The 3rd party library (GPUOpen) that made the game work slower on AMD chips was authored by... AMD: https://gpuopen.com/

Definitely no need for pitchforks.

It's a subtle dig at the FCC/Ajit Pai. 6.33 = "FCC", based on where the characters appear in the English alphabet.

I'm using Google Project Fi for my carrier, and they're identifying about 80-90% of robocalls correctly as SPAM. The phone still rings, but the phone's screen turns red and says "Suspected SPAM caller". They also give you an easy way to report calls as SPAM from within the phone app.

It's basically the Brendan Eich scenario again, apparently some political views make you a pariah. But this marginalisation of the not-so-extreme right wing is what fuels Trump's campaign, keep telling people that they are monsters and they will believe it and act like monsters.

Honestly, I'd give up refunds if I could pay US prices for games. I'm a little worried that this will now give publishers a legitimate reason to charge Aussies more.

From deep within the article:

Even the article uses "support" many times, which does relate to stress (measured in N or lbs in the US). However, the scientists involved were talking about lifting, i.e. mechanical work, which is measured in N.m (or lbs.ft for Americans). So there is another dimension that you need to multiply in and you will find that the units do in fact match up. Since this distance is not specified in the article, it's still quantitatively meaningless, since for example an enormous pneumatic piston, could in theory lift a M1 tank a fraction of a millimeter when sneezed into, but by dimensional analysis it still makes sense.

What you are taught when you learn how to drive is "always brake, never swerve". Which also happens to be exactly what a self-driving car would and should do in an emergency situation.

Reformulated as a trolley problem, this is: do not pull the lever.

Why? Because swerving will almost always put the car in more danger for itself and others, since it may cause the car to spin, or approach cars in incoming lanes or pedestrians on the footpath, or any number of bad things.

Since, by law, other cars must maintain a safe distance behind you, slamming on your brakes is always a safe response to an obstruction. Any other response, such as changing lanes, should be considered if it is safe or not. If it is unsafe, then you shouldn't do it, things like "busses of schoolchildren" is completely outside the parameters of the problem.

This whole self driving car issue took a wrong turn the day that someone had decided that they had the moral imperative to break the law in order to prevent crashes. You do not have that imperative yourself, you have the imperative to follow the law in order to prevent crashes. The reason that two drivers can pass each other at enormous speeds without prior communication is that the law forces them into their lanes. The law is the protocol that all drivers follow to interact, since they are unable to talk to each other and as soon as you break it, you expose yourself and others to untold danger. If the law says "don't leave your lane" and best driving practices says "don't swerve", then you don't swerve.

AFAIK, on a tidally locked body, a sidereal day and a year take the same time. You can pick whichever you wish, depending on how long you wish to sound like. You can just call it a "month" though, since cycle of the phases of the earth correspond to those of the moon (new earth corresponds to full moon, full earth with new moon) and do away with ambiguity.

To veer off topic, something that ticked me off with the Martian is that nobody reminded how long a Martian sol lasts, but they were used for time periods even on earth and in space, meaning I had no idea of elapsed time.

According to Wikipedia, one gram of plutonium-238 generates approximately 0.5 watts of thermal power. Thus, 2420 tonnes of Pu-238 will generate 1.21 GW for decades.

An alkaline AA battery weighs 23 g and can put out just over 1 watt of electrical power without overheating. You would need 27830 tonnes of them to output 1.21 GW for about 2 hours.

A golden hamster weighs 125 grams and apparently generates a maximum of 0.4 watts (according to google). This means you need about 378125 tonnes of hamster to generate 1.21 GW for a few hours.

Thus, PU-238 is clearly the most practical solution of those mentioned.

The name "Uluru" is used as the primary name by the Australian government and in school textbooks. Though ordinary people have the right to refer to it however they like.

Aboriginal place names have always been a enthusiastically promoted part of Australia, long before Aboriginals even had the right to vote or hold public office. Why Australians never questioned calling their capital city Canberra (which may or may not mean "breasts" or "cleavage"), but a century later seem to find the name of a rock in the desert a sticking point is beyond me. My guess is 1) inertia 2) the perceived implication that this monolith means comparatively little to non-indigenous Australians.

Technically speaking, Musk is and Von Braun was an American citizen. But still, it does seem that American rocketry programs must still import one of the most critical elements.

Southern regimes consider abortion to be harmful to fetus (or as they would say: baby), woman and society. Thus, no-matter what federal courts say, they will do their darnedest to ban it. Federal rulings do have effect on the state level, but states still more or less rule themselves as they see fit (as per the US constitution). Thus, southern states are regimes that only ban things that they consider harmful to the people.

I thought someone might bring up something like North Korea. But Dixie? Too easy!

No, you and he are making the distinction between laws that you like and laws that you don't like.

I agree that many laws, like the laws against child porn and malware are good. However if we tolerate the notion that these are not political issues since they are stemming from the natural order of things, then we must tolerate that to others, that the list of natural apolitical issues may be broader than they are to you and banning other things is not a political issue either. There is not a regime on earth that bans things that it does not consider harmful to the people. Remember that.

The Chinese Internet has been essentially separate from the other one for some time now. At least in that Chinese users rarely access foreign web services, foreign users barely access Chinese web services and the latency and reliability is punitive if they try. Problem is, the Chinese Internet is not just insular, it's also a bit of a mess internally. Granted

Both are just common terms used to refer to Antisocial Personality Disorder

. Medically, there is no distinction.