Comment Re:Easy answer (Score 1) 2288
That's not how SI units work, you don't just keep prefixing kilo every time you multiply by 1000.
1000 times the base unit of mass in SI is the megagram
Comment Re:Wikileaks (Score 1) 113
I hadn't thought of this like that, but I suppose the difference is that this was an invasion of the personal privacy of individuals, whereas the wikileaks stuff was (largely) an invasion of the privacy of the governments who are supposed to represent us, released openly.
Comment Re:All good except DirectWrite font rendering. (Score 1) 554
This post might explain some of the issues? I know I did have problems in some of the early IE9 betas but I later used the cleartype tuner and haven't had any problems with IE9 or Firefox 4 since, fonts look great.
Comment Cost is for hosted service more than software? (Score 1) 345
Surely the real cost they're paying here is for the "cloud services", and so the price would be similar whether or not the software behind it is OSS or not? Or is the argument just anti-MS really?
It sounds like there's some saving from a previous move to MS Exchange and the licensing deal from that as well though.
Comment Joystiq reckons it's a publicity stunt? (Score 5, Informative) 326
It's starting to look like the platform's shutdown is just a marketing stunt. Good Old Games spokesman Tom Ohle told us that "as the site says, this doesn't mean GOG is dead. We will have more to share in the next couple of days." A NeoGAF poster dug up a Polish business forum, in which CD Projekt co-founder Micha Kiciski purportedly mentions a conference dated for this Wednesday, adding, "we'll post information about this soon on GOG.com (please do not panic after reading the information contained there.)" We'll keep an eye out for more info.
Comment Re:I'm all for it (Score 2, Insightful) 832
Problem is, if they're selling these unlock cards then the chips can't just be disabled "when it needs more chips in the economy bin and less in the high-end one", they must be using better chips and artificially disabling every single one, or else how would anyone know if the card would work! That I think is the issue here.
Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain 680
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
A New Neutral, Long-Haul Fiber Network 129
techclicker sends word on the ambitious plans of Allied Fiber to disrupt the long-haul business in the US. The company is embarking on the first phase of a planned six-phase build-out of dark fiber, towers, and co-lo facilities ringing the US. The first three phases are budgeted at $670M; the last three are not yet laid out in detail (announcement, PDF). Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in 2010. Allied's business model of selling wholesale bandwidth to all comers is in sharp contrast to that of incumbents such as AT&T, who won't sell backhaul to potential competitors. "Allied is deploying a 432-count, long-haul cable coupled with the 216-count, short-haul cable that will be a composite of Single-Mode and Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted fibers. Allied Fiber has implemented a new, multi-duct design for intermediate access to the long-haul fiber duct through a parallel short-haul fiber duct all along the route. This enables all points between the major cities, including wireless towers and rural networks, to gain access to the dark fiber. In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber that does not yet exist in the United States on this scale."
Comment Re:Simple Solution (Score 2, Interesting) 553
Nope, nothing to do with the BBC.. just seems to be reposts of BBC articles, although I couldn't find that one on the news site, don't know why the fuck its linked to that site.
Comment Re:It's the freeloaders time (Score 2, Informative) 1051
Ars is pay per view:
There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis.
Comment Re:As an Australian Resident,,, (Score 1) 277
But then, as it seems to be in America now, shops will just not stock games with these high ratings to avoid any risk of incurring the fine, effectively the same fate as if it had been banned anyway.
For the record, I and all of my friends (we're 17) play violent video games, but we are capable of distinguishing between real life and the games ourselves.
New Aliens Vs. Predator Game Doesn't Make It Past AU Ratings Board 277
An anonymous reader writes "Australia refused to give Rebellion's new Aliens Vs. Predator game a rating, effectively banning it in the country. Rebellion says it won't be submitting an edited version for another round of classifications, however. (As Valve did with Left 4 Dead 2.) They said, 'We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.'"
Comment Re:wow, the beginning of the end (Score 5, Informative) 364
This tool isn't part of Windows 7, it's just used if you buy the download version of Windows 7 from the MS store. If it was actually part of Windows 7 i think there would have been a much bigger fuss!
