Posts by BioTube

Can you blame him?

A several-billion budget deficit is expected in 2011, so not buying the licenses is one less area to worry about cutting next biennial.

@RW

The need for security flew right over your head, didn't it? With airlines, a thousand success cannot sooth a single failure. If this doesn't make sense to you, imagine the terrorists were carrying nukes. If just one gets through, BAM! It's bye-bye London(or whatever city you hold near and dear). A better question would be "How can we make our security checks quicker without hampering effectiveness?", which I hear the Israelis are quite good at.

@Psymon

Sometimes people just invent things independently. For example, a Swiss(or was it Swedish?) chemist discovered around 19 elements, none of which he ever got credit for. He published in obscure journals, other people discovered the elements and published in widely circulated journals. His reward? A painful death from his habit of tasting everything he concocted(as I recall, he had several around him that could've caused his untimely demise).

@Anonymous mactard

Apple still actively prevents its software from running on other PCs and other software from using the Ipod.

Flash and Silverlight: KILL THEM!

The video component isn't needed(remember when they'd actually embed a decent quality video, instead of a crappy, reduced resolution Flash version?) and the interactive component already existed in Java - which, irregardless of its flaws, was never abused anywhere near as much as Flash.

Flames, because they can just BURN IN HELL!

Google has to go

If for no other reason than to stop this flood of drivel. After all, its full motto is "Do no evil - define 'good' as whatever you're doing".

About EM64T

It IS derived from AMD64, with things related to HyperTransfer removed. Intel did develop its own x86-64 extensions, but chose not to enable them(processors that had them built in had them physically disabled) in favor of the Itanic. We know next to nothing about Intel's abandoned x86-64 line.

@Routers

Fast(100Mb) ethernet is all most routers need - you really think that manufacturers are going to spring for more expensive tech when home internet speeds are still a pittance compared to the size of the current ethernet pipe? Most datacenters could probably get away with fast ethernet as well; if the router's WAN port is gigabit, even more can get away with LAN fast ethernet. Don't be surprised that the lower end hasn't moved - it won't until it has to(which is why IPv6 won't become popular for a LONG(technologically speaking) time).

And you call US prudes

These Queensland people are absolutely insane! While they breathe, nobody's got any reason to call the US a nation of prudes. Hmm... mine's the one with the relevant details to make several large donations.

@tony

Are you, by chance, referring to "<<" to mean printf()?

I'll get my coat.

Kleenex

Who calls kleenex "facial tissue"? Manufacturers. Here, everything's "coke", cola or not. But does Coca Cola, inc. get to keep its trademark? You betcha. Granted, Psion discontinued its Netbook line, but not that long ago. Since you can't prosecute the general public, you have to wait for a maker to claim the trademark before you can protect it legally(otherwise you're limited to PR campaigns). If they can prove Intel pushed "netbook", then their case is already won. Even if they can't, however, they stand a decent chance, considering how recently netbook's become the common term. They should definitely be prepared to launch a Netbook-branded product soonest, however.

The best solution

Is to just go after the servers directly - they're in third-world countries most of the time, so it's a simple issue of arming a unit with local weapons(or at least ones that can use the ammo), a map and orders to leave no survivors or functioning equipment. True, you can never stop anything, but you have to do what you can - and with their overseas electric havens dropping like flies, pedos would be forced to keep things local, turning it into a mere matter of detection(the standard police/criminal cat and mouse game).

Of course, no western government's got the balls to do that(evidently playstates are sovereign these days - whatever happened to when we'd knock out a popular government and install a tyranny just to make sure that they couldn't gain a foothold?).

Of the ESRB and MPAA

The MPAA ratings(G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17) effectively have the force of law since any theater wanting to show Hollywood's movies has to agree to enforce the restrictions(and video rental stores require you to be 18 anyway due to the required membership). The ESRB's ratings(EC, E, T, M, AO and more), on the other hand, are not enforced because companies selling video games are not required to do so(though some, like Walmart, will refuse to sell M games to minors and few stores carry AO games). Attempts have been made to legislate the prohibition of selling M games to minors, but courts frown upon industry consortiums being given governmental authority.

Secure passport design

1) All pasports should come with EM-blocking material built into the lining.

2) The transmitter and data storage unit should be separate and the connection set up to where the passport must be opened more than 160 degrees or so before the data can be read.

3) If at all possible, LEDs should be embedded in the inner part and power from the reader sent to them _before_ the transmitter(perhaps by routing power through the lights and then to the data chip). This means that a decent amount of power will be needed to read the passport and the carrier will be alerted, since the passport must be opened to be read, as per above; it might even make the passports require specialized tools to read if the lights add noise to the signal. Plus, it'd look cool.

Lion King has the word "SEX" in it

Oh wait... it don't(the word in question is really "SFX"). If the broadcast was anywhere near as low quality as the pics, then the only people who could possibly have seen the alleged slip would be people looking closer than they have reason to(and it looks more like something off the blouse anyway).

Methinks the real reason autistics like robots

Is the fact that they're SSSO: same source, same output. Like a mathematical function, you always get the same thing from the same situation. Give robots the ability to read emotions and they cease to be SSSO: they cease to be predictable, logical. They become, as far as the kid's concerned, people.

Nice idea, but...

Motion-sensing technology doesn't always work out too good - I tried to play Mario Kart Wii once and even WITH the steering wheel attachment I couldn't control it one bit. As Mr. Stewart said, there's also the problem of your arms getting tired - motion tech works best when your entire body's involved, otherwise there's no improvement over using a controller(which can be kept in your lap). Something like this might make a great addon control, though - an FPS could let you raise your hands in surrender(Surrender Force Five, now on sale in France).

@Henry Wertz

That would be Celebrex. And most of that ad is "all NSAIDs, including ibuprofen"(as if Aleeve and Motrin are dangerous) and "in some cases, the benefits outweigh the risks"; very little of it is side effects they want you to directly attribute to Celebrex. But no drug ads - I like the thought.

The real issue

Firefox can handle code written for IE by automatically switching to quirks mode. Why can't M$ do _THAT_? If they could, then this would be a non-issue.

This explains the AppStore

After all, why else would they ban iBoobs? JOBS IS A TERRORIST!!!!!!!

As to the NATO v Nato guy, it's a British thing: pronunciable acronyms are recorded as if proper nouns. It's kinda like the extra U in 'color', 'honor', etc and and drastic mispronunciation of -re: just something to keep the inmates happy and, most importantly, planted firmly IN the asylum. Or do you WANT Wacky Jacqui over here?

There IS a use for phsysics

Just throw all the world's physicists into a room and don't let them out until they've created a hyperdrive.

Standards, people

911, 999, 119, can't we all just agree? How about 1-800-OMIGODIMGONNADIE?

English spelling crisis

The problem is that we're squeezing our language into a tiny 26-letter alphabet; in addition, some of our spellings haven't been updated since before the Great Vowel Shift(even over here). Webster describes pronunciation with a list of symbols defined as "the 'E' in 'j[b]e[/b]t'" and the like - this has the benefit of adjusting for dialectal differences, but not when pronunciations have differing numbers of syllables. A pure phonetic alphabet could lead to confusion, since people will have to live with the fact that some words are pronounced drastically different(one of my biggest spelling problems is that I always want to leave out 'al' before 'ly', since I don't pronounce it); we'd need a larger alphabet to even try, though(Futhorc had around 33 letters, IIRC).

As for "lose/loose, it isn't much of a problem over here AFAIK since they sound very different('lose' rhymes with 'snooze', 'loose' with 'noose'(or 'goose', if you're sensitive)). What really bugs me is when people write 'insure' when they mean 'ensure'(and I personally think that the written tongue shouldn't be any more or less confusing than the spaken).

Tux 4:9

And thus did the Fruit Antichrist begin its fall, and our Penguin Savior his rise.

"Cotton wool"?

Cotton is a plant, wool the fur of a sheep. Jist 'cause this is a tech site don't mean you git to be ignant!