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User: Ratchet

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  1. Take it to the extreme on Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View · · Score: 1

    and remove the cockpit altogether. Drone plane, basically. Hand off control to ground stations along the flight route, and you save tons of everything.

  2. They are unrepentant about the online because... on EA Offering Free Game to Users After SimCity Launch Problems · · Score: 1

    the simulation is run "in the cloud" and not on your local PC. They can't disconnect because of that, and that is also why the cities are so small and why their servers are having such a hard time coping with the load.

  3. Re:Waste on Boeing Touts Fighter Jet To Rival F-35 — At Half the Price · · Score: 1

    I'm thinking there are things in the works for autonomous combat drones, piloted by AI that can track targets and respond to maneuvers in an air combat setting. Even if the pilot is maneuvering erratically and unpredictably, the drone still has the advantage of being able to (massively) out-turn and therefore out-maneuver the human piloted aircraft.

  4. Shens! on Open Source Emoji Project Wants Money For Icons · · Score: 1

    Is it still ok to call Shenanigans on things? If so, Shenanigans!

    $50,000 to to build a set of smilies, and half of that doesn't even go to the smilie thing at all. Kickstarter should shut this one down.

  5. The sky is falling... ? on Frame Latency Spikes Plague Radeon Graphics Cards · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anyone that actually knows anything about the GPU industry knows that both AMD and NVIDIA graphics suffer from these latency spikes, but it's not with all their SKUs. NVIDIA's 660 Ti works well in this case, but their 670 and 680 has more latency spikes than the competitive AMD cards do. The 7850 demonstrated here is an anomaly for AMD. None of their other cards do this. Look at past reviews from Techreport and you will see what I mean.

  6. Re:What's really funny... on Apple Seeks To Block 8 Samsung Products After Court Win · · Score: 1

    I'm rooting for Samsung here too by the way, I'd like to see Apple get a good poke in the nose as much as anybody, but don't you think it's safe to assume that Apple would just go find someone else to do all that for them? It's pretty safe to assume they already have a list of companies, who are lined-up, just chomping at the bit to get a taste of the billions Apple gives Samsung to do that work. Hell, do you even think Samsung is so stupid that they would throw away those Apple billions just to settle a grudge?

  7. Re:Year of... on Valve Shares Performance Numbers On Port of Left4Dead · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think they aren't so much building a game console as they are building a spec for a Linux based gaming PC for everyone to get behind. That makes more sense to me. I, quite literally, only use Windows to play games. Every thing else I either do on my phone, tablet, or already just as easily could do under Linux. If they can make it easy for us hardcore gamers to transition to Linux, then I doubt any of us would bother with Windows again.

    The only issue is support for all this cutting edge hardware I have. Linux is always a problem there, but if gamers start to flock, I hope so too will the companies that make our gaming hardware.

  8. Now we wait on AMD Brings Back Athlon K8 Designer as Chief Architect · · Score: 1

    The problem now is it'll take 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 years for this guys work to show up. Hopefully he'll help AMD turn the corner, but Intel won't exactly be sitting around waiting for them to catch up.

  9. Now they need to discover the anti-higgs on Ask Slashdot: What Are the Implications of Finding the Higgs Boson? · · Score: 1

    which would subtract mass, allowing for negative mass and thus faster-than-light travel. Someone write sci-fi around that, sounds sweet.

  10. Unlike most of my fellow Canadians here... on Canada's Internet Among Best, Report Says · · Score: 1

    ...I have 40/2 cable access at home with a 250GB cap and no throttling that I've ever noticed for $46 a month (bundled with home phone and TV). If I dropped my plan down to 20/1 I would have uncapped access. There's also a 100/5 option with the same 250GB cap as the 40/2 option, but that plan is $156 per month. My location? Rural Newfoundland, in a town of about 450 people, an hour drive from the largest city in my province (which itself only has 100,000 people). High speed internet access like this is common in my province, available to most communities far more remote and even less populous than mine.

    I'm not saying that it doesn't suck for Canadians, I'm just saying it doesn't suck for all of us.

  11. Re:I'm panicking! on Google+ Already At 10 Million Users · · Score: 1

    Here too mark.thorne(gmail) if possible

  12. Re:Island only accessible by boat.. on Ask Slashdot: Mobile Data In Canada For a US Citizen? · · Score: 1

    I can tell you with utmost certainty that Rogers' coverage map is very over optimistic. No matter what their coverage map would indicate, outside any urban area they simply don't have any useable coverage.

  13. Re:Security through obscurity? on Don't Talk To Aliens, Warns Stephen Hawking · · Score: 1

    You're comparing an extremely finite place like Earth to an (for all intents and purposes) infinite place like the Universe. If the European "invaders" saw that there was virtually limitless "gold" someplace else, that was easier to get and where they didn't have to deal with the locals to get it, do you think they would still have invaded the Americas?

    Yes, maybe we are fairly unique in the grand scheme of things, but we are still one diverse biosphere out of a conservatively estimated 100 billion diverse biospheres in our galaxy alone, times that by the estimated number of galaxies in the known universe, now standing at some 500 billion (scientists are only estimating by the fraction of a fraction of the universe that they can see as well), and you start to get an idea of how totally insignificant Earth really is.

    Earth was born in space, created from the smashing toghether of smaller bits of space debris, whatever is here is certainly elsewhere and likely in far, far greater quantities.

  14. Re:Security through obscurity? on Don't Talk To Aliens, Warns Stephen Hawking · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think we're overestimating ourselves here. Why would alien's advanced enough to reach us even bother with Earth?

    Resources? No, there are countless other sources out there, other planets, moons and asteroids, from which a nomadic alien civilization could gather resources a lot quicker and easier than from Earth. Compared to other sources, Earth isn't a resource rich planet by any means.

    Domination doesn't make any sense either. Why would they want to colonize Earth? All evidence is starting to point to Earth-type planets being somewhat common in the Universe, and you have to assume that there are plenty of other easier targets to colonize. Even then, just because our Earth supports us perfectly, doesn't mean it'll be nice and comfortable every other alien out there.

    Humans and enslavement would be about the only unique resource Earth has to offer I think, but we're fragile organisms that need rest, food, can only work in certain specific environments and conditions, and are prone to violent uprisings when pinned down long enough. Again, you have to assume that an alien race floating around in space in giant ships would also have some pretty kickass machines happily doing all types of things for them in all types of environments and conditions.

    In fact, about the only reason I can think of for an alien race to want to visit us would simply be for research and the knowledge gained. The exact same reason we visit other planets too.

  15. I expected... on LHC Success! · · Score: 0

    ...to wake up dead this morning

  16. Re:Minor gripe on Guantanamo Officers Caught Modifying Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    And if one of those civilians gets blown along the way?

    Where does a civilian such as myself apply for such work?
  17. sneaky bastards? on Canadian DMCA Bill Withdrawn · · Score: 1

    The concern I have now, since this bill wasn't actually tabled, is that when it _does_ get tabled it won't generate near as much attention from the public or opposition in the House as it did this time.

    In fact (excuse me while I get my Tin Foil hat), this may be all part of a grand plan to actually get this bill to pass...

  18. I've migrated ove... on Microsoft to Issue Out-of-Cycle Patch for IE · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...the most finiky of users, my Mom, to Firefox without her even knowing it. Now if Dad would stop playing Solitaire long enough for me to get at his computer then I'd de-IE him as well.

  19. One of the problems I have... on Hitchhiker's Guide Trailer Online · · Score: 1

    ...about movies based on imaginative books like this is that the movies always ruin the characters which have only ever been in my imagination. While I'm rereading the book the "new" versions of those characters are always those of the actors who played them in the movie. It's never quite the same again.

    I always pictured Marvin to be a taller, leaner, and darker robot that sort of looked like Bender from Futurama, and I liked him like that. After I watch the movie, my version of Marvin will be a short, fat, white robot with a hugh head. That version doesn't appeal to me but it will be the version I'll be thinking of when I reread the books.

  20. I'd be more interested in... on Introduction To Inkscape And Its Future · · Score: 1

    ... a Corel Draw killer. Sure Adobe makes some nice tuff, but in my opinion Draw is better than Illustrator in just about every aspect.

  21. Calvin and Hobbes on The Opus Interview · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A Calvin & Hobbes announcement similar to this would have made me much more happier.

  22. your old stuff on Intel To Redesign PC With "Grantsdale" Chip · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's an PCI-X to AGP bridge that vendors can take advantage of to offer AGP ports on PCI-Express motherboards, so you'll likely be able to hang on to that new $500 vidcard you just bought (not that you'll be seeing PCIX anytime soon mind you). Your "old" PCI devices should still work as well.

  23. GeforceFX non Ultra on Carmack on NV30 vs R300 · · Score: 2, Informative

    There'a also a slower version of the GeforceFX in the works, sans leafblower. It's reported to run at 400MHz core/800MHz memory (as opposed to 500/1000 for the "Ultra" leafblower version). It will likely get trounced by the 9700 and 9700 Pro in most performance and IQ areas, but it will be an alternate solution for you guys that want one of those nV30 based cards but don't want to risk having your cat sucked into the back of your computer.

  24. Re:They're ignoring Canada on Transatlantic Model Airplane Flight to Begin Shortly · · Score: 1

    No they aren't, the Newfoundland flag is the first one shown on the page (depending on how you read things of course). The last time I checked, Newfoundland was still a part of Canada.

  25. hmmm.... on Build Your Own UFO · · Score: 1

    ...not really an Unidentified Flying Object if you built it yourself now is it. Maybe an IFO, or just simply a FO, but certainly not an UFO.