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Comment Re:Microsoft? ASK SLASHDOT! (Score 1) 293

Ask Slashdot, they can tell you if a product will fail or not with 50% accuracy. If you use a time machine, you can go up to 90% : Slashdot is quite good as predicting the past.

Communities like Slashdot are good for many things but predictions is not one of them. Of course, we have to be right sometimes (like with Windows RT) because being 100% wrong is just as hard as being 100% right

Comment Re:Where was this caution with Wii U? (Score 1) 310

And yet, HD on the Wii would've added costs that were completely unnecessary at the time.

Remember, back in 2006/7, HDTVs were pretty much limited to the family room, if the house had an HDTV. Almost certainly the main users of the Wii won't have an HDTV (well, I'm sure there were a few rich families who bought a HDTV for their kids back then).

You just said the second point I wanted to bring.
The Wii is marketed as a console for the living room and indeed, while we have several consoles at home, the Wii is the one that get the most time on the big screen. After all, party games and local multiplayer is where the Wii really shines. In the end, it makes the lack of HD even more noticeable.

Note that I don't think that it is a bad move from Nintendo. The Wii sold really well and was always profitable. I just said that, in my opinion, the Wii would have been much better with HD.

Comment Re:Where was this caution with Wii U? (Score 1) 310

I have a Wii and I still rage about the lack of HD. Indeed the games are fun and that's why I rage instead of just forgetting about this crap piece of hardware. Good graphics won't turn a bad game into a good game but it certainly make things more enjoyable.
The WiiU is OK though, it may not be able to show scenes as complex as the competition (Xbox one, PS4, PC) but at least, it is not an aliased mess.

Comment Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score 2) 526

I don't consider it an idiotic reaction, assuming that he drove carefully after the impact. Pulling over is not without risks and the car nearly told him to continue driving. And considering the range of the Tesla, home was certainly not that far away.
When the car switched to a more alarming message he did pull over and left the car.
Maybe that it wasn't the best course of action but I think that is is reasonable for an emergency reaction (everything took less than 5 minutes).

And BTW, even if this guy is indeed an idiot, then it is a good argument for Tesla : in case of fire, even an idiot can survive.

Comment Re:Chess has to be rethought. (Score 1) 284

Even if we manage to solve chess, the game will still be interesting to non-perfect solvers such as humans.
A bit like rock-paper-scissors is still played by both humans and computers even though the optimal strategy (chose at random) is well known and simple. This strategy will guarantee a draw against any opponent but you won't be able to win. By using a good suboptimal strategy you will lose against perfect players, draw against pure-random players but at least, if your suboptimal strategy is better than your opponent's suboptimal strategy, you can win.

Comment Re:Great... (Score 1) 297

MRIs and other superconducting magnets are the biggest wasters of helium right now.
They work on an open circuit because right now, it is cheaper to waste helium rather than trying to recycle it.

Using helium for balloons is clearly a waste but it accounts for only 16% of total consumption. And that's for all kinds of balloons, including blimps.

Comment Re:Why didn't Adobe kept Source code offline ? (Score 1) 145

If development machines can access the internet, then the source code is online.
It's possible to really work offline but the cost is so high that it is usually only done with classified programs. And it won't prevent a cracker from simply convincing a developer to steal the code using an USB stick.

Comment Contradictory (Score 1) 178

What you need is contradictory. You want to hand out all your data to a single company and you want to be in control.
Want convinience : go with Google or Microsoft, or work with an intermediary. Want control : get your own servers. Want something in-between : keep doing what you are doing now with multiple providers.
End-to-end encryption have to be done within the client software. Webmail, for example, will almost never qualify.
As for the NSA, unless your business deal with state secrets or organized crime, they don't care about your data.

Comment Re:Gotta search 'em all! (Score 1) 218

Terrorists, by definition, want to terrorize people, not necessarily a high body count.
Bombing a crowded mall will kill a lot of people but it will result in more anger and sadness than terror.
Effective terrorism is much more subtle. Killings are kept to a minimum : enough to prove one's point but not so much as to turn fear into anger and sadness. Anthrax letters are a good example : only 5 people died, 17 others infected, yet it had massive repercussions.
As for 9/11, I consider it more like a declaration of war than a pure terrorist act.

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