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User: eonlabs

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  1. Re:Fuel? on The Arctic Is Leaking Methane · · Score: 1

    Quantity matters too. You're not getting millions of tons of the gas in each livestock establishment. Granted the distribution across area could still be similar, but it may be easier if it's leaching from reservoirs in the ice...

  2. Re:HA! on Calendar Bug Disables Older PlayStation 3 Models · · Score: 1

    You want to explain why you lose DLC functionality, even temporarily, when you can't connect to their servers and the date is messed up? You really think that their services will exist forever? Hate to break it to you, but for all the complaints about DRM and players rights on this site, this is an example of where it's significant.

  3. Re:HA! on Calendar Bug Disables Older PlayStation 3 Models · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, you lose some non-net based functionality as well. All my downloaded add-on content is fubared at present, free or paid. This is a pretty significant loss.

  4. Re:Boo on 8-Year Fan-Made Game Project Shut Down By Activision · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the issue really is with one dude, you never know, splinters have a way of getting squeezed out.
    Disney had the same problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Eisner
    It resolved itself.

  5. Re:Boo on 8-Year Fan-Made Game Project Shut Down By Activision · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They got the slap on the wrist good and early. They're turning it around. Wonder how much noise it will take to get Activision back into shape.

    Last games by Activision I really enjoyed were Earthworm Jim, Civilization II, and Tony Hawk II (stopped playing the series after that).
    Heck, gotten more use out of a free bottle opener from them than any of these games combined.

    Wonder if they'd be up to push trademarks on this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(interactive_novel)

  6. Re:Never build a house on another man's land... on 8-Year Fan-Made Game Project Shut Down By Activision · · Score: 1

    no, but if that's the case, maybe it's time they did pick one.

  7. Re:Ubuntu on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    wow, somehow I've missed these O_o

    Thanks for the links!

  8. Re:Ubuntu on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a nice sane approach.

    Have you considered posting your list online? I'm sure it would help even techie converts to Ubuntu out when getting started.

    I'm finding the vast majority of issues I've run into trying to setup a Linux box is getting partition sizes right on the first try. The documentation I've found for this online is fairly dated, and re-partitioning is not something that should be done on a regular basis.

    Just a thought.

  9. Re:Design patterns on What Knowledge Gaps Do Self-Taught Programmers Generally Have? · · Score: 1

    Design patterns are useful, but if you can't arrive at the need for them on your own, and assume that every piece of code written must be fit into the patterns you know of, you overlook some fast and powerful solutions. Granted, there's always a risk of vastly increasing clutter in systems that don't make proper use of design patterns. I agree with the sibling post in that there is value in not knowing them first, but learning them after you've recognized walls that are difficult to tackle.

  10. Re:Consistent Histories? on Physicists Discover How To Teleport Energy · · Score: 1

    Unless you're able to transfer more energy in this fashion than it takes to measure the system, I neither see a useful purpose to this information, nor any uniquely distinguishing characteristic that would make your comment on consistent histories invalid. If the universe is actually allowing for the transmission of energy through an entanglement, I expect this will get rather entertaining.

  11. Re:Meta spam issues on Facebook's Zuckerberg Says Forget Privacy · · Score: 1

    If nothing else, reading this post made me smile.

    As to your on-topic post, well written and I agree whole heartedly.

  12. Re:Programming without music? on Music While Programming? · · Score: 1

    I think what you've hit on is key here.
    You grew up in a place that had an availability of silence.
    Your MIND developed with the ability to function in the presence of it, and when you need to concentrate, you return to it.

    City mouse/Country mouse. Ask one of your friends who needs music to function where they grew up.

    I find that the music (or silence) I need is very closely dependent on the language I'm working in.
    I've also found that the music tends to be similar to what I was listening to when I learned the language.

    My typical mix is video game music, jazz, rock, etc... but across the board, no English lyrics.
    And nothing that sounds like grinding metal (too many remixes love that sound >_).

  13. Re:Half a game? on Pirates as a Marketplace · · Score: 1

    still applies, you can resell a PC game, provided you remove it from your machines and give up the license. Read some of the licenses. They're trying to set a precedent that this is illegal, when it REALLY is not. If enough people think there's something wrong to it, they've made it fact. Nice trick, right.

  14. Re:Half a game? on Pirates as a Marketplace · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So anyone that doesn't buy the game in the original shrink wrapped packaging is now a pirate? Man, EB Games and Game Stop make half their profits off used games. How about Play and Trade?

    Am I missing something here? Is it no longer legal to sell the original copy of something you purchased?

    In the same breath, the DLC model still works in this situation as well and, provided the original game is worth playing, can potentially keep a game fresh for a while.

  15. Re:Is Go! alive? on Google Under Fire For Calling Their Language "Go" · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Excellent find,
    I'm sure the author is relishing in the Streisand Effect right now.
    How far down the page was Go! two days ago if you googled the name?

  16. Re:Not particularly useful against an insurgency on A "Photon Machine Gun" For Quantum Computers · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It's a sad world we live in, that in the presence of scientific breakthroughs and ingenuity, one of the first thoughts that arises is of the fighting that surrounds that part of the world. I suppose Yom Kippur is a surprisingly appropriate time for reflection on that though.

  17. Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi on Console Makers Worry Over Apple's Growing Competition · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, I find that the mashing buttons to kill the baddies falls squarely on the Wii, while beer drinking FPS tournaments are 360's big thing, and heavily priced bizarre gameplay falls in the ps3 arena.

    Regardless, the biggest issue seems to me to be basic economics. What is the cost of your entertainment. I've been interested in picking up a next gen console since the wii came out. I've played all three extensively, and at the moment, their price point is nearly identical. But for me to get one game out of a system, I need to drop about $300 for the base system WITHOUT any games, and $50 for a relatively old game (Mario Galaxy is still $50, 3 years in). With high quality games like Braid coming out on steam for $5-$20 the comparable initial drop of $20 to start playing and $350 to start playing is an obvious choice. Needless to say, despite the fact I've typically enjoyed console gaming for years, the higher price point for individual games combined with the cost of the systems (which haven't dropped to levels that I feel the purchase is justified), makes people who share this opinion swing away from them.

    I still haven't swung toward cellphone games, because generally, across the board, I haven't found many of them that are on par with games from the super nintendo. Tetris maybe, but I haven't found a good solid push for thought provoking games for a cell. The biggest challenge for me is that the cost of old classics is finally pushing up into the current 'new game' price point that I have no interest in.

    I'm mostly hoping this commentary will shed some light on the mindset of a, possibly atypical, non-hard-core gamer.

  18. Re:Summary of /. Reaction to Proposal on Firefox To Replace Menus With Office Ribbon · · Score: 1

    Never has the concept of the facepalm applied so well...

    Why would you even go there ffx.

  19. Re:Will not work. on Personalized In-Game Advertising In Upcoming Titles · · Score: 1

    I would say it's fair if you are charged less for the game, or if in some way the in game advertisement improves the game play.

    For example, what would a modern day racing game be without any advertisement at all. It wouldn't feel authentic, now would it. I'm not talking about games like F-Zero with futuristic cars, etc, but the ones that are supposed to feel like the Indy 500.

    99% of games couldn't make the argument that the in game advertisement adds to the game.

    On the other hand, if the company is covering a service, and you're paying for the software, it's also potentially legit. For instance, how much bandwidth does battlenet consume annually? Who pays for that? When was the last time you personally bought a copy of starcraft? I could see in game ads supporting game communities as perfectly legitimate.

  20. Prior Art on Printable Batteries Should Arrive Next Year · · Score: 3, Informative

    Power Paper has been producing printable battery tech for YEARS

    http://www.powerpaper.com/home.php

    Surprisingly, they've taken it into the cosmetics business.

    Who wants to find another wheel we can reinvent.

  21. Re:Pyro is a female! on Games Fail To Portray Gender and Ethnic Diversity · · Score: 1

    I don't buy it.

    I think it's important to note the WoW effect. In 3rd person games, you will often see a large number of players taking on female characters regardless of their gender. There's a combination of "who would you want to be" in the game and "who do you want to look at." Also, weighting by sales invalidates the results. Are they figuring in the buying population as well? If 70% of games are sold to white males who are 18-24, I would not be surprised to see a correlation. They need to introduce a counter weighting to reduce the effect of the buying population consuming games where they can play as someone they relate to.

  22. Re:Tyson on Tomorrow's Science Heroes? · · Score: 1

    How about Brian Greene?
    http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Brian-Greene/dp/B001IDLCNM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247549920&sr=8-2

    I found his writing to be pretty clear, light reading for quantum and relativistic introductions.

    His examples are well thought out and simple enough for an intelligent twelve year old to understand (Kudos if you catch the reference).

  23. Re:Um.... on Harsh Words From Google On Linux Development · · Score: 1

    Until Jaunty with KDE, the Vista of Ubuntu.

    Not happy with the amount of work it's going to take to revert THAT.

  24. Re:Ok I'll Bite... on New Irish Internet Tax? · · Score: 1

    Microwave radio

    If you don't include microwave, the cap is around 400MHz. If you include it the cap is 40GHz.

    I don't count IR as radio, but your 400THz limit does.

  25. Re:Ok I'll Bite... on New Irish Internet Tax? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nice trolling.

    For the sake of the grandparent post, 400THz is approximately the frequency of red/IR light (It's close, but lower frequency than the Xnm=XTHz green light band). The number is a little off (2-4 orders of magnitude), putting the upper limit of the frequency band known as radio around 400MHz (FM), unless you include Microwave radiation as a radio wave subset (I've seen some that do), which ups it to closer to 40GHz.

    Here's a site for quick ref:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation/

    And a pretty picture:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EM_spectrum.svg/

    Never hurts to correct an error, but it can to stomp on someone who made it.
    I recommend providing links to sources and avoiding grammer nazisms.
    Also, we don't need additional proof that John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory is true.
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/