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PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - PS3 Sales Jump in US on Heels of Price Cut

Submitted by tighr
tighr writes: The PS3 has finally started to gain ground in the latest incarnation of the console wars, though still selling less than the aging Playstation 2.

The higher sales are good news for Sony, which has been running in third place in the console battle in the U.S. In October, 121,000 PlayStation 3 consoles were shipped, according to estimates from NPD Group. That ranks it lower than the seven-year-old PlayStation 2, which shipped 184,000 units in the month. The market-leading Nintendo Wii shipped 519,000 units and Microsoft's Xbox 360 shipped 366,000 units, said NPD.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii has pulled even with the XBox 360 in worldwide sales:

The Wii, which sells for $250 and features a motion-sensitive controller, sold 13.2 million units worldwide as of September, Nintendo said. Microsoft reported that the Xbox 360 — in models priced from $280 to $450 — had sold 13.4 million units at the time. Then, in October, U.S. sales of the Wii exceeded Xbox 360 sales, according to the NPD Group. Combined with the Nintendo console's strength in the Japanese market, that effectively would bring the two into a dead heat in cumulative sales.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - CCP to have Council of Players (llnwd.net)

Submitted by ironwill96
ironwill96 writes: CCP, creators of EVE-Online and the upcoming World of Darkness MMO, today formally introduced their idea for a democratically elected Council of Nine players that will represent the views, concerns, and suggestions of the player base to CCP. The outline of how the proposed council will function is located here (Adobe PDF File).

According to the document, the Council will be elected by votes from the 200,000 member active player-base with one vote per account and proxy-vote transferring is allowed. The council will then meet with CCP in Iceland no more than two times during their elected term (6 months). The concept seems like an interesting one and it could definitely be an innovative new idea and might help address some of the prior issues that CCP has had in the past with not being open enough.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Reflectivity Reaches a New Low

Submitted by
sporkme
sporkme writes: "A new nanocoating material developed by a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has the lowest level of reflectivity ever seen, or not seen in this case. The amount of light reflected by the composite of silica nanorods and aluminum nitride is almost the same amount reflected by air. From the article:

Schubert and his coworkers have created a material with a refractive index of 1.05, which is extremely close to the refractive index of air and the lowest ever reported. Window glass, for comparison, has a refractive index of about 1.45.
. . .
Using a technique called oblique angle deposition, the researchers deposited silica nanorods at an angle of precisely 45 degrees on top of a thin film of aluminum nitride, which is a semiconducting material used in advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs). From the side, the films look much like the cross section of a piece of lawn turf with the blades slightly flattened.
Suggested applications include increased efficiency in solar cells, more energy-efficient lighting and advances in quantum mechanics. No word yet on invisibility cloaks."
Mars

Submission + - Martian Global Warming?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Russian scientist believes that global warming on Earth may be caused by the Sun and cites warming on Mars as evidence:

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun. "The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.
NASA

NASA's Future Inflatable Lunar Base 203

Posted by Zonk from the yay-camping-watch-out-for-space-bears dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "If you think that future NASA's moon camps need to have a science fiction look, you might be disappointed. Today, NASA is testing small inflatable structures. In fact, if these expandable 'tents' receive positive reviews, astronauts will 'camp' on the moon as early as 2020. These 12-foot (3.65 meter) diameter inflatable units could be used as building blocks for a future lunar base. Right now, a prototype is tested at NASA's Langley Research Center. But NASA also wants to test other inflatable structures in the not-too-friendly environment of the Antarctic next year. Still, it's too early to know if NASA's first habitable lunar base will use inflatable or rigid structures."
Software

Submission + - Software tweak could boost your car's gas mileage

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Think it's possible to improve your car's gas mileage just by downloading a new piece of software? Seems to be the case according to a Dutch scientist who this week said most modern cars could reduce fuel consumption by almost 3% by downloading software he and Ford worked to develop. John Kessels' software shuts on or off the car's alternator, which charges the car battery, when it is particularly inefficient for the engine to power it, thus improving the overall efficiency of the engine. A similar technique is used for hybrid cars. The software is not proprietary to Ford and can be used in any vehicle with an engine computer, which includes the vast majority of cars sold today, Kessel says. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1195 6"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Create Your Own Apple Rumor!

Submitted by
Michael
Michael writes: "Often time our readers ask where we (and others) get Apple rumors from. We have decided to share our ultimate weapon — the 'Create your own Apple Rumor' Chart. You too can be an "inside source" with this amazing new handy dandy Apple Rumor creation tool."
Google

Submission + - Gmail let's you get mail from other POP3 accounts.

Submitted by
snower1313
snower1313 writes: "Gmail has just added a new feature for a limited number of users that allows 3rd party POP3 account emails to be retrieved into your Gmail Inbox. "You can retrieve your mail (new and old) from up to five other email accounts and have them all in Gmail. Then you can even create a customized 'From:' address, which lets you send messages from Gmail, but have them look like they were sent from another one of your email accounts.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 95 and Vista: Why 2007 Won't Be Like 1995

Submitted by DECS
DECS writes: What if Microsoft threw a party, and nobody came? Despite its best efforts to create excitement for Windows Vista at release parties held in a variety of retail stores this last week, nobody seems to care about the product. Windows 95 and Vista: Why 2007 Won't Be Like 1995 explains why — just over a decade ago — things went very differently at the release of Windows 95, and what's killing Microsoft's party this time around.
Portables

Submission + - Keep your laptop from hurting you

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "If you're like me, you spend a lot of time working on your laptop in chaotic ergonomic environs. I've made a list of five simple tips that helped me improve my laptop ergonomics to overcome some recent neck pain and headaches. The arrival of widescreen portables with shorter displays, like the MacBook, are just making these problems worse for people. As beautiful and compact as these devices are, it would be nice to see more industry attention to this issue (my post includes a few suggestions). Slashdot has touched on ergonomics before as well: OSHA Getting Tougher About Ergonomics , Input Solutions for Repetitive Stress Victims? , Making Modifications to Your Computer Workspace? and How Effective are Ergonomic Keyboards? ."

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