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Comment Re:Strange rebuttal (Score 1) 265

Can you read? "Free from regulation" does not mean "elimination of net neutrality". Net neutrality regulation is useful in wired networks because consumers can't speak with their wallets by changing providers in many areas due to very limited competition. In the wireless space they can, making a regulation free market the best option to allow providers to tweak the most performance out of the limited bandwidth available in wireless spectrum.

Comment RTFA and it's comments (Score 5, Informative) 177

They didn't bow at all. In Google's own words in the article's comment section: This piece suggests that Google has "bowed" to censorship. That is not correct. We have been very clear about our committment to not censor our products for users in China. The products we have kept on Google.cn (Music, Translate, Product Search) do not require any censorship by Google. Other products, like web search, we are offering from Google.com.hk, and without censorship Lucinda Barlow, Head of Public Affairs, Google AU/NZ - July 21, 2010, 2:43PM

Comment Re:Incredible (Score 1) 957

It's ok masmullin, I'm sure you enjoy driving your minivan 63 in a 65 with 3 screaming kids in the back. We each choose the lifestyle which we percieve will provide the most long term fulfillment. Mine includes things like extreme sports, rare steak, world travel (invading Iraq trip was involuntary), and my A4 going 100mph a few times a week. My experiences make me much more apt to react properly when (and if) I do find myself in a situation on the roadways, or off, that falls outside the expected. I'll trust my experience, reaction time, awareness, and intensity to pull me through the situation. Enjoy living inside the 'accepted norm' and adhering to the letter of the law, and I wish you luck dealing with the unexpected when it does pop up.

Comment Re:Incredible (Score 1) 957

Clearly posted as AC to avoid the karma hit. I speed for the same reasons I skydive, scuba, climb, etc... Going fast makes me smile. It is relaxing. I hit 100mph at least 3 times a week on regular highways here in the midwest. I know where cops sit, don't place other drivers in danger, and am very aware of where everyone is on the road. I don't (while speeding) text or talk on the phone. That said I have 2 speeding tickets in the last 10 years and have gotten out of both by going through the hoops of going to court.

Comment Re:Inept Failures (Score 1) 763

Do you live alone? Not a jab or anything, but kids and other people just move stuff for no reason. Yes, there is a "landing pad" for wallet and keys, why do they move what's there? I have no idea, but they do.

I just keep keys and my wallet in my bag or in my coat pocket now and I hang my coat up and my bag (some people have briefcases) is put away. If I don't have my bag, I probably don't need all the keys, and so I just take what I need.

Simple. And I don't care if I carry a bag around; I've got useful stuff in there.

Check out Every Day Carry Forums for some interesting things that people carry and the methods they use.

Comment Re:Good thing (Score 1) 372

We are talking about the internet. The web. And marketshare. Sorenson Spark and On2 VP6 are the winners, and h264 is tiny, almost vanishing by comparison.

We are talking about cell phone video.

Webcams.

Camcorders.

The Flip Pocket HD at $125. The Sony Handicam at $3500. A casual search of Google Shopping returns 3,600 hits for "H.264 camcorder."

Industrial and home security video. "H.264 WiFi Camera," 1,200 hits.

We are talking about services like Netflix and Hulu. Home video standards matter when the decoder is built into your Internet enabled HDTV, video game console, Blu-Ray player or STB.

That decoder will be H.264 not Sorenson Spark.

We are talking about hardware accelerated H.264 video in Flash and Silverlight.

Comment Re:please don't call this guy an analyst (Score 1) 310

Last time I saw someone (Kotaku?) do an analysis of analyst claims and their success rate, Pachter was the most often right of the five or six they tracked. Pachter's predictions are just that...and he usually couches them in terms that reflect that. He's been wrong plenty of times...but then so has every other industry analyst.

Comment Re:Civ was my offline game (Score 4, Insightful) 295

Steam is slightly better than the absolute worst of the DRM systems yes, but it still can take all your games away if you so much as look at it funny. Even SecuROM or StarForce can't do that. If you travel with a laptop, I suggest you buy your games somewhere else. Steam has a tendency to lock accounts that log in from multiple IP addresses. 'Cause, you know, that's a crime.

I call bullshit on that. I regularly use Steam from school, my apartment, and my parents house and on many different machines. My brother also logs into my account to access my game libarary and vice versa.

Really the only ban is for cheating on VAC secured servers and games. Even if you get banned for cheating, it's still possible to play on non VAC secured games and servers.

Comment Re:storytelling (Score 1) 874

In the movie House of Flying Daggers, there's a swordfight scene where the two rivals finally clash in an epic struggle as the seasons change from summer to fall to winter all around them. Obviously nobody can fight for nine months. Obviously the sword choreography was on a completely different time scale to the environment they were in. Details like this matter if you're a weak-minded literalist. As pretty as the visuals were, it simply communicated a story like a line in a novel. It was a powerful visual metaphor.

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. The whole film took place in late fall (which was an intentional visual metaphor). When they started fighting, it was sunny outside (perhaps that's what gives the impression of summer), but the leaves are all brown and autumney. The director was planning to film a straight autumn scene, but then (according to the director's commentary), in a great moment of serendipity, it started snowing in the middle of the shoot. So they went with the snow, thereby further enhancing the visual metaphor, since winter seems to come on just as (SPOILER ALERT) Mei dies. You also get the outstanding visuals of blood in the snow and the dagger shaking snow out of the tree. And that little bit of serendipity makes this one of my favorite cinematic scenes of all time (well, that, and the "showdown," where what happens doesn't make sense unless you think carefully about each character's motivation in doing what he/she does, and then it makes perfect sense).

And on an unrelated note, nobody should ever watch this movie with the lame English dubbing. Watch it with the awkwardly-translated subtitles, and enjoy Zhang Ziyi's expressiveness.

Comment Re:Oil Gusher (Score 1) 913

It's pretty much a worst case scenario, but BP, and I suspect a whole lot of politicians, went out of their way to minimize the potential.

It looks like they didn't. It looks like they were part of an active lobby against using the best safety precautions available. Look at this post above yours for some additional info: http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1639434&cid=32078886

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