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Comment Re:Demon's Souls (Score 1) 854

I concur! The hardest and best game out there at the moment. Atmostpheric, unbelievable replay value, requires tactics and planning and has an awesome online component. Some of the coolest bosses ever encountered in any video game. If you're bored with the current generation, get this game! I've clocked at least 100 hours and am still finding new ways of playing it.
Don't forget though;this is not an easy or forgiving game. One mistake and you're dead*. It only adds to the fun that dying makes your enemies stronger. Demon's souls fucking hates you.

Also, a sequel is already in the works, codename Project Dark.

* Especially when facing Flamelurker, The False King, Maneater, the group of crossbowmen and blue eyed knights at the end of 1-2 or, of course, the giant Depraved Ones. Or, for that matter, Penetrator, dual katana black skeletons, invading black phantoms, the reapers and BP Satsuki.

Comment Re:Michael Behe is at the root of their advantage. (Score 1) 989

"Irreducible complexity" is a demonstrably false hypothesis

One problem with that: irreducible complexity is a negative. It's basically the statement that something, however small, can't be explained. And, as we all know, you can't prove a negative , so they'll always have somewhere to flee to. "O, no, that eye was explainable, but what about the flagellum. Oops, that's been done too. And, what about blood coagulation... O, wait..." Repeat ad infinitum. It would be harmless if they weren't pushing this stuff to someone else's children.

Comment Re:It could be legitimate (Score 1) 365

True, but the person not providing the right tools is at fault.

Now, given that most of your fraud detection code is stuck in a jumble of visual basic macro code, try explaing to mr. Judge why you picked up ms. Fraudy-McWealthy as a potential tax dodger (to the tune of, say, $50e6). 'The macro did it' is, unfortunately, not an acceptable explanation.

Comment Re:It could be legitimate (Score 5, Insightful) 365

If you're brain dead, you can't use the advanced stuff in excel. If you're using excel for the advanced stuff in a critical application, you must be brain dead. Why, for the love of god, is the advanced stuff in excel ever used? I still don't get it.

Honestly, the amount of business critical applications buried in excel macro's is shocking. And, as we all know, the person who wrote the macro never leaves his/her job. This is especially dangerous for government who, for particular branches, have to be able to transparently show how they came to certain decisions. Any responsible official will stay away from excel for all but the most menial of tasks.

Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis 303

cgjherr writes "If the recent financial meltdown has left you wondering, 'When does exponential decay function stop?' then I have the book for you. Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis is the kind of book that only comes along every twenty years. A tome so densely packed with scientific and mathematical formulas that it almost dares you to try and understand it all. A "For Dummies" book starts with a gentle introduction to the technology. This is more like a "for Mentats" book. It assumes that you know Excel very well. The first chapter alone will have you in awe as you see the author turn the lowly Excel into something that rivals Mathematica using VBA, brains, and a heaping helping of fortitude." Read on for the rest of Jack's review.
Businesses

Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research 460

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from Wired: "After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab. Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software." Jamie points out this list of Bell Labs' accomplishments at Wikipedia, including little things like the UNIX operating system.

Comment most damaging image in the history of evolution (Score 1) 838

You know which one it is, you've seen it in libraries, books, this thing called the internet, etc. It's even the first hit on GIS if you look for evolution. Why is it so bad? It suggests a linear, goal oriented version of evolution, where newer species replace older species. In it's worst case, this becomes "If folks came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys around?".

The modern view of evolution should be an image more like a tree, with many branches starting at the root. Most species will be extinct by now, but a few them will still be around.

In addition, the only thing random about evolution is mutation, which creates variation within a population.

Finally, as someone else said as well, origin of life != evolution. Nice going for that article.
United States

Helium Crisis Approaching 501

vrmlguy writes "Within nine years the National Helium Reserve will be depleted, according to an article in Science Daily. It quotes Dr. Lee Sobotka, of Washington University in St. Louis: 'Helium is non-renewable and irreplaceable. Its properties are unique and unlike hydrocarbon fuels (natural gas or oil), there are no biosynthetic ways to make an alternative to helium. All should make better efforts to recycle it.' (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a local article with quotes from Dr. Sobotka and representatives of the balloon industry.) On Earth, Helium is found mixed with natural gas, but few producers capture it. Extracting it from the atmosphere is not cost-effective. The US created a stockpile, the National Helium Reserve, in 1925 for use by military dirigibles, but stopped stockpiling it in 1995 as a cost-saving measure."
Security

Malware Distribution Through Physical Media a Growing Concern 141

twitter brings us a story about the increasing number of digital devices reaching consumers with malware already installed. In this case, digital photo frames from three different Sam's Club stores were found to contain the same type of malicious code. We discussed a similar problem with iPods a while back, as well as a more recent situation with Maxtor hard drives. Quoting the Register: "While a compromise at the manufacturer is the most likely scenario, ISC's Sachs also pointed to retailers as a possible point of infection. Returned products, which could have been infected by the consumer, are frequently put back on the shelf, if they are in sale-able condition, and attackers could take advantage of a store's poor digital hygiene, he said. 'Trying to (infect a product) all the way back at the factory — getting it through all the checks and balances — would be pretty hard to do,' he said. 'But doing it at the store, where there might be loose return policies, and (where) they put it back on the shelf - you are not going to get a million infections, but you might get a person from an investment bank next door.'"
Software

GNU Octave 3.0 Released After 11 Years 222

Digana writes "GNU Octave is a free numerical computing environment highly compatible with the MATLAB language. After 11 years of development since version 2.0, stable version 3.0 released yesterday. This version is interesting because unlike other free or semi-free MATLAB competitors like Scilab, specific compatibility with MATLAB code is a design goal. This has manifested itself in goodies like better support for MATLAB's Handle Graphics, a syntax closer to MATLAB's own for many functions, and many functions from the sister project Octave-Forge ported to the core Octave project for an enriched functionality closer to the toolboxes provided by MATLAB. GUI development is underway, but still no JIT compiling, which is a show-stopper for Octave newbies coming from MATLAB with unvectorized code."
The Courts

Opera Files EU Complaint Against Microsoft 455

A number of readers have sent word about Opera Software ASA's antitrust complaint against Microsoft filed with the EU. Here is Opera's press release on the filing. The company wants the EU to "obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop" and to "require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities." The latter request makes this a case to watch. Will the Commissioner take the Acid2 test using IE7?

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Just about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac (and nobody cares about it). -- Bill Joy 6/21/85

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