Comment WIN+L - Lock Workstation (Score 3, Informative) 939
WIN+L will also lock your computer. Pretty useless if you're at home, but I use it at work just as I plan to leave my desk for a reasonably long period.
Comment Re:Nonsense (Score 1) 401
First off there is no such thing as the Mafia. It is nothing more then the realm of conspiracy theory nut jobs wearing tin foil hats.
There is no way such a large scale criminal organization could exist. Such a large scale operation is simply the result of an over active imagination.
Dude, you sound like J. Edgar Hoover claiming throughout the 50s that organised crime couldn't exist in the United States.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Hoover#Response_to_Mafia_and_civil_rights_groups
Submission + - Girls Wired to Fear Spiders and Snakes
Foot-in-Mouth writes: "New Scientist reports that girls are more "primed" to fear spiders and snakes, compared to boys. Infant boys and girls were shown pairs of images, a fearful and a happy object (such as a spider and a flower), measuring the boys' and girls' dwell times on the images. And in another similar test, normally happy objects (such as a flower) were given a fearful face and fearful objects were given a happy face. The results of these two tests suggested to the researcher that girls are not wired to fear spiders, for example, but rather girls are wired to more quickly learn to fear dangerous animals.
The researcher, David Rakison at CMU, "attributes the difference to behavioural differences between men and women among our hunter-gatherer ancestors. An aversion to spiders may help women avoid dangerous animals, but in men evolution seems to have favoured more risk-taking behaviour for successful hunting."
This reminds one of men's obsession with video games. Will game designers use this information to tweak video games for gender, either to make the games more or less frightening?"
Comment Re:Natural gas companies (Score 1) 548
Holy shit, if you only saw the breakdown of my bill. Between absurd decimal multipliers, random percentage charges, and indecipherable fees, only 1/3 of my actual bill is the cost of the gas. I shouldn't need to use a scientific calculator to figure out my bill.
I hear your pain. I work for a company whose products are designed to manage energy costs so I have seen many natural gas bills belonging to our clients. Who is your gas provider?
Comment Can we have the poll options in standard units? (Score 1) 369
I can't really understand the numbers in the poll options unless someone breaks it down into Libraries of Congress.
Submission + - Stephen Fry Admits Bittorrent "Piracy" (stuff.tv) 1
Airw0lf writes: Stephen Fry (British comedian/entertainer and self-proclaimed tech addict) admitted during an Apple iTunes festival that he had used Bittorrent to download episodes of "24" and "House" (The latter happens to star his old comedy partner Hugh Laurie.)
More tellingly, he pointed out that the Digital Britain report represented the views of "industry insiders" instead of the general public. He also said that "making example of ordinary people is the stupidest thing the record industry can do."
So in all it's an interesting example of someone in the content industry who actually gets technology and understands that the industry must adapt to new content delivery methods instead of just trying to shut the stable doors after the horse has bolted.
Early Abort of Ares I Rocket Would Kill Crew 414
FleaPlus writes "From studying past solid rocket launch failures, the 45th Space Wing of the US Air Force has concluded that an early abort (up to a minute after launch) of NASA Marshall Flight Center's Ares I rocket would have a ~100% chance of killing all crew (report summary and link), even if the launch escape system were activated. This would be due to the capsule being surrounded until ground impact by a 3-mile-wide cloud of burning solid propellant fragments, which would melt the parachute. NASA management has stated that their computer models predict a safe outcome. The Air Force has also been hesitant to give launch range approval to the predecessor Ares I-X suborbital rocket, since its solid rocket vibrations are violent enough to disable both its steering and self-destruct module, endangering people on the ground."
Comment Re:The surgeons in the Army... (Score 1) 860
Something something something...gee ma, I wanna go home!
Comment Scully probably should have been on there... (Score 1) 860
Parent just drew my attention to Scully (from "The X-Files", duh) deserving a mention. He's absolutely right...she was awesome at so many things from autopsies to surgery, biology, pharmacology, emergency response... the list goes on. And if Mulder was ever in trouble and needed her help, she would kick ass and take names.
Comment Hawkeye Wins...hands down IMO (Score 1) 860
Hawkeye scores huge points in my book because he is incredibly competent, witty and - above all - he sticks to his medical oath* despite the abominations of war. How many times did you see him treat patients based on need, not which side they were on? He also treated his patients like people unlike Burns and Winchester, although Winchester certainly evolved in this regard over time and became a more complex "foil" to Hawkeye.
Hawkeye also performed above and beyond the call of duty under constant duress for far longer than any of the other doctors in the list. He was in a damn war zone in the 1950s where the concept of field hospitals was being revolutionised through the use of evac helicopters. His resources (equipment, staff, medicine) were always constrained, time was critical and the patients never stopped flowing...
* Admittedly he may technically have violated the Hippocratic oath once or twice - like the time he performed some pointless surgery on a crazy officer who was getting his men killed left right and centre...
Hawkeye also performed above and beyond the call of duty under constant duress for far longer than any of the other doctors in the list. He was in a damn war zone in the 1950s where the concept of field hospitals was being revolutionised through the use of evac helicopters. His resources (equipment, staff, medicine) were always constrained, time was critical and the patients never stopped flowing...
* Admittedly he may technically have violated the Hippocratic oath once or twice - like the time he performed some pointless surgery on a crazy officer who was getting his men killed left right and centre...
Comment Re:20 years?! (stupid gimmick) (Score 1) 319
I bought a used car because I can buy twice the car (performance/safety/features) for half the price of the current model. Not because of CO2 emissions or the price of fuel or being "Green". I wanted a BMW M3 and couldn't afford the current model, but could afford one with 45k miles on it.
Absolutely. When I bought my car, buying used meant I could buy a Lexus IS with a powerful engine and all the extras you get in the high end of the car market. And she only had 60k kilometres on it.
If I went to buy brand new, the same amount of money would have got me a functional sedan but with pretty much the bare minimum in performance and features.
Comment Re:"No prize for you, rocket man" (Score 1) 261
Ha, that's awesome. I have the mission packs but haven't played them yet. I still intend to someday. Loved the campaign for Q2, and I think it still holds up pretty well.
I played Quake II as soon as it was released...back in the day. But I only played the mission packs last month - got them for free with my copy of Quake 4. Both mission packs were really enjoyable - quite challenging for an experienced player and lots of hardcore action against enemies that can take quite a pounding. It's very satisfying when you unload 10 rockets or a handful of rails into a big bad dude and watch him keel over and blow up.
Comment Re:"No prize for you, rocket man" (Score 4, Informative) 261
There was an even better one in one of the Quake II mission packs. In one of the levels you can barely glimpse an invulnerability power up high up in the ramparts...naturally an experienced player would identify that a rocket jump or two will enable you to get up there. But as you approach the power up after rocket jumping onto the ledge, it suddenly vanishes and the message "no prize for you, rocket man" pops up! If the developers had a sicker sense of humour they might have made a badass enemy or two suddenly teleport in too!
Comment Re:Charlie Wiederhold's Chair Story (Score 1) 565
...threatening developers with broken chairs?
Sounds like an ordinary day at Microsoft?
Comment Re:Does it ever work? (Score 5, Insightful) 213
Has any company ever gotten away with stuff like this in recent times? Doesn't the availability of everything on the Internet ensure that someone somewhere, doing just a little research, will call 'bullshit' when a certain journal/reviewer goes overboard in praising just one company?
The problem is that companies never get more than a slap on the wrist for pulling stunts like this - commercial regulatory bodies in most countries are far too easy on them. As a previous poster said, it is usually a token fine and none of the executives ever get jailed. So I guess most companies do a simple calculation along the lines of:
Profit = Initial Sales from Lies - Estimated Fine when Caught - Dip in Sales from Bad Publicity.
It would seem that the "Profit" term still comes out as a big number so there is no real disincentive there unless regulatory bodies clean up their act, or the public starts voting with their dollars in a significant fashion.
