Ehh, so what are they offering? For extra $$, I'd expect an integrator to cherry pick the CPU's they get to provide me with one that can do 5GHz (which is not that huge of an overclock anyway, I mean I was around during the Celeron 300A era!), otherwise they are offering nothing. There is no such thing as "professional overclocking" when we are talking about a simple air-cooled system that lets you control clock speed and voltage, you simply try to go higher and run a benchmark to check stability and it all depends on how lucky you were with the CPU you got. And people who'd overclock usually enjoy the actual process of figuring that out. The only service they should charge for is guaranteed overclock, to remove the luck-factor from the equation.
On another note, AMD'd better come up with something decent fast, otherwise Intel is going to stagnate some more (performance and price-wise).
I thought they claimed the original theatrical release version was destroyed and would never be released in high quality, and that was one of the main reasons people collaborated to produce the Star Wars HD despecialized edition.
8. We reserve the right to refuse service and disable a customer’s key at any time for any reason
Also, they are lying in that it was just one employee that did this. From the ticket you can see an employee was answering the ticket at first, but then "Rick" took over, who appears to be "Rick Ruhl", a co-owner of HRD software, and throws gems like this to the stunned customer:
You are not buying software, you are buying your callsign's access to the software.... Again refer to section 8 of the TOS, which was written by our Attorney.... See you in court.
Amateurs... If they had only been collecting the rounding errors from the transactions they would have eventually pulled that cool $1bn without anyone knowing...
At home I watch on a 55" plasma screen from about 2.5 meters distance, or at my other home a 120" screen (DLP projection) from about 3-3.5m away and always with a decent 5.1 channel home theater system. This means that going to about 80% of cinemas out there is actually a downgrade, either in terms of screen angular size, or audio (it is harder to make good audio on a huge room, and especially when targeting many seating positions - at least if you want to keep costs in check). The rest might be similar or a little better than the home setup, but I'd not really pay a premium for them, so I guess if I had the option of a similar price to watch it at home, I'd probably take it - I don't particularly prefer the movie theater as an experience, especially when it is crowded, there are other things I could do with a night out. However, $25-$50 seems a bit of a stretch since I'd go to the theater just with the wife, i.e. spending $15-$25 on tickets. I would not spend extra for that either, I'd probably wait and get it for either free with my streaming plan or at a low price. Now, there is a cinema to which I still go, usually once or twice a month. That's the giant IMAX (not the "liemax" smallish screens popping out). The 26m wide screen experience (with amphitheatric seating) and great sound cannot be emulated at home. For example Dr. Strange was amazing watching there. So, I only go to the Imax regularly and for a movie that has a strong "visual" component I would not consider watching at home instead.
Well, Labor Participation Rate vs Unemployment is not just about people who stopped looking for a job, it is also about people who don't need a job, so it is not a particularly better metric. Unemployment rate has always been "underreporting" by a margin that is open to debate. If this margin is relatively stable throughout the years, then unemployment rate is a good *comparative* tool. Do you have any sources that say that the current unemployment rate is more severely underreporting unemployment and thus not comparable to historic rates? If yes, then you have a point, otherwise.. no.
No, this won't work. Sellers have groups (on FB or dedicated sites) where they organize people to buy their product for free or almost free (they provide a discount code) in exchange for a review. They don't usually tell you directly to give them a 4/5 star review (although I've seen that too), but tell you to contact them first if you are not happy and if you leave a 3 star or less review they simply don't give you any more free stuff... or worse!
When I say worse, this is an example recent experience of mine. I have a thing about exposing scams like that, so I joined a group to get a "Best Seller" pair of binoculars that was receiving suspiciously raving reviews, without paying full price. I reviewed it and, sure enough, it was really poor quality for the price (even magnification and effective aperture where nowhere near the specs), so I wrote a (rather generous in hindsight - probably because I had reviewed really horrible binoculars recently) very detailed and technical 3-star review that basically said these are worth less than half the price. I did get a message from the seller "thanking me for not posting the review", which is an interesting way of requesting I remove it, but that's it. Anyway, this review started to slowly get up-voted (about 1 vote per day) so it was on the front page after a few days. But one day, I see a dozen sudden downvotes, and the seller claiming I am a competitor in the comments (they actually claimed I own Agena Astro!) - they even messaged me to tell me I was reported for malicious slander to Amazon etc. So the review got buried. If you are wondering about the down-votes, I got emails from people whom the seller had asked to down-vote me (members of their review group), so that's how that works.
I don't think it is hard for Amazon to fix these issues. First of all, they should remove (or not "count") reviews that have used a promo code. That's the primary method these review groups work. Then completely ignore reviewers who drop-ship (another method) or work exclusively on promo codes - there are Top-100 or even Top-50 reviewers that are "serial reviewers", get everything for free with a promo code and always give 5* reviews (e.g. Top-50 on Amazon.co.uk). Lastly, run an analysis to identify downvoting/upvoting "rings", i.e. users that are asked to mass downvote legitimate reviews.
Up until a few years ago, I thought Amazon reviews were great at helping me figure out what to buy. Now, I only read reviews from items that are sold by Amazon directly, so that no seller has messed with them, the rest are not helpful at all.
I don't get it, this is the first time Apple does something like that. I have paid twice out of pocket to have my iPhone 4 and 4s replaced (there was one more replacement but within warranty), because of a well known issue (search about iphone 4 / 4s wifi grayed out) that Apple refused to acknowledge - their website instructions said "reset network settings" like that could do something about what we knew was a malfunctioning heat-sensor that disabled the wireless module (and was only actually enabled in firmware from a specific iOS version and on - you were fine if you never upgraded the original iPhone 4!). They have even voided the warranty of a 6 month Mac Mini with a failed motherboard, because the found "dust" (no cat hair or smoke, as it was a smoke/pet free home), and the owner of the Mac Mini just accepted that it was his fault! So how come it is their fault for the first time? Are we not holding the battery wrong? Do we not have our central heating set too high? Are Apple sales slowing and they actually have to start behaving like other companies instead of treating their customers like they are lucky for the privilege of owning Apple products? After having seen the $300 "Designed by Apple" book come out just last week, I wouldn't have thought so...
Not only that, but they pushed hard (with dubious means as we found out) to have Clinton win the nomination, when she is probably the "Democrat" that Democrat voters themselves like the least. And "like the least" is a euphemism when many outright hate her. ALMOST ANYONE else would have had an easy time against Donald Trump, but no, they didn't want people like Bernie etc, Clinton was the DNC's favorite gal...
I have not confused anything, I have studied computer science and I am very aware of what AI in that context is (I have even built systems that are considered AI) and that is why my reply was "nothing", i.e. what AI actually is currently does not involve sentient machines that could run amok if we let them develop ciphers and start communicating. And I am not outraged, I am simply underwhelmed and rather tired at reading sensational AI stories that are nowhere near as exciting as they are implying. The term "AI" that you encounter every day around you is either science fiction or marketing.
Nothing will go wrong. I was impressed by notions of "AI" when I was a kid, but after studying CS I usually skip "AI" articles since they always underwhelm me. "AI" is currently marketing speak, we are nowhere near something that is "AI" in the sense that you imply, or in the sense that I meant it as a kid.
My favorite one is "gaffer". I haven't looked it up because I like to imagine that the gaffer is either someone responsible for the "gaffes" from the start, or some sort of honorary title given at the end to the cast member with the most gaffes.
iOS portrait mode means portrait vs landscape mode for desktop/apps, PERIOD. Hmm, do you put a period after you've said period? Anyway, I digress... If you wanted to use the word "portrait" instead of having a more accurate title like "fake bokeh" or "portrait photo background blurring" etc you could at least use "new portrait mode for camera app". This is supposed to be a site for nerds, know your crowd. Yeah, I know, I talk like I'm new here...;)
I've been living in the UK for the last three years an as I use a telescope I look at the weather daily. The national weather service barely gets a prediction correct FOR THE SAME NIGHT never mind days or years in advance! I am not kidding, there is something like an 80% or a bit more chance for clouds and a lower chance for precipitation, but the forecast only gives you slightly more information than that. Eg instead of 80/20 cloud odds, if the MET office thinks it will be cloudless, consider the odds to be something like 60/40 instead. The forecast for the next night is even less useful. For example, 2 days ago it was telling me there was a zero chance of rain and the clouds would be gone within the hour. I took my scope out and had to drag it back in due to the zero chance rain that was dropping (perhaps the heart of gold was using the improbability drive?). If it wasn't clear, this was the within the next hour prediction, I.e. Weather practically right now... If they could actually predict UK weather with any accuracy short term That would be a start. Now for 1 year later a forecast of "cloudy with a 50% chance of precipitation" would be correct most of the time, yet I would not call it a forecast.
Right, Tesla's popular cars and SpaceX's rockets that supply the ISS are just paper... Exactly like Theranos' semi-fictional "wonder-machine"... And what is all this about public money? Tesla is actually the only American car company that has repaid all their government loans, with interest.
He could at least offer to share the utility bills. I mean the security costs for the embassy have risen a lot due to him being there, part of the broadband cost is the least he could do...
I've tried using MacBooks, but they always had issues for me, so I go with (not necessarily new) Thinkpads for the road, but I mostly use my desktops anyway, and that's where I have a Mac Pro and a Mac Mini, which are pretty solid machines. Granted, the Mac Pro was too expensive, if my job did not pay for it I had calculated that I would have built it for less than half the price, but if you're not on a budget it is a good machine. So, whenever there was new hardware introduced, specifically Mac Pro and Mac Mini I followed it, and if there was a good feature / speed increased introduced I would perhaps go for it (happened once with the Pro, twice with the Mini). But in 2013, it happened. They took their only "classic" workstation with multiple drive bays (I have 2 ssds and 3 hds right now), dual CPUs, PCI slots etc and "transformed" it into a cool looking yet useless to me cylinder. Then with the Mac Mini, first they took away the option of getting any graphics other than Intel, then in 2014 they soldered the RAM and took away the option for a quad core!!! So I dread the new announcements, perhaps a new Mac Mini single core. Or with an iPhone cpu... And a Mac Pro that is a cool black sphere... but you can't open it at all for stuff like adding RAM etc.
Your new Hyundai sedan might randomly explode, so after you return it you are likely to buy a Harley motorcycle instead???
Not related: I used to buy most things samsung until about 1-2 years ago (2 monitors, phones, AC, Plasma Smart TV, home theater, external USB drives etc), but after their support treated me badly on the Smart TV and my Galaxy phone stopped getting updates relatively soon (with the last one being subpar), I vowed to never buy Samsung again - for phones I switched to Xiaomi...
Happy birthday KDE. I know we haven't seen each other much the last few years, sorry about that, but when you went all "pretty" with KDE4 it was like you were snubbing people like me who just wanted a functional desktop and had found that in you. I am mostly with OS X these days, I know she is a primadona and we don't have what I had with you back in the KDE 3 days, so I'll always reminisce those times... Best wishes.
I had to call my wife to watch this one! Wow, she said, a huge penis is blasting off! Yeah, I told her, watch as the crew capsule will separate... Crew capsule? Oh! yes, there goes the head! Was the design on purpose, to troll radar operators with a penis cross-section? It being funny of course didn't take much away from the important parts of the mission, nice landing for both booster and capsule. Good to see these guys progressing.
They are going after small fries. Meanwhile, most H1b visas are used by companies like Infosys or Tata Consulting who bring people from India, have them work as H1b low-paid slaves to get the training required so that their jobs can be outsourced to India where they return to and continue with much lower wages...
The direction of their investigation was obvious from their previous release where they were talking about the breach in the helium system. They had a "large breach" that could not be explained, so what else fits the description better than a projectile? I was actually modded down for pointing that out (people saying you can't get within 8 miles of the launch etc), but, yeah, that's what they are looking at (among other things I assume). It is not that far-fetched I guess, I mean there are billions at stake here. And if you think about it, if you wanted to sabotage a rocket fueling would be the perfect time - low security compared to a launch (not to mention no bullet-time cameras etc rolling) and yet some activity that could be thought to be related to the cause. I'm not saying it was certainly sabotage, but, regardless of what Giorgio Tsoukalos might tell you, it is much more probable than aliens;)
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Ehh, so what are they offering? For extra $$, I'd expect an integrator to cherry pick the CPU's they get to provide me with one that can do 5GHz (which is not that huge of an overclock anyway, I mean I was around during the Celeron 300A era!), otherwise they are offering nothing. There is no such thing as "professional overclocking" when we are talking about a simple air-cooled system that lets you control clock speed and voltage, you simply try to go higher and run a benchmark to check stability and it all depends on how lucky you were with the CPU you got. And people who'd overclock usually enjoy the actual process of figuring that out. The only service they should charge for is guaranteed overclock, to remove the luck-factor from the equation.
On another note, AMD'd better come up with something decent fast, otherwise Intel is going to stagnate some more (performance and price-wise).
I thought they claimed the original theatrical release version was destroyed and would never be released in high quality, and that was one of the main reasons people collaborated to produce the Star Wars HD despecialized edition.
Here is the entire support ticket the guy opened: http://forums.qrz.com/index.php?attachments/hrd-software-inc-pdf.336462/.
It seems that they have in their TOS a line that says:
8. We reserve the right to refuse service and disable a customer’s key at any time for any reason
Also, they are lying in that it was just one employee that did this. From the ticket you can see an employee was answering the ticket at first, but then "Rick" took over, who appears to be "Rick Ruhl", a co-owner of HRD software, and throws gems like this to the stunned customer:
You are not buying software, you are buying your callsign's access to the software. ... ...
Again refer to section 8 of the TOS, which was written by our Attorney.
See you in court.
Unbelievable!
Amateurs... If they had only been collecting the rounding errors from the transactions they would have eventually pulled that cool $1bn without anyone knowing...
At home I watch on a 55" plasma screen from about 2.5 meters distance, or at my other home a 120" screen (DLP projection) from about 3-3.5m away and always with a decent 5.1 channel home theater system. This means that going to about 80% of cinemas out there is actually a downgrade, either in terms of screen angular size, or audio (it is harder to make good audio on a huge room, and especially when targeting many seating positions - at least if you want to keep costs in check). The rest might be similar or a little better than the home setup, but I'd not really pay a premium for them, so I guess if I had the option of a similar price to watch it at home, I'd probably take it - I don't particularly prefer the movie theater as an experience, especially when it is crowded, there are other things I could do with a night out. However, $25-$50 seems a bit of a stretch since I'd go to the theater just with the wife, i.e. spending $15-$25 on tickets. I would not spend extra for that either, I'd probably wait and get it for either free with my streaming plan or at a low price.
Now, there is a cinema to which I still go, usually once or twice a month. That's the giant IMAX (not the "liemax" smallish screens popping out). The 26m wide screen experience (with amphitheatric seating) and great sound cannot be emulated at home. For example Dr. Strange was amazing watching there. So, I only go to the Imax regularly and for a movie that has a strong "visual" component I would not consider watching at home instead.
Well, Labor Participation Rate vs Unemployment is not just about people who stopped looking for a job, it is also about people who don't need a job, so it is not a particularly better metric.
Unemployment rate has always been "underreporting" by a margin that is open to debate. If this margin is relatively stable throughout the years, then unemployment rate is a good *comparative* tool. Do you have any sources that say that the current unemployment rate is more severely underreporting unemployment and thus not comparable to historic rates? If yes, then you have a point, otherwise.. no.
No, this won't work. Sellers have groups (on FB or dedicated sites) where they organize people to buy their product for free or almost free (they provide a discount code) in exchange for a review. They don't usually tell you directly to give them a 4/5 star review (although I've seen that too), but tell you to contact them first if you are not happy and if you leave a 3 star or less review they simply don't give you any more free stuff... or worse!
When I say worse, this is an example recent experience of mine. I have a thing about exposing scams like that, so I joined a group to get a "Best Seller" pair of binoculars that was receiving suspiciously raving reviews, without paying full price. I reviewed it and, sure enough, it was really poor quality for the price (even magnification and effective aperture where nowhere near the specs), so I wrote a (rather generous in hindsight - probably because I had reviewed really horrible binoculars recently) very detailed and technical 3-star review that basically said these are worth less than half the price. I did get a message from the seller "thanking me for not posting the review", which is an interesting way of requesting I remove it, but that's it. Anyway, this review started to slowly get up-voted (about 1 vote per day) so it was on the front page after a few days. But one day, I see a dozen sudden downvotes, and the seller claiming I am a competitor in the comments (they actually claimed I own Agena Astro!) - they even messaged me to tell me I was reported for malicious slander to Amazon etc. So the review got buried. If you are wondering about the down-votes, I got emails from people whom the seller had asked to down-vote me (members of their review group), so that's how that works.
I don't think it is hard for Amazon to fix these issues. First of all, they should remove (or not "count") reviews that have used a promo code. That's the primary method these review groups work. Then completely ignore reviewers who drop-ship (another method) or work exclusively on promo codes - there are Top-100 or even Top-50 reviewers that are "serial reviewers", get everything for free with a promo code and always give 5* reviews (e.g. Top-50 on Amazon.co.uk). Lastly, run an analysis to identify downvoting/upvoting "rings", i.e. users that are asked to mass downvote legitimate reviews.
Up until a few years ago, I thought Amazon reviews were great at helping me figure out what to buy. Now, I only read reviews from items that are sold by Amazon directly, so that no seller has messed with them, the rest are not helpful at all.
3 distressingly unreliable war ships that cost more than the entire NASA yearly budget... Yep, seems like taxpayer money well-spent to me!
I don't get it, this is the first time Apple does something like that. I have paid twice out of pocket to have my iPhone 4 and 4s replaced (there was one more replacement but within warranty), because of a well known issue (search about iphone 4 / 4s wifi grayed out) that Apple refused to acknowledge - their website instructions said "reset network settings" like that could do something about what we knew was a malfunctioning heat-sensor that disabled the wireless module (and was only actually enabled in firmware from a specific iOS version and on - you were fine if you never upgraded the original iPhone 4!). They have even voided the warranty of a 6 month Mac Mini with a failed motherboard, because the found "dust" (no cat hair or smoke, as it was a smoke/pet free home), and the owner of the Mac Mini just accepted that it was his fault!
So how come it is their fault for the first time? Are we not holding the battery wrong? Do we not have our central heating set too high? Are Apple sales slowing and they actually have to start behaving like other companies instead of treating their customers like they are lucky for the privilege of owning Apple products? After having seen the $300 "Designed by Apple" book come out just last week, I wouldn't have thought so...
Not only that, but they pushed hard (with dubious means as we found out) to have Clinton win the nomination, when she is probably the "Democrat" that Democrat voters themselves like the least. And "like the least" is a euphemism when many outright hate her. ALMOST ANYONE else would have had an easy time against Donald Trump, but no, they didn't want people like Bernie etc, Clinton was the DNC's favorite gal...
Yup! The first thing that came to mind upon starting to read the summary, and went for a comment, but, it was the 5th comment posted ;)
Obviously, the 4 earlier posters should turn in their geek card, Futurama is essential material...
I have not confused anything, I have studied computer science and I am very aware of what AI in that context is (I have even built systems that are considered AI) and that is why my reply was "nothing", i.e. what AI actually is currently does not involve sentient machines that could run amok if we let them develop ciphers and start communicating.
And I am not outraged, I am simply underwhelmed and rather tired at reading sensational AI stories that are nowhere near as exciting as they are implying.
The term "AI" that you encounter every day around you is either science fiction or marketing.
Nothing will go wrong. I was impressed by notions of "AI" when I was a kid, but after studying CS I usually skip "AI" articles since they always underwhelm me. "AI" is currently marketing speak, we are nowhere near something that is "AI" in the sense that you imply, or in the sense that I meant it as a kid.
My favorite one is "gaffer". I haven't looked it up because I like to imagine that the gaffer is either someone responsible for the "gaffes" from the start, or some sort of honorary title given at the end to the cast member with the most gaffes.
iOS portrait mode means portrait vs landscape mode for desktop/apps, PERIOD. ;)
Hmm, do you put a period after you've said period? Anyway, I digress...
If you wanted to use the word "portrait" instead of having a more accurate title like "fake bokeh" or "portrait photo background blurring" etc you could at least use "new portrait mode for camera app". This is supposed to be a site for nerds, know your crowd. Yeah, I know, I talk like I'm new here...
I've been living in the UK for the last three years an as I use a telescope I look at the weather daily. The national weather service barely gets a prediction correct FOR THE SAME NIGHT never mind days or years in advance! I am not kidding, there is something like an 80% or a bit more chance for clouds and a lower chance for precipitation, but the forecast only gives you slightly more information than that. Eg instead of 80/20 cloud odds, if the MET office thinks it will be cloudless, consider the odds to be something like 60/40 instead. The forecast for the next night is even less useful.
For example, 2 days ago it was telling me there was a zero chance of rain and the clouds would be gone within the hour. I took my scope out and had to drag it back in due to the zero chance rain that was dropping (perhaps the heart of gold was using the improbability drive?). If it wasn't clear, this was the within the next hour prediction, I.e. Weather practically right now...
If they could actually predict UK weather with any accuracy short term That would be a start. Now for 1 year later a forecast of "cloudy with a 50% chance of precipitation" would be correct most of the time, yet I would not call it a forecast.
Right, Tesla's popular cars and SpaceX's rockets that supply the ISS are just paper... Exactly like Theranos' semi-fictional "wonder-machine"...
And what is all this about public money? Tesla is actually the only American car company that has repaid all their government loans, with interest.
He could at least offer to share the utility bills. I mean the security costs for the embassy have risen a lot due to him being there, part of the broadband cost is the least he could do...
Well said.
I've tried using MacBooks, but they always had issues for me, so I go with (not necessarily new) Thinkpads for the road, but I mostly use my desktops anyway, and that's where I have a Mac Pro and a Mac Mini, which are pretty solid machines. Granted, the Mac Pro was too expensive, if my job did not pay for it I had calculated that I would have built it for less than half the price, but if you're not on a budget it is a good machine.
So, whenever there was new hardware introduced, specifically Mac Pro and Mac Mini I followed it, and if there was a good feature / speed increased introduced I would perhaps go for it (happened once with the Pro, twice with the Mini). But in 2013, it happened. They took their only "classic" workstation with multiple drive bays (I have 2 ssds and 3 hds right now), dual CPUs, PCI slots etc and "transformed" it into a cool looking yet useless to me cylinder.
Then with the Mac Mini, first they took away the option of getting any graphics other than Intel, then in 2014 they soldered the RAM and took away the option for a quad core!!!
So I dread the new announcements, perhaps a new Mac Mini single core. Or with an iPhone cpu... And a Mac Pro that is a cool black sphere... but you can't open it at all for stuff like adding RAM etc.
Your new Hyundai sedan might randomly explode, so after you return it you are likely to buy a Harley motorcycle instead???
Not related: I used to buy most things samsung until about 1-2 years ago (2 monitors, phones, AC, Plasma Smart TV, home theater, external USB drives etc), but after their support treated me badly on the Smart TV and my Galaxy phone stopped getting updates relatively soon (with the last one being subpar), I vowed to never buy Samsung again - for phones I switched to Xiaomi...
Happy birthday KDE. I know we haven't seen each other much the last few years, sorry about that, but when you went all "pretty" with KDE4 it was like you were snubbing people like me who just wanted a functional desktop and had found that in you. I am mostly with OS X these days, I know she is a primadona and we don't have what I had with you back in the KDE 3 days, so I'll always reminisce those times...
Best wishes.
I had to call my wife to watch this one! Wow, she said, a huge penis is blasting off! Yeah, I told her, watch as the crew capsule will separate... Crew capsule? Oh! yes, there goes the head!
Was the design on purpose, to troll radar operators with a penis cross-section?
It being funny of course didn't take much away from the important parts of the mission, nice landing for both booster and capsule. Good to see these guys progressing.
They are going after small fries. Meanwhile, most H1b visas are used by companies like Infosys or Tata Consulting who bring people from India, have them work as H1b low-paid slaves to get the training required so that their jobs can be outsourced to India where they return to and continue with much lower wages...
The direction of their investigation was obvious from their previous release where they were talking about the breach in the helium system. They had a "large breach" that could not be explained, so what else fits the description better than a projectile? I was actually modded down for pointing that out (people saying you can't get within 8 miles of the launch etc), but, yeah, that's what they are looking at (among other things I assume). It is not that far-fetched I guess, I mean there are billions at stake here. And if you think about it, if you wanted to sabotage a rocket fueling would be the perfect time - low security compared to a launch (not to mention no bullet-time cameras etc rolling) and yet some activity that could be thought to be related to the cause. ;)
I'm not saying it was certainly sabotage, but, regardless of what Giorgio Tsoukalos might tell you, it is much more probable than aliens