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User: timeOday

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  1. X-Box Crack & Cheating on Slashback: Embed, Dougal, FireWire · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Cheating is the bane of online gaming.

    I find closed systems distasteful, too, but wouldn't it help out a lot with cheating?

  2. Re:This should happen... on AMD and IBM Working Together on Future Chips · · Score: 2
    I'm sure we'll see faster P4s, but every 10% increase in speed will be paid for with a 15% higher power requirement. AMD is going to have exactly the same problem. To get significant gains, the complexity of the x86 needs to be trimmed way back, so much that it's likely easier to just start from scratch.
    They already did start from scratch, but the Itanium uses almost twice the power of a Xeon at 130W!

    (Did you mean complexity of the ISA itself or the chip?)

  3. Re:Excellent things for the work place.. on Assorted CES Gizmos · · Score: 2
    I think the point is that a cellphone + watch is still heavier than just a cellphone.

    OK, you want the time on your wrist. You can buy that for $6. Do you really want MS Spam on your wrist too though?

    The expensive, heavy thing is the radio tranciever and battery to power it. Unless you can fit EVERYTHING on the watch, you're still carrying a cellphone, which already needs a lot more power than an pda or wristwatch.

    So my bet is for convergence on the cellphone.

  4. Re:Research on Where are the 70% Efficient Solar Cells? · · Score: 2
    That's highly ironic, since the Manhattan Project already resulted in an alternative energy source with practically unlimited potential and minimal environmental impact.

    As for GWB, he isn't the first president to not solve this problem. Jimmy Carter probably took the best swipe at it (creating the Dept. of Energy and all) and look what happened to him.

  5. Ignore the MIT Media Lab on How Would You Improve Today's Debugging Tools? · · Score: 2

    Every time I hear something from the MIT Media Lab, it's a searing indictment of something terribly wrong software engineering or computer science, and how they are here to fix it with avatars or wearable computers or something. And then you never hear about the idea again.

  6. Re:Gee on Metaverse Launched? · · Score: 2

    Except not quite - this online game is special because there's no game :(

  7. Re:Some Specs on Playstation 3 Gathering Components · · Score: 2
    It sounds advanced, so I guess it's still years off?

    I have always been a loyal PC gamer (my last console was an Atari 2600) but now I'm wavering. I look at spending $150 for a decent video card, plus a new mobo, cpu, and ram to make it sing, vs. $200 for an entire X-Box, which might be extra-nice because I don't have a DVD player yet.

    I used to enjoy plowing through thick simulator manuals, but I'm losing my taste for holing up alone in a dimly lit computer room. Plus console games are more suited to split-screen gaming, which is starting to sound good as my son gets old enough to play along with me. I never thought I would cross over to the dark side.

  8. Re:Itaniums? on New SGI Altix 3000 · · Score: 2
    Itanium is not suitable for consumers because:
    1) It runs 32 bit software quite slowly. 2) It has so many transistors that it's really big, and the cost of chips goes up with size.

    so it would hardly be easier to market to end-users than, say, Sun's Sparc chip.

  9. Re:Sgi gets employee to market product, film at 11 on New SGI Altix 3000 · · Score: 2

    Are you saying that slashdot is paid for these stories? Personally, I like to hear about interesting new tech stuff, especially linux-related, even if it IS a commercial product. BUT if these really are paid ads, then yes, they should be flagged.

  10. We shouldn't have to pay extra to "e-file." on TurboTax Activation Fiasco · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's a scam that the govt. doesn't set up its own website for electronic filing. It would save a whole lot of tax dollars, both in printing and mailing those thick filing booklets, and probably more importantly, it costs less to process electronic filings.

    My county set up electronic renewal of vehicle licensing. It's just a simple web form, nothing fancy, and couldn't have cost much to set up. Yet it's highly effective and they encourage it because it saves them manpower and tax money, not to mention thousands of hours of people waiting in line at the DMV.

    There was a movement for this a year or two ago, but Quicken et. al. lobbied against it and offered reduced-cost filing for poor people to appease lawmakers. As a result, we are stuck paying extra to private companies to file tax returns in a way that should save everybody time and money.

  11. Re:Information wants to be free on A Viable System for Micropayments? · · Score: 2
    "Information wants to be free"
    This has got to be the most empty and over-quoted line...catchy though it is. My question in reply is "Why would it want to?" or perhaps rather: "What is the force that drives information to be free?"
    That's an easy one... information wants to (or seems to want to) be free because once it's so hard to regulate access. And once it leaks out, it seems to grow, multiply, and spread, and you can never stuff it back in the bottle so to speak. You can shred 999 of 1000 copies without accomplishing anything at all.

    The design of the A-Bomb was maybe the US govt's biggest secret ever. And how long was that secret contained?

  12. Re:Lindows taking advantage of open-source R&D on Lindows CEO Funds XBox Hacking Contest · · Score: 2
    I guess it's possible, but if they did crack the XBox in this way, Microsoft would just up the rev and new boxes would be secure again.
    We've already seen a test case - DVD. They can't re-secure css without invalidating all the old keys, which is very problematic.
    Also of course, the XBox makes a pretty lousy computer. It was never designed for that.
    How so? The CPU is a P3, and there's nothing special about the RAM and HDD afaik. So what's the problem?
  13. Re:Eventual First Contact on Habitable Planets May Be Common · · Score: 2
    Actually, I thought of that. But frankly, we seem to be damn good at war, especially Americans and Europeans and it's likely those are the people that will head up any future space missions. Also, we humans are the ones with the legacy of killing off species and cultures with a vengence.
    You have it backwards. Humans are about the least competetive species around. All the other species are living at the carrying capacity of their environment. The strong take the resources and the weak die, which is much less common among people. The percentage of people who live long enough to be very weak and feeble is extremely high compared to animals.
  14. Re:Completely subjective on Linux Is Cheaper · · Score: 2

    People mostly make decisions for reasons that don't come from checklists or spreadsheets anyways. But in order to justify decisions in a business setting, you have to have some justification. Even if these studies are meaningless, it's important to have something to fight back with when an MS advocate whips out studies favorable to them.

  15. Re:nothing to see, right? on Droning On · · Score: 2
    Moving cargo? unlikely. You'll put the cargo where, exactly? Use a truck, train, or other land-based vehicle. If not, use a helicopter.
    Did you know FedEX has 610 airplanes in its fleet already?

    Now helicopter, *that* is a crazy idea for moving cargo...

  16. Re:Shoe on other Foot? on Droning On · · Score: 2

    These guys should be able to take care of you.

  17. Re:Great, except the crash rate is high... on Droning On · · Score: 2

    Wow, why didn't you just cite the 100% loss rate of cruise missiles, they never seem to complete missions without blowing up at some point.

  18. Re:These drones are way too expensive on Droning On · · Score: 2
    Well, if the Pentagon can get them for $4e6, they should be approx $69 at Wal-Mart :)

    But seriously, not only will private industry develop much cheaper aircraft, but compared to manned craft:

    1) lower construction costs - don't need to be as reliable.
    2) more fuel efficient (pilots are relatively light, but pressurized cabins aren't).
    3) closer spacing at airports (and airports ain't cheap)
    4) less maintainence and regulatory red tape (again, due to lower reliability demands)
    5) the obvious, no pilot salary or strikes

  19. Re:No reason given? on Oregon Considers GPS-based Road Taxes · · Score: 2
    And btw lightweight fuel-efficient vehicles wear out roads less than huge testosterone trucks.
    That's part of the genius of a gas tax, isn't it? Get twice the mpg, pay only half the road tax per mile.

    However, people should not be allowed to sidestep road taxes by avoiding gasoline. What if I ran an F350 pickup on diesel sold as heating oil, to cut my fuel expenses by 2/3, would you be OK with that? If everybody switched over to battery-powered cars tomorrow, the money to build and maintain roads would still have to come from somewhere.

    I agree this GPS monitoring idea is outlandish, but what should be done?

  20. Re:security? on 802.11g Hardware Arrives · · Score: 2
    I can't speak for hardware solutions, but my access point is a linux box with a pcmcia/pci adapter. I simply firewalled off all packets on that interface other than on the ssh port (my VPN runs over ssh).

    The general rule is to treat the 802.11 interface just like a connection to that other big insecure network, the Internet.

  21. Re:Wow that is good... on The Joystick Is The Root of All Evil · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Lots of geeks are that way - too shy or lazy to compete and lose, but entertaining notions of intellectual superiority.

    Worth is measured by raw potential only during childhood. Afterwards, it is accomplishment that matters. There is no difference between saying "I could have succeeded" and "I failed."

    The main difference between smart losers and dumb losers is that the smart ones have more depression.

  22. Re:Once Again on OptimumOnline Bans uploads to P2P networks · · Score: 2
    Don't like it? Find an ISP that allows server usage.
    A little ridiculous to "let the market take care of it" when there is no market, don't you think? There's only room for one provider. If they happen to suck, you're SOL because whoever is hogging that slot is preventing a possibly better service from coming along.
  23. Re:Replacement needed for SMTP on ISP Chief on Spam · · Score: 2
    I think you don't understand what hash cash is.

    It isn't money, it's expense. AOL and MSN wouldn't be taking in a dime (in fact they would probably limit each user to some small amount of has cash each month). It has nothing to do with somebody having credit card info on you. It has nothing to do with international correspondence either, except it would be relatively more expensive there - but still negligible unless mass mailing.

    If you really were talking about hash cash, I don't see how your arguments apply.

  24. Re:This can only be good.... on InterTrust Says It Owns DRM, Sues Microsoft · · Score: 2

    Nah, they'll settle for an undisclosed amount and that will be that.

  25. Ought to include it with room price on Marriott to Add Wi-Fi in 400 Hotels · · Score: 3, Interesting
    They should really roll it into the price of the room.

    I, for one, would not pay $10/night from my own pocket, and I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to reimburse that expense.

    Yet if they just bumped their prices by $2-$3 per night, it would be no problem with the boss and a pretty big incentive to stay there.

    And besides making more money from more guests, they would make more money from the service directly, unless more than 20-30% of their guests were doing the $10/night thing (which I doubt).