lauraura | 11 years ago | on: The Man Who Smuggles Trader Joe’s into Canada
I'm pretty certain fair use doesn't apply when you're making money off the trademark you're using in "fair use".
lauraura's comments
lauraura | 11 years ago | on: The downfall of Quora (2013)
Mansplaining is much more specific than men showing off; it's men assuming women are clueless and talking over them (e.g. the prototypical case where a man explained a woman's book to her, oblivious that she wrote it).
Which I don't think is the issue here at all...
lauraura | 11 years ago | on: Ebola: Experimental drug ZMapp is '100% effective' in animal trials
"And two out of seven people given the drug, have later died from the disease."
Sounds like they're already doing precisely that.
lauraura | 11 years ago | on: Undefined behavior can result in time travel
Your arithmetic is being optimized out by the compiler; https://ideone.com/KmTSUB crashes for example.
lauraura | 11 years ago | on: Sex, Lies, And Quantum Computers
Isn't "quantum computers are proven to be more powerful than classical" proof that BQP != P, which would imply P != PSPACE, which hasn't yet been proven?
lauraura | 12 years ago | on: Foxconn using forced student labor to build Sony’s PS4
From what I recall this is actually against the code of conduct that Sony makes all their suppliers sign (which includes a prohibition on forced labor), so it's probably a breach of contract.
lauraura | 12 years ago | on: Miyamoto Admits Nintendo Underestimated The Switch To HD
If only they localize Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem...
lauraura | 12 years ago | on: Miyamoto Admits Nintendo Underestimated The Switch To HD
The 3DS has only been out for a couple years, and sales are still rising -- I don't feel like you can really compare it to a console whose entire lifespan has already passed.
It might be better to compare the N64 to other consoles of the time, like the Playstation.
lauraura | 12 years ago | on: Miyamoto Admits Nintendo Underestimated The Switch To HD
Nintendo's been mainly working off their portables for years, really. The N64 didn't sell that great either, and the Gamecube did pretty awfully, ending up selling what few units it did almost entirely on the merit of its first-party games and a couple rare gems, like Tales of Symphonia. The Wii was unusual -- the Wii U is more "normal", by Nintendo sales standards!
Fortunately for them the 3DS is doing great, gathering dozens and dozens of great games, and probably makes a tidy profit margin too. They did a wonderful job pivoting the console; people pretty quickly lost interest in the 3D aspect, but there was no reason they had to market the console on those merits to begin with, so as far as I can tell they've mostly de-emphasized that aspect of the device (and nobody I know even uses it!)
It's also cheap enough that even as the Vita does finally pick up sales and actual games (and it's happening, finally), it probably won't hurt the 3DS' sales -- their game lists seem more mutually exclusive than not and if someone can afford a Vita, they probably already have a 3DS if they ever wanted one.
The Vita is really its own interesting story of a console with (initially) almost no games -- a lot of more minor and independent developers have found that they can get great sales on the Vita since the market is much less saturated. Amazingly, a few months ago, the top selling Vita game was actually a rather niche title that was released with no prior announcement on the e-shop and no marketing whatsoever. I kind of wonder if the Wii U will have a year or two (or ten??) of the same kind of thing -- it definitely could be an interesting platform for indie devs.
lauraura | 12 years ago | on: $99 Parallella Supercomputer is Now Open Source Hardware
A 3.4Ghz i5 is only about $200, and should be able to achieve around 326 GFLOPS peak (3 IPC * 8 floats per register * 4 cores * 3.4ghz).
lauraura | 13 years ago | on: Do you have "FU money"? Find out.
One thing these calculators seem to be missing is side-money: like, let's say I'm earning some recurring income outside of my job (from a website or app or something), and quitting my job wouldn't mean losing that income. It'd be nice if they had an input box for that kind of income too.
lauraura | 13 years ago | on: Stop Conflating Violence and Mental Illness
It's been really depressing to see so many reactions to the shooting phrased in that way -- that the problem is mental illness or bad care of the mentally ill. Mentally ill people are already stigmatized enough as-is, despite the fact that they're far more likely to be murdered than to be murderers.
People are already suggesting that the mentally ill be added to registries, much like the already-flawed sex offender registry. This isn't going to make life any better for the mentally ill, and certainly won't make anyone safer. It'll just make mental illness even more of a black mark on someone's record -- imagine being diagnosed for depression or autism once and never being able to hold a proper job again. People will be even more deathly afraid of being properly diagnosed and cared for, not the inverse.
lauraura | 13 years ago | on: Hypersonic Flight ‘Breakthrough’ Could Have Us in Tokyo by Lunch
Transportation CO2 emissions make up a tiny fraction of total greenhouse gases. Water vapour is by FAR the biggest greenhouse gas.
Water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas, but it's a relatively constant contribution; it's not part of anthropogenic contributions to greenhouse gases (which is usually what people are referring to in this sort of context).
lauraura | 13 years ago | on: John Callaham: Don’t be a goat murderer*
If you're speaking to a randomly selected adult American audience, on average, roughly 1 in 12 people in that audience have been raped. You're probably going to make a good portion of those people feel even more awful about being a victim -- never mind the PTSD. That should be good enough reason not to joke about it.
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