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Comment Re:did the tech exist in 2010-12? (Score 1) 122

HMD's have been around since LONG before there were 3D graphics on the PC at all. They'd been used (for example) on military flight simulator back when you'd need a million dollars of mainframe hardware to generate a 3D image. I very much doubt that any of this tech is actually new. Probably someone like Evans & Sutherland were the first to do it - and they had 3D graphics back in the late 1970's. I doubt that much of the general concept is still patentable - so this argument is probably over some kind of small feature.

Comment I think it would be a good idea... (Score 1) 96

if it became a societal norm that you didn't surprise people with these things. That is you have to actively do something or maybe two things to view this. I have no problem with gore and death but now when I'm eating lunch.

How about a two click rule?

Comment Not Ichthyology (Score 2) 295

Dorothy Latimer - the coelacanth, Evelyn Trewavas - Rift cichlids, Lynne Parenti - Killifish and presently curator of fishes at the Smithsonian.

It was a woman who identified the DNA molecule as Pauling's alpha Helix, Crick and Watson literally stole her notes form her desk. Madam Curie was the first person to win a double Nobel. This Is off the top of my head. If the report is true it's changed, while the first two women mentioned did have to fight a bit I don't believe Parenti did, by the 80s things had changed I could ask her I guess, maybe I will soon.

Te genus and family of the Coelacanth is named after Dot, Trewavas has fish named after her, Parenti will in time be recognized with honorific scientific name of some Cyprinodont I'm sure.

I don't think it's as bad as the report make sit sound in Ichthyology.

Comment Re:older generation is totally clueless about tech (Score 1) 135

The people who designed the SR-71 are at the top end of their generation's technological bell curve. The people who sponsored it are at the bottom end.

So what you're saying is that those who designed the SR-71 were mediocre and those who sponsored it were a mix of geniuses, idiots and anything in-between?

If you're on the top end of a bell curve, your possible deviation is as low as it can be. You are mediocre, belonging to the largest segment of the population.

If you're at the bottom end of a bell curve, your possible deviation is as high as it can be. There's no telling. You may be a genius or you might be an idiot.

Anyhow, what's pretty clear is that most of those who designed and sponsored the SR-71 are dead.

Comment Re:from what I read... (Score 1) 35

The demo of course takes advantage of Sony’s ‘asynchronous reprojection’ technique to ultimately output at 120 FPS." Translation: Two eyes means two frames, so you get 120fps from 60fps. Right?

No, they are talking about a technique that is also used by Oculus to translate variable frame rate renderings to smooth fixed frame rate output without judder.

Comment Of course they shed into the ocean (Score 1) 268

If you've been looking at this for a while you know the antarctic ice mass grows in the middle and cleaves around the edges. The antarctic mass has been growing steadily for 45 years and has never been bigger than now.

How and why it's growing so much in a supposed "warming" world I leave to your imagination although keep in mind a new paper shows the rate of warming in the 20th century is the same rate as the previous 80 centuries.

Refs:
http://www.nasa.gov/content/go...
http://multi-science.atypon.co...

Comment Re:Love it (Score 1) 161

The FOIA system is an important thing. But capacity for any sort of data retrieval is limited. People who clog it up for the lulz aren't serving freedom of information or providing oversight. They're making it harder to get legitimate requests filled.

Comment An infinite number of possible answers (Score 1) 496

Consider this...suppose you are just over a mile from the SOUTH pole. You walk a mile south - and now you're maybe a hundred feet from the South pole. Then you turn west and start walking...around and around in a tiny 100 foot radius circle centered on the pole. When you've finally clocked up a mile - you turn and head North again...where do you end up?

Well, the answer depends on the exact circumference of the circle that you walked around. Generally, you'll end up someplace very different from your starting point...BUT if that circle is an EXACT sub-multiple of a mile - then you'll end up precisely where you started.

So...the North pole is clearly NOT a unique answer.

Furthermore - the north pole is only ONE answer. My approach reveals an infinite number of possible answers:

1) You could have started ANYWHERE that's at the exact right distance from the pole - so anywhere on that circle will do...an infinite number of starting points will work.

2) Note that ANY exact sub-multiple of a mile will do - so with mathematical precision, there are an infinite number of sub-multiples of a mile - and hence an infinite number of distances from the pole where you could have started.

Truly - the "North Pole" example exhibits very little lateral thinking... if that was your answer then you **FAILED** the Musk test...which (I'm pretty sure) is the whole point here.

The original version of the story is that a hunter walk a mile south, a mile west, shoots a bear, then walks a mile north to return to his starting point. What color was the bear?

Since there are no bears at the south pole - and only polar bears live anywhere near the north pole - then the north pole is the right place and the correct answer is "WHITE!"....but Musk isn't asking *that* question...he's trying to trick people into jumping to a false conclusion without stopping to think about it.

    -- Steve Baker

Comment So what (Score 4, Interesting) 81

What if it's a smear job on Take Two? At taxpayer expense?

1. This isn't at taxpayer expense. It is at television owners' expense. Only people with televisions have to pay the television license that funds the BBC, not all taxpayers. To conflate the two is disingenuous.

2. So what if it is inaccurate or a smear job. That is part of having a free press: the right to get it wrong (and if you do, be eviscerated and/or humiliated by everyone else). The BBC has a very good record and deservedly good reputation, because despite the occasional imperfection, by and large their reporting and documentaries are first rate.

This lawsuit is an attempt to undermine the free press and apply inappropriate pressure to the editorial process, and frankly, Rockstar and Take Two deserve a severe smackdown for trying to do so, irrespective of the program's content.

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