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Comment Yes, the L4D2 content WAS promised for L4D1 (Score 3, Interesting) 130

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/41219/Left-4-Dead-DLC-Promised
"Chet Faliszek said that Valve plans to get the DLC rolling much more quickly with Left 4 Dead than it has been able to for Team Fortress 2. Plans already in the works call for new campaigns, weapons, and boss infected (the game's zombie enemies). In addition, there were strong hints at a flamethrower coming not long after launch."

Yes, the valve team promised L4D 1 content, including new special infected AND weapons AND new campaigns. Turns out they saved all that for L4D2 instead. L4D2 will have a new special infected (charger), new weapons, and new campaigns. And no, they didn't add any new campaigns in L4D1, just tweaked versions of the old ones for versus, and a single new mini map for survival (the rest of the survival levels are just portions of the old maps in old campaigns)

That same guy at valve in an interview said they have been working on L4D2 since the launch of L4D1.
http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1138
"Shack: When did development on Left 4 Dead 2 start?

Chet Faliszek: Pretty much after Left 4 Dead launched."

Comment Re:All I have to say is... (Score 1) 859

Likely because from TFA:

"Updated Tue May 19, 2009 12:28pm AEST"
"-Editor's note: The original version of this story was amended to reflect the fact that the unit can be turned off by the driver."

The original story didn't have it, so perhaps the submission didn't either. I don't know about the editors, or why they haven't added an UPDATE line by now.

Comment Re:All I have to say is... (Score 1) 859

I've seen it happen when a construction zone didn't warn of a low shoulder at night, and the wheel dropped down the inch at one point and started swinging. The truck was going UNDER the speed limit, which was something like 55 mph (it shoulda been lower IMHO).

1) No sudden stopping started it swinging
2) no going downhill
3) no high winds.

Trailer wasn't misloaded, it was a well designed high end boat trailer.

Comment Re:And then imagine (Score 1) 591

I consider that a cop out. Kilobytes were originally 1024 bytes, megabytes were 1024^2 bytes, gigabytes were 1024^3 bytes, etc. You can look at the windows file explorer for instance.
When you look at EEPROM chips or IC's with memory, if they say 1K memory they are 1024 bytes. Look at old computers like 286 or 486, when they go through memory tests if it tests a megabyte its 1024 KB.

Then hdd manufactures came along and started calling a megabyte 1 million bytes (well I dunno if they started it or just took advantage of it) so thier hdds would look bigger. And the average joe probably assumes its an even 1 million (which generally didn't hurt anyone since it was approximately the case). So rather than stick up for what it actually means, the NIST decided to adopt differant terminology. Cop out :)

So I still consider the proper definition of a megabyte to be 1024^2 bytes, but if the masses and hdd companies wish to think otherwise with improper values they can :)

Comment Re:Peanuts (Score 1) 457

Actually, I specifically checked that. The low salt versions DONT have the MSG. I think the normal planters dry roasted was around 240mg per serving with MSG, and the low sodium was around 150mg per serving and didn't have MSG. Both tasted almost identical to me, although I didn't buy them at the same time, so I didn't do a side by side taste test. Both of them had all sorts of additional ingrediants, some funky like that MSG. The store chain brand that I looked at had similar incrediants and amounts of sodium in the normal vs low sodium containers.

Your reasoning makes sense logically, but I guess the companies arne't logical lol.

I ended up getting some at costco that had ONLY peanuts, salt, and peanut oil. And it tastes just fine to me, so I think I'll stick with those (they also have lowish sodium compared to the others).

I know that MSG is flavor enhancer, I try to avoid excessive amounts of it for potential health reasons, just like I try to avoid too much caffeine for health reasons.

Comment Peanuts (Score 1) 457

I'm snacking on Peanuts as I'm reading this post.

Its odd, I was looking at the ingrediants for peanuts at the store and most of them (unless they are totally raw) have weird things like MSG (monosodium glutamate) in them. Some of the lightly salted ones don't have the MSG. I mean I wouldn't think there's be MSG in just plain salted peanuts. I can understand MSG in say honey roasted.

Anyway, now that I've noticed that I've been buying the ones without MSG and they taste the same to me, dunno why they need MSG in them.

Networking

USB-Based NIC Torrents While Your PC Sleeps 246

jangel sends us to WindowsForDevices.com for news on a prototype device created by researchers from Microsoft and UC San Diego. It's a USB-based NIC that includes its own ARM processor and flash storage, and can download files or torrent while a host PC is sleeping. As a result, its inventors say, the "Somniloquy" device slashes power usage by up to 50x. The device requires a few tweaks on the host OS side save state before sleeping. The prototype works with a Vista host but the hardware comprising the NIC is based on a Linux stack. Here is the research paper (PDF).

Comment Done for ONE SINGLE PHOTO! (Score 1) 898

Turns out it wasn't for a photoshoot, it was just for a SINGLE PHOTO!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090427/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_low_flying_plane_purpose
"WASHINGTON An administration official says a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet flew low near ground zero in New York City Monday because the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty."

Comment Re:Is this a reboot? (Score 1) 213

Ok, but how about the books?
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Destiny-Star-Diane-Carey/dp/0671795880
The best star trek book ever written. Tells about his father and kirk, and an experiance they had together that shaped kirk's entire life. Has a number of moving scenes of self sacrifice on the part of both kirk and his dad (after kirk starts to get over his teenage issues with his dad).
It would be a TRUELY great star trek movie if they used that book. Unfortunately, the movie seems to be going in a totally differant direction (from watching the trailers).

Comment Re:All aspects of securerom? (Score 1) 226

It doesn't even do that. All this does is allow you to really uninstall now.

In other words, if you get say 3 installs from Spore, before, if you had to reinstall from a hdd wipe or because the install screwed up, each install could use up one of the 3 install activations. Then after those are used up, you have to call to be able to install the game you bought.

Now, when you uninstall, you run the deactivation tool to raise the allowed activations up by 1. So if you install, it goes to 2. Uninstall it stays at 2. Run de-activation tool, goes back to 3.

The tools change NOTHING about the securom other than letting you REALLY uninstall the game now.

Comment CPNI was changed to opt out years ago (Score 1) 236

For years now, since the FCC said CPNI was opt out, EVERY phone company (mobile and landline) could sell/trade ALL your information. Name, address, billing info, numbers you call, time you call them, how often you call them, essentially every single thing the phone company knows about you. The kinda stuff that normally requires a warrant, they can just give it away. The name for that info is CPNI (customer proprietary network information).

This was changed in 2002, because of a court case (previously it was opt in only). The FCC decided rather than fight it, they would just switch to opt out.
(Yeah there are a few restrictions, like they have to be a telecommunications related company... hmm if I sell cell phone batteries, I must be telecommunications related, right?)

Everyone should have already opted out years ago to prevent this kinda thing, if they were paying attention. No one did, so this kinda thing wasn't stopped.
If you haven't already you should call up every phone company you use and ask them not to share CPNI.

Get the Facts (google up CPNI, and here's a place to start)
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/phoneaboutyou.html

"1) Opt-Out Your company sends you a notice saying it will consider you to have given your approval to use your customer information for marketing unless you tell it not to do so (usually within 30 days.)"
"How to Help Prevent Unauthorized Disclosure of Your Customer Information"

"Read your telephone bill and any other notices you receive from your company carefully. Determine if your company is seeking opt-in or opt-out permission to use or share your customer information for marketing."

Thats whats been going on here.

IT

Exchanging Pictures To Generate Passwords 123

Roland Piquepaille writes "Today, Ileana Buhan, a Romanian computer scientist, is presenting her PhD Thesis at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She is using biometrics to protect confidential information when it is exchanged between two mobile devices. This is a very innovative approach to security. Buhan's biometric application will generate almost unbreakable passwords from photos taken by the connected users. Here is how it works. 'To do this, two users need to save their own photos on their PDAs. They then take photos of each other. The PDA compares the two photos and generates a security code for making a safe connection.'"

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