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Comment Re:Doubling the value! (Score 1) 488

This change is actually saving me money. I just received my email from Netflix. I currently pay $41.99 a month for unlimited streaming plus 6 discs out. The plan split is (for me) $7.99 for streaming, $32.99 for 6 discs out, which comes to $40.98 a month.

I've no complaints. Email says the changes will go into effect on or after Sept 1st.
Microsoft

Microsoft Patents Looks-Are-Everything Dating 192

theodp writes "Screw that eHarmony Compatibility Matching System nonsense. 'Physical appearance is generally considered one of the most important search criteria among users of online dating services,' according to a patent granted Tuesday to five Microsoft Research Asia inventors. Its Image-Based Face Search technology not only allows people to specify the 'gender, age, ethnicity, location, height, weight, and the like' of their prey, explains Microsoft, it also allows them to 'provide a query image of a face for which they would like to search for similar faces.' So, even though you can't have the real Angelina Jolie or Natalie Portman, Microsoft will fix you up with a look-alike."

Comment Re:Question for EVE players (Score 1) 620

It would be damn-near impossible to earn 250 million ISK durig the trial period, even if you were mining 23/7. It takes time to make that kind of ISK. Even with planetary interaction, you need the ISK to purchase colonies to create P4 items. 3.7 milion for the command center, and roughly 1.5-2 million for the colony. then it takes time to produce the items.

I run three accounts and use PLEX to pay for two of them, so I'm actually only paying for one account with RL money. It's handy, but it took time to get to that point.... owning a decent corp, having the right skills to stay alive and keep producing....

With 3 accounts, I have 9 characters who process materials from planetary colonies. I can make roughly 20 million a day just by letting the colonies run, freeing up my characters to do something that's actually fun like PVP. Plus, by owning a corporation, I get to tax everyone in my corp, and make ISK off of their missions.

So it IS possible to never spend a dime playing EVE, but it takes time, skills, and patience.

Comment Re:What's with the asterisk, Slashdot? (Score 1) 698

What I've always found amusing is the language that is substituted to allow swearing on television.

Take "frak" for instance. It obviously means "fuck". When a character on BSG says "those motherfrakkers", he/she is obviously saying "motherfuckers". When Mal or Jayne say "gorram', they are obviously saying "goddamn". Everyone knows what they are really saying, and it's allowed. The FCC has no problem with people on television swearing, as long as the swear word is spelled and pronounced differently. Spike can say "sodding", and "bugger", and here in America we know he's saying "fucking", or "fuck it in the ass" (i think). But since it is British slang....it's allowed.

And where did "heck" and "gosh" come from? My children say them all the time, in public, and never get in trouble. I know that "what the heck?" is the same as saying "what the hell?", "oh my gosh" is "oh my god", "oh poop" is "oh shit". They mean the same thing, don't they? but if my 7-year-old daughter suddenly said "Oh my god! What the hell is going on?", people would freak! "What the Heck" and "Oh my Gosh" obviously stem from someone still wanting to be able to convey "what the hell" and "oh my god", but have it be acceptable in society. It's all the same thing.

Fornicate means Fuck, why not just say fuck? Who does it hurt?

Sticks and Stones, man. Sticks and Stones.
Transportation

Scientists Question Safety of New Airport Scanners 357

An anonymous reader sends this quote from a story at NPR about the accelerated deployment of new scanning machines at airports: "Fifty-two of these state-of-the-art machines are already scanning passengers at 23 US airports. By the end of 2011, there will be 1,000 machines and two out of every three passengers will be asked to step into one of the new machines for a six-second head-to-toe scan before boarding. About half of these machines will be so-called X-ray back-scatter scanners. They use low-energy X-rays to peer beneath passengers' clothing. That has some scientists worried. ... The San Francisco group thinks both the machine's manufacturer, Rapiscan, and government officials have miscalculated the dose that the X-ray scanners deliver to the skin — where nearly all the radiation is concentrated. The stated dose — about .02 microsieverts, a medical unit of radiation — is averaged over the whole body, members of the UCSF group said in interviews. But they maintain that if the dose is calculated as what gets deposited in the skin, the number would be higher, though how much higher is unclear."
Robotics

Submission + - Stanford Robot Car Nails Amazing Parking Maneuver (singularityhub.com) 1

kkleiner writes: Stanford’s Junior, the robot car that took second place at DARPA’s Grand Challenge in 2007, has learned how to perform a tire squealing 180 degree spin into a skin-tight parking space. Similar to a James Bond action scene, the maneuver is impressive and would be extremely difficult for a human to pull off. We won't be handing the keys over to robot cars anytime soon, but Stanford shows us that at least for some driving tasks robot cars can already meet or even exceed human ability.

Comment Re:Didn't see Avatar... (Score 1) 782

Actually, I thought the score was "Titanic: remixed". There were a few scenes where the the first few notes of "My Heart Will Go On" started playing, and then diverged into something else. Horner didn't bring a lot of originality to this one

I kept expecting to see a naked Rose running through the forest of Pandora, with Jack running after her with a pencil and sketchpad in his arms....

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