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Software

Artificial Life Forms Evolve Basic Memory, Strategy 206

Posted by kdawson from the but-not-as-we-know-it dept.
Calopteryx notes a New Scientist piece on how digital organisms in a computer world called Avida replicate, mutate, and have evolved a rudimentary form of memory. Another example of evolution in a simulation lab is provided by reader Csiko: "An evolutionary algorithm was used to derive a control strategy for simulated robot soccer players. The results are interesting — after a few hundred generations, the robots learn to defend, pass, and score — amazing considering that there was no trainer in the system; the self-organizing differentiated behavior of the players emerged solely out of the evolutionary process."

Comment Re:There is no mistake in stealing the work of oth (Score 1) 438

by RobDollar (#33099016) Attached to: Sometimes It's OK To Steal My Games

Yes, the courts apply copyright law, but that's not the point. Here, don't copy this string:

lksndf098sdfjn23409fgjnvdclkr098245n

I sell that string for 20 English pence, and if you ctrl+c and ctrl+v and don't pay me, thats piracy. And you don't even get a tasty chicken dinner or a box of cakes for your trip to court.

Comment Re:PC Gamers deserve their MMO future (Score 1) 438

by RobDollar (#33081034) Attached to: Sometimes It's OK To Steal My Games

Yuo just made the common mistake of comparing copying software to actually stealing property.

The PC gaming market remains huge despite "piracy", and many people, myself included, are more than happy to pay for a well made and enjoyable software product.

Due to the unfinished and broken nature of a lot of games, and no demos or shareware to allow people to try before they buy, makes software piracy a tool for many, not just a source of getting free stuff.

I don't consider it sad in the slightest. Buying a little pet lizard in an MMO for £5... now that perhaps is a little sad.
The Internet

The End of Forgetting 329

Posted by kdawson from the you-can-always-say-i-don't-recall dept.
Hugh Pickens recommends a long piece in last week's NY Times Magazine covering a wide swath of research and thinking in the US and elsewhere on the subject of the perils to society of recording everything permanently, and the idea that perhaps we ought to build forgetting into the Internet. "We've known for years that the Web allows for unprecedented voyeurism, exhibitionism, and inadvertent indiscretion, but we are only beginning to understand the costs of an age in which so much of what we say, and of what others say about us, goes into our permanent — and public — digital files. The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is, at an almost existential level, threatening to our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew. In a recent book, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, the cyberscholar Viktor Mayer-Schönberger cites the case of Stacy Snyder — who was denied a teaching certificate on the basis of a single photo on MySpace — as a reminder of the importance of 'societal forgetting.' By erasing external memories, he says in the book, 'our society accepts that human beings evolve over time, that we have the capacity to learn from past experiences and adjust our behavior.' In traditional societies, where missteps are observed but not necessarily recorded, the limits of human memory ensure that people's sins are eventually forgotten. By contrast, Mayer-Schönberger notes, a society in which everything is recorded 'will forever tether us to all our past actions, making it impossible, in practice, to escape them.' He concludes that 'without some form of forgetting, forgiving becomes a difficult undertaking.'"
Earth

NASA Creates First Global Forest Map Using Lasers 55

Posted by samzenpus from the if-a-tree-is-measured-and-nobody-is-around-to-see-it dept.
MikeCapone writes "Scientists, using three NASA satellites, have created a first-of-its-kind map that details the height of the world's forests. The data was collected from NASA's ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites. The latter two satellites are responsible for most of NASA's Gulf spill imagery. The data collected will help scientists understand how the world's forests both store and process carbon. While there are many local and regional canopy maps, this is the very first global map using a uniform method for measure."
Classic Games (Games)

New Oddworld Games In Development 36

Posted by Soulskill from the hiatus-ending dept.
Game developer Just Add Water announced today that the Oddworld series, dormant since 2005, will be getting multiple new titles in the near future. Quoting: "... for the past 12 months we have been working extremely closely with the fantastic people at Oddworld Inhabitants, from what started off as brief discussions in June 2009, to now working on multiple projects, across multiple platforms. Whilst we cannot go into specifics right now, we can tell you that over the coming weeks and months we will be announcing these exciting projects starring all of your favorite Oddworld characters."
Microsoft

Microsoft Shows Off 'Milo' Virtual Human 270

Posted by samzenpus from the patch-often dept.
adeelarshad82 writes "At TED Global in Oxford, Microsoft released a video showing off its 'virtual human' technology, named Milo, designed for the company's hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect. Milo is built to react to people's emotions, body movements, and voice, allowing players to interact with the virtual character. It was built using artificial intelligence developed by Lionhead studios, along with undisclosed technology from Microsoft. According to games designer Peter Molyneux, the game exploits psychological techniques to make a person feel that Milo is real. Each Milo character will be unique because every player's interaction with the virtual character will sculpt the type of virtual person Milo will evolve to become."
Encryption

The Secrets of the Chaocipher Finally Revealed 121

Posted by timothy from the my-day-is-made dept.
nickpelling2 writes "In 1918, John F. Byrne invented a truly amazing cipher system, called 'The Chaocipher,' that fit inside a small cigar box, could be operated by a ten-year-old, yet produced practically unbreakable ciphertext (arguably even stronger than the Nazi Enigma machine). But now, thanks to the efforts of Chaocipher fan Moshe Rubin and the generous gift of Byrne's cryptographic effects by his daughter-in-law Pat Byrne to the National Cryptologic Museum, the secrets of the Chaocipher are finally starting to be revealed — it's a great story. To accompany Moshe Rubin's excellent textual description of the Chaocipher, I've posted a 30-second animation of the Chaocipher in action to YouTube, just in case anyone wants to see the most devious cipher of the 20th century in action (sort of)."

Comment The savvy prefer physical media because... (Score 1) 232

by RobDollar (#32782672) Attached to: Most Console Gamers Still Prefer Physical Media

.. it's quite often cheaper that the download equivalent. Even Valve releases are generally cheaper retail than they are on Steam (in the UK at least).

Also in other cases (eg Mount and Blade Warband) localised tax, for example VAT here in the UK), adds too much to make it viable to make an online direct download purchase. For me it would have been circa £26 download, whereas online hard copy on play.com (other websites are available) it cost £18.
Math

Daily Kos Pollster Made Up Numbers 546

Posted by kdawson from the transparency-wins dept.
jamie found a story up on Daily Kos revealing that the polling firm they had contracted with for 18 months, Research 2000 or R2K, apparently made up or at least manually tweaked its polling results. The blog published a preliminary report by a team of statistics gurus (Mark Grebner, Michael Weissman, and Jonathan Weissman), and it is an exemplar of clarity and concision. The team reports, "We do not know exactly how the weekly R2K results were created, but we are confident they could not accurately describe random polls." Daily Kos will be filing a lawsuit against its former pollster. "For the past year and a half, Daily Kos has been featuring weekly poll results from the Research 2000 (R2K) organization. These polls were often praised for their 'transparency,' since they included detailed cross-tabs on sub-populations and a clear description of the random dialing technique. However, on June 6, 2010, FiveThirtyEight.com rated R2K as among the least accurate pollsters in predicting election results. Daily Kos then terminated the relationship. One of us (MG) wondered if odd patterns he had noticed in R2K's reports might be connected with R2K's mediocre track record, prompting our investigation of whether the reports could represent proper random polling. ... This posting is a careful initial report of our findings, not intended to be a full formal analysis but rather to alert people not to rely on R2K's results."
Security

Adobe May Change To Monthly Patch Cycle 76

Posted by timothy from the are-you-on-the-patch? dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "Adobe, which has been under fire for the security of its flagship products, Flash and Reader, for some time now, may be on the verge of changing its patching process to push fixes out on a monthly schedule, which would coincide with Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday releases. The change would be the second major adjustment to Adobe's patching process in the last year or so. In 2009 the company moved to a scheduled quarterly patch release process in an effort to give its customers a better chance to plan for testing and deployment. That change was generally well-received. Now Adobe may change the schedule again in order to get patches out more quickly. The company is considering releasing its security fixes for Reader on a monthly schedule, the same day that Microsoft releases its patches."

Comment Re:what law was broken? (Score 1) 1204

by RobDollar (#31990486) Attached to: Police Seize Computers From Gizmodo Editor

I'm unsure of the US laws, but I understand the law here in the UK protects the loss of property for a certain amount of time, or at least until the owner considers it abandoned.

I quote from John Spencer, professor of law at Cambridge University, "If you find something in the street, the law says you have more right to it than everyone else - except the owner. If the true owner doesn't turn up, you can take ownership." from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8129534.stm

Had this occured in the UK, if there was proof that someone left the phone there on purpose to be found, then there is no case against. On the other hand if it was genuinely lost, then the finder had no right to sell it.

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