Man -- that many crackers -- in a North Korean military unit. Lot of rednecks to be concentrated in one place. Sounds to me like the country's going to infiltrate a NASCAR race and start stealing chassis designs from major race teams. They could use the engine designs for something too.
Maybe they're considering a first strike invasion of Atlanta. They're terribly misinformed, if that's the case, 'cause north Georgia here is a little more Northern transplants than crackers these days. If I were an insane little Korean communist dictator, I'd be concentration my cracker infiltration force in Charlotte. They're more likely to blend in, what with all the NASCAR teams based there. Lots of Earnhardt Jr. fans = lots of cover.
There's always Alabama, too, I suppose. But even crackers don't really claim 'bama as their own these days.;-)
I wonder if they'll show up wearing Cabela Winter 2004 orange camo and riding in on jacked up late model Ford F-150s.;-)
IronChefMorimoto
P.S. - This had me cracking (no pun intended) up this morning, 'cause I grew up in all these various places. 600 Korean crackers -- LOL!
If you don't want an IBM Thinkpad for the fingerprint scanner, the APC fingerprint scanner/biometric reader seems to work pretty well. I saw it for $29 or so at Fry's yesterday.
My friend bought one a while back and used it rather successfully on his Dell D800 before he had to give the computer back to his employer. It was pretty accurate in scanning his fingerprint. He never got locked out of his machine.
I can't remember if the machine would NOT allow a login without the reader or not. If it would, then that sort of defeats the purpose of the reader if you were able to steal the laptop without the reader attached.
IronChefMorimoto
Re:Sigh -- there goes my friend for about 12 month
on
Halo 2 Ready to Ship
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I should've added that he's beaten the single player about 5 times on Legendary. Sadly, I just wait to die and respawn if I play coop with him on that level.
IronChefMorimoto
Sigh -- there goes my friend for about 12 months
on
Halo 2 Ready to Ship
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My friend won't buy any new XBox or PC games until this one comes out. He's been waiting for it all summer.
He plays the original HALO on multiplayer with either myself or his brother-in-law on an 8' wide, 6' tall wall using a Dell projector -- FOR HOURS ON END. I stopped playing with him about 3 months ago, because he knew where every dude was coming from, and the exact moment the AI would do this or that. He'd played it that much.
I've never seen a game with such replay value, or is my friend just a HALO nut?
At least, when HALO 2 does come out, I'll be able to see it in all it's Dolby DTS and 8' x 6' glory. It's a beautiful game -- unless you're still watching my friend play the levels he knows by heart 1 year after it's been released.
I can see Ballmer's personal security now. He's taking a break from his body guard duty (his second in command is monitoring Ballmer in another room), when he pulls up Slashdot (an informed body guard) and sees this story.
He immediately drops his laptop on the floor and rushes into a board meeting where Ballmer is talking about the Longhorn delay in a conference call to institional investors. He yells "CODE APPLE - CODE APPLE!" and scares the living hell out of everyone in the room.
He grabs Ballmer by the arm, dragging him to the equivalent of a secured bunker about 10 levels beneath the basement sub-level at Microsoft headquarters. All other Ballmer security personal, meanwhile, are coming out of weapons lockers located around the Redmond, WA campus -- fully equipped for a medium tactical incursion situation (it's in the Microsoft CEO security handbook, page 354, paragraph 7a).
At this point, a mysterious announcement goes out to Microsoft employees. The campus is closing for an employee appreciation day. Everyone must go home immediately. Speculation runs rampant, but several employees have a pretty good idea why they're getting a free paid holiday -- some Microsoft asshat said something to piss off the rest of the Linux/Mac/geek world. It always happens.
Ballmer, meanwhile, remains locked in the MS CEO bunker, sitting on a cot surfing the Internet on a tablet PC. He's cursing because he has to keep going to the taskbar to look at different IE windows. "Damn, you, FireFox."
This big buildup to a little eruption reminds of me of how I feel when I eat something that might disagree with me more than it actually did.
You go out to lunch, come back, and go to a meeting. During the whole meeting, your stomach is growling in such a horrible way as to sound like you've shit your britches. People look at you, and boss asks, embarrassingly, if you have to leave the meeting. You say, redfaced, "I'm OK, and plod through the rest of the meeting while your co-workers roll their chairs a little farther away from you."
At the end of the meeting, you rush to the bathroom, which everyone giggles about as they see you make the mad dash, lock the door, drop your trousers, and sit down for what you think will be mother of all bowel movements. And then you......fart rather loudly a few times and drop a turd the size of a peanut into the commode.
All that buildup and embarrassment for...a single tiny turd.
Looks like the other mountains in the area laughed at Mt. St. Helen's before she popped her piddly piddle today.
Wireless digital cameras. Hmmm. I see the greatest Super Bowl moment getting snatched from an SI reporter by a guy from ESPN Magazine.
Seriously -- makes you wonder how photo rights could be challenged if people find easy ways to snatch photos from your camera while you're downloading at the end of a sports shoot. I'm not a pro photographer, but I would suspect that many of them gather together in press booths/boxes or down on the sidelines after sporting event and maybe do an inventory of what they shot and their equipment.
Throw in wireless, and you gotta perfect time to do some snarfing and grabbing that ultimate cover shot for your magazine -- from someone else.
On the other hand, are sports photographers (or any event photographers) that low that they would choose to abuse the technology in that manner?
Sadly, this potentially great mini-series will either be pre-empted by Nip/Tuck (my fault) or [insert inane reality show here] (the wife).
Frankly, Nip/Tuck is a legitimate excuse for missing such nerdy/intellectual public broadcasting Nova fun. Why? Boobies! Hotties! BOOBIES and HOTTIES, MAN!
However, seeing a naked gay guy run around the dumpster side of a resort island touting his immunity challenge win in a "survival" competition does not supercede Nova.
I'm venting, but please try not to totally take offense at me. I really want to know -- do Europeans just want America to fail at something? Is this whole election observer thing just a chance to watch us screw up? To see America in action completely and utter fail?
As an American, and one that feels that neutrality in some world arenas would perhaps lessen our profile on the world's hate meter a little, I just feel sometimes that the world, and in this case Europe, wants us to fail.
What the fuck is the problem with the US succeeding in world economics (relatively speaking of course), technology, etc.? Sure -- we fuck up a lot. It's the American way -- sometimes we learn from our mistakes (New Coke), and sometimes we don't (Vietnam and, perhaps, Iraq).
But, Christ, I've never felt so embattled as an American as I do now hearing how much the world just wants us to fuck up. And now, with Europe looming over our elections, it makes me wonder whatever happened to just being simply greatful for the things that we try and do right.
Like liberate Europe from Hitler. Intervene in the Balkan conflict to prevent more atrocities. Things like that. Do you not want our help? Would you rather just NOT have us assist in world affairs at all?
Hell -- we have the wherewithall to do so many things, and on the one hand, we're despised for having that ability and, on the other hand, we're hated for failing to use that ability. And when we do intervene or assist in some way, we then get berated for doing whatever we do.
I'm sorry. I've never been so miserable being an American, but I love my country, and I hate to think that the world sees one man or the deposing of one dictator as the source of all evil on this planet. It's just how we work, people. We reacted to 9/11. We couldn't just get kicked in the nuts and go, "Well fuck -- time to close the borders for good." We would've gotten fussed at for that too.
I only ask that people make up their minds about America. We try to be many things to many people, and yet we're haunted by the old adage, "You can't please everyone all the time."
No offense to the European/. crowd, but you can observe all you want. In the end, you'll have to deal with whom we elect. Start popping pills, rationalizing the impending new reality, etc. in preparation for the trauma that most likely will hit you if and when Bush gets re-elected.
I hate to sound like a conservative here ('cause Bush irritates me on many levels but not to the degree that Kerry frightens me), but if European observers come in and completely end up IGNORING the fact that there are thousands (millions?) of illegal aliens voting in this country, then the credibility they hope to provide to the US electoral process is a farce.
If European observers come in and discover how the dead have been resurrected and given voting rights in favor of...I won't say whom...then their attempt to RECTIFY the situation from the 2000 election will have been in vain, and their own credibility will be called into question.
If European observers miss the fact that GI absentee votes go missing or end up uncounted, then they will have ended up doing nothing to "help" our electoral process. In fact, they will demonstrate that they, perhaps, are willing to "overlook" such discrepancies if it helps get such and such candidate into office.
Yes -- observe all the hell you want, Europe, but don't expect much recognition if you manage to miss my dead grandfather's social security number being used by an illegal alien to enter the polls in lieu of a real GI getting his vote in from an overseas military base.
You're welcome to get involved, but if you f--- up, then be prepared to become embroiled in perhaps the silliest era of partisan politics this nation has ever seen.
Going out on a limb here, but I'd be willing to bet that a private mission to Mars wouldn't return several years later and bring along with it some astronauts infected by a poorly sealed sample of alien biological material that vented into the cabin on the return trip and infected the crew, thus ensuring the end of humanity via a viral infection of massive proportions, including infected people whose heads re-grow after being blown off.
Instead, a private venture would ensure that such biological material remained on the planet, cultivating it to see what sorts of special biological weapons or beings it could engineer from the material. The profits from the sale of such weapons would be tantalizing, and the desire to keep it secure would negate any real concerns about an infection as I mentioned above.
Unless someone gets power hungry within the private organization, performs self-experimentation on him or herself, and evolves into a destructive, monstrous being that inadvertently infects the rest of the private mission personnel on Mars, thus requiring the deployment of a specialized Marine force from Earth who undoubtedly would get its ass kicked, save for one chick who goes head to head with the mother being and, in a daring attack, destroys the entire private mission colony by overloading the atmospheric processor power core.
So, as long as that chick is in the pipeline, like I said, a private mission would avoid the NASA mistakes that we've all seen explored on TV and in movies.
Would the pricing on the Nvidia or 3DLabs products overshoot the $1999 base price of the low-end G5? I wouldn't know what to select, so that would need to be factored into my estimates.
Thanks for the info though. If I ever get that job at NASA designing spaceships, I'll know how to requisition my workstation setup. I'll leave web development and maintaining overly slashdotted NASA servers to some dude running an ATI video card.;-)
If you'd read closely, you'd see that I was guesstimating the price of the IWill -- my understanding is that it's not available yet. Most of the newer Shuttle XPCs are running around $350 or higher, so I estimated high for the $400 IWill.
Not bogus -- just a guess. Read the original post.
I love reading people throwing in for the Apple PowerMac G5 on this one. I thought it was funny, 'cause I expect Apple hardware to be much more expensive out of the box than home-built PCs, especially PCs running typically less expensive AMD processors.
So, I decided to do a little research, and here's (ballpark) what one of these IWill boxes would cost you up front if buying the parts from Newegg.com.
PLEASE NOTE -- I LOVE MACS. I JUST CANNOT AFFORD THEM. THIS IS FOR COMPARATIVE PURPOSES ONLY!
Here we go:
- $408 - 2 Opteron 242s (slower than base G5 1.8GHz @ 1.6GHz) - $400 (est.) - IWill dual Opteron SFF (high-end Shuttle XPCs are nearing $400 mark now) - $86 - Crucial 256MB registered ECC PC3200 memory (same as base G5) - $69 - Sony dual layer multi-format DVD burner ("Superdrive" from base G5) - $225 - ATI FireGL 9600 (top G5 model offers ATI 9600XT) - $68 - Western Digital 80GB SATA hard drive (same setup as base G5) - $1256 - TOTAL
Now, for my money, I think $1256 for a computer that may or may not (I'm not comparing overall processing power -- I'm comparing for purposes of appeasing my wallet) perform as well as a $2000 Apple PowerMac G5 is NOT a bad deal.
Granted, I can't run OS X on this machine. But think about what I'd really want to have in terms of memory -- 2GB registered ECC is around $800 for the IWill setup. For a G5, you better plan on adding $1125 to that base entry level price of $1999.
Then, there's the video card -- the top of the line G5 starting at $2999 is going to come with an ATI Radeon 9600XT. I run a faster video card than that in my Athlon XP GAMING SYSTEM. I'm sorry -- to me, if we're talking about "workstation" uses for these types of computers, wouldn't a FireGL or similar workstation-level graphics card come into play?
I'll admit, I don't know diddly about workstation graphics needs, but they wouldn't make that whole separate line of graphics cards for nothing, right? Chime in, please -- I'm asking because I may be wrong about this $225 graphics card that I included...that still goes into a system that costs approx. $750 less out of pocket than a similarly (if not better) equipped G5!!!
Advantages left to the G5? Well -- networking is out, as the IWill comes with Gigabit Ethernet AND wireless built-in. Tack on another $80 for the AirPort Extreme wireless card for the G5. Let's see -- I'm down to the 56kbps built-in modem, FireWire 800, and another 2GB of max. memory. Those are the only things left to the G5 that I found while looking in the Apple Store.
Sorry -- the extra $750 that I saved goes to either an operating system (unless I use Linux) and a nice LCD display. Hell -- maybe even some software if I already have the monitor sitting at the office. With the G5, you're stuck after $1999 with OS X and wanting for a monitor. And some memory.
Can't say that it's compelling enough to buy one, even though I'd kill to have a G5 on my desk at work.
My 2 cents (not necesarily invested in being well-informed).
How often do streets/houses move/change physically?
You're missing the point, man!
With AN UP TO DATE VERSION OF THIS TOOL, I don't have to wonder what that heavy breathing and "Oooh-ahh" is on the other side of my neighbor's backyard fence. Next to the pool. I can turn on my computer, enter my neighbor's address, zoom in, and discover......crap. It's just my neighbor walking across the hot concrete next to her pool. And she's fully clothed.
Wait -- I have a better example. I can find out the address of a hot looking starlet, enter it into the tool, zoom in on her mansion, and......find out that she's never actually there, but that her Puerto Rican pool boy is making "waves" in the pool with the, uh, other Puerto Rican pool boy.
Sigh -- alright -- here's the best example yet. I can enter the relative address of the top secret Area 51 base, zoom in, and......watch as a white page pops up with the notice "US GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS PROHIBIT THE DISTRIBUTION OF SATELLITE IMAGERY OF KNOWN SENSITIVE US MILITARY INSTALLATIONS. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE INSTALLATIONS, VISIT YOUR LOCAL ARMED SERVICES RECRUITER!"
Damn...maybe 2 year old pictures of streets/houses are fine after all. Dammit.
"Oh, Conrad, what wonderful tickets. Opening night, and in the balcony nearest the stage no less. How very exciting."
"Yes, Buffy [Conrad hands her theater glasses] -- The Last StarFighter. Sounds like a rollicking good time, don't you think?"
"I do indeed [hush falls over the crowd] -- OOOH! It's beginning."
[a few minutes pass]
"Conrad?"
"Uh, yes, my dear?"
"Well, dear -- I know we're all about going to see the latest and most IN musicals on Broadway, but..."
"Yes, Buffy?"
"Well, why is that man dragging that child around in that horrible ripoff of that vintage Maserati -- like the one you almost purchased at the Pebble Beach auction last year? I do say -- Maseratis don't fly, and they certainly aren't driven by -- did he say he was an alien?"
"I honestly don't know, dear -- just watch."
[more time passes]
"Is this Tommy? Did we go to the wrong production, Conrad? I mean -- the child IS playing a video game -- is this that horrible rock opera?"
"Shhh...Buffy...look at this new character -- the co-pilot."
"My god, it's Tommy meets Phantom of the Opera, Conrad. Except that poor deformed man has no mask over his face -- he's just reptilian. They did horrible makeup -- I wonder if it will be in the Times review tomorrow."
[more time passes]
"Conrad...?"
"Shhh -- dear -- I don't know what's going on, but I do think that the young boy and his twin brother -- one of them is going to die."
"But, Conrad? Isn't that twin brother really some sort of alien? He arrived with the fellow in the Maserati, right?"
"Shhh, Buffy -- please. We're going to get thrown...MY GOD! Look at the special effects -- what is that? A flowering blossom, did he say?"
I can see a couple of "good ol' boys" from Tybee Island ridin' around in their fishin' boat wondering what in the hell those A-rabs from the 7-11 are so interested in out near the river.
"Frank -- you see them A-rabs at the pier the other day?"
"Yep, Earl -- sure did. Don't know why they wouldn't just tell Jonsey why they needed that fishing boat."
"Oh, well -- I ain't gonna complain about 'em. Last time I started bitchin' 'bout them A-rabs in I-rack at the VFW, some youngin' protesters found out and picketed our next meeting. Damned sherriff said they had a right to do it."
"You're right, Earl. Probably just them thar fellas from the 7-11 wantin' to catch bait for their bait'n'tackle side of the business. They got the best minnows this side of Tybee, ya know?"
"Yep."
"Yep."
IronChefMorimoto
(Honeymooned near Tybee -- it ain't no resort island, I'll tell ya that!)
I saw a lot of folks mentioning that they could care less about this sort of thing. I agree, but to clear up some confusion...
The trailer appears to NOT be available either on QuickTime or the movie website. There is a not-yet-activated third trailer link in the Flash animation on the movie website. I believe that the links provided earlier are that trailer.
Honestly, the movie looks rather funny. I remember watching a documentary about how Pixar tackles CGI challenges in each of its movies. In Nemo, it was the realism of the water. Making it look like seawater with plankton and dirt and silt and stuff. Making water look realistic on the fish scales. Stuff like that. Monsters Inc. was all about getting the fur on the blue monster to look like...well...real fur.
They mentioned, in the documentary, that the next film (I would assume that The Incredibles is the one in question) would deal with animating people and more realistic human environments. From what I can see, the characters are cartoony, but they do have much more expressiveness and character than the human characters from movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc.
Oddly enough, if you think about it, that CGI-based Final Fantasy movie from a few years ago seemed to really capture some human-like realism, and Lucas has done it a little with his prequels. The comment from the documentary made me wonder what Pixar was really getting at with their technology development goals.
IronChefMorimoto
Demo later than release -- seems normal to me
on
Doom 3 Demo Available
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Releasing the demo nowadays AFTER the release seems, to me, like a great way to find out if you want to buy the game, without the majority of bugs that might plague a BETA-quality demo.
In my mind, a game software manufacturer will release a demo POST-release to entice those who haven't decided yet to purchase the game. Someone who downloads, say, the Doom3 demo, can decide if the software will work on his/her machine without some of the pre-release bugs that might plague the product. ATI vs. Nvidia compatibility immediately comes to mind.
On the other hand, if you're releasing something that's entirely new (in terms of a game/concept), then you could potentially risk lack of interest by releasing the demo AFTER the game itself. A new product can benefit greatly from a demo, I think, and in this regard, it would be wise to release it with some bugs.
In the case of Doom3, I must admit, though, that making people wait another month or two for a demo for a game that took 4-5 years to develop is a little dumb. Reviewers and gamers alike have been mediocre about the game -- for it being more of a technology demo (the Carmack engine -- hehehehe) than a good game with a good story. This sort of reviews, I think, would make a buyer think twice about getting the game at initial release prices.
If the demo had been out beforehand, perhaps potential buyers would not have pre-conceived notions of what to expect of the game overall because they would only play a small portion of it in the demo. The graphics would ooh and ahh and really get the idea of buying such a terrific looking game in the minds of potential buyers. It would be a buyer's remorse thing (after iD has pocketed the sale) if the buyer then decided that, "Yeah, the graphics rock, but it was kind of bland and the story was OK."
I am one who read the Doom3 reviews, waited until a friend bought a copy and got tired of trying to finish the bland story, and played it for him. I enjoyed the experience, but given my expectations after reading reviews, I am still glad my friend shelled out the $55 for the game. He has the discs back now, and I will most likely wait until the game drops to $30 or something to buy it. There are other things to play right now.
In related news, the same researcher has determined that the brown stripe in the BVD briefs of 77-year-old Frank Wilson of Alatoosa, Mississippi does not contain SCO bullshit.
Wilson was subpoenaed on July 3, 2004 for apparently using SCO Unix bullshit in his underwear. SCO lawyers contended that, in addition to all of their other bullshit, this particular stripe of fecal matter in Wilson's BVDs was, in fact, similar the other bullshit that they have spread around since they began their legal actions.
Wilson, a World War II veteran and resident at the Shady Acres Memory Care facility on the western edge of Alatoosa, was not immediately aware of what SCO was in the first place.
"I thought it was the VA -- finally giving me my money for that piece of Kraut shrapnel I took in 1942! Fucking Krauts! Where's my applesauce? Is my wife around?"
Officials at the memory care facility noted that Wilson is an Alzheimers patient who frequently forgets to wipe himself after using the bedpan, hence the source of the stripe in his underwear. They were aware of the legal action again Wilson by SCO, but rather than stir up his angina and blood pressure by witholding the mail that he watches being delivered every day, they let him open the SCO legal letter himself.
"We're just glad he didn't keel over with a stroke," said Frank Johnson, the head nurse of the memory care facility. "He just ranted about the VA and pissed down his leg while asking for his son, who has been dead for 16 years after a car accident. It could've been a lot worse."
The examination of the fecal stripe in the suspect pair of BVDs turned up concrete evidence that, in fact, the shit was Wilson's. In fact, it was not even bullshit and thus not legally open to subpoena by SCO on the grounds that it was more of SCO's bullshit. No countersuit has been filed, as Wilson's surviving family members have apparently never visited him at the facility and only wish to pay the bills for his care.
IronChefMorimoto
Why? Isn't there enough road rage already?
on
Google's Math Puzzle
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Does Google not realize what these billboards are going to do? Think of the poor embattled commuters sitting in suburban to urban traffic clog.
Honking at each other.
Bitching on their cell phones about their wives while pissing off the person(s) behind them who are also on their cell phones bitching about the guy that is jabbering on his phone and not moving forward with traffic.
Bumping each other and causing just enough damage to their cars to NOT really want to risk an insurance claim but also enough to want to get it fixed before the neighbors think they drive a shitty car.
Flipping over and killing each other because one of them thought that he/she had to get to work about 30mph faster than everyone else, because that one person has a much busier day of meetings than everyone else on the highway.
Enter Google -- further frustrating drivers with friggin' math problems on billboards. What? You don't think people will look at them enough to be distracted and frustrated at learning that they're not really Google material?
I call bullshit. 'cause that bitch on the uncontested divorce for $299 billboard torments me every day. Not because I don't like my marriage or want a divorce. No -- she begs the question -- "Can you beat me in court if you want the dog and the 50" plasma TV? Eh, buddy?"
Fuck you lady. Fuck you and your uncontested divorce. And fuck Google for teasing me with a job that I probably will have never known existed if it weren't for people that are actually qualified to answer the math problem having posted the g'damned answers here and made feel stupid as shit.
I'd complain more, but this guy behind me in his gas guzzling SUV is honking at me to move forward one car length while we drive past an accident. Thank god for WiFi in the car. If he honks again, I'm threatening him with the Airsoft 9mm I have in the glove compartment.
They paid over $150 million for fixing RAM prices? [wink wink]
Damn. I would've thought a Crucial.com web programmer or database technician could've done that pretty easily by having each stick of RAM on the website subtract, say, $20 - $30.
That's what? $22.50 for the hour spent making the change? Hell -- even cheaper if Crucial.com outsources its website/database operations to Bangalore.
Thanks to the excellent astronomical seeing conditions at Dome C, the Australian scientists started work on their second paper:
"Quasi-Formulaic Investigations into the Space-Time Arrival Calculations of the Zarlanian Horde"
The paper is being rushed to press with journals such as Nature and New Scientist in the hopes of beating the inevitable alien invasion and, thus, enjoying the publicity prior to enslavement and/or annihilation.
"We're pretty excited about this second research opportunity. As soon as we turned on our Dome C equipment and saw the bristling plasma gun turrets from the Zarlanian Horde lead star cruiser, we knew that we had at least 1 more paper opporunity in us," said Rich Godfrey, a previously unmentioned post-doc working on the project.
The research team is taking full advantage of the excellent seeing conditions now, confident that they'll be able to put together a rough draft of the paper shortly before the first scout troops from the Zarlanian Horde arrive.
Slashdot Mirror
Man -- that many crackers -- in a North Korean military unit. Lot of rednecks to be concentrated in one place. Sounds to me like the country's going to infiltrate a NASCAR race and start stealing chassis designs from major race teams. They could use the engine designs for something too.
;-)
;-)
Maybe they're considering a first strike invasion of Atlanta. They're terribly misinformed, if that's the case, 'cause north Georgia here is a little more Northern transplants than crackers these days. If I were an insane little Korean communist dictator, I'd be concentration my cracker infiltration force in Charlotte. They're more likely to blend in, what with all the NASCAR teams based there. Lots of Earnhardt Jr. fans = lots of cover.
There's always Alabama, too, I suppose. But even crackers don't really claim 'bama as their own these days.
I wonder if they'll show up wearing Cabela Winter 2004 orange camo and riding in on jacked up late model Ford F-150s.
IronChefMorimoto
P.S. - This had me cracking (no pun intended) up this morning, 'cause I grew up in all these various places. 600 Korean crackers -- LOL!
So that's not bird shit on my car?
I should've known, what with all the empty cans of Tang in the driveway.
IronChefMorimoto
If you don't want an IBM Thinkpad for the fingerprint scanner, the APC fingerprint scanner/biometric reader seems to work pretty well. I saw it for $29 or so at Fry's yesterday.
My friend bought one a while back and used it rather successfully on his Dell D800 before he had to give the computer back to his employer. It was pretty accurate in scanning his fingerprint. He never got locked out of his machine.
I can't remember if the machine would NOT allow a login without the reader or not. If it would, then that sort of defeats the purpose of the reader if you were able to steal the laptop without the reader attached.
IronChefMorimoto
I should've added that he's beaten the single player about 5 times on Legendary. Sadly, I just wait to die and respawn if I play coop with him on that level.
IronChefMorimoto
My friend won't buy any new XBox or PC games until this one comes out. He's been waiting for it all summer.
He plays the original HALO on multiplayer with either myself or his brother-in-law on an 8' wide, 6' tall wall using a Dell projector -- FOR HOURS ON END. I stopped playing with him about 3 months ago, because he knew where every dude was coming from, and the exact moment the AI would do this or that. He'd played it that much.
I've never seen a game with such replay value, or is my friend just a HALO nut?
At least, when HALO 2 does come out, I'll be able to see it in all it's Dolby DTS and 8' x 6' glory. It's a beautiful game -- unless you're still watching my friend play the levels he knows by heart 1 year after it's been released.
IronChefMorimoto
I can see Ballmer's personal security now. He's taking a break from his body guard duty (his second in command is monitoring Ballmer in another room), when he pulls up Slashdot (an informed body guard) and sees this story.
He immediately drops his laptop on the floor and rushes into a board meeting where Ballmer is talking about the Longhorn delay in a conference call to institional investors. He yells "CODE APPLE - CODE APPLE!" and scares the living hell out of everyone in the room.
He grabs Ballmer by the arm, dragging him to the equivalent of a secured bunker about 10 levels beneath the basement sub-level at Microsoft headquarters. All other Ballmer security personal, meanwhile, are coming out of weapons lockers located around the Redmond, WA campus -- fully equipped for a medium tactical incursion situation (it's in the Microsoft CEO security handbook, page 354, paragraph 7a).
At this point, a mysterious announcement goes out to Microsoft employees. The campus is closing for an employee appreciation day. Everyone must go home immediately. Speculation runs rampant, but several employees have a pretty good idea why they're getting a free paid holiday -- some Microsoft asshat said something to piss off the rest of the Linux/Mac/geek world. It always happens.
Ballmer, meanwhile, remains locked in the MS CEO bunker, sitting on a cot surfing the Internet on a tablet PC. He's cursing because he has to keep going to the taskbar to look at different IE windows. "Damn, you, FireFox."
IronChefMorimoto
This big buildup to a little eruption reminds of me of how I feel when I eat something that might disagree with me more than it actually did.
...fart rather loudly a few times and drop a turd the size of a peanut into the commode.
You go out to lunch, come back, and go to a meeting. During the whole meeting, your stomach is growling in such a horrible way as to sound like you've shit your britches. People look at you, and boss asks, embarrassingly, if you have to leave the meeting. You say, redfaced, "I'm OK, and plod through the rest of the meeting while your co-workers roll their chairs a little farther away from you."
At the end of the meeting, you rush to the bathroom, which everyone giggles about as they see you make the mad dash, lock the door, drop your trousers, and sit down for what you think will be mother of all bowel movements. And then you...
All that buildup and embarrassment for...a single tiny turd.
Looks like the other mountains in the area laughed at Mt. St. Helen's before she popped her piddly piddle today.
IronChefMorimoto
Wireless digital cameras. Hmmm. I see the greatest Super Bowl moment getting snatched from an SI reporter by a guy from ESPN Magazine.
Seriously -- makes you wonder how photo rights could be challenged if people find easy ways to snatch photos from your camera while you're downloading at the end of a sports shoot. I'm not a pro photographer, but I would suspect that many of them gather together in press booths/boxes or down on the sidelines after sporting event and maybe do an inventory of what they shot and their equipment.
Throw in wireless, and you gotta perfect time to do some snarfing and grabbing that ultimate cover shot for your magazine -- from someone else.
On the other hand, are sports photographers (or any event photographers) that low that they would choose to abuse the technology in that manner?
Thoughts?
IronChefMorimoto
Sadly, this potentially great mini-series will either be pre-empted by Nip/Tuck (my fault) or [insert inane reality show here] (the wife).
;-)
Frankly, Nip/Tuck is a legitimate excuse for missing such nerdy/intellectual public broadcasting Nova fun. Why? Boobies! Hotties! BOOBIES and HOTTIES, MAN!
However, seeing a naked gay guy run around the dumpster side of a resort island touting his immunity challenge win in a "survival" competition does not supercede Nova.
But boobies and hotties do.
IronChefMorimoto
I'm venting, but please try not to totally take offense at me. I really want to know -- do Europeans just want America to fail at something? Is this whole election observer thing just a chance to watch us screw up? To see America in action completely and utter fail?
As an American, and one that feels that neutrality in some world arenas would perhaps lessen our profile on the world's hate meter a little, I just feel sometimes that the world, and in this case Europe, wants us to fail.
What the fuck is the problem with the US succeeding in world economics (relatively speaking of course), technology, etc.? Sure -- we fuck up a lot. It's the American way -- sometimes we learn from our mistakes (New Coke), and sometimes we don't (Vietnam and, perhaps, Iraq).
But, Christ, I've never felt so embattled as an American as I do now hearing how much the world just wants us to fuck up. And now, with Europe looming over our elections, it makes me wonder whatever happened to just being simply greatful for the things that we try and do right.
Like liberate Europe from Hitler. Intervene in the Balkan conflict to prevent more atrocities. Things like that. Do you not want our help? Would you rather just NOT have us assist in world affairs at all?
Hell -- we have the wherewithall to do so many things, and on the one hand, we're despised for having that ability and, on the other hand, we're hated for failing to use that ability. And when we do intervene or assist in some way, we then get berated for doing whatever we do.
I'm sorry. I've never been so miserable being an American, but I love my country, and I hate to think that the world sees one man or the deposing of one dictator as the source of all evil on this planet. It's just how we work, people. We reacted to 9/11. We couldn't just get kicked in the nuts and go, "Well fuck -- time to close the borders for good." We would've gotten fussed at for that too.
I only ask that people make up their minds about America. We try to be many things to many people, and yet we're haunted by the old adage, "You can't please everyone all the time."
Sigh...please pardon the vent.
IronChefMorimoto
No offense to the European /. crowd, but you can observe all you want. In the end, you'll have to deal with whom we elect. Start popping pills, rationalizing the impending new reality, etc. in preparation for the trauma that most likely will hit you if and when Bush gets re-elected.
I hate to sound like a conservative here ('cause Bush irritates me on many levels but not to the degree that Kerry frightens me), but if European observers come in and completely end up IGNORING the fact that there are thousands (millions?) of illegal aliens voting in this country, then the credibility they hope to provide to the US electoral process is a farce.
If European observers come in and discover how the dead have been resurrected and given voting rights in favor of...I won't say whom...then their attempt to RECTIFY the situation from the 2000 election will have been in vain, and their own credibility will be called into question.
If European observers miss the fact that GI absentee votes go missing or end up uncounted, then they will have ended up doing nothing to "help" our electoral process. In fact, they will demonstrate that they, perhaps, are willing to "overlook" such discrepancies if it helps get such and such candidate into office.
Yes -- observe all the hell you want, Europe, but don't expect much recognition if you manage to miss my dead grandfather's social security number being used by an illegal alien to enter the polls in lieu of a real GI getting his vote in from an overseas military base.
You're welcome to get involved, but if you f--- up, then be prepared to become embroiled in perhaps the silliest era of partisan politics this nation has ever seen.
IronChefMorimoto
Going out on a limb here, but I'd be willing to bet that a private mission to Mars wouldn't return several years later and bring along with it some astronauts infected by a poorly sealed sample of alien biological material that vented into the cabin on the return trip and infected the crew, thus ensuring the end of humanity via a viral infection of massive proportions, including infected people whose heads re-grow after being blown off.
Instead, a private venture would ensure that such biological material remained on the planet, cultivating it to see what sorts of special biological weapons or beings it could engineer from the material. The profits from the sale of such weapons would be tantalizing, and the desire to keep it secure would negate any real concerns about an infection as I mentioned above.
Unless someone gets power hungry within the private organization, performs self-experimentation on him or herself, and evolves into a destructive, monstrous being that inadvertently infects the rest of the private mission personnel on Mars, thus requiring the deployment of a specialized Marine force from Earth who undoubtedly would get its ass kicked, save for one chick who goes head to head with the mother being and, in a daring attack, destroys the entire private mission colony by overloading the atmospheric processor power core.
So, as long as that chick is in the pipeline, like I said, a private mission would avoid the NASA mistakes that we've all seen explored on TV and in movies.
Right?
IronChefMorimoto
Would the pricing on the Nvidia or 3DLabs products overshoot the $1999 base price of the low-end G5? I wouldn't know what to select, so that would need to be factored into my estimates.
;-)
Thanks for the info though. If I ever get that job at NASA designing spaceships, I'll know how to requisition my workstation setup. I'll leave web development and maintaining overly slashdotted NASA servers to some dude running an ATI video card.
IronChefMorimoto
Even if the IWill barebones is $1000, my argument in favor of the cheaper Opteron platform still holds. You missed the point.
IronChefMorimoto
If you'd read closely, you'd see that I was guesstimating the price of the IWill -- my understanding is that it's not available yet. Most of the newer Shuttle XPCs are running around $350 or higher, so I estimated high for the $400 IWill.
Not bogus -- just a guess. Read the original post.
IronChefMorimoto
I love reading people throwing in for the Apple PowerMac G5 on this one. I thought it was funny, 'cause I expect Apple hardware to be much more expensive out of the box than home-built PCs, especially PCs running typically less expensive AMD processors.
So, I decided to do a little research, and here's (ballpark) what one of these IWill boxes would cost you up front if buying the parts from Newegg.com.
PLEASE NOTE -- I LOVE MACS. I JUST CANNOT AFFORD THEM. THIS IS FOR COMPARATIVE PURPOSES ONLY!
Here we go:
- $408 - 2 Opteron 242s (slower than base G5 1.8GHz @ 1.6GHz)
- $400 (est.) - IWill dual Opteron SFF (high-end Shuttle XPCs are nearing $400 mark now)
- $86 - Crucial 256MB registered ECC PC3200 memory (same as base G5)
- $69 - Sony dual layer multi-format DVD burner ("Superdrive" from base G5)
- $225 - ATI FireGL 9600 (top G5 model offers ATI 9600XT)
- $68 - Western Digital 80GB SATA hard drive (same setup as base G5)
- $1256 - TOTAL
Now, for my money, I think $1256 for a computer that may or may not (I'm not comparing overall processing power -- I'm comparing for purposes of appeasing my wallet) perform as well as a $2000 Apple PowerMac G5 is NOT a bad deal.
Granted, I can't run OS X on this machine. But think about what I'd really want to have in terms of memory -- 2GB registered ECC is around $800 for the IWill setup. For a G5, you better plan on adding $1125 to that base entry level price of $1999.
Then, there's the video card -- the top of the line G5 starting at $2999 is going to come with an ATI Radeon 9600XT. I run a faster video card than that in my Athlon XP GAMING SYSTEM. I'm sorry -- to me, if we're talking about "workstation" uses for these types of computers, wouldn't a FireGL or similar workstation-level graphics card come into play?
I'll admit, I don't know diddly about workstation graphics needs, but they wouldn't make that whole separate line of graphics cards for nothing, right? Chime in, please -- I'm asking because I may be wrong about this $225 graphics card that I included...that still goes into a system that costs approx. $750 less out of pocket than a similarly (if not better) equipped G5!!!
Advantages left to the G5? Well -- networking is out, as the IWill comes with Gigabit Ethernet AND wireless built-in. Tack on another $80 for the AirPort Extreme wireless card for the G5. Let's see -- I'm down to the 56kbps built-in modem, FireWire 800, and another 2GB of max. memory. Those are the only things left to the G5 that I found while looking in the Apple Store.
Sorry -- the extra $750 that I saved goes to either an operating system (unless I use Linux) and a nice LCD display. Hell -- maybe even some software if I already have the monitor sitting at the office. With the G5, you're stuck after $1999 with OS X and wanting for a monitor. And some memory.
Can't say that it's compelling enough to buy one, even though I'd kill to have a G5 on my desk at work.
My 2 cents (not necesarily invested in being well-informed).
IronChefMorimoto
How often do streets/houses move/change physically?
...crap. It's just my neighbor walking across the hot concrete next to her pool. And she's fully clothed.
...find out that she's never actually there, but that her Puerto Rican pool boy is making "waves" in the pool with the, uh, other Puerto Rican pool boy.
...watch as a white page pops up with the notice "US GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS PROHIBIT THE DISTRIBUTION OF SATELLITE IMAGERY OF KNOWN SENSITIVE US MILITARY INSTALLATIONS. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE INSTALLATIONS, VISIT YOUR LOCAL ARMED SERVICES RECRUITER!"
You're missing the point, man!
With AN UP TO DATE VERSION OF THIS TOOL, I don't have to wonder what that heavy breathing and "Oooh-ahh" is on the other side of my neighbor's backyard fence. Next to the pool. I can turn on my computer, enter my neighbor's address, zoom in, and discover...
Wait -- I have a better example. I can find out the address of a hot looking starlet, enter it into the tool, zoom in on her mansion, and...
Sigh -- alright -- here's the best example yet. I can enter the relative address of the top secret Area 51 base, zoom in, and...
Damn...maybe 2 year old pictures of streets/houses are fine after all. Dammit.
IronChefMorimoto
"Oh, Conrad, what wonderful tickets. Opening night, and in the balcony nearest the stage no less. How very exciting."
"Yes, Buffy [Conrad hands her theater glasses] -- The Last StarFighter. Sounds like a rollicking good time, don't you think?"
"I do indeed [hush falls over the crowd] -- OOOH! It's beginning."
[a few minutes pass]
"Conrad?"
"Uh, yes, my dear?"
"Well, dear -- I know we're all about going to see the latest and most IN musicals on Broadway, but..."
"Yes, Buffy?"
"Well, why is that man dragging that child around in that horrible ripoff of that vintage Maserati -- like the one you almost purchased at the Pebble Beach auction last year? I do say -- Maseratis don't fly, and they certainly aren't driven by -- did he say he was an alien?"
"I honestly don't know, dear -- just watch."
[more time passes]
"Is this Tommy? Did we go to the wrong production, Conrad? I mean -- the child IS playing a video game -- is this that horrible rock opera?"
"Shhh...Buffy...look at this new character -- the co-pilot."
"My god, it's Tommy meets Phantom of the Opera, Conrad. Except that poor deformed man has no mask over his face -- he's just reptilian. They did horrible makeup -- I wonder if it will be in the Times review tomorrow."
[more time passes]
"Conrad...?"
"Shhh -- dear -- I don't know what's going on, but I do think that the young boy and his twin brother -- one of them is going to die."
"But, Conrad? Isn't that twin brother really some sort of alien? He arrived with the fellow in the Maserati, right?"
"Shhh, Buffy -- please. We're going to get thrown...MY GOD! Look at the special effects -- what is that? A flowering blossom, did he say?"
"Conrad -- where did the pinball machine go?"
"SHHH!"
I can see a couple of "good ol' boys" from Tybee Island ridin' around in their fishin' boat wondering what in the hell those A-rabs from the 7-11 are so interested in out near the river.
"Frank -- you see them A-rabs at the pier the other day?"
"Yep, Earl -- sure did. Don't know why they wouldn't just tell Jonsey why they needed that fishing boat."
"Oh, well -- I ain't gonna complain about 'em. Last time I started bitchin' 'bout them A-rabs in I-rack at the VFW, some youngin' protesters found out and picketed our next meeting. Damned sherriff said they had a right to do it."
"You're right, Earl. Probably just them thar fellas from the 7-11 wantin' to catch bait for their bait'n'tackle side of the business. They got the best minnows this side of Tybee, ya know?"
"Yep."
"Yep."
IronChefMorimoto
(Honeymooned near Tybee -- it ain't no resort island, I'll tell ya that!)
I saw a lot of folks mentioning that they could care less about this sort of thing. I agree, but to clear up some confusion...
The trailer appears to NOT be available either on QuickTime or the movie website. There is a not-yet-activated third trailer link in the Flash animation on the movie website. I believe that the links provided earlier are that trailer.
Honestly, the movie looks rather funny. I remember watching a documentary about how Pixar tackles CGI challenges in each of its movies. In Nemo, it was the realism of the water. Making it look like seawater with plankton and dirt and silt and stuff. Making water look realistic on the fish scales. Stuff like that. Monsters Inc. was all about getting the fur on the blue monster to look like...well...real fur.
They mentioned, in the documentary, that the next film (I would assume that The Incredibles is the one in question) would deal with animating people and more realistic human environments. From what I can see, the characters are cartoony, but they do have much more expressiveness and character than the human characters from movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc.
Oddly enough, if you think about it, that CGI-based Final Fantasy movie from a few years ago seemed to really capture some human-like realism, and Lucas has done it a little with his prequels. The comment from the documentary made me wonder what Pixar was really getting at with their technology development goals.
IronChefMorimoto
Releasing the demo nowadays AFTER the release seems, to me, like a great way to find out if you want to buy the game, without the majority of bugs that might plague a BETA-quality demo.
In my mind, a game software manufacturer will release a demo POST-release to entice those who haven't decided yet to purchase the game. Someone who downloads, say, the Doom3 demo, can decide if the software will work on his/her machine without some of the pre-release bugs that might plague the product. ATI vs. Nvidia compatibility immediately comes to mind.
On the other hand, if you're releasing something that's entirely new (in terms of a game/concept), then you could potentially risk lack of interest by releasing the demo AFTER the game itself. A new product can benefit greatly from a demo, I think, and in this regard, it would be wise to release it with some bugs.
In the case of Doom3, I must admit, though, that making people wait another month or two for a demo for a game that took 4-5 years to develop is a little dumb. Reviewers and gamers alike have been mediocre about the game -- for it being more of a technology demo (the Carmack engine -- hehehehe) than a good game with a good story. This sort of reviews, I think, would make a buyer think twice about getting the game at initial release prices.
If the demo had been out beforehand, perhaps potential buyers would not have pre-conceived notions of what to expect of the game overall because they would only play a small portion of it in the demo. The graphics would ooh and ahh and really get the idea of buying such a terrific looking game in the minds of potential buyers. It would be a buyer's remorse thing (after iD has pocketed the sale) if the buyer then decided that, "Yeah, the graphics rock, but it was kind of bland and the story was OK."
I am one who read the Doom3 reviews, waited until a friend bought a copy and got tired of trying to finish the bland story, and played it for him. I enjoyed the experience, but given my expectations after reading reviews, I am still glad my friend shelled out the $55 for the game. He has the discs back now, and I will most likely wait until the game drops to $30 or something to buy it. There are other things to play right now.
My two cents.
IronChefMorimoto
In related news, the same researcher has determined that the brown stripe in the BVD briefs of 77-year-old Frank Wilson of Alatoosa, Mississippi does not contain SCO bullshit.
Wilson was subpoenaed on July 3, 2004 for apparently using SCO Unix bullshit in his underwear. SCO lawyers contended that, in addition to all of their other bullshit, this particular stripe of fecal matter in Wilson's BVDs was, in fact, similar the other bullshit that they have spread around since they began their legal actions.
Wilson, a World War II veteran and resident at the Shady Acres Memory Care facility on the western edge of Alatoosa, was not immediately aware of what SCO was in the first place.
"I thought it was the VA -- finally giving me my money for that piece of Kraut shrapnel I took in 1942! Fucking Krauts! Where's my applesauce? Is my wife around?"
Officials at the memory care facility noted that Wilson is an Alzheimers patient who frequently forgets to wipe himself after using the bedpan, hence the source of the stripe in his underwear. They were aware of the legal action again Wilson by SCO, but rather than stir up his angina and blood pressure by witholding the mail that he watches being delivered every day, they let him open the SCO legal letter himself.
"We're just glad he didn't keel over with a stroke," said Frank Johnson, the head nurse of the memory care facility. "He just ranted about the VA and pissed down his leg while asking for his son, who has been dead for 16 years after a car accident. It could've been a lot worse."
The examination of the fecal stripe in the suspect pair of BVDs turned up concrete evidence that, in fact, the shit was Wilson's. In fact, it was not even bullshit and thus not legally open to subpoena by SCO on the grounds that it was more of SCO's bullshit. No countersuit has been filed, as Wilson's surviving family members have apparently never visited him at the facility and only wish to pay the bills for his care.
IronChefMorimoto
Does Google not realize what these billboards are going to do? Think of the poor embattled commuters sitting in suburban to urban traffic clog.
Honking at each other.
Bitching on their cell phones about their wives while pissing off the person(s) behind them who are also on their cell phones bitching about the guy that is jabbering on his phone and not moving forward with traffic.
Bumping each other and causing just enough damage to their cars to NOT really want to risk an insurance claim but also enough to want to get it fixed before the neighbors think they drive a shitty car.
Flipping over and killing each other because one of them thought that he/she had to get to work about 30mph faster than everyone else, because that one person has a much busier day of meetings than everyone else on the highway.
Enter Google -- further frustrating drivers with friggin' math problems on billboards. What? You don't think people will look at them enough to be distracted and frustrated at learning that they're not really Google material?
I call bullshit. 'cause that bitch on the uncontested divorce for $299 billboard torments me every day. Not because I don't like my marriage or want a divorce. No -- she begs the question -- "Can you beat me in court if you want the dog and the 50" plasma TV? Eh, buddy?"
Fuck you lady. Fuck you and your uncontested divorce. And fuck Google for teasing me with a job that I probably will have never known existed if it weren't for people that are actually qualified to answer the math problem having posted the g'damned answers here and made feel stupid as shit.
I'd complain more, but this guy behind me in his gas guzzling SUV is honking at me to move forward one car length while we drive past an accident. Thank god for WiFi in the car. If he honks again, I'm threatening him with the Airsoft 9mm I have in the glove compartment.
IronChefMorimoto
They paid over $150 million for fixing RAM prices? [wink wink]
Damn. I would've thought a Crucial.com web programmer or database technician could've done that pretty easily by having each stick of RAM on the website subtract, say, $20 - $30.
That's what? $22.50 for the hour spent making the change? Hell -- even cheaper if Crucial.com outsources its website/database operations to Bangalore.
IronChefMorimoto
Thanks to the excellent astronomical seeing conditions at Dome C, the Australian scientists started work on their second paper:
"Quasi-Formulaic Investigations into the Space-Time Arrival Calculations of the Zarlanian Horde"
The paper is being rushed to press with journals such as Nature and New Scientist in the hopes of beating the inevitable alien invasion and, thus, enjoying the publicity prior to enslavement and/or annihilation.
"We're pretty excited about this second research opportunity. As soon as we turned on our Dome C equipment and saw the bristling plasma gun turrets from the Zarlanian Horde lead star cruiser, we knew that we had at least 1 more paper opporunity in us," said Rich Godfrey, a previously unmentioned post-doc working on the project.
The research team is taking full advantage of the excellent seeing conditions now, confident that they'll be able to put together a rough draft of the paper shortly before the first scout troops from the Zarlanian Horde arrive.
IronChefMorimoto