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Comment Re:Huh? - Plenty of work to keep both pilots busy (Score 4, Informative) 553

There's an article, by a commercial pilot, about the myths of jets able to "fly themselves" at http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/2009/11/19/askthepilot342 . You have to scroll down a little to get to the meat of it, but there's plenty up there to keep 2 people busy.

He also talks about how busy things can get in an earlier article http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/2007/08/31/askthepilot243/index.html .

Comment Still fun to play - eduke32 or dosbox (Score 1) 195

Duke3D is still a lot of fun to play, especially for those of us who had a blast with it at LAN parties.

There are excellent ports and improvements on the sourcecode, like eduke32.

Beyond that, the DOS version runs great under DOSBox, and uses dosbox's built-in IPX system for multiplayer over TCP/IP. That also works crossplatform between Windows and Intel macs.

The other great thing about duke3d was the unique sounds on each level. In multiplayer you hear where people are when they open doors, break mirrors, or trigger a certain area's unique thing, and you know where to go to get 'em. Quake sounds were too generic to do that.

Comment It's good to have the spotlight shone on apathy. (Score 3, Insightful) 101

"ACTA comes from utterly fraudulent governance, and not from the public's mandate."

And which public would that be? The one's that take their civic responsibility seriously, or the public that yells at their politician through the TV? Your complaints about "fraudulent governance" or "public mandate" would actually mean something if people were actually participating and the entire failure was they were simply being overpowered. But it's rather hard to be sympathetic over someone who simply lies there and takes it. Get back with me on "fraudulent governance" and "public mandate" once the global public grows a backbone and actually starts understanding that mandates don't come from silence, but faulty governance does.

Comment Re:What about this? (Score 1) 307

I dont think you understand SOX, nevermind HIPAA. SOX requires increased corporate accounting controls and increases the penalties for white collar crimes related to them, including corporate fraud accountability. Software auditors would have nothing to do with it. The amount of a software violation would never approach fraud, because in order for a violation to be material, the company would be have to be small enough that they would never get audited (the BSA is not going to waste time auditing a 2 man operation that is missing 3 seats and only makes 20k a year, nevermind that this company wouldnt be public and therefore SOX wouldnt apply).

Comment Re:ELUA? (Score 1) 307

So. They still need a court order to actually authorize that 'authority' (unless you're silly enough to let them just waltz in the door), and they only get that court order if your lawyers don't earn their retainer by convincing the judge that (for example) allowing such a clause means violating medical record privacy laws (or whatever your industry ' jurisdictional equivalent is) and hence that particular clause of the contract is invalid. If auditors appear, do as other posters have suggested - ask for their court order then throw them out, and call your lawyers. If you're a tiny nonprofit or similar without lawyers a) why the hell weren't you using FOSS in the first place since you have no money, and b) call your local bar association or equivalent and find out who does pro bono for non-profits locally.

Comment Re:OpenGL has/had Killer Apps! (Score 1) 515

You mentioned Quake 3 (which is just a little over a decade old) that got me thinking, what software DOES run OpenGL?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OpenGL_programs

The fact that I didn't know most of those titles (many of which I have or have played) had support for OpenGL is a testament to the lack of marketing and the push the OpenGL community needs to make to get people excited about it.

For the most part, these titles rely on underlying toolkits that smooth the management of OpenGL and DX interfaces. World of Warcraft does this, for example in order to ship on MacOS and Windows, so you can see how it would not be a great marketing win for OpenGL.

Still, it's an all too often overlooked fact that emerging gaming markets such a mobile and every console except XBox require something other than DX and in almost all of those cases, that's OpenGL. You pretty much have to start with OpenGL support and then decide if you want to support DX or not.

Comment Re:1:1 (Score 1) 582

Zero is not a number, it is a concept.

We could argue about whether or not numbers are anything other than concepts, but zero is a number. It is as much of a number as 1, 2, 3, ......

One of the big hangups in early mathematics was that they were confused about the very thing you are: namely there is a difference between 0 and non-existence. I can ask what speed an object at rest has, and the answer is 0 (in whichever units you want). The answer is not "it does not have one" or that the speed does not exist. If you try doing velocity addition, or momentum conservation etc on an object at rest you will see that you do need to stick in '0' for the velocity.

(You may object -- there is no difference between an object not having momentum and thus not counting it, or having zero momentum. The easiest way to see a difference is to go to a difference reference frame -- then the momentums all transform. It would not make sense for a non-existant momentum to transform).

The real problem with division by zero is that
    0 x = 0
for any x. If we just have access to the RHS, we have no information about x, so asking "what do we need to multiply 0 by in order to get zero" the answer is "anything you want".

As to the question of whether or not infinity is a number, or simply a limiting process depends. There are not just one set of numbers, and you can actually define infinity to be a point, or simply a limit. (There are even multiple ways of "adding infinity" the most common of which in complex anaylsis is to add a "point at infinity" in which case -inf and +inf are the same thing.)

But it is true the most common way of dealing with numbers is to treat infinity as a limit.

Comment e-ink, seriously? (Score 1) 82

I'm sure this device has a lot going for it, but for my reading enjoyment, I'm still waiting for devices with better screens from qualcomm/mirasol or pixel qi. In nicer packages, I hope. I don't need two flawed screens hinged together, I need a single screen that's more functional than e-ink.

Comment Re:the school district model (Score 1) 620

My problem with this logic is why not give me a raise at the price of the coffee, so I can buy my own coffee. What if I don't like coffee. I can save up 2 coffees for a red bull.

Because the raise I can give you for the price of coffee is far less than what it will cost you buy your own coffee. Buying in bulk has savings. So does the decreased transaction costs of not needing to recoup costs of other coworkers drinking your coffee (intentional or accidental stealing). So does the ability to brew an entire pot at a time, saving on filters and coffee pots needed. Also, there's the time. It costs time to go to Starbucks or have everyone make their own.

Buying coffee increases comradery around the office to some degree, as it creates more of a community. This helps intraoffice interaction.

Also, it's pretty well proven that most people value $1 of coffee more than the dollar, as a gift.

Our per-employee, per-month coffee costs are $5/employee/month. That's $2.50 more in your paycheck (or $1.80 after payroll taxes, or maybe $1.50 after all taxes if you're in a low 16% bracket). That's less than a cup at Starbucks, which is a few blocks away at any rate.

So, wouldn't you rather have all the coffee you want at the office? Even if you don't, cannot you imagine the vast majority of employees choosing that?

Comment Re:Motion blur and bloom effects (Score 0) 521

If you're talking about this, then it's because you are getting what you see on TV confused with what you see directly with the naked eye.

You don't get the wagon wheel effect with the naked eye.

You also can't actually outrun an explosion or dodge helicopter blades.

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