Comment Re:Why post this? (Score 1) 217
These troll articles usually get more comments than the average ones. Everyone gets to feel smart and superior to both the poster and the editor. You should say thank you.
Comment Re:Same concept between the modded xboxes and this (Score 1) 298
Thats silly, how would a ball image the table surface? They have no sensing capabilities at all...
Actually some balls are quite sensitive and can easily detect being dragged over a surface.
Comment Re:Robots.txt (Score 1) 549
^W instead of ^h?
Tries it out... delete's whole word at once... Yeah! Thank you man!
Comment Storm8 Login sends your phone number + imei (Score 2, Interesting) 149
I don't know if they are doing it like this any more, but all storm8 apps are the same game with different graphics.
1. Connect to storm8 server and send your phone number + imei
2. Server returns a session id you can use for processing your commands
3. basic http queries control the app
This is why when the games first came out you couldn't move your account from one device to another, they used the device id as your user id. They have since implemented portable username but by default they still send all your shit across the network. You can snoop packets and see the phone number of every user that plays on your network.
I wrote a lot of bots for all the games. I haven't played in a few months... Setup an http proxy in your iPhone network settings and all this is very obvious.
Comment Re:Slow news day? (Score 1) 138
I mean shit, there's a lot of trust involved in working for two weeks with the understanding that there will be a paycheck on payday!
That's actually an interesting point. I have a salaried job where I am paid monthly IN ADVANCE. So my first day on the job I was immediately handed a nice big check. In all my years working I've never encountered anything like it but I admit while I have "better" job offers come along every so often I can't see going back to biweekly after the fact paycheck.
Comment Isolate the genes... (Score 1) 599
Isolate the genes from this girl and send people out to populate mars or the moon on one way trips. Imagine uninterrupted lifetimes spent exploring the stars. She's just like Wolverine just a bit smaller.
Comment It's a matter of context (Score 1) 541
GP post was an awesome if unintended troll.
So many posts about this. Just stop people. The simple answer is you can only prove something is impossible if you completely know all the rules of the domain / universe - like math and logic.
In real life it's not possible because we don't know all the rules.
Comment More anecdotal evidence (Score 1) 357
I use SD cards for distributing software to PDA's. I've gone through several hundred. In my experience they either become read only or unreadable. So far I haven't had any noticeable file corruption. We do wipe the cards before updating them with new data so it's possible there are dead areas on the card that the SD controller is finding and avoiding for us.
We use them more like rewritable CD's rather than hard drives though so ymmv.
Comment Re:What about ... (Score 4, Interesting) 606
Yes! Bluetooth Serial I/O and I would write all my hardware control interfaces for iPhone.
Comment Usable Navigation (Score 4, Interesting) 606
Google Maps on the phone is useless for actually getting somewhere. It draws a nice line but without turn by turn navigation or even detecting when you're off the path and re-calculating it's no good for driving.
I know it says it's not meant for that but that strikes me as trying to cover up being inadequate with some after the fact documentation and legalese.
Comment <script type="text/python"> (Score 4, Interesting) 294
I would rather have the browser guys work on getting something OTHER than javascript into the browsers. Javascript is getting better, but you only polish a turd so much.
Comment Reminds me of Nightfall (Score 2, Interesting) 57
Civilization periodically destroyed every period due to the unique orbit of the planet.
Submission + - Lakota Indians claim 5 US states; Issue Passports
Crazy Taco writes: The Lakota Indians have just delivered a message to the state department saying they are unilaterally withdrawing from all treaties signed with the US government, some of them more than 150 years old. According to the article:
Somehow I doubt this is going to get very far, especially with the people who live in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. I haven't been hearing a lot of agitating from those states for forming the Confederate States of Lakota, v 2.0.
The article also states that:
The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.
Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free — provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence — an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.
Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' Means said.
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.
Somehow I doubt this is going to get very far, especially with the people who live in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. I haven't been hearing a lot of agitating from those states for forming the Confederate States of Lakota, v 2.0.
Submission + - Solar Panels at $1 per Watt are cheaper than coal (solveclimate.com)
Nesster writes: "A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That's the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. So far, there have been 83 bids and the price has reached $10,300. The auction is over on December 27th at 17:13:10 PST. Essentially, they've figured out how to print solar cells on thin sheets of aluminum with a printing press."
Submission + - Would You Boost Your Own Brain Power?
Hugh Pickens writes: "There are several drugs on the market that improve memory, concentration, planning and reduce impulsive behavior and risky decision-making, and many more are being developed. Doctors already prescribe these drugs to treat cognitive disabilities and improve quality of life for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury and cognitive-enhancing drugs are increasingly being used in non-medical situations such as shift work and by active military personnel. Although the appeal of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers — to help one study longer, work more effectively or better manage everyday stresses — is understandable, potential users, both healthy and diseased, must consider the pros and cons of their choices. Read the story from Nature magazine on the ethical issues raised by the use of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers and the questions raised on how the use of cognitive enhancers should be regulated in healthy people."
