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Comment Re:It's a net loss (Score 1) 254

While I sympathise with your situation, I think it's a little unrealistic to expect Microsft to investigate 600,000 cases on a case-by-case basis. You, ignoring whatever your motives were, modified your console and broke their ToS. I expect people could claim they modded their console to play a pirated version of a game they already own, when the original was somehow damaged.

It's not like Xbox360s are expensive by the way, they are cheap as hell second hand now, probably no more than twice the price of the DVD drive you purchased, and no, that won't be 'more money for them'.

Comment You could always... (Score 1) 970

...use it as a UV chamber. I notice the RX 595 is an all-in-one type with flatbed scanner.

You could stick some UV lamps inside and use it to activate photo-resistive PCB.You end up with a much nicer finish than iron-on acetate.

Also, whatever you do, don't be tempted to buy ink refill kits. I know someone who works in Cartridge World; they stock over 300 different types of ink to take into account things like: temperature (cold or vapour), viscousity, pigment concentration, drying time, among others.

If you own an Epson, which uses individual ink 'pots' as apposed to print-head cartridges, if the ink you use is incompatible you could end up nackering the entire print head - and then you may aswell by another printer for sure.

Most of the big printer names have started quoting the ink volumes in 'pages' rather than actual volume of ink, since people realised they were getting cartridges that were only 1/4 full.

I recently got my number 11 HP cartridge, normally 5ml of black from HP, refilled with 20ml of ink, for LESS.

There are occassionally issues of course, cyan in the magenta compartment etc (:P), but proper refill centres have guarantess against that sort of thing.

Comment Re:Pay for news? (Score 1) 236

I completely agree. Other than a few reputable research journals, I'm not aware of any groundbreaking news reporting being done by any of the 'popular' publications. I can understand paying for a copy of the paper though, when you actually get something tangible in return, but for online news? It's just data, that costs next to nothing to replicate, and more often than not incorporates ads and banners anyway!
 

Comment Re:Somewhat like safer cars (Score 1) 452

One of the things the NCAP ratings take into account when testing a cars safety is the pedestrian protection measures utilised by the design. These can be zones on the bonnet which are likely to sustain impact which don't have bulky components close underneath, adding crumple zones for vertical impacts and in some cases air bags near the base of the windscreen to protect pedestrian's heads.

One of the other factors taken into consideration is the style of the bumper, ensuring it hits below the knee on an adult would mean the person is 'scooped up' rather than run over. I guess most 4x4s, SUVs, trucks etc fail massively at this - especially the ones with bullbars (which are banned in some countries).
The Courts

Submission + - Gamer Sues WoW Maker for Ruining His Life (appscout.com) 2

adeelarshad82 writes: California-based gamer is suing World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard for ruining his life. Erik Estavillo is accusing the publisher of maintaining a "harmful virtual environment" via "sneaky and deceitful practices" according to Gamespot. Among other things, Estavillo is annoyed by the monthly $14.99 access fee, the speed at which players can move within the game, WoW's player resurrection process, as well as charges Blizzard requires for players to change things about their characters.

Comment What about disposal? (Score 2, Interesting) 155

As a rough estimate I would say mission critical servers get changed out every 3, maybe 4 years. I would imagine any cells would need to be at least laptop battery sized to run the server for an appreciable period of time, so what is going to happen when a server gets replaced? Keep the battery? I don't think so.

Comment Re:Debate! (Score 1) 352

Erm, it seems like you are trying to set up a debating app/feature on Facebook.

On Facebook. Right.

Facebook 'boycotts' and e-petitions do nothing. It's too easy for people to 'get involved' in a so called movement when all they need to do is press the 'I agree' button; it's also easy to ignore it too.

What you have to remember is that you are ultimately fighting polititians. Most polititians and judges cannot get their head around the principles of fair use because they have been inundated with RIAA/MPAA lobbyists, and subjected to dubious 'expert' testimony.

The only thing that can be done to change anything is to vote accordingly. If a political party does not exist that supports your goals, help create one. You don't even have to win anything - as soon as an appreciable number of people have voted for a party on the back of a few policies, it's obivous that the larger ones will change their stance to attract those voters.

Comment How are they being installed? (Score 1) 144

I mean, where are they putting them all? Are they actually using them as PS3s (case, PSU and all), or are they ripping the motherboards out and shoving them in a rack of some kind? The former does sound like a rather romantic hack, but surely it is terribly inefficient with power requirements, cooling, cabling, etc?
 
Or do they just not care because the project was such a bargain (compared to the alternatives)?

Comment Re:Your answer is at http://www.monster.com (Score 1) 1006

You can find them FOSS substitutes for their existing software

There is more than one reason why this is an excellent suggestion. Other than the cost issue, often employers will incorporate training time into the software decision making process. TFS says that they are willing to hang about waiting for shareware timers to count down to avoid paying - surely that time could be spent learning how to use tar or gzip?

Comment How many cases were thrown out, exactly? (Score 1) 245

Reading TFA, it doesn't state how many cases were thrown out, or indeed the percentage of people caught speeding found with LIDAR technology.

In the UK we have a plethora of fixed speed cameras; it's uncommon to travel down a road with a >30 mph speed limit and not see one, but as far as I am aware, police on traffic duty here still use RADAR based speed detection guns. What is the benefit of LIDAR? Is it more accurate, or just easier to 'aim'? It mentions in the Wikipedia entry that LIDAR is able to reflect better off non-metallic objects, like aerosols, clouds and even rain, that doesn't exactly sound like the ideal tool for the application...

Comment Re:yeah, right! (Score 1) 149

Sorry, allow me to clarify.

Since it is not possible to buy apps except through the app store, it can be said that Apple is almost the publisher/distributor for these apps.

If I purchased a video game, and it contained malware, then I sure as hell would want the publisher/distributor to take some responsibility for this.

You can't slap your name on a product, sell it, make money from it and take on none of the risk.

Comment Re:yeah, right! (Score 1) 149

Unless they were to visual verify every line of every code of every applications (there are what, over 100,000 apps?) then there is no way they can possibly prevent all malware.

And yet, all of those 100,000 apps have gone through Apple's verification and approval process. What exactly is involved in that? I would say checking for malicous activity and programs attempting to gain access to privilaged information would be the bear minimum, surely?

IANAL, but a content provider that facilitates distribution of malware/spyware through its portal must be culpable to some extent?

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