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Comment: cut&pase job no, altered a lot - definitely (Score 1) 180

by Golden_Rider (#43722683) Attached to: World Press Photo Winner Accused of Photoshopping

I see no reason to believe that the picture in question has been created by using several photos and copying/pasting people or heads around, but the lighting DEFINITELY looks "fake" (heavily edited) to me. Not only the light, also the colours. For example, the old guy (2nd from the left, holding the left child) - his head just looks unrealistically bright. Or the glasses guy two to the right of him. He definitely is in the shadow, yet his face is not dark at all. And the colours - on the hackerfactor page, compare the face of the guy holding the right child in the "fake" pic with his face in the picture just below that one. In the unedited pic, his face is a dark red/brown, completely unlike the world press photo picture.

So - completely faked? No. But definitely heavily edited, and then it's a question of whether they wanted heavily edited pictures in their competition, or instead want "unaltered" pictures. In other words, whether they want pictures which "wow" the observer because the photographer captured a special, noteworthy moment or because the photographer used Photoshop to make a picture TECHNICALLY "perfect".

Comment: Re:Not quite (Score 1) 435

by Golden_Rider (#43569839) Attached to: New Console Always-Online Requirements and <em>You</em>

Steam forces their own DRM, Steamworks, on all games. Unlike some other DD servers (Impulse for example) there is no capability to release a game without the built-in DRM. Publishers can use additional DRM as well, but Steamworks is mandatory.

It's pretty low key DRM over all, most people are ok with it (I am) but it is DRM. You have to have Steam running and be logged in to your account to be able to play a game. You don't have to be online, you can cache your credentials and play offline, but you must have Steam running and logged in or you cannot play a game.

Many people are ok with Steam DRM, I'm one of them, but don't be disingenuous and claim there isn't DRM. There is and it is required.

This is not true. I am able to run several of my games which I bought over Steam without having the actual Steam client running - by simply starting the game executable from Windows Explorer. Steam DRM is NOT a requirement for all games distributed via Steam. Granted, most do use it though.

Comment: Re:Should run on Win7 (Score 1) 953

by Golden_Rider (#43521829) Attached to: Some Windows XP Users Can't Afford To Upgrade

Yup. The easiest is to upgrade to windows 7 Pro or Ultimate and install XP Mode

XP mode won't fix what this whole thing is about, that support for Windows XP will end next year and continuing to run it will turn into a security risk. Windows 7's XP mode is nothing else than running Windows XP in a VM, and Microsoft will officially stop support for it next year, too.

Comment: Re:So... no Win 7? (Score 1) 1010

by Golden_Rider (#43430645) Attached to: Windows 8 Killing PC Sales

Just bought 5 PCs from Dell, with Windows 7 Pro. No downgrading or BS... What are you talking about?

Microsoft not selling Win 7 licenses anymore does not mean that there are no unsold Win 7 licenses around on the market. So Dell probably still HAS licenses sitting around and won't be able to sell computers with Win 7 anymore once those are gone.

Comment: Re:My theory (Score 1) 1010

by Golden_Rider (#43430521) Attached to: Windows 8 Killing PC Sales

My guess? Not that many. In my house I have two desktops and one laptop PC, one tablet, three smartphones and one dumbphone. The phones and tablets are all newer than the PCs, but we still use the PCs all the time. I just don't need to replace/rebuild my PC every 18 months like I did most of the 90's. Even gaming is fine on a computer several years old if you are willing to play on less than MAX everything. Games do a much better job of scaling. The new games are going to look and play pretty much as well as they did when your computer was new, they just are not going to look any better. Oh, and there are probably at least a couple dozen great games on Steam for $9.99 that you didn't play 4 years ago that will go great with you 5 year old machine.

The PC isn't dead, it's just a mature market.

This is pretty much it. I remember back in the lat 90s/early 00s, when I upgraded the motherboard/CPU/graphics card of my gaming machine about every half year, because the newer hardware actually gave a huge benefit in gaming performance. I remember not being able to run new games at decent settings until I got the next upgrade, because you constantly kept running into hardware limitations (CPU not fast enough, graphics card not good enough to run at more than 800x600, etc.).

And there was tons of new hardware which actually gave benefits (from the "this new screen can run 1024x768 at non-interlaced" to graphics cards switching from ISA to VLB to PCI to PCIE, to graphics cards actually using 3D (old 3dfx cards, then Nvidia TNT and so on) to RAM increasing more and more to hard disks increasing in size and so on).

These days, it does not really matter much if you have 8GB or 16GB RAM, if you have 1TB or 4 TB disk space, if you have a Core2 Duo CPU or a current i7, if you have a GeForce 680 or still a 460. It all still works fine, more or less. Only if you want to play the absolute latest 3D action shooter in the highest resolution at the highest details settings - then you actually need a high end CPU and a high end graphics card. But there are not that many of those games around, and most of the time they are not actually fun to play anyway (except for the short "ooooh nice graphics" moment). So why upgrade? There's no need to anymore, except if you actually like building PCs or if your old hardware is acting up and you need to replace it because it is failing.

Comment: Re:TRS-80 all the way, baby! (Score 1) 135

by Golden_Rider (#43346005) Attached to: Radio Shack TRS-80 Vs. Commodore 64: Battle of the Titans

True, the 1541 was awfully slow, even for its time. The fastest floppy I had at the time was the one hooked up to my Apple ][e. with two drives, diskmuncher would copy a floppy in 11 seconds, vs *way* longer using fasthack'em on the 64

That's why real men used DolphinDOS for their C64/1541. It could read a whole floppy disk in 4-5 seconds.

Mars

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover 101

Posted by samzenpus
from the take-a-look dept.
SternisheFan points out that there is a great new panorama made from shots from the Curiosity Rover. "Sweep your gaze around Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover is currently exploring, with this 4-billion-pixel panorama stitched together from 295 images. ...The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover's two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual destination."
Technology

Festo's Drone Dragonfly Takes To the Air 45

Posted by samzenpus
from the little-flyer dept.
yyzmcleod writes "Building on the work of last year's bionic creation, the Smart Bird, Festo announced that it will literally launch its latest creation, the BionicOpter, at Hannover Messe in April. With a wingspan of 63 cm and weighing in at 175 grams, the robotic dragonfly mimics all forms of flight as its natural counterpart, including hover, glide and maneuvering in all directions. This is made possible, the company says, by the BionicOpter's ability to move each of its four wings independently, as well as control their amplitude, frequency and angle of attack. Including its actuated head and body, the robot exhibits 13 degrees of freedom, which allows it to rapidly accelerate, decelerate, turn and fly backwards."
Science

Interviews: James Randi Answers Your Questions 217

Posted by samzenpus
from the you-can't-handle-the-truth dept.
A while ago you had the chance to ask James Randi, the founder of The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), about exposing hucksters, frauds, and fakers. Below you'll find his answers to your questions. In addition to his writings below, Randi was nice enough to sit down and talk to us about his life and his foundation. Keep an eye out for those videos coming soon.
Patents

Uniloc Patent Case Against Rackspace Tossed for Bogus Patents 76

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the don't-mess-with-red-hat dept.
netbuzz writes "A federal judge in Texas, presiding over a district notorious for favoring patent trolls, has summarily dismissed all claims relating to a case brought by Uniloc USA against Rackspace for [Linux] allegedly infringing upon [Uniloc's] patents. Red Hat defended Rackspace in the matter and issued a press release saying: 'In dismissing the case, Chief Judge Leonard Davis found that Uniloc's claim was unpatentable under Supreme Court case law that prohibits the patenting of mathematical algorithms. This is the first reported instance in which the Eastern District of Texas has granted an early motion to dismiss finding a patent invalid because it claimed unpatentable subject matter.'" You can't patent floating point math after all.

Comment: Re:Barbara Streisand Effect? (Score 1) 700

by Golden_Rider (#42877935) Attached to: Tesla Motors Battles the New York Times

They're going to publish the log data which should prove interesting, but apparently he didn't charge the car completely. For a range test. If the log shows he didn't charge it all the way, then I'd call that quite a valid reason. It's borderline libel.

As I understand it, he DID charge the car completely, as in "the display said charge completed". What he did not use was the special option, battery damage causing "100% charge, long range, do not use all the time" charging option,

But that was not the problem anyway, what caused him to be stranded was that the car battery decided to lose over half its charge overnight due to low temperatures, which caused the range to go from "can easily make it to the recharge point" to "cannot make it to the recharge point at all".

I'd like to see more real life tests like this, with real life problems, because those show best that electric vehicles simply are not a good replacement for a standard car yet except for VERY specific situations (like only driving less than 20 miles a day AND having a guaranteed recharge point at your place of work).

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