Comment Re:Drag? (Score 3, Informative) 264
Yes you would be correct. This is a terrible idea.
Submission + - New MMORPG Tries "Crowd Sourcing"
KingSkippus writes: "BBC news is reporting that publisher Acclaim Games is working with developer Dave Perry to develop Top Secret, a new MMORPG using 'crowd sourcing.' It will be a commercial game with a paid professional core team that works with a larger volunteer community to develop the code, stories, art, and audio in the game. Perry says, 'With 20,000 people signed up we are already the biggest development team in history. We will end up with 100,000 people on this team. If 1% is any good, we are good to go.' Could this be a missing link that brings us commercial-quality community-developed gaming?"
Submission + - SPAM: An architectural plan of the cell
FiReaNGeL writes: "Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Colorado have now obtained the first 3D visualization of a complete eukaryotic cell at a resolution high enough to resolve the cytoskeleton's precise architectural plan in fission yeast. The image of this unicellular organism reveals remarkable insights into the fine structure of the cytoskeleton as well as its interactions with other parts of the cell. "Our 3D image of fission yeast can serve as a reference map of the cell for all biologists interested in its architecture," says Johanna Höög. "You can extract information about all sorts of cellular structures and processes from it or use it to place findings into the spatial context of the cell.""
Submission + - Scientists say Louisiana has less than 10 years
editor.b writes: "According to a new series by the Times-Picayune, south Louisiana has much less time than expected. Scientists say that coastal land is now disappearing at the rate of one football field every 45 minutes. In ten years or less New Orleans will be in the Gulf of Mexico."
Journal Journal: Rocketeers Find Large Impact Crater In Nevada 29
While participating in amateur rocket launches in Black Rock Desert (Burning Man site), Ian Kluft KO6YQ noticed rocks with some oddities. Through the Internet he learned the characteristics of impact craters, then found some clues in photographs and Google Maps. Examining the area he got samples of rock with impact patterns in them and other evidence. Previous geological puzzles in the region are well explained as impact structures. Volunteers are finding peculiarities in satellite imagery
Submission + - NASA can't pay for killer asteroid hunt
CGISecurity.com writes: "NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done. "We know what to do, we just don't have the money," said Simon "Pete" Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center.""
Submission + - Lego MMOG
syguy writes: "According to a press release by Colorado-based NetDevil, they are partnering with Lego Group to create a "massively multiplayer online gaming experience to further engage its [Lego's] dedicated and active community". Lego MMOG is due out in 2008."
Submission + - Whatever happened to superconductors?
AltGrendel writes: "Jonathan Fildes of the BBC wrote that 'In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared that the US was about to enter an incredible new era of technology. Levitating high-speed trains, super-efficient power generators and ultra-powerful supercomputers would become commonplace thanks to a new breed of materials known as high temperature superconductors (HTSC). "The breakthroughs in superconductivity bring us to the threshold of a new age," said the president. "It's our task to herald in that new age with a rush."
But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So what happened?'
He shares what he found in this article."
But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So what happened?'
He shares what he found in this article."
Submission + - Why doesn't lab dark matter behave as it should?
Matthew Sparkes writes: "Experimental results suggest that scientists have succeeded in creating dark matter in a lab. Although this is the stuff that is thought to make up about one-fifth of the mass of the universe, no one has ever managed to see a single particle of it before. But there's something about his team's results that makes no sense. Their dark matter particles — called axions — aren't behaving as they should. They seem to be endowed with a property that means they should have sucked the life out of the sun billions of years ago. Plainly this has not happened, so what is going on?"
Submission + - World wide shutdown is early stages of planning...
zoftie writes: Many people are planning to shut their computers off for entire day on March 24th. Shutdown Day website already went over 25000 people who are committed to spending their day free of their electronic pacifier, feeding tube however you want to describe your relationship to your computer(s). Being in IT industry for a while this leads on to one question, what is the consequence of such act, and what does it ask of us beyond turning off the computer.
Submission + - Extract water from the air with wind power
cammoblammo writes: "The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting the invention of a wind powered device which will apparently extract up to 7,500 litres per water per day from the air. Whilst the details are unclear it seems that the device uses the drop in pressure behind the blades of a turbine to cool air, which then passes over refrigerated metal plates which are cooled by power from the turbine, in a footprint of only 4 metres square.
It all sounds a little simple to me, but with a drought ravaging much of Australia this device, if it works, could make the inventor very, very rich. What does the Slashdot brains trust think?"
It all sounds a little simple to me, but with a drought ravaging much of Australia this device, if it works, could make the inventor very, very rich. What does the Slashdot brains trust think?"
Submission + - The CPU redefined: AMD Torrenze and Intel CSI
janp writes: "In the near future the Central Processing Unit (CPU) will not be as central anymore. AMD has announced the Torrenza platform that revives the concept op co-processors. Intel is also taking steps in this direction with the announcement of the CSI. With these technologies in the future we can put special chips (GPU's, APU's, etc. etc.) directly on the motherboard in a special socket. Hardware.Info has published a clear introduction to AMD Torrenza and Intel CSI and sneak peaks into the future of processors."
Submission + - Government gaffe helps NSA Wiretapping Case
titotitozzz writes: "Ryan Singel at Wired reports:
It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil.
Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked top secret.
And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means.
Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
The case has been added to the EFF's wiretapping suit against AT&T. It may circumvent the government's present circular argument that the current plaintiffs have no documentation which proves that they are being surveilled and that the government doesn't have to provide said documentation because it would be considered a 'state secret' (and therefore inadmissible in court)."
The case has been added to the EFF's wiretapping suit against AT&T. It may circumvent the government's present circular argument that the current plaintiffs have no documentation which proves that they are being surveilled and that the government doesn't have to provide said documentation because it would be considered a 'state secret' (and therefore inadmissible in court)."
Submission + - Student invents beer throwing refridgerator
Madas writes: "North Carolina University student invents a fridge that will chuck a cold one at you if you are thirsty and too lazy to get off the couch! In other news student actually gets off couch and does something!"
Submission + - DIY Laptop *literally* from scratch!
Brietech writes: Ever felt like building your own laptop from (almost literally) scratch? This is a microcontroller-based "laptop" built from the ground up from a handful of chips and other hardware found lying around. It runs a self-hosted development environment, allowing the user to write and edit programs in "Chris++" on the machine, and then compile and run them. The carpentry looks like it could use some work, but it's a neat project!
