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First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Call of Duty 2 for Pocket PC

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Six years ago we got PocketQuake. Since then, the Pocket PC has seen Tomb Raider, Worms, DoomGL, and numerous emulators. The latest big budget title to hit the Windows Mobile scene is Call of Duty 2, a direct port from the original and featuring OpenGL-ES support for the Dell X50v line of PDAs. The game was ported by Aspyr (the Mac games developers), and there's an exhaustive review (also in PDF, no ads) at PocketGamer.org.
Space

Submission + - Asteroid impact threat

Submitted by
Maggie McKee
Maggie McKee writes: "Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry — the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America. These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers now say has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on 13 April 2036. Calculations show it would strike somewhere along a narrow track that stretches eastward from Siberia to the west coast of Africa. The threat, while small, is real enough to merit a United Nations protocol for dealing with the problem, experts say."
Portables (Games)

Submission + - Call of Duty 2 for Pocket PC released and reviewed

Submitted by
David Horn
David Horn writes: "Acclaimed Mac developer Aspyr has released Call of Duty 2 for the Pocket PC, where "gamers will be transported to the front lines of World War II and experience battlegrounds with artillery and whizzing bullets" in full accelerated 3D. Over at PocketGamer.org we've got an exhaustive review (PDF, no ads) of the game, spanning five pages and featuring input from top Windows Mobile authors. This is an enormous leap forward for the Windows Mobile gaming scene, and if you have a Pocket PC you really ought to be considering this game."
Biotech

Bilingualism Delays Onset of Dementia 472

Posted by kdawson from the brain-exercise dept.
Dee writes with word of a Canadian study indicating that lifelong bilingualism delays the onset of dementia by 4 years. The scientists were reportedly "dazzled" by the results. From the article: "The researchers determined that the mean age of onset of dementia symptoms in the monolingual group was 71.4 years, while the bilingual group was 75.5 years. This difference remained even after considering the possible effect of cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment and even gender as influencers in the results. "

Mars Probe May Have Spotted Sojourner Rover 149

Posted by Zonk from the born-free-as-free-as-the-wind-blows dept.
Maggie McKee writes "NASA's eagle-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have spotted the tiny, toaster oven-sized Sojourner rover just a few meters away from its companion, the Mars Pathfinder lander. It appears to have crawled there in an attempt to re-establish contact with the lander after the lander had already died. But the pictures aren't clear enough to definitively ID the rover, and it's possible Sojourner simply took off on its own. If it were miraculously still alive after 10 years, it could be 3 kilometers away from Pathfinder — and probably impossible to find, even with MRO."
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista launch promoted with space ride prize

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is promising to send the winner of an online game on a rocket ride into orbit around the Earth. MS has teamed with AMD to promote the new Vista OS through puzzle game Vanishing Point.
Operating Systems

Mac OS X Versus Windows Vista 697

Posted by CowboyNeal from the no-holds-barred dept.
An anonymous reader writes "With Macworld set to start Jan. 8, InformationWeek has a detailed comparison that pits Mac OS X against Vista. According to reviewer John Welch, OS X wins hands down. The important point: he doesn't say Vista is bad, just that technically speaking, OS X remains way ahead. Do you agree?"

Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core 574

Posted by Zonk from the core-apple-get-it-wakka-wakka dept.
BoredStiff writes "Computerworld has an article examining Microsoft's plans to launch a competitor to the Apple iPod, the wireless media player called Zune. The article lists five reasons why Apple may fear the Zune, and why it won't be as easily smacked down as the dozens of mp3 players before it have been. The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'" From the article: "Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista. Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92% of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 30 million people own iPods. But Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple's roughly 5%), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years."

Microsoft Adds Risky System-Wide Undelete to Vista 365

Posted by Zonk from the choose-wisely dept.
douder writes "Windows Vista will have a new 'previous versions' feature when it ships next year. According to Ars Technica, the feature is built off of the volume shadow copy technology from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Now turned on by default, the service stores the modified versions of a user's documents, even after they are deleted. They also report that you can browse folders from within Explorer to see snapshots of what they contained over time. It can be disabled, but this seems like a privacy concern." From the article: "Some users will find the feature objectionable because it could give the bossman a new way to check up on employees, or perhaps it could be exploited in some nefarious way by some nefarious person. Previous versions of Windows were still susceptible to undelete utilities, of course, but this new functionality makes browsing quite, quite simple. On the other hand, it should be noted that 'Previous Versions' does not store its data in the files themselves. That is, unlike Microsoft Office's 'track changes,' files protected with 'Previous Versions' will not carry their documentary history with them."

Using Agile Methodologies To Make Games? 236

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the faster-and-cheaper-usually-answer-that-question dept.
simoniker writes "Using Agile methodologies for programming is a concept that's been around for a while now, but some firms are now applying the concept to video game development." There has been a lot of talk lately about what the 'next big thing' in development will be. Could this be it? Or is this just another step along the way? From the article: "Agile puts the emphasis on producing demonstrable iterations of a game almost immediately into production, creating prioritized vertical slices that iterate on the most critical elements and features. The method also puts great emphasis on the organization of teams and the relationships therein, as well as the cycles in which teams must plan and carry out their project objectives."

Real Life Spy Gadgets That Anyone Can Buy 171

Posted by CmdrTaco from the show-cams-and-pen-grenades dept.
Ant writes "Here is a collection of "spy equipment" found for sale around the Internet. Everything listed is completely real, is sold at online stores, and almost any item listed here costs less than $500, and often times can be bought for less than $200. Seen on Compfused."

Sony Rootkit Settlement Gets Judge's Approval 187

Posted by Zonk from the yay-free-music dept.
Lewis Clarke wrote to mention a ZDNet story about Monday's final approval of the rootkit settlement in the case brought against Sony BMG Music. From the article: "The agreement covers anyone who bought, received or used CDs containing what was revealed to be flawed digital rights management (DRM) software after Aug. 1, 2003. Those customers can file a claim and receive certain benefits, such as a nonprotected replacement CD, free downloads of music from that CD and additional cash payments ... At least 15 different lawsuits were filed by class action lawyers against the record label, and the New York cases were eventually consolidated into one proceeding. The parties reached a preliminary settlement with Sony BMG in December, leaving it up to a judge in a U.S. District Court in New York to make it official. "

Best of the Free Anti-virus Choices? 499

Posted by Hemos from the protect-yerself dept.
iamjoltman writes "I've been looking to replace the McAfee anti-virus on my parent's XP machine. So, I've been looking at the three free anti-virus choices, AVG Free Edition, avast! Home Edition and AntiVir Personal Edition. I know there are other options, but I believe any others are only on-demand scanners, and that's not an option. So, what does the Slashdot crowd think is the best of these choices? Keep in mind, I'm only looking in anti-virus, I'll go elsewhere for firewall or malware protection."

Core Duo Reaches the Desktop 299

Posted by Zonk from the back-in-the-race dept.
rtt writes "AMD has long reigned the desktop CPU market due to Intel's offerings struggling to keep up in terms of performance and power consumption. Yonah is the predecessor to the Core architecture and is predominantly a mobile chip, and is used at the heart of Intel's Viiv technology. Bit-tech has an article about Yonah beating the top of the range desktop AMD chip, the FX60, clock for clock. From the article" 'When Yonah is running at the same clock speed as AMD's Athlon 64 FX-60, we found that it beat it into a corner in just about every situation.'"

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