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Comment Re:The "choice is bad" argument (Score 1) 405

by DukeLinux (#33588150) Attached to: Will Android Flavors Spoil the Platform?
Since I use Linux, I simply buy a box full of "parts" from Tiger Direct and spend an evening putting together another computer. I did this for my in-laws and bought an OEM copy of WinXP. Set them right up with a powerful box for very little money. I have made only one support visit in the last 6 months or so. I guess things are working out well for them.

Comment Re:Those damn evil Republicans (Score 1) 293

You might have expressed this with less cursing, but I believe you are correct. Might I add that our two parties are fundamentally the same. They use rhetoric to give the proletariat the illusion of choice. Both parties ultimately want high taxes and big government. Their tactics are slightly different, but the end game is the same. Has there really been any difference between Bush and Obama? Has Congressional shifts in party power made a difference? No. The time is coming which is why I am stocking-up on ammo.
Image

The Real 'Stuff White People Like' 286

Posted by samzenpus from the taking-a-closer-look dept.
Here's an interesting and funny look at 526,000 OkCupid users, divided into groups by race and gender and all the the things each groups says it likes or is interested in. While it is far from being definitive, the groupings give a glimpse of what makes each culture unique. According to the results, white men like nothing better than Tom Clancy, Van Halen, and golfing.
Earth

Planned Nuclear Reactors Will Destroy Atomic Waste 344

Posted by Soulskill from the but-where-will-we-get-our-superheroes dept.
separsons writes "A group of French scientists are developing a nuclear reactor that burns up actinides — highly radioactive uranium isotopes. They estimate that 'the volume of high-level nuclear waste produced by all of France’s 58 reactors over the past 40 years could fit in one Olympic-size swimming pool.' And they're not the only ones trying to eliminate atomic waste: Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin are working on a fusion-fission reactor. The reactor destroys waste by firing streams of neutrons at it, reducing atomic waste by up to 99 percent!"
Programming

Simpler "Hello World" Demonstrated In C 582

Posted by kdawson from the non-obfuscated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Wondering where all that bloat comes from, causing even the classic 'Hello world' to weigh in at 11 KB? An MIT programmer decided to make a Linux C program so simple, she could explain every byte of the assembly. She found that gcc was including libc even when you don't ask for it. The blog shows how to compile a much simpler 'Hello world,' using no libraries at all. This takes me back to the days of programming bare-metal on DOS!"
PC Games (Games)

Valve's Battle Against Cheaters 336

Posted by Soulskill from the busting-punks dept.
wjousts writes "IEEE Spectrum takes a look behind the scenes at Valve's on-going efforts to battle cheaters in online games: 'Cheating is a superserious threat,' says [Steam's lead engineer, John] Cook. 'Cheating is more of a serious threat than piracy.' The company combats this with its own Valve Anti-Cheat System, which a user consents to install in the Steam subscriber agreement. Cook says the software gets around anti-virus programs by handling all the operations that require administrator access to the user's machine. So, how important is preventing cheating? How much privacy are you willing to sacrifice in the interests of a level playing field? 'Valve also looks for changes within the player's computer processor's memory, which might indicate that cheat code is running.'"
Science

Why Time Flies By As You Get Older 252

Posted by kdawson from the like-a-banana dept.
Ant notes a piece up on WBUR Boston addressing theories to explain the universal human experience that time seems to pass faster as you get older. Here's the 9-minute audio (MP3). Several explanations are tried out: that brains lay down more information for novel experiences; that the "clock" for nerve impulses in aging brains runs slower; and that each interval of time represents a diminishing fraction of life as we age.
PlayStation (Games)

US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144

Posted by Soulskill from the quick-who-knows-a-good-ps3-flight-sim dept.
bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."

Comment Re:Oh they'll crash all right (Score 0, Troll) 1316

by DukeLinux (#27204907) Attached to: Narcissistic College Graduates In the Workplace?
Honestly, at my company we are a bunch of middle-aged IT workers who put in whatever hours it takes and complain about nothing. The only younger workers we have all came from the Asian Continent. Nobody has ever said anything official, but we have no "younger Americans" working at our office. I believe this problem has been recognized and solved quietly. In my department I always weed out such resumes so we don't waste time with these people. Back when I graduated college I was viewed as "cheap labor that can work long hours." I expected that and did not expect "cool work" until I earned it. What have we produced?

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