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Comment The real answer (Score 1) 814

Somewhere in the miasma of bandwidth-wasting childish prattle, someone might have answered this, but I'll go anyway.

Back in the day when print press type was set by hand, it was difficult to keep track of certain things--partly because the type was set backward. It was, for instance, difficult to distinguish between "p" an "q" when viewed backward, hence the phrase, Mind your p's and q's.

Likewise, it was difficult to discern the beginning and end of sentences, further compounded by limited font availability. Editors, too, who spent/spend all day reading/correcting manuscripts found them difficult to read after a while, so easy-to-read manuscripts received preferential treatment. Thus, doubles-spaced sentences and paragraphs became the standard.

Today, with desktop publishing and automatic text justification, extra spaces are unnecessary and actually counter productive. So, if banging out something on a typewriter, two spaces. In a word processor, one space.

(Full disclosure: I am the editor of a print magazine as well as a book author.)

Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 234

Why the parent is modded "Offtopic" is beyond me. TI's draconian attempt to control what consumers do with, to, or on property that they purchased and own is reprehensible.

So, fuck you TI, indeed.

Comment Re:Apples and Oranges (Score 1) 17

Wrong. Voltage in overhead power transmission lines (at least in the U.S.) is 7200 volts minimum per line. A single overhead line is 7200 volts, and a pair is 14,400 (180-degree phase). Even if the urine steam is broken into a series of droplets, 7200 is sufficient voltage to arc between droplets, and obviously enough current to melt you Indiana Jones-Nazi style.
     

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft bots performing denial of service 1

at_slashdot writes: The Perl CPAN Testers have been suffering issues accessing their sites, databases and mirrors. According to a posting on the CPAN Testers' blog, the CPAN Testers' server has been being aggressively scanned by "20-30 bots every few seconds" in what they call "a dedicated denial of service attack"; these bots "completely ignore the rules specified in robots.txt".

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Microsoft-bots-perform-denial-of-service-on-Perl-Testers-906094.html
http://blogs.perl.org/users/cpan_testers/2010/01/msnbot-must-die.html

Submission + - Target pharmacy begins scanning driver's licences 2

Muad'Dave writes: This evening I picked up my regular prescriptions at my local Target pharmacy. As I was paying for them, the cashier asked to 'see my ID'. That was not typical, but I assumed she was going to verify the photo. Before I could stop her, she flipped it over without looking at the front and scanned the 2D barcode on the back. I asked her why she did that, and her answer was that the system 'required' it.

I went to the customer service desk and asked them why they thought they were entitled to scan my license. Their first answer was that it was a convenient way to validate my birthday, and that was all that was on the 2D barcode. When I mentioned that I know there's more data than that, she then said that it was a convenient way to verify that the ID was present. I mentioned that verifying the presence of an ID required more data than the DOB, and she agreed, contradicting her earlier statement that all they scanned was the DOB.

The is a Federal law addressing who can and cannot scan licenses, but it's so full of loopholes as to be useless.

Apparently I'm not the only one bothered by their attitude on privacy.

Have you been subjected to this invasion of your privacy by Target?

Comment SPF, DKIM, Best Practices, none of it matters... (Score 1) 263

...if a handful of AOL users flag your email as spam, AOL will not whitelist your server. This includes double-opt in email sent to verify registration for a newsletter or service. I swear to Bob, AOL use will mark these as spam then complain because they cannot register for your site.

We now simply tell potential registrants who enter an AOL address, "Sorry, get a real email service then we will talk."

Games

On Realism and Virtual Murder 473

Gamasutra has an interesting article about how the push toward realistic graphics and extremely lifelike characters in modern games is making the term "murder simulator" — once laughed off for referring to pixelated dying Nazis — a concept to take more seriously. The author is careful to simply explore the issue, and not come to a specific conclusion; he doesn't say that we should or shouldn't prevent it from happening, only that it's worth consideration. (One section is even titled "Forget the kids," saying that decisions for what children play fall under parental responsibility.) Quoting: "We should start rethinking these issues now before we all slide down the slope together and can't pull ourselves back up again. Or, even worse, before governments step in and dictate what can and can't be depicted or simulated in video games via legislation. ... Obviously, what makes an acceptable game play experience for each player is a personal choice that should be judged on a person-by-person basis (or on a parent to child basis), and I believe it should stay that way. As for me, I'm already drawing the line at BioShock — I can barely stomach the game as it is. Sure, I could play it more and desensitize myself, but I don't want to. And that's just me. It's up to you and a million other adult gamers to decide what's best for yourselves and to draw the line on virtual violence where you feel most comfortable."
Windows

One Year Later, "Dead" XP Still Going Strong 538

snydeq writes "Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows XP a year ago today, no longer selling new copies in most venues. Yet according to a report from InfoWorld, various downgrade paths to XP are keeping the operating system very much alive, particularly among businesses. In fact, despite Microsoft trumpeting Vista as the most successful version of Windows ever sold, more than half of business PCs have subsequently downgraded Vista-based machines to XP, according to data provided by community-based performance-monitoring network of PCs. Microsoft recently planned to further limit the ability to downgrade to XP now that Windows 7 is in the pipeline, but backlash against the licensing scheme prompted the company to change course, extending downgrade rights on new PCs from April 2010 to April 2011."
Image

Comic Artist Detained For Script Containing 9/11 Type Scenarios 441

Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by security at Los Angeles International Airport because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries, Unthinkable. Unthinkable follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type "unthinkable" terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. Sable wrote about his experience saying, "...I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening.' I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated. The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics. I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer's scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks." It's too bad that the TSA can't protect us from summer blockbuster movies and not just graphic novels.
Power

Laser Blast Makes Regular Light Bulbs Super-Efficient 559

guruevi writes with news that a process using an ultra-powerful laser can crank up the efficiency of everyday incandescent light bulbs. Using the same laser process covered several years ago, the tungsten filament has an array of nano- and micro-scale structures formed on the surface making the resulting light as bright as a 100-watt bulb while consuming less electricity than a 60-watt bulb and remaining much cheaper to produce. "The key to creating the super-filament is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam of light called a femtosecond laser pulse. The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second. To get a grasp of that kind of speed, consider that a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire grid of North America onto a spot the size of a needle point. That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures and microstructures that dramatically alter how efficiently light can radiate from the filament."
Science

Should We Just Call Dog Breeds a Different Species? 497

Jamie found an amusing bit this morning on Scientific American where the author proposes that dog breeds are different species. Now some of you might recoil when you hear this suggestion, but if you read the article to see why he makes this suggestion I suspect you'll crack a smile and appreciate the elegance of the solution.

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