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User: quintesse

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  1. Re:The problem was the pseudo-science on James Damore Explains Why He Was Fired By Google (wsj.com) · · Score: 2

    Is you daughter growing up in isolation? If not then your conclusions don't really amount to much. Parents normally don't want to hear it, but the influence you have on your kids relative to their own age group is minimal. Perhaps if all of the girls she plays with, and all of the stuff she sees on TV or on the street were different she would be too. But it's *very* difficult to go against "the grain" and their own social group (which they innately detect from a very young age, we are social animals after all) is extremely important.

    I always have this story (scientifically totally irrelevant of course) where my neighbours had a young girl of 5 with 3 older brothers who were always playing football and playing catch and such. She'd play with them and she was really good at it! She could throw a really mean ball for such a little girl. Then at 6 she went to primary school and in _months_ she lost all ability to throw or kick a proper ball! When confronted ("what's wrong with you? you used to be good at this!") she answered "but if I throw like this at school the other girls won't play with me!". As a teenager it impacted me at that time, for me it was the first time I saw such an obvious example of how your environment affects you.

    So perhaps your daughter would always have preferred the dolls over the train set, who knows, but unless you lock her up and don't let her see the outside world I'm afraid we'll never truly know ;)

  2. 3 hours seems a bit much on Say Goodbye To Spain's Glorious Three-Hour Lunch Break (citylab.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I (foreigner living 10+ years in Madrid) don't know many people here that take 3 hour lunches. One, one and a half hours seems much more common. The times we have a lunch that takes more than 2 hours people normally start looking nervously at their watches.

    And they definitely don't get to lunch as hungry as you might think, because normally at 11:30 or so people tend to have an "almuerzo", like a light brunch, which is _additional_ to the lunch you eat. So light breakfast, "almuerzo", lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day), then "merienda" for the kids in the late afternoon and (not a big) dinner at 10pm.

  3. Re:Is there any actual benefit to that schedule? on Say Goodbye To Spain's Glorious Three-Hour Lunch Break (citylab.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ehm, no it's not. You mustn't have been to Spain but I can tell you the hottest time of day is definitely around 2-5pm and in summer you shouldn't be doing any strenuous exercise outside in the sun until let's say 8pm, which is still hours before sundown, when temperatures will have gone done a lot. There are parts of Spain where just walking outside mid-day is an effort and people are most active early in the morning and in the afternoon.

  4. Re:I'm sure there's a reason... on New HDMI 2.1 Spec Includes Support For Dynamic HDR, 8K Resolution (techhive.com) · · Score: 1

    Virtual Reality might be a reason. Although we'd need 8K90, not 8K60 and what we'd really want is 8K90 per eye, which comes to 16K90. So expect HDM2.1 to be outdated before it becomes available ;)

  5. Don't agree. You'd lose any idea of what a certain time of day actually means to others. It's 2 am where you are? Why are you still up? Aren't you tired? No, now I need to know where you live and figure out what time of day... oops, can't do that anymore... figure out where the sun is positioned in your part of the world. Wtf? Wasn't that what sundials and later clocks were for in the first place? Like you say, animals live by the sun, and so do we. I don't care what the *actual* time is where you live, I only care about what part of the day it is so I can adjust my communication with you accordingly.

    The only thing I want is that when people *publish* times, like for international events, they (also) use UTC. It just happens too often that people will say : the live stream will start at 7PM PST and then I have to go look up what the heck that is in my local time zone. With UTC that would be solved, you'd only need to remember your offset to UTC and that's it. (Btw, they could even just mention *their* offset to UTC, eg: 7PM PST (UTC-8), because really Americans' we here in Europe have no idea what all those abbreviations mean ;) )

  6. Re:can someone please explain for me on Germany Fires Up Bizarre New Fusion Reactor (sciencemag.org) · · Score: 1

    > It would be sweet if we could directly extract the energy

    Supposedly these guys are trying for a more direct way to generate electricity from the plasma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  7. Re:O Rly? on China Beats US In Early Cuban Internet Infrastructure Investment · · Score: 1

    Indeed, besides, with what money? It's not as if you can buy a lot of equipment with a $12 per month average salary.

  8. Re:Got It All Wrong on Tech's Enduring Great-Man Myth · · Score: 1

    Don't agree, when the iPod came I didn't understood the hype until I actually *tried* one: it completely blew the competition out of the water! This was a product made by people that understood that usability was everything. Most players at that time has an interface that sucked: slow and barely usable, best to just turn it on and let it play and maybe press "skip" when you didn't like a song. Maybe there were others that were just as good (or even better), but if they existed they certainly didn't have the marketing Apple had.

    The same is true for the first iPhone, it basically showed the rest what was possible and where the bar to entry was, you are either able to deliver what Apple does or you just don't count. Oh and besides the fact of course that they forced telcos to provide flat-fee internet, something nobody had been able to do.

  9. A mouse that can take my abuse on What Makes the Perfect Gaming Mouse? · · Score: 1

    A mouse that won't break after a couple of month of intense gaming, meaning I might press button much more forcefully than actually needed but that's just what happens when in the middle of a kill streak, I get all excited and the mouse suffers. And it's even worse when I'm losing ;)

    Seriously though, I've thrown away so many mice whose micro-switches just gave out on me. Sometimes they'll last a while, others only a couple of months. Not one seems to last much more than a year. Some other time it's not the switch itself but the plastic bits that press on it. In any case something always breaks.

    Now I really wouldn't mind paying more for a sturdy mouse, but none of the tests/reviews ever seem to care about that aspect. (Some manufacturers tell you about millions of clicks, but of course they only test normal light clicks)

  10. Re:Jeez on Valve and HTC Reveal "Vive" SteamVR Headset · · Score: 1

    Well I say "read carefull" but it turns out that http://htcvr.com/ now only says "coming soon", yesterday it showed a lot more.

  11. Re:Jeez on Valve and HTC Reveal "Vive" SteamVR Headset · · Score: 1

    If you read carefully you'll see it's more a competitor to the Rift than to GearVR. Meaning it's a stand-alone unit (no need for a mobile phone), tethered (although the controllers, whatever they will be seem to be wireless. Also, no batteries.) and need a powerful PC to get the most out of it.
    The refresh rate on the displays (plural, one for each eye) is 90Hz so latency for that part at least should be really good.
    Head tracking seems to use kinect-like lasers, cameras and other sensors, not much detail there yet.
    But they mention something like a total of over 70 sensors.
    They also mention that you can freely walk around in an area of 15x15ft (4.5x4.5m) when using something called Valve's Base Stations.

  12. Re:Nice resolution on Valve and HTC Reveal "Vive" SteamVR Headset · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Michael Abrash relegated to "one guy blogging" ;)

    And he now works for Oculus!

  13. And seeing the reactions so far... on The Daily Harassment of Women In the Game Industry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And seeing the reactions so far not much is going to change about this shit. Disappointingly few people are even willing to entertain the possibility that the story might actually be true. Only coming up with excuses, bogus counter-examples ("I'm a guy who knows some women and I've never seen this happen") or just outright hatred and scorn. Way to go guys!

  14. Re:Very interesting on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know, should we find it *what* exactly, you didn't really state that. Surprising? No, it's not, that's indeed the survival instinct taking over. In general your breathing is not conscious, although we have conscious control unlike for example your heart. But in general it's not possible for example to hold your breath until you are dead. There are some ways to hold your breath until you pass out, but the moment you do you start breathing again. (All this AFAIK)

  15. Re:Stupid white men.... on Australia Declares Homeopathy Nonsense, Urges Doctors to Inform Patients · · Score: 1

    Ehm no, giving a vaccine to a sick person is going to do fuck all, except maybe making them even sicker.

  16. Re:Homeopathy Works on Australia Declares Homeopathy Nonsense, Urges Doctors to Inform Patients · · Score: 1

    No, that's not a good example at all. Live exists, we're here so we know that. The proposition that life might exist on other planets can be made but right now we don't have any way to test that besides going out there and look for it. But still we can hypothesize that based on our current understanding of the universe it's likely but such and such an amount. (An amount which in recent years has only been going up now we see that planets are much more common than previously thought)

    Homeopathy is exactly the opposite around. All our understanding of the universe says it can't work. And all the (proper) experiments that have been done don't show any evidence for it working. So there is a "lack of evidence".

    But in the same way there is a lack of evidence for unicorns and the flying spaghetti monster.

    We have a lack of evidence for the existence of unicorns and strangely enough scientists don't give a rats ass about trying to "prove" that (you can't prove non-existence after all), it's just too ridiculous. For scientists homeopathy fits that same category as unicorns. The only reason *any* research is done at all is because there just so many damn **** that believe in it. So they try to come up with ways to prove that unicorns don't exist and believers (because in the end that's what they are) just keep coming up with stranger and stranger reasons for why they're failing (your virgin was too old/too young or it wasn't a proper full moon, or, or)

  17. Re:SSD on Measuring the Xbox One Against PCs With Titanfall · · Score: 1

    Ehm, no, I want the next map to load as fast as possible so the others won't start the next round without me, I *definitely* use my SSD for my games.
    Also: gameS, if all of them start asking almost 50GB even my 500GB HDD will quickly fill up

  18. Re:Does it really cost $100k? on The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery · · Score: 1

    Ehm sorry? I would definitely *not* pay another $100 dollars on the off chance that *if* my plane crashes (very very unlikely) my remains will *perhaps* get found a little bit sooner. Really, I'm dead already, I won't care. And my family isn't going to pay that $100 either. "Hey you want to pay $100 for my flight so you can rest assured that if I die you'll know exactly where?". I'm sure they'll be thrilled.

    The plane won't be any *safer* for that $100, not one bit.

  19. Re:Isn't this illegal on Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams · · Score: 1

    Exactly, I know in The Netherlands you're in big trouble as a school if you even *open* the packaged exams before they are going to be distributed to the pupils.

  20. Re:So instead of diving for hours with an air tank on Revolutionary Scuba Mask Creates Breathable Oxygen Underwater On Its Own · · Score: 2

    Well besides the fact that when you get a leak somewhere with a tank you still have time left (hopefully) to get to safety (depending on the size of the leak). A problem with the gills results in having no air whatsoever instantly. Dunno, I think I prefer tried and true technology in this case :)

  21. Kindle store useless on Ask Slashdot: Why Do Mobile Versions of Websites Suck? · · Score: 1

    I have this with the Amazon store from within the Kindle app. It's completely useless compared to the desktop website. Even things as simple as turning the author's name into a link to their other works just isn't there. And that's just a simple link, so it can't be because they need to make it work for simple devices. So they only reason I can come up with is that they simply don't care.

  22. Re:HD is not enough on Oculus Rift Raises Another $16 Million · · Score: 1

    *You* might find it unacceptable, but most people I showed it to (non-gamers all of them) find it a really nice experience. Yes, they notice the low resolution and some of them even mention the screen door effect. Most of them even get nauseous. And still, what they *really* want is something to do! Ok, nice demos, but *now what*?

    You seem to forget they made really nice and hugely popular games when all they had was 4-color 640x480 monitors.

    Of course I want higher resolution VR without screen door, but only because it will allow us to do so much more with it.

    The *only* real obstacle I see is what was mentioned before: the motion sickness. If we can't get that down to more acceptable levels I wonder how many people will feel like going through the "training" to get accostumed to it...

  23. Re:Ridiculous on Quadrocopters Throwing and Catching an Inverted Pendulum · · Score: 1

    Oh, I thought it was called "lots of practise" ;)

  24. Ridiculous on Quadrocopters Throwing and Catching an Inverted Pendulum · · Score: 1

    And I still can't even get my quadcopter for a normal spin without crashing it into the nearest wall or tree!
    How the heck can I get mine to hover at least somewhat in one place? I know these use the cameras for real precise tracking, but mine is the exact opposite it seems. Grrrr

  25. Re:Oh no! 18+ on Game Receives First R18+ "Adults Only" Classification In Australia · · Score: 0

    Sure, but a party is not your own home, so either it's a public place and that would be illegal yes or at another private residence and how would you've gotten your hands on alcohol legally there? The owners aren't allowed to give it to you and you can't have brought it yourself. But in you own home you could legally drink. (At least that is how I understood US drinking laws)