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User: Trurl's+Machine

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  1. Re:My Opinion on iPod May Not Have The Horsepower For Ogg [updated] · · Score: 1

    Adding OGG support would be more than enough to convince me to buy an iPod.

    With all due respect, I don't think Apple designs its hardware thinking personally about you (unless you're Steve Jobs, of course). Like most commercial institutions, Apple thinks in terms of "target group(s)". The target group of the people who actually know what OGG is, is too small to be relevant. Sorry guys, get used to it.

    I can't really see the downside except for increased strain on the system memory, if what the article claims is true.

    Well, increased strain on the system memory means less efficient harddrive caching and this means less battery life. Adding more memory would also have negative effect on battery life. So you have a serious downside here, while the only positive effect would be winning the hearts (and wallets) of the people who actually want to use Vorbis on their portable. Can you say "negligible"?

  2. Re:What about pr0n? on First All-Artificial Feature Film Released · · Score: 2, Informative

    The question is, will people be interested in this for its own sake, or will it have to wait until things reach the point where it's indistinguishable from the real thing? I'm guessing from the preponderance of cartoon porn on the internet that it's just around the corner.

    I'd rather say it's already here, at least when you talk about still images pr0n. Just check the google directory of adult 3D-rendered galleries (mostly Poser stuff). Personally, I find many Poser-rendered erotica much more interesting than "real life" shots. Maybe it's just because I'm a computer nerd, but still - there is some beauty of the Boris Vallejo kind in them that turns me on. Anyway, the sheer number of links in that directory (and some of them point to semi-commercial AVS-protected sites) proves that the artificial pr0n is no longer a question of the future.

  3. Re:"enormous suffering" and culture on Japanese Anime Industry In Danger Of Fragmentation · · Score: 1

    So, here's my question, to which I would truly like an answer: Is there acknowledgement in Japanese culture of the Bad Things that were done by Japan (whether by the gov't, the military or the people I'll leave for later debate) in the 20th century?

    If earlier centuries count as well as the 20th, then you have an obvious (and on-topic!) example in Japanese culture. Another great anime feature, "Princess Mononoke" is largely about the sad fate of Ainu/Emishi (please, let's not enter into the whole scholastics of "are Emishi Ainu?" question) people, virtually exterminated by Japanese (while some of them still live a rather poor living as an oppressed minority in Japan today).

  4. Re:Spirited Away too mainstream? on Japanese Anime Industry In Danger Of Fragmentation · · Score: 1

    Hang on... Totoro can't be wartime.

    Correct. It's immediately after war (around 1947, when Miyazaki's mother got sick and went to hospital like in the film), but my point remains valid - they left the city because of the air raids.

  5. Re:Spirited Away too mainstream? on Japanese Anime Industry In Danger Of Fragmentation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I still can't believe that thing was in a double-bill with Totoro when first released. Watching Grave for the first time I couldn't help but see Mei in Setsuko...

    And that was correct! The reason of the "double-bill" release of both features was that they were the first major acts in Japanese culture to acknowledge the enormous suffering of Japanese civilians in 1940's due to American air raids. Until then, it was a sortof taboo subject ("now we have communists to worry about, so we should hush hush all our grievances about our powerful occupant-cum-ally"). "Totoro" talks about the same topic - why do you think the whole family moved to the countryside in the first place? They escaped from air raids. Obviously, Miyazaki (in his typical style) tells the story in much more subtle way, putting the whole suffering in a bracket metahpor of daughters-missing-their-parents etc., but it's the same story, after all. Setsuko's suffering IS Mei's suffering.

  6. Re:What if on More Blackholes Discovered... · · Score: 1

    As far as we know, black holes result from the collapse of a star. They don't just "appear" for no reason. The new ones discovered were obscured by their accretion disks and the torus of gas and matter surrounding them

    But the problem is that we don't know really much about them. The black holes were discovered first theoretically by studying the consequences of Einstein equations by Karl Schwarzschild around 1915. So "we" (as in "we, humans") knew about the black holes years before the very first empirical confirmations of the Schwarzschild theory (if we take Cygnus X-1 as the first discovery, it's 1972; so the actual observation came over half century after the theoretical prediction!) Obviously, the collapse of a star is the most plausible reason for a black hole to appear in our Universe. But theoretically a Schwarzschild sphere can be present in our Universe for no particular reason - for example, it can be here just because it's a fscked up Universe after all.

  7. Re:Just don't consider this as a fact on More Blackholes Discovered... · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Occam's Razor (...) Don't make things more difficult then they have to be. Black holes are the simplest explanation

    With all due respect to the advantages that Occam's Razor has given to the advance of science, this was exactly the key factor that made the leading scientist of late XVIII century like Antoine Lavoisier to judge that stones cannot fall from the sky. In 1768, 1794 and 1795 there were substantial sightings of meteorite showers in France, Italy and England - yet according to the Occam's Razor, it was easier to explain them by assuming the witnesses just lie. Use Occam's Razor as any razor - with extreme caution.

  8. Re:I hope they bring such a product out on No $50 iPod Clone From Microsoft · · Score: 3, Informative

    They've licensed good equipment to put the microsoft name on. They haven't manufactured anything good themselves.

    You are wrong! Among the first Microsoft products of 1970's were some fine pieces of hardware. They made an expansion card for the venerable Apple II computer. It was called Microsoft Softcard and it allowed to run CP/M and all its applications on Apple II. Basically it was just a Z-80 daughterboard. They also manufactured RAM expansion card. These cards were good and they were manufactured by themselves.

    O the irony - back in 1980 Apple was making the most popular personal computer, expandable like in a hacker's wet dream (lots of expansion slots with well-documented standards allowed anyone create an expansion card to do anything - and they did! and they did!) and Microsoft was just a small manufacturer of third party hardware extension for Apple computers. Plus a vendor of the popular multiplatform BASIC interpreter - and that was all about Microsoft back then. Who could have guessed...

  9. Don't be afraid of looking silly! on The DDR Workout - It's Official · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you made a very important point. The problem of pathological shyness is often related to the neurotic anxiety that could be described as "OH MY GOD I'M GONNA TO LOOK SILLY IN PUBLIC AGAIN". I think every geek and nerd has experienced this kind of panic at least once. It's like when a gorgeous girl approaches you and says "Hi, how are you?". If you are too much afraid of looking silly in public, you'll get that kind of panic, the panic will eat your tongue and you will probably mumble some uncomprehensible "Um... errr... ahem... nice... I mean, fine... I mean, ok... I mean, cough, how are you....". Then you'll start to realize, that the fear of looking silly in public made you actually look silly in public and then you will feel very silly. In public. So the panic will incrase and you will look even more silly (in public).

    But if you get rid of that fear and STOP being afraid of looking silly in public, you might just have a friendly laugh with the gorgeous girl and say something like "Now, that was surely the Guiness top ten of the worst small-talk ever... speaking of Guiness, can I get you something to drink?", and the problem will be gone. You would no longer look silly, because you HAVE LEARNED HOW TO ENJOY IT!

  10. You don't have to give up SUV's on Creator of the Gaia Hypothesis Urges Nuclear Power · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please don't replicate the "every SUV must have bad fuel economy" meme. It's just not true. I drive a SUV and it's fuel economy is better than that of many ordinary 2WD vehicles (22-27 mpg). This meme is dangerous, because many Americans believe that and therefore American companies see no reason to improve the fuel efficency of their horribly heavy, clunky and obsolete 4x4 behemoths. Japanese car companies do not have this luxury and it shows - Subaru Forester, Mitsubishi Outlander, Honda CR-V or Nissan X-Trail are great family machines and they are as environment-friendly as regular (non-SUV) vehicles. So you don't have to give up anything, if it's really that important for you to have American company badge on your car, buy a Subaru rebadged as Chevrolet.

  11. Re:Second documentary on Cannes' Palme d'Or goes to Michael Moore · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course, the overriding truth is that this man's ideas have been the direct cause of over a century of misery and death.

    Well, in Europe this man's ideas were also the direct cause of the foundation of the powerful social-democratic parties in Western Europe, like the German SPD, French SFIO or the Swedish SDAP. Marx is as much responsible for Gulag and Stalin as he is responsible for the fact that in Denmark there is simply no such thing as poverty - while the unemployment rate is lower than in the good ol' US of A.

    I'm glad you mentioned that and gave me some opportunity to write something leftist for a change :-)

  12. Re:Second documentary on Cannes' Palme d'Or goes to Michael Moore · · Score: 1

    It would be helpful if you'd point to some f a c t s to support your position. Others have tried... and failed miserably.

    No, they did not. I especially like the sentence So your defense amounts to 'except for the segment that wasn't from Denver, my footage was from Denver.". The facts are that Moore heavily doctored Heston's speech (claiming he said in Denver something he did not say there), he manipulated his statistical data on homicide rates to the point of their complete irrelevance, he faked the history of the NRA completely etc. Sometimes Moore makes me ashamed of having, after all, similar views on Iraq or corpotate America. I would feel much more comfortable if Moore have used similar strategy to defend some ultraconservative agenda - ah, how nice would it to expose him then! Now it's just embarrasing for me.

  13. Re:Second documentary on Cannes' Palme d'Or goes to Michael Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a coincidence. Louis Malle was definitely no less radical and left-leaning than Michael Moore. His movies were full of political or social satire, given in a lighthearted and pleasant manner, yet they were also insightful and generally true to the historical fact. How unlike Michael Moore, who is unable to do anything but cashing his alleged ideals. Sorry, I consider myself a leftwinger, I am all against Bush and the whole Iraq invasion, but I think I'm too old school for Michael Moore. When Karl Marx wanted to launch a revolutionary movement, he went to a library to study the facts. FACTS. Ef - ah - cee - tee - es. Something you won't find in a flashy mockumentary by Michael Moore.

    Yeah, I know. Here goes my karma bonus. Well, I won't post it as an AC.

  14. In other news... on Google to be Sued Over Name? · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Now that Google's IPO is running, the company is on the verge of being sued by the family of Professor Edward Kasner who invented the word 'Googol' to describe a very big number.

    In other news, the family of Professor Edward Kassner is being sued by the family of the great Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol.

    In Soviet Russia... Google Gogols you!

  15. Away from computers? on Device for Taking Travel Notes? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't want to carry a laptop or a PDA (too expensive, plus I want to be away from computers at least those 2 weeks per year). Any suggestions for a light, cheap, keyboard-equipped device? Like a travel clock + keyboard and more memory and USB?

    If you want to be away from computers, use pen and paper to take your notes, like all those guys wearing flannel shirts at your local Starbucks. If a device has USB, keyboard and memory, it's a computer according to the classic definition with embedded software - just as any PDA, but more limited. So... why not to use the PDA anyway?

  16. Re:Remember... on Groklaw Turns One · · Score: 1

    The thing about American Justice though... it's based on money. If an individual kills someone, and everybody realizes it, but they have a ton of money, they might have a shot at convincing a judge and jury to let them get away with it.

    It's much more complicated. The OJ Simpson's trial is an example of the fundamental flaw of what was considered 600 years ago a great advancement of the Magna Charta - the trial by jury. The problem is that most people are biased in one way or another and they usually have their opinion ready prior to seeing the evidence (and then they believe only that part of the evidence that supports their a priori judgement). The art of fooling the American Justice is not the art of convincing the jury, it's the art of selecting the jurors that are already convinced. It's brilliantly descripted in the John Grisham's novel "Runaway jury" (adapted to a great movie with Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman). If you prefer a more scholar approach, here's a scholar analysis of the OJ Simpson jury.

    I'm not accusing anyone of being biased - I can't cast the first stone, I'm not sure how would I behave during a trial of an Apple employee who killed a Microsoft employee. I might tend to believe him he was acting on self defense just because I have better feelings towards him. Actually, the OJ Simpson trial was only the most famous case of the jury bias, but definitely not the first one - and certainly not the last one. It wasn't important if Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty or not, the jury just didn't like all of them, the foreign anarchist scum.

    So the real question is not exactly about the money - it's the question if the trial by jury is really such a good idea after all?

  17. Re:Ingenious... on Student Uncovers US Military Secrets · · Score: 5, Funny

    It sems that |CLASSIFIED| wishes us to bomb the hell out of iraq. He's |CLASSIFIED| that saddam wanted to |CLASSIFIED|. also there's the |CLASSIFIED| the |CLASSIFIED|, and |CLASSIFIED|. god forbid |CLASSIFIED| thinks that |CLASSIFIED| are the |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED|.

    Sounds quite like the Nixon transcrpits released during the Watergate investigation, but instead of "classified" there was "expletive deleted" back then.

  18. Re:What a great way to start a dreary Sunday! on P-P-P-PowerBook for a S-S-S-Scammer... · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, but if you try to sell it as genuine Van Gogh, you can get in trouble.

    You'll be quite safe selling a genuine V-v-v-van G-g-g-gogh :-)

  19. Re:Terrorists? I don't think so... on Updated Schedule for U.S. Biometric Passports · · Score: 1

    Do they really think this is going to be effective against terrorists? Or is this just another way of saying to the public, "Look, we're doing something! And it's intrusive to your privacy so it must really work!"

    I'm afraid it's even worse than you think. I'm afraid it's rather "We always wanted to do something that's intrusive to your privacy, but we were afraid of the public outrage... but now, thank's to 9-11 we can do all we ever wanted plus more if we just label it as a couterterrorist measure". In Soviet Russia the borders were guarded not to let anyone suspicious out, and it's not a joke. But the sad part is that the Bush administration might want to repeat this situation in the land previously known as "of the free".

  20. Re:It's not that there is a G5 iMac now... on G5 in an iMac · · Score: 4, Interesting

    However, since the current iMac's motherboard is based on the powerbook's, I'm not 100% positive that there will be a G5 iMac announced in San Francisco.

    Well, I'll be happy enough to see iMac G4 with 128 MB Radeon 9700 available in current crop of high-end powerbooks. Lame video card always kept me from buying an iMac G4 (32 MB GeForce MX? And that's supposed to be a $1300 home computer?). The current powerbook upgrade was more a GPU rather than CPU upgrade and as for me, I'm happy with that. I'd rather have a 1.5 GHz G4 with 128 MB Radeon 9700 than 2 GHz G5 with el cheapo video card.

  21. Black Jesus, Asian Jesus, Jesus with 8 tentacles? on Vatican Astronomer Comments On Extraterrestrials · · Score: 1

    Well, it took the Catholic Church so long to accept exotic iconography of Black or Asian Jesus... now they will have to agree for Jesus with eight tentacles? I wonder how will the cross look like then...

  22. Re:"A" Vatican astronomer? on Vatican Astronomer Comments On Extraterrestrials · · Score: 1

    Given the miniscule population of the city, he may be in fact the astronomer of the Vatican.

    Not really. Just as you don't need really to live in New York City to work for a NYC based company, majority of Vatican civil employees live somewhere in Rome or the suburbs. Vatican is actually a part of Rome.

  23. Re:Good and evil on Vatican Astronomer Comments On Extraterrestrials · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Take the Spanish Inquisition, for example: they really believed that it was the right thing to torture suspects

    Now I know what Donald Rumsfeld is fond of in Spainish cultural heritage.

    In fact, I don't think there is anybody that considers himself 'evil', no matter what.

    Just check the science fiction & fantasy fandom. How many fans of "Star Wars" identify themselves with the Empire, Darth Vader, Moff Tarkin, Darth Maul, stormtroopers or "lesser evils" like Bobba Fett? How many "Harry Potter" fans identify with Malfoys and Death Eaters? How many Tolkien fans dress up as orcs and goblins? Personally, I always identify myself with the "evil" characters in popular culture, especially the bad guys from Bond movies. Ah, the classic Tom Jones theme... "He looks at the world and wants it all, so he strikes like thunderball" - wouldn't you if you could?

  24. Re:Great on In-Flight Wi-Fi Makes its Debut · · Score: 1

    I look forward to crapflooding from international airspace.

    To begin with, it won't be from international airspace. You will be bound by the law of the respective carrier and the in-flight Internet Service Provider, that will most likely be the CBB - Connexion By Boeing. Obviously, every nerd worth this proud name, must at least consider the idea of hosting a "screw DMCA!" warez server on his laptop traveling across the Atlantic, but actually connecting to the Net via CBB is just like connecting from Seattle, even if your signal goes to this beautiful city through a fairly sophisticated satellite network. So when you are posting from a German plane through a Seattle-based provider, you can't claim freedom from DMCA/Euro-DMCA. But you can crapflood from the sky since quite a long time - Lufthansa already offers in-flight broadband. The only thing that is new this time is the Wi-Fi. Actually, I don't think it's a good idea - Wi-Fi consumes more power than cable ethernet connection, and if you don't fly business/first, you try to save every zilch of energy on your laptop.

  25. Re:OS/2 revival on Ask About Running Windows Software in Linux · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't trying to be compatible with MS what killed OS/2? If people can code for windows and run elsewhere, why code for unix/linux natively?

    While it's never easy to guess what killed a particular company, one could argue that that has already killed Linux native gaming.. If you can play a Windows game by simply rebooting to Windows or emulating them, who will pay a premium price for a special Linux-only package? Who will take the risk of porting? Thus Linux users are unlikely to see in the direct future what MacOS users can have - dedicated game versions for their platform of choice. I think the whole "let's emulate Windows!" movement has obvious good points on the short term, but on the long term it's dangerous. Don't you want to have special Linux software section at your local CompUSA store?