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Comment Historically... (Score -1) 238

by steelcobra (#33829234) Attached to: The Encryption Pioneer Who Was Written Out of History

Cryptography is a long series of people reinventing schemes because A: they didn't know about them (the secrecy of the existence was maintained), and B: it was effective. A great example is the Jefferson disk (1795) and Bazeries Cylinder (US-Army M-94, 1923-1942), which were functionally identical.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_disk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-94

Comment Re:Vitual center (Score -1) 183

by steelcobra (#32565756) Attached to: SeaMicro Unveils 512 Atom-Based Server

VMWare could handle that. It dynamically assigns resources of the hardware to the the VMs so they are running at maximum efficiency. Unlike with traditional physical servers where the hardware is mostly at idle while the processes take maybe 10% of operating ability, or run up when overtasked and lock up when maxed out.
Games

The Psychology of Achievement In Playing Games 80

Posted by Soulskill from the no-you-don't-get-points-for-reading-this dept.
A post on Pixel Poppers looks at the psychological underpinnings of the types of challenges offered by different game genres, and the effect those challenges have on determining which players find the games entertaining. Quoting: "To progress in an action game, the player has to improve, which is by no means guaranteed — but to progress in an RPG, the characters have to improve, which is inevitable. ... It turns out there are two different ways people respond to challenges. Some people see them as opportunities to perform — to demonstrate their talent or intellect. Others see them as opportunities to master — to improve their skill or knowledge. Say you take a person with a performance orientation ('Paul') and a person with a mastery orientation ('Matt'). Give them each an easy puzzle, and they will both do well. Paul will complete it quickly and smile proudly at how well he performed. Matt will complete it quickly and be satisfied that he has mastered the skill involved. Now give them each a difficult puzzle. Paul will jump in gamely, but it will soon become clear he cannot overcome it as impressively as he did the last one. The opportunity to show off has disappeared, and Paul will lose interest and give up. Matt, on the other hand, when stymied, will push harder. His early failure means there's still something to be learned here, and he will persevere until he does so and solves the puzzle."

Comment Re:Script (Score -1, Flamebait) 460

by steelcobra (#26189531) Attached to: New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video

I'm not an average user, have some odd peripherals, and like to play games. Thus, Windows and decent hardware.

And considering you can get a decent PC for 600 or so now WITH Windows...

As to OSX that's because they refuse to sell the entire OS standalone and support the open-hardware environment.

Ubuntu does not do enough to make me happy.

Comment Script (Score -1, Flamebait) 460

by steelcobra (#26189191) Attached to: New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video

Mac/PC ad freezes, nerdy looking guy walks in front.

"And hi!, I'm linux. I'm free, unlike these guys. And I've been configured to run on just about any hardware!

"As long as you don't care about using all the software these guys use, and are willing to deal with no real customer service, I'm a great alternative! I admit that unlike with these guys I don't easily work with the hardware you already have...

"Ummm...I'm really best in a server...en..vironment..." (trails off)

Walks off with head down.

Comment Re:Dark Matter/Emergy Does Not Exist (Score 1) 106

by steelcobra (#25919075) Attached to: NASA and DoE Team On Dark Energy Research

The key problem with this view is that even if the paper is accurate, based on observation and experimentation, and is reproducable, if it's outside the current dogmatic system it will be rejected.

Look up Halton Arp, Peter Duesberg, and Immanuel Velikovsky. The latter, for using all available evidence to construct a wildly different view of the solar system that matches history, was ignored, criticized without the critic having read his work as unscientific or being biblically based, when in fact all his references to such texts are verified by other sources.

So be careful about the idea that just because it's generally accepted it's right.

Comment Re:Dark Matter/Emergy Does Not Exist (Score 1) 106

by steelcobra (#25918891) Attached to: NASA and DoE Team On Dark Energy Research
You should check out James P. Hogan's Kicking The Sacred Cow. It presents a variety of alternate, observationally/experimentally proven alternatives to the mainstream view that have been ignored or flat out rejected by the dogmatic mainstream science. Such as that an electromagnetically formed plasma universe concept actually explains everything. Or that "Dark Matter" is really just molecular hydrogen (H2), which isn't detected easily, but is far more prevalent than atomic hydrogen. As well as a variety of other subjects.
Power

Submission + - Wireless power on the desktop scale

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: Nature are reporting early versions of a desktop-ready device for wirelessly powering equipment. A plastic sheet a millimeter thick on the desktop contains induction coils, microelectromechanical switches and control circuitry, applied to a conductive polymer base by various forms of printing. When the sheet detects a compatible receiver within range (~2.5cm), the nearest coil is switched on and provides the receiver with up to 40W of power inductively. The devices are not yet ready for mainstream — another 5 years of development is estimated — and there is the issue of persuading manufacturers to incorporate the receiving equipment into their new designs. But a projected price of ~$100 for a square metre of transmitter is credible (SG $ ? or CA or US? not specified in the article; the developers are in Japan). Now, if you could get power receivers that would supply (for example) a conventional mobile-phone charging-cradle, that would be a useful step towards widespread acceptance.

Could this lead to the start of a new VHS-vs-BetaMax or HDDVD-vs-BluRay style compatibility war? If one manufacturer is trying such an obvious idea, likely others are.
Music

Submission + - We7: Why it will "fall flat on its face"

Submitted by madonna
madonna writes: CNET extensively reasons why the new We7.com download service — which offers ad-embedded free music downloads without DRM — is doomed to failure and only good for poor countries.

"This service absolutely, categorically will not succeed. You can quote us on that. It's true the best way to combat piracy is to provide a realistic and affordable alternative, and free is certainly affordable. But music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements..."
Wireless Networking

Journal Journal: Wi-Fi Security Crisis

Journal by milette
There's a storm brewing, and although we have only seen the first signs, she's gonna be a whopper! I'm talking about what I call the "Wi-Fi Security Crisis".

Q: Would you let a terrorist walk in off the street and call their buddies in Iran or Afganistan using your phone?

Q: Would you allow a pervert to use your Internet connection to download child pornography?

Feed Yet Another Company Wants To Sell You An Expensive Box To Download Movies (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a glowing story about Vudu, a new startup that's developing a set-top box for downloading movies. Yes, this is a plan you've heard before, from the spectacularly failed, Disney-backed Moviebeam to more recent efforts by Akimbo, along with the continued minimal impact of PC-based movie download sites. As Peter Rojas points out on Engadget, the Times story is "long on overblown claims and hyperbole and short on realistic analysis of how resistant consumers have been to paying to download movies over the internet". Vudu has signed up most of the major studios to supply content and says it's got technology that will make movies play immediately, without any waits or stutters. That's great and all, but when consumers have shown so little interest in these types of services before, it's hard to see things changing -- particularly when Vudu wants to make them buy a $300 single-purpose box, then pay per-movie charges on top of that -- in spite of the NYT's puff piece.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Contest winner: Vista more secure than Mac OS X

Submitted by thisispurefud
thisispurefud writes: Contest winner: Vista more secure than Mac OS X From your research on both platforms, is there a winner between Mac OS X 10.4 and Vista on security? I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies. http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/04/30/daizovi/in dex.php

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