Comment Re:Makes sense? (Score 1) 436
Because unofficial public betas are a great way to evaluate, test, and fix your product. See Siri and iOS maps.
Comment Re:Honestly (Score 1) 436
Which is really sad, because (when the drivers worked properly) the cards I've had from them in the past were great. The X-Fi on Windows 7 really was good, and did give a noticable improvement over the on-board audio on my mobo. But you are quite right: they are certainly driving me away and I'm fairly sure I will not even bother putting the X-Fi back in my computer now.
Although I suppose one (good?) thing Creative did was show me what the new (friendlier!) blue screen in Windows 8 looks like: http://i.imgur.com/lk57d.png
Comment Honestly (Score 1) 436
I've been using Windows 8 since it was released on MSDN/TechNet on three computers (two desktop machines and an ultrabook). I'm getting used to it, and actually starting to like the interface.
My biggest gripes:
- driver/software support for my Samsung Series 9 for Windows 8 is currently non-existant (all h/w installed fine, touchpad is a bit flaky though)
- driver support from Creative for my SB XFi is pretty pathetic, and buggy
Otherwise, it seems to run smoother and overall feels more polished. Yes, I know this is
Submission + - Microsoft Surface Launching October 26th (slashgear.com)
__aaelyr464 writes: Microsoft is set to launch their Surface Tablet alongside Windows 8 on October 26th of this year. The initial press surrounding the tablet looked promising; however, Microsoft has caught some heat regarding their tablet--notably how it could alienate OEM partners in the long run. In their annual report, Microsoft stated, "The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices." Pricing on Surface tablets isn’t clear at this point, but Microsoft has previously stated that Surface prices will be in line with comparable ARM tablets or Intel ultrabook PCs, hinting at a range of $500-$1000.
Submission + - Robot which wins rock, paper, scissors every time (ibtimes.co.uk)
asavin writes: Scientists from the University of Tokyo have created a robot which can beat any human at rock, paper, scissors 100 per cent of the time. It is able to recognise in a millisecond what shape the hand will form and move accordingly.
The creators of the robot are hoping similar technology will one day be adapted and be used in situation where split second co-operation between a human and a robot is vital, for instance when dealing with volatile materials.
The creators of the robot are hoping similar technology will one day be adapted and be used in situation where split second co-operation between a human and a robot is vital, for instance when dealing with volatile materials.
Submission + - Game of Thrones: Bush's Head Gets a Makeover (inquisitr.com)
__aaelyr464 writes: After apologizing for using a likeness of former President George W. Bush's head in the season finale of the first season of "Game of Thrones", HBO has digitally altered the offending scene. From the commentary: "The last head on the left is George Bush. George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had around."
After releasing an formal apology, HBO proceeded to yank the episode off all digital platforms, as well as halt distribution of the Season 1 box sets. The episode is now back with an altered head; more hair, less chin. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss later clarified, "We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush."
After releasing an formal apology, HBO proceeded to yank the episode off all digital platforms, as well as halt distribution of the Season 1 box sets. The episode is now back with an altered head; more hair, less chin. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss later clarified, "We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush."
Submission + - Sexual Selection Studies Indicate Females Gain Advantage from Multiple Partners (redorbit.com)
horselight writes: "Bateman's original study of fruit flies from 60 years ago is probably the most over cited work on the subject of sexual selection in existence. It's fundamental premise, unchallenged for 60 years, holds that males gain evolutionary advantage from multiple sex partners while females do not. Researchers have reproduced the conditions of Bateman's original experiments and have determined his assumption and methods were flawed at multiple levels and he missed the mark completely. Females and their offspring benefit even more from multiple partners in mating strategies than do males."
Submission + - The Physics of the Knuckleball 1
snoop.daub writes: R.A. Dickey, pitcher for the New York Mets, has been in the news this week after two dominant pitching performances in a row, holding opponents to one hit in each of the games for the first time since Dave Stieb did it in 1988. He has taken over as the league's only knuckleball pitcher after Tim Wakefield retired last season. But just what is it about the knuckleball that makes it hard to hit? Conventional wisdom has it that the lack of spin on the knuckleball causes it to move in completely unpredictable ways, even changing directions in mid-flight. In the last few years, there has been a lot of good science done to understand baseball pitch trajectories, and a few months ago Prof. Alan M. Nathan showed that knuckleballs aren't really so different from other pitches. It turns out that the same 9-parameter equation that can be used to describe other pitch trajectories applies just as well to the knuckleball. The difference appears to be that, like in a chaotic system, knuckleballs depend sensitively on the initial conditions, so that small changes can cause randomly different forces at the start of the pitch which determine the resultant trajectory. Much of this and similar work depends on the Pitchf/x tool, which has recorded the complete trajectory, spin angle and spin rate of every MLB pitch since 2007! Baseball really does have the best sports stats geeks.
Submission + - "State-sponsored" zero-day exploit hits aerospace firm (sophos.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A European aeronautical supplier's website has been hacked, and infected with an as-yet unpatched Microsoft vulnerability that has been linked to state-sponsored cyberwarfare attacks.
The infection was discovered when a computer user attempted to visit the affected website, and received a warning message that a file on the site was infected by code which attempts to exploit the vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services which could allow Remote Code Execution (CVE-2012-1889).
According to security researcher Graham Cluley, "We know that a tried-and-trusted method of hacking into large companies and organisations is to target the supply chain. The theory goes that rather than try to hack a company which may have robust security practices and security teams, the bad actor can instead attack a smaller supplier who are less well placed to notice the security breach."
Sophos which identified the security breach, has declined to name the company involved — but has raised its threat level to "Critical".
The infection was discovered when a computer user attempted to visit the affected website, and received a warning message that a file on the site was infected by code which attempts to exploit the vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services which could allow Remote Code Execution (CVE-2012-1889).
According to security researcher Graham Cluley, "We know that a tried-and-trusted method of hacking into large companies and organisations is to target the supply chain. The theory goes that rather than try to hack a company which may have robust security practices and security teams, the bad actor can instead attack a smaller supplier who are less well placed to notice the security breach."
Sophos which identified the security breach, has declined to name the company involved — but has raised its threat level to "Critical".
Comment Alert has been downgraded (Score 3, Insightful) 50
Chance is now about 20% for 29 December. This ABC article is a bit alarmist and unnecessarily scaring the masses.
Submission + - Wireless Charging on the Droid Bionic? (fcc.gov)
__aaelyr464 writes: New documents pertaining to the ever-hyped and much-delayed Motorola Droid Bionic have surfaced on the FCC website. Perusing through the documents, I noticed a very interesting feature: an inductive charging coil (click 'Internal Photos'), built into the battery door housing. It seems Motorola may have some tricks up its sleeve yet--but will it be enough to beat out the competition (read: Samsung Galaxy S2, iPhone 5)?
Comment Re:In retrospect (Score 1) 651
No offense, but how are you only managing to scrape a $50k salary after 16 years of (I assume) work experience in mechanical engineering? Just trying to understand the circumstance here--AFAIK you should be making well more than that by now.
Comment The Real Problem (Score 1) 651
Clearly, there are too many spies SAPPIN' MA SENTRIES.
Comment Re:He also asked the crew of the Discovery... (Score 1) 185
Have you ever kissed a girl?
...and all of
Comment Done. (Score 1) 318
P=NP when N=1. There I solved it, where's my $1 million?
