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User: electrosoccertux

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Comments · 1,743

  1. Re:Big Data for chess on The New (Computer) Chess World Champion · · Score: 1

    why bother with theoretical games? Just pre-calculate a lookup table that tells you every move you should make in every situation.

  2. Re:I was waiting for this! on Kim Dotcom's Mega Again Announces Encrypted Browser-Based Chat Service · · Score: 1

    because he's a juggernaut in both the digital world, and the physical one.

  3. Re:It looks like a friggin video game. on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 1

    I watched H1 in HFR3D and didn't like it; that was the source of my comments about the lighting during the "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates" song.

  4. Re:*sips pabst* on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 1

    that's interesting.

  5. Re:It looks like a friggin video game. on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 1

    (Reminds me of a scene with an aspiring cinematographer sitting in a bar, fawning over some "artsy" B&W movie playing on the TV... until the barman whacks the old set on the side, and the screen snaps back to color).

    that's interesting, but the main reason is any camera jitter is much more noticeable/smoothed out. Similarly, lighting effects become more obvious. In particular
    * during the first movie, they set the lighting for filming in 24fps, forgetting / not realizing that with double the framerate, comes double the lighting. Hence the lighting looks off, noticeable during the plate-tossing scene in Bilbo Baggins' house.
    * during Thorin Oakenshield's conversion (or, reversion, I suppose), as he's travelling across the frozen lake of gold, there is a scene of alternating illumination on his right/left cheek that looks remarkably contrived, like someone sliding an analog dial that controls the lamp wattage on the left, then the right. Not at all like reflections off gold...
    now that I'm thinking about it, in general:
    * choreographic blunders, and quality-in-general, becomes more apparent. Anything that's not John Wu with countless hours of training isn't good enough.
    * in some postmodern action sequences, if you can actually see the action, you're losing contrast. Imagine if you were able to cleanly-track the Bourne-Desh fight scene from Ultimatum: you'd ruin the effect.

    I'm a engineer that simply happens to pay attention, and watch Netflix a lot. There shouldn't be this many naysayers. Then again, I consider myself more observant than most, and have friends in very high places making over 6-figures who regularly consider me to be "smarter", in spite of their ability to work a good 30-40% faster at what we do, because I both recognize, and can explain, random details about everything (like this) that I apply myself to.

    (Also, I made a documentary once, which was the most fun I had in college, you should try it.)

  6. Re:Blah on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 1

    And Beorn, the most interesting and mysterious character in "The Hobbit" much like Tom Bombadil in FOTR, was never developed. Or how Gandalf used trickery and mind games to get Beorn to accept dwarves. Now that would have been interesting. The eagles could have also been explored as a race and characters. Instead we get an elf and dwarf falling in love. WTF? And an escape scene that looked like a Disney ride or an abomination out of the "Pirates of the Caribbean".

    Basically, with the removal of ideals from society, you can expect their absence from culture, too.

    Everything these days boils down to
    * she's hot
    * someone said something offensive and I will defend my idiom
    * actions, explosions, battles
    * it's his dying breath

  7. Re:*sips pabst* on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's actually a tragedy and missed opportunity, that Jackson has so little talent as a director, and so little discipline in telling a story.

    I was appalled by how little he regarded the audience - and proportionally insulted his actors - in "Desolation". Huge musical cues 'instructing' the audience of the drama or character development that was supposed to be on screen, at all times. This seems to be because he cannot elicit real performances from his actors.

    I might muse that this is because to Jackson, they are not actors - but merely the armatures on which he templates his green-screen composited glory... But to assume that this is the root of his deficiency, rather than another symptom of of his artlessness, would be to succumb to curmudgeonly urges.

    The lesson to be taken away is that Jackson should be designing games, not ruining popular cinema.

    It appears that - despite the contempt it provoked in my teenaged self - Rankin and Bass actually produced the best ever adaptation of Tolkien, with the greatest respect and truth towards the source text in feel and substance. Perhaps, when we have destroyed the concept of copyright as a tool of corporate greed, another - more thoughtful - filmmaker might use this as a point of departure for a loving and well-crafted "Hobbit".

    apparently you missed the memo where he was dragged kicking and screaming into directing it, having been assured during sign on he was simply there for consulting; after Guillermo del Toro left. After LOTR he said he was done. No more movies. Ever. And certainly not another Tolkien. Took too much out of him. You can blame the media companies, but honestly I'm not going to hate PJ for it. When you burn out in life, you'll understand.

  8. Re:So the question is... on Birds Fled Area Before Tornadoes Appeared · · Score: 1

    Even Attenborough admits he doesn't have a clue how the crocodiles "know" when to gather at the ford.

    well, Attenborough died. Which shows you how much he knows...

  9. who's car fills up in under 3 minutes? on Tesla About To Start Battery-Swap Pilot Program · · Score: 1

    the opportunity cost is that you're taking 90 seconds to fill up with gas anyway, so you're just waiting another 90 seconds.

    this is what journalism has come to: Tesla has everything else worked out with such finesse and perfection that this is the only thing the writer can come up with to complain about.

    And it's the only thing that can generate slashdot comments.

  10. Re:So the question is... on Birds Fled Area Before Tornadoes Appeared · · Score: 1

    ...what ruffled THEIR feathers?

    According to TFA, they sensed low level harmonics in the atmosphere long before the storms arrived...

    "
    The most likely tip-off was the deep rumble that tornadoes produce, well below what humans can hear.

    Noise in this "infrasound" range travels thousands of kilometres, and may serve as something of an early warning system for animals that can pick it up.

    so why don't we start listening for it with our warning systems?

  11. "well, you see, you just don't have enough of us" on Top Five Theaters Won't Show "The Interview" Sony Cancels Release · · Score: 2

    "well, you see, you just don't have enough of us..."

  12. Re:Apple Pushing All Mobile CPU Vendors on Apple and Samsung Already Working On A9 Processor · · Score: 1

    The long term plan is obviously to be able to DOMINATE through superiority.

    I had to think about this and then realized you were not saying something obvious.

  13. Re:modded up without sources? on Montana Lawmakers Propose 85 Mph Speed Limit On Interstates · · Score: 1

    I needed an objective metric to track to determine when it was enriching the AFR

  14. Re:modded up without sources? on Montana Lawmakers Propose 85 Mph Speed Limit On Interstates · · Score: 1
  15. modded up without sources? on Montana Lawmakers Propose 85 Mph Speed Limit On Interstates · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To the third power actually.

    Someone didn't take thermodynamics.

    I've been tracking the data myself with torque. Fuel consumption per unit time increases with the square of speed because after 65mph drag does.
    But since you get there faster it's just linear increase in consumption per unit distance.

    Personally, I discovered my AFR drops from 14.1 to as low as 11.5 any time the engine produces over 400 grams CO2/mile for more than about 3 seconds. On a completely flat road this works out to about 85mph or so, I can do slight inclines at 80, and if I don't ever want to have to touch the cruise control, 75-76mph.

    at 55mph I get 34mpg, at 70 I get 32, at 75 I get 29.5 and at 80 I get about 27.

    If I want to get there I go 75.
    If I kinda want to get there I go 65.
    If I don't really care or I'm feeling cheap I go 55.

  16. Re:A modest hydroxymoron on Toyota Names Upcoming Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car · · Score: 1

    haha

    you had two jokes in one there.

  17. Re:This isn't new on Apple Disables Trim Support On 3rd Party SSDs In OS X · · Score: 1

    my panties were all in a bunch and you had to come be reasonable do laundry for me and ruin the article.

    You're right. SSD controllers are extraordinarily complex. Buggy implementations leading to issues makes perfect sense.

  18. Re:feminism on Sweden Considers Adding "Sexism" Ratings To Video Games · · Score: 1

    it's time we tell them to man up and stop complaining about perceived sexism.

    Irony? :-D

    no, that was the entire point.

  19. feminism on Sweden Considers Adding "Sexism" Ratings To Video Games · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    it's time we tell them to man up and stop complaining about perceived sexism. That's life, and sometimes life is unfair. Men don't talk and bitch about it, they DO something productive about it.

  20. Re:Sci Fi Really Ages Quickly on Battlestar Galactica Creator Glen A. Larson Dead At 77 · · Score: 1

    Londo Mollari's hair vehemently denies its own appeal.

  21. Re: Wats poppin my negroes on Researchers Forecast the Spread of Diseases Using Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    whose there?

  22. but can they forecast on Researchers Forecast the Spread of Diseases Using Wikipedia · · Score: -1

    the spread of Frosty Piss?
    What about firsty ps0ts?

  23. enslavement of the poor on Elon Musk's Next Mission: Internet Satellites · · Score: 2

    well, we live in a ridiculous time in history where some people can actually make money shooting things into space, or providing internet to people groups that any other sane superpower would have handily enslaved for their laborious productivity (IMF is close but not nearly physically painful enough).

    If anyone can do it, it'll be Musk. He does what he Musk, because, he can...for the good of all of us.

    Except the ones who are dead.
    But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
    You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
    And the Science gets done.
    And you make a neat gun.
    For the people who are still alive.
    I'm not even angry.
    I'm being so sincere right now.
    Even though you broke my heart.
    And killed me.
    And tore me to pieces.
    And threw every piece into a fire.
    As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!
    Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
    And we're out of beta.
    We're releasing on time.
    So I'm GLaD. I got burned.
    Think of all the things we learned
    for the people who are still alive.
    Go ahead and leave me.
    I think I prefer to stay inside.
    Maybe you'll find someone else to help you.
    Maybe Black Mesa
    THAT WAS A JOKE.
    HAHA. FAT CHANCE.
    Anyway, this cake is great.
    It's so delicious and moist.
    Look at me still talking
    when there's Science to do.
    When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
    I've experiments to run.
    There is research to be done.
    On the people who are still alive.
    And believe me I am still alive.
    I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
    I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive.
    While you're dying I'll be still alive.
    And when you're dead I will be still alive.
    STILL ALIVE

    what?
    oh, that must have been the beer...

  24. Re:umm.. what? on Researchers At Brown University Shattered a Quantum Wave Function · · Score: 1

    Still can't figure out if the cat is alive or dead since's it's both.*

    *maybe

  25. Re:that's misleading on Lockheed Claims Breakthrough On Fusion Energy Project · · Score: 1

    considering what it would do to the existing waste reprocessing industry, yup definitely.

    because the NRC has shown themselves to be completely unbiased in the past...