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Comment Windows XP *PROFESSIONAL* & Vista *ULTIMATE* (Score 1) 349

They didn't use XP and Vista Home editions in this test. It was XP Professional and Vista Ultimate.

"For this review, we used three identical hard drives, each preloaded by Dell with the latest versions of Windows XP Professional, Vista Ultimate, and Windows 7 Ultimate -- all 32-bit -- with the latest drivers the company makes available."

Comment Re:Bad plan, darlings. (Score 1) 248

That doesn't *have* to necessarily be true.

It could make sense that insects would evolve out of this oleic acid immunity behavior, but at what cost? Would ants no longer carry their dead? Would roaches no longer avoid disease stricken roaches? Etc...

In a way though, you've contradicted yourself. To summarize, you said through natural selection, insects will evolve around avoiding oleic acids because their survival depends on it. Your argument afterward is that diseases that will spread on a massive scale as a result which I'm thinking would have a far worse result.

How would natural selection be able to allow this immunity of "stinky" oleic acid if it results in the death of those insects that require it? Or more broadly, why would evolution develop a particular trait which allows the thriving success of a species at the nearly imminent cost of its survival? I'm sure there are examples, but mathematically speaking, it would be like sacrificing your Bishop to take a Pawn. *does not compute*

Sure, not being able to feed on our crops will further limit the size of insect populations, but the species will survive. I'm sure there would be exceptions and those exceptions will be met with another form of insecticide or repellent and so on.. as has been done for many centuries.

So, in short, I'm sure the absolute *survival* of many insect species does not *depend* on our crops. It's a big planet and not insects need to stick to a strict diet of corn, soybeans etc... Sure, the population may have to be reduced, but so is the "S" curve of life.

Comment Oleic Acid *Attracts* Ants (Score 1) 248

I learned this while watching an episode of Nova... An individual who had spent the better part of his long career researching ants applied oleic acid to a living ant. Surrounding ants swarmed it and began to carry it toward the nest (as ants supposedly do with their dead). If this is the case, this obviously isn't the end-all solution to repelling insects that the summary makes it out to be. I also imagine ants aren't the only insects that come back for their dead. I found some supportive information of my claim here.

Comment Re:Monk = Assassin (Score 1) 297

Yeah. I do believe it is fine to borrow from yourself (especially when the ideas are good). They've certainly been doing that, but I have the feeling a little *too* much is going to be bad for the game. Many of the skills and even the classes are reminiscent of Warcraft and previous versions of Diablo (as you mentioned).

For example, the Barbarian has a skill called "Ground Stomp" does the exact same thing that "War stomp" does in Warcraft III. And once again, the "Seismic Slam" ability is identical to the Tauren Chieftan's "Shock wave" ability... See what they did there? Seismic... shock wave.. har har... :-)

Yes, the Hellfire expansion has a Monk class. As much as I've been a Blizz fan over the years, I actually never owned Hellfire. I wonder if there are any similarities?

In all honesty, I'm sure I'll still like the game even if they borrow HEAVILY from the past. I know it's tough, but I'm just amazed that Blizzard's talent would choose to recycle so much instead of coming up with fresh material in its place. Based on their track record though, I can only assume they know what they are doing. :-)

Comment Monk = Assassin (Score 3, Interesting) 297

They looked at World of Warcraft's Rogue and Diablo II's Assassin, but decided each was ultimately unsatisfying for a game like Diablo III.

Is that so? Because everything else listed sounds exactly like what the Assassin was in Diablo II (By the way, I really liked the Assassin).

Thus was born the combo system. Many of the Monk's major attacks have three different stages. Clicking on an enemy once gives you the first stage, clicking again (within a short period of time) gives you the second stage, and another click for the third stage. For example: Exploding Palm. The first stage hits for 35% of your weapon damage. Second stage hits for 50%.

Three charges? "Exploding palm".. I guess that's more original than exploding kick, right? :-)

Now, the most interesting part about these combos is that you can mix and match.

Remind anyone of the combo system for the Assassin?

An attack called Seven Sided Strike makes the Monk zip around part of the screen, teleporting between enemies to attack them.

An interesting twist on Dragon Flight, I suppose?

Blizzard seems to be borrowing a WHOLE LOT from themselves on Diablo II.

Comment Bose-einstein condensate? (Score 3, Insightful) 205

While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states.

This sounds a like a bose-einstein condensate, where many atoms will act is if though they are all part of a larger, single atom. Also, it gains some pretty interesting properties, neither of which can be described exactly as solid, liquid or gas.

The article didn't mention anything about near absolute zero temps, though.

Comment Re:real children + real pornongraphy = ??? (Score 4, Insightful) 639

If they did it specifically to push the limits of the law, they need to be given a sentence of having to clean parking meters or something else tedious and annoying that makes the point that this isn't a good thing.

Testing the law is not illegal and if the acts to test it are not deemed illegal, then no punishment is necessary, IMO.

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