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User: NeilTheStupidHead

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Comments · 309

  1. Re:Cons and wishful thinking on '30 Year Laptop Battery' is Unscientific Myth · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid I have to disagree on the internet point. The 'net' evolved from a variety of systems already in place over a couple of decades on the short side. I would say that a better second choice for a leap in technology would be the transistor.

  2. Re:I'm not so sure this is a good idea. on Carnegie Mellon CAPTCHA Digitization Project Now Underway · · Score: 1

    For your other point, there should be a "not a word" button to hit in that case to flag up that the original OCR has screwed up the word boundary. That would defeat the point of the project. Words scanned from real books contain all manner of 'not a word' combinations of letters and numbers, the principle is the same. I came across several portions of words that had been hyphenated at the margin of a page. Many Capatcha type systems use random strings of characters. Any non-english words that show up should be treated as a sting of characters.
  3. Re:First... Or not on First 'Quantum Computer Chips' Demonstrated · · Score: 1

    You sir, win the best sig of the day award

  4. Three Words on The State of Blizzard's Union · · Score: 1

    World.
    Of.
    Starcraft.

  5. Re:Back in the day... on How Students Are 'Evolving' With Technology · · Score: 1

    I bet your car doesn't run up when you whistle either. ^>^

  6. Re:Only one thing to do then .. on Another Man Dies After Marathon Gaming Session · · Score: 1

    I did

  7. Re:INVADE! on Russia Tests World's Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the correction, I was thinking specifically about things like cars, ships, etc, but you're the expert (by comparison).

  8. Re:Check your math on Comcast Slightly Clarifies High Speed Extreme Use Policy · · Score: 1

    I noticed it too, but 30 * 5 = 150, not 600 so it's still wrong.

  9. Re:Batteries Included on Dell, Lenovo Adding Solar Option for PCs · · Score: 3, Informative

    Unfortunately, cellphone batteries are used for vendor lock-in, you can only easily get a new battery directly from the manufacturer at a steep price. I agree that the battery should be an insert with a simple cover over it, but then, when someone makes a phone smaller than a 'standard' cell phone battery, the whole thing goes out the window. And there seems to be this fascination for making cell phones un-usably small. I have a samsung A860, which is the largest phone I could find at the time and I'll be keeping it when I renew my contract as all the new phones I look at have buttons that are too small to push.

    When it comes to watch batteries (properly called button cells): Why do we need different types of 'normal' batteries? (i.e. AA, AAA, D, etc) I seem to remember from school that larger batteries tend to have better output in terms of Amp-Hours, but large batteries are not always practical. Would you carry around an MP3 player that used a D battery instead of an AAA or AA? Very small devices, like hearing aids and watches, need very small and/or very thin batteries, but things like calculators can have larger batteries for longer life span. As far as visually undistinguishable batteries, take a close look at the package, they're often the same battery from a manufacturer with a different numbering scheme or the same battery with different innards (like Ni-cad vs Li-ion). Just look at the wikipedia entry for the extremely common LR44 battery, there are dozens of manufacturer or retailer part numbers. The IEC defines standards for naming, but can't force anyone to use their system of nomenclature. I would double check, but in my experience, two identical-looking button cells are often the same battery but for a manufacturer's stamp.

  10. Re:Question on Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users · · Score: 1

    I'm sure that's the idea, but doubtless, this minor inconvenience will be rather quickly worked around. If not, well it's not as if there wasn't sufficient motivation to purchase a portable media player from another manufacturer already. ^>^

  11. Re:INVADE! on Russia Tests World's Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb · · Score: 1

    Russian culture vs Western culture. Russians tend to use masculine pronouns when referring to inanimate objects whereas Westerners use feminine pronouns.

  12. Re:Just in time too on Russia Tests World's Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb · · Score: 2, Informative

    IIRC, Canada does the same thing. Parliment is formally dissolved by the Governor General (at the request of the Prime Minister) at some point before an election is held.

  13. Re:Um, no. on Does 802.11n Spell the 'End of Ethernet'? · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thanks for the tip, but at $475 per five litres, it would be cheaper to build a faraday cage, or buy a new, more powerful router and start an inevitable arms race that will eventually lead to violations of CPC-2-0-03. (Hint, since I build and repair transceivers for a living, I'll probably win ^>^ )

  14. Re:Um, no. on Does 802.11n Spell the 'End of Ethernet'? · · Score: 1

    Ballistic trajectories are different from flight. Regardless how much thrust is applied/generated, a pig is simply the wrong shape. An unmodified pig can not fly or glide.

  15. Re:Um, no. on Does 802.11n Spell the 'End of Ethernet'? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, twisted pair does a pretty good job of shielding itself. It's far easier to detect and reconstruct the video output to a computer monitor (CRT) and can be done from quite a distance (tens of metres). We did this in school once as a demonstration, using perhaps $50 of components from a supplier, $50 of common household items from Walmart and an old B&W television that was in scavanged from a storage locker. We made a simple directional antenna using a steel collander and were able to read a message displayed on the instructor's monitor: "This wouldn't work on an LCD screen"

  16. Re:Um, no. on Does 802.11n Spell the 'End of Ethernet'? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In my apt building, someone just moved in and brought an 802.11n supported router with them. All of a sudden the 10 or so 802.11g routers in the building have all but stopped working. I used to be able to pick up my wireless connection anywhere in the building, but now I can't see it at all if I'm more than two rooms away and the connection constantly drops. I've talked to some of my neighbours and they have been having the same difficulties.

  17. Re:more choice on 'Make Love, Not Warcraft' Episode Wins An Emmy · · Score: 1

    And if you can survive that, you deserve some body armour and a gold shirt. Though I can't recall ever seeing any Starfleet personel ever wearing armour, even in the warzones that appeared in several episodes. I always thought that was unrealistic, even for a science fiction series.

  18. Re:Frsit Psot on Method of Reading Discovered · · Score: 1

    A study I happened to see summarized on television at one point (likely on Discovery) claimed that for simple words, even long ones, the first and last letter were the most important, but for compound words (say... outright) most people stumble over the word if the letters are mixed between the parts of the compound. So if we take a word like 'corkscrew', "croksrecw" should be easier to read than "cecksrorw" which should be easier to read than "ckroerscw".

  19. Re:Who cares? on Underground Mac Community Foils a Coup · · Score: 1

    Grues perhaps? It is dark. Etc etc

  20. Re:Different market on Opera 9.5 Beats Firefox and IE7 As Fastest Browser · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just tried the alpha and it almost instantly became my primary browser. IE and FF are hideously slow on my system and no amount of tweaking can fix them, they seem to 'hang' when downloading pages, like they disconnect and have to re-establish. Safari is faster but takes a bit longer to load, but Opera loads in under a second (excusing the prompt that just popped up to tell me it wasn't my primary browser at the moment) and draws complete pages noticably faster (easily 3-4 seconds faster for the Slashdot main page). I'm keeping all these browsers on my system for testing my own sites, but Opera has easily become my browser of choice.

  21. Re:Pointless? Useless? I Think Not on Realtime ASCII Goggles · · Score: 1

    Real-time image processing? Though there are all sorts of applications for this technology that are 'useless' there should be plenty of practical ones too. How about low-visibily operations? now it's not just shades of grey or green, but a full-colour daylight equivalent image on your 'night vision' goggles. This could perhaps also be adapted to real-time thermal imaging, or given the ability to 'zoom'. Perhaps those electronic binoculars we've seen in so many SF films and movies aren't that far fetched. I'm not disagreeing with you, but there are almost countless applications to this that haven't been imagined yet. I'm sure no one imagined all the possibilities when the LED was invented and look at how ubiquitious they are.

  22. Re:To guard against parts and labor supply disrupt on Antique Voyager Technology · · Score: 1

    Okay, the program I'm in now is something similar, though even at this point, Naval Electronics Techs are seperated from Naval Weapons Techs, who also deal extensively with eletrical systems. Our program touches on a bit of the various fields the subsets of NET deal with. We have classes in Radar and Sonar theory as well as RF theory along with your typical DC & AC circuit analysis and theory. Once this program is complete (6 of 18 months completed) a six month 'equipment phase' begins where we learn the specifics of our sub-trades. The training centre we have here in Newfoundland is actually just DND administered with civilian instructors, so I'll have a civilian accredation as well as my CF accredation.

    It's an accelerated program where after two years training, I'll come out with my LS, the Canadian equivalent to a USN PO3. This would normally take 4-5 years so I'm rather fortunate in that regard.

  23. Re:To guard against parts and labor supply disrupt on Antique Voyager Technology · · Score: 1

    Wrong country I'm afraid, good sir. I'm not familiar with your acronym BE/E, but if I were to guess, I'd guess you're referring to one of the USN training centres in Illinois or S. Carolina, but feel free to correct me if wrong. I'm stationed at the Canadian Forces Naval Engineering School - St. John's Detachment, and since our current fleet was built in the 80s but designed in the 70s around proven technology from the 60s, I'd imagine that my training is much more similar to your than to your modern day equivalents.

  24. Potential of the 20th Century? on How to Rule the World (of WarCraft) - 10 Lessons · · Score: 1

    I'd say no potential at this point, since it's over and done with.

  25. Re:Video conferencing no use? on Robotic Presence For a Telecommuter · · Score: 1

    "There were a few people who thought this was just freaky," Paulley says. "They were a little taken aback and didn't quite believe themselves that this was actually Ivan, and he was actually there." Maybe because it isn't actually him. It's a cardboard box on wheels, obviously taped together. Perhaps some production value would make this less invasive. A fictional example that comes to mind and should be viable in RL are the video conference screens in Demolition Man. My thoughts are that it gives a physical prescence to an individual and could easily be modified to be mobile.

    While this doesn't strike me as a practical solution for long-term vocational use, I can see some application for people who are away from the office on business trips. Even a remote-controllable screen/camera combination in a conference room would be viable. The simple ability to turn to an individual in a room and start talking to them has obvious benefits over: 'Hey Pete, can you step in front of the camera please.' Design or buy (if they exist) a large form factor tablet style PC with wall mounts and a network connection to act as a whiteboard and the remote user could participate/interact even more.