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User: FatTux

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Comments · 39

  1. Re:violent games on Views on Violence in Video Games · · Score: 1

    I haven't made myself clear, and now I see I've passed a wrong impression.

    I have no prejudice against violent games and have played a lot of them (I suck at CS, but it's another story). Real firearms? I've got target practice from pistols to a 12-gauge shotgun, no problem with them.

    The point was, Flight Simulator can teach some things that you will possibly use in real life, while violent games are mostly inocuous. They won't teach how to kill or how to handle weapons, nor encourage real violence - unless the player is indeed a psycho, but that's another problem.

    Lastly, sorry for the "gratuitous". Shortly before posting, I was playing "Postal 2" ;).

  2. Re:Does this suprise anyone? on An Engineer's View of Carly Fiorina's Leadership · · Score: 1

    I agree, but there is another plausible motivation: some key members of the board and the CEO make a "behind the scenes" deal where the CEO will pay secretly a sort of "commission fee" based upon the package value. So the board will tend to approve the greatest values they could without being investigated.

  3. Re:Hmph... on Hand Recharged iPod Shuffle · · Score: 1

    7805's work reliably with at least 7V input, and are quite old now. There are more modern regulators rated "low-dropout" that require less than 1V above their nominal output voltage. I'd pick one of the latter for such a project, rather than a 7805.

  4. Re:violent games on Views on Violence in Video Games · · Score: 1
    I partially disagree. Flight Simulator recreates the dynamics of flight and can teach some flying when used with a yoke and pedals (say, the old Virtual Pilot and Thrustmaster RCS). I've got real flight instruction and in the early flights the CFIs were surprised with the ease I could coordinate curves, maintain altitude, etc. In the 4th flight the CFI said to me "you've born a pilot"! Unfortunately, financial problems prevented me to complete the flight instruction :(

    Violent games can't be compared with flight simulators, the latter is about dynamics and balance, the former is about gratuitously destroying lives. There is a difference.

  5. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong (please!) on Mozilla 1.8b1 Released, Firefox Growth Slowing · · Score: 1
    Well, market share may not be the best term, maybe "installed base share" would be better.

    However, I DO care for it, whatever name it has. The more alternative browsers stay with a fringe presence, the more crappy sites will stay IE-only.

    Cheers

  6. Re:randomness on Is the iPod Shuffle Playing Favorites? · · Score: 1

    I can't agree more. Cheers.

  7. Re:Just wait. on Experts Suggest Replacing Definition of Kilogram · · Score: 1
    A little OT, but curious. In the 70's, Nestle distributed powder milk in Brazil in cans with precisely net 454 grams (Brazil uses the metric system for more years than I can tell, perhaps more than a century). I was a kid then, and found to be strange that a product was shipped with such a "broken" number for its quantity.

    It took years to me to realize this mass is exactly one pound.

    The catch here is that this product was not imported, it was manufactured in Brazil. I can't tell when this has been changed, but today the same product is shipped in 400 grams and 1,000 grams cans.

  8. Re:except the shuffle has no internal clock on Is the iPod Shuffle Playing Favorites? · · Score: 1
    It does not take an RTC to time-seed a PRNG. A simple good seed can be derived from the interval between several button presses and their durations, at millisecond level (or microsecond, that would be even better).

    I'm not familiarized with iPod Shuffle, but sometimes my mini, by chance, groups 2 songs from the same album. I have 60+ albuns in it, from which 50+ are complete, yielding ~700 songs.

    One time the two songs grouped from the same album were in their natural order, I was able to realize this because in the end of the first song the artist announced the next to come. Funny indeed.

  9. Re:What does MandrakeSoft gain? on Mandrakesoft Acquires Conectiva · · Score: 1
    I'm sure MandrakeSoft knows Brazil is not South America. As did Conectiva, before they almost flopped and had to undercut assets and retreat from the Spanish-speaking markets in South America.

    As Conectiva regained some strength and could walk over its legs again, it became an interesting starting point to MDK in South America.

    With the merger and renewed strength, one can expect that localized websites/products/services in Spanish langage will be produced again.

    Cheers.

  10. Prior art? on Microsoft Seeks Latitude/Longitude Patent · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The company I work for (in Brazil) makes an AVL system that uses a similar system since 1999. Normally, critical events are transmitted over the air, but in the event of a comm failure, the driver can read an encoded string in the truck terminal and voice it over a phone to the monitoring central.

    The string encodes Lat, Lon, nature of the event and control digits to minimize errors.

    Some characters are excluded, but not exactly vowels. The idea here is to prevent misreading (eg "O" (letter) and "0" (number). Or "l" (letter) and "1" (number) and so on). So the base used is not 36, but something around 30 (can't remember precisely).

  11. Exposure to RF? on Wireless Mouse with no Batteries · · Score: 1
    A problem with this setup is that in order to keep the mouse powered there's a need of an electromagnetic field that's far from negligible.

    I'd not like to keep my hand lying on such a device for hours a day.

    My 2 cents.

  12. Great! on Microgenerators Coming Soon to Electronics Near You · · Score: 1

    Now instead of carrying a cellphone and a Zippo in my pocket, I will have the choice for a 2-in-1 combo!

  13. Re:Betamax gets the last laugh on The VHS is Dead · · Score: 1
    Add the problems with legal Linux distro DVD players, and I think the consumer has lost out.

    On the other hand, ther is no legal problems to play VHS in Linux and - oh, wait!

  14. Re:Only need IE to get past 'unknown browser' scre on Redmondmag on Dumping IE · · Score: 3, Insightful
    User Agent Switcher

    Yeah, so you are counted as one more IE user. May work in the short term, but it will contribute to shift the statistics towards IE, what is we *definitly* don't want.

  15. Great! New Star Wars TV show! on Star Wars TV Show · · Score: 1

    Is this Star Wars Holiday Special Edition? I've been holding my breath for years!

  16. Re:Darth Varder isn't such a badass.... on 11,000 Words on the Star Wars Trilogy DVDs · · Score: 1
    20. His chest-mounted life support computer also doubles as an electronic day planner

    No, Darth's chestplate doubles as an airplane switch panel!

  17. Re:No surprises here.. on Lucasfilms Nixes Star Wars Live Screening · · Score: 1
    I see your point. In my opinion, what Lucas did with the movies was like a software vendor releasing updated versions of its products, with bugfixes and small improvements.

    You could say "cinema is not software" and I would agree with you. I'd the first to say that GL's attitude should not set a trend in the movie industry because most people can't cope with it. But I, personally, think GL's "experiment" is indeed very interesting.

    Greedo shooting first is enough to get most geeks' blood boiling

    I can't help about this. Ok, this WAS a bad move, but to get infuriated on it looks somewhat over the top, doesn't look?

    Finally, I keep my view that the "new" Star Wars is the same product as the old, with small improvements and a (minor IMHO) bug (Han x Greedo) inserted.

    Cheers.

  18. Re:No surprises here.. on Lucasfilms Nixes Star Wars Live Screening · · Score: 1
    Is EP2 better than EP1? IMHO, yes, although not being a classic. I can just hope that there will be a Special Edition that will correct the worst EP1 shenanigans and will consist of a EP1-3 bundle, just like EP4-6.

    For now, it's enough for me to enjoy EP2 on cable TV.

  19. Re:No surprises here.. on Lucasfilms Nixes Star Wars Live Screening · · Score: 1
    he could face organized boycotts, negative reviews, and negative word of mouth advertising

    He got some of it with EP1 and to a lesser extent with EP2. Let's judge the man for the stuff he puts in the market, not for his copyright enforcement.

    I have purchased the 1997's EP4-6 Special Edition VHS tapes and now the DVDs, and will *gladly* buy it in a future format if it happens to exist. But I have no plans to buy EP1-3, unless EP1 is revised in a "Special Edition" to cut off its most sucky moments.

    but he shows his true colors over and over: greed unfettered with respect for his loyal fans

    Come on, Lucas is no worse than any other moviemaker, he's just smart enough to sell the same product again and again like Microsoft. With the difference that he's not a monopolist and you're not pressured to buy his stuff.

  20. Alien vs Predator obligatory quote on Hollywood afraid of Microsoft · · Score: 1

    MS x Hollywood: Whoever wins... We lose.

  21. Re:Just a reminder... on Are You Ready for the SCO Blitz? · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's time to a new googlebomb. Say with me:

    microsoft shill

  22. Oh, wait... on Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics · · Score: 2, Funny

    Im sure Pat Volkerding already works a lot!...

  23. Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It on Novell Poised To Strike On Slander Of Title Claim · · Score: 1

    Not surprising from a guy that stated that "The iPod is terrible as a PDA"!

  24. Re:Corporations Sucks (Thermodynamics 101) on MSIE 7 May Beat Longhorn Out The Gate · · Score: 1

    we wouldn't be using hideously inefficient Carnot Cycle engines to run our vehicles

    Just a small correction, the thermal cycle for piston engines is the Otto cycle, not Carnot.

  25. Mozilla 1.7.2 and Slackware 10 on Security-Updated Versions Of Mozilla Released · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just tried Moz 1.7.2 and the anti-aliased fonts were gone (maybe build options?). Furthermore, I've faced some segfaults when browsing Slashdot. Reverted to Slack 10's original Moz 1.7.

    My 2 cents.