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User: entrager

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Comments · 177

  1. Re:Well of course Microsoft agreed to an extension on FCC Extends Set-Top Box Deadline · · Score: 1

    A week ago I would have agreed with you, but the recent Comcast/TiVo deal kills any "TiVo is dying" arguments.

  2. Re:What FireFox needs to do is on Peeking at Netscape 8 · · Score: 1

    Then people will complain that the page works fine in IE but doesn't work in Firefox. The average web user doesn't understand that the problem lies with the creator of the web site. I don't think the average user even understands that the creator of the web site and the creator of the browser are different. Or that the web site and browser itself are different.

  3. Re:Sad, isn't it? on GlobalFlyer Completes Record-Breaking Flight · · Score: 4, Funny
    The first person to fly, solo, nonstop around the moon and back will probably be greeted by a kid with a kazoo.
    No, they will be greeted by Ashlee Simpson.
  4. Re:Honest /. recommendation on LiveCD Lets You Try Out Project Looking Glass · · Score: 1

    I would recommend that you read the protocol and watch some BT traffic using Ethereal or something, because it doesn't work like this at all.

    The tracker pretty much only tells the client the ip and port for other clients. In fact, a client really should only contact the tracker a few times, when launching the download, when completed, and when shutting down. The client can also make periodic requests for more clients should it lose some connections. Although that should be fairly rare since other clients will be constantly making incoming connections when the tracker informs them about you.

    The track does NOT tell the client which clients have which pieces, it doesn't even know (with the exception of which clients have all the pieces). The clients share that information with each other.

    So, ultimately, the amount of traffic a tracker gets is very low. Much, much lower than a single Slashdot age load per client.

  5. Re:Hmmm.. Another idea... on Face Recognition Comes to Cameraphones · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even better:

    1. Ed calls John.
    2. John's phone checks Ed's caller ID against a whitelist.
    3. John's phone rings.

    Sometimes people insist on using technology just for the sake of using it. How about some practicality?

    And as for the inevitable "what if Ed's caller ID is blocked?" arguements that are sure to arise, do you really think Ed will want to photograph himself every time he makes a call if he chose to have his caller ID blocked? I think not.

  6. Re:News Site Slowing Down... on Yahoo Turns 10; Free Ice Cream for America · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually when I worked at a grocery store we were told that ice creams sells best during the winter months. I don't know how true that is, but having worked there and paying semi-close attention to that oddity, I think I can say it certainly seemed that way. Perhaps it was just a trick of the mind though.

  7. Appropriate name on Floaters are the New Pop-Ups · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...these floaters, or overlays, or popovers (no one can agree on a name)...
    I think "floaters" is a completely appropriate name.
  8. Re:I just want to record shows. I don't want ads! on Will New Apps Keep TiVo Afloat? · · Score: 1

    The "pop-up ads" are just banners that appear across the top of the screen while you fastforward. They "force" you to want them simply because they are there. You can still fastforward at any speed you normally can. Considering that the max is 60x, these banners (which accompany specific commercials) will appear for no more than 1 second each, half a second for most of them.

    Despite some media outlets attempt to sensationalize the "pop-up ad" story, it's really a non-issue. They are just as invasive as normal television ads.

  9. Re:Do they mention 42 in the movie? on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trailer · · Score: 1

    Don't kid yourself, no one is going to notice this movie. The fanboys (myself included) will see it and remember things, but the average viewer will see it and forget it. You're not going to see normal people using 42.

  10. Re:Cryptographic break =/= practical break on SHA-1 Broken · · Score: 1

    If this happened, the Bittorrent protocol would be updated to include another (or possibly multiple) hashing algorithms. The protocol itself is very simple and expandable. Give me an hour or two and I can re-write the software to include both the SHA1 and MD5 hashes of the pieces, the client can then guarantee that the data is intact. Not an issue.

    Also of note, should the protocol be expanded to include both hashes, backwards compatibility would be preserved. Clients that don't know anything about the MD5 hash would simply ignore it.

  11. Re:No one has mentioned the VOIP effect on Has TiVo's Fate Been Sealed? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Series 2 TiVos can get all their data via an ethernet connection. I'm guessing that anyonewith VoIP service is capable of connecting their TiVo to their network. I have Vonage and that's exactly what I do.

  12. Re:Probe size on Huygens Probe Prepares for Saturn Moon Landing · · Score: 1

    Boy, I try to make a point and end up looking like an idiot. So it's 349,140.639 CUBIC meters. Very sorry. :)

  13. Re:Probe size on Huygens Probe Prepares for Saturn Moon Landing · · Score: 1

    So a beetle is at least 3.49140639x10^9 meters wide? (This number found by using the smallest estimate for the diameter of a human hair from here.)

  14. Re:No screen? on iPod Shuffle, Mac Mini, iLife '05, iWork · · Score: 5, Informative

    I should add that it's possible to have it play songs in a pre-set order, which you would define from within iTunes. You would just need to memorize the order.

  15. Re:No screen? on iPod Shuffle, Mac Mini, iLife '05, iWork · · Score: 2, Informative

    As the name suggests, the iPod Shuffle doesn't allow navigation, it just randomly plays songs.

  16. Re:Virgins in Space? on Sir Richard takes Virgin into Space · · Score: 1

    At least give credit where credit's due. "Virgin's in space" was the catch-phrase for Virgin Galactic that one of the teams came up with in a recent episode of The Rebel Billionaire (Yes, I watch it. I also watch The Apprentice, want to make something of it?).

  17. Celer = Fast? on AMD Plants Turion Line of Mobile Chips · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone else find it interesting that the Celeron was named after a fast vegetable?

  18. Re:Size, shape and weight on CRTs Still Beat Flat-Panel TVs · · Score: 1

    Many rear-projection TVs are basically tube-less CRTs. My TV is a 51" rear-projection CRT, that weighs 170 pounds. My old 36" tube CRT weighed about 275.

  19. Re:PHP on Producing a Quiz Show from Multiple Locations? · · Score: 1

    How funny, my reaction to the grandparent was exactly the same, almost word for word.

  20. Re:freaking "no skip ads" DRM on DVDs on Welcome to the Future of DRM Media · · Score: 1

    Woops! I didn't realize that I linked to a site that charged for the codes... sorry! They can be found for free if you google for them.

  21. Re:freaking "no skip ads" DRM on DVDs on Welcome to the Future of DRM Media · · Score: 1

    Almost every DVD player on the market has some sort of code you can enter that allows you to play DVDs from any region and skip chapters that are flagged as unskippable.

    Look for your DVD player's codes here.

  22. Re:No US or Europe release. on Gigabyte's Dual-GPU Graphics Card · · Score: 2, Funny

    Old people in Korea like them... or whatever. I'm not good at cliche posts.

  23. Re:Spike TV as a whole is moronic. on Editorial: On the SpikeTV Video Game Awards · · Score: 1
    you have to dodge commercials of the recanned and redubbed Japanese game shows
    I assume you're refering to Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC)... have you *watched* it? It's hysterical! One of the best shows on TV for sure. And unlike other popular programming on SpikeTV (and Fox), the jokes are a little more intelligent. Some of them require some geek knowledge to understand (think Futurama-style jokes).
  24. Re:Do not pass "Go" on 2004 Board Games Gift Guide · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're both wrong and right...

    Before I go on, I have to point out that I only have a deep interest in AI, I haven't actually started my post-grad coursework in it yet (hopefully next year). So my information might not be 100% correct (I look forward to someone correcting/supplementing my post). I should also add that I play Go on occasion, but I suck at it...

    Go does have a very large branch factor, so brute-force techniques to playing well are nearly impossible (or take WAY too long to compute). Chess doesn't have a large amount of branching (relative to Go), so brute-force is actually somewhat effective. But the real problem comes when trying to actually write an AI that makes decisions instead of exhausting all possibilities.

    In Go, there is a very large amount of information to process. The relative strengths of each player in each position of the board, the aggressiveness of the other player, common move patterns, and of course the number of possible outcomes of an action. Simply put, Go is simply too complex to represent and analyze in a simple manner.

    It's my understanding that successful Go programs work by simply looking up common scenarios in a large database of pre-programmed moves, supplementing that with some basic neural network pattern recognition, and then narrowing down decisions with a brute force attack on a reduced set.

  25. Re:Why not pad the recording? on Network Scheduling to Mess with Tivo · · Score: 1

    I'm married and have a deal with my wife, I watch The Bachelor with her, and she watches Mythbusters with me...