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Comment Re:I knew I shoulda learned to speak Mandarin... (Score 3, Interesting) 371

It might work if the girls are there to provide "stress relief". It's kind of like some companies where they bring in some massage therapists to give free massages to employees who want one. That's about the only way I can see this "programmer cheerleader" concept working.

Comment Comparison over multiple screens (Score 2) 420

Earlier tonight, I compared the same picture on the same site using 3 different computer monitors side by side and 3 different tablet screens.

To me, the white/blue part of the dress is sort of a pale light blue on all 6 screens. But they're different shades of pale blue. On one screen, the blue stand outs a little stronger. On another screen, the blue seems more faded towards white.

For the black/gold/tan part of the dress, on some screens, the tan color seems more faded, making the darker part stronger, and I COULD call it black. I know it's not PURE black, and it's not as black as that cow patch thing in to the left of the dress. But I could call it a shade of black. On other screens, the tan part stands out more, and I would definitely not call that part black. I don't know if I would call it "gold", but I would call it tan/light brownish.

So I think the screen settings is one variable that contributes to what colors the user thinks they see in the dress picture.

For the situations where different people are looking at the same screen or printed photograph, my guess is that the variability comes from the color/brightness/etc sensitivity of their eyes. For example, in my own eyes, one of them sees the wall in a brighter shade of white (and possibly slightly red tinted) than the other eye. Perhaps those who aren't as sensitive to blue might see the blue/white part of the dress as a shade of white, and call it white.

I guess this picture is just one of those freak pictures where the colors are at some borderline that could be interpreted as one shade of color or another.

Comment Re:125 watt only? (Score 1) 234

Me too. I'm waiting for the rumored Athlon X4 at 45W TDP. It's supposed to come out in the 2nd qtr of this year. I think it would make a perfect upgrade for my Athlon X2 4850e. As for the price tag, the 65W 9350e has been sitting on Newegg at about the same price as the 125W 9950, so it might take a while before the 45W X4 hit the $100 mark.

Comment Re:Leap Day... (Score 1) 785

That sounds very plausible. I've worked on software that mistakenly assumed that each date of the year was exact 24 hours (86,400 seconds) long, which is not true on days where Daylight Saving Time takes effect or ends. On those dates, the day is 23 or 25 hours long, and the software would display stuff off by an hour or in rare cases crash, because the calculations put the stuff on the next or previous date. So I think your guess has a good chance of being right.

Media

Finding Better Tech Broadcasts? 205

BearGrylls writes "As a young lad and aspiring technologist I have found shows like Revision3's 'The Broken' and 'Systm' to be entertaining, informative, and, most importantly, thorough. As time has gone on revision3 has kept some of the tech-related shows, but dumbed them down to appeal to a larger audience. This annoyed me, but I've continued to be a loyal viewer of their tech shows anyway. However, I suspect this trend to continue and my disappointment to grow. Where can I find tech shows that dive deep into projects and discussions instead of simply skimming the surface?"
Space

The Quietest Sun 227

Orbity sends in a Boston Globe report on the unusual calm on the surface of the sun. The photos, many taken in more active solar times, are excellent — see the sequence from last year of a coronal mass ejection carrying away the tail of a comet. "The Sun is now in the quietest phase of its 11-year activity cycle, the solar minimum — in fact, it has been unusually quiet this year — with over 200 days so far with no observed sunspots. The solar wind has also dropped to its lowest levels in 50 years. Scientists are unsure of the significance of this unusual calm..." As if to be contrary, New Scientist mentions that the number of sunspots seem to be increasing.

Comment What about usage caps? (Score 3, Interesting) 193

I wonder if these reports will start taking into account usage caps employed by some ISPs. After all, what would be the point of upgrading from a 5 Mbps line to a hypothetical 500 Mbps line if your ISP caps your usage to the same number of GB in both cases? It would LOOK like ISPs are offering faster speeds, but you wouldn't be able to use that faster line to do more than you could with the slower line.

New Windows Attack Can Disable Firewall 273

BobB writes to tell us NetworkWorld is reporting that new code released on Sunday could allow a fully patched Windows XP PC's personal firewall to be disabled via a malicious data packet. The exploit depends on the use of Microsoft's Internet Connection Service. From the article: "The attacker could send a malicious data packet to another PC using ICS that would cause the service to terminate. Because this service is connected to the Windows firewall, this packet would also cause the firewall to stop working, said Tyler Reguly, a research engineer at nCircle Network Security Inc."

Judge Says RIAA Can't Have Hard Drive 233

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Texas judge has refused to allow the RIAA untrammelled access to the defendant's hard drive in SONY v. Arellanes. The court ruled that only a mutually agreeable, neutral computer forensics expert may examine the hard drive, at the RIAA's expense, and that the parties must agree on mutually acceptable provisions for confidentiality."

Moore's Law For Razor Blades? 591

BartlebyScrivener writes "An article in The Economist examines Moore's Law as applied to razor blade technology: 'For the most cynical shavers, this evolution is mere marketing. Twin blades seemed plausible. Three were a bit unlikely. Four, ridiculous. And five seems beyond the pale. Few people, though, seem willing to bet that Gillette's five-bladed Fusion is the end of the road for razor-blade escalation. More blades may seem impossible for the moment — though strictly speaking the Fusion has six, because it has a single blade on its flip-side for tricky areas — but anyone of a gambling persuasion might want to examine the relationship between how many blades a razor has, and the date each new design was introduced'" I'm legally obligated to mention the Onion article that predicted this.

Java EE 5 Development Waiting on Vendors 99

twofish writes "Java EE 5 was a major update and most of the major application server vendors do not yet have compliant versions released. Dr. Dobb's reports that this is delaying most solution providers from developing products based on it, as their customers are not ready for them. However there is some significant movement among the big players. Among the major vendors, Sun has released support, WebLogic is close with JBoss following soon after. Oracle has not announced a road map and IBM is lagging significantly behind, with full support not due until 2008."

Microsoft to Give Away Software 197

dptalia writes "In an attempt to suck up to the European Union, Microsoft has announced that it will give away software allowing multiple operating systems to run simultaneously. Microsoft says this is part of their strategy to make more software available through OSS." From the article: "Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said he had not seen the details of Microsoft's giveaway but cautioned against assuming it was motivated only by pragmatism or a new spirit of cooperation. 'If Microsoft were doing this for altruistic reasons, it would be a first,' Greve said. 'I think they are probably trying to get more machines on the Windows platform, and they may also be trying to improve relations in Brussels.'"

MySpace Predator Caught By Code 374

An anonymous reader writes, "Wired News editor and former hacker Kevin Poulsen wrote a 1,000-line Perl script that checked MySpace for registered sex offenders. Sifting through the results, he manually confirmed over 700 offenders, including a serial child molester in New York actively trying to hook up with underage boys on the site, and who has now been arrested as a result. MySpace told Congress last June that it didn't have this capability." Wired News says they will publish Poulsen's code under an open-source license later this week.

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