Slashdot Mirror


User: Halthar

Halthar's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
143
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 143

  1. Re:Acid Test on IE7 Bugs and Reviews · · Score: 1

    Yeah, probably a different kind of acid is being discussed. I refuse to help IE down from a bad trip. These crazy kids these days can't handle their drugs. If they can't get the set and setting thing right, they shouldn't be experimenting.

  2. Re:Why must we be animals? on Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered · · Score: 1

    What? No breast option? No Cowboy Neal option?

    What the hell kind of poll is this?

  3. Re:Movielink? on Leaked Screenshots Show Netflix Downloads · · Score: 1

    I tried using them for a while, and the video quality was good. I was annoyed though with the DRM and needing to use the Movielink player to actually watch anything. I also found their selection of movies to be seriously lacking, as I have with CinemaNow also. CinemaNow has more movies, but the majority of the movies they have in addition to the ones Movielink offers, suck.

    If they could provide a larger library, lower prices, and less restrictive viewing, I might go back and give them another shot, but as it stands I can't see paying the money nor using the bandwidth for their service. Even if it's more convenient than going to Blockbuster only to find that all copies of the new movie I want to see are checked out.

  4. Re:Goodluck... on Leaked Screenshots Show Netflix Downloads · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have used both CinemaNow and Movielink, Movielink simply downloads the whole movie, and then allows you to watch it using their software for a period of time, so there are no buffering issues at all. CinemaNow allows for some movies to be downloaded, however most of the movies you get access to with a subscription seem to be stream only. That having been said, I have never had a movie start trying to buffer on me, unless I have tried to move forward or backward to some other point in the movie. Unfortunately, CinemaNow's subscription movies are horrible for the most part. Very few are worth actually taking the time or the bandwidth to watch.

    The only way the subscription could ever be worth it is if you are looking forward to digging through their adult content.

    As a result I canceled my subscription with them. I wanted it to be a great service, but the DRM (I would prefer a service I could use under Linux or any other OS of my choice) and the lack of any really good movies as part of the subscription service turned me away.

  5. Re:The next gen of good FPS's will be like Morrowi on Doomed: How id Lost Its Crown · · Score: 1

    I would really like a somewhat non-linear FPS. It's one of the reasons that I am really looking forward to the release of STALKER, based on what I have read, they are trying to make something that is at least somewhat non-linear. If they haven't changed their design goals, it should be a great game.

  6. Re:Linux? on Project Gizmo Challenges Skype · · Score: 1

    Since I am not sure if it would compile, but would expect it would (I haven't used OpenBSD as a desktop), you might want to give GnomeMeeting a shot.

  7. Re:What about fansubs killing the industy? on The Business of Anime · · Score: 1

    While I am not a rabid Naruto fan (how many hours is it until next Wednesday evening?), I won't be getting rid of any of my fansubs. I will definitely purchase the DVDs when they get released, and probably watch it when it airs. They will definitely get my money for the DVDs if nothing else.

    However, I won't get rid of the fansubs because I suspect they are going to try and target the series more towards children when it airs/is sold here in the US. I prefer the series the way it is now, and I will probably hate the dubbing they do to it. As a result, the fansubs stay around. If they do butcher the series, then I still have high quality subs to fall back on.

  8. Re:I thought that said CHINA! on Microsoft In Talks To Buy Claria · · Score: 1

    You aren't the only one.

    I then followed the train of thought that maybe they were buying China so that they could get back at the "Land of the rising Sun", after all, they just released OpenSolaris, and are gonna make laptops, or something.

    Time for more coffee, I think.

  9. Re:naturally... on Nerds Make Better Lovers · · Score: 1

    While the thread is a day old, I did want to take a moment to post a reply. I tend to live my life in a similar manner, and have found it to be very rewarding in a number of ways, as has basically any female I have interacted with over the past 10 years. I too, tend to dislike the role I am supposed to be playing in life as a male, and think that basically the role I am supposed to play would lead to emotional stagnation, if not worse.

    I tend to find that there is only superficial strength in denying ones emotions, which most of the males I encounter do. Real strength comes from admitting that you are an emotional being, and dealing with that. Part of this admission means dealing with the fact that there are times when you are "weak" or "fragile" or "vulnerable".

    It has been my experience when dealing with the "fragility" thing, that people respond to it positively in part because it makes you seem more human, and in part because its important to any meaningful relationship because it means that you trust this other person enough to show your "soft underbelly" to them. It's an intimacy thing, and every woman I have ever encountered who I have shared something with and allowed myself to be vulnerable around has responded positively to that. Also, it allows them to see that you accept yourself as you are at least to a point, including faults, and as a result it allows them to realize that maybe if you can accept your own faults/weakness/etc you can accept theirs as well. As a result of this, they become more willing to open up and be fragile around you as well, at least that's been my experience.

    It's a great thing, and screw anyone who can't deal with it. That's their issue to worry about. I will continue to live on, as I am, with all the benefits that I have gained as a result of actually allowing other people to see my "weakness" or "fragility" or "vulnerability".

    Yes, there are some people out there who would take advantage of it, but I tend to find that most people don't. It isn't necessarily that in some cases they wouldn't like to, it's that in many cases they can't actually bring themselves to do so. It tends, if it's geniune, to touch them in a way they aren't used to, and can be a VERY powerful thing.

    Anyway, that's my two cents.

  10. Re:Has the prior digicam hack... on Disposable Camcorder · · Score: 1

    Well, I for one have two "CVS Red" cameras that I modified the firmware on. The pictures they produce aren't all that great, really, but it was worth the 20 bucks I paid for each of them, I think.

    The process of cracking the firmware is actually very very simple. The tough part with the CVS Reds is getting a good solid connector made if you go the modified Centronix connector route. Aside from that they work fine.

    The cameras do have their issues, for instance with the CVS Reds (I am unsure about the others) you can only delete the last picture in memory. So if you take one, and then you don't like it, don't take another, delete the one you don't like, and THEN take the new picture.

    They also seem to have a very low dynamic range. I am not sure if this is due to some other part of the setup, or the SMaL sensor itself. Overall it isn't HORRIBLE, but it's not all that great.

    But for 20 bucks I wasn't expecting the best camera out there, and I am happy with the purchase.

    I may make a run over to CVS today to check and see if the disposable vid cams are in yet so I can get started working on one of those.

  11. Re:Perhaps it's time... on VX30 Ad-Stats Code Online · · Score: 2, Funny

    I personally prefer 733Ts to 1337, especially when it comes to auditing them. Well, depending on the holder of them, of course.

  12. Re:Here's hoping they get all they can out of PG-1 on Initial ROTS Reviews Hit the Internet · · Score: 1

    And in Handcuffs, PeeWee Herman style?

  13. Re:Not to Mention on "English" Not Threatened By Webspeak · · Score: 1

    .--. .-- -. . -..

    The following is placed here to get around the lameness filter. For the morse impaired I present the following aid, here..

  14. Re:Overheard in a squalid housing estate... on UK Record Industry Starts Suing Filesharers · · Score: 1

    To bad you are already at max mod, and I don't have any mod points anyway. I just watched that episode of "The Young Ones" last night.

  15. Re:dirty bombs on Can Terrorists Build a Nuclear Bomb? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IANANP/E (Nuke Physicist/Engineer) so I am uncertain of the validity of claims made by the person interviewed, however, in the recent series "The Power of Nightmares", which aired on the BBC, they interviewed a physicist who had done research on Dirty Bombs and their effects. Essentially, he stated that the only real danger from a dirty bomb would come from two things, the first of which is the damage from the explosion itself. The second, and possibly more dangerous impact, is the psychological impact which would cause people to trample one another in panic to escape.

    The problem with a dirty bomb is that the radioactive material becomes so scattered that there would easily be ample time for cleanup before anyone would be adversly effected by the radiation. If I remember his statements in the documentary correctly, he stated that the radiation becomes so dispersed, in fact, that you could live in the area for years before the radiation would actually start to cause you harm. He mentioned something around 100 years, but I don't remember specifically the amount of effect he was talking about.

    Basically, aside from the psychological effect, and the destruction from the initial explosion, there is nothing to worry about from a Dirty Bomb, at least according to the scientist interviewed in the series.

    Though I don't know how well grounded in fact the series is/was in general, it was interesting to see the "threat of terrorism" in a different light.

  16. Re:Difficult fit for U.S.A on Fansubbers Under Fire · · Score: 1

    Much as I would like to disagree you are probably right about it getting ruined.

    I really hope that when it does get picked up (I believe it will) some fansub group somewhere will still do it justice with high quality fansubs. I will still, of course, purchase any releases of it here in the US to show my support for the show, but I really don't want to deal with poorly done kid friendly subtitles or dubs for this show.

  17. Re:I'm a Verizon DSL customer right now on Speakeasy Embraces Firefox · · Score: 1

    I'm a former Verizon customer, and had no problems with them. I just needed/wanted more speed and some static IPs. The issues I have needed to call Speakeasy about haven't been anything which was their fault or mine, actually. There have been a total of three calls made to them by me. The first issue was the guestimate of the distance from me to the CO being way off. The initial guestimate based on phone company data was 3500ft and some change from the CO, when the actual distance is around 13,500ft. As a result I was having some dropout on my 6Meg line every now and then. They put it in safe mode to see if it would stabalize, and it did. Second was a call to have them take it out of safe mode (the dropouts are only annoying when they are doing phone related construction work near my house, or the weather is very bad). Third was a billing problem, because my credit card company security department had flagged my account because of a charge they thought was suspicious, it wasn't, and as a result they had locked the account as a security precaution for me. I resolved that, and then told Speakeasy to put the charge through. Wait time on the phone in all three of those cases was well under a minute, which after having dealt with a vast number of other companies is definitely a plus in my book.

    In all three of those cases I got the best service I have ever encountered from any company, bar none. Verizon was actually pretty good though, and I have nothing bad I can say about them aside from the fact that they don't offer residential DSL at higher speeds in my area, and initially I used the horrible PPPoE software to get Roaring Penguin and patches for my firewall/NAT machine. Roaring Penguin worked well with Verizon's service though, so I can't complain about those 45 minutes of pain.

  18. Re:If only they embraced lower prices as well on Speakeasy Embraces Firefox · · Score: 1

    Although their price at the low-end is higher, I would actually gladly pay it after having dealt with the company. They have the best support folks I have ever encountered. They have some of the best user policies I have ever encountered as well. There is IMHO a lot more to that 39.95 than you see on the surface. They truly are top notch, and based on my personal experience are most definitely the best in the industry. I have worked for a few DSL providers, and based on what I have seen where I worked vs. what I have experienced as a Speakeasy customer they easily win hands down. Apparently they have some kind of thing going on (may just be in my area) where they hold Covad's testicles to the fire. Basically, if a Speakeasy customer has a problem it gets taken care of VERY fast, in the case of the one trouble ticked I had to open which included Covad in the process it took about an hour to get the results and the tech called me back as soon as he had a better fix on the problem I was having (which I should add the tech actually understood AND recognized that I understood as well). When I called to have a change made to my line it was taken care of while I was on the phone with them (had them take the line out of "SafeMode").

    I don't work for them, and I am not going to pimp out my referal number so I can get a kickback when someone signs up because they truly are worth the praise, as well as the extra cost per month. Hell, the fact that when you call the techs they don't treat you like you are a moron is in itself enough to justify the extra cost.

  19. Re:Speakeasy on Speakeasy Embraces Firefox · · Score: 1

    I have had a Speakeasy account for the past 6 months or so and the service they offer is top notch. I had originally had a DSL line from Verizon which worked very very well, but I wanted more bandwidth and some static IPs. When I originally signed up for Verizon it was guestimated that I was about 3500ft from the CO in my area. As it turned out, this wasn't the case. Recently my DSL line started to go down quite a bit during bad weather. So I called Speakeasy to get them to look into it. I got what was by far the best support that I have gotten from any company ever. As it turns out there isn't much that can be done about it aside from throttling back my line from a 6Mbps line to a 3Mbps line aside from putting the line in Safe Mode which kills my upload speeds. Turns out I am 13,500 ft from the CO which is well beyond what would normally work okay for a 6Mbps line. It's working well enough for my needs so I am keeping it the way it is unless it gets unbearable (a few times a month of 15 minutes of outage I can deal with).

    Anyone looking for a truly geek friendly ISP should check them out. They are most definitely a top notch company. I have only personally dealt with the support staff a few times, but they truly are good. I have spoken with the same support person twice for two different reasons (one billing which wasn't their fault or mine, one actual DSL support), and he actually remembered me. Either they keep a log of everything, including what is said during random conversation while waiting for a status update about something, or their support folks are just that good.

    I get the feeling in dealing with them, that from the top down these are all technical folks including the management. They truly do seem to "get it!". They encourage bandwidth sharing, including being willing to handle the billing for you if you want to share the cost between you and your neighbors. They allow you to run servers, game servers or other. They have stated they will not port block anything, which ties into running servers. They actually have a reasonable rate for getting static IPs and include static IPs in their package deals for even residential users.

    They are by far the best ISP I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with, and I have worked for a few. This move to Firefox is really just icing on the cake.

  20. Re:And gratuitous Cylon b00bage. on New Battlestar Galactica Series Starts Tonight · · Score: 1

    Like many of the folks here, that's probably about the only exercise he gets.

    I agree, that was probably the most comical scene in the series thus far.

  21. Re:A breath of fresh air on New Battlestar Galactica Series Starts Tonight · · Score: 1

    I have to agree. The show really is excellent. I am in the US, but luckily found the torrents of it as soon as they were released. I don't have a ratings box, but will be watching it here in the US as well anyway.

    When I initially heard there was a remake in the works I was kind of split on whether I should watch it or not. On the one hand I expected it to be a horrible remake and didn't want to ruin my fondness for the original series (I was very young at the time it originally aired), and on the other I wanted to see if they could pull up some of my fond memories of the original series.

    Fortunately, I decided to watch the miniseries anyway to see if it was well done. I was expeting it to be terrible, campy, sci-fi crap to put it bluntly. i expected cheesy CGI, all the bad acting, and a B-Movie script. It turns out I was completely wrong in my assumptions about the series. The acting is excellent for the most part, the story line is great, the dialog is good, and the CGI is very well done most of the time. The show does have it's flaws, but taken as a whole it's been done very very well. I was/am very glad I did watch the miniseries, even more so now that I have been following the series itself, even if not by the most kosher of methods.

  22. Re:Rendering many parts of the world uninhabitable on BBC on Global Dimming · · Score: 1

    Actually, I would suspect that a rise in temperature in Cleveland would make it even more uninhabitable due to the increased odor.

  23. Re:Hopefully it'll come out alright on Fantastic Four Teaser Trailer · · Score: 1

    If the third movie doesn't have Phoenix in it, I will more than likely wait for video to see it. That teaser at the end of the second film was great, and I have been waiting for the third movie in the series since. Not for the sake of another X-Men movie (I enjoyed both of them), but for a movie with Phoenix in it.

    I still think they should do a Wolverine movie based on a graphic novel, or one of Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. Maybe I will get lucky and the third X-Men movie will have not only Phoenix but Kitty in it as well (More than just her running through some walls here and there). Even if her existance there causes some problems in relation to the timeline of the comics. I think it could work okay.

  24. Re:As always ..... on Deep Impact Blasts Off For Comet Tempel 1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It means the rocket blue screened and rebooted inself into safe mode. Unfortunately as a result of this it's only going to send back images at 640x480.

  25. Re:Where has originalty gone? on Deep Impact Blasts Off For Comet Tempel 1 · · Score: 1

    Actually, if the article I read was correct, they decided on the name around the same time the movie was either in production, or moving towards production. It mentioned that some of the people on the project also consulted for the movie, but it's possible that they did actually take the name for this project before the movie.