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Comment Re:Metafilter (Score 1) 473

I too wonder why more sites don't adopt it.

Because of the initial chicken-and-egg problem. The Slashdot moderation system requires a large base of committed users willing to spend time on moderation, but if new users are only exposed to an unmoderated comment system, it's hard to convince them (or at least, the worthwhile ones) to exert any effort on the system. Even on existing sites, you're faced with the problem that the undesirable users are more committed to the site than the desirable ones, and enabling user moderation will make that so much worse in the short term that it will choke off the long-term. By virtue of its age, Slashdot circumvented this: no real competition, no expectation of moderation at all initially, and novelty of the moderation system all served to build a large base of potential moderators at launch of moderation. Even then, it's hard to estimate what degree of the success was just luck.

Comment "Scientists from Caltech"? (Score 4, Interesting) 190

Maybe this is a silly, minor thing, but it bothers me these sort of blurbs always just talk about faceless "scientists." Does it really take that much work to find out who the principal researchers were? Maybe more people would be inspired to get into science if it actually seemed to come with some measure of face rather than anonymity in a lab coat.

Comment It's the upcoming cuts, not the recession (Score 5, Insightful) 393

The issue here isn't that there's iPhone apps being developed during a recession, it's that money is being invested in a duplication of services when the government is looking to slash spending by up to 40% across the board. When we're looking at a devastation of public services, it's hard to condone spending intended to benefit a minority of Britons with access to a luxury device.
Games

Why Are There No Popular Ultima Online-Like MMOs? 480

eldavojohn writes "I have a slightly older friend who played through the glory days of Ultima Online. Yes, their servers are still up and running, but he often waxes nostalgic about certain gameplay functions of UO that he misses. I must say that these aspects make me smile and wonder what it would be like to play in such a world — things like housing, thieving and looting that you don't see in the most popular massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. So, I've followed him through a few games, including Darkfall and now Mortal Online. And these (seemingly European developed) games are constantly fading into obscurity and never catching hold. We constantly move from one to the next. Does anyone know of a popular three-dimensional game that has UO-like rules and gameplay? Perhaps one that UO players gravitated to after leaving UO? If you think that the very things that have been removed (housing and thieving would be two good topics) caused WoW to become the most popular MMO, why is that? Do UO rules not translate well to a true 3D environment? Are people incapable of planning for corpse looting? Are players really that inept that developers don't want to leave us in control of risk analysis? I'm familiar with the Bartle Test but if anyone could point me to more resources as to why Killer-oriented games have faded out of popularity, I'd be interested."
Role Playing (Games)

Genre Wars — the Downside of the RPG Takeover 248

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.'"
Businesses

EA Shuts Down Pandemic Studios, Cuts 200 Jobs 161

lbalbalba writes "Electronic Arts is shutting down its Westwood-based game developer Pandemic Studios just two years after acquiring it, putting nearly 200 people out of work. 'The struggling video game publisher informed employees Tuesday morning that it was closing the studio as part of a recently announced plan to eliminate 1,500 jobs, or 16% of its global workforce. Pandemic has about 220 employees, but an EA spokesman said that a core team, estimated by two people close to the studio to be about 25, will be integrated into the publisher's other Los Angeles studio, in Playa Vista.' An ex-developer for Pandemic attributed the studio's struggles to poor decisions from the management."

Comment Re:Why? (Score 2, Informative) 658

Compare that to the other religions. To the best of my knowledge, there is no super-secret ultra-eyes-only version of the Bible that only the elite Christians get to read. There is no "not for the viewing of non-believers" version of the Qu'ran that only the most devout Muslims get to read. But there are secret Scientology documents which explain core beliefs of Scientology that the general rank and file of the CoS do not have access to.

Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated than that. Esotericism is, at least historically, a common religious practice. Gnosticism, Mormonism, at least a few Buddhist sects, and arguably the Masonic tradition all spring to mind. All of these have the idea that there are truths which should not be made available to the uninitiated, as they are not prepared to receive them correctly.

So this is the complicated problem: there are no really good grounds for condemning Scientology as a religion. The problems arise, rather, from the Church of Scientology as an institution. Letting aside the heavy-handed tactics used to recruit new members and to protect the Church, the fees charged for initiation seem to shift the practice from esotericism to exploitation. It's worth pointing out that very few people have objections to the Free Zone, emphasizing that the primary objection to the Church of Scientology is fundamentally organizational, rather than religious per se.

Late Adopters Prefer the Tried and True 383

smooth wombat writes "There is a fairly significant portion of the population which does not go out and grab the newest OS, gadget, web browser or any other technology related product. Why? It's not because they're luddites but rather, they are comfortable with what they know. Take the case of John Uribe, a 56-year old real estate agent who still uses AOL dial-up and only recently switched to Firefox after being prodded for weeks by an AOL message telling him that on March 1st, AOL would no longer support Netscape. Why did it take him so long to stop using Netscape and make the switch? From the article: 'It worked for me, so I stuck with it. Until there is really some reason to totally abandon it, I won't.'"
The Courts

Submission + - Julie Amero granted new trial (courant.com)

Dynamoo writes: "As previously covered on Slashdot, Connecticut teacher Julie Amero was facing the possibility of a 40 year jail term because of a spyware infection on a school computer.

The judge in the case today ordered a new trial citing that the original evidence was flawed. This comes after a campaign by security experts and bloggers to have the earlier conviction overturned. It looks unlikely that Amero will actually be tried again, which looks like a great victory for common sense."

Feed Lala's Lack Of DRM Looking Increasingly Like DRM (techdirt.com)

Remember last month when some DRM advocates were talking about how they should change the name of DRM, since DRM had such a negative connotation? This was amusing, since the whole reason it was called digital "rights" management in the first place was to make it sound more palatable than digital "restrictions," which is what it really was. However, it seems that some are taking that concept of "renaming" DRM to a new level... by calling DRM files "DRM-free." Yesterday we wrote about Lala.com's new service that supposedly would offer DRM-free songs for purchase from Warner Music. We noted the oddity of supposedly DRM-free files only being able to be loaded onto iPods, since that suggested there clearly was some form of restriction on the files. However, it's becoming clear that there are certainly some types of DRM being used. In Bob Lefsetz' latest blog post, he notes that each file has a watermark that identifies its owner, and if you're not the owner, you won't be able to play that song. In other words, the supposedly DRM-free tracks... have DRM. It's just a slightly different type of DRM.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Computer case made from stuffed beaver

gotw writes: "Wow, someone has built a working PC inside a stuffed beaver! Quite macabre, oddly fascinating. Welcome to compubeaver. Gross. The creator gives a full photographic run-down of the creation process."
Links

Submission + - Public Toilets Database with Maps and Locations

William writes: "A publicly accessible database has been set up at www.publictoilets.org . You can search for public toilets in 19 countries and find out information that includes the address, Googlemaps and detailed information about the facility as well as geographic coordinates. A user can submit comments and enter new locations. There is a wiki, forum and mailing list linked from the main page of the database with information related to public toilets. It is hoped that public exposure to this resource will add to it's content and help expand coverage.

For more information contact:
wstan@publictoilets.org

or go to:

www.publictoilets.org"

Feed EU Court Calls Employee Computer Monitoring A Human Rights Violation, In Some Ca (techdirt.com)

The European Court for Human Rights has ruled in favor of a woman who sued the British government after her boss in her public-sector job monitored her personal phone calls and internet use while she was at work. While the decision does set some precedent that monitoring employees' personal communications, even if done on work time over work equipment, contravenes the EU's human-rights laws, it also makes it clear that it's only in certain circumstances. Basically, to avoid legal problems, an employer has to have a policy covering acceptable use of its systems and equipment, and that policy has to say that employees' communications could be monitored if it wants to spy on employees' communications. While it seems a little strong to call this a human-rights violation, and it would seem wise to err on the side of caution and assume your employer can or will monitor what goes across their networks, the court's decision doesn't seem unreasonable. If employers want to waste their time trying to find all that lost productivity by spying on their employees, some disclosure would probably be appreciated. If only all potential human-rights violators would be so courteous.
Input Devices

Submission + - Kensington Vo200 VoIP Mobile Phone Reviewed

joggeroftoday writes: CoolTechZone.com has published a review of Kensington's Vo200 VoIP Internet phone that stores in your notebook and turns into a mobile handset when you are taking calls. The review states, "The Vo200 is PCMIA slot compatible (and incompatible with ExpressCard slots), which essentially means that all you need to do is slide it in your notebook's PCMIA slot for storage and recharging. How cool is that? Another interesting thing that we really enjoyed working with was its handset mode (for private conversations) and speakerphone mode (for more transparent calls) with the swing of the base. It was fun to sit back, turn on the speakerphone mode and talk away.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - EMI's entire catalogue available DRM free

rohan972 writes: The Sydney Morning Herald reports: EMI Music has become the first of the big four record companies to break from the pack and make its entire catalogue available as downloads free of copy control measures.

The announcement to offer the unprotected format was made in London overnight by EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli. He was joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who said his company's market-leading iTunes Store would also carry the new EMI tracks, marking the first time that DRM-free music would be offered to on iTunes.

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