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User: TheBlunderbuss

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Comments · 36

  1. Software solutions on How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library? · · Score: 1

    For Windows, there's catfish http://www.equi4.com/catfish/index.html
    For Linux, there's cdcat http://cdcat.sourceforge.net/

  2. Re:Stay away from Bestec on Brand Names Take On Generics In PSU Showdown · · Score: 1

    Come to think of it, I agree. I remember being surprised to see the 100W rating on mine, and doing some quick math on the power demands of the computer. It was all so disappointing.

    The PSU is still useable for hobby use as a steady voltage source, but I'm not sure if it would be ok to place back into a computer.

  3. Neary any SCUMM game... on Resurrecting Old Games, What Works? · · Score: 1
  4. Stay away from Bestec on Brand Names Take On Generics In PSU Showdown · · Score: 1

    I've noticed a few computers that had a Bestec PSU fry their motherboard. I'm not sure if they're sold stand-alone, but they used to be found in HP and eMachines.
    Granted, they might have been vastly underrated for upgrades, but still, two machines! That has to be, like, common?

    *shrug* It's soured me on the brand, and pre-built computers, at least.

  5. Where's the boom? on Anti-Matter Created By Laser At Livermore · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where are the anti matter particles now?
    I would think they're touching matter, since they didn't just harmlessly disappear.

    Isn't there supposed to be an enormous explosion when matter and anti-matter meet?
    Or is that fiction? or friction? Or fission? Or fusion? or confusion?

  6. Spelling Correction on Inside the World's Most Advanced Planetarium · · Score: 1
  7. Re:Fuel economy on Fuel Efficiency and Slow Driving? · · Score: 1

    1. Right. You'd be misusing it by straining it.
    2. There's nothing wrong with using brakes to stop, every day.

    Misuse my transmission? You mean the one that's lasted me 226k miles?

  8. Re:Fuel economy on Fuel Efficiency and Slow Driving? · · Score: 0

    I wouldn't rely on my engine to brake, on a continual basis.
    1. It wastes gas.
    Most automatic transmissions will coast, like a ten speed bike freewheeling, when the engine is not producing more power to accelerate.
    In order to get engine braking, the driver must downshift to a lower gear, which will not only disengage the coasting, but also the overdrive. The overdrive allowed the car to cruise at a lower RPM

    2. It is a strain on your transmission
    When the lower gear is selected, more clutch material comes in contact with the gearset, causing additional wear. In some cases, the trans fluid pressure may also be increased. The freewheeling devices are also held shut.

    So you must ask yourself, on a day to day, continual basis of braking...
    Do I want to replace brake pads
    or rebuild a transmission?

  9. Analogy? on Fuel Efficiency and Slow Driving? · · Score: 1

    I don't get it. Can someone put this in a computer analogy?

  10. Re:Mac vs. PC on Run Mac OS X On Non-Apple Hardware, With a Dongle · · Score: 1

    I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to see anything that suggests John Hodgman's wang.

  11. Problems with Wine by default on Ubuntu 8.04 Beta Released · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Compiz/Beryl takes away OpenGL resources, and pulseaudio doesn't work right with ALSA, let alone the ALSA Wine driver.
    I'll be spending so much more time telling people to turn that stuff off.

    Oh thank you so much, Ubuntu team!

  12. Re:Tap Water vs Bottled Water on Drugs In Our Drinking Water · · Score: 1

    Yup I'm forced to buy bottled water. I haven't been drinking tap for 20 years.
    My dogs drink bottled water.

    Yes, radon. Big problem in IL
    Yes, the village isn't doing their job.

    Old thread to reply to, in Slashdot terms, but just getting some closure.

  13. Tell Japan... on Japan's Unique Cow/Whale Hybrid Experiments · · Score: 1

    ...it's called a "seacow."

  14. Re:Tap Water vs Bottled Water on Drugs In Our Drinking Water · · Score: 1

    Regardless of all the strict regulation of tap water, the tap water in my area is radioactive.
    No conventional filter guards against that.

  15. Re:Why? on Family Guy Spins off Cleveland · · Score: 1

    Since they're voiced by the same person, I can easily do uncanny impressions of both.

  16. Re:Young Researcher Linked Owls to Airplanes on Birds Give a Lesson to Plane Designers · · Score: 1

    That must be what I read then, specifically a young researcher proving it right.
    But it wasn't until then that those wingtips made it, commercially.

  17. Young Researcher Linked Owls to Airplanes on Birds Give a Lesson to Plane Designers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't remember the source, but several years ago, a researcher in his twenties saw how owls' wingtips point upward on their downstroke. This cuts down on vorticies at the wingtips, making for a more efficient and quiet flight.
    Airplane designers then took that idea and applied it to most commercial jets you see today.

  18. Re:Wee! on 14-Year-Old Turns Tram System Into Personal Train Set · · Score: 1

    The Wii controllers wouldn't do anything IR-receiving systems, like one the article mentions.
    Wiimotes aren't IR transmitters. They receive IR from the single "sensor bar", which is an array of IR LEDs. This makes it easier to get pointer data from multiple Wiimotes, rather than having a single receiver be flooded with IR.
    So, just like how the TV shoots NES Zapper light gun, the sensor bar shoots the Wiimotes.

  19. USB's plug design is horrible on USB 3.0's New Jacks and Sockets · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Though this comment shall be absolutely buried by now, I must voice my opinion:
    I absolutely HATE the A-series (the most common) USB plug. If you are going by feel alone, you have a 50% chance of orienting the plug correctly the first time.
    So frustrating. (And so is the round DIN, but that's for another time)
    A good design, like D-subminiature, CAT5, and headphone jack make blind insertion easy and near-foolproof (no sex jokes please, slashdotters).
    USB B-series is a lot better, but sadly isn't as ubiquitous.

    Also: I'm guessing that PCI expansion cards couldn't fully utilize USB3.0?

  20. Re:Um. The guy with the storage? on Who Owns Your Social Data? You Do, Sort of · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I guess the bank owns your money, since they keep it as data in their servers.

  21. Zombocalypse! on Snortable Drug 'Replaces' Sleep For Monkeys In Trials · · Score: 1

    Boy if this doesn't sound like the beginnings of a real-life zombie infestation!
    http://www.zombiehunters.org/

  22. Re:Turning Japanese on Japanese Government to Regulate Online Communication · · Score: 1

    Yeah, reading about censorship always ruins my boner.

  23. Turning Japanese on Japanese Government to Regulate Online Communication · · Score: 1

    I swear I was listening to this song as this article came up in the newsreader.

  24. Re:So let me get this straight... on Copy That Floppy, Lose Your Computer · · Score: 1

    Unless you specifically blocked it, your torrent software also uploaded the program to other computers.
    If you can prove you didn't upload the whole thing to a computer, then you might have a case. Programs don't often work when they're not 100% there.

    The EULAs might be different, explicitly naming the different versions by year release. If they're the same year, but vary only by a few version releases, you could be in the clear.

    Of course, if you just installed OpenOffice, you wouldn't be in this mess. Kidding!

  25. Wine Is Not an Emulator on Wine 0.9.44 Released · · Score: 1

    Unlike Dosbox, Wine isn't an emulator. It isn't separate from the system, like a virtual machine. Instead, it's more like Cygwin, which provides a POSIX layer to run Unix programs on Windows

    Wine : Linux :: Cygwin : Windows
    if that helps.