Posts by xperroni

Re: Another For The List ....

Indeed, where's Maps?

It's even got its own Tumblr page!

And how about all the nice stories of it sending people out into the middle of nowhere?

Son, I am disappoint.

Re: Noooo

Don't.

As fate would have it, I installed it just days before it was pulled off. And it is pretty addictive.

I don't think it deserves to be called a "crapp". If this were an Apple product people would be calling it "minimalistic" and "unobtrusive".

It is a very simple game to be sure, but it doesn't seem to have been written poorly – in my experience it is very stable and responsive. Since its very point is to be insanely hard, that the UI is minimal also contributes to the experience: you can fail and restart play faster than it takes to reload an Angry Birds stage. The learning curve is pretty much non-existent, you get the mechanics of the game within seconds of first playing it. From then on it's a test of skill, pure and simple.

Alas, such ignominy to poor Nguyen, we barely knew him. Flappy Birds has the hallmark of an accidental success, so I doubt he'll ever get another one like this – but I hope he can hold on to the craft.

Re: "[N]othing is ever straightforward"

I ain't Spartacus,

I really ain't.

I also ain't got no idea why you're all so attached to those exercises. Yes, they're a perfectly reasonable and justifiable operation, and South Korea has been real nice and upfront about it. Why, they've even brought the Americans along – we all know those guys aren't likely to start a shootout without very good reason now, are they?

Hey, maybe you're right, they're right, and that's all that matters. I mean, they're a sovereign country operating within their own borders, sure nobody can fault them, right? Right? Just like, oh I don't know – the Cubans had the right to furnish their own country with whatever defense systems they deemed necessary? That certainly looked plenty reasonable for everyone, didn't it?

Re: But a big trusted partner like Microsoft....

You justify this by thinking that Microsoft would never pull the rug from under you and support your technology till infinity.

I haven't developed for Windows in a long time, but given the succession of development platform debacles Microsoft oversaw in the last ten-odd years (VB6, XAML, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, etc etc) you'd have to be quite deluded to still believe that.

To be fair, most of the tech MS threw under the bus these past years was either bloated legacy or never any good to begin with. But of course that's beside the point – if they peddled those things to developers in the first place, they might as well provide some migration path to the next great thing, rather than just ditch support and leave their customers to scramble for a way out. And how about drawing up a sensible technology roadmap and sticking to it while they're at that?

Alas, to each one their lot. Me, I should be looking into a replacement notebook for the wife...

Re: Company of the people?

Company for the people? What a complete pile of steaming...

Just like Shell and their eco-friendly marketing campaigns, this is just how they want to be seen – reality needs not add up.

Re: Church's Thesis

The reason it is referred to as "Church's Thesis" is that it seems impossible (in the mathematical logic sense) to prove that all (classical) computers are essentially the same (i.e. have the same theoretical computational power, implementations differing by being bounded by things such as memory, processor speed, efficiency of compilation etc.)

Er... No.

When Church / Turing say that all Turing-complete computational models (not "computers", that's something else entirely) are equivalent, they mean that in a theoretical sense – namely that, given infinite time and resources, all such models can / can't achieve the same things. In that sense quantum computing is no exception – you cannot, for example, compute a solution to the halting problem using a quantum computer.

Then there is the caveat that even this theoretical equivalence (which concerns Turing-complete models alone, remember) is only valid under the condition of infinite time and resources. This is an important restriction: there are many things that can be done with a Turing machine in theory (such as proving a theorem by enumerating and checking all possible proofs) that in real life would take too long, our require too much storage, to be practical.

Only when we take into consideration real-world limitations – time, space, viable implementations – is that Turing-complete models differ on what they can achieve, and then of course some tasks will be feasible for some models / implementations but not for others. In the theoretical sense a trained clerk with paper and pen is as good as a supercomputer, but what one can do in hours the other won't accomplish in their entire life – but that's a practical difference, not a theoretical one. Give the clerk unlimited years and unlimited stationery, and there's nothing a supercomputer can do that they can't.

Re: "...the non-profit military contractor..."

Yeah, when I read that my first thought was "wait, what? So they work to advance military tech out of an altruistic desire to help the army?"

Boy, ain't this world got no end of surprises.

Re: Acid bathing of human cells?

Lars, what makes you believe that we (homo sapiens) fucked them (neanderthal)? Maybe they raped us!

Actually I was thinking much the same thing. From the article:

The researcher also focused on areas where Neanderthal markers were missing and found a striking lack of the genome in the X chromosome. This suggests that humans underwent hybrid sterility. When two organisms are distantly related, the genes related to fertility, inherited on the X chromosome, can interact poorly with genes elsewhere, rendering males infertile. Modern males who inherited a Neanderthal X chromosome often may have been unable to have children and therefore pass on the same X chromosome.

Humans – well, all vertebrates really – inherit the X chromosome from the mother and the Y chromosome from the father. So this necessarily means all us part-Neanderthals descend, however distantly, from a female modern human who was shagged by a male Neanderthal. Forcefully or otherwise, it's anyone's guess – I for one am as hairy as it gets (even the midsections of my fingers sport a couple hairs) and I didn't have to force my wife once. Honest.

Re: Necessary?

It does sound sad though.

Did anyone else feel like an utter fool, reading this obviously made-up slush – and yet forcing back tears that threaten to well up any moment now?

Because I totally didn't. Not me, uh-huh.

Re: "Are [..] marketing companies allowed to buy personal records that include sensitive stuff "

Do you really think they care if they are "allowed" or not ?

"Allowed" as in, "not watched intently for this kind of thing and whacked the moment they so much as think of doing it". Of course if there is a law against it, but it's not enforced, then it's as bad as saying it's OK – actually even worse, as it gives off the false impression that the problem is being addressed when in fact it's not.

Re: Volatility

Those professors who started this had an easy time mining in the beginning, yes? Then sold the suckers the get rich quick scheme.

That is why I am always a bit nervous about offers that purport to allow their customers to make money for themselves, especially when they promise you'll be able to "work from home". The question I always ask is, "if this stuff is so good, why are they even selling it? Why don't they keep it all to themselves and reap all the rewards?"

Re: Fishnapper was right

Suggest they get an aquarium screensaver.

Indeed. "One day I came back home and found it floating titsup in the bowl" – that's what I heard from everyone I know who ever owned a goldfish. Never had one myself, it's too damn work for a pet that is either untouchable or dead.

Re: Only 5 minutes before the hour?

There are reports Russia has doing clandestine experiments on warheads of this scale recently, too.

I bet such experiments (if indeed are being done) are secret, and the government of Russia will deny them if asked. I'm also sure they'd prove unpopular domestically as well abroad if confirmed.

But how can they be "clandestine"? Russia is a sovereign country. Unless research is being done outside the country's borders, or otherwise going against international law (that they're nuclear weapons is not enough, the NPT makes no specific provision against nuclear weapon development, only vaguely stating the NWS's ought to try an negotiate disarmament eventually), its government doesn't require anyone's permission to pursue whatever research it deems necessary.

Not that I think anyone should work on nuclear weapons, quite the contrary; I'd rather nuclear technology was used for peaceful purposes only. But it's tiring to see such cold-war red-scare terminology still in use so many years after the Soviets threw the towel.

And by the way that article you linked to clearly states the "Soviet doomsday device" is (was?) just a warning system, still requiring that some human be specifically tasked with pulling the switch. Not so scary then, is it?

Re: Good news

They fail to support products after they are a year old.

That's where adopting Firefox OS might benefit consumers the most: them geeks are bound to be on Panasonic's (and other manufacturer's) heels, pestering them until they get updates pushed.

I have long thought that the most promising thing about Firefox OS is being backed by Mozilla. Rather than drown in pointless chair-shuffling (like JIL, BONDI, WAC or anything the carriers ever come up with) or let the manufacturers have their fragmenting, non-updating ways so long as they bring in users (like Google does with Android), the geeks at Mozilla are genuinely motivated to go after the manufacturers and ensure they update their devices. We have yet to see if they'll actually get them to do it, but damned if they won't try.

Re: Block Canada (was: Are we thinking about this the wrong way around?)

Why not just remove Justin Bieber from the internet?

Still only a reactive, temporary solution. Next year or so there will be another sexually dubious Canadian teenage doing the rounds, and we'll be stuck all the same.

What we oughta do is to block Canada!

Re: I always thought it was Jagwire wot did it

A glimpse of a silver case was all we saw of this, which for the first time brings Apple consumer design talents to the most utilitarian of backroom computers: the rack.

It's kinda funny to read this now, a good ten years later, and remember how Apple went through the trouble of establishing itself as an enterprise vendor – just to waste it when it became clear its consumer-aimed iStuff would seize the day, leaving the poor folks who bet on the Fruity corp stranded.

Tech comes and goes, but Apple's disregard to their customers is timeless.

Re: An idea for google

My thoughts exactly. Pay for software with your spare CPU cycles – a viable business model for the Internet era at last!

My dear late grandmother used to tell a story about this man who lived in her neighbourhood, whose friend had been killed. He helped the family organize the burial, and even wept by the coffin's side at the wake.

Some days later it was discovered that he was the killer.

So forgive my cynicism, but just because Bill shed a couple tears over Ballmer's (career's) corpse, doesn't mean he had nothing to do with the butchering.

I wanted a player that could handle reading all kinds of formats and ended up with XMPlay

Indeed, for Windows XMPlay is the bee's knees. It's effective and keeps out of the way, both in terms or computer resources and UI real estate. On Linux I seldom have a problem using whatever is standard for my current distribution (Mint at this moment), but try as I might I never got to grips with WMP.

Re: Let us know how that works out

Running one for a few years and not getting caught is impossible with the current surveillance systems.

Then again, drug dealing in real time works pretty much the same way – you could probably get away with it once, but make it your day job and sooner or later the g-men will get a hold of you – and yet there seems to be no shortage of young men willing to go into it to the bitter end.

Re: "Giant" is not a valid metric unit @xeperroni

I know geography is not an American strong point, but when referring to ‘British’ we are talking about more than just England

Oh, I'm sorry. So likewise, when Maharg wrote:

After the British defeated the French

He actually meant:

After the English rounded up their vassals to face up the French, because sure as Hell they wouldn't have the guts to do it on their own

Right?