Posts by puffspluslotion

Wallace & Gromit teach Oz kids to respect patents

Re: $50 dollar for a shitty plastic wand?!

I haven't seen one of these wands but it's essentially a stick right? If it is actually magical $50 seems like a steal.

HTC phones held up at US ports after Apple patent ban

Re: I said it before...

The bare house isn't the big problem, you also have to figure out a way to skirt most of the agricultural industry.

Solving traffic jams with maths

Re: The best way to improve traffic lights

Flashing yellow does not mean for way stop in the US. We have the same flashing red/flashing yellow system mentioned in the other replies.

Microsoft, Motorola legal bickering sparks judicial disgust

Re: Here's an idea

"...I doubt the Phoenix voters would tolerate Joe permanently living in another state"

I don't know, some states don't seem to mind that they have senators with no permanent residencies in the state they represent.

NASA spots the light of a ‘super-Earth’

If the same side of the planet is always facing the star then the planet is rotating.

Wayward footballer turns to iPod cure

Just about every major sports team in the US runs practices with loud speakers blaring artificial crowd noise. Some of them even change the recordings depending on how loud individual stadiums get.

Total War Battles: Shogun

I've got "Fall of the Samurai" installed but have yet to play it. That being said, I though the rest of the shogun series was a bit of a disappointment. It was fun but the limited unit selection and relative sameness of different factions meant it didn't stand up to the likes of "Medieval 2" or the (in my opinion) pinnacle of the Total war games that is "Rome:Total War."

CISPA passes House of Representatives vote

Slightly off topic

Here in Maryland, USA (USA! USA!). the state supreme court has just declared the collection of DNA samples from suspects arrested for violent crimes unconstitutional. At the same time one of my supposed representatives (Dutch Ruppersberger) is a primary sponsor of CISPA. How is the collection of DNA from someone already charged with a crime an "unreasonable search or seizure" while the collection of other data from just about anyone not?

'As seen on TV' claims can't be made about unbranded props

In America every advertisement for toothpaste, mouthwash, and sugar-free gum says something like "Approved by the American Dental Association." This is akin to food companies advertising that their products weren't rejected by the FDA.

Sex-starved fruit flies hit the sauce

While somewhat interesting, all fruit flies are relatively heavy drinkers. I used to raise Poison dart frogs and bred both Drosophilia melanogaster and Hydei for food. Without live yeast producing alcohol, the fruit fly cultures will quickly die off.

Hardware hacker rigs up VR for Skyrim

I'm sure you're right. I should avoid posting comments first thing in the morning. Thanks for the correction.

I'm not sure stereoscopic is the right word here. Stereoscopic usually refers to the use of two two-dimensional images individually relayed to eyes. The Kinect depth sensor allows for multiple viewpoints unlike traditional stereoscopic 3D.

How Apple won the West (and lost the world)

Someone else might have mentioned this but I don't feel like reading these long apple vs android vs other comments. I think you mean noun not verb. I have never heard anyone say they are going to iPad. Also, if you did mean noun, there is no "pretty much," iPad is a noun, it's a proper name for a specific kind of tablet computer.

Lovefilm dumps Flash, BLINDS Linux fans with Silverlight

Breaking News!!!!

Vinyl piracy has become a threat to the music industry's business model. http://www.synthgear.com/2010/diy/how-to-pirate-a-vinyl-record/

Russian diplomat caught driving while 15 TIMES over booze limit

The polish (along with the Russians) claim to have invented vodka and there driving bac limit is 0.02? I'm going to give credit to the Russians on matter of principle.

US anti-hacking law turns computer users into criminals

Sorry, I'm being an ass but....

What kind of restaurant sells deserts?

Results in on why life, the universe and everything exists

Sorry, I didn't quite read the original question thoroughly but if "non-antimatter-ness" were local to Earth, I suspect that the Earth would have been destroyed long ago. We would at least be witnessing more frequent energy bursts from areas where the two came together. The universe is sparse but cosmic collisions still happen all the time.

If we lived in a universe filled with anti-matter, we would call it matter, and call what we call matter anti-matter.

McKinnon's mum up for human rights gong

At the risk of sounding stupid, could someone please spell out exactly what is "one sided" about the current extradition treaty? For full disclosure purposes, I am from the US and I understand that America is prone to strong-arming other countries (as I suspect most countries given the opportunity would be). I can see an obvious imbalance in the use of the treaty but as far as the document itself goes, I don't really see a problem. I haven't read it and have only read summaries but I was hoping someone with the opinion that it is unfair could clarify things for me.

NASA to recruit fresh batch of astronauts

That says more about your math skills than anything else.

Stars say relativity still works

Irrelevant, 'give or take 50%' is good enough for things we know a lot more about like meteorology and investment economics so such a number on theoretical physics is indeed pretty close.

Googorola deal stalled by Feds

Hmmm... Google images returned as the top listing on Google for me. It also returned as the top listing on Bing. It did come in second on Yahoo! behind some site called Fotosearch.

Brits not keen on 3D, reveals poll

What do normal tickets cost in Britain. There is a Theater by my house that charges $18 for a normal 2D ticket. Granted there is also a theater that charges $3 for a ticket, popcorn and soda but they don't get new releases.

Firm at heart of biggest oil spill spews toxic web attack

16 percent

I may just be completely out of touch here but, "Only 16 percent of the top 44 antivirus programs detected the latter exploit," I can probably name 10 antivirus programs and I'm willing to bet the account for about 90% of the av programs in use. I wonder what percent of these 10 programs detected the exploit. Yes, it's still a problem but using these figures seems slightly on the side of scaremongering.

Silence ≠ 'yes', watchdog tells lustful ad-biz bakers

There is no right to privacy...

in the US constitution. I would think the term "first bug-fix" would refer to the first amendment but that amendment gives the right to what is practically the opposite of a right to privacy (unless you argue privacy of beliefs which isn't relevant here). The third amendment is somewhat related to privacy and the ninth amendment say not all rights are listed in the Constitution but there is no right to privacy.

Not saying this opt-in nonsense should be ok though.

Apple changed shape of Galaxy Tab in court filing

It will be harder to raise kids now....

Since Apple has the patent for rounded corners.

Neurogaming set to be launched by Disney

but...

was it human Ariel or did she have the tail?

Hackers claim to have cracked Norway mass-murderer's email

What have the police been doing?

Complaining about video games, shooting people, that sort of thing

Murdoch muscles BBC out of Formula One driving seat

Just thought I'd let you know...

Motorsports are boring. Yes I know they take a great amount of skill and strategy but being a successful business owner does too. That doesn't mean I want to watch board meetings on TV.

While I'm on the topic, the idea of wanting to watch professional poker players on television confuses me as well.

Lancs plods exposed complainant on website

Not their fault

"Lancashire police has now been ordered by the ICO to make sure that any information due for release on its website is checked and correctly edited before it is made available."

It's alright, apparently this wasn't a rule before.

Man battles police siege with Facebook

Actually....

Snitches get Plea Bargains.

Germans completely humourless: Official

Let me tell you about how we do it in America....

The few British comedy programs that do make it to American TV are anything but subtle. We mostly just get your slapstick and a few improv shows. I'm curious as to how this survey was conducted, as I always thought the French were only funny because of their stereotypes but that would mean the Germans are also funny. Also, I don't know that I've ever seen or heard comedy from Poland, Belgium, or Holland.

Attorney General threatens Twitter injunction-busters

Just Curious

I'm not from the UK and don't really know anything about the legal system, but doesn't one have to be in court or under court order to be charged with contempt?