hobbs

12 ms·

61.
by hobbs 19y ago
Oh, I forgot to mention dynamic level-of-detail in computer games and other types of real-time rendering. Very similar to the video concept, but still worth mentioning.
62.
by hobbs 19y ago
Nothing too outrageous in those predictions. One thing that I think will quickly come of age, though, is camera-based head and pupil tracking. Camera-based head tracking would provide a 3D experience as was shown with that Wii hack, but wit
63.
by hobbs 19y ago
Hmm... gnutella was dangerous, I suppose, but certainly not "most dangerous". Sounds like it must have just been a PR puff piece to promote his latest software. (Not that Rolling Stone would ever become the tool of a press agent.)
64.
by hobbs 19y ago
Blech, I hate this style of journalism. I gave up reading while slogging through the guy's entire personal history. I never even got to the meat of the article. (I suppose the style works for bio-centric publications like Rolling Stone, tho
65.
by hobbs 19y ago
Zeno is still my favorite. To summarize in modern terms: in order for a particle to move 1 inch, it must first move 1/2 inch. Before it can move 1/2 inch, it must move 1/4 inch. Before it can move 1/4 inch, it must move 1/8 inch. And so on.
66.
by hobbs 19y ago
I would have gone with topigina. It has a nice cadence to it.
67.
by hobbs 19y ago
Ouch! The latest example in a recent spate of bad names.
68.
by hobbs 19y ago
Real programmers can write Fortran in any language.
69.
by hobbs 19y ago
Real hackers run their own hand-coded DNS server. Seriously, though, I run a DNS server on the same machine that runs my [small] web server, etc. There is an argument to be made that you need failover machines for DNS, but my counter-argume
70.
by hobbs 19y ago
Right now, almost every car looks like an ergonomic blobject. The trendy thing to do to cars right now is to add chrome, neon, and spinny wheels. If I were to extrapolate a future car from current trends, I'd imagine a chrome egg that glows
71.
by hobbs 19y ago
Not to get too deep into philosophy, but I imagine it has to do with observed cause and effect. For example, you may not realize it, but you think in a paradigm where 2 + 2 = 4. There is no good reason why 2+2=4 has to be true; we only be
72.
by hobbs 19y ago
I think the hardest part of breaking out of a paradigm is to realize that you're in one. For example, in physics, the only time physicists ever break out of an existing paradigm en masse is when stuff starts breaking so badly that you reali
73.
by hobbs 19y ago
You do get into an odd legal area, though, when that license allows you to burn the music to a CD. Once the music is on a CD, can the license extend to say that you can't then rip the tracks, which is otherwise covered under fair-use? (Reme
74.
by hobbs 19y ago
I've always wanted to be an Apple customer, since their products have such a nice fit and finish. The problems I have, though, are always with their excessive lock-in - and the FairPlay DRM is the least of it. As a person who likes to custo
75.
by hobbs 19y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
76.
by hobbs 19y ago
One disappointing thing from the article is that they state that Hollywood loses billions a year to piracy - as if it were an established fact. Sure, there's billions of dollars worth of content traded via piracy, but it's debatable how man
77.
by hobbs 19y ago
True, if TiVo or a cable company had 50 million subscribers, then yeah, it could be worth $15 billion. I don't see a $25/mo product from Facebook, though. Not to mention that we don't know what percentage of the 50 million are active, parti
78.
by hobbs 19y ago
Maybe so, maybe no. Depends on what sort of promises were sold to the investors. Even so, caveat emptor I guess.
79.
by hobbs 19y ago
Considering that Facebook has been "valued" at $15 billion, yes, 50 million users is a failure. That would mean that they'd have to justify why each and every user is worth $300. A good percentage may be worth close to that much, but certai
80.
by hobbs 19y ago
Most commentators thought Zuckerberg was an idiot to turn down the $1 billion offer. My guess is that they can't wait to have their opinion vindicated. Personally, I've yet to find a reason to even visit Facebook. I still have plenty of old
81.
by hobbs 19y ago
"You should come try it at our booth at the Game Developers Conference. Then you'll see it really works and we're not lying." Ouch! I'm no PR expert, but I'd think that lying is one thing you neither admit nor deny. Best to just presume hon
82.
by hobbs 19y ago
Vaudeville: True enough. In fact, I can only use that around close friends who are already familiar with the original quote. If I said something like that to anyone else, they'd think I'm being an ass. It would be bad: You have to use it in
83.
by hobbs 19y ago
Ghostbusters has many good quotes (e.g., no dick), but here's a few that I've actually used in conversation: "Don't cross the streams" "It would be bad" "Yes, have some." "I don't have any Tylenol, but I do have some acetylsalicylic acid."
84.
by hobbs 19y ago
I've never been able to relate to Lebowski for some reason. Loved many of the other Coen bros films, though. Using Matt's criteria for movie greatness, I can name several other movies off the top of my head that are much more quotable than
85.
by hobbs 19y ago
Having just completed a ColdFusion-to-J2EE conversion project, ColdFusion skills aren't quite obsolete yet. But I have brought it one step closer to the grave.
86.
by hobbs 19y ago
If you can get a good signal, never get HD cable, unless you NEED Discovery HD or HBO HD. The over-the-air signal is much less compressed than HD cable. If you're an A/V geek, you can really notice the difference in the macroblocking.
87.
by hobbs 19y ago
It would be interesting to redo the map using GDP per square mile, or GDP per capita. For instance Georgia has the equivalent GDP of Switzerland, but it is much larger than Switzerland, geographically speaking. On the other hand, New Jersey
88.
by hobbs 19y ago
The article didn't really make clear what the point is of the new new math. Is it to provide a deeper understanding of number theory? Or is it to provide different algorithms that don't require memorization of the multiplication table? Not
89.
by hobbs 19y ago
Heck, if you can collect the arrival times from the various airlines, you could send a confirmation message a few minutes after the plane lands. Checking in would be as simple as hitting reply.
90.
by hobbs 19y ago
I had a gut instinct that this was the case while in school, but then every authority figure in my life was telling me that I could be the valedictorian if only I'd "buckle down and study". It took some distance before I was able to objecti

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