flight666 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Stop copying Windows please! (Score 2) 274

by flight666 on Monday February 07, 2011 @03:04PM (#35129000) Attached to: USB Autorun Attacks Against Linux

But the whole point of this discussion: What if there is a bug in the library that renders that *data*? All of a sudden, your data is no longer very data-y, and much more executable-y than you might have intended.

For reference, take a look at the (lengthy) list of bugs in any of the image processing libraries.

Comment Re:Any chance we'll get rid of Java? (Score 4, Informative) 129

by flight666 on Thursday January 27, 2011 @05:54PM (#35024960) Attached to: Android 3.0 Platform Preview and SDK Is Here

Android has it's own VM system, and it's called Dalvik. It has language independence built in so Java source files can be used... they compile to DEX, the Dalvik bytecode format. It does JIT.

Please tell me that the above was (well-disguised) sarcasm.

Super Mario Bros. 3 Level Design Lessons 95

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday January 02, 2011 @07:36AM from the double-whistle-to-victory dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Significant Bits about how the early level design in Super Mario Bros. 3 gradually introduced players to the game without needing something as blatant and obtrusive as a tutorial: "Super Mario Bros. 3 contains many obvious design lessons that are also present in other games, e.g., the gradual layering of complexity that allows players to master a specific mechanic. What surprised me during my playthrough, though, was how some of these lessons were completely optional. The game doesn't have any forced hand-holding, and it isn't afraid of the player simply exploring it at his own pace (even if it means circumventing chunks of the experience)."

2012 Mayan Calendar 'Doomsday' Date Might Be Wrong 144

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @01:46PM from the 60-day-reprieve dept.

astroengine writes "A UC Santa Barbara associate professor is disputing the accuracy of the mesoamerican 'Long Count' calendar after highlighting several astronomical flaws in a correlation factor used to synchronize the ancient Mayan calendar with our modern Gregorian calendar. If proven to be correct, Gerardo Aldana may have nudged the infamous December 21, 2012 'End of the World' date out by at least 60 days. Unfortunately, even if the apocalypse is rescheduled, doomsday theorists will unlikely take note."

Ocean-Crossing Dragonflies Discovered 95

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 06, 2010 @10:45PM from the incredible-journey dept.

grrlscientist writes "While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world."

Antarctic's First Plane, Found In Ice 110

Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 05, 2010 @10:11AM from the ice-tractor-cometh dept.

Arvisp writes "In 1912 Australian explorer Douglas Mawson planned to fly over the southern pole. His lost plane has now been found. The plane – the first off the Vickers production line in Britain – was built in 1911, only eight years after the Wright brothers executed the first powered flight. For the past three years, a team of Australian explorers has been engaged in a fruitless search for the aircraft, last seen in 1975. Then on Friday, a carpenter with the team, Mark Farrell, struck gold: wandering along the icy shore near the team's camp, he noticed large fragments of metal sitting among the rocks, just a few inches beneath the water."

IDEs With VIM Text Editing Capability? 193

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 30, 2009 @03:30PM from the one-keybinding-to-rule-them-all dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am currently looking to move from text editing with vim to a full fledged IDE with gdb integration, integrated command line, etc. Extending VIM with these capabilities is a mortal sin, so I am looking for a linux based GUI IDE. I do not want to give up the efficient text editing capabilities of VIM though. How do I have my cake and eat it too?"

Comment Re:Mcgyver (Score 1) 203

by flight666 on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @02:22PM (#30537290) Attached to: Amazon Kindle Proprietary Format Broken

wow... your comment indicates that you have never read any of his stories, and is singularly uninformed.

He is alternatively described as an expert swordsman, boxer, and master of disguises. More of his mysteries were solved through observation than by main force, but, nevertheless, an action adventure Holmes would be in keeping with the original cannon, and a much more exciting movie than one without.

Revisiting the "Holy Trinity" of MMORPG Classes 362

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 18, 2009 @08:20AM from the or-druid-as-the-case-may-be dept.

A feature at Gamasutra examines one of the foundations of many MMORPGs — the idea that class roles within such a game fall into three basic categories: tank, healer, and damage dealer. The article evaluates the pros and cons of such an arrangement and takes a look at some alternatives. "Eliminating specialized roles means that we do away with boxing a class into a single role. Without Tanks, each class would have features that would help them participate in and survive many different encounters like heavy armor, strong avoidance, or some class or magical abilities that allow them to disengage from direct combat. Without specialized DPS, all classes should be able to do damage in order to defeat enemies. Some classes might specialize in damage type, like area of effect (AoE) damage; others might be able to exploit enemy weaknesses, and some might just be good at swinging a sharpened bit of metal in the right direction at a rapid rate. This design isn't just about having each class able to fill any trinity role. MMO combat would feel more dynamic in this system. Every player would have to react to combat events and defend against attacks."

3D Blu-ray Spec Finalized, PS3 Supported 157

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 18, 2009 @03:06AM from the but-at-least-one-dimension-will-have-drm dept.

Lucas123 writes "The Blu-ray Disc Association announced today that it has finalized the specification for Blu-ray 3-D discs. The market for 3-D, which includes 3-D enabled televisions, is expected to be $15.8 billion by 2015. Blu-ray 3-D will create a full 1080p resolution image for both eyes using MPEG4-MVC format. Even though two hi-def images are produced, the overhead is typically only 50% compared to equivalent 2D content. The spec also allows PS3 game consoles to play Blu-ray 3-D content. 'The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.'"

Yellowstone Supervolcano Larger Than First Thought 451

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @11:50AM from the even-superer dept.

drewtheman writes "New studies of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park shows the plume and the magma chamber under the volcano are larger than first thought and contradicts claims that only shallow hot rock exists. University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies that verify a plume of hot and molten rock at least 410 miles deep that rises at an angle from the northwest."

Comment Re:wrong concept of owner? (Score 1) 105

by flight666 on Wednesday January 07, 2009 @02:45PM (#26360889) Attached to: Researchers Hack Intel's VPro

Bzzt. wrong. try again.

You confuse "owner" in this case with "user".

The owner of the machine is the business that owns it, while the user is the poor guy sitting at the keyboard. It is perfectly reasonable for the owner to want to protect against a rogue user. But all of the comments in the grandparent thread still apply. The legitimate owner (even if it is a business) still owns the physical hardware and has all the same concerns a regular person would have.

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