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Comment Re:Not more safe (Score 1) 611

Ha. I got this (annoying) piece of crap on a reasonably fresh install of Windows (XP). The install was up to date, and barely used other than a few games (I use Fedora primarily). The thing I attributed it to was the fact the Windows install I got was from thepiratebay. After reinstalling with an MSDN install I haven't had the issue again (Which raises the question of why I didn't just download the msdn copy originally)

Comment Re:It's "bloody" fun! (Score 1) 113

If you've actually got the algorithms to back that up, you'd be a pioneer in AI.

You're joking, right? The theory behind an aimbot is pretty much as simple as it gets. And it's not like you have to kill every person on the map, you could easily use the aimbot to achieve "snapping" to the target or what not.

Want to prove it? Dial Goog-411. That's right, that's Google doing voice-recognition.

While I'm sure you've proved something, it has nothing to do with this. If the task isn't suitable for a bot, don't do it with a bot. You'll notice I also qualified it with a statement "as long as a computer is better at the task" part. Things like social element and group work is going to be too difficult.

your aimbot is going to both be too perfect at headshotting people, and it'll make stupid mistakes that only a bot would

It's a silly point, as it's all down to implementation of the bot. The bot doesn't need to do more than just assist you to be a huge advantage.

One such bot that comes to mind is: tibiabot It only uses data accessible to a person, and only does actions a person could do. And it primarily sits on the background until needed. An example of its use is to automatically hit someone when they're on low health (before they have time to heal) or to automatically heal (with an optional rand(x,y)) delay on low health. Or you can use "combo" features where multiple people playing will all target the same person automatically etc. And even to automatically heal a friend, something that would normally go missed because a player is too focused on something else. It can make a beginner player far more effective player than an advanced player in battles. And is all done without extra data.

Comment Re:It's "bloody" fun! (Score 1) 113

Not even close. As long as computers are better at tasks than humans, the issue remains.

i.e. Think about an aim-bot. A computer is going to be more accurate and faster than a person with the same data. And even if you do the whole streaming-game thing, bot likely will still exist, that process the stream and emulate user actions far quicker than a human could

Comment Re:Creative destruction (Score 1) 324

What industry abuses their customers, dangles features and incentives of questionable value in a quid pro quo for contractual lock-in and then produces unilateral unpredictable billing and surcharges to this captive market? No. You are right! That describes Credit Card companies, the only business hated more by their customer base than the mobile phone providers. That describes Credit Card companies, the only business hated more by their customer base than the mobile phone providers.

Why do you suppose these customers are using a credit card? All my credit cards directly debit my bank account (the full amount) at the end of the month, give me rewards for using it (from the merchant fees), give me interest free purchases (till the end of month), and it's more convenient than carrying around cash. And if at any stage I'm unhappy with it, I'm free to walk away.

And the points about lock-in, unpredictable billing, surcharges and captive market are all crap. Sounds just like more whining by someone who doesn't want to take responsibility for money they've agreed to borrow.

Comment Re:Clarity? (Score 1) 364

My experiences are:
  • My old desktop. Pulse was unusable (I've since got rid of it, and haven't tried later versions of pulseaudio). The two killers were periodic whisper quiet sound and stupidly massive latency (and by stupid, I literally mean like ~4 seconds. I'd get an alert about a new IM message, and realize it's about the message that I opened a few seconds ago and have read, and since closed) I can't imagine trying to play games. Even just hitting the "Play" on a music player was annoying.
  • Laptop. No complaints, worked like any other sound system.
  • Current Desktop: Annoying, but bearable. When more than one application is playing, it plays to different physical headphone jack (my computer has 3). If I'm listening to some music, and open a video (flash or what not). I then have to unplug my headphones and put it in the different jack to get the sound for that. Each application is getting its own jack.

So yeah, it's nice that per-application volume adjustment works for you but I'd hate to think of how long people (including myself) have spent screwing around with pulse audio when freeBSD is still offering a better sound experience.

Comment Re:BZZZT, Wrong! (Score 2, Informative) 1078

I call BS on this one. Every biker I know says a car handles quicker under emergencies than a bike.

As a biker, I'm going to agree with the GP on this. I think there are a number of factors: a) On a bike you tend to stay much more alert and aware of other vehicles. b) The average skill of a biker is higher than a car driver. c) You're only 3 feet wide. It sure makes dodging easier.

I've been in a similar situation, I was going down the road at 40 miles/hour, and a car pulls out of a side street into my lane, stops. Leaving it completely blocked. The only thing I could do, was go into the oncoming lane to get around the car. Fortunately the oncoming lane had moved over just enough that I missed them. I miraculously made it through with only inches on either side. Had it been a car? I would've ploughed into the idiots driver side door (and probably killing her). Or maybe my reflexes would've caused me to try dodge the car, and have had a head-on collision.

Yes I'm aware these are just two datapoints, but perhaps you could quit with the jerk statements:

You don't really have a bike, do you?

Comment Re:Only video sites? (Score 1) 372

Here's an excellent example of that: http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/ As far as I can tell, it's only being used for (plain text) headings. If it wan't for FlashBlock, I wouldn't even think they'd be Flash. The weird thing is that the page actually loads with those as text, then the javascript kicks in and replaces them with Flash.

Are we looking at the same page? Or am I somehow getting served a flash-free page? The only flash I can find is in the rotate-360 degrees (where it shows an interactive 3D model). Even the image gallery supports smooth animation with flash..

Comment Re:Simple formula (Score 1) 978

Your body burns up muscle during starvation (iirc for a number of things, but primarily providing more glucose than the liver can provide). When you run out of muscle, it's game over. If you're an obese person, this will happen before all your fat reserves are used up.

No idea what the GP is on though..

Comment Re:Simple formula (Score 1) 978

In fact, it's quite possible to starve to death with excess body fat still in place, simply because your metabolism slows too much and available energy stores aren't being depleted.

Ugh not even close. If you are fat, your body will run out of protein long before fat and you'll die of something like cardiac arrest.

Weight loss requires the one-two punch of diet and exercise. Dieting reduces intake, and exercise burns energy and, crucially, maintains metabolic rate. Dieting can't do it alone, and nor can exercise, for that matter.

As long as energy usage is higher than intake, either approach can work. No magic here. Also, you're completely over-blowing the whole metabolic rate stuff, it's really not that big of a deal.

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