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World of Warcraft and UDE Point System Fiasco 251

Posted by Hemos from the going-to-get-a-lot-of-backlash dept.
Richard Manley writes "A report on the card game trinket fiasco. When the UDE (Upper Deck Entertainment) point system finally went live, I would imagine most of the people that logged in felt the same fury I did. Blizzard knows the lengths that its fans will go to get trinkets (look at the price of Murloc cards on eBay), but their arrangement with Upper Deck simply takes advantage of the good will many fans have shown." From the article: "This means that in order to get these trinkets, one would have to purchase 9 BOXES of cards for the fireworks and 21 BOXES of cards for the ogre. What does this mean? Want a fireworks trinket? Sure, it is only going to cost you $900.00. Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players." Having been through the Magic: The Gathering addiction twice, I've decided staying away from this Collectible Card Game is a good idea.
The Internet

Submission + - The Habits of Highly Effective Web 2.0 Sites

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: How busy does a blogger have to be to miss his own blog-birthday? AJAXWorld Magazine editor-in-chief Dion Hinchcliffe apparently sets a record by recognizing the first anniversary of his "Web 2.0 Blog" over 4 weeks late. [From the article] "There have been over 2.5 million direct hits on this site since inception, a large percentage of it due to my Web 2.0 lists such as last year's Best Web 2.0 Software List"
Movies

Submission + - The Second Life of Ed Wood

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "On All Hallow's Eve, The Ed Wood Machinima Festival will be held for people who wish to make a B-movie flick using the engine of the online game Second Life. The title for this year's contest is "A Zombie Stole My Heart" with over L$60,000 in prize money for Worst Film, Worst Story, Worst Acting, Worst Costumes, and Most Disturbing Film! (note: no flash — Quicktime, WMV, or AVI is reccomended) I think I saw the Sinister Urge (1961) once & I must say that those awards are going to be hard earned if you're comparing yourself to Mr. Wood."
Music

Submission + - UK thinktank - Copying own CDs 'should be legal'

Submitted by
pglee
pglee writes: "From BBC online:
"A [UK] think-tank has called for outdated copyright laws to be rewritten to take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read books. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a "private right to copy". It would decriminalise millions of Britons who break the law each year by copying their CDs onto music players.
Making copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on copyright holders, the IPPR argues. Copyright issues have, in the past, been steered too much by the music industry, the report said."

Taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6095612.stm

Interesting — I did not appreciate that ripping my cds here is technically legal. Also the IPPR are well regarded, so hopefully thsi will come to something. Plus it steers the whole debate on this subject in the right direction"
Education

Submission + - Free Culture Scouts strike back!

Submitted by
stephantom
stephantom writes: "In answer to the BSA's newest Merit Badge for "not pirating", Siva Vaidhyanathan and Mel Horan have come up with a new scouting patch for promoting free culture. That thing sounds like a much better idea than the MPAA/RIAA's plans to abuse the American Boy Scouts. Some of the requirements are very funny. I for one would love to see some scouts messing up the walls across the street of the RIAA headquarters."
Space

Submission + - Galactic Traffic Patterns

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Using Hubble, researchers have noticed traffic patterns of stars within our own galaxy. From the article, 'Researchers analyzed 47 Tucanae, the second largest cluster in the Milky Way's galactic neighborhood, and determined the cluster sorts out stars according to their masses. Due to the associated gravitational pull, heavier stars slow down and sink to the cluster's core, while lighter stars pick up speed and zip out to the cluster's periphery.' There is speculation that these movements of stars — although tiny — can have significant implications and possibly result in mass segregation."
Communications

Submission + - Indy media journalist killed in Mexico

Submitted by
ejp
ejp writes: "An amazing group that reports where the action is, using the tools of the internet to bypass mainstream media. The web, sms, smart mobs, final cut, and bandwidth.

"Brad Will was killed on October 27, 2006, in Oaxaca, Mexico, while working as a journalist for the global Indymedia network. He was shot in the torso while documenting an armed, paramilitary assault on the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, a fusion of striking local teachers and other community organizations demanding democracy in Mexico."

"29 Oct 2006: Helicopters are flying over the city, also a gray airplane. A call for all the people to take it to the streets!
29 Oct 2006: The PFP are moving forward! People have reported that over 1500 are in the streets now.
29 Oct 2006: 12:10 pm (Mexico Time) — The people in Oaxaca are going to the streets and carring posters, images of the people killed, religious images in a peaceful demonstration. A march has been called for 2pm, Mexico time.""

Oracle and Red Hat begin battle for the Enterprise 135

Posted by Hemos from the the-heat-is-on dept.
Salvance writes "Yahoo News (via ComputerWire) is reporting that Oracle and Red Hat are turning up the heat in the battle over Oracle's new enterprise Linux offering. While Oracle claims they'll be able to offer their 'Unbreakable' version of Red Hat's Linux offering for half the price, Red Hat asserts that all the important security and hardware certifications would be invalidated on Oracle's offering.

At this point, the only thing that's certain is that Red Hat needs to figure out how to keep their large Oracle Enterprise clients on board or risk becoming a takeover target (undoubtably, with Oracle leading the list of potentially bidders)."
Space

Submission + - Should NASA Save the Hubble Telescope?

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "There has been recent news that NASA is quietly deciding the fate of the Hubble telescope. There's certainly no doubt that Hubble has provided us with more than enough news since its launch in 1990. Despite prior death knells, the Hubble Telescope has hung in there as a camera for earthlings but on Tuesday, NASA will announce whether its support will be continued. NASA is citing the cost of manned expiditions and its eagerness to get started on the new manned mars expedition target set by President Bush. This decision has both political & scientific connotations so what does the rest of Slashdot think the decision should be about Hubble? Keep investing money into it or let it burn out and move on to bigger things?"

ACLU Drops Challenge Over Patriot Act 274

Posted by kdawson from the declare-victory-and-withdraw dept.
An anonymous reader writes, "The ACLU announced on Friday that they were dropping their case against the US Government over the highly contested section 215 of the Patriot Act. ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson stated: 'While the reauthorized Patriot Act is far from perfect, we succeeded in stemming the damage from some of the Bush administration's most reckless policies. The ACLU will continue to monitor how the government applies the broad Section 215 power and we will challenge unconstitutional demands on a case-by-case basis.'"
Robotics

Submission + - Robots test 'embodied intelligence'

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Here's an interesting article about a robotics experiments designed to test the benefits of coupling visual information to physical movement. This approach, known as embodied cognition, supposes that biological intelligence emerges through interactions between organisms and their environment. Olaf Sporns from Indiana University and Max Lungarella from Tokyo University believe strengthening this connection in robots could make them smarter and more intuitive.
Privacy

Submission + - Surveillance system knows a punch from a hug

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: NewScientistTech has a story about a 'smart' surveillance system that can tell the difference between violent and non-violent interactions. For example, it can distinguish a hug from a push, or a punch. Check out some videos of the system here and here. The idea is to make it easier to automate monitoring CCTV surveillance cameras, which is all very well, but what are the privacy implications of automating surveillance like this?

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