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Comment Re:I played this at expo last year and it felt lik (Score 1) 40

I played this at the Pacific Pinball expo this last year. I 100% agree that the too much focus was put on the under-ball display. In fact, during one of the games, I couldn't even see the ball due to all the explosion animations happening around the ball that I lost a ball. It was much too distracting. The rest of the play-field was just boring as well, symmetric and didn't invoke any reason or story to even play the game.
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For (whitehouse.gov)

fractalVisionz writes: The White House officially responded to the petition to secure resources and funding to begin Death Star construction by 2016, as previously covered by Slashdot. With costs estimated over $850,000,000,000,000,000 (that's quadrillion), and a firm policy stating "The Administration does not support blowing up planets" the US government will obviously pass. However, that is not to say that we do not already have a death star of our own, floating approximately 120 miles above the earth's surface.

The response ends in a call to those interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields of study:

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.


Comment Re:Unpatentable (Score 1) 164

After reading yet another silly patent abstract, I cannot find anything worth patenting in it...

Well, there's your problem. Abstracts are not the claims, and do not need to be novel or non-obvious by themselves. That is the job of the claims.

From US Patent 8060463

The first claim:

1. A computer-implemented method of matching users to other users, the method comprising: storing, in computer storage, event data comprising order data reflective of items ordered from an electronic catalog by each of a plurality of users; programmatically generating a score that reflects a degree to which item preferences of a first user of said plurality of users are similar to item preferences of a second user of said plurality of users, said score taking into consideration a first plurality of items ordered by the first user and a second plurality of items ordered by the second user, wherein generating the score comprises weighting a first item and a second item identified in both the first and second plurality of items, wherein the first and second items are different, wherein the first and second items are weighted differently based at least in part on a first inherent characteristic of the first item and a second inherent characteristic of the second item, wherein the first and second inherent characteristics are different, and wherein generating the score further comprises taking into consideration at least one additional type of event data reflective of user affinities for items represented in the electronic catalog; and based at least in part on the score, programmatically determining whether to recommend the second user to the first user.

Comment hunter2 tag (Score 2, Funny) 104

From http://www.bash.org/?244321:

<Cthon98> hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
<Cthon98> ********* see!
<AzureDiamond> hunter2
<AzureDiamond> doesnt look like stars to me
<Cthon98> *******
<Cthon98> thats what I see
<AzureDiamond> oh, really?
<Cthon98> Absolutely
<AzureDiamond> you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
<AzureDiamond> haha, does that look funny to you?
<Cthon98> lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
<AzureDiamond> thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
<Cthon98> yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
<AzureDiamond> awesome!
<AzureDiamond> wait, how do you know my pw?
<Cthon98> er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
<AzureDiamond> oh, ok.

Comment Once at 8000+ (Score 3, Interesting) 496

I was a rower in high school. We had practices 4-6 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Between a 5K (3 mi) run warm up and 25-30K (17-20 mi) row every day, I burned a up lot of calories and lost a lot of body fat. Seeing how a lot of vitamins and minerals are fat soluble, my caloric intake was very well above average to maintain the needed level of vitamins (bah on supplements).

My parents were not to happy with me as I would eat them out of house and home every day. Cereal has always been my staple, and I can not have any less than 10 pounds of cereal stocked up at anyone time and 2 gallons of milk. To this day, this remains true, and I can still easily polish off a box (16 oz) a day.

Lessons learned, if you want to be the next Kobayashi, become a rower.

Comment See "Atari Emulation of CRT Effects On LCDs" (Score 5, Informative) 367

"A group at Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a fun little open source program to emulate the CRT effects to make old Atari games look like they originally did when played on modern LCD's and digital displays. Things like color bleed, ghosting, noise, etc. are reproduced to give a more realistic appearance."

From Slashdot story Atari Emulation of CRT Effects On LCDs.

Comment Re:international? (Score 1) 542

From http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/support/:

Q. Can I use my nook while traveling abroad?
A. Yes, when you travel abroad, you can read any files that are already on your nook. You can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots that do not use proxy security settings, such those commonly used in hotels, and download eBooks and subscriptions already in your online digital library. You cannot, however, purchase additional eBooks and subscriptions.

Q. Will new issues of eNewspapers and eMagazines be downloaded to my nook while I'm traveling?
A. Yes, if you are traveling in the United States, or if you are abroad but connected to a supported Wi-Fi hotspot, new issues are delivered to your online digital library in both cases. When travelling abroad without Wi-Fi access, new issues are not downloaded to your nook (automatically or manually).

So no, it isn't international.

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