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"Tube Map" Created For the Milky Way 142

Posted by samzenpus from the non-stop-service-to-the-Perseus-Arm dept.
astroengine writes "Assuming you had an interstellar spaceship, how would you navigate around the galaxy? For starters, you'd probably need a map. But there's billions of stars out there — how complex would that map need to be? Actually, Samuel Arbesman, a research fellow from Harvard, has come up with a fun solution. He created the 'Milky Way Transit Authority (MWTA),' a simple transit system in the style of the iconic London Underground 'Tube Map.' (Travel Tip: Don't spend too much time loitering around the station at Carina, there's some demolition work underway.)"
Apple

Has Apple Created the Perfect Board Game Platform? 531

Posted by kdawson from the triple-word-score dept.
andylim writes "recombu.com is running an interesting piece about how Apple has created a 'Jumanji (board game) platform.' The 9.7-inch multi-touch screen is perfect for playing board games at home, and you could use Wi-Fi or 3G to play against other people when you're on your own. What would be really interesting is if you could pair the iPad with iPhones, 'Imagine a Scrabble iPad game that used iPhones as letter holders. You could hold up your iPhone so that no one else could see your letters and when you were ready to make a word on the Scrabble iPad board, you could slide them on to the board by flicking the word tiles off your iPhone.' Now that would be cool."
Image

Political Affiliation Can Be Differentiated By Appearance 262

Posted by samzenpus from the if-it-looks-like-a-liberal-and-quacks-like-a-liberal dept.
quaith writes "It's not the way they dress, but the appearance of their face. A study published in PLoS One by Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University used closely cropped greyscale photos of people's faces, standardized for size. Undergrads were asked to categorize each person as either a Democrat or Republican. In the first study, students were able to differentiate Republican from Democrat senate candidates. In the second, students were able to differentiate the political affiliation of other college students. Accuracy in both studies was about 60% — not perfect, but way better than chance."
PC Games (Games)

Future Ubisoft Games To Require Constant Internet Access 497

Posted by Soulskill from the this-will-go-over-well dept.
Following up on our discussion yesterday of annoying game distribution platforms, Ubisoft has announced the details of their Online Services Platform, which they will use to distribute and administer future PC game releases. The platform will require internet access in order to play installed games, saved games will be stored remotely, and the game you're playing will even pause and try to reconnect if your connection is lost during play. Quoting Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "This seems like such a bizarre, bewildering backward step. Of course we haven't experienced it yet, but based on Ubi’s own description of the system so many concerns arise. Yes, certainly, most people have the internet all the time on their PCs. But not all people. So already a percentage of the audience is lost. Then comes those who own gaming laptops, who now will not be able to play games on trains, buses, in the park, or anywhere they may not be able to find a WiFi connection (something that’s rarely free in the UK, of course – fancy paying the £10/hour in the airport to play your Ubisoft game?). Then there's the day your internet is down, and the engineers can’t come out to fix it until tomorrow. No game for you. Or any of the dozens of other situations when the internet is not available to a player. But further, there are people who do not wish to let a publisher know their private gaming habits. People who do not wish to report in to a company they’ve no affiliation with, nor accountability to, whenever they play a game they’ve legally bought. People who don’t want their save data stored remotely. This new system renders all customers beholden to Ubisoft in perpetuity whenever they buy their games."

Comment Re:Too Many To Remember (Score 1) 414

by pauls2272 (#30848254) Attached to: I keep track of my passwords ...

I have upwards of 10 passwords at work that have to change every 30 days

Only 10? I must have 30+ ids/passwords (all different of course), for work. I keep them written down and locked in the drawer in my office. This is what the head security guy told me to do when I complained to him that the IDs/Passwords were WAY OUT OF CONTROL.

I said we needed to get a SINGLE SIGNON product. But that is too expensive so each new product/feature they get, we get another set of IDs and passwords. The old shop I worked at, had the same problem but started requiring any new software acquired had to use the LAN ID/Password or the guys could not buy it. We went down from dozens of IDs/passwords to just a couple.

For home, I use a very strong password for my main sites but the personal websites I access do not require me to change it every 30 days. I also have a throw away password (very easy password) that I use for 1 time websites that want you to register (that I will probably never access again - that way I don't compromise my strong password).
Role Playing (Games)

Genre Wars — the Downside of the RPG Takeover 248

Posted by Soulskill from the you-gain-1912-experience dept.
Phaethon360 writes "From Bioshock and Modern Warfare 2 to even Team Fortress 2, RPG elements are creeping into game genres that we never imagined they would. This change for the most part has managed to subtly improve upon genres that needed new life, but there's a cost that hasn't been tallied by the majority of game developers. 'The simple act of removing mod tools, along with the much discussed dedicated server issue, has made [MW2] a bit of a joke among competitive players. Gone are the days of "promod," and the only option you have is to play it their way. If Infinity Ward are so insistent on improving the variety of our experiences, they don’t have to do it at the expense of the experience that many of us already love. It really is that simple. If they don’t want to provide a good "back to basics experience," they could at least continue to provide the tools that allow us to do that for ourselves.'"
GUI

Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles 81

Posted by timothy from the insert-overlaid-part-a-into-slot-b dept.
kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."

Comment Re:And this is news why? (Score 3, Informative) 285

by pauls2272 (#30728586) Attached to: CES Vendors Kicked Out of Hotels For Showcasing Wares in Room

>Most states have no specific laws on the books whatsoever in regard to race or >anything else. In general, a hotel management can deny service to anyone for >pretty much any reason

States don't need one because there is a Federal law:

Its called Federal Public Accommodation Law:

http://public.findlaw.com/civil-rights/civil-rights-enforcement/public-accommodation-discrimination-enforcement.html
Earth

Minnesota Introduces World's First Carbon Tariff 303

Posted by timothy from the hey-cut-that-crap-out dept.
hollywoodb writes "The first carbon tax to reduce the greenhouse gases from imports comes not between two nations, but between two states. Minnesota has passed a measure to stop carbon at its border with North Dakota. To encourage the switch to clean, renewable energy, Minnesota plans to add a carbon fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions to the cost of coal-fired electricity, to begin in 2012 ... Minnesota has been generally pushing for cleaner power within its borders, but the utility companies that operate in MN have, over the past decades, sited a lot of coal power plants on the relatively cheap and open land of North Dakota, which is preparing a legal battle against Minnesota over the tariff."
Games

EVE Online Battle Breaks Records (And Servers) 308

Posted by Soulskill from the blame-it-on-the-torrents dept.
captainktainer writes "In one of the largest tests of EVE Online's new player sovereignty system in the Dominion expansion pack, a fleet of ships attempting to retake a lost star system was effectively annihilated amidst controversy. Defenders IT Alliance, a coalition succeeding the infamous Band of Brothers alliance (whose disbanding was covered in a previous story), effectively annihilated the enemy fleet, destroying thousands of dollars' worth of in-game assets. A representative of the alliance claimed to have destroyed a minimum of four, possibly five or more of the game's most expensive and powerful ship class, known as Titans. Both official and unofficial forums are filled with debate about whether the one-sided battle was due to difference in player skill or the well-known network failures after the release of the expansion. One of the attackers, a member of the GoonSwarm alliance, claims that because of bad coding, 'Only 5% of [the attackers] loaded,' meaning that lag prevented the attackers from using their ships, even as the defenders were able to destroy those ships unopposed. Even members of the victorious IT Alliance expressed disappointment at the outcome of the battle. CCP, EVE Online's publisher, has recently acknowledged poor network performance, especially in the advertised 'large fleet battles' that Dominion was supposed to encourage, and has asked players to help them stress test their code on Tuesday. Despite the admitted network failure, leaders of the attacking force do not expect CCP to replace lost ships, claiming that it was their own fault for not accounting for server failures. The incident raises questions about CCP's ability to cope with the increased network use associated with their rapid growth in subscriptions."

Comment Re:Best Pizza? (Score 1) 920

by pauls2272 (#30405610) Attached to: The best pizza I have ever had, I found ...

>I've had pizza all over the world and nothing >gets close to real Neapolitan pizza in Italy

Yeah, Naples style pizza is fantastic. I had it in Sorrento and once I ate one, that is what I ordered from there on out.

I wish I could get it in the US.

However, the best pizza I ever ate was Chicago Deep Dish pizza. I forget the name of the place - it was a few block walk from the downtown area where I was staying. It was worth the walk.

Completely different style from Neapolitan style.

Comment Like Management work or Tech Work? (Score 1) 410

by pauls2272 (#30369322) Attached to: Saying No To Promotions Away From Tech?

>a new manager essentially told me that I have to move into a different role oriented towards

If you "have to", I guess you know the answer already.

The question then is "are you happy doing management stuff instead of technical stuff?"

Years ago, I accepted a management promotion (at the time, it was the only way to get more money from that company). I discovered that I hated all the budget/review/meetings stuff. I ended up keeping all the technical stuff (I never replaced myself) and just did both jobs. But that didn't really work out and I ended up moving to a new company for a tech only job. It did teach me that I didn't like management positions much and since then I only do tech work.

As far as oncall goes, the last couple companies I worked at had the official policy of "your oncall 24x7, 365". But if you work at a decent shop, there aren't that many calls to begin with and if you have decent co-workers, it is easy enough to cover each other (either officially thru rotating oncall or unofficially by telling the person calling you to call coworker X instead if you are unavailable/busy).

But I agree with previous posters - it sounds like your company is planning on outsourcing/offshoring the tech groups and will only retain the managers...

Comment Re:Who do you work for? (Score 1) 124

by pauls2272 (#30291452) Attached to: SarBox Lawsuit Could Rewrite IT Compliance Rules

>Development, Test, Operations. I'm on development >side so I check builds and docs into the source >code control system.

Sounds like your an application dude and not a sysadmin/sysprog. You get source from Vendors and log that into your "source code control system"? Microsoft gives you the source to Windows so you can log the changes Microsoft makes to Windows? Who maintains this "source code control system" and who implements changes into that? Another source code control system to manage the 1st source code control system?

The vendor fixes I get are all object code and need special software to install them - SMP/E For IBM PTFS, Smitty for AIX, etc.

I've worked for Fortune 100 companies and I've never seen a set of "development" sysadmins/sysprogs and another set for Test and another set for Operations. Way too expensive to spend all that money paying people to do the exact same work.

Comment Re:SOX is choking our companies, kill it. (Score 1) 124

by pauls2272 (#30290324) Attached to: SarBox Lawsuit Could Rewrite IT Compliance Rules

I understand it completely and it doesn't happen in the real world in real IT depts. First, we aren't coding anything - we are implementing PTFS, hotfixes, new software releases, etc. And every place I've worked, the guy that gets the fix, tests it and implements it himself. There is no Change Control group for the sysadmins/sysprogs.

To do that you would need to have 2 separate groups - one that downloads, installs and tests on test servers and another that just implements changes into production.

  Duplication of effort and just pure overhead. Also when dealing with complex products -DB2, SQL Server, IMS, CICS etc, companies can not afford to have multiple people with that knowledge not doing real work. Small companies have 1 guy with many, many hats. Larger companies are lucky if they have multiple people that can back each other up - but they don't have time to do each others work.

You deal with the midnight cowboy dude by firing him.

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