US colony, and the US is now sending military aid to the Phillipines to help them combat terrorism there. Enemies? urmm.....haven't you been reading the news?
& just btw, the last time I visited China which was a few years go, most offices used MS Windows 3.1 (Chinese version, of course) and MS Windows 95. Chinese Communist RedHat Linux software? Linus Torvalds doesn't sound like a Chinese name to me and last time I checked he wasn't a Chinese mainland citizen.
Okay, I'm done now as well.....
Well, actually as far as I know, police departments already use airsoft games to simulate training, as a more cost-effective and realistic alternative to paintball or computer games. For those who don't know what airsoft is, its a team based game very similar to paintball, except it focuses more on simulation, so players dress up in military fatigues, and the weapons are typically 1:1 scale replicas of real life weapons, like MP5s, M16s, etc, etc. I almost wanted to post wanted to post a url to an airsoft website to let the slashdot effect screw them but decided against it :) try using google.
In the Singapore military though, computer simulations are used to train pilots, armour divisions, etc, but for army, they use laser devices attached to their rifles, which shoot lasers when blanks are fired through it, and you have to wear a vest with sensors on them.
In conclusion, I can see how computer simulations would serve as an effective and realistic form of training for pilots or drivers, but this doesn't hold true for foot soldiers. Humping a 50kg of equipment over a few miles and still having to have the energy and concentration required to engage in a firefight just isn't the same as holding your finger on the W button on your keyboard for half an hour and clicking your mouse button.
Yup. A few years ago when the Hubble telescope was upgraded, the swapped the processor with an Intel 486 processor that had been retrofitted with shielding stuff, etc. I don't see why they should bother developing something when there's already a ready product on the market that works fine. I think people would also be happier that their tax dollars are being spent on developing stuff that really needs developing, like new missles, weapons, rather than equipment that can already be bought off the shelf. Furthermore, I believe no amount of testing the military does can exceed the amount of testing that a graphics chip is subject to, when released to the millions of gamers in the consumer market.
i'm using a global win WBK68-II and its really really quiet...i haven't had my computer this quiet since i stopped using my PII450 with the stock intel hsf its rated as supporting up to the xp2000+ so i'm guessing the performance should be more than adequate unless you overclock your processor a lot. and btw 50 to 56 degrees is still pretty ok...your cpu isn't going to burn up anytime soon so don't worry its only hot by overclocker standards. no offence to any of them but a lot of them are pretty clueless about the actual critical temperatures, etc, and just follow whatever those overclocking guides tell them. cheers =]