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Comment I want to eat meat/fish (Score 5, Interesting) 393

I want to eat meat. I will never become a vegan, because I need meat (my levels of B12 and iron constantly falling if I don't eat enough meat, and I rather get it from real food rather than vitamin pills). Find a way to make it sustainable then. It's not a solution to telling everyone to "stop eating meat". I rather have free range or wild, sustainable, organic meat, than industrialized meat. But to not have any at all, is not an option.

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 312

I personally *despise* the episodic model. I'm all for the serialized one, and in fact, except Netflix's offerings, the serialized versions found on networked shows pale in comparison (in terms of serialization that is). I'm one of those people who really enjoyed the serializing nature of LOST (minus the disastrous 6th season). I absolutely never watch episodic television. I find it cheap, and non-artistic. In a perfect world, I'd like most TV shows (not all, but most) to end in 3 seasons: beginning-middle-end. And each season to comprise from 6-9 episodes: beginning-middle-end. Like a book.

Comment Sea Change (Score 1) 535

I ditched Microsoft software and solutions over a decade ago when an update they sent me wouldn't apply because the installer detected a OS/2 and Linux partition on my hard drive (which at the time I was a consultant needing to program solutions for all three platforms). Wait, what? I paid for your product and you won't update it because I make a living supporting alternate products? Go fuck yourself.

This is Sea Change moment for Linux. In the early 90's I watched IBM going from 80 percent market share down to 20/30 share. People stopped buying IBM and Microsoft was the winner of IBM's loss. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/20/business/ibm-posts-5.46-billion-loss-for-4th-quarter-1992-s-deficit-biggest-us-business.html This was due to IBM pushing MCA/PS2 etc. on a open market to reel in more profits. Yes, I was in a meeting for a fortune 500 company where the comptroller said, fuck IBM, were going Microsoft.

The Linux foundation along with RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu need to get together (pool resources) and fix the minor issues still inhibiting total Linux adoption. Grandmothers want to easily show slideshows of the grand kids on their screen savers. Accountants want to use Quickbooks. Graphic designers want to use PhotoShop etc.

We haven't had hardware issues for years (in my experience). It's the little things that will prevent Linux adoption.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Windows 7 printing worse than Linux and XP

Hey Microsoft, I can install 76 updates in Linux under 10 minutes, including a new kernel. I'm not waiting two hours to install the 76 updates the computer already downloaded in the background. I powered down after update #2 took over twenty minutes to install. Life is too short. I expect the Windows 7 installation on my desktop is hosed now.

My ten year old canon ink jet died. I replaced it with a Samsung laser.

Comment Kefir (Score 2) 183

All what's needed is the patient making their own, home-made goat kefir (if they're not terribly allergic to dairy -- although even dairy allergies are a para-symptom of wheat allergy in reality). Kefir's 43 different bacteria and yeasts can kill CDiff, and it's being shown to do so in research (Minnesota university professor/doctor tried it recently too). But the kefir must be home-made (bottled ones don't include the full spectrum of bacteria/yeasts because of bottling regulations regarding alcohol the yeasts create), it must be from goat, sheep or buffalo milk (for less casein irritation, as the A2 casein is more compatible with humans), and it must be fermented for 24 hours (to minimize the amount of lactose ingested). Two-three cups a day of kefir (with a few berries in it, maybe with some pine and walnut nuts, also maybe with some raw, unfiltered and local honey too), and CDiff should be back in check within 3-4 days. No need for antibiotics, for pill probiotics, or doctors for that matter.

Comment It still has a long way ahead (Score 5, Informative) 126

As a filmmaker and a graphics artist these days, I like Blender and its idea behind it, I really do. This is a copy of what I wrote on my blog about all that: The CGI on this movie still looks like VFX animation and not realistic. It looks fake. Camera tracking is good, modelling seems ok, but lighting and animation aren’t. There are no shadows to talk about, everything it’s too HDR-ish. If that’s what Blender can do in 2012, then color me unimpressed. That’s no Hollywood-worthy CGI. And let’s not forget that this movie was produced by the Blender guys themselves, with hand-picked Blender artists.

Unfortunately, that quality is not even good enough for TV anymore. Sure, there have been worse VFX on TV than what Blender can do, for example the re-imagined version of “V”, but thing is, there have been better ones too. Back in 2010, Stargate:Universe had some amazing VFX in some episodes, more realistic than anything I’ve seen on TV, before or after. An even more important point for TV is the time it takes to do things with the app (since their deadlines are extremely strict). Blender is not that easy to use, Maya can do better, faster.

That doesn't mean that Blender is useless. It’s not. You can’t beat its price and features in the advertising sector (which doesn't require extreme realism, it mostly needs some animation tricks), schools (for obvious reasons), or as a hobbyist artist. Blender can also prove to be a life-saver for indie filmmakers who primarily have the time to deal with Blender (rather than the money to buy other packages). So if *I* was doing an indie short movie, I would use Blender, because it's good-enough for what I would need to do, and I have indefinite time on my hands. So it’s got its uses in the world. It’s just that I don’t see it being able to compete for Hollywood movies and serious TV shows.

Comment Re:Not Sco at all (Score 4, Informative) 174

In this case, careful review by a number of hardware makers has led them to pay Microsoft to license the patents. We may not know exactly what they are using but you can bet the companies paying Microsoft had to have pretty good proof before they simply handed over per-device fees to another company.

I doubt that. All the companies that have licensed the patents for their Android devices also ship Windows devices. More than likely Microsoft threatened them over Windows pricing if they didn't agree to the patents. See the monopoly trial transcripts on Microsoft's use of predatory pricing tactics.

The one Android using company that didn't license the patents also doesn't ship any Windows versions. According to Barnes and Noble the patents are weak. See

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/04/28/039255/BampN-Responds-To-Microsofts-Android-Suit

Food for thought,
Enjoy.

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