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User: improfane

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  1. How would a robot do this? on Pogo-Style Robot Legs Allow 9-Foot Bounces · · Score: 1

    Since this is powered by your GPE, the robots will have to be pretty heavy to start but where would the downward force come from?

    Would the central shaft be hydraulic to provide the initial compression?
    How does a robot become a dead weight?

    Give this a 1080 camera like the high speed hand and you could have a robot that knows exactly where to go, which direction to shift its weight.

    We could have high speed robot sports. I have something called straight spine so is likely to be painful for me. Trampolines do the same thing.

  2. That's intelligent on Bug Means High School Students' Schedule Errors May Last Days · · Score: 1

    That method you propose is pretty efficient. I would extend it to take names of students leftover and then they could get into trouble for trying to avoid classes.

    This is what happens when we adopt and embrace technology as a method to solve all our problems. Computers are nothing without the right people to maintain them. (They're sociotechnical systems, you cannot have one without the other)

    I do wonder how complex a scheduling system is: does anyone have any experience in writing this kind of software? Isn't it a variant of fitting objects into space in the most efficient way?

  3. Platform Politics on Snow Leopard Drops Palm OS Sync · · Score: 1, Troll

    I'm really not happy with this interplatform bitching.

    There should be laws against this kind of thing: the recent Google Talk blocking by Apple and this is an example of trying to maintain a monoply in my opinion.

    We all have a go at Microsoft for lock-in but why does Apple get away with it?

  4. What? on Who Will Fix the Internet? No One, Apparently · · Score: 1

    How can a computer communicate with a NATed computer that it has not initiated communications with?

    It's invisible!

  5. Ice cooler! on Using a House's Concrete Foundation To Cool a PC · · Score: 1

    Your PC would be so ice cool you could make novel cylinder ice cubes!

  6. I should have said on Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out · · Score: 1

    I should have said I was commenting on wiretapping itself, not GPL. GPL's intended purpose is to help people and for freedom like a car is for transport. :-) This is why I like Slashdot, there are many level headed people!

  7. Yeah! on Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out · · Score: 1

    I would have modded you up in your original post but chose to reply because of another reply in the thread I think. I actually agree but was trying to strengthen your analogy.

  8. More porn on Fear of Porn URL Exposure Discourages Firefox 3 Upgrade · · Score: 1

    I just realized.

    Surely the people searching for porn using your web browser will be happy to see suggestions for porn you already have?

    Thanks dad!

  9. History is very important on Fear of Porn URL Exposure Discourages Firefox 3 Upgrade · · Score: 1

    Users need to be reassured that private mode will not send addresses to remote sites and if it does, WHY?
    Favourites made in private mode could be 'marked' as private and no suggestions made.

    I used to get complaints from friends and family after erasing the browser history and temporary files to clean out junk. They don't see it like a volatile history like I do, I use mine but only if I see it. People I know use it as a primary way of getting to websites!

  10. Confusing on Achron — an RTS With Time Travel · · Score: 2, Informative

    They've limited the number of possible states (fractures) in space time with a graph that only has a limited number of states.

    Eventually they fall off the edge and you can not longer go back there so it's not arbitrary.

    I just hope things like AI are smart enough to change the future although it will be complex: you send a unit on a waypoint from A to B. Your opponent sends a unit to run past you in this past. Do your units attack this unit automatically and then are in a different position in the future?

  11. Re:Chronobelt in RA3 on Achron — an RTS With Time Travel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The chrono belt probably just logs the character's X,Y every 5 seconds. This does not actually imitate time travel or solve time paradoxes. That chronobelt does not undo what you just did 5 seconds before!

    When you go back in time and change something or forward, you have to solve a paradox of something happening.

    Achron does this by running both possibilities simultaneously. It's definitely novel and fresh.

  12. Horse already bolted on Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out · · Score: 1

    We're talking about a trojan that has complete access to the local machine.

    If the machine is compromised, nothing you do really matters. It's closing the barn doors after the horse has bolted; fixing this is silly. It's just like this 'exploit'.

    You could just record whatever comes from stereo mix? Why bother decrypting anything?

  13. Re:GPL ? on Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out · · Score: 1

    Logical fallacy? It COULD be used for good but think: Wiretapping is invasive by design, you're trying to tap into listening to a communication you probably do not have the invitation to. The few legitimate and reasonable purposes for wiretapping software I can think of are:

    • personal recordings of calls
    • legal enforcement/national security (haha)
    • monitor your children

    Do you think that most users of this will be doing these things?

    A hammer may be used for murder but you generally use it for hammering nails. Think about the intent not the potential usage! That's why what you say is not a logical fallacy. Do you not think that a car is regarded a transport vehicle first and criminal intent second?

  14. Re:ISPs pay for something irrelevant? on Proposed UK File-Sharing Laws May Be Illegal, ISPs Upset · · Score: 1

    their

  15. ISPs pay for something irrelevant? on Proposed UK File-Sharing Laws May Be Illegal, ISPs Upset · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is not the ISP's jurisdiction to protect the rights of content holders. This is ridiculous.

    It's like a telephone company being legally responsible for checking if I am reading copyrighted material. They're just trying to reduce they're own costs.

    Media companies need to get with the times and compete.

  16. The Apple App Store vs Google on Why the Google Android Phone Isn't Taking Off · · Score: 1

    I imagine that Google will have a much more lenient application 'store' or method of downloading applications to your phone. As Apple recently blocked Google's Talk application, I doubt Android would do this.

    Given Google's history, their record is pretty developer friendly:

    • Google Wave is open, including the source
    • Google Maps
    • Chrome/Chromium
    • Homepage
    • Gadgets (whatever Google calls it)

    While it might not hold much weight for a business to say it but there is also 'do no evil'.

  17. Three times he was offered on Anti-Spam Lawyer Loses Appeal, and His Possessions · · Score: 1

    Three times he was offered his possessions back but he said no. He sounds very stubborn. It sounds like they didn't really want to completely screw him over, they were not vengeful.

  18. Types of users! on Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide, 2nd Edition · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interesting, have you used Drupal before? I tried using Drupal and found my experience to be the reverse: you have to create the taxonomy by yourself. In Joomla, they make a very basic (two level) hierarchy for you. I do not think there is actually much difference between a section and a category!

    Granted, I've only been using Joomla for about three weeks now. I was given good piece of advice by a local web development company the site was inherited from. This is very important in understanding Joomla's design:

    Everything in Joomla works in reverse. You cannot make a link to a page and then write into the page. You have to start by deciding where you what category and section before finally making the page and then linking to it.

    When you wrap your head around this, Joomla can be simple although odd. I think the reasoning is that it keeps the site internally consistent.

    Personally I like the design because everything is ultimately a module and everything is on the same level, there is no distinction between a blog or a static page.

    I am not a graphical web designer but a technical developer so for me Joomla is perfect because I am not using CSS for overall design or playing with my own PHP or XHTML files.

  19. Thank you on Anti-Spam Lawyer Loses Appeal, and His Possessions · · Score: 1

    Thank you for explaining that. I have mod points but cannot mod you up obviously. Your sig is so true, too.

    98% of lawyers make the other 2% look bad?

  20. Wait, why 'haha'? on Anti-Spam Lawyer Loses Appeal, and His Possessions · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wait, why is this tagged 'haha'?

    If I understood the summary properly, an anti-spammer's life is being ruined by a spammer?

    What the hell? Surely this is a bad thing! Coincidentally, virtumondo is a very nasty piece of Windows adware/spyware too!

  21. Monkeysphere on A Broken Heart Really Does Hurt, Scientists Claim · · Score: 1

    Hurricane78, I do find all your posts very interesting.

    I think mental abuse and bullying is inherent in our biology. Look at any school from a very young age. Kids are horrible to eachother. They have no idea how to treat one another. Fortunately I was the kind of child who never did anything to anyone until they did something to me, in which case they would be hurt...

    I agree with you. People do hurt you a lot. Out of curiosity, are you a piscean?

  22. Served cold? on A Broken Heart Really Does Hurt, Scientists Claim · · Score: 1

    I'd love to know what you did to get revenge?

  23. Idiocracy! on A Broken Heart Really Does Hurt, Scientists Claim · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up. Reproduction is definitely unbalanced. Watch Idiocracy, smarter, more beneficial people to society can be swamped by those who reproduce faster.

  24. Agreed on Amazon, MS, and Yahoo Against Google's Library · · Score: 1

    Frankly I agree. Google is attacking the print industry and it should not be unchallenged. An alliance brings standardization I approve of this.

    Google is a business, just like everyone else!

  25. Please don't outsource! on NASA May Outsource · · Score: 1

    Given what happened in the UK to the train service and utility companies, this is a bad idea. Although it would create competition.

    If NASA outsources, taxpayer money is being wasted on middlemen?