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PC Games (Games)

Microsoft Lays Off Entire Flight Sim Team 162

Posted by Soulskill from the throttling-back dept.
Dutch Gun writes "Microsoft has just laid off the entire Flight Simulator development team. This continues a long-running trend of terminating or severing relationships with game development studios, such as the Bungie split, FASA, or the closure of Ensemble Studios. While one would presume that core Xbox development is not currently in jeopardy after Microsoft spent up to a billion dollars to pay for Xbox 360 repairs and salvage its reputation with gamers, does this signal a reversal from Microsoft's recent focus on internal game development? And what are its plans for Flight Simulator, a twenty-seven-year product with an extremely loyal user-base and a multitude of externally developed add-ons?"
NASA

NASA Outsources ISS Resupply To SpaceX, Orbital 151

Posted by kdawson from the minding-the-gap dept.
DynaSoar writes "NASA has signed two contracts with US commercial space ventures totaling $3.5 billion for resupply of the International Space Station. SpaceX will receive $1.6 billion for 12 flights of SpaceX's planned Dragon spacecraft and their Falcon 9 boosters. $1.9 billion goes to Orbital for eight flights of its Cygnus spacecraft riding its Taurus 2 boosters. Neither of the specified craft has ever flown. However, the proposed vehicles are under construction and based on proven technology, whereas NASA has often contracted with big aerospace companies for services using vehicles not yet even designed."
IT

Is Finding Part Time Work In IT Unrealistic? 396

Posted by Soulskill from the easier-to-replace-with-hardware dept.
I like my current job writes "Having worked full-time in IT for the past 12 years, I would really like to work less and focus on other goals and priorities in my life. I asked my current employer and was shot down. It seems like everyone I know in IT works full-time except for entry-level help desk staff. Striking out on my own seems to be the only way to control the ball and chain around my ankle. However, my experience with independent consulting is a 'feast or famine' situation, with work coming all at once, thus making part-time impossible, or the other extreme (which is even more likely). Is part-time work a pipe dream in IT? Maybe a career in toilet cleaning is calling me."
Security

McCain Campaign Sells Info-Loaded Blackberry PDAs 165

Posted by timothy from the quickly-unring-that-bell dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A news station in Washington D.C. has reported that the McCain Campaign has allegedly sold to reporters Blackberry handhelds with campaign-related information such as e-mail messages and phone numbers: 'We traced the Blackberry back to a staffer who worked for "Citizens for McCain" ... The emails contain an insider's look at how grassroots operations work, full of scheduling questions and rallying cries for support ... But most of the numbers were private cell phones for campaign leaders, politicians, lobbyists and journalists. "Somebody made a mistake," one owner told us. "People's numbers and addresses were supposed to be erased."'"

Comment Gut feel matters (Score 1) 120

by robla (#26022095) Attached to: The Unforgettable Amnesiac
It's funny, there was just a RadioLab show on NPR on this subject. They talk about another guy who had a different type of brain damage (tumor removal) which seemed to leave him normal at first, but made him horribly indecisive. They figured out that his emotional response center was damaged. Without the emotional push to make a decision, he would never feel pressure or other emotional drive to make the decision, and couldn't do it. The emotional part is apparently just as important as the logical part in making a decision.
Science

Fictional Town "Eureka" To Become Real? 337

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the next-terrorist-targets dept.
Zarath writes "The fictional town of Eureka (from the TV series by the same name) is going to potentially become a real life town as the University of Queensland, in Australia, plans to build a multibillion-dollar 'brain city' dedicated to science and research. The city, hoping to hold at least 10,000 people, is looking to attract 4,500 of the brightest scientists from around the world to live and work there. The city is planned to be built west of the city of Brisbane, in Queensland. While not funded by the Department of Defense (like the [city of the] TV series), the potential for such a community is very interesting and exciting."
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - MySQL Reverses Decision on Close Source (krow.net) 1

Submitted by
krow
krow writes: "I am very happy to be announcing that MySQL will be forgoing close sourcing portions of the MySQL Server. Kaj has the official statement in his blog. No portion of the server of the sever will be closed source including backup, encryption, or any storage engines we ship. To quote Kaj "the encryption and compression backup features will be open source". This is a change from what was previously posted here on Slashdot. I've posted some additional thoughts on my own blog concerning how we keep open source from becoming crippleware. Word has it that we will also have a panel at this year's OSCON discussing this relevant topic. Contrary to the previous Slashdot post, this shows Sun's continued commitment to Open Source."
Mozilla

Submission + - Seamonkey 1.1 Released

Submitted by
stuuf
stuuf writes: "Version 1.1 of the Seamonkey Internet Application Suite is now available, with quite a few improvements over the 1.0 series. Some of the new features include spell checking in form text areas, a new tagging system to classify email, a better indicator for secure web sites and preview images for browser tabs. This release also includes many of the updates that have gone into the Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2 branches. Check out the release notes and download page for more."

3D Weather Data Visualization in Second Life 62

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
An anonymous reader noted that the Second Life media blitz continues by saying that "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) with Aimee Weber Studio just unrolled a sneak preview of their educational project in Second Life (due to open in mid November). This appetizer of things to come features the three dimensional visualization of live weather (now on display at the Science Center)." Don't go there expecting that they have like every doppler radar in the US updating in realtime or anything, but it's actually a practical real use for Second Life.

Bill Would Outlaw Digital Receiver Recorders 487

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-i-like-mine-so-much dept.
mjdroner writes "ZD-Net has the latest on a sweeping telecom bill in the Senate. The bill provides no support for net neutrality. The bill does, however, include a provision to authorize the FCC to outlaw digital receivers that record broadcasts. The article states that those receivers would be replaced with devices that treat anything with an audio broadcast flag as copy-protected."
Announcements

Journal Journal: Electorama!

Journal by robla

Earlier this week, I launched Electorama!, a website dealing with electoral reform. Not a lot of interest just yet (the people I would have expected to jump on this are on the Election Methods list), but it's still early. I'm making a point of posting one news item a day. We'll see how long I can keep that up. ;)
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Hey wait, Corel gets a topic and we (Helix) don't? ;-) 1

Journal by robla
Given that I've posted more to Slashdot than I'll bet all other Corel employees have combined, this hardly seems fair (at least, those that would do it making their affiliation obvious). I know, I know, we're newbees to open source. For the sarcastically impaired, this complaint is purely tongue in cheek.

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We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan

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