Tha_Big_Guy23 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:How big of a rocket? (Score 1) 96

by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Friday July 29, 2011 @02:17PM (#36924724) Attached to: Evaluating the Capabilities of Chip-Sized Spacecraft

Big problem: We only have so much helium on the planet.

We do, however, have plenty of hydrogen. That could be used instead of helium and we can send as many balloons as we wanted without a whole lot of fear of "running out" of the lift fuel.

Comment Re:Passed by as a /High Definition/ format? (Score 4, Insightful) 547

by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Wednesday September 22, 2010 @11:27AM (#33663072) Attached to: Xbox Head Proclaims Blu-ray Dead

The point of HD is high quality, right?

Exactly! And the Blu-Ray format was invented to allow more storage on a physical disc media. Thus, you have the storage available to put an entire movie in High Definition on it(~10 - ~30Gb).

I have the fastest available broadband in my area(18Mbps down). To download an entire high def movie in that size would take significantly longer than I would want to wait in front of my television for it. I bought my Blu-ray player for the quality. If I'm going to be forced to download the same content, I expect, and demand, the same quality.

Also, let us not forget about the fact that a sizable portion of the US is still running on dial-up, so downloading a high definition movie is completely out of the question.

Unless the content providers are willing to invest heavily in the broadband infrastructure of the country then physical media like Blu-Ray is here to stay, at least for the next several years.

Submission + - Emergency backup cellular phones

Submitted by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Monday July 12, 2010 @09:58AM

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes: After many years of faithful periodic service my emergency cell phone, a Motorola Star-Tac, has finally given up the ghost and no longer powers on. As a result I find myself looking for a replacement that just places phone calls. I have no need for any of the frills of a smart phone, a camera or anything else. I have a blackberry already as my primary phone and this one is to be used solely for emergencies only. The 911 only phones won't work as I may have need to place a call to AAA, or something of that nature. I do want to make sure that when I need it, it actually places a call. Can anyone out there suggest a replacement phone that will serve as an appropriate emergency backup phone?

Comment Re:What's it doing during the download? (Score 2, Informative) 199

by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Thursday September 10, 2009 @04:37PM (#29382677) Attached to: How Much Is Your Online Identity Worth?

If you fill out the quiz, and at the end, you elect not to protect yourself, you get to watch a video. At the end of that video if you choose not to protect yourself, you get another video, and yet another follows that. That, is what it's doing in the background. Downloading video. Personally, the Shopping Network video scared me.

Submission + - Version control for graphics 1

Submitted by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Monday April 06, 2009 @09:44AM

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes: Are there any good version control systems for graphics files? (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) The company I work for uses Subversion for all of our code version control, so the programmers are well acquainted with version control, and the process as a whole. The problem is that our graphics designers aren't familiar with this process at all. Thus far our designers have been using a system of a couple of storage servers to keep their data. It's working for now, but it's spread out all over the place and I want to be able to centralize all of our graphics data and provide our designers with a versioning system that they can readily learn. Are there any solutions out there that work well cross platform?(Mac/Windows/Linux)

Submission + - Honey making a medical comeback

Submitted by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Friday December 28, 2007 @04:48PM

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes: Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback. Called Medihoney, it is made from a highly absorbent seaweed-based material, saturated with manuka honey, a particularly potent type that experts say kills germs and speeds healing. "It's been used on wounds where nothing else will work," said biochemist Peter Molan, a professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who has researched honey and other natural antibiotics for 25 years.

Submission + - OLPC Launches Buy One, Give One Free Program

Submitted by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Monday November 12, 2007 @08:36AM

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes: For the first time, and for a limited period only, people in North America will be able to get their hands on the XO, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's rugged little laptop that's designed specifically for children. And for each cutting-edge XO purchased in the West, another will be given to a child in a developing country. For $399, customers can order a laptop for themselves; bundled into the price is the cost of delivering a second XO to a child a poor country.

Submission + - Spammers Enlist the Aid of Virtual Strippers

Submitted by Tha_Big_Guy23 on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @04:29PM

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes: Spammers have a new way around captchas: A virtual stripper who is paid when you fork them over. The BBC is reporting that a Windows game shows a woman in "a state of undress" when a person correctly types in a Captcha. In the game, a woman named Melissa invites victims to decipher the text. After a bunch of Captchas you get your payoff and the malicious program gets its way around the Captcha system.

Submission + - Intel discrete graphics chips confirmed

Submitted by Arun Demeure on Monday January 22, 2007 @12:32PM

Arun Demeure writes: There have been rumors of Intel's re-entry into discrete graphics for months. Now Beyond3D has found that Intel has copped to the project on their own site. They describe it as a 'many-core' architecture aimed at 'high-end client platforms', but also extending to other market segments in the future, with 'plans for accelerated CPU integration'. This might also encourage others to follow Intel's strategy of opensourcing their Linux drivers. So, better watch out NVIDIA and AMD/ATI — there's a new player on the horizon.

Submission + - FCC nixes satellite radio merger

Submitted by

a_nonamiss

on Monday January 22, 2007 @12:27PM

a_nonamiss writes: "Doesn't look like Sirius and XM are going to merge any time soon.
From the article:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after an FCC meeting that the Commission would not approve a merger between satellite radio rivals Sirius and XM Radio.

Even if the FCC were to have a change of heart and green-light a merger between Sirius and XM Radio, it would still have to pass antitrust scrutiny by the Department of Justice. Although a combination of the two radio companies wouldn't have the same effect that it would in the TV market, where satellite is the only alternative for some US residents, it would still have the effect of eliminating competition — something that rarely benefits consumers.
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Wogically, I know that competition is a good thing for consumers, and monopolies are generally only good for companies. Still, something in my gut tells me that a merger between these two companies would benefit the consumer. I don't like having to choose a car based on which satellite radio service comes preinstalled, or considering whether I'd rather have Howard Stern or Oprah, because there is no practical way to get both. Frankly, it's probably all this exclusivity that has caused me not to purchase either system."

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