Hach-Que - Slashdot User

Australian AvP Ban Reversed 71

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 18, 2009 @05:51AM from the people-have-spoken dept.

Earlier this month, we discussed news that Sega's new Aliens vs. Predator video game had been refused classification in Australia, effectively banning it. After a scathing response from the developer saying they wouldn't censor the game, and later news that the classification scheme may be updated to include an R18+ rating, it now seems that the Classification Board has seen fit to give the game a green light after all. Sega's Darren Macbeth told Kotaku, "We are particularly proud that the game will be released in its original entirety, with no content altered or removed whatsoever. This is a big win for Australian gamers. We applaud the Classification Review Board on making a decision that clearly considers the context of the game, and is in line with the modern expectations of reasonable Australians."

Submission + - Vocal dinosaur bypassed in state R18+ game law 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @10:23PM

An anonymous reader writes: Many of you /.ers have had a nice chuckle about us Aussies lacking an R18+ game rating in Australia. Most of you have heard that just about the only person preventing a change to this is the South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson. Well in an interesting turn of events the Queensland government is looking to bring an R18+ game rating to the progressive state, thereby bypassing the national law. A Queensland Parliament E-Petition has been tabled (you know, the kind that government actually listen to) that should give them an idea of how popular this issue actually is and whether or not they should go against the vocal dinosaur Michael Atkinson.

From the petition:
"Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that the Classification of Computer Games and Images Act 1995 is currently out of step with the wishes of the electorate.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House that it be amended to permit computer games to receive the R18+ classification when they have been refused classification under the Commonwealth Act."

The petition can be found here (Queensland signatories only)
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_qld/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=1346&lIndex=-1

Submission + - Software Piracy at the Workplace 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12, 2009 @09:31PM

An anonymous reader writes: What does one do when a good portion of the application software at your workplace is pirated? Bringing this up did not endear me at all to the president of the company. I was given a flat, "We don't pirate software software," and, "We must have paid for it at some point." Given that I was only able to find one burnt copy of Office Pro with a Google-able CD-Key and that version of Office was on at least 20 computers, I'm not convinced. Some of the legit software in the company has been installed on more than one computer, such as Adobe Acrobat. Nevertheless I have been called on to install dubious software on multiple occasions.

As for shareware, what strategies do you use to convince management to allow the purchase of commonly used utilities? If an installation of WinZip reports thousands of uses, I think the software developer deserves a bit o' coin for it. When I told management that WinZip has a one-second per file previously opened timeout counter, they tried to implement a policy of wait for it, do something else, and come back later, rather than spend the money.

Also, some software is free for home and educational use only, like AVG Free. What do you when management ignores this?

Submission + - Verizon Announces Droid's Launch Date (computerworld.com)

Submitted by adeelarshad82 on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @07:07PM

adeelarshad82 writes: Motorola Droid (Images and video) made its debut today after a relatively brief, if attention grabbing, ad campaign that targeted the iPhone's perceived shortcomings. The handset, which runs the recently announced Android 2.0 software, will be available starting Nov. 6 exclusively on the Verizon Wireless network. It will cost $199 with a two-year contract, after a $100 mail-in rebate. As an earlier product leak suggested, the 2.4 in.by 4.6 in. by .5-in. phone's specs feature a 5-megapixel camera, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and built-in GPS with those snazzy new turn-by-turn directions from Google. The Droid has a TI OMAP 3430 processor which can run at up to 600-MHz, Motorola chief executive Sanjay Jha said in a press conference on Tuesday. The processor changes speed based on the demands of running programs. The OMAP 3430 is based on ARM's Cortex-A8 architecture, which is newer and faster than the ARM11 used in previous Android phones.

Submission + - Conroy does it again (smh.com.au) 1

Submitted by JimboG on Monday October 26, 2009 @10:20PM

JimboG writes: Internet villain of the year, and Australian Senator Stephen Conroy has accidentally released a report containing details of Telstra's proposal for Australia's national broadband network (http://www.smh.com.au/reports/NBNReport.pdf). The article states "It (the report) contains highly detailed information about the value of Telstra's existing copper network assets (between $8 billion and $33 billion), extensive financial details including its cost of capital, network access prices and an analysis of funding uneconomic services in the bush."

Submission + - Wolfram release $50 Wolfram Alpha iPhone app (walkingrandomly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19, 2009 @06:53AM

An anonymous reader writes: Wolfram Research, makes of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, have released an iPhone app that allows you to query the Wolfram Alpha computational engine. Although it returns exactly the same results as it would if you had just used a web browser, Wolfram are charging $50 for it. Are they deluded or is this a cunning marketing ploy aimed at maximizing exposure of the new application?

Comment Re:Fail Article (Score 1) 2

by Hach-Que on Wednesday October 14, 2009 @05:33AM (#29742375) Attached to: Where is Google Voice mobile?

Correction: I meant normal HTML + Javascript.

Comment Fail Article (Score 1) 2

by Hach-Que on Wednesday October 14, 2009 @04:40AM (#29742157) Attached to: Where is Google Voice mobile?

Because it's not possible using normal HTTP. What did you expect? They can't run a flash applet to enhance capabilities on the iPhone because the browser doesn't support flash. They are stuck with normal Javascript unless their native app gets approved.

Submission + - Is the LHC being Sabotaged by its Own Future?

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Monday October 12, 2009 @11:15PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports on one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science: that the possibility that the Large Hadron Collider could create the hypothesized Higgs boson might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather. "It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck," say Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan. In an unpublished essay, Nielson says of the theory, "Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God." It is his guess, he went on, "that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them." This could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an "anti-miracle." Nielsen admits that the new theory smacks of time travel, a subject that has become a respectable research area in recent years. While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus. In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus. Although just why the Higgs would be a catastrophe is not clear. If we knew, presumably, we wouldn't be trying to make one."

Submission + - New superconductor world record (superconductors.org)

Submitted by myrrdyn on Monday October 12, 2009 @01:53PM

myrrdyn writes: Superconductors.ORG reports the observation of record high superconductivity near 254 Kelvin (-19C, -2F). This temperature critical (Tc) is believed accurate +/- 2 degrees, making this the first material to enter a superconductive state at temperatures commonly found in household freezers.

This achievement was accomplished by combining two previously successful structure types: the upper part of a 9212/2212C and the lower part of a 1223. The chemical elements remain the same as those used in the 242K material announced in May 2009. The host compound has the formula (Tl4Ba)Ba2Ca2Cu7Oy and is believed to attain 254K superconductivity when a 9223 structure forms.

Submission + - The IE Awareness Initiative (pieroxy.net) 1

Submitted by Pieroxy on Sunday October 11, 2009 @02:04AM

Pieroxy writes: After the We Don't Support IE and the IE6 no more, I have setup the IE awareness initiative. It is more intrusive than the existing ones, and tries to actually give some reason to the users. Anyways, I believe having a large range of solutions will be more compelling for sites owners to jump in. We really need to adopt these initiatives and to start broadcasting the message. The amount of time and effort spent in supporting IE6 is becoming insane. So I ask the /. community: is there anything more we can do about this?

Submission + - Wii Fit Balance Board used to detect terrorists? (cnn.com)

Submitted by incubbus13 on Sunday October 11, 2009 @12:54AM

incubbus13 writes: CNN reports that the Wii Fit's balance board is currently undergoing 'trialing' to see if it can be used to determine who in the security screening line is a terorrist.

CAPTCHA: Probed

Submission + - Fail in .NL (brokep.com)

Submitted by Elisanre on Friday October 09, 2009 @05:12AM

Elisanre writes: Brokep (Peter Sunde) formerly with Pirate Bay has discovered discrepancies in evidence filed by BREIN, the dutch equivelance to RIAA/MPAA.
would the mafiaa stoop to falsifying court evidence?

Submission + - Australian's Fight For Their Rights To Download (smh.com.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08, 2009 @09:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: The launch of the Pirate Party in Australia has opened up debate within the community. While the article linked here highlights points often made on slashdot, its great to see our thoughts and opinions are finally getting published in mainstream media! Have a read and comment — help support the debate publically, Australia Needs You!

Submission + - Google Native Client: Second Coming of ActiveX? (infoworld.com)

Submitted by snydeq on Tuesday October 06, 2009 @01:26PM

snydeq writes: InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy questions whether Google's Native Client can be anything other than the second coming of ActiveX — one that IT organizations will rightfully reject. 'IT veterans are understandably squeamish about any idea that smells of ActiveX-like integration. And so far, Google is doing little to allay their fears.' Supported by the latest developer release of Chrome, Native Client, which some consider Google's craziest idea yet, is purportedly protected by a combination of sandboxing and static analysis that Google feels will be sufficient enough to deflect threats from the majority of attack vectors. Kennedy, however, argues that the mere thought of what a malicious Native Client app might do is enough to send a shiver down IT's collective spine. 'When it comes to the separation of browser and OS, we IT folk like the status quo. It keeps us sane. And the harder Google tries to pry that Pandora's box back open, the tighter our grip becomes on the edges of the lid.'

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