Comment: Re:I Just Don't Get It... (Score 1) 296
Joesixpack00 probably meant that Intel has the performance crown (i7), but when it comes to bang for buck in more reasonable market segments AMD wins, especially with Phenom II processors.
Comment: Re:Sorry if I'm not impressed... (Score 1) 135
It takes fully charged body shot to one-hit kill you and you can't aim that well when you're on the run from that shot.
Yeah, soldiers can be really annoying for snipers, I don't see many of them harassing them though, at least on the public servers.
Comment: Re:I gave up on TF2 cause it's too laggy on my PC (Score 1) 135
Run it in DX8 mode. You loose shader effects but it runs leaps and bounds better on hardware of this class and doesn't actually look much worse. One of the computers I'm playing TF2 on has Athlon64 3500+ (single core), 1GB of RAM and GeForce 6600 (not 6600GT, big difference).
Comment: Re:Sorry if I'm not impressed... (Score 1) 135
Spies have better things to do which makes snipers the only viable countermeasure for other snipers. That's a problem IMHO.
Comment: Re:Still haven't played it. (Score 1) 135
Meet the low-poly TF2.
Class Teaches Nerds Social Skills
639
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the geeks-need-love-too dept.
from the geeks-need-love-too dept.
PeterAitch writes "According to Reuters, Potsdam University in Germany is now teaching social skills as part of their IT courses. This is intended to 'ease entry into the world of work'. The 440 students enrolled in the master's degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection(s)." The class is taught by a superficial model, who will fall in love with the nerdiest student at the end of the semester after realizing that he is beautiful on the inside.
+ - Czech EU Presidency a Disaster for the Internet?->
Submitted
by
Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody writes "The first details of the tech priorities of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union have emerged — and they don't look good. As well as "protecting" intellectual monopolies, the Czechs want to push through the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), build on the efforts of the preceding French Presidency (such as "Three Strikes and You're Out") and — of course — shield children from "illegal" content online. Could this be the worst EU presidency for the Internet so far?"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Recourse For Poor Customer Service? 593
Posted
by
kdawson
from the in-harm's-way-a-long-way-from-home dept.
from the in-harm's-way-a-long-way-from-home dept.
eleventypie writes "I am in the Army and currently stationed in Afghanistan. Recently I found myself without a laptop so I decided to build a studio 17 from Dell. I designed/customized my laptop on 2008-09-17 and placed my order, which totaled approximately $1,700. The laptop was built and apparently shipped on 2008-09-28. Given my APO address, I know mail can sometimes take a little while to get here, though 7-10 days is normal. Dell said to give my laptop 6-8 business days and occasionally, it might take as much as 4-6 weeks. So on 2008-11-12 I sent another email to Dell informing them I still had not received my laptop. One person said to give it more time, while another person responded to my message telling me to send my address again and they would send me a replacement. So I sent my address immediately and never got a response. It is now the 30th of November and I still have no laptop and Dell seems to have quit responding to my emails. This is very frustrating being out $1,700 and not having a laptop to talk to my friends and family and do school work. Phone calls aren't easy so calling them is pretty much out of the question. Any advice on what I can or should do at this point to get the computer I ordered or get my money back?"
Why Developers Are Switching To Macs 771
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the because-we-mostly-can-expense-them dept.
from the because-we-mostly-can-expense-them dept.
snydeq writes "Programmers are finding themselves increasingly drawn to the Mac as a development platform, in large part due to Apple's decision to move to Intel chips and to embrace virtualization of other OSes, which has turned Mac OS X into a flexible tool for development, InfoWorld reports. The explosion of interest in smartphone development is helping the trend, with iPhone development lock-in to the Mac environment the chief motivating factor for Apple as a platform of choice for mobile development. Yet for many, the Mac remains sluggish and poorly tuned for development, with developers citing its virtual memory system's poor performance in paging data in and out of memory and likening use of the default-network file system, AFS, to engaging oneself with 'some kind of passive-aggressive torture.' What remains unclear is whether Apple will lend an ear to this new wave of Mac-based development or continue to develop products that lock out uses programmers expect."
Comment: Re:Screw them (Score 1) 497
Their so called 9" netbooks use 10" shells. It's the screen that's smaller.
LHC Offline Until April 2009 (Or Longer) 298
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the now-we'll-never-know-the-secret dept.
from the now-we'll-never-know-the-secret dept.
rufey writes "The recent problems at the Large Hadron Collider will now keep it idle until spring 2009. The official press release is here. The LHC went offline due to a suspected failure in a superconducting connection, which overheated and caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees. This resulted in the accidental release of a ton of liquid helium. The process required to repair the failed superconducting connection involves weeks of warming up the affected area from -456 degrees Fahrenheit to room temperature, and then several more weeks to cool it back down after the repair is made. The total amount of time to do this will spill over into CERN's scheduled winter maintenance/shutdown period, which is partly done to save money on electricity during the period of peak demand."
Pringles Can Designer Dies, Buried In a Pringles Can 261
Posted
by
kdawson
from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
n3hat sends along an item from the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Dr. Fredric J. Baur was so proud of having designed the container for Pringles... that he asked his family to bury him in one. His children honored his request. Part of his remains was buried in a Pringles can — along with a regular urn containing the rest... Dr. Baur, a retired organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Procter & Gamble, died May 4 at 89... He developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G... But the Pringles can was his proudest accomplishment, his daughter said. He received a patent for the package as well as the method of packaging Pringles in 1970."
14-Year-Old Turns Tram System Into Personal Train Set 380
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the no-volume-control-on-this-tv dept.
from the no-volume-control-on-this-tv dept.
F-3582 writes "By modifying a TV remote a 14-year-old boy from Lodz, Poland, managed to gain control over the junctions of the tracks. According to The Register the boy had 'trespassed in tram depots to gather information needed to build the device. [...] Transport command and control systems are commonly designed by engineers with little exposure or knowledge about security using commodity electronics and a little native wit.' Four trams derailed in the process injuring a number of passengers. The boy is now looking at 'charges at a special juvenile court of endangering public safety.'"
How to Turn Your PC into a Mac 492
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the yeah-that'll-fool-ya dept.
from the yeah-that'll-fool-ya dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNet is running a Mac fanboy's idea of a nightmare feature entitled 'Mock OS X: Five ways to make your PC more like a Mac'. While the idea of turning my PC into a Mac-like machine does get my juices flowing, I'm not sure the user experience would be exactly the same but I'm going to spend this afternoon trying it out anyway. "To borrow a metaphor from Spartacus, some people like oysters and some people like snails. Except what if there was a way to make your snail do some of the cool things oysters can do, like make pearls? And what if you could make your PC do some of the cool stuff that Macs do so well?"" Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was install linux...
Portable Nuclear Battery in the Development Stages 439
Posted
by
Zonk
from the will-be-nice-if-it-happens dept.
from the will-be-nice-if-it-happens dept.
Xight writes "The Santa Fe Reporter has up an article about a portable nuclear reactor, about the size of a hot tub. Despite it's 'small' size the company that is planning to develop the product (Hyperion Power Generation), claims it could power up to 25,000 homes. 'Though it would produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy, Hyperion doesn't like to think of its product as a reactor. It's self-contained, involves no moving parts and, therefore, doesn't require a human operator. "In fact, we prefer to call it a 'drive' or a 'battery' or a 'module' in that it's so safe," Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. "Like you don't open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don't ever open it or mess with it."' If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these
reactors."