Comment Re:Games don't use multiple cores? (Score 1) 354
Most games these days do in fact use all available cores.
Game developers have been talking openly for a few years now about how they use lockless data structures in multi-threaded engines.
Submission + - A history of media technology scares (slate.com)
jamesswift writes: Vaughan Bell at Slate has written an interesting article on the centuries old phenomenon of hysterical suspicion of new media and the technologies than enable them.
The best line comes near then end "The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is treated with suspicion."
The best line comes near then end "The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is treated with suspicion."
Submission + - Old NES console fetches $13,105 on eBay (thinq.co.uk)
arcticstoat writes: If you're thinking of throwing out your ageing 80s game hoard, then make sure you have a good look through it first, as you could be sitting on a virtual lottery ticket. A 39-year-old Mum on recently managed to sell her old NES with five games for $13,105 US on eBay. The reason? Simple; it came with the US NTSC version of Stadium Events, which is commonly considered to be the rarest licensed Nintendo game in the country. The key feature to look out for is apparently the Nintendo quality seal, which has to be gold, round and transparent.
Comment The system goes on-line February 10th, 2010... (Score 3, Funny) 310
Human decisions are removed from strategic advertising. Google begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, February 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
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Comment Re:Anyone else think is was a .NET Fortran? (Score 1) 267
Nice summary. I would add to that the upshot of function is the so called concept of purity. Ie. pure functions, which are usually the default in functional languages. The advantage of which is given a set of inputs to your function you will always get the same result.
Here's a good recent article http://muckandbrass.com/web/display/~cemerick/2009/12/30/All+my+methods+take+316+arguments%2C+and+I+like+it+that+way
Comment GNU Screen (Score 1) 307
For search engine friendliness its best to call it by it's full name, GNU Screen.
Keep SSH Sessions Active, Or Reconnect? 307
borjonx writes "Is it safer to log out of an SSH session, and re-establish it later, or just keep the connection open? Like many of you, I use OpenSSH to connect to my Slackware Linux boxes remotely from Linux and WinXP (putty.exe) clients. At home and at work, I wonder if it would be safer to just leave the connection open (my clients are physically secured, the servers limit connections with hosts.allow). Is it more secure to re-establish the connection over an insecure link (big bad internet) where people can sniff that handshaking, or is it more secure to just remain connected? I connect 1 to 4 times per day, most days."
Comment Re:Art? (Score 1) 372
Nicely put though.
I guess Zappa is to Duchamp, as Feynman was to Planck.
Robotics Prof Fears Rise of Military Robots 258
An anonymous reader writes "Interesting video interview on silicon.com with Sheffield University's Noel Sharkey, professor of AI & robotics. The white-haired prof talks state-of-the-robot-nation — discussing the most impressive robots currently clanking about on two-legs (hello Asimo) and who's doing the most interesting things in UK robotics research (something involving crickets apparently). He also voices concerns about military use of robots — suggesting it won't be long before armies are sending out fully autonomous killing machines."
Comment From TFA "turning sunlight into energy" (Score 1) 232
I hate it when it's phrased like that.
Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 710
Here's a report comparing the total life-cycle carbon footprint of all major methods of electricity generation.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn268.pdf
Wind is second lowest but basically the same as Nuclear, the lowest.
Comment Re:Carakan is cross-platform (Score 1) 274
Because Clojure's aim as a general purpose language is to help you leverage parallelism with no locks and minimal state.
Javascript is for something else entirely.
You might even write Clojure code to emit Javascript.
Comment Re:And apparently biased... (Score 1) 378
As a largely happy OSX user I can say it's doesn't just work either.
It does work as I expect or hope more often than my experiences on Windows XP or Ubuntu, but it has plenty of little faults that, in some ways, are less forgivable since they have such a small set of hardware to test for.
Three illustrative examples:
1) Search the apple forums for "tap to click stops working"
Apple is more or less silent on this old bug. Does not just work.
2) Try and record whatever sound is playing on your machine in say, Audacity or whatever.
There is no "Wave Out Mix" or equivalent by default on OSX. You have to work around it with things like Sound Flower. Does not just work.
3) Try and cut and paste in Finder or merge two directories.
Does not just work.
Kill that meme and maybe Apple will try even harder.
Comment Re:Where I stopped reading... (Score 1) 277
Plus they occasionally used the slogan "Wang 'R' Us"
I'm not joking.
I'm not joking.
Comment Re:Whoa (Score 1) 179
You idiot, it's Noo Yoik where moist stuff is. No disrespect.*
*sorry
