Comment Re:If it's such a great development environment... (Score 1) 149
In the old times, FPS was not about multiplayer. I stopped playing them around the time it became like that.
That would be around 1996 when Quake was released.
Comment Re:really? (Score 1) 143
The devil you know.
Comment HR is not on your side (Score 4, Insightful) 710
Which is why in civilised countries we have unions and employment law.
I was a bit sad when I read that she had to request HR to be present at a meeting with the boss, you need a union on your side when you have those conversations.
Comment Re:If you want to hoard bits... (Score 1) 983
If I were doing this with drives, I'd grab an 8x SATA card, 8 4TB drives, an external hot-swap shelf, and setup RAIDZ-2 with compression on it.
Can somebody compare the cost for tape?
You pay about ~$1800-$2500 for tapes, a tape driver, and SAS card, depending on vendor, an extra 27 tapes to store 20TB again would be about $700. The big win is that the tape setup take less space, changing tapes every 800GB is not so hot though, but you get used to it. I've used 4 tape drives in parallel to be able to backup all data generated durng the day, it's ok, you learn to handle that with the morning coffee.
Comment Re:Buy a "Hello Kitty" wrist strap. (Score 1) 374
Except a 2 year old
Ask Slashdot: Linux For Grandma? 287
First time accepted submitter BlazeMiskulin writes "With XP approaching end-of-life, I find myself in a situation that I'm guessing is common: What to do with Mom's machine (or 'grandma's machine' for the younger of you). Since a change has to be made, this seems like a good time to move to a Linux distro. My mother (82) uses her computer for e-mail and web-browsing only. I know that any distro will be able to handle her needs. I've been using Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, and Redhat--usually with KDE interface) for about 10 years now, but I know that my preferences are quite different from hers.
I have my own ideas, but I'm curious what others think: What combination of distro and UI would you recommend for an old, basic-level user who is accustomed to the XP interface and adverse to change?" My Grandmother seems happy running KDE on Debian.
I have my own ideas, but I'm curious what others think: What combination of distro and UI would you recommend for an old, basic-level user who is accustomed to the XP interface and adverse to change?" My Grandmother seems happy running KDE on Debian.
Inventor Has Waited 43 Years For Patent Approval 258
An anonymous reader writes "If you think the average wait of 28.3 months for a patent to be approved is ridiculous, don't complain to Gilbert P. Hyatt. The 76-year-old inventor has been waiting over forty years for a ruling on whether his electronic signal to control machinery should be granted a patent. 'It's totally unconscionable,' said Brad Wright, a patent lawyer with Banner & Witcoff in Washington who specializes in computer-related applications and isn't involved in Hyatt's case. 'The patent office doesn't want to be embarrassed that they might issue a broad patent that would have a sweeping impact on the technology sector. Rather than be embarrassed, they're just bottling it up.'"
Comment Re:Elegant isn't important. (Score 1) 164
"Bicycling is the most energy-efficient way to move,"
nope.
Yes it is. (I'm not going to bother with the rest since it's just your opinions)
Comment Re:so its a moped? (Score 1) 164
You can not get a good bicycle that cheap, sure you can spend lots of time renovating old bicycles, but they probably did cost a lot more than $150 when new.
Comment Re:Not in my experience (Score 1) 164
Out of about 80 bikes that are locked outside my building, only 4-5 are racing bikes. If I was in the Netherlands, Germany or Denmark it would be more like 1 / 80.
Far less than that, normally people do not use racing bikes for everyday use. I stood in a busy bicycle intersection and saw ~200 upright bicycles not one racing bike.
Comment Re:Still ugly (Score 1) 164
If you just ride an hour or two on the weekend, then a cushy seat and upright posture feels comfortable. If you ride many more hours per week it's a prescription for saddle sores
I've biked 300km during three days in upright position, it's easy and I had not problem. Further, there are thousands of people doing at least 100 km a week in upright position over here.
Comment Re:Citation Needed (Score 2) 134
'and narrative-driven adventures can seem more like interactive movies than games'
Citation Needed
You can watch The last of us as a movie instead of playing it. It's 4-7 hours depending on how much gameplay there is I guess. But live streaming or editing your game sessions is big business now, so I guess it might just be a shift in what is considerd entertainment.
"I make videos of me doing stuff, so you don't have to!" - Washington.
Wozniak To Apple: Consider Building an Android Phone 249
snydeq writes "Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has some advice for Apple CEO Tim Cook: consider offering a phone based on the rival Google Android platform. Speaking at the Apps World conference in San Francisco, Wozniak made the suggestion of an Apple Android device when responding to a question about the fate of the faltering BlackBerry platform, saying that BlackBerry should have built an Android phone, and that Apple could do so, too. 'BlackBerry's very sad for me,' Wozniak lamented. 'I think it's probably too late now' for an Android-based BlackBerry phone. Apple, Woz said, has had some lucky victories in the marketplace in the past decade, and BlackBerry's demise may provide a cautionary tale: 'There's nothing to keep Apple out of the Android market as a secondary phone market.'"
Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else) 135
malachiorion writes "I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of Lockheed Martin's autonomous truck convoy demonstration — they sent a group of robotified vehicles through urban and rural environments at Fort Hood, without teleoperation or human intervention. It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's fascinating, though, is that Lockheed is hoping to get into Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdraws, to help ferry gear. Plus, they have their sights set on what would be the defense contractor's first real commercial product—kits that turn tractor trailers into autonomous vehicles. Here's my post for Popular Science."
Comment Re:Opportunity: yes. Mandatory: No (Score 1) 387
If all phones were unlocked and open sourced this would not be a problem, a phone from 1999 would be pretty ok to code on. That's one reason I really like GPL for consumer products.
