Comment Re:Sample size too small? (Score 5, Informative) 192
Surely 13 people is too few to draw meaningful conclusions?
Yes. Especially if not compared to people reading a book under a 60 watt incandescent light bulb.
Comment Re:What efficient substitute for Internet radio? (Score 1) 314
So if someone wants to listen to music other than the music that the major labels pay the FM stations to play, how should he more efficiently listen to such music while away from fixed line broadband?
One way is to look at some of the lesser known FM stations (public/college radio) that are out there, especially if you live in the vicinity of an interesting city (if not, you might well be out of luck). I have a 45+ minute commute by car, and no data plan, so I face this problem daily. Here in the Boston area, I listen to WZBC (Boston College) and the local NPR station, and sometimes the MIT station (WMBR). When I lived in New York City, it was WFMU 24/7 basically. I send money to these stations to help keep them viable among the absolutely awful commercial FM radio stations and internet streaming they have to compete with. Finding and supporting local alternative FM stations is critical to solving this problem. It's getting more difficult, though.
Comment Re:Just an excuse. (Score 1) 105
This immediately reminded me of a paper I came across some years ago reporting measurement of the magnetic susceptibility of cigarette ash from different brands of cigarettes:
Magentism of Cigarette Ashes (pdf)
From the experimental section:
We have studied ashes (whole products residue)
from smoked by different smokers cigarettes from
three different commercially available on the
market brands, labeled as follows: Camel
(CM)—three varieties: Camel filter normal (CM),
Camel Light (CML) and Camel 100s (CM100);
Marlboro (MR) and the Bulgarian brand
Shipka (SH). Ashes were collected in glass pots
and used for magnetic measurements without
further treatment.
Glass pots. You mean, ashtrays?
(by the way, I have had that same sig for many years, but it perhaps has never been so appropriate...)
Comment Re:If you want the short answer (Score 1) 290
I disagree. There is a market for a linux distro like Ubuntu 10.04. Just a bare bones linux distro with some gadgets and some UI fringes, but basically a linux that you can use for work. Ubuntu has moved away from that. I have to find another linux that gives me just a shell and apt-get and some more. I am a programmer. I don't want my linux to become windows because I want to be in control.
But, how much would you pay for said distro? Downloading for free is not a "market", and I suspect as a programmer you would not buy it.
Comment Re:I do not use the same password for multiple sit (Score 2) 339
I can tell you that RCN cable does. I was with RCN for many years, even using their email. Two years ago I moved, and transferred my service. During the transfer process on the phone, they asked me my 'PIN' number for my voicemail. I didn't know it, because I never set one as I never used RCN voicemail. After answering some other questions, they told me over the phone what my 'PIN' was. Lo and behold it was my RCN email password, that I would never have given them as a voicemail PIN!!! It was complicated and hard for the person on the phone to read, and I was thinking to myself "where the f**k did you get that?"...
No. Don't ever reuse passwords, even if you add a suffix like 'rcn' at the end...
Comment Re:Learning Perl (Score 1) 624
I am not a programmer but I read this about 14 years ago because I needed to analyze some pretty big text files. I thought it was written spectacularly and got me up and going in no time at all. If nothing else, this book should be read by anyone looking to get into the business of writing good programming books.
Real Reason Why the White iPhone 4 Is Delayed 182
tekgoblin writes "There have been numerous reasons why the White iPhone 4 may be delayed with one reason being the color mismatch between the home button and the body. Well this time there is another reason. A source has told CultofMac that the reason for the delay is a light leakage issue caused by the case being clear. Light from the case leaks into pictures taken by the back and front camera on the white iPhone 4, causing distorted pictures. This problem is non-existent on the black iPhone 4, because of its already black case, so Apple has been looking for a solution to this problem, thus the delay of the White iPhone 4 till spring of next year."
Building Prisons Without Walls Using GPS Devices 545
Hugh Pickens writes "Graeme Wood writes in the Atlantic that increasingly GPS devices are looking like an appealing alternative to conventional incarceration, as it becomes ever clearer that traditional prison has become more or less synonymous with failed prison. 'By almost any metric, our practice of locking large numbers of people behind bars has proved at best ineffective and at worst a national disgrace,' writes Wood. But new devices such as ExacuTrack suggest a revolutionary possibility: that we might do away with the current, expensive array of guards and cells and fences, in favor of a regimen of close, constant surveillance on the outside and swift, certain punishment for any deviations from an established, legally unobjectionable routine. 'The potential upside is enormous. Not only might such a system save billions of dollars annually, it could theoretically produce far better outcomes, training convicts to become law-abiders rather than more-ruthless lawbreakers,' adds Wood. 'The ultimate result could be lower crime rates, at a reduced cost, and with considerably less inhumanity in the bargain.'"
Comment Re:PC! (Score 1) 133
Pinball really is a lost bit of nostalgia. I bet you a LOT of money could be made if classic machines such as Dr. Who, Attack from Mars, Revenge From Mars, Terminator, were adapted to the PC. I mean, Maxis' Full Tilt Pinball is the last decent pinball sim I can think of. And that was circa Windows 3.1
I agree. Although, while I haven't followed this in a while and I don't use Windows at home anymore, I was thrilled 7 or 8 years ago with vpinmame and Visual Pinball for machines like The Twighlight Zone, the Adams Family, and, well, Whirlwind, since I played that a lot in college. Actual ROMs, photographs of the tables as backgrounds, and real physics you could even edit, and it was all free (except for the ROMs technically, I guess...). Not sure what the status of these projects is these days, but I am inspired to check it out.
Warships May Get Lasers For Close-In Defense 482
King Louie writes "Raytheon and the US Navy have successfully tested a ship-borne laser capable of shooting down aircraft. Video at the link shows the 32-kilowatt solid-state laser shooting down an unmanned aerial vehicle. The technology is apparently mature enough to be deployed as part of ships' short-range missile defenses, a role currently filled by the Basic Point Defense Missile System (based on the Sea Sparrow missile) and the Close-In Weapons System (based on a 20mm Gatling gun)."
Ninth Suicide At iPhone Factory 539
shar303 writes "A ninth employee has jumped to his death at Taiwanese iPhone and iPad manufacturer Foxconn, China's state media reports. The 21-year-old worker was the eighth fatality this year. This raises questions as to whether the shiny finish of the latest gadgets available from mega corporations are tarnished by such information, and whether the mistreatment of workers deserves to be highlighted when considering such firms."
HDTV Has Ruined the LCD Market 952
alvin67 writes "Microsoft Evangelist Pete Brown rants about the lack of pixels available in today's LCD screens: 'OK, that's it. I've had it. I want my pixels, damn it! For a while, screen resolution has been going up on our desktop displays. The trend was good, as I've always wanted the largest monitor with the highest DPI that I could afford. I mean, I used to have one of the first hulking 17-inch CRTs on my desk. I later upgraded to a 21-inch job that was so huge, that if you didn't stick it in a corner, it took up the whole desk. It was flat-panel, though and full of pixels. It cost me around $1,100 at the time."
After some years of improvements, we've regressed, in Brown's opinion: "At the rate we were going for a while, we should have had twice or three times the DPI on a 24- or 23-inch screen. But nooo."
US Gamers Spend $3.8 Billion On MMOs Yearly 177
eldavojohn writes "A new report from Games Industry indicates that MMO gamers in the United States paid $3.8 billion to play last year, with an analysis of five European countries bringing the total close to $4.5 billion USD. In America, the report estimated that payments for boxed content and client downloads amounted to a measly $400 million, while the subscriptions came to $2.38 billion. Hopefully that will fund some developer budgets for bigger and better MMOs yet to come. The study also found that roughly a quarter of the US population plays some form of MMO. Surely MMOs are shaping up to be a juicy industry, and a market that can satisfy people of all walks of life."
Comment Re:Why Not? (Score 3, Funny) 460
How do you define/measure "quality"?
By the price.
Comment Re:My vote: Wooster Street in New Haven, Conn. (Score 1) 920
I'll have to agree with Modern Apizza in New Haven, assuming you're willing stand on the sidewalk for 30 minutes to get in.
Occasionally I would go across the street to Amato's for their pesto pizza.
I miss New Haven Apizza.
