User: phlosoft

Re:already being slashdotted, USE THE CACHE, LUKE

On: First Hot-Ice Computer Created

The videos appear to be on YouTube as well:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Fixarum

Re:the most impressive thing

On: Awesome Pics of CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Yes, but have you tried getting the Large Hadron Collider through airport security? I swear, these peons think anything with exposed wires is an "explosive-like device."

Re:Untrue

On: Does Comcast Hate Firefox?

The entire "install" process just leads up to entering your verification number -- when installation inexplicably failed for me earlier this year, I dug through the local html files on the install CD to find that all you really need to do is go to the comcast activation site and enter the supplied number when prompted:

https://actsvr.comcastonline.com/Comcast/ActSvr/to smac.cmd?smartIssueId=mac&osType=mac&osVersion=&ra m=&cpuSpeed=&installType=&installVersion=

https://actsvr.comcastonline.com/Comcast/ActSvr/ac ctsearch.cmd

https://actsvr.comcastonline.com/Comcast/ActSvr/co ngrats_reboot.cmd?lang=en&devicemode=CM

So, no need to call tech support.

Re:Vista Pro

On: 3D Martian Flyover Movies

The images that it generated with simple texturing and DEM formatted landscape data was almost as good (considering resolution differences) as what I see there. I am singularly unimpressed with what they have now. And where do you think that digital elevation model came from? The news here isn't the 3D rendering engine, it is the acquisition of the 3D data + textures in the first place -- it is that they are automatically building the highest resolution DEM of Mars ever acquired using high resolution stereo imagery. But you're right, now that they've done the easy, unimpressive part, I'm sure we'd all love to see what amazing things you can do with their model in Vista Pro.

Re:KEKE LOL KTHXBYE

On: Blizzard's 'Secret Sauce'

I can't possibly be the only one who thought SC was just Warcraft redone in black, purple and blue...

Thank you! I was also disappointed they didn't go all out with the play on words as "Starcraft: Storks vs. Humans" would have been an amazing game.

Re:"-1 troll" utterance gets +5 Insightful

On: How Songs Get Popular

This is perhaps due to a psychological phenomenon whereby skilled people are more aware of their own shortcomings than are unskilled people, and in this case, are more likely to realize that their comments might be interpreted as trolling by others.

A 1999 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments," studies this phenomenon: http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware .html

Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.

Public Library of Science

On: Wild Gorillas Impress With Their Tools

Note that these findings are published in the freely available, creative commons licensed journal PLoS Biology:

http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request= get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030380

Entire issues are offered as beautiful PDFs. From the PLoS site http://www.plosjournals.org/:

PLoS publishes peer-reviewed, open-access scientific and medical journals that include original research as well as timely feature articles. All PLoS articles are immediately freely accessible online, deposited in the free public archive PubMed Central, and can be redistributed and reused according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.