Posted 10/23/2008 at 11:33:50am

The Survey makes perfect sense, although I highly doubt that being a gamer has anything to do with it. The survey is just essentially comparing two different social/economic classes and noting the wealthier kids can/do play video games more (along with other oppurtunities - afford movies, sports instruction, etc).

Posted 10/02/2008 at 09:40:40am

I like XnView, Although I've been using the one from 2004 until this article reminded me that their might be an update, :-P

It's great for simple batch operations that you don't need a full editor for (I use it all the time to resize my photos and tag them). Its so simple, you really can't beat it!

Posted 09/23/2008 at 08:22:53pm

#9

 Yes, beacause deciding against buying a LCD thats 10x more expensive than the same sized LCD and then paying double the cable bill for only 20ish "HD" channels that aren't even in total HD (only some programs are recorded in HD) must be dumb and lazy.

 For the amount of money that the General public must "invest", I think one would expect something more than a "better picture" some of the time from a fraction of channels. Hence why it is over-hyped.

Posted 08/31/2008 at 07:03:13am

This dude needs a lawyer badly (like I need a dictionary to spell). The Evidence Tampering could be potentially devastating to him, depending how the local statues are written. He may face criminal charges for it - although it could hamper the civil case significantly.

RIAA's theory that the "evidence" could support his claim of innonecne is also rather unintelligent. The defendant has absolutely no requirements to do anything; subponea witnesses, provided evidence, etc. The burden rests entirely with the prosecution. 

 Also, evidence on a Computer is not protected under 5th admendment. It is protected from the Gov't under 4th .

Posted 08/23/2008 at 10:39:28am

In my personal experience with Some LEDs - They do produce a decent amount of heat. I've singed myself a few times with my Streamlight LED.

Posted 08/20/2008 at 09:56:17am

Battecruiser - I really don't need to say anything more than the only reason I even have it is that Babbagges (at the time) was giving it away to clear shelf space (you know when PC games had shelf space).

I liked Daggerfall, but I do think that its biggest problem was that it was very very ambitious. Hence, tons of bugs, and a not so good interface ( don't want a 3d map of the dungeon, I just wanna get out!). Morrowind, Oblivion fixed those short commings by taking a lot out, narowing the game a bit, but adding more depth in return - you might enjoy. 

Posted 08/20/2008 at 09:46:40am

Agreed

Besides, what the is Cloud Computing anyway, lol?

Like really, is there a concrete definition or tech behind it, all I ever hear/see is buzz like "Simplified off-site soulition" and others which just confuse me, huh? 

Posted 08/18/2008 at 02:57:42pm

I doubt that even if BLU-Ray players were $50, there would a large surge is buying them. Simply, to the average user, BLU-Ray has no advantages over DVD especially when looking at total price.

"but its HD!". Yes Bluray is. However the majority of consumers dont have Home Theatres systems. They have an analog solution (DVD to CRT). Swapping a Bluray drive in, wouldn't yeild any change in quality. To get the whole HD experiance you need all the HD/Digital hardware, and the sales people at the Larger outlets make consumers painfully aware of that by trying to push home theatre systems.

Hence its just not swaping out the player for most, but totally upgrading/changing thier living room setup. LCD and Surround sound of decent quality add greatly to the overall price of "HD", not to mention the added complexity of seting up such a system. Us, readers wouldn't have a problem with it, but how many acquaintances/family members can you think of that would be totally frazzled trying to setup thier new home theatre system that the "nice sales guy" convinced them to drop the greater half of a grand on?

Posted 07/26/2008 at 09:44:06am

Yes they do use tape drives still and for several good reasons.

First, tape degrades the slowest of electronic media. Most electronic storage that isn't in constant state of degradation has a life of 5-15 years depending on what type of media it is. Tape lasts much much longer.

RAID is good, but your archiving data, which makes RAID not attractive. When your archiving tons and tons of data on tons of hard drives, you not only have constant disk failure riusking the loss of data, but you have to keep those disks contantly powered for RAID to work. The logistics of long term maintenance and the space needed, verus, simply storing the tape is the major advantage for tape. 

Posted 07/22/2008 at 03:01:18pm

Don't forget Flashlights and Tac lights Too!

They are right that the initial hurdle is the expense though. Sure they can save you money in the long run, but well, my Streamlight LED is around $120, so it can be a big hurdle.

I do love the LED lights we have though, I'm really excited to see them get less expensive!