One thing to consider is: How much of the stuff out there is pro-quality photo-shoots, and how much is muddy-coloured, fuzzy, or poorly-lit?
I know that in terms of regular porn (and indeed, "amateur" photos or videos in general), there's a lot of the latter. So if you've already got a picture that's only of decent quality, you photoshop some "evidence" in, and then make the whole thing of lower quality - enough to make the additions seem to fit in nicely - how easy is that to distinguish?
I'm willing to guess, however, that it's not an acer. You're not likely to see quad-core on them, and last time I played with a brand-new acer (abouy 7 months ago) it came with Vista, the full Norton suite, and a whopping 512MB of RAM.
Trust me... boot-time was not pretty on that machine.
Acer is likely shooting for the upper-low-end consumer (those that want a semi-fast CPU, more than say an "eeePC", but still skimp on many details), and their machines as they come simply don't run well with bulky operating systems.
Having run Ubuntu on a few of these, I'd say it does handle better than Vista though, but part of that I can attribute to the lack of Norton and all the other crapware as well.
Well, in the Ubuntu world, this is usually the case. Is something exists and is popular enough, then it's in there (one of the things I love about Ubuntu). However, sometimes you can still find those missing drivers by digging up the right website, downloading source, compiling a kernel module (while crossing fingers for compatibility) etc.
But for many, that's a little beyond their skills, and for most, it's a big pain in the ass. Still, there have been times when I've had *more* luck getting some lesser-known, older, or obscure piece of hardware working in 'nix than windows, and sometimes they work better (yes, I'm looking at you and your shitty windows drivers, Creative).
I guess the real reason that things "just work" in 'nix is because somebody else has also dealt with the headaches gone to the trouble of making them do so, but more and more contributors to this effort seem to be appearing, which means that drivers are much more forthcoming than they used to be.
A lot of people really enjoyed those "linear" games, and even back then they could have made more branches in the storyline (but in most cases, didn't , except for the rather amusing ways to fail in the sierra "quest") games.
A book is linear. Television shows are generally linear. While dynamic entertainment may add to replace value, having a linear storyline that is *well told* is not a problem, it's just a difference in style.
That being said, it doesn't take too much to add small changes to keep the gamers guessing. For example, Chrono trigger - which was quite a fun game for its time - had the same overall storyline, but there were a few variation your could take (and a few different endings depending on which you use).
Insurance companies around here have generally looked at two things when I was applying for home insurance:
a) Have I been a previous customer of them or their affiliates (discount points)
b) Have I been a customer of other companies *without a claim* (discount points based on claimless time)
You can get further points by things such as having security bars on windows (anti-theft), a home alarm system, fire extinguishers, properly placed fire alarms, etc etc.
Your overall discount is then based on your final number of points.
So, while your "base rate" doesn't change much based on this, the final price can vary quite a bit depending on which discounts you're eligible for, with claims-free time being one of the factors in this.
Perhaps they'll use common keyboard configs and hotkeys as a way to design the default (or multiple preset) configurations for future games. That would actually be a nice thing.
People have bitched about the info steam allows Valve to collect, but I've never really minded targeted advertising when it was done right. If a gaming company notices I like a particular variety of game and emails me that "hey, you might like this game too" it may actually be somewhat convenient (sometimes I'm out-of-touch with current offerings), and a whole lot better than the generic spams of stuff I'll never buy that usually bombard me.
I only wish I'd see the same people rallying for multiple causes. My main beef though, was that a rally for weed-smokers seems to get a higher turnout than other - perhaps more serious - causes.
And as for draconian drug laws. Which draconian laws? As I'm stated, I'm in Canada (and I was speaking about Canada), and things are pretty relaxed here as far as non-hardcore drugs such as pot, etc. It's becoming more open-minded as time goes on to, possibly because the pot-smoking kids are growing into pot-smoking voters or politicians).
As for the harder drugs (pot I put on about the same level as booze), I've known people that have been involved with Cocaine, etc. I've known people that have been involved (relationship-wise) with people who are using hard drugs. I have no problem with cracking down somewhat harder on these, because I've seen how addiction to such things has damaged or destroyed the lives of many.
So I don't really see how I'm being defeatist. My beef isn't that people are rallying for pot, it's that the turnout and publicity for the pro-weed rallies/etc seems to exceed that of many other important issues: which, in turn, indicates that many people are more worried about their daily joint, and *do not* much care about the other issues.
Yes, Bell, I'm talking about you, and I'm not even a direct Bell customer (but they do own/manage the lines). I'm *still* trying to figure out how to get Bell to fix the intercom for my apartment, which they broke when installing the dry-loop for my ADSL. According to them, the only way to have both is to get an actual phone line (with Bell, of course) and then have the intercom reconnected through that.
Seems to me that they *could* install a line-filter on the intercom (or add another line beside the dry-loop without charging me for damn phone service), but the last several times I've called them I got switched multiple times between the Customer Service, Dry-Loop DSL, Internet Service, and various other departments for several hours before being hung up on during a transfer.
Actually, the whole pot-smoking issue has always amazed me. With all the shit that's going on, and all the major issues, I still see some of the most interest (posters, campaigns, marches, etc) going to wards getting weed legalized.
Yes, it has links to bigger issues, but it seems pretty damn sad to me that a lot of people find that the biggest political issue today is whether they can smoke a joint on the front porch of the local Starbucks. And unlike the US, enforcement is pretty low, so unless you're doing something stupid you're not likely to get tossed in jail for smoking a joint (even in public it's most likely to just get confiscated).
So ignorance is the best solution? Personally, I'd rather have leadership that had an "interest" in the topic, and with that would seek an informed opinion, but be smart enough about many things on their own to sort through the chaff.
Keep in mind that while there will be many available advisors and experts, there will also be a shitload of propaganda spewing lobbyists and self-supporting hypocrites offering their opinions and professional "advice" or more. Having a candidate that knows at least enough to cut through the BS and figure out who has something beneficial/interesting to add, and whom is just looking for handouts.
I'm not an American, so I'm not voting in this anyhow, but one of the things I saw as a possible issue was:
a) Hillary is voted in. A bunch of male bigots disrespect her because of her gender, and generally make it more difficult to get things done. To prove she's big and tough, she makes dumb decisions while at the same time pandering to the female voters for supporting "woman power"
b) Obama is voted in. From what I can tell, he hasn't really played the race card very heavily. He acknowledges his ethnic origins, but doesn't push the "not voting for me is racism" button. Various people still will not have as much respect for a president who isn't a WCM (White Christian Male), but my biggest concern is that some nutcase will come gunning for him... literally.
Obama seems like a good candidate and a decent person, I'm hoping some racist nutcase with a gun doesn't end his political career prematurely. But regardless of the risks, winning the election (hopefully) will show what his potential really is.
The fact that people are starting to demonstrate that "we are aware of what's going on, we're watching, and we're not happy" should give the government an idea that stupid decisions about internet and telecommunications will get a negetive reaction from voters. Perhaps it will influence them not to approve idiotic new bills or trade provisions.
Action: Bell throttles their own traffic, blocks ports, etc, causing massive irritation/disruption to their own customers
Result: Customers leave Bell for ISP's that aren't interfering with their traffic
Action: Bell then institutes throttling and other abusive behavior against the other ISP's customers
Result: Customers have nowhere to go. Other ISP's may not lose so many customers (because there's no good alternative), but they also wouldn't gain the customers that would otherwise be coming in because of superior service.
In a nutshell, the third-party ISP's need to use Bell's infrastructure. As such, they cannot offer anything better than Bell in those regards. Their main competing points were the additional features offered that Bell was not offering (or was cutting back on), with non-throttled service being one of the key points. As Bell has removed their ability to offer such service, they have, in-fact, removed the third-party ISP's as competitors in this arena.
How is this NOT anti-competitive? Is it OK so long as it's "we're going to make everyone suck as much as us so that customers don't move elsewhere" instead of "we're going to make everyone else suck more so that customers come to us instead"
Both are equally anti-competitive and discriminatory.
As the middle east runs through oil reserves, it might very well become feasible in many areas to research more into solar power, and set up efficient solar farms, etc.
When I was last in Australia, I was quite impressed at the various little things they did to use solar power (vs here in Canada where snow cover makes it rather less useful for a good part of the year).
I'd imagine that a middle-eastern country could set up major solar-electric centers, followed by climate-control (air conditioning) powered by such, and then more industrialized centers powered by solar energy.
And yes, there are ways to harvest solar energy (or rather, the byproduct of heat) for overnight use, etc. One could also use a system that actually depends on the temperature dropping. I believe that are already some that tap the currents in air/water caused by temperature differentials to power turbines, etc.
Actually, with most motherboards coming with onboard video (that is usually less powerful than the add-on GPU), this sounds like a really good idea. Of course, in this case you'd need a compatible card (onboard ATI+addon ATI, or onboard Nvidia+addon NVidia). I wonder if it could be standardized so that the lesser-power onboard GPU's could be switched down and allow a passthrough for the addon AGP card (or vise-versa, since the addon card is more likely to have extra ports such as DVI etc than the onboard/motherboard which has limited space).
Focus generally seems to be on "bigger" as opposed to "more efficient." Add more cores, increase the frequency, etc etc.
Some other tasks focus on "trimmed down and more efficient" but then tend to fail in the power output arena.
I was wondering how difficult it might be to make a motherboard or graphics card with multi-processors. One small one for general-purpose computing (basic surfing, word-processing, 2d graphics or basic 3d), and a bigger one that could be used to "kick in" when needed, like an overdrive engine, but otherwise non-power and sleeping until needed.
Many CPU's already have power-states, but generally these aren't as efficient as a CPU specifically designed for lower-power/efficiency. Same for GPU's. So how about cores or processors that come online on-demand?
It seems to happen in a lot of markets. I remember about a year ago, my friend went to buy a new truck. She didn't think would be approved, but surprisingly was. However, when she checked over the paperwork, the dealer was definitely fudging the details (stating she had "vehicle X" to trade in when there was none, etc) to get the credit approval. In the end she ended up walking out on the whole thing because she had sense enough to put together that "a dealer who is willing to cheat and lie to his credit agency is likely more than willing to do the same to me."
How long does it take to do the work? 6 months? A Year? Two to three years?
I'd say that for a year or less of work, 100-grand is good money. If it's more than a year, then depending on the actual work/hours involved, perhaps he should be getting more. However, a million bucks? Maybe big-name actors make this much, but that doesn't automatically entitle video-game actors to the same. Moreover, I'm not really sure how much movie voice-actors make, but that would be a closer comparison.
Sorry bud, but that's the way the industry works. If I write a piece of software for my company which they resell to clients, all I get is my original paycheque (perhaps a bonus if they're feeling generous). Just because some other overpaid smoe is making a million buckazoids or more doesn't automatically entitle you to that type of cash any more than it does me or the various others that work their butts off for a living.
I remember reading recently that airlines have actually slowed their flights down. Slowing down apparently means being a few minutes later, but a noticeable savings in fuel (or so the article said)
Slashdot Mirror
One thing to consider is: How much of the stuff out there is pro-quality photo-shoots, and how much is muddy-coloured, fuzzy, or poorly-lit?
I know that in terms of regular porn (and indeed, "amateur" photos or videos in general), there's a lot of the latter. So if you've already got a picture that's only of decent quality, you photoshop some "evidence" in, and then make the whole thing of lower quality - enough to make the additions seem to fit in nicely - how easy is that to distinguish?
Hey, a large portion of those here on slashdot *have* boobs. Big ones. Unfortunately those same individuals are male...
I believe they've decided to scrap the current version of DNF again, and rework it as an MMORPG...
The sad thing is, if they announced such today, I really wouldn't be surprised anymore.
As seen here
Metallica is pretty good at following the money. Much better than actually caring about their fans.
I'm willing to guess, however, that it's not an acer. You're not likely to see quad-core on them, and last time I played with a brand-new acer (abouy 7 months ago) it came with Vista, the full Norton suite, and a whopping 512MB of RAM.
Trust me... boot-time was not pretty on that machine.
Acer is likely shooting for the upper-low-end consumer (those that want a semi-fast CPU, more than say an "eeePC", but still skimp on many details), and their machines as they come simply don't run well with bulky operating systems.
Having run Ubuntu on a few of these, I'd say it does handle better than Vista though, but part of that I can attribute to the lack of Norton and all the other crapware as well.
Well, in the Ubuntu world, this is usually the case. Is something exists and is popular enough, then it's in there (one of the things I love about Ubuntu). However, sometimes you can still find those missing drivers by digging up the right website, downloading source, compiling a kernel module (while crossing fingers for compatibility) etc.
But for many, that's a little beyond their skills, and for most, it's a big pain in the ass. Still, there have been times when I've had *more* luck getting some lesser-known, older, or obscure piece of hardware working in 'nix than windows, and sometimes they work better (yes, I'm looking at you and your shitty windows drivers, Creative).
I guess the real reason that things "just work" in 'nix is because somebody else has also dealt with the headaches gone to the trouble of making them do so, but more and more contributors to this effort seem to be appearing, which means that drivers are much more forthcoming than they used to be.
A lot of people really enjoyed those "linear" games, and even back then they could have made more branches in the storyline (but in most cases, didn't , except for the rather amusing ways to fail in the sierra "quest") games.
A book is linear. Television shows are generally linear. While dynamic entertainment may add to replace value, having a linear storyline that is *well told* is not a problem, it's just a difference in style.
That being said, it doesn't take too much to add small changes to keep the gamers guessing. For example, Chrono trigger - which was quite a fun game for its time - had the same overall storyline, but there were a few variation your could take (and a few different endings depending on which you use).
Insurance companies around here have generally looked at two things when I was applying for home insurance:
a) Have I been a previous customer of them or their affiliates (discount points)
b) Have I been a customer of other companies *without a claim* (discount points based on claimless time)
You can get further points by things such as having security bars on windows (anti-theft), a home alarm system, fire extinguishers, properly placed fire alarms, etc etc.
Your overall discount is then based on your final number of points.
So, while your "base rate" doesn't change much based on this, the final price can vary quite a bit depending on which discounts you're eligible for, with claims-free time being one of the factors in this.
Perhaps they'll use common keyboard configs and hotkeys as a way to design the default (or multiple preset) configurations for future games. That would actually be a nice thing.
People have bitched about the info steam allows Valve to collect, but I've never really minded targeted advertising when it was done right. If a gaming company notices I like a particular variety of game and emails me that "hey, you might like this game too" it may actually be somewhat convenient (sometimes I'm out-of-touch with current offerings), and a whole lot better than the generic spams of stuff I'll never buy that usually bombard me.
I only wish I'd see the same people rallying for multiple causes. My main beef though, was that a rally for weed-smokers seems to get a higher turnout than other - perhaps more serious - causes.
And as for draconian drug laws. Which draconian laws? As I'm stated, I'm in Canada (and I was speaking about Canada), and things are pretty relaxed here as far as non-hardcore drugs such as pot, etc. It's becoming more open-minded as time goes on to, possibly because the pot-smoking kids are growing into pot-smoking voters or politicians).
As for the harder drugs (pot I put on about the same level as booze), I've known people that have been involved with Cocaine, etc. I've known people that have been involved (relationship-wise) with people who are using hard drugs. I have no problem with cracking down somewhat harder on these, because I've seen how addiction to such things has damaged or destroyed the lives of many.
So I don't really see how I'm being defeatist. My beef isn't that people are rallying for pot, it's that the turnout and publicity for the pro-weed rallies/etc seems to exceed that of many other important issues: which, in turn, indicates that many people are more worried about their daily joint, and *do not* much care about the other issues.
Yes, Bell, I'm talking about you, and I'm not even a direct Bell customer (but they do own/manage the lines). I'm *still* trying to figure out how to get Bell to fix the intercom for my apartment, which they broke when installing the dry-loop for my ADSL. According to them, the only way to have both is to get an actual phone line (with Bell, of course) and then have the intercom reconnected through that.
Seems to me that they *could* install a line-filter on the intercom (or add another line beside the dry-loop without charging me for damn phone service), but the last several times I've called them I got switched multiple times between the Customer Service, Dry-Loop DSL, Internet Service, and various other departments for several hours before being hung up on during a transfer.
Does this mean I can sue Bell?
Actually, the whole pot-smoking issue has always amazed me. With all the shit that's going on, and all the major issues, I still see some of the most interest (posters, campaigns, marches, etc) going to wards getting weed legalized.
Yes, it has links to bigger issues, but it seems pretty damn sad to me that a lot of people find that the biggest political issue today is whether they can smoke a joint on the front porch of the local Starbucks. And unlike the US, enforcement is pretty low, so unless you're doing something stupid you're not likely to get tossed in jail for smoking a joint (even in public it's most likely to just get confiscated).
So ignorance is the best solution? Personally, I'd rather have leadership that had an "interest" in the topic, and with that would seek an informed opinion, but be smart enough about many things on their own to sort through the chaff.
Keep in mind that while there will be many available advisors and experts, there will also be a shitload of propaganda spewing lobbyists and self-supporting hypocrites offering their opinions and professional "advice" or more. Having a candidate that knows at least enough to cut through the BS and figure out who has something beneficial/interesting to add, and whom is just looking for handouts.
I'm not an American, so I'm not voting in this anyhow, but one of the things I saw as a possible issue was:
a) Hillary is voted in. A bunch of male bigots disrespect her because of her gender, and generally make it more difficult to get things done. To prove she's big and tough, she makes dumb decisions while at the same time pandering to the female voters for supporting "woman power"
b) Obama is voted in. From what I can tell, he hasn't really played the race card very heavily. He acknowledges his ethnic origins, but doesn't push the "not voting for me is racism" button. Various people still will not have as much respect for a president who isn't a WCM (White Christian Male), but my biggest concern is that some nutcase will come gunning for him... literally.
Obama seems like a good candidate and a decent person, I'm hoping some racist nutcase with a gun doesn't end his political career prematurely. But regardless of the risks, winning the election (hopefully) will show what his potential really is.
Has ACTA gone through yet?
The fact that people are starting to demonstrate that "we are aware of what's going on, we're watching, and we're not happy" should give the government an idea that stupid decisions about internet and telecommunications will get a negetive reaction from voters. Perhaps it will influence them not to approve idiotic new bills or trade provisions.
Action: Bell throttles their own traffic, blocks ports, etc, causing massive irritation/disruption to their own customers
Result: Customers leave Bell for ISP's that aren't interfering with their traffic
Action: Bell then institutes throttling and other abusive behavior against the other ISP's customers
Result: Customers have nowhere to go. Other ISP's may not lose so many customers (because there's no good alternative), but they also wouldn't gain the customers that would otherwise be coming in because of superior service.
In a nutshell, the third-party ISP's need to use Bell's infrastructure. As such, they cannot offer anything better than Bell in those regards. Their main competing points were the additional features offered that Bell was not offering (or was cutting back on), with non-throttled service being one of the key points. As Bell has removed their ability to offer such service, they have, in-fact, removed the third-party ISP's as competitors in this arena.
How is this NOT anti-competitive? Is it OK so long as it's "we're going to make everyone suck as much as us so that customers don't move elsewhere" instead of "we're going to make everyone else suck more so that customers come to us instead"
Both are equally anti-competitive and discriminatory.
As the middle east runs through oil reserves, it might very well become feasible in many areas to research more into solar power, and set up efficient solar farms, etc.
When I was last in Australia, I was quite impressed at the various little things they did to use solar power (vs here in Canada where snow cover makes it rather less useful for a good part of the year).
I'd imagine that a middle-eastern country could set up major solar-electric centers, followed by climate-control (air conditioning) powered by such, and then more industrialized centers powered by solar energy.
And yes, there are ways to harvest solar energy (or rather, the byproduct of heat) for overnight use, etc. One could also use a system that actually depends on the temperature dropping. I believe that are already some that tap the currents in air/water caused by temperature differentials to power turbines, etc.
Actually, with most motherboards coming with onboard video (that is usually less powerful than the add-on GPU), this sounds like a really good idea. Of course, in this case you'd need a compatible card (onboard ATI+addon ATI, or onboard Nvidia+addon NVidia). I wonder if it could be standardized so that the lesser-power onboard GPU's could be switched down and allow a passthrough for the addon AGP card (or vise-versa, since the addon card is more likely to have extra ports such as DVI etc than the onboard/motherboard which has limited space).
Focus generally seems to be on "bigger" as opposed to "more efficient." Add more cores, increase the frequency, etc etc.
Some other tasks focus on "trimmed down and more efficient" but then tend to fail in the power output arena.
I was wondering how difficult it might be to make a motherboard or graphics card with multi-processors. One small one for general-purpose computing (basic surfing, word-processing, 2d graphics or basic 3d), and a bigger one that could be used to "kick in" when needed, like an overdrive engine, but otherwise non-power and sleeping until needed.
Many CPU's already have power-states, but generally these aren't as efficient as a CPU specifically designed for lower-power/efficiency. Same for GPU's. So how about cores or processors that come online on-demand?
Add this line in the bootloader...
/bin/bash, but /bin/sh or any valid shell should work.
init=/bin/bash
It bypasses the init process (and all of the login requirements therein) to dump you straight to the *bash shell.
*Assumes bash is in the path
It seems to happen in a lot of markets. I remember about a year ago, my friend went to buy a new truck. She didn't think would be approved, but surprisingly was. However, when she checked over the paperwork, the dealer was definitely fudging the details (stating she had "vehicle X" to trade in when there was none, etc) to get the credit approval. In the end she ended up walking out on the whole thing because she had sense enough to put together that "a dealer who is willing to cheat and lie to his credit agency is likely more than willing to do the same to me."
How long does it take to do the work? 6 months? A Year? Two to three years?
I'd say that for a year or less of work, 100-grand is good money. If it's more than a year, then depending on the actual work/hours involved, perhaps he should be getting more. However, a million bucks? Maybe big-name actors make this much, but that doesn't automatically entitle video-game actors to the same. Moreover, I'm not really sure how much movie voice-actors make, but that would be a closer comparison.
Sorry bud, but that's the way the industry works. If I write a piece of software for my company which they resell to clients, all I get is my original paycheque (perhaps a bonus if they're feeling generous). Just because some other overpaid smoe is making a million buckazoids or more doesn't automatically entitle you to that type of cash any more than it does me or the various others that work their butts off for a living.
I have a few mini-ITX boards C7-based systems. One runs on a 60W power brick with room to spare. That includes the drives, fans, and everything else.
Prior to that I had a 1Ghz Epia that ran on a 36W (12V 3a) brick, including the drives.
35 watts under load seems a bit igh to me.
I remember reading recently that airlines have actually slowed their flights down. Slowing down apparently means being a few minutes later, but a noticeable savings in fuel (or so the article said)
Come to eastern Canada. We've got Bell on ADSL, and Roger's on cable.
It's like voting in an election, you're deciding to choose from which candidate is the least undesirable.