Comment Makes it official (Score 2) 951
Everyone will be skipping Windows 8. Seems like every other version of Windows is determined by boneheads with a barely functional magic 8 ball.
Comment Re:Thanks for all the Fish Wrapper (Score 1) 1521
From another of us with low UID and remembering chips and dips, thanks for your years running the site. Good luck in the future Rob.
Comment Re:Get professional help (Score 1) 20
Sorry - that was me
Comment Why Africa? (Score 5, Insightful) 229
There are plenty of good projects wherever you happen to be right now. Schools (public and private), libraries, senior centers are all always looking for volunteers to help make their environments better places for those who use their services. Sure its not as impressive as going overseas to do some work, but it also has many headaches that the overseas visit will not.
Comment Slanted article is slanted (Score 2) 370
Greenpeace just like any other group with a political agenda (like NRA, Sierra Club, PETA, MADD) has to provide the shock value to get its point across. How many more pieces of paper would be wasted if it weren't for the ability to send email or post on grandma's wall. Sending or writing a check is nearly extinct. Sure we have a heck of a lot plugged in, but servers are becoming exponentially more efficient as time progresses. With technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization, the peak load of infrastructure has promise to slowly decrease over the next decade. Remember the internet, as far reaching as it is, is still a relatively young technology that is getting its legs under it. Give it time, and the cost of powering all of those servers slowly moves companies to reduce their consumption or supplement with sustainable green power.
Comment Sorta back myself (Score 1) 5
I've been paying a lot more attention to
Comment Compare to phone company (Score 1) 7
Phone companies have the same disconnect fees when you sign a contract now-a-days. I've switched entirely to cell phone only. I figure if I'm going to pay for the cell phone, there's no need for redundancy.
Comment Re:You can't change humans into monkeys (Score 1) 31
Flying saucers != religious underpinnings. Statistically speaking they're a near-certainty.
Comment Re:3 months? (Score 1) 9
Not viable for certain locales in the US. Its far more affordable for me to live 50 miles away from DC metro and commute 100 miles a day than to live in closer with my family of five. Its not just housing that gets more expensive as you get closer to metro areas, but all of the associated things that go with it as well (groceries etc). I could work in my home town, but then I couldn't afford my home
Comment How about proxying your connection out? (Score 1) 3
VPN tunnels? Anonymous proxy services? I know to get around the great firewall of China, all one needed to do was connect to a VPN server where network services were not constrained.
Comment Re:LOL (Score 1) 11
I do, at least momentarily, use that little bit in the bottom to help wash the sides, then pull the plug and let it all drain down...
Blizzcon 2008 Wrap-Up 173
This year's Blizzcon saw 15,000 gamers descend from 27 different countries to take part in two days of discussions, tournaments, and sneak peaks at upcoming releases. Several big announcements were scattered among a raft of new details about Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King. The new information went a long way toward drumming up interest for what already appear to be worthy successors to old favorites. Read on for more.
Robot Band Is a Hit
5
Greg Locke, a machine designer and bass player, has created a self-playing rock band that is becoming an Internet sensation. "The Trons" took six months to build, and Locke lists The Velvet Underground and washing machines as their biggest influences. The band consists of Wiggy, the lead guitarist, Ham, on rhythm guitar, Swamp the drummer, and keyboard player Fifi. Along with their success on YouTube, The Trons have performed five live gigs in their hometown of Hamilton in New Zealand. I wonder what their groupies are like.
A Really, Really Ex-Parrot 91
gyrogeerloose writes "According to a National Geographic News story, what may be the fossilized wing bone of an ancient parrot has been dubbed by its discoverers 'The Danish Blue' in honor of the famous Dead Parrot Sketch. If the 54 million year old bone did in fact belong to a parrot, it would be 'the oldest and most northerly remains of a parrot ever discovered.' There is some dispute among paleontologists about whether the bone was indeed that of a parrot. If it turns out to be so, however, it never had a chance to pine for the fjords — they were not carved out until an ice age millions of years after the bird lived."
Global Warming Only a Theory, Says School Board 1089
BendingSpoons writes "A Seattle school board has placed a moratorium on screenings of 'An Inconvenient Truth', having found its subject matter too controversial. Echoing the language of the evolution debate, the school board found that students must be told that global warming is only a theory and presented with an opposing viewpoint. The ban was prompted by the complaints of a parent: '"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."'"
