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User: ConanG

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  1. Armrests, not weight on Southwest Declares Kevin Smith Too Fat To Fly · · Score: 1

    Not that I necessarily agree with Southwest's policy (and I'm a fairly small person: 5'2", 120 lbs), but it's not a weight issue. It's an armrest issue. If you're grossly overweight, but can get the armrests down and not spill over into the other seats, you're fine. If you need a seatbelt extension, you're fine. The only issue is spilling over into the other seats with the armrests down. It can happen to a very wide, but not very fat person. It doesn't matter if he weighs 235 or 555; get the armrests down and don't spill over. Apparently, they didn't follow their own policy in this instance. The armrests were up when he sat down and didn't bother to put them down. They decided he couldn't get them down without ever checking them. It's happened several times, but this is the first "celebrity" to whom it's happened. Check out The Consumerist on this issue.

  2. No extra profit on Southwest Declares Kevin Smith Too Fat To Fly · · Score: 1

    Regarding Southwest, they do not make a profit by selling the extra seat. If the flight is not full (98% of the time, according to their FAQ), they refund the extra seat. if the flight IS full, then some other customer lost their seat and was issued a voucher in addition to a seat on another flight.

  3. Yes on Court Rules For Software Ownership Over Licensing · · Score: 1

    I have Half Life 2 on a laptop that I've never connected to Steam since I put it on there. More than a year and a half ago.

  4. Re:In a word... on Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US · · Score: 1

    Pfft. At least you have an Amtrack station. Nearest one to my home is 250 miles away. Rail is a non-issue around here. It means nothing to us, because no one has any experience with it.

  5. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby on Leaked Pics of CrunchPad Elicit Progress Update · · Score: 3, Informative

    The thing is, this isn't a normal business venture. He mostly wants it to be built because he wants one himself. He's not motivated by profit, but desire to realize the product. A lot of the initial work was done openly by volunteers which drastically cut engineering costs. I don't think there's going to be much of an advertising budget.

    My guess is that he's done the math and probably has a better idea of what he can sell it for and not go out of business. Note that: NOT GO OUT OF BUSINESS. Not become a millionaire. Not become a business tycoon. Simply stay afloat. I think that's all he really wants.

  6. Re:fun with statistics on Sunspot Activity Continues To Drop · · Score: 1

    I thought it was Demetri Martin. Sounds like something he might say...

  7. Well...dying, not dead yet! on Blockbuster Total Access Unannounced Policy Change · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They just hired legal advice for bankruptcy filings. Not exactly the hallmark of a healthy business, despite any transitory profit growth recently.

    Blockbuster Said to Hire Firm for Bankruptcy Advice

  8. Re:Frog, pot, increased heat on Uproar Over Netflix's New Instant Viewer · · Score: 1

    Like this?

  9. Pong on The Most Influential Games In History? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would put Pong ahead of Super Mario Brothers. Before Pong, there was no video game industry. It didn't exist. Not just consoles, but outside a few projects by various companies and people, there weren't any games at all. Super Mario comes in second, then Space Invaders I think.

  10. Those aren't console games on The Most Influential Games In History? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The list is totally fubar, but remember one thing: it's a console list.

  11. I do on The Future of Google Chrome · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I use it as my main browser. I've got a portable Firefox and (of course) IE, but I only fire them up when something isn't working right in Chrome. This is happening less and less.

  12. Re:alternate... on Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Yet Detected · · Score: 1

    The 9000 figure is assuming that the radiation is spread equally in every direction. A "stellar dog fight" weapon might not work that way. Think of a laser. Focus a lot of energy into a fairly tight beam. It would look a hell of a lot more powerful if someone assumed that same amount of energy was being spread in every direction.

  13. Re:how do they know on Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Yet Detected · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think you made the part about standard candles very clear, so I'll elaborate on that point.

    The term doesn't refer to a specific type of star. Standard candles are any stellar objects that have some quality that allows them to be used to measure distance.

    One of the most famous examples are Cepheid variable stars. These stars all vary in brightness over some predictable period of time. There is a relationship between how fast they "pulse" and how bright they are. The faster they pulse, the dimmer they are (in absolute terms). If one is pulsing really slow, and it looks dim (relatively speaking), it's probably very far away since it should be relatively bright. If it looks bright and pulses quickly, it's probably close by since they don't get very bright (absolutely speaking).

    Other standard candles include planetary nebula, supergiants, globular clusters, H II regions, and supernova. Each of them has a different maximum range over which they can be detected, but there is some overlap. The ones in the overlapping regions are used to calibrate the distances for the rest.

  14. Re:Yes on Do Video Games Cost Too Much? · · Score: 4, Funny

    How do you know what movie he's talking about?

  15. Sarcasm misplaced on Major Cache of Fossils Unearthed In Los Angeles · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, La Brea is the name of the ranch the tar was found at and obviously named for. So 'La Brea Tar Pits' is short for 'Rancho La Brea Tar Pits'. It's not redundant in this case as it's referencing a proper noun.

  16. Re:DUH on Major Cache of Fossils Unearthed In Los Angeles · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is no Rio Grande River. It's the Rio Grande. Rio means river in Spanish so it would be redundant to tack river at the end of the name. Also, it's the Sierra Nevada. Shouldn't add mountains at the end as sierra means mountain range. Redundant, once again.

  17. Re:Whoops on Nuclear Subs 'Collide In Ocean' · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's obvious you know nothing about nautical subjects. The nautical mile was defined as 1,852 meters in 1929, and every navy in the world uses this definition. It is approximately one arc minute of length along any meridian. All international treaties dealing with distances on water use the same nautical mile definition.

  18. Not even close on Nvidia Is Trying To Make an x86 Chip · · Score: 5, Informative

    They may have the base architecture available, but not any of the fancy simd or 64-bit instruction sets.

    First appearances (not necessarily patent dates):
    MMX - 1997
    3DNow! - 1998
    SSE - 1999
    SSE2 - 2001
    AMD 64 - 2003
    Intel 64 - 2004
    SSE3 - 2004
    SSE4 - 2006

    Of course, most software doesn't use any of these extensions, but Intel and AMD can use this as a weapon in a possible FUD campaign.

  19. Re:Authentic is the wrong word on The Deceptive Perfection of Auto-Tune · · Score: 1

    Yes, that's exactly right.

  20. Re:No need for slurp either on Is It Windows 7, Or KDE 4? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The actual graphical animation employed isn't what's important. It's the fact that you can see where it's going that is important.

    Which isn't a problem except that you use "slurp is good because it helps the metaphor" in your defense of it.

    You're quoting me? I never said that. I think the whole document/window/desktop metaphor stuff gets in the way of providing organizational mechanisms that possibly "break" some stupid metaphor. If something works, I don't care if it behaves within the bounds of a "desktop" metaphor. Or if something uses a "slurp" animation when such things don't occur in nature. It's useful organizational mechanism and happens to look good. All that matters to me is that it's useful.

    The wobbly windows, on the other hand, only look good. They serve no other purpose.

    A user new to OSX might find it difficult to find where a document went after clicking the minimize button if not for the animation. A user new to KDE wouldn't notice the absence of wobbly windows.

  21. Re:Yeah... Ok on Utah Mulls a Database of Bar Customers · · Score: 1

    Criminals get many of their rights temporarily suspended because they have deprived others of their rights.

    Actually, most criminals get some of their rights permanently revoked. Like the right to vote and own guns.

  22. Re:eye candy on Is It Windows 7, Or KDE 4? · · Score: 1

    They serve the same function as a "slurp" down to minimize. They make the motion organic and natural feeling when moving a window.

    That's not the purpose of the minimize effect. It's purpose is to let you know where the window went so you can find it.
    The wobbly effect in KDE is just eye candy.

  23. Re:First penis on Comcast Apologizes For Super Bowl Porn Glitch · · Score: 1

    9 year olds generally don't have developed breasts.

  24. Re:Why always nuclear simulation? on IBM Building 20 Petaflop Computer For the US Gov't · · Score: 1

    The real question is why are we still designing new nukes? Do they go obsolete after a few years? What are they tweaking the designs for? Better yield? We can send the planet into a nuclear winter already with what we've got.

  25. Sallie Mae on FSFE Launches Free PDF Readers Campaign · · Score: 1

    I have student loans managed through Sallie Mae. I receive statements by email instead of paper. When I logged on, I was directed to a page that tested my ability to view PDFs. If you can't read the PDF, you must get your statements in paper. Well, I usually download PDFs and read them with SumatraPDF. It's a lovely, FOSS, very lightweight (~1 MB) PDF viewer for Windows. Unfortunately, the Sallie Mae test only checks if I can read the PDF with a browser.

    So, for the first time in several years, I tried out Adobe Reader. I had to install 8, as the 9 installer kept crashing. Jeebus, it's slow! I don't care so much about a measly couple of hundred MBs, the damn thing crawls. I can download a 10 MB PDF and start reading it before the Adobe plug-in finishes loading the first page.