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Comment Re:Symmetric mouse (Score 1) 199

I was (perhaps a bit pedantically) objecting to the apparent argument that any shape will do because your fingers will wrap around it. I can think of shapes that you could hold but wouldn't like working with.

I first grabbed a computer mouse in 1984 and I've been using them ever since, without hand pain. How long to I have to wait to find out?

That means that the shape(s) you've been using is/are adequate (possibly for most normal hands of roughly similar size). The ordinary mouse I use at work is symmetric and gives me no issues, but early mice wouldn't work as well for long hours, and I know from experience that tiny "laptop" mice kill my thumb adductors. OTOH (no pun intended), I know people who work *better* with tiny mice, either because they have small hands or because of injury.

Lastly, TFA is about gamers. They mouse like their lives depend on it (some do make a living off it) and it's not unthinkable that the situation resembles other activities like shooting or golf to some degree, where subtle differences in performance and myth complicate gear choices.

Comment *sigh* (Score 1) 149

They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.

Which I hoped Firaxis would do with the X-COM series. Imagine, after the initial joy of seeing my shiny HD troop transport land, seeing that my guys can't pass, drop, throw or pick up an item, or do whatever the hell they want within their time. Which reminds me, I should check up on UFO:AI.

Books

Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things 44

MassDosage writes As the full title to Lauren Ipsum: A story about Computer Science and Other Improbable Things indicates, this is a book about Computer Science but what's surprising about it is that it manages to be about Computer Science without actually ever directly referring to the subject or even to computers at all. It is in fact a fictional story about a young girl called Lauren who gets lost after wandering into a forest near her house after an argument with her mother. She stumbles into a world populated with all kinds of strange creatures and colorful characters some of whom she befriends in order to figure out how to get back to her home. The "figuring out" part of the plot is where things get interesting as she has many attempts at solving this problem with different characters giving her often contradictory advice and Lauren then has to decide what exactly she's trying to do and which of the various possible solutions is the best. This involves a fair amount of trial and error, learning from certain mistakes and trying different approaches. If this is starting to sound familiar to those who have written software then that's the whole point. Lauren Ipsum is cunningly littered with references to Computer Science and in particular to things like algorithms, logic puzzles and many other of the theoretical underpinnings of the subject. Read below to see what MassDosage has to say about the book.
Games

New Wolfenstein Game Announced: The Old Blood 61

jones_supa writes Last year, Wolfenstein: The New Order was well received, and showed that old school shooters still can do extremely well in the current market and actually be a lot of fun. Now, Bethesda Softworks is already announcing a standalone prequel to The New Order, called Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. It's back to the roots for B.J. Blazkowicz, and you embark on a perilous journey "deep within Bavaria", with the goal of infiltrating the Castle Wolfenstein. Just like last years' game, The Old Blood has been developed by Swedish company MachineGames on the same platform including id Tech 5 engine. The release date is May 5th and the game will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Comment Mine (Score 2) 353

Open in Browser: Because some sites insist that I should save that PDF to open it.
Session Manager: a.k.a. "task freezer". Save and restore any or all of your open windows and tabs along with their histories.
Google and TinEye Reverse Image search. TinEye's matching engine is more powerful; Google has a much bigger database.
Offline QR code Generator: the easiest way to send page/image/link URLs and arbitrary text to my phone: [highlight text if applicable,] right click on page/image/link, "Show QR", aim phone.
Restartless Restart: Because it's Firefox and Control-Alt-R is much faster than killing the process.
Context Search X: highlight, right click, "Search with", pick any of my engines. Very flexible; allows custom accelerator keys.
Context Highlight: highlight multiple words or phrases all over the current page. Not perfect but really useful.
Live HTTP headers: Disabled since Fx ships with devtools.
It's All Text!: Edit those pesky textareas in your preferred editor. Perfect for HTML boards and wikis.

And obviously Adblock Plus.

Not shown: custom search engines for Google Images, Wiktionary, Google Translate, Gmail...

Medicine

US Gov't To Withdraw Food Warnings About Dietary Cholesterol 180

An anonymous reader writes: The Washington Post reports on news from the U.S.'s top nutrition advisory panel, which plans to stop warning consumers about the amount of dietary cholesterol in foods. The government has been issuing these warnings for over 40 years, and they reaffirmed that decision as recently as five years ago. "[T]he finding, which may offer a measure of relief to breakfast diners who prefer eggs, follows an evolution of thinking among many nutritionists who now believe that for a healthy adult cholesterol intake may not significantly impact the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease. The greater danger, according to this line of thought, lies in foods heavy with trans fats and saturated fats. ... But the change on dietary cholesterol also shows how the complexity of nutrition science and the lack of definitive research can contribute to confusion for Americans who, while seeking guidance on what to eat, often find themselves afloat in conflicting advice."

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