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Comment Re:grocery list on the fridge (Score 1) 241

by Cogita (#37570106) Attached to: How often do you put pen to paper?

Sometimes I sketch out an idea. For everything else, no paper.

Dry-erase whiteboards are amazing for this. In an average day at the office, I do far more doodling and scrawling on my giant whiteboard next to my desk than on the notepads lying around me. ...Easier to color-code, too.

I prefer a graph paper notebook. Easier to draw on (for me at least), guide lines for sketching, and I've got a log of every great idea all in one place, no worries of someone coming along and erasing it.

Comment Re:That is seven kinds of awesome (Score 1) 137

by Cogita (#37192374) Attached to: New Video Brings <em>Portal</em> To Life
OTOH, Valve typically has been very amenable to fan material before. If Valve was approached as a production partner, with limited oversight over production, one might even be able to encourage them to chip in as a publicity event. Keep the same director, writing and special effects designer as the production leads, let some valve employees chip in additional writing and or settings/special effects.

the bigger question in my mind is "Is there enough plot to Portal to tell a full length movie?" for all that the game was amazing, the plot basically is, wake up, get tested, break free, kill GLaDOS, escape. Not a lot of room there for dialogue, plot twists, or character development. This clip worked on the basis of capturing the ambiance of the portal universe, the dystopia and the feel of relentless monotony. not sure that would work for a feature length film.
United States

American Grant Writing: Race Matters 464

Posted by Soulskill from the taking-for-granted dept.
PHPNerd writes "You might expect that science, particularly American science, would be color-blind. Though fewer people from some of the country's ethnic minorities are scientists than the proportions of those minorities in the population suggest should be the case, once someone has got bench space in a laboratory, he might reasonably expect to be treated on merit and nothing else. Unfortunately, a study just published in Science suggests that is not true. The study looked at the pattern of research grants awarded by the NIH and found that race matters a lot. Moreover, Asian and Hispanic scientists do just as well as white ones. Black scientists, however, fare badly."

Submission + - Law School Amplifies Critics Through SLAPP Suit (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michigan's Thomas M. Cooley Law School recently filed a lawsuit that appears to be boomeranging in the worst possible way. A little-noticed pseudonymous blogger respectfully disagreed with Cooley's self-awarded number-2 ranking, nationwide (well, perhaps no so respectfully), and had a few other choice things to say. So, Cooley went ahead and hired some lawyers who had graduated from Georgetown and the University of Michigan, to file a lawsuit to unmask the blogger. And EFF cooperating attorney John Hermann got involved. http://www.freep.com/article/20110806/NEWS06/108060378/Lawyer-says-Cooley-Law-School-s-suit-just-trying-silence-critical-bloggers Tech Dirt's Mike Masnick once coined the term "The Streisand Effect" to describe the phenomenon of SLAPP lawsuits that boomerang badly. Is "The Cooley Effect" an even better illustrative term?

Comment Re:Sadly, it was destroyed (Score 1) 139

by Cogita (#36976624) Attached to: Earth May Once Have Had Two Moons

Sadly, it was destroyed during an accidental "mooning" maneuver the Earth was trying to direct at Venus over some perceived sleight from the previous drunken weekend at the Solar System Club*.

*Membership required.

Note: This was unrelated to the events preceding Pluto's expulsion, which was the result of his fraudulent claims to be an only child.

Comment Re:What utter nonsense (Score 1) 159

by Cogita (#36975338) Attached to: The Epidemic of Digital Distraction

Almost no one does just one thing anymore. The screens won't let us.

The screens won't let us?

Yes they will. Seriously! Just close all the windows you have open to things that distract you. The screens won't open them back up! I promise!

You obviously haven't run into rotating popup adds. Close one and two more open. ;-)
Government

Submission + - Murdoch's Drone at The Daily Might Be Illegal (forbes.com)

Submitted by nonprofiteer
nonprofiteer writes: The News Corp iPad newspaper has a drone they've been using for news gathering — mainly flying it over disaster zones in N. Dakota and Alabama. However, FAA regulations on drones are mighty restrictive at the moment, and they're not to be used for commercial purposes (tho law enforcement is free to let them fly). FAA now examining Daily's use of its drone. Could set a precedent for how private businesses can use them.

Comment Re:The Economist? (Score 2) 202

by Cogita (#36964994) Attached to: US Patent Regime Is Absurd
The point of the Economist's article is not that Patents are inherently completely useless. It is that patents, as they currently work, slow innovation. They point out that innovating individuals are no longer able to proceed with their inventions because they are being attacked with patent infringement lawsuits as soon as they prove they have a viable product.

One of the interesting points they bring up is the inherent fallacy in the "defensive patent". Since patents are by definition supposed to be given only for things which take unique insight to develop, if your opponent is infringing on your patent by accident, it did not take unique insight to develop it.

I guess my point is, the Economist is advocating Patent Reform, not abolishment of patents. While I am not associated with them, I believe they would likely advocate Copyright Reform, but not copyright abolishment.

Comment Re:I'l bet... (Score 1) 410

by Cogita (#36960538) Attached to: Swede Arrested For Building Nuclear Reactor

He wasn't even an Eagle Scout at the time. He earned that later. Can you imagine if he was an Eagle Scout? I bet you he either would have figured out some awesome new method for nuclear power generation or would have died in the process as so many Eagle Scouts seem to do in the name of progress (Roger Chaffee, Ellison Onizuka, William McCool).

I Just had to comment, "William McCool" is a freaking awesome name. Any kid with a name like that will go places.

Comment Re:At the ISP's cost? (Score 1) 157

by Cogita (#36908020) Attached to: British ISP Ordered To Block Links to Pirate Site

Relax, people will only pay so much for service from [the ISPs]. Supply and Demand is still in effect.

Supply and demand only works on good which it is possible to give up or replace. Given our societies dependency on the internet, the monopoly or duopoly state of service providers here in the US, and the relative lack of competition or differentiating factors between firms here in the US, it is still concerning. :-\

Comment Re:What's the difference? (Score 1) 83

by Cogita (#36886736) Attached to: China Mandates Wi-Fi Hotspot Traffic Monitoring

I suspect that there are two factors:
...

2. Ideological: American Exceptionalism is a hell of a drug. By virtue of our status as the Good Guys, what we do is Good until proven evil, and often even Good after being proven evil. The sinister, repressive, communist state of the cunning chinaman, on the other hand...

We've always been at war with Eurasia, perhaps?

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