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Submission + - Player-Run MMORPG by Former Ultima Online Devs Finding Kickstarter Success 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Shards Online has returned to Kickstarter with a refocused plan and a promise to match pledges dollar for dollar up to their goal. With just a week gone by they have already reached 75% of their goal. Project Lead Derek Brinkmann says "If Ultima Online and Neverwinter Nights had a love child, Shards Online would be the result. By combining the persistent virtual world of Ultima Online with the freedom of community run servers and the ability to act as a dungeonmaster in Neverwinter Nights, we are creating a paradise for roleplayers where you are no longer constrained by the rules handed to you by the development team." The team now has their sights set on their stretch goals like more animations for roleplayers and an extra game world to be released at Alpha.

Submission + - Elusive dark matter may be detected with GPS satellites (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two researchers say time disparities identified through the network of satellites that make up our modern GPS infrastructure can help detect dark matter. In a paper in the online version of the scientific journal Nature Physics, they write that dark matter may be organized as a large gas-like collection of topological defects, or energy cracks. “We propose to detect the defects, the dark matter, as they sweep through us with a network of sensitive atomic clocks. The idea is, where the clocks go out of synchronization, we would know that dark matter, the topological defect, has passed by."

Submission + - Court agrees that Google's search results qualify as free speech (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by wabrandsma
wabrandsma writes: From Ars Technica:
The regulation of Google's search results has come up from time to time over the past decade, and although the idea has gained some traction in Europe (most recently with “right to be forgotten” laws), courts and regulatory bodies in the US have generally agreed that Google's search results are considered free speech. That consensus was upheld last Thursday, when a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Google's right to order its search results as it sees fit.

Submission + - Nokia Announces N1 Android Tablet with Intel Processor and iPad Looks

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Nokia has sold its phone division to Microsoft and won't be able to make Nokia-branded devices until sometime in 2016. But it seems that the hardware giant won't die just like that. Welcome the Nokia N1 tablet, a surprise launch by the company. The device has and iPad-like design but runs Android 5.0 Lollipop. There's also a 64-bit Intel processor on the inside and a Nokia Z launcher.

Submission + - The USA Freedom Act: What's to Come and What You Need to Know

Submitted by StikyPad
StikyPad writes: The USA Freedom Act, the leading contender for NSA reform, is set for a vote this week. The bill has some problems, but is a major step forward for surveillance reform. That's why we're asking you to call your Senator and urge them to support the USA Freedom Act. Here's a rundown of what's to come, what you need to know, and what may happen this week.

Submission + - Perl 6 for 2015 (fosdem.org)

Submitted by eneville
eneville writes: The last pieces are finally falling into place. After years of design and implementation, 2015 will be the year that Perl 6 officially launches for production use.

In this talk, the creator of Perl reflects on the history of the effort, how the team got some things right, and how it learned from its mistakes when it got them wrong. But mostly how a bunch of stubbornly fun-loving people outlasted the naysayers to accomplish the extraordinary task of implementing a language that was so ambitious, even its designers said it was impossible. Prepare to be delightfully surprised.

Comment Re:That was close... (Score 1) 264

by jdschulteis (#48326651) Attached to: We Are Running Out of Sand

I thought the article was about running out of sand for silicon semiconductors. Besides California falling into the Pacific Ocean after a big earthquake, a lack of sand would be the end of Silicon Valley.

No worries: silicon for semiconductors could be made from the fine, smooth, easily-blows-away desert sand.

Comment Re:That explains it... (Score 1) 80

by jdschulteis (#48311219) Attached to: Birds Found Using Human Musical Scales For the First Time

..I could have sworn I heard Whole Lotta Love blasting out of the magnolia tree across the street.

Turns out, it might have been a couple of bluejays getting horny!!!

The only thing missing was the sound of the thermin...

If you mean the descending sound in the chorus, I don't think it's a theremin. I've always thought it was slide guitar and volume control.

Submission + - Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashes during test flight (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by rnws
rnws writes: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft has crashed in a California desert after experiencing what the company described as "a serious anomaly".

The firm says the status of their pilots is "unknown at this time". The craft was undergoing manned testing.

Television images shot from a helicopter showed what appeared to be wreckage bearing the Virgin logo.

Submission + - It's Time to Revive Hypercard

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: HyperCard, an application program and programming tool released for the Apple Macintosh in 1987, represented the ‘computing for the people’ philosophy that enabled users to go past the pre-built software that came on their machines, and to program and build software of their own. "Mac users could use Hypercard to build their own mini-programs to balance their taxes, manage sports statistics, make music – all kinds of individualized software that would be useful (or fun) for individual users." Now Jer Thorp writes that the end of HyperCard left a huge gap that desperately needs to be filled – a space for an easy to use, intuitive tool that will once again let average computer users make their own tools. According to Throp, this type of plain-language programming makes sense, particularly in an application that was designed specifically for non-programmers. "I find the largest concern for learners to be not with the conceptual hurdles involved in writing a program, but with obscure and confusing syntax requirements. I would love to be able to teach HyperTalk to my students, as a smooth on-road to more complex languages like JavaScript, Java or C++." By putting the tools of creation into the hands of the broader userbase, we would allow for the creation of ultra-specific personalized apps that, aside from a few exceptions, don’t exist today."

HyperTalk wasn’t just easy, it was also fairly powerful. Complex object structures could be built to handle complicated tasks, and the base language could be expanded by a variety of available external commands and functions (XCMDs and XFCNs, respectively), which were precursors to the modern plug-in. But ultimately, HyperCard would disappear from Mac computers by the mid-nineties, eclipsed by web browsers and other applications which it had itself inspired. The last copy of HyperCard was sold by Apple in 2004. "One thing that's changed in the intervening decades is that the hobbyist has largely gone by the wayside. Now you're either a user or a full-fledged developer, and the gulf is wider than ever," writes Peter Cohen. "There's really nothing like it today, and I think the Mac is lesser for it."

Submission + - Why is this company trying to make you afraid of flashlight apps? (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Molly McHugh
Molly McHugh writes: Flashlight apps have been around as long as smartphones themselves, so why are we just now hearing about their seemingly obvious dangers? You can thank SnoopWall, which bills itself as a privacy firm looking out for your best interests. The company released what it called a “Threat Assessment Report” earlier this month investigating flashlight apps on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. But who exactly is SnoopWall?

Submission + - Earth's Oceans May Be Almost as Old as the Planet

Submitted by Beverley Mitchell
Beverley Mitchell writes: A groundbreaking new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has revealed that the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system dates the arrival of water to a much earlier time than previously believed. Thanks to new data from NASA’s 4-Vesta project, the team demonstrated that the most primitive type of known meteorite could have brought water to Earth very early on in the planet’s formation. The implications for an earlier “wet Earth” include the possibility that life on our planet began much earlier than previously thought and could once have existed on the other inner planets.

Submission + - Google Announces Project Ara Developer Conference: Mountain View on January 14

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google today announced it will be hosting the second iteration of its Project Ara Module Developers Conference early next year. The first event will be in Mountain View on January 14, 2015, with satellite locations at Google offices in New York City, Buenos Aires, and London. The same agenda will be repeated in Singapore on January 21, 2015, with satellite locations at Google offices in Bangalore, Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai. During the full-day events Google plans to share the latest on the Ara platform and promises to have Project Ara team members at all event sites. Even though the speakers will be in Mountain View and Singapore, bi-directional video links will be available at the satellite locations.

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