Comment Re:When you're done... (Score 1) 289
Yes, turning hard drives into clocks can be fun...
Comment Re:Alcohol "causing" crime (Score 4, Insightful) 393
If I could, I'd live in a dry county. It drives away the people who need to have intoxicants to survive.
Yeah... when the US made alcohol illegal in the 1920s all the drinkers just moved to Canada. It certianly didn't suddenly make a large percentage of the population criminals, divert tons of resources and money to enforce it, and of course it didn't make the mob rich.
I think you need to move out of your neighborhood into a nice gated community that doesn't allow those pesky lower class people in.
For the record, I don't drink.
Comment Let me make clocks out of them... (Score 1) 546
Comment You would get... 'Into the Looking Glass' (Score 1) 395
A series of novels by John Ringo and Travis Taylor is what happens when you get a geek who (co)writes a novel.
It's filled with rednecks with big guns and tough marines who spend their time between blowing up alien monsters discussing the finer points of quantum mechanics.
It's sort of like reading a WWII novel while attending a college physics class and the two people behind you are talking about last nights Babylong 5 episode.
(Not that I ever had that happen to me...)
Submission + - Has the internet killed game AI?
iansmith writes: "After the amazing AI and scripted plot of Half-Life my friends and I were looking forward to what would be next. It seemed that great things were on the way.
But what came next was, nothing. We have better graphics and more objects are physics enabled, but the AI is still in the stone age.
Next year Half-Life will be 10 years old. So the question is, why is the AI in FPS shooters so terrible? Why did it peak 9 years ago? I've been using the same trick of hide JUST behind a corner and shoot some poor grunts elbow until they die since Doom.
I understand AI is hard, I mean *REALLY* hard. Expecting fast improvement is not realistic, but I am not kidding when I say I don't think current AI is any better than it was 9 years ago, and thats just sad. A top of the line game machine today is a 3GHz dual-core machine with a powerful GPU vs the 233MHz machine I used with no hardware acceleration, so you can't tell me it's lack of processing power.
A possible answer is that with the rise of the internet, game developers got an out. Single player has become almost a second priority to multi-player deathmatch. Why bother creating good AI when you can just have people play against actual human opponents? There is just no incentive to spend time and money on improving the AI when you can just dodge the whole idea of it.
So can anyone point me to a ray of hope, or is the future just limited more of the same old FPS we all love and hate?"
But what came next was, nothing. We have better graphics and more objects are physics enabled, but the AI is still in the stone age.
Next year Half-Life will be 10 years old. So the question is, why is the AI in FPS shooters so terrible? Why did it peak 9 years ago? I've been using the same trick of hide JUST behind a corner and shoot some poor grunts elbow until they die since Doom.
I understand AI is hard, I mean *REALLY* hard. Expecting fast improvement is not realistic, but I am not kidding when I say I don't think current AI is any better than it was 9 years ago, and thats just sad. A top of the line game machine today is a 3GHz dual-core machine with a powerful GPU vs the 233MHz machine I used with no hardware acceleration, so you can't tell me it's lack of processing power.
A possible answer is that with the rise of the internet, game developers got an out. Single player has become almost a second priority to multi-player deathmatch. Why bother creating good AI when you can just have people play against actual human opponents? There is just no incentive to spend time and money on improving the AI when you can just dodge the whole idea of it.
So can anyone point me to a ray of hope, or is the future just limited more of the same old FPS we all love and hate?"
Submission + - Reboot to get Reboot
superstick58 writes: "Reboot, one of the first CG animated TV shows is returning as a trilogy of feature-length films. This was a great cartoon for me as a budding geek in the mid 90's. Perhaps it also helped stimulate other developing nerds to embrace the computers that are supposedly run by these enjoyable CG characters."
Submission + - University Security Bans Vmware for Sensitive Data
EnimyMyne writes: The University of Minnesota security group has declared that vmware and other server virtualization tools not be used to host sensitive data:
"As a general rule, using Virtual Machines (VMWare, Virtual PC, etc) for
servers that hold protected or private data is not acceptable.
Protected and private data include grades, credit card numbers, social
security numbers, Private Health Information (PHI), HIPAA and FERPA data,
etc."
The following rationale was given:
"The main concern is the risk of a low-security VM being compromised, and
the hackers breaking out of the VM into the host OS. If the same physical
hardware also is running high security VMs holding protected data, it
could be compromised. And given the consequences of breaches these days
(massive fines, losing grants, legal action, etc.) we need to be
particularly careful about this.
There are an infinite number of scenerios here, with VMs of the same
security level on the same hardware, or different security levels."
How valid is this claim given the great advantages of virtualization and the fact that large enterprises are increasing their use of products such as vmware? I haven't seen any articles on slashdot discussing particular vulnerabilities of vmware over standard server hardware.
Submission + - Flash based PC for ssh-based router?
iansmith writes: "I have an internal network I reach through a Linux box by using ssh to tunnel in via the internet.
The problem is I want to be able to reach this network even if the linux box(es) crash or get powered down.
Are there any flash based linux boxes (like the linksys wireless router) that have at least two ethernet ports to allow me to connect two networks together? It does not need to be fast or full featured, I just want a single service (ssh) running without needing to worry about an entire computer.
I'd use an old Cisco router (don't we all have a box of those in a closet?) but without firmware updates, no way will I put one on my network."
The problem is I want to be able to reach this network even if the linux box(es) crash or get powered down.
Are there any flash based linux boxes (like the linksys wireless router) that have at least two ethernet ports to allow me to connect two networks together? It does not need to be fast or full featured, I just want a single service (ssh) running without needing to worry about an entire computer.
I'd use an old Cisco router (don't we all have a box of those in a closet?) but without firmware updates, no way will I put one on my network."
