testing for singlethreaded performance.....

if you have an Athlon II X4 of any speed, please run:

cpumark99 on it (if you can find it), and you might get the fastest score in safe mode...

the java benchmark from NIST on it http://math.nist.gov/scimark2/run.html

and if you can get calc.exe from windows XP, time a factorial of 100,000!

(the factorial function in the new calculator that comes with win7 chokes on big factorials, and all the scores i've accumulated are using calc.exe from xp)

please post your java scimark score! we really need some scores for the N280, and amd's L110, thank you.

http://math.nist.gov/scimark2/run.html

js... such as "Don't ever use it for things like Next Page "

personally, i'd recommend against Visual Basic as a language to learn the fundamentals of programming. it seems more about building windows than programming. one of my CS college classes used it, and IMHO i learned nothing to add to what i learned from taking Basic or Pascal years before in highschool, and i was way more high in highschool....

... and then try to give it to whoever his heirs might be?

i followed the development of the AI for Real Racing for so long, that now i want to play it just to see how well the use of genetic algorithms worked. but most people think $10 is a lot for an iphone game...

Because the user licence that comes with OS X prevents you from doing that.

Technically Apple could come after you for your 1 hackintosh box that you have for personal use but it choses not to (at least so far, but signs so far seem to suggest that they really don't care about homebrew).

What they *do* care *very much* about is people selling them on as ready made PCs with OS X installed, and you're right, there is no technical difference between the guy who does it to one machine for himself and the guy who does it to a hundred machines and sells them to his friends, but it's entirely up to Apple who it goes after for licence violations. It's not like a trademark issue where you must defend any breach or you risk losing the mark - they will probably have an economic vs brand protection chart where "personal use" becomes "hackintosh vendor" and you become a target.

Make no mistake though, you are always a target if you make a hackintosh - they just leave you alone because you're no threat to their business model. The NFL won't care if you tape the game, but it will care if you then sell that tape on ebay.

Ok, ok, bad analogy, the NFL will care very deeply if you tape the game and will froth and foam and rage about home taping taking the food out of the starving mouths of NFL players' children, but you see my point.

That's not skepticism, that's cynicism. And if you thought that way when you were 13, you must have had a horrible childhood.

I think you misspelled "public interest and budget".

It has long been, and still remains, illegal to have a scanner capable of listening into police frequencies in a moving vehicle, at least everywhere that I have lived.

A lot of places, licensed amateur radio operators are exempt from that law.

What kind of self-respecting geek shops at "Sear's" (sic)?

Um, Craftsman tools? The only remaining semi-affordable Made in the USA (with the extra precision and reliability over bargain-basement imports, including a lifetime warranty) that that implies?

I get most of my tools at Harbor Freight, but if I want something I know will last (e.g. a socket wrench, because it's pretty lame when you break your only socket wrench while your car's engine is not fully assembled) I go with Craftsman.

This is irritating. I certainly won't be playing any games that implement this. I'm forced to be male despite being a woman IRL, and they want me to pay for the privelege in-game?! They'd at least better have shemale avatars. I pay good money for my meds.

I used to think this until I realized that I was paying Blizzard for the simulated experience of waiting for public transportation.
I could get a more immersive experience by putting on a troll mask and riding the subway. There are even some dialects of Chinese that sound a little like murloc. On the other hand I'd love for my IRL military training to count in call of duty.

If they didn’t know the girl very well and didn’t get the movie reference, it’s quite easy to understand why someone would take it literally.

You have to be especially careful when you’re kidding in print. It still has to be obvious that you’re joking even without the tone of your voice to tip people off.