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The Courts

Submission + - Judge says Jack Thompson guilty of misconduct

Submitted by cgardogg
cgardogg writes: Game politics brings the welcome news that 'The judge who presided over Jack Thompson's Florida Bar trial late last year has recommended that the controversial attorney be found guilty on 27 of 31 professional misconduct charges. The Florida Supreme Court must now rule on those recommendations.'
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Jack Thompson Guilty of Misconduct (wired.com)

Submitted by
SheepLauncher
SheepLauncher writes: "The always-controversial attorney and outspoken activist Jack Thompson finds himself in hot water today, after a Florida Bar judge has recommended that he be found guilty of 27 separate charges of misconduct. The vast majority of the charges are in relation to two videogame-related cases that Thompson argued before courts in Alabama and Florida, both of which had to do with Rockstar games Grand Theft Auto and Bully. He is guilty of 27 of 31 misconduct charges. hah!"
Movies

Submission + - Study: Digital Movies in Danger of Extinction (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "According to a study by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, movies shot on digital cameras cost $12,510 per year to archive, compared with $1,059 for traditional celluloid film. And, and source materials, the outakes and audio that are used to create special edition releases of movies, cost 429 times more to store, or $208,500 per year for digital materials vs. $486 for film. More crucial is the lack of any standards that would make viewing and reediting today's digital films backward compatibile with future technologies so that, in 100+ years, films made today could still be used for creating special releases then."
Graphics

Submission + - Pixels or Polygons? Why 2D still beats 3D (gamersglobal.com) 5

Submitted by
Joerg Langer
Joerg Langer writes: "GamersGlobal has posted a special on the evolution of computer game graphics. Ten years ago, most genres, notably Adventure, Strategy, RPG and Action-Adventure games were typically 2D, often using an "isometric" (bird's eye) view. Today they are based, with few exceptions, on a 3D engine. 2D (or pixel based) games are clearly following the Elves of the Third Age into obscurity. Why should anyone still bother with 2D? Because 3D isn't the best solution for all games. Polygon based games may be less beautiful and more difficult for the player to navigate. 3D games are more difficult to produce. This is one of the main reasons that NextGen video games are more expensive than previous generations. Most importantly, 3D graphics — and the never-ending technical progress they symbolize — might be limiting the development of computer games as an art form. You'll read four arguments and counterarguments why 2D can still beat 3D graphics, and also citations from game developers Cliff Bleszinski, Richard Garriott and Koji Igarashi on the subject."
Music

Submission + - Nine Inch Nails post result of "Free or Pay

Submitted by Rovent
Rovent writes: Back on November 1st, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails convinced Saul Williams to release his latest album, "The Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust", for free or $5, you decide. After a two month run, Trent posted the results of this experiment on the Nine Inch Nails homepage. On it, he breaks down how many people downloaded the album, who came back and paid for it, and his insight on the whole affair.
United States

Submission + - Lifesaving hospital hygiene checklist banned (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: From the article:
Johns Hopkins University published a simple five-step checklist designed to prevent certain hospital infections. It reminds doctors to make sure, for example, that before putting large intravenous lines into patients, they actually wash their hands and don a sterile gown and gloves.

The results were stunning. Within three months, the rate of bloodstream infections from these I.V. lines fell by two-thirds. The average I.C.U. cut its infection rate from 4 percent to zero. Over 18 months, the program saved more than 1,500 lives and nearly $200 million.

Yet this past month, the Office for Human Research Protections shut the program down.
Wii

Submission + - Nintendo Wii Fully Exploited

Submitted by Croakyvoice
Croakyvoice writes: The 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress was the launchpad for the unveiling of the hacking of the Nintendo Wii via an exploit to allow homebrew to run in native Wii mode ( previously only Gamecube Homebrew was available on the Wii) which will allow access to the Wiimote, WiFi and SD Cart Slot. Tehskeen a Wii scene site has today posted an interview with the author of the exploit who has discussed the release to the public and linux amongst other things.
Security

Submission + - AVG Anti-Virus to Users: Pray for mercy, infidels! (grisoft.com) 1

Submitted by Lincoln6Echo
Lincoln6Echo writes: I've been using and reselling AVG products for a few years now. Lately they appear to have begun a campaign to "be more corporate". I'd like to add my two cents towards their new corporate image and to user's impression of non-compromised AVG updates: remove the page that says "Pray for mercy, infidels!" from your SSL protected website. I found it when I made a mistake logging into the resellers console at https://biz.grisoft.cz/ (not https://biz.grisoft.com/) which is supposed to now redirect you to https://secure.grisoft.com.
Censorship

Submission + - YouTube censoring atheists. (youtube.com)

Submitted by Metaleks
Metaleks writes: 'Tis the season to be jolly. But all is not well. It would seem that YouTube is censoring those who lack Christmas spirit. One after another, atheists on YouTube are being removed from Top 100 lists, and having their channels stripped of any honours. To prove this wasn't some sort of YouTube glitch, one atheist went as far as creating another account. As soon as he was "discovered" of being an atheist his videos were stripped of any honours and his name taken off of the Top 100 lists. Why is YouTube censoring atheists?
Government

Submission + - Norway mandates government use of ODF and PDF

Submitted by siDDis
siDDis writes: Earlier this year Slashdot mentioned that Norway moves towards mandatory use of ODF and PDF. Now it's confirmed that the Norwegian government has mandated the use of open document formats from January 1st, 2009.

There are three formats that have been mandated for all documentation between authorities, users and partners. HTML for all public information on the Web, PDF for all documents where layout needs to be preserved and ODF for all documents that the recipient is supposed to be able to edit. Documents may also be published in other formats, but they must always be available in either ODF or PDF.
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia Bans Whistleblower (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by Retired Wikipedia Editor
Retired Wikipedia Editor writes: When a user of Wikipedia complained about a former administrator named Betacommand calling another user a "fucktard", he was banned over it by a power-tripping admin who goes by Moreschi. Why? Because it was the user's first edit to Wikipedia. This user could have been an alternate account of a regular editor, who was afraid of blowing the whistle in fear of retaliation. He was right; the Wikipedia cabal banned him for it. Or maybe he was a lurker who was concerned over such a strong use of language. The discussion about it is still ongoing, but there's a shocking amount of support for the banning of the whistleblower. I used to edit Wikipedia pretty regularly, until I finally gave up on it due to the politics and the need of administrators to pull garbage like this.
Censorship

Submission + - Wikipedia COO was Convicted Felon (theregister.co.uk) 4

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: From the Register:

"For more than six months, beginning in January of this year, Wikipedia's million-dollar check book was balanced by a convicted felon. When Carolyn Bothwell Doran was hired as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation, she had a criminal record in three other states — Virginia, Maryland, and Texas — and she was still on parole for a DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) hit and run that resulted in a fatality. Her record also included convictions for passing bad checks, theft, petty larceny, additional DUIs, and unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gun shot to the chest."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Arthur C Clarke's 90th Birthday Wish List 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "British science-fiction author, inventor, and futurist Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, celebrates his 90th birthday today and has marked it by releasing a video on YouTube. In the nine-minute message, recorded at his home in Sri Lanka, Clarke makes three wishes: First, he would like evidence of extraterrestrial life. 'I have always believed that we are not alone in the universe,' he says. 'But we are still waiting for ETs to call us — or give us some kind of a sign.' Clarke's second wish concerns global warming: 'I would like to see us kick our addiction to oil and adopt clean energy sources. For more than a decade, I've been monitoring various new energy experiments, but they have yet to produce commercial scale results.' His third wish concerns his home: 'I've been living in Sri Lanka for 50 years and, half that time, I've been a sad witness to the bitter conflict that divides my adopted country. I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible.'"
Sci-Fi

Startrek.com Shutting Down 260

Posted by kdawson from the could-have-offered-it-to-fandom dept.
Curlsman writes to let us know that the fan site startrek.com, operated for 13 years by CBS, is being shut down and its staff laid off. Is this site worth a write-in campaign? From the (perhaps final) post: "Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team. Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately. We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years. If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them."

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