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PC Games (Games)

SOE Also Making a New Star Wars MMOG? 49

Posted by Soulskill from the empire-strikes-back dept.
Hand Solo writes 'Ten Ton Hammer has an inside scoop on SOE making a new browser-based MMOG based on Star Wars. Rumor is that it will be run on the Free Realms platform. This is generating a lot of buzz around the net. Quoting: 'Former and current Star Wars Galaxies players can still remember the sting of the 'New Game Experience' that changed the face of that game for everyone. SOE has repeatedly said that they have learned from their mistakes, and plan to not repeat them. If SOE isn't expressly targeting the hardcore segment this time around, they (unlike BioWare) won't have quite the same initial level of expectations to deal with. Don't let us give you the impression that SOE plans to take on BioWare, and their highly anticipated MMOG debut, The Old Republic, particularly given the engine the game is rumored to be based on. More plausible is that it will be based off the Clone Wars CGI animated film, offering a more stylized approach to the universe. "

Feed Engadget: Controversial Palm Pre ads judged to be effective, still creepy (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed
Palm's slightly disturbing Pre ads continue to make news, putting to rest any doubts about their effectiveness. Hot on the heels of ad agency Modernista totally loving that you're "creeped out" by them, analyst MediaCurves has done a little online study --"little" meaning a small sample group of only 305 viewers. Still, the results are interesting, with half of all respondents feeling inspired or happy after viewing the commercial, nine percent feeling disturbed. Sixteen percent were, however, confused, but that didn't stop 21 percent from saying the commercial was "extremely effective," and 46 percent indicating "somewhat effective." At the read link you can watch the ad with a line graph drawn over it rating peoples' interest realtime, generally going up when the phone is shown (the "bing, bing, bing" segment) and down the rest of the time, perhaps inspiring a new series of Pre adverts with more time for demos and less for dazed-sounding, tight-haired, 60-foot-tall women.

[Via everythingpre]

Filed under: Cellphones

Controversial Palm Pre ads judged to be effective, still creepy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Blizzard ignores huge problem in Warcraft

Submitted by
blast3r
blast3r writes: "Blizzard has been aware of a serious problem where players are unable to enter Instances (Dungeons) where at some times it can take over and hour to get in. The problem originated earlier this year when they were trying to fix over population of these instances which would often cause the instance to crash and the players would have to start over. They are saying they need to tweak hardware (July 2, 2009) yet refuse to give updates to their customers and are even banning those that are complaining in this thread. This is not a very good situation for Blizzard especially since Blizzcon is just around the corner. So what did Blizzard do with the hundreds of millions of dollars they made between early this year and the release of patch 3.2? Everyone knows that new patches generates more traffic. In any event, their PR people probably need to be prepared to meat some disgruntled customers!"
Transportation

Submission + - Chevrolet Volt: 230 MPG IN THE CITY!

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Chevrolet announces the Volt has a MPG rating of 230 IN THE CITY!

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/11/autos/volt_mpg/index.htm

"The Chevrolet Volt, GM's electric car that's expected to go on sale in late 2010, is projected to get an estimated 230 miles per gallon, the automaker announced Tuesday."

"The Volt's lithium-ion batteries will hold enough juice to drive the car for about 40 miles, GM has said. Once the car goes beyond that, a small gasoline engine will turn on, generating electricity to power the wheels for longer drives."

"So let's say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That's the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be a just 62.5 mpg.""
Cellphones

Submission + - US cell phone plans amongst world's most expensive (oecd.org)

Submitted by Albanach
Albanach writes: An OECD report published today has shown moderate cell phone users in the United States are paying some of the highest rates in the world. Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an average of $10.95 in Finland. The full report is available only to subscribers, however Excel sheets of the raw data are available to download.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux isn't Windows - Is it still relevant? (piestar.net)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I commonly see the link to this site — I am sure everyone else has seen it more than once before also — Linux isn't Windows But the question is is this still relevant? Is it representative of the current direction Linux is heading? Is it the impression we even want to give? Reading the (slightly unfair) rebuttal here, which amusingly points out that it was probably drafted in MS Word in the first place, demonstrates that even the author doesn't follow his own advice and prefers to use 'user friendly' proprietary software.

Isn't it time that we stopped linking to this and other such articles, as they only serve to reinforce the elitist and difficult reputation that Linux has gained, and is trying hard to shed?
Privacy

Submission + - GSA Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears

Submitted by quadwrench
quadwrench writes: GSA under the Obama administration are considering revamping a policy that allows tracking of users website visits. I'm posting this because it could be easily construed as a slippery slope for web-tracking by agencies. "U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002743_pf.html
Biotech

Submission + - The Future of Farming (popsci.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: With hunger being a major problem in the world, PopSci offers eight innovations in farming that are currently being tested and implemented. They are: farming the desert, soil sensors to cut fertilizer/water waste, genetically engineering rice, using nitrogen collecting microbes in place of fertilizer, gathering extensive data on land to improve usage, robot labor, biochar (nutrients for plants while sequestering carbon) and supercrops like a super resistant, super nutritious bioengineered cassava (also known as yucca). While some of the estimates on these things are five or six years into the future, many are already in place and available.
XBox (Games)

Submission + - In the Underworld, the game plays you! (www.itu.dk)

Submitted by
togelius
togelius writes: "Whenever you play a game of Tomb Raider: Underworld, heaps of data about your playing style is collected at Eidos' servers. Researchers at the Center for Computer Games Research have now mined this data to find out who you are! Using self-organizing neural networks, they classified players as either Veterans, Solvers, Pacifists or Runners. It turns out people play the game for very different reasons and focus on different parts of the game, but almost everyone falls into one of these categories. These neural networks can now instantly find out which of these you belong to based on just seeing you play. In the near future, such networks will be used to adapt games like Tomb Raider while they are played (e.g. by removing or adding puzzles and enemies), so you get the game you want."

Feed The Register: Half-ton space watermelon hints at habitable Martian past (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed
NASA droid probe sniffs at rusty fallen star

An unusual object recently found on Mars by a NASA robot - said to be "the size of a large watermelon" and to weigh a "half ton or more" - is thought by boffins to provide proof that the Red Planet once had a much denser atmosphere than it does now.

The power of collaboration within unified communications


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