w0lver - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft Fixes "iPod Bug" In Vista

Submitted by

Torodung

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:48PM

Torodung writes: "Well, some more grist for the mill in the Apple iPod/Vista story. ComputerWorld reports that Microsoft just released a patch to keep Windows Vista from scrambling users' iPods and addressed some similar issues with Cannon cameras as well. From the article:

Earlier this month, Apple updated iTunes to Version 7.1.1 to patch several Vista-related problems, but left others — including the Safely Remove Hardware bug — unfixed. At the time, Apple said it was "actively working with Microsoft to resolve a few remaining known issues." It had also recommended that users select the Eject iPod option on the iTunes Controls menu to remove an iPod from a Vista PC's USB port.
(Be the first to tag this "defectivebydesign" and win a free lollipop!)"

Submission + - Dan Verssen Games (DVG) - Company News

Submitted by

Dan Verssen Games (DVG)

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:46PM

Dan Verssen Games (DVG) writes: "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3-22-2007)
FROM: Dan Verssen Games (DVG) www.dvg.com

Dan Verssen Games (DVG) is pleased to announce the company's expansion from game design house to game publisher.

The newly launched DVG commercial website supports the new line of strategy games as well as the previously digitally published Vassal/PDF games.

DVG is using the proven player driven pre-order system to determine when a game is published. When a game reaches 500 pre-orders, its files are sent to the printer. All pre-order status games are fully designed and artwork has started at the time the game is placed on the pre-order list. As pre-orders accumulate, the artwork is finalized, allowing the game to immediately enter production. This system makes it possible for games to be shipped to pre-ordering customers within two months of reaching 500 pre-orders.

The DVG site makes it easy for players to check their order history, and the games they currently have on pre-order. Credit cards are charged when a game enters production, not before.

The first two games on the pre-order list are Modern Naval Battles — Global Warfare, and Field Commander — Rommel.

Modern Naval Battles — Global Warfare is a complete redesign of the company's first published game. The MNB card game features 110 Ship Cards, 110 Action Cards, and new game mechanics that maximize player options and decision-making. Players get to command the ships from 9 nations (USA, Japan, UK, France, USSR, Norway, Argentina, Taiwan, and China) in Cold War through modern day battles.
Pre-Order price: $31.99, Normal Price: $39.99

Field Commander — Rommel is the first of a new line of solitaire strategy board games. The game includes 176 5/8" counter and three 11" x 17" maps. Players get to command the legendary general's forces in his most heroic campaigns: 1940 France, 1941 North Africa, and 1944 Normandy. The built-in game mechanics control the Allied force's movement, battles tactics, and logistics.
Pre-Order price: $31.99, Normal Price: $39.99

Dan Verssen has designed such well respected, award-winning, games as: Modern Naval Battles, Down In Flames, Hornet Leader, 7th Sea CCG, Lightning Midway and D-Day, and Naval Battles.

Additional details can be found on the DVG website:
www.dvg.com"

Submission + - San Francisco to ban plastic grocery bags - CNN.co

Submitted by

gollum123

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:40PM

gollum123 writes: "http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/environment.baggs .reut/index.html San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to become the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling. Under the legislation, beginning in six months large supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products. The city's Department of the Environment said San Francisco uses 181 million plastic grocery bags annually. Plans dating back a decade to encourage recycling of the bags have largely failed, with shoppers returning just one percent of bags"

Submission + - Dell to Expand Linux Factory Installed Options

Submitted by hedgefighter on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:27PM

hedgefighter writes: After an overwhelming response to their Linux survey, Dell says they will actually be selling computers with Linux pre-installed. "Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems." They will be announcing which distributions and systems later this week.

Submission + - Top 10 Apple products which flopped

Submitted by

Miti

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:25PM

Miti writes: "Apart from phenomenal products like the iPod, iMac and Macbooks, Apple in its 30 year old history has churned out super flop products too. Newlaunches.com has compiled a list of 10 products in from Apple which fizzled in the market."

Yahoo to Offer Unlimited Email Storage 316

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:25PM from the to-infinity-and-beyond dept.

Josh Fink writes to tell us that Yahoo has announced that they will be offering unlimited email storage starting this coming May. The launch is all a part of Yahoo's ten year anniversary. While not all users will see their storage caps disappear right away Yahoo is promising that this feature will eventually reach their entire population.

Submission + - Teen Builds Basement Fusion Reactor

Submitted by

Mr.Intel

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:24PM

Mr.Intel writes: "According to Popular Science, you too can Build a Homemade Nuclear Reactor

Cost: $3,500
Time: 2 Years

From the Article: Itching for a challenging science project, two years ago Thiago Olson decided to build a small nuclear reactor. He had limited funds, limited space in his garage, and little engineering know-how. After all, he was only 15.

With a year of research and another of building, Olson pulled it off, joining a club of fewer than 20 amateurs in the world who are known to have created "fusors," tabletop machines that fuse atoms to produce energy. There's no risk of a mushroom cloud — the machine creates barely enough energy to heat a cup of coffee, and radiation officials in Michigan (where Olson lives) have already deemed it safe."

Submission + - New GPL 3 Draft Takes Aim At Microsoft/Novell Pact

Submitted by

Anonymous

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:22PM

Anonymous writes: "The latest GPL 3 draft blocks developers from conveying GPL-covered works if they have in place an arrangement with a third party that has granted a patent license selectively to that developer's customers, according to a story on ChannelWeb.com. The clause was explicitly crafted in response to the surprise Novell/Microsoft alliance, which included an agreement that neither would sue the other over patent infringements. Microsoft has not offered that amnesty to other Linux distributors, and the implication that it could take action over perceived open-source infringements on its intellectual property has roiled the open-source development community."

Submission + - A possible explanation of Saturn's Hexagon

Submitted by __aahgmr7717 on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @01:02PM

__aahgmr7717 writes: A possible solution to the mystery of the hexagonal pattern found in Saturn's north pole was presented previously in: Science News week of June 3, 2006; Vol. 169, No. 22 , p. 348 As waters part, polygons appear Peter Weiss Imagine a hurricane with an eye in the shape of a propeller amid the swirling clouds. Physicists have observed something almost as strange in whirlpools that they made by swirling liquids in a novel way. Within the whirlpools, they've seen three-blade-propeller shapes as well as regular polygons, including squares and hexagons. (picture of pentagonal shape) CURRENT EVENT. A whirlpool, viewed from above, takes a pentagonal shape just above the spinning platter that's causing the water to swirl. T. Jansson, et al./Physical Review Letters The behavior of liquids in rotating containers has long fascinated physicists. For instance, in a famous late-1600s study, Isaac Newton pondered why the surface of water in a rotating bucket becomes concave. In the new experiments, Tomas Bohr and his colleagues at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby observed liquids in a cylindrical, Plexiglas container that doesn't actually turn. Instead, a plate attached to a motor-driven shaft spins at up to 7 revolutions per second inside the container, while the vessel itself remains still. As expected, in experiments with water or with viscous ethylene glycol, the spinning platter swirled the liquid above it to create whirlpools. But the throats of those whirlpools tapered to surprising shapes at the platter's surface, the team reports in the May 5 Physical Review Letters. In the water experiments, those shapes transformed as speed increased, changing from circular to elliptical to propeller-shaped to square to pentagonal and finally to hexagonal. Ethylene glycol whirlpools formed shapes with no more than three sides. Curiously, the polygons themselves rotated, although more slowly than their parent whirlpools. Rotating fluids play important roles in systems ranging from industrial equipment, such as pumps, to atmospheric disturbances, such as tornadoes and hurricanes. Although the newfound shapes remain unexplained, Bohr says that their discovery may eventually lead scientists to a deeper understanding of fluids' rotational behaviors.

Submission + - Mario & Sonic Team Up, Face Off

Submitted by

RyoShin

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @12:45PM

RyoShin writes: "Signs of the apocalypse: seven-headed beasts, cats hanging out with dogs, and a video game that combines two previous rivals. Well, according to USAToday, we're one-third of the way there. From the article: "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, due in stores this holiday season for Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld system (prices not yet set), will also include other popular characters such as Luigi and Yoshi (from Nintendo's Mario games), as well as Knuckles and Tails (from the Sonic games), all competing in such summer Olympic events as running, swimming and table tennis." Furthermore, Shigeru Miyamoto is giving oversight to the project. Could this be a sign that Sonic might appear in Super Smash Brothers Brawl?"

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:59AM

PetManimal writes: "A loophole in Vista's activation scheme that lets users install an upgrade version of Vista on Linux machines and save up to $140 is spreading over the Internet and causing Microsoft a fair amount of embarrassment. The trick involves installing Vista twice but not entering the product key the first time, which effectively fools Vista into upgrading itself. While most home users are unlikely to try this, it may appeal to some PC DIYers and other power users:

The type of person most likely to benefit from this workaround are power users and hobbyists who own multiple computers running Windows as well as Linux and Mac OS X. Indeed, one concrete scenario would be someone with a used PC that's just one or two years old running either Linux or OS X who decides to convert it to Vista and buys the upgrade version of the OS to do so.
According to the last article, Microsoft is aware of the scheme and says it violates the Vista EULA."

Submission + - CIO Jobs Morph Into Strategy

Submitted by

Carl Bialik from WSJ

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:55AM

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes: "The job of CIO is being transformed from technology manager to corporate strategist, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'As the longtime chief information officer for Northrop Grumman Corp., Tom Shelman's duties mainly consisted of managing the defense contractor's vast network of computer systems. So he was shocked when the company suddenly changed his job description several years ago. Mr. Shelman was asked to be more "strategic" and "transformational." He was told he would be expected to meet with customers, use technology in new ways and help win new business — in short, to help the Los Angeles-based company grow. "I had to sit down and do some soul-searching," says Mr. Shelman, 48 years old. "It was a significant change; it sounded exciting, but it also scared the hell out of me." '"

Viacom Turns to Joost, Spurns YouTube 139

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:55AM from the google-has-lost-please-turn-to-page-57 dept.

Vincenzo writes "Viacom has signed a deal with Joost that will see content from MTVI, Comedy Central, and CBS distributed on the new P2P distribution service. The move comes just two weeks after demanding YouTube pull over 100,000 videos offline. 'Joost's promise to protect their copyrights was a major factor in Viacom's decision, and also a stumbling block in their discussions with YouTube/Google. At the moment is it quite easy to download and store video content from YouTube, but no such exploit for Joost is known to exist.' It's also a 'secure' distribution medium in the eyes of many in the entertainment industry, since users can't upload content themselves.'"

Clover Vets Open SEEDS, Capcom Clears The Air 27

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:47AM from the planting-the-stuff-to-grow-a-new-company dept.

Last week, the designers who used to head Capcom's Clover Studios (makers of Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand) announced that they were forming a new studio named SEEDS. Clover principles Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Shinji Mikami are looking to make some 'preposterously amazing' games. People upset by Clover's closing, though, should know that most of the studio is back inside Capcom. In a Gamasutra article with Capcom Vice President of Marketing Charles Bellfield, he makes it a point to say: "Capcom, unlike most other developers, doesn't have dedicated strict boundaries between each of its development teams. We actually have one pool of development talent at Capcom and those individuals are basically assigned based on the timescales of each product we're working on ... the rest of the Clover team was just incorporated back into the rest of Capcom's development talent pool. So in fact, while three individuals left, Clover Studios as a separate entity was merged back into the rest of the Capcom teams and today, still, the talent we had, with the exception of three people, is still remaining at Capcom."

Submission + - Credit Card security: Who pays for breaches?

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:25AM

PetManimal writes: "A scheme to steal customers' credit and debit card information at a New England supermarket chain highlights a little-understood fact about credit card security: Customers still think that the credit-card companies have to eat fraudulent charges, but since PCI DSS standards were adopted, it's actually the merchant banks and merchants who have to pay up. And, according to the author of the last article, it's a good thing:

The main reason PCI exists is that there are tens of thousands of merchants who don't understand the basics of information security and weren't even taking the very minimum steps to secure their networks and the credit card information they stored. ... PCI pushes that burden downstream and forces merchants to take on a preventative role rather than a reactive role. They have to put in a properly configured firewall, encrypt sensitive information and maintain a minimum security stance or be fined by their merchant banks. By forcing this to be an issue about prevention rather than reaction, the credit card companies have taken the bulk of the financial burden off of themselves and placed it on the merchants, which is where much of it belongs anyways.
"

Slashdot Top Deals