Comment Re:Oh noes (Score 1) 524
And while I'm at it, what do you need to start a bonfire? Kindling. Ii bet you can guess where that's going.
Comment Re:Oh noes (Score 1) 524
Isn't it obvious? eSilly Putty.
Comment Re:Schrodenger's cueCat (Score 1) 184
If I want a sermon, I'll go to church. If I want to be entertained, I'll go to the movies. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
Every movie or TV show I've ever seen is preaching something - perhaps not something you or I might consider "religious" but it's preaching nonetheless.
Which is exactly what he's saying he doesn't like.
Submission + - 2D Game Development Made Easy (sourceforge.net)
BlueMonk writes: "After 2 years of development and testing, version 2 of the Scrolling Game Development Kit, rewritten from the ground up in C#, has been released. The program is an IDE to assist newcomers and experienced developers to relatively easily create resources and assemble them into functional scrolling games based on DirectX. The new version is highly customizable in that almost all the runtime code is embedded in the project data file and can be edited and saved with the project. No runtime other than .NET and DirectX is required to play the compiled games."
Submission + - Scrolling Game Development Kit 2 in Beta (sf.net)
BlueMonk writes: "Version 2.0 of this build-your-own-game IDE is a rewrite from the ground up in C# on the .NET 1.1 / DirectX 9.0 platform. Yesterday, the homepage posted an announcement of the initial beta release. SGDK2 has grown significantly in flexibility and features since the last 1.x release more than a year ago. One of the extra sample projects is a tetris game, demonstrating that SGDK2 is less confined to the notion of scrolling games, though that's where you'll still find it providing the most support. Although the initial release is based on .NET 1.1 and Managed DirectX 9.0, the intention is to upgrade to later versions of the .NET framework and possibly support alternate graphics platforms as soon as possible after the initial release. The project will remain in beta for a period of time to allow feedback before the 2.0 release; among other final refinements, hardware requirements are still being worked out. The beta is public and available for download to all."
Spammer Robert Soloway Arrested 383
Mike writes "Yahoo is reporting that US prosecutors captured Robert Soloway, a prolific Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him "Spam King." Soloway was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. Soloway is accused of using botnets to disguise where e-mail originated and of forging return addresses of real people or businesses for his mass mailings. If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars."
Life Without Traffic Signs 604
zuikaku writes, "Der Spiegel has an article titled European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs reporting that seven cities and regions in Europe are doing away with traffic signs, signals, painted lines, and even sidewalks. With the motto 'Unsafe is Safe,' the idea is that, when faced with an uncertain, unregulated situation, drivers will be naturally cautious and courteous. Then again, they may end up with streets jammed with pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars like some places in India and China." I can't see this idea getting traction in the U.S.
Adult .IE Domain Names Banned As Immoral 509
An anonymous reader writes, "The Irish domain prefix, .ie, is controlled by an organization called the IE Domain Registry. In their terms and conditions they state, 'The proposed domain name must not be offensive or contrary to public policy or generally accepted principles of morality.' But this policy is only applied to sex words as this adult webmaster has discovered. Murder.ie is acceptable, Porn.ie is not. Can a word be immoral? And in this day and age, should a government-chosen domain registry be allowed to enforce their own moral code on the public?"
Data Mining Used to Create New Materials 106
Roland Piquepaille writes "MIT researchers have successfully integrated data mining tools and modern methods of quantum mechanics. They've designed software which can help predict the crystal structures of materials. To simplify, they say they've used methods used by online sales sites to suggest books to customers. And it seems to work: they claim they can determine in days the properties of atomic structures that might have taken months before. Read more for additional references and pictures."
Mozilla Developers Invited to Redmond 294
savio13 writes "Sam Ramji, Microsoft's director of its Open Source Software Lab has invited 4 Mozilla developers to spend 4 days with Microsoft's Vista Readiness ISV team. The invite can be found on mozilla.dev.planning and was posted on Saturday (Aug. 19). Schroepfer replied by indicating that Microsoft and the Moz guys are already in contact via email and will follow up on the offer there. This is interesting because Sam posted the offer in a public forum (and indicated that he'd sent a PM, but was posting in case they had an @microsoft.com email filter). Sam also made a point of stating that the Vista ISV Readiness offer is typically only for commercial ISVs."
