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Comment Re:Bad Hacking (Score 5, Insightful) 251

No one benefits from reCAPTCHA being broken. No one

You couldn't be more wrong. Sure, breaking reCAPTCHA would create a headache for website admins (including me, for example), but in order to break reCAPTCHA someone has to devise a better text recognition program. And that's great news! This is an example of a general side effect of the cat and mouse game that are captchas. Captcha's are a simple form of Turing Test, where website admins are trying to determine who is a computer and who is a real human being. Every time a captcha gets broken, we get a sophisticated new algorithm for doing something that previously only humans could do (or only humans could do well, at least).

Comment Re:With Scale Will Come Gov Intervention (Score 1) 491

There are other possible problems, aside from the legal ones. Don't get me wrong, this is a neat idea; the laissez-faire anarchist in me is salivating. But its not immediately clear if the claims these guys are making are valid (or even possible). One warning flag though: I can't help but notice their prediction of expected deflation (from the wiki article). Before you go invest real money in this (however it is one would go about doing that...), you'd better be sure this isn't a very clever pyramid scheme.

Maingear Touts New Rig As "Planet's Greenest Gaming PC" 136

Maingear has just unveiled what they are calling the "planet's greenest gaming PC." Built using a small form factor and coming with Intel's new Ion graphics as the default option, this little powerhouse is built with a definite eye toward energy consumption. "Said configuration is available with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs and an 80+ certified 300-watt power supply; those who care more about frame rates than Ma Earth can opt for a GeForce 9800 GT ECO, which — despite being a discrete, power-hungry GPU — still swallows some 40 percent less power than a standard 9800 GT. You'll also find WiFi support, room for an optional Blu-ray drive and TV tuner, upwards of 8GB of RAM and room for a single 2.5-inch HDD or SSD. The whole box checks in at just 7.6- x 8.3- x 11.4-inches, and it's available for order right now starting at $799."

Comment Re:The forces of darkness (Score 1) 1161

Please don't forget that it is a subset of "religious people" who are fighting to discredit science and impose their beliefs via government and laws.

While I agree it is important to stress that it is just a subset, when the elected representatives of a state work towards the interests of that subset, then we have a problem. http://xkcd.com/154/

Comment Re:Games? (Score 1) 499

And in-game physics, where performance is hugely important (and expensive), whereas the exact floating point accuracy of a given force will make a negligible difference. Most rigid body physics systems that you'd find in a game will settle towards an equilibrium regardless of small random perturbations anyways. And many physics simulators introduce this kind of slight randomness in the first place, so there really is nothing to be lost here.

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