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User: brett42

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  1. Audacity has decent noise removal on Recording Skype Audio for Broadcast? · · Score: 1

    Audacity has a noise removal effect that was able to remove a really horrible hiss after a hybrid decided to stop behaving before an interview (shameless plug for University Radio Hilo). It takes a sample segment that should be the noise by itself and can then be applied to the rest of the file. It won't improve the source quality, but it might help with the hiss, especially if it's really constant.

  2. What gives them the right to do that? on ESRB Outlines Publisher Fines · · Score: 1

    I looked through 3 or 4 other versions of this article via google news, and I couldn't find the original press release, but I couldn't find anything mention of why gaming companies would be forced to give large sums of money to an independant, voluntary ratings board. One article mentioned the FTC in the same paragraph, but why would the ESRB have that kind of enforcement power?

    I can only see two possibilities, neither of which makes sense. Some contract the ESRB makes companies sign has a "we agree to give you millions of dollars whenever you say so" clause in it, or the ESRB thinks its little label is worth enough that it can extort the money out of them. For companies that make games that would end up being 'M' anyway, wouldn't they be able to just stick their own warnings on the box instead?

  3. Re:Highest Capacity Wins on HD DVD Demo a Disappointment · · Score: 1

    I built a nice 4tb array on raid5 that cost me around $800

    Where did you get parts that cheap? Pricewatch is listing at around $.50/gig, plus a decent raid card for that many drives would probably be at least $200

  4. Re:Hang On A Minute on Illinois Videogame Law Struck Down · · Score: 1

    According to the Wikipedia article the Comics Code Authority was a private "voluntary" rating organization in the same class as the ESRB and MPAA.

    As a fan of violent games and R rated movies from a young age, I fail to see the benefit of enforcing these types of ratings, but I do agree that private censorship is at least a little better than public. One problem I see is that most of these systems are set up under threat of government censorship rather than in the interest of consumers, and thus become overly restrictive

  5. Re:Riddle on Your Favorite Math/Logic Riddles? · · Score: 1

    Oh, it looks like the version I googled was actually in the form "one of them is a boy." So the normal solution for that makes sense, and I'm only slightly confused. Am I correct in thinking that the solution for the "a boy answers the door" form is .5?

  6. Re:Riddle on Your Favorite Math/Logic Riddles? · · Score: 1

    Ok, I googled for this, and I get the argument, but it doesn't quite make sense. Can anyone with better knowledge of probability help? Spoilers follow:

    The solution assumes that these four samples are equally likely, which is true before you see a boy:
    bb bg gb gg

    It's easy to get that, given that one child is a boy, there's a 2/3 chance the other is a girl, but it seems like observing a boy first changes the problem. If the bb sample is correct, the probability that the first child you see will be a boy is 1. For the bg and gb samples, there is a .5 probability of seeing a boy first. I'm a little fuzzy, but why wouldn't this mean that if you see a boy first, the bb sample is twice a probable?

  7. Re:Students hate electronic books. on Arizona School Won't Use Textbooks · · Score: 1

    It could just be that they don't like the format.

    I had to do a decent amount of reading of html manuals off of a CD for a programming languages class and I didn't mind, but when I have to read even short articles in PDF I get frustrated. Anything over a few pages takes too long to load, and scrolling seems akward compared to word processors or browsers.

    They're just minor issues, but they get on my nerves.

  8. Re:Ofcourse.. on The 12-minute Windows Heist · · Score: 1

    The default for residential broadband seems to be plugging the modem straight into one computer.

  9. Re:Thank God for Firefox and Windows on Malicious Web Pages Can Install Dashboard Widgets · · Score: 1

    Every single time some security vulnerability shows up for Windows, Mac users come out of the woodwork just to point out that it doesn't affect them. The original post was just making fun of them, which is why it's +5 Funny rather than the usual +5 Insightful usually bestowed by the Apple Mafia.

  10. How could they possibly do this cheap? on Cell Architecture Explained · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm willing to believe that a 4.6 GHz chip with 8 ALUs and high bandwidth memory would be fast, but even in bulk, there's no way they can afford to put 4 of them in a sub-$500 game console.

    I've been reading PR about the Cell for years, and nothing I've ever read has seemed even remotely plausible. Is there any objective information that even comes close to substantiating any of these claims?

  11. Re:Flip-flop - not at all on Reason Interviews Michael Powell · · Score: 1

    The motives behind outing Plame and the degree to which she was undercover may be arguable, but are you saying that there is solid evidence that Saddam had, or was even actively seeking, uranium? Could you back that up? You do know that the original document was a forgery, right?

    Man, this getting off topic.

  12. Re:Flip-flop - not at all on Reason Interviews Michael Powell · · Score: 1

    Powell says he supports the First Amendment, and he also willingly enforces laws that go counter to its spirit. I hate the term 'flip-flopping', but that does fit my definition of hypocrisy.

    No one is arguing for freedom from responsibility, only against government sponsored censorship. The goverment is not the only thing that can hold people responsible, and many examples show that it often isn't very good at it.

    One important lesson from high school: focus on your thesis. You start out by saying the parent's point is wrong and calling him an idiot, then start talking about how freedom requires responsibility, which is a completely different point.

  13. Re:What other apps store my username in their file on Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When someone 'downloads' a 'cracked' copy of a 'program', it often comes 'bundled' with a 'user name' and 'registry key' combination that 'unlocks' the 'program', like the annoying letters and numbers you need to get MS Office to work when you install it legally.

    It's very likely that SoundForge includes the 'user name' that was used to 'register' it with any files created with it, which is what the original post was complaining about. In this case, the 'warez monkey' at 'M$' probably used a 'key' created by 'DeepzOne', so SoundForge 'thinks' that 'DeepzOne' is the 'warez monkey's' 'user name'. It's unlikely that 'DeepzOne' actually modified the way SoundForge saves files. No one is alleging that the 'cracker' actually works for 'M$'. They just think it's ironic that 'M$' employees are 'warez monkeys'.

    Note that this is just stuff I 'heard' about 'cracked programs', and none of this is from 'first hand experience' with 'illegal activities'.

  14. Re:The last question to ask on Help Select Questions for Bush and Kerry · · Score: 1

    Yes, you need 4.59 Supreme Court Justices to steal the Presidency.

  15. Re:Worth noting.... on Justice Dept. Raids Homes of File Swappers · · Score: 1

    Most campuses that monitor net traffic probably count connections for different port numbers rather than counting different types of packets. Since I'm pretty sure most programs just use tcp/ip, most of the packets themselves probably look very much alike.

  16. Re:Worth noting.... on Justice Dept. Raids Homes of File Swappers · · Score: 1

    If the gub operators didn't actually participate in the infringement, and just had a public server with a minimum share requirement, wouldn't that be legal? Servers like that could, somewhat plausibly, be used to share obscene amounts of research data, for instance.

    Of course, that isn't the case, and the hubs probably had names that indicated infringment, but I'm pretty sure there was a recent ruling on a p2p app that didn't hold the server owners liable for the user's actions, and I don't see how minimum shares would be much different.

  17. Re:Stick it to the current government? on South Park Creators Have A New Film · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since pretty much every episode started with Bush being unaware of an important issue, then taking a stupid stance on it, I wouldn't really call the character intelligent. He did seem like a typical sitcom character, but on a national scale.

    <obvious cheap shot that I feel compelled to take(of course using lame psuedo-html to denote)>
    Of course, the character might have seemed pretty intelligent compared to the original.
    </obvious cheap shot that I feel compelled to take(of course using lame psuedo-html to denote)>

  18. Re:Didn't sega do this? on Can Infinium Compete In The Game Console Market? · · Score: 1

    Unless there has been some kind of rift in the space-time continuum, the Genesis game out a wee bit before Steam, or Half-Life for that matter.

  19. Re:The soap box and ballot box are nearly dead on Your Right to Travel Anonymously: Not Dead Yet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the parent was referring to the common sign-waving dissenter rather than the famous documentarian when talking about the disturbing trend of forcing protestors into 'first amendment zones' away from important political events.

    It seems to me that Moore's extreme style, more than his actual messages, are what attract the media. Controversy and spectacle always get attention, but more complex opinions that can't be easily compressed into a soundbite are often seen as boring and easy to ignore.

    Of course, it's hard to make the arguement that excessive security measures around a few events will lead to the complete destruction of free speech, as is demonstrated by the pretty public uproar about the problems with the new voting machines. Also, what's this about arresting people for opinions?

    It's about 3 in the morning here, and I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, so I'll cut myself off here.

  20. Re:Unbelievable that it's legal on Todd Need[ed] a Liver · · Score: 1

    I'm in favor of a simple compromise. People don't donate organs because it doesn't benefit them, or rather thier families. Those opposed to organ selling on the open market are justifiably concerned that mostly the rich will benefit.

    Pretty much everyone would be better off if organs of a given quality that were donated were sold to those with the most medical need for a specific, set, price, preferably covered by insurance. Of course, if I was setting policy, everyone would have insurance, but that's another flamewar.

  21. Re:This reminds me of a saying... on Should SETI Be Looking For Lasers Instead? · · Score: 1

    The culture series, plus a bunch of Kim Stanley Robinson's books, have some pretty interesting ideas about what a somewhat believable utopia might look like.

    I would like to add though, that Star Trek's prime directive explicitly requires noninterference with primitive civilizations, and I believe it was mentioned in the parent post.

    I do like the idea of the agency, I think it was called Special Circumstances, that is designed to handle the exceptions to the rule. It makes more sense than all the whining about the Prime Directive that happened every couple of episodes in Trek.

  22. Re:This would be exciting.. on XP SP2 Torrent Shows Legal P2P's Promise · · Score: 1

    I was thinking the same thing, then I read the article. MS is allowing 'only' 2.5 million downloads per day for the first few weeks.

    Of course, it's probable that someone else would have made a torrent of the service pack anyway, and this is just a PR thing, but it might be useful.

  23. Is the route preselected? on Tor: A JAP Replacement · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the couple of days I spent actually working in my highschool cisco class, I remember each router in a path is supposed to be able to optimize the route a packet is sent on by using local information and the packet's final destination. From what I gather from the limited technical details in the article, this protocol would require knowledge of the entire route at the initial node to handle the 'onion layer' encryption.

    Is there some way of optimizing a path through a given number of nodes without keeping huge amounts of information about latency on every two nodes, or is this just bouncing the packet around for a while for anonymity and accepting the added latency, plus possibly the time it takes to detect and resend packets when one node in a path suddenly goes dead, making the custom-encrypted packet worthless?

  24. Re:The perfect tool for teaching it... on Is Typing a Necessary Skill? · · Score: 1

    MUDs did build up my typing speed back in the day, but I wouldn't really call what I typed real words, especially with the ability to use shortened commands.

    "k sl" (kill slime)
    "c ma" (cast magic missile)
    "l m" (look at mount olympus, home of the gods)
    "gos omg 3y3 pwn u n00b" (???)

  25. Re:That "interesting", but what about... on 3D Mouse · · Score: 1

    It's been done to a limited extent. Warcraft 3 uses the wheel to zoom in/out, and there are some image manipulation programs that let zoom into the cursor'd part of the picture with the wheel, which is cool, but kind of disconcerting when you're used to using it for scrolling.

    For first person style navigation, especially games, wasd/arrows+mouse is probably the easiest method .