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Comment Re:Bennett Haselton on reality (Score 1) 24

I have to agree... one example that springs to mind is the PS2 EyeToy. It proved that motion tracking used as a controller could be done but it was basic, lacked refinement, reliability, and wasn't easily reused as most of the work was being done in (closed source) software.

It wasn't until the Kinect came out with the extra sensors and the ability to easily re-purpose the technology when windows drivers were released that more serious uses were found and still those applications are still mainly at the "proof of concept" end of the scale and it still isn't clear if such technologies will have long term use.

There are however other related technologies that have benefited as a result.

Comment Re:And three weeks to think it over. (Score 1) 95

Google is a dominant player in Germany, controlling about 90 percent of the German search market. In Germany, dominant players have the obligation to handle each customer equally and are not allowed to discriminate

However to Google the indexed sites aren't customers. People using the search aren't customers. Advertisers are Google's only customers and everyone else is product.

Comment Re:What's so hard about using the time-honored (Score 3, Interesting) 242

There is nothing more annoying than:
1) Fake friendliness (if you care so much about my name try and remember it for next time since I tell you it on almost a daily basis)
2) People who can't pronounce my name
3) People who can't spell my name
4) People who use alternate spellings of my name without confirming the correct one (my name has 3 alternate spellings)

After being annoyed at one or more of the above for the umpteenth time I started giving my name as Dave and don't care if they use Dave, Davie, David, Day or any other variant as it isn't actually my name.

PS: they could just have the loyalty/payment card show them my name and not have to ask but that would be too easy.

Comment Re:Yep (Score 1) 174

My three year old nephew was building red stone traps I didn't even dream up.

No surprise... you don't even know that its redstone (without the space...) so I doubt you know how to use it...

Comment Re:Not surprising (Score 1) 506

Yes but if they do it right the system will learn from the first few cars that enter one of these holes and fill them in fairly quickly and update all cars nearby almost immediately. This will mean that unless you often go to out of the way places or are a fan of visiting roadworks as a hobby the chances of hitting a hole are low.

The real trick will be if the system can reliably tell when something has changed (new roadworks) and the data it has is unusable and deal with sections of road that have dynamic lane/direction depending on time of day etc.

Comment Re:Do the math (Score 1) 338

Or why not pick one of these options...

1) buy a large drum machine - there are a wide variety of machine capacities out there.
2) put the second load in the dryer when you get home in the evening.
3) do a midweek wash instead of saving it all up for one day, also there are two days in a weekend if you prefer.

And on another note why not hang a washing to dry instead of relying on the expensive (both in terms of your electric bill and impact on the environment) dryer?

Comment Re:good (Score 1) 364

Truth being they don't really need to seek work even if Mythbusters was to be cancelled. Adam and Jamie, and as far as I'm aware the 'B team' still do their 'day job' of building movie and TV special effects when they aren't actively working on myths. Of course whether or not the B team still want to work for Adam and Jamie now is a different matter...

Comment Re:good (Score 1) 364

That was the claim - and it is mostly correct - but they interpreted "practice had little to no effect" to mean that every time you try this test you will do no better than the first which is wrong. While practice has no effect, not having ever done the test before on the first attempt will have a negative impact on the results for at least part of the first attempt. Also the Stroop test isn't really suited to measuring the kind of 'dumb' they were supposedly testing for.

Comment Re:Rome would be so proud (Score 5, Insightful) 133

Wow... where is the option to vote the summary and TFA as troll?

Seriously. They full of misrepresentation (CoLP is just another area force like all the others in the UK. CoLP is NOT a private force. The fact that corporations vote in CoL is irrelevant here as voters have no direct influence on the force - policy comes from national level. CoLP are national specialists on this kind of 'soft' crime and are the force responsible for national level investigations of this type. Seizures would have needed to have been court sanctioned/ordered and as is often the case with ongoing investigations where the details would be sealed until said investigation was completed. The fact that large scale copyright infringement is a crime was made by the elected national government and not by the CoLP.)

Wilfully continuing to aid criminals after you are aware of providing such aid (except on threat of personal safety) is in itself a crime in the UK.

ICANN etc have operations in the UK and are therefore have legal responsibility/requirement to comply with such court orders in the country they operate in. This is identical to the many cases where a USA court orders extradition for some minor thing on a non US company director just because they have a sales/import office with 5 staff at some container port in Florida.

Comment Re: Today I Learnt that... (Score 1) 181

Thing is they are fairly toothless given all they really have is their branding. The most they can do is either:

1) Withdraw heritage status from a location
2) Write a strongly worded letter to Government/Local Council/Developer/Other threatening to withdraw heritage status from a location

Since most places that have heritage status only use it for tourism promotions and this island only has 13 tourist trips a year, threatening to destroy the tourism is pointless...

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