StrahdVZ - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Is this that important ? (Score 1) 434

by StrahdVZ on Friday January 09, 2009 @01:20AM (#26382659) Attached to: Attempt To "Digitalize" Beatles Goes Sour

Have to agree with other replies to your post - I was similar to you when I was a kid, (I'm only 31 so they were well before my time) but if you haven't already, please try starting at the end (Abbey Road) and working your way backwards chronologically with Let It Be and the White Album. You may be surprised. I dislike and still dislike their early works, which was next to canned pop.

The middle years (from Rubber Soul onwards) certainly improved dramatically but not until I picked up Sergeant Pepper's did I discover that I loved their music.

Comment Alternative to online account access/storage (Score 0, Troll) 299

by StrahdVZ on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:31AM (#26369361) Attached to: How Long Should Companies Make E-Bills Available?

There's some fancy schmancy new technologies called "email" and "pdf".

Why can't the companies use these amazing new technologies?

Submission + - Terry Pratchett knighted in Queen's honours list

Submitted by StrahdVZ on Tuesday December 30, 2008 @09:42PM

StrahdVZ writes: The Australian reports on Terry Pratchett's knighting in the Queen's new year honours list.

Submission + - Terry Pratchett Knighted

Submitted by ackthpt on Tuesday December 30, 2008 @06:20PM

ackthpt writes: Headlines have been popping up on Google News, again abruptly yanked from news servers, such as Times Online and International Herald Tribune. A Google News snippet for The Times Online states, "Terry Pratchett declared himself "flabbergasted" to receive a knighthood as he led a group of writers, actors and performers honoured today." The Discworld author and stalwart adversary of Alzheimers Disease has been a member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Literature since 1998. He will be entering the new year as Knight Commander. Well done and Oook, Sir Terry.

Submission + - Most Powerful Star Explosion Observed

Submitted by necro81 on Monday May 07, 2007 @11:35PM

necro81 writes: The NY Times is reporting a discovery from a team of researchers about observations of the cataclysmic explosion of a 100- to 200-solar-mass star — the brightest stellar explosion ever observed. The researchers believe that the explosion is similar to the death spasms of the first stars in the universe. Rather than create a black hole, the super-massive star's collapse is believed to have been so energetic as to create unstable electron-positron pairs that tore the star apart before it could collapse into a black hole — seeding the universe with heavier elements.

Submission + - Choice or Chaos? The Cost of Linux Fragmentation

Submitted by

AlexGr

on Monday March 05, 2007 @03:00AM

AlexGr writes: "Freedom of choice is one of the great benefits of Open Source Software in general and Linux in particular. This freedom gives consumers the ability to select, without fear of litigation, what software they will use and how they will use or modify it. As a principal, this freedom is extremely valuable. However, a couple of announcements this week seem to indicate that market value of freedom of choice has dipped considerably. The biggest hurdle Linux adoption faced this week wasn't Microsoft, it was an enemy from within: Linux fragmentation. http://www.linux-mag.com/id/2940/"

Submission + - S.T.A.L.K.E.R Gold

Submitted by

Aksel

on Monday March 05, 2007 @01:57AM

Aksel writes: "S.T.A.L.K.E.R shadow Of Chernobyl has gone gold, meaning it has finally been sent to the manufacturing plant. From the Offical website: "We are pleased to announce that the game has gone to print! The project developed by GSC Game World over 5 long years has finally crossed the finish line. We are sure that many of those, who discover the world of the Zone will "come down" with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for a long time. Soon anyone will be able to explore the world of the technological catastrophe and the unsolved mystery. Mutants, monsters and anomalies, enemies and comrades, dangerous fights and exciting missions await you!" http://www.tothegame.com/game_news.asp?id=36"

Submission + - Ryan Vs. Dorkman 2 released!

Submitted by

DigitAl56K

on Monday March 05, 2007 @01:54AM

DigitAl56K writes: "Star Wars fans rejoice! Four years after their original fan film saw them picking up light sabers and taking to battle, Ryan Wieber and Michael Scott have published RvD2. The choreography and attention to detail strongly rival the best efforts of Lucasfilm, as does the sound track.

A low resolution version of RvD2 is available on YouTube, and an HD version (429MB) can be downloaded from DivX Stage6. You can also order the original soundtrack and "Making of" videos via ryanvsdorkman.com, as well as donating to their projects."

Submission + - Vista destroys image data of RAW files

Submitted by Anonymous Reader on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:16AM

Anonymous Reader writes: Canon has advised that the original image data of RAW images (such as title, subject, rating, tags, comments) shot with an EOS-1D or EOS-1Ds cameras may be lost when images are rotated or edited using Windows Explorer or Windows Gallery on Vista. The support notice can be found here

Submission + - Faked Recordings Producer Comes Clean

Submitted by

thyrf

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @10:51PM

thyrf writes: "It seems as though those independent comparisons stated by the producer of the recently uncovered Hatto music fraud took an interesting turn, the BBC reports. Since it was first revealed, William Barrington-Coupe, the late Joyce Hatto's producer and husband admitted replacing the original tracks with those of other artists. However, all is not as it seems. Barrington-Coupe claims he first began to replace snippets of certain tracks where his wife, who had cancer, could be heard groaning in pain. "It is very touching and he does go through every detail and how he did it and he makes it very credible," Mr von Bahr of the BIS music label said. As he got better at replacing the material, the sections grew longer until they in some cases ended up being the entire piece itself. Though we don't quite know why he ended up replacing entire tracks, his confession is convincing enough to call off the legal-heavies. "I don't see how either myself or the industry can get any satisfaction for pure revenge, I think the whole thing is deeply tragic story"."

Submission + - A Technically Rich Discussion of Nuclear Power

Submitted by

Schloopy

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @09:32PM

Schloopy writes: "Is Nuclear Power a Viable Option for Our Energy Needs?

This article does a great job covering the technical pros and cons of the basics of nuclear fission, world uranium supply, the energy lifecycle of nuclear power, greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear, the costs of nuclear energy, power, and waste; the author concludes that many positives exist with this controversial energy source, but the NIMBY/BANANA stigma of it will be difficult to overcome.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2323"

Submission + - Yet Another GM found cheating in EVE-Online

Submitted by

Kugu's my hero

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @08:53PM

Kugu's my hero writes: "Another Game Master in the popular game EVE-Online has been caught cheating by leaking vital information on upcoming changes to the game.
game site — EVE-Online
Intel about GM leaking info — Kugutsumen's blog on this story
The very intel rich eve-online site kugutsumen.com has another bomb to drop on eve-online. You may remember kugutsumen from a few weeks ago when he revealed that there were gm's cheating at a very high level in the game eve-online. Then all the ramifications that followed including banning of all his accounts in the game.
Well he has yet another tidbit of info for everyone. The character "The Enslaver" leader of the very large alliance LV (Lotka Volterra) has been caught leaking information about a major changes to the game. All the intel pointing to him being a GM is listed in the story from chat logs to ip addresses matching the game makers ip address.
In eve-online any info that is leaked to players from gm's can have dramatic effects. Its out right cheating and giving groups advantages that no one can compete against. It could cause huge shifts in the structure of claimed space and throw the player driven market into massive fluctuations.
Kugutsumen has audio recordings on his latest story with transcripts and previous quotes from the character "The Enslaver".

The first bit of info that he has leaked is about blue print originals (BPO'S) and what to do with them due to changes in the structure of how blue prints will work in the future.

Originally Posted by Enslaver You wanted 135? Shocked Well, as someone who has a little knowledge of the T2 industry and how it is headed.... I would say that is a bad call. I'd have let it go for anything over 60, as in a month or two it won't even be worth that... Just remember that the price of cap 2's was only high due to cartels, not demand — when the bpo's are doubled, the cartel collapses. Not to mention they are already one of the prime targets of people performing invention... Invention is setup in a way that will make it cheaper to produce things through invention over time. Whilst most of the items needed are expensive and one-use only, afaik for instance, some exploration sites rarely drop versions of said items that last forever. Basically, whilst these are rare now, the number will increase in time, driving costs down etc etc. So yes, invention will be a very, very major factor. I saw it coming and sold my BCS2 bpo. 78.5bn. Or about 4-5 years profit if you factor in how things are almost definitely going to go.

He also mentioned a bit about how constellation sovereignty (how players claim space in eve) changes will affect the alliance in the future.

Originally Posted by The Enslaver The constellation sovereignty stuff isn't planned until February at the earliest by CCP; so for now we are best off placing outposts where they will make the most money — and later on, upgrading each constellation that we want const. sov in with however many more outposts/pos's required. With the next batch of outposts, our alliance income will be sufficient to pay for an outpost and do basic POS defence in those systems every two weeks — so we will more than be capable of placing any outposts required.

The intel continues with an audio transcript (mp3 available for download) of him saying that he may have to have his character renamed and never speak to his friends in the alliance again. The renaming of a character is what the game maker does when a GM has been outed.

Enslaver Ohhhhh well...this is a really, really not good situation. Enslaver Let me put it this way, Dough: I'm [unintelligible] because tomorrow I have to go in and get my characters renamed and never talk to any of you again. Enslaver Yeah. Not in a good mood to speak at the moment, Dough. Enslaver I'm sorta curious how they traced my IP to Iceland because they don't have access to our server database, they don't have access to our forums database...

Each part of the intel is not damning by itself. But when Kugutsumen puts it all together you may need to put on your tinfoil hat. The exact GM has yet to be determined, but he has several candidates and speaks about them also."

Blizzard Exposes Detailed WoW Character Data 233

Posted by Zonk on Thursday March 01, 2007 @07:28PM from the seatec-astronomy dept.

Gavin Scott writes "Blizzard has introduced a new web site called the Armory which lets you get information on any World of Warcraft character, extracted from their live databases, in near real-time. This exposes a great deal of information that was not previously obtainable including profession choices, skill levels for all skills, and the character's complete talent specification and all faction reputation data, along with all gear currently equipped. The complete roster of any guild or arena team is also available. Some players are upset about this, such as arena PvP teams who now have all their gear and talent choices exposed to the world, or players with non-standard or less-popular talent choices who fear they will have difficulty getting into pickup groups now that people can instantly find out everything about them. Are these complaints fair? Blizzard claims to own all the data and the characters, but at what point does this data represent personal choices and information about their players which would be covered by their own privacy policy? In a virtual society, should people be able to present a view of themselves that differs from (virtual) reality, or should all details be exposed?"

Slashdot Top Deals