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Comment Re:Incredible (Score 1) 957

Quoi?

I'm in Ontario. Passports work fine and are commonly used, photo health cards do under somewhat more limited circumstances, (I believe people aren't allowed to ask for them but they are valid ID if offered - I don't know if that's law or merely common practice) and, if 18 or older, you can get an an Age of Majority card which is as valid as a drivers license or passport.

Me, I carry my passport when I anticipate a situation where I will need to show ID, maybe once a month at most.

Comment Re:ok... (Score 3, Informative) 415

I don't know about bluetooth, but for lots of applications USB serial ports won't work because USB operates at 5V and serial is supposed to be 12V.

Some devices handle the far-below-spec voltage gracefully, but results are unpredictable at best. But that's ok, I've got my trusty PCI serial card... oh.

Math

First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241

Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"

Comment Re:Infinite (Score 1) 821

There are an infinite number of alternatives that CBS could have chosen but its desire to shock and offend is crystal clear in this decision.

I don't think we should take writing advice from someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word "infinite." Well, unless a whole LOT of new words were added to human language without me knowing about it...

Not words, alternatives. Multi-word phrases are allowed and there are an infinite number of those:

Poop My Dad Says
Fecal Matter My Dad Says
The word that should go here offends some idiots, so to play it safe our title will just make no sense My Dad Says

The possibilities are actually endless... oh, you were trying to convey meaning?

Comment Re:eff them (Score 1) 430

I'm amazed you were actually able to return a game to a store for that reason.

'Round these parts (Central Ontario) most stores only accept returns on software because of defective media, and usually even then all they're willing do is exchange it for another copy. It's been that way for about 15 years, to my recollection.

Space

Saturn's Strange Hexagon Recreated In the Lab 103

cremeglace writes "Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features: a giant hexagon encircling its north pole. Though not as famous as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's Hexagon is equally mysterious. Now researchers have recreated this formation in the lab using little more than water and a spinning table—an important first step, experts say, in finally deciphering this cosmic mystery. More details, including a cool demo video, at ScienceNOW."

Comment Re:Other solutions to the wifi problem (Score 1) 374

I've been running a Linksys WRT54G for many years and I've never had any connection problems with any of my Macs or Windows PCs. I'm going to stick with Linksys if I ever upgrade and get a faster router.

Interesting... the router I had to do the firmware upgrade on was also a WRT54G.

Comment Re:Other solutions to the wifi problem (Score 5, Informative) 374

At the very least, step 1 is not so absurd.

A while back, the girlfriend bought a Macbook, which was the first Apple device that ever tried to connect to my router over WiFi. Even 6" away from the router, the Macbook would not connect; any PC we tried would work all (15 feet) across the apartment.

I was prepared to chalk it up to shoddy Apple networking hardware, but on a whim tried a firmware upgrade. Lo and behold, after the router rebooted the Macbook immediately recognized it and connected without issue.

I have no idea what/where the actually problem was, but if Apple had suggested the exact same list of steps to me they would've been right on the money.

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