Yeah... call center full of geeks reading /. because we can't get anywhere else online, and now there's video being loaded. I'm sure that IT will filter us in the face shortly, and come slap us with rulers for watching not-work-related video with company bandwidth. =|

So, I guess this means we've got to kill it with fire on an epic scale, eh?

I couldn't find that package, so I decided to sudo aptitude install everything in subsection cli-mono instead.

Would that work?

You forgot to put on your sunglasses, but I can still take the cue:
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

It tends to be overcome with a simple r:
'niner', 'ten' are now completely different lip movements. (Additionally, it breaks a tonal similarity between 9 and 5 up for people who are listening to me.)
This tends to be even easier to disambiguate in context.

I use 'niner' on a regular basis in my line of work, in which I give and receive a lot of numbers over the phone, as well as names and locations.

I'd think that this technology would use a similar method to disambiguate between 5, 9, and 10.

(Of asides and theory: I run under the assumption that most software that listens to voices for recognition are listening not for the lead or tail sounds of a number or letter, but for the shape your mouth makes and the resulting sound that comes with it. If you try saying numbers 0-10 without moving your jaw or tongue, you'll notice how some sounds are the same as well (eeo, uhn, oo, wee, or, i, ih, ehun, eeh, i, ehn, for those who skipped the practice level). Because of this, 'niner' becomes important, simply to change that aforementioned sound to 'ihr'. I think this theory holds a little weight, since I can log in to the voice system of my financial institution using that same method, and not have my lips read.)

Sorry, but I have to call you on this one, from personal experience.

Before doing the MS licensing dance from the website to link my new machine to my account (Old one was stolen, meh), if I were logged in on my Live account, but disconnected, all my downloaded games were stuck in Trial status.

The moment I connected, though, it would acquire the full license for my games and let me play them.

This was a pain in the ass when all I had was mobile broadband -- I'd have to leave my laptop turned on, share the connection with the 360, and log on that way. Usually took two tries, but then it'd let me play more than just chapter 1 of Ikaruga.

Quirky. I've had the best service ever with the credit union I'm with.

I can find ATMs everywhere.

Even when I'm not in my home state, I usually can run into an ATM that's supported by my CU to get free withdrawals (found that out on a trip to Minnesota, US, and again on a trip to Georgia, US).

I recently needed a loan to get my vehicle back after needing emergency repairs.
I called them on a Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday morning, the money I needed to pick up my vehicle was in my account and ready to go.
I didn't have to go do any paperwork or anything special. I just called.

I haven't paid any BS fees. The few times I actually managed an overdraft, I was charged the overdraft fee and that's it. I couldn't deposit anything for two weeks, but there were no fees other than that one overdraft.

This is unlike what has happened to a good friend of mine: He managed to overdraft by 47 cents (an automated transfer for something hit right after paying rent, heh).
The bank charged him for the overdraft, which is right and fine, albeit $40 is a pretty steep overdraft charge.
Then a week later, they hit him for a 'service fee' for the overdraft ($35).
A week after that, they hit him again for another 'service fee' ($35 again).
As a result, he gets to pay over $100 for overdrafting by 47 cents with a regular bank.
My CU would have charged him $29 for the same thing. That's it.

The few banks I've tried have pretty much scared me off with their fee schedules.

I puckered around with it this morning, and found that yes, you can categorize games with tags, and pull a specific tag up when trying to choose certain game types.

I've got Lord of the Rings Online, EVE, and Anarchy Online sitting under "MMORPG", Torchlight under "Crawler", Iji under "Platformer", and so on.

I've yet to see if the new overlay will work with a couple of games on this list (AO, Iji) since it didn't before, but I won't be disappointed if not.

Surprisingly, because it slowed down impulse shopping, and by the time we've found the game on the site, our urge to "buy the game if the screenshots or video looks good" is gone.

Also, as it was pointed out on the forums (can't link to the post for now -- behind the corp wall of fire) that this being broken under these particular configurations may speed up Impulse shopping, which could finally make Stardock a threat to Steam, since Impulse already had that "It just f'n works." thing going on. None of this "Open a browser to look, with purchasing client open at the same time" stuff -- See a thumbnail, click for screenshot, close lightbox when done, and if you want it, add it to the damn cart.

But that's just my opinion on that.

With this beta release of Steam, they fix an interesting issue that cropped up with the release of Windows 7.

For users of that particular OS who have either removed Internet Explorer, or did not have it installed at all when the OS was installed (see: Europe, and the rest of the world that couldn't even stand the browser), Steam was half-broken. One could not see any screenshots for a game before purchasing. Anything that needed a popup window in Steam would NOT default to the main browser installed on the system.

People complained about this, asking Steam to start looking for the default browser on the system so they could at least go back to browsing for games and possibly buying them.

It's good to see them actually address that issue.

Maybe I'll buy Space Giraffe to celebrate.

Smoooooooooth, Orb.

That should have read:
(Computrace, that is, with remote data deletion. It worked by allowing the computer to receive commands remotely once it hits the internet anywhere long enough to do its job. A delete job can be sent to the unit, wiping the drive. It was designed to survive some hardware replacements, as well, so swapping out the HDD isn't enough. At the time I did my research, there was a TSR that would regenerate itself on any Windows OS if the entire hardware batch wasn't swapped, but by the time you've done that, you could have just bought a replacement machine!)

I'm almost a little surprised that the school wasn't being penalized for this beyond the "Don't turn on the cameras, teehee~" I'm seeing here.

The concept of the technology makes sense -- get a visual of a thief using the stolen laptop. I'm okay with that. Wipe the Hard Drive on behalf of the customer's request if the unit is stolen and has information on it that shouldn't get out? Cool with me -- that's a feature people were able to buy on Dell's business laptops (Computrace, that is, with remote

The student did not report the laptop as stolen, so there's no feasible reason to be turning on the camera.
The school did not give birth to the student. There is no reason to monitor the student like a parent should.

I'm happy to see that the hammer is starting to fall in favor of students using these units, but will the hammer hit the nail on the head?

(Of note, I read the main article, but behind the corp walls of fire, I can't read some of the supporting articles and information.)

Hello from a tourist trap city in Florida!
I've been asked for directions many a time by someone who's new to the area, or just traveling through.

I'd have loved to be able to show them a map of how to get to there from here, and know that they can see it. Squinting at a small screen to visualize directions isn't likely to be as effective as projecting a map on the back of a tray at a local Subway.

I can say something like:
"Take Busch to 56th, turn right. Take 56th to Hillsborough, turn left. Take Hillsborough to Orient Road, turn right. Hard Rock's on your left." and get looked at strangely.
Same happens with "Take Busch to I-275, and grab the southbound ramp. Merge into I-4 by taking the right-side ramp. Get off on the Orient Road Exit, and turn left. Hard Rock is on your right."

People are visual creatures when traveling, using things to set waypoints, making it easier for them to find their way home.
Some of them just forget to print directions before they go places.
So projecting something in a minute's time would be useful.

(At the same time, I worry about projecting, because someone will invariably use a mapping application with a GPS, project the map on the windshield while driving, and manage to run someone over.)

It has a varying level of difficulty, depending on which PSP you've picked up.

As of my last foray into that realm:

PSP-1000 was the easiest to exploit, depending on firmware version. May need to have a go at it with a service mode battery if the firmware version is too high.

PSP-2000 usually requires a service mode battery and a 256 MB or larger memory stick to exploit. The batteries are cheap (about $7 online if you know wher).

PSP-3000 had only a HEN exploit to date, which would allow one to run homebrew, but no PSP or PSX games. There's a few scattered claims that one could get a partial CFW onto the unit that would enable the playing of backups, but I've not had that experience.

PSP GO is a STOP. Return this box to the nearest retailer for full refund. You can't even play your legally purchased UMD games on this device, from what I understand.

Where I am, $100 at a bar is about 15-20 mixed drinks, IF you don't tip the bartender.

That's a dangerous thing to do.

Not tip the bartender, that is.
You could end up with a case of tetrahydrozoline poisoning if the barkeep is the spiteful kind.