Comment This is quite unfortunate... (Score 5, Funny) 413
Too bad for Nintendo as I hear Peepoo was supposed to be the name of their next gen console. It actually works with their current naming scheme too. Wii (We) Peepoo (People).
Comment Why use classical? (Score 1) 721
There are a lot of sounds out there that would deter youths. There's the high frequency range that's audible to only younger people that is supposed to work great. Just blaring some Nickelback be would have been enough to keep me from going anywhere near a place.
Comment I never realized (Score 1) 147
that the PS3 was powered by the Zune...
Passage of Time Solves PS3 Glitch 147
An anonymous reader writes "A quick update on the widespread PlayStation 3 glitch we discussed recently: as of last night (Monday, March 1st) the problem has resolved itself. I powered up my PS3 to find the clock was set to April 29th, 2020, but once I went into the system menu and set the date and time via the internet I got an accurate date. That seems to be the test of whether your PS3 is 'fixed' or not; Sony says you should be all set."
NASA Estimates 600 Million Metric Tons of Water Ice At Moon's North Pole 271
After analyzing data from a radar device aboard last year's Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon, NASA scientists have found what they estimate to be 600 million metric tons of water ice in craters around the Moon's north pole.
"Numerous craters near the poles of the Moon have interiors that are in permanent sun shadow. These areas are very cold and water ice is stable there essentially indefinitely. Fresh craters show high degrees of surface roughness (high circular polarization ratio) both inside and outside the crater rim, caused by sharp rocks and block fields that are distributed over the entire crater area. However, Mini-SAR has found craters near the north pole that have high CPR inside, but not outside their rims. This relation suggests that the high CPR is not caused by roughness, but by some material that is restricted within the interiors of these craters. We interpret this relation as consistent with water ice present in these craters. The ice must be relatively pure and at least a couple of meters thick to give this signature."
Another Study Attacks Violent Video Games, Claims To Be "Conclusive" 587
Killer Orca is one of many to tell us about a new study on the effects of violent video games on kids. The latest meta-study that analyzed research from 130 different reports claims to have "conclusively proven" that violent video games make more aggressive, less caring kids. "The team used meta-analytic procedures — the statistical methods used to analyze and combine results from previous, related literature -- to test the effects of violent video game play on the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of the individuals, ranging from elementary school-aged children to college undergraduates. [...] Anderson says the new study may be his last meta-analysis on violent video games because of its definitive findings."
Comment the goatsenet (Score 1) 263
If I'm feeling like a real jerk, I'll name my SSID to goatsenet and forward google.com to goatse, msn to lemonparty and so on. If enough people do this, in the future, simply naming your network goatsenet will be deterrent enough.
Comment Re: Donating to Science (Score 1) 793
Donating to science does not equal donating your organs to the living who needs them. Obviously it's great to give your parts away to the needy, but in the case that they are no good, a donation to science can mean that your body will end up in a university med school or biology department where organs can be used for research or an entire body may be preserved and dissected by young people who will hone their examination and surgery skills on you. Either way, lives are likely to be saved as the end result.
Life Imagined As One Big RPG 176
Scoop Snookems writes "Will there be a day where we earn achievement points simply by brushing our teeth or high-fiving a friend? There could be, according to Carnegie Mellon professor Jesse Schell. In this video from the annual DICE summit, Schell comments on recent evolutions in gaming before fixating on a concept where our futures evolve into one big RPG. Fascinating stuff, and I hope writing this post nets me 10 points."
Comment What about the other robot... (Score 1) 224
I'm not sure what's more impressive, the one that solves the cube or the one that does sudoku. While solving the sudoku is trivial, the OCR it performs appears interesting, and to say the least, programming it to write with a pencil must have been incredibly tough.
Comment Re:What a doorknob (Score 1) 366
I think his reasoning was that having a competitor that raises the average cost of labor and price of cars isn't so beneficial for consumers. Allowing them to fail would show the others that efficiency and competitiveness is required in addition to being able to make cars. Also, allowing them to fail would force the other companies to make more cars to meet demand, which also increases efficiency as it spreads R&D costs of a single car variant to more buyers. Interesting indeed.
Failed Games That Damaged Or Killed Their Companies 397
An anonymous reader writes "Develop has an excellent piece up profiling a bunch of average to awful titles that flopped so hard they harmed or sunk their studio or publisher. The list includes Haze, Enter The Matrix, Hellgate: London, Daikatana, Tabula Rasa, and — of course — Duke Nukem Forever. 'Daikatana was finally released in June 2000, over two and a half years late. Gamers weren't convinced the wait was worth it. A buggy game with sidekicks (touted as an innovation) who more often caused you hindrance than helped ... achieved an average rating of 53. By this time, Eidos is believed to have invested over $25 million in the studio. And they called it a day. Eidos closed the Dallas Ion Storm office in 2001.'"
Nano-Scale Robot Arm Moves Atoms With 100% Accuracy 266
destinyland writes "A New York professor has built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The nano-scopic device is just 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size — over a million could fit inside a single red blood cell. But because of its size, it's able to build nanoscale structures and machines — including a nanoscale walking biped and even sequence-dependent molecular switch arrays!"
Checking In On Project Natal 186
itwbennett writes "A couple of interesting articles followed Robbie Bach's announcement at CES that Project Natal, Microsoft's controller-free Xbox 360 control system, will be shipping in time for the 2010 holiday season, writes blogger Peter Smith. First, Popular Science has a nice look at how Project Natal works, focusing mostly on the software and how 'Microsoft engineers are teaching the Natal 'brain' what various parts of the human body look like so that Natal can tell your ascot from your elbow.' Microsoft is staying mum on the hardware, although Smith notes that we know it involves an infrared camera. 'If you don't care about how the tech works but just want to know if it'll be worth buying,' writes Smith, 'you might be interested in an interview with Robbie Bach in the Financial Post. In the interview Bach claims that 70%-80% of Xbox 360 developers are working on some kind of Natal-enabled gaming software, and he assures us that first-party studios are also hard at work.'"
Comment Re:Moron (Score 1) 185
While Bush made it through all 8, it's easier to please Joe American Public and keep your job, especially when the other contenders for it are equally moronic. Steve Ballmer who has stockholders to answer to. It's always tougher when there's money involved.
