Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Space

NASA's New Telescope Finds Exoplanet Atmosphere 124

celticryan writes "NASA's new telescope has made a promising discovery. 'As NASA's first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance on the planet-hunting scene,' said Jon Morse, director of the Science Mission Directorate's Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 'Detecting this planet's atmosphere in just the first 10 days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!'"

Comment Re:I always maintained blue ray was moot (Score 3, Informative) 685

To be fair I think that sounds like a one off, and a bit of an knee jerk response on your part. I've personally not noticed that issue with any HD films I've seen (though I've not seen 300 in HD, the film sucked enough in SD). Blade Runner, for instance, looks absolutely stunning, as does Planet Earth, and the Pixar films look gorgeous too.
I'd give it another go before I make my decision on one, very poor, film.
Additionally, I'd get your mate to check he hasn't turned the sharpness of the image on the tv way up as this can cause JPEG-esque blocky artifacts to appear.

Comment Re:Motion control doesn't work (Score 2, Interesting) 131

I expect it will have best effect when used as a combination of the controller and the motion sensing, i.e. for motion sensing leaning round from cover could be done fairly trivially wheras it obviously won't cut it for running across a battlefield.
How about casting spells in Oblivion style games etc. Having heard that Natal is capable of tracking 42 joints (or something) I don't think it's too hard to imagine casting different spells by using alternating hands and hand gestures. Maybe even something elaborate like drawing a shape in the air ala Black & White's gesture system for the more complicated to cast spells.
What about using hand signals to command your squad like the real army do? e.g. halt, herringbone formation etc.
I'm sure if I can churn out these ideas in just a minute of idle thought then they'll find some interesting ways of integrating them with FPS.

Comment Re:Terrible. (Score 1) 55

I can't actually view the page at work but I believe this should address your claim that

You loose the UMD so you loose access to all the cheap used games

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59050
For those too lazy to click the link, or limited net access like me, Sony are planning on releasing a tool that will let you copy your UMD disks to the new PSP Go.

Comment Just logged in (Score 1) 409

And on the Home page I get this:

Terms of Use Update
Close
Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.
If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Comment Amazon/Play/HMV/iTunes (Score 2, Interesting) 262

If it suddenly completely legal to download films and music and the artists/producers are getting their money through my tax, what incentive is there for me to go out and buy the CD/DVD/Mp3 from a brick shop or even from a digital content delivery site like iTunes?
Something tells me that these companys would have even bigger influence than our UK's MPIAA/RIAA (BMI?) in lobbying to get such legislation passed once it becomes apparent that *their* business model is under threat.
In the future I may welcome this, however at the moment, I do not think there's any way the money could be divided fairly between artists and considering the state of our economy at the moment, that's just too many lost jobs for the government to create.
Earth

Black Holes From the LHC Could Last For Minutes 672

KentuckyFC writes "There is absolutely, positively, definitely no chance of the LHC destroying the planet (or this way either) when it eventually switches on some time later this year. And yet a few niggling doubts are persuading some scientists to run through their figures again. One potential method of destruction is that the LHC will create tiny black holes that could swallow everything in their path, including the planet. Various scientists have said this will not happen because the black holes would decay before they could do any damage. But physicists who have re-run the calculations now say that the mini black holes produced by the LHC could last for seconds, possibly minutes. Of course, the real question is whether they decay faster than they can grow. The new calculations suggest that the decay mechanism should win over and that the catastrophic growth of a black hole from the LHC 'does not seem possible' (abstract). But shouldn't we require better assurance than that?"

Comment Re:No thank you (Score 3, Insightful) 190

If the VCR breaks and you throw the whole thing out then you're an idiot. Whats stopping you from buying an extra external VCR? Similarly here, you could buy an extra set top box, there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Personally I think this is neat. This is for people like me who want stuff integrated. We'll pay the extra for doohickies with these features and you can pay less for those without.
I really don't get what you're bitching about.

Slashdot Top Deals

Remember to say hello to your bank teller.

Working...