Slashdot Mirror


User: edschurr

edschurr's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
222
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 222

  1. Re:My best character meets her demise on The Many Ways To Die in Nethack · · Score: 1

    Firstly, copied saves just feel like cheating. Anyway, I found when I copied the saves or went into discover mode I played carelessly and didn't learn much; I have little discipline. It's like playing poker with fake money.

  2. Re:I may be heartless... on Researchers Find Clue to SIDS Early Detection · · Score: 1
    However this is not the caveman days, and to succeed today, peak physical condition is generally not as much of a requirement as a well functioning brain. So over time, this species is getting a lot smarter, and a lot less physically fit, but what does it matter? That IS natural selection, important attributes flourish, unimportant ones do not.


    I'm not sure if it's going to keep going like that. Today the people who do well scion-wise are the poor, uneducated ones. They might correlate with unintelligence. Even if the smarter people can have better health care, they don't procreate as much as individuals and especially not as a group (compared to the rest because they're small).

    Maybe intelligence-genes will be more useful when resources become more scarce.
  3. Re:like currency on The Tax Man Comes To Virtual Australia · · Score: 1

    And what of Warren Buffet?

  4. Re:like currency on The Tax Man Comes To Virtual Australia · · Score: 1

    You don't think someone gambling on stocks can make use of any information to change their likelihood of success?

  5. My best character meets her demise on The Many Ways To Die in Nethack · · Score: 3, Funny

    So I was at a friend's house, and we were on seperate computers playing different games. My game was Nethack. I had been playing for maybe a month or two at a decent rate but had never gotten very far.

    But this time was different; I was lucky. My Valkyrie found Excalibur, Mjollnir, Grey Dragon Scale Mail, was easily destroying everything in her path, and I finally got to go on my quest for the first time.

    I entered the quest level, and ran straight into the lava.

  6. Re:honeybees are very cool on Honeybee Genome Sequenced · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another cool thing about them is that two genes exist in some groups of honey bee which helps them fight a disease that affects larvae. The first gene causes* them to remove the wax covering the diseased larvae, and the second causes* them to toss the larvae out of the nest to die. Groups of honey bees that only have the first gene will remove the wax and leave it at that. However, it's apparantly more complex than two genes causing behaviour because some honey bees do it without those genes.

    Well, that's how I remember it from The Selfish Gene by Dawkins.

    * perhaps not completely

  7. Re:Nice resisting, guys on Microsoft's IE Team Leader Answers Slashdot Questions · · Score: 1

    I'd use the word "lie" for an intentionally false statement, and label the other ones "dishonesty". It's funny though that people often have no qualms about dishonesty when they didn't technically lie, and then even use that as an argument when found out.

  8. Re:Maybe this is the credit card companies' fault? on Teens Don't Buy Legit MP3s Because They Can't? · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately Visa debit cards aren't distributed in Canada, and MasterCard prepaid cards aren't available to me locally.

  9. Re:Isn't that the point? on SIP vs. Skype, Making the "Open" Choice · · Score: 1

    His employer is the university. The students are customers.

  10. Re:It's Sony - remember? on Sony Reader Now Available · · Score: 1

    Well if you don't have evidence they can be fixed, I suppose it's better to err on the side of caution. I hope you re-evaluate your strategy when new information comes in.

  11. Re:It's Sony - remember? on Sony Reader Now Available · · Score: 1

    You don't think they can be rehabilitated? Besides, the blame is probably on a few individuals who will be gone eventually.

    Your attitude sounds simple-minded and unreasonable.

  12. Re:Low quality, high price? No thanks! on Sony Reader Now Available · · Score: 1

    I think someone will make an attachable lamp. This is better in that it seperates the batteries, and makes the extra bulk removable. Tt might not distribute light evenly however.

    I'm not sure if e-Ink can even do backlight, by nature of the design.

  13. Re:It's Sony - remember? on Sony Reader Now Available · · Score: 1

    The point of a boycott is to change a company's behavior. If you intend to never use Sony again, then what incentive do they have to behave well?

  14. Re:Nature on Space Elevator vs Wildlife · · Score: 1

    99.999999999999%

    I memorized that from somewhere; I don't even know if it's accurate. But there are 12 9s after the decimal point.

  15. Re:Infinite supply... on Counter-Strike Opens Weapons Market · · Score: 1

    Although my high school didn't even offer economics, I think GP is basically right in this case.

    Supply doesn't really affect prices because you're selling for a price that maximizes your profit. If I had an infinite supply of unique widgets, why would I sell them for pennies just to make up my rent costs when I could sell them for say $100 each and make millions? My supply doesn't enter into it.

    However, when there is competition supply matters. If my widgets are not so unique anymore and someone else has another infinite supply, he will undercut me to maxmize his profit. And then I'll undercut him, and so on. In the end, the person with fewer overhead costs wins, assuming equal distribution.

    The simulated sellers have no costs and can sell for fractions of a penny. Assuming they aren't altruistic, the prices would approach zero but never reach there (depending on how the values are represented in memory). I'm sort of curious why one simulated seller hasn't just deleted his opponents yet though, and monopolized supply.

    However, the weapons are not perfect copies of each other. As long as somebody is willing to pay a certain amount for an m4a1 despite the dirt cheap mp5, there are still high profits to be made. So I'm not really sure at all how things would really work out.

    If anybody can correct or reaffirm me, please do.

  16. Re:I feel kinda bad... on Rob Levin, lilo of FreeNode, Passes · · Score: 1

    Not exactly, but yeah, I only ever skim.

  17. Re:Interesting analysis, but... on Analyzing 20,000 MySpace Passwords · · Score: 1

    True, although I actually used a long variant of fuckyou for my Windows admin password (I figure Windows is screwed against local attacks and I had its services down and firewalls up).

  18. Re:Why car drivers suck on Rob Levin, lilo of FreeNode, Passes · · Score: 1

    The skateboarder helmets I've seen look thinner than bicycle helmets. Thinking about the types of accidents cyclists get into, I'd guess the bicycle helmet is generally safer for its purpose.

  19. Re:I feel kinda bad... on Rob Levin, lilo of FreeNode, Passes · · Score: 1

    The risk would be higher on bicycle per trip then, because a bicycle trip is longer.

  20. Re:It is their fault on European PS3 Launch Delayed to 2007 · · Score: 1

    Hamburgers weren't that much cheaper in the past if you consider inflation. If you believe the quick calculations I just did with the Canadian inflation index and historical McDonald's hamburger prices, then hamburgers are actually cheaper today. That isn't necessarily suprising since hamburger efficiency ought to have improved. Of course, that doesn't invalidate your point because the idea is about the behaviour of people.

  21. Re:It is their fault on European PS3 Launch Delayed to 2007 · · Score: 1

    The game is probably not using all of its processing resources continuously, so maybe they could render difficult parts of the cut scenes while you play, or the full cut-scene instead. It doesn't have to be real-time.

  22. Re:Simple Solution on Inside The Game Copy Protection Racket · · Score: 1

    I doubt there is anything you could add to the package that I would want but couldn't find online. I like information, not miniatures and posters. It might convince some people to buy the product though.