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Games

Games Workshop Goes After Fan Site 174

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-anger-your-base dept.
mark.leaman writes "BoingBoing has a recent post regarding Games Workshop's aggressive posturing against fan sites featuring derivative work of their game products. 'Game publisher and miniature manufacturer Games Workshop just sent a cease and desist letter to boardgamegeek.com, telling them to remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces — many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games...' As a lifelong hobby gamer of table, board, card and miniature games, I view this as pure heresy. It made me reject the idea of buying any Games Workshop (read Warhammer) products for my son this Christmas. Their fate was sealed, in terms of my wallet, after I Googled their shenanigans. In 2007 they forbid Warhammer fan films, this year they shut down Vassal Modules, and a while back they went after retailers as well. What ever happened to fair use?"
Google

Submission + - How Google is contributing to the Opensource (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This post throws some light for the users who are using the services or applications from Google on Linux platform. How Google is expanding the portfolio of its applications on different platforms.
PlayStation (Games)

US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144

Posted by Soulskill from the quick-who-knows-a-good-ps3-flight-sim dept.
bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."
Science

Submission + - Scientists write memories directly into fly brains (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by TheClockworkSoul
TheClockworkSoul writes: The BBC reports that researchers at the University of Oxford have devised a way to write memories onto the brains of flies, revealing which brain cells are involved in making bad memories.

The researchers said that in flies just 12 brain cells were responsible for what is known as "associative learning". They modified these neurons by adding receptors for ATP, so that the cells activate in the presence of the chemical, but since ATP isn't usually found floating around a fly's brain, the flies generally behave just like any other fly. Most interestingly, however, is that the scientists then, injected ATP into the flies' brains, in a form that was locked inside a light-sensitive chemical cage. When they shined a laser on the fly brains, the ATP was released, and the "associative learning" cells were activated. The laser flash was paired with an odor, effectively giving the fly a memory of a bad experience with that odor that it never actually had, such that it then avoided that odor in later experiments.

This research, says Professor Gero Miesenböck, the lead investigator of the study, has begun to unravel how animals and humans learn from mistakes and how "error signals" drive animals to adapt their behavior.

They describe their findings in the journal Cell.
Idle

Submission + - Meteorite hits SUV (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by someyob
someyob writes: First of all, no one was hurt. With that out of the way, (a) do we need more proof SUVs are too big, and/or (b) is this a message of some kind?

Submission + - California considering ban on big screen TVs (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by lrombes
lrombes writes: California is considering banning energy guzzling big screen TVs as early as November 4th. It's estimated that TVs and other related electronic devices contribute 10% to a households electricity usage. Several manufactures including Vizio feel they will have little trouble meeting new standards without adding any additional cost to the consumer. " Tightening efficiency ratings by using new technology and materials should result in "zero increase in cost to consumers," said Harinder Singh, an Energy Commission staffer on the TV regulation project."
Windows

Submission + - 90% of SMBs still use XP says Microsoft. (smallbizpod.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just interviewed Microsoft's head of small business marketing and sales in UK. He tells me 9 out of 10 mid-sized businesses still run XP. Windows 7 could therefore be a massive upgrade headache for SMBs.
Programming

Submission + - Taking credit for open source derived software (ted.com)

Submitted by someyob
someyob writes: TED is an interesting site, but not usually for reasons like this. http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/a_note_on_today.php?awesm=on.ted.com_1A&utm_campaign=ted&utm_content=site-basic&utm_medium=on.ted.com-copypaste&utm_source=direct-on.ted.com
A short talk by Chris Hughes regarding his work on "augmented reality" software hit a snag when he failed to mention its FOSS origins. Gnashing of teeth ensues. There's an explanation, but so it goes.
See also http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/24/the-dangers-of-taking-credit-for-open-source-software/

Comment Speaking of Apple (Score 1) 806

by someyob (#28336543) Attached to: Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes
Proprietary hw interfaces haven't gone away. I have a dead iPod on my hands, and a couple of peripherals (eg an alarm clock) with interfaces tied to the proprietary iPod connector. So, now I'm faced with having to buy another iPod, or live with an incompatible collection of stuff. My own fault I suppose, but it's so very easy to fall into that particular clever pool of quicksand.
PC Games (Games)

The Rise of Originality In MMOs 118

Posted by Soulskill from the there-go-my-chances-for-a-starcon-mmo dept.
Karen Hertzberg writes "Over the last half decade, gamers have been forced to wander through familiar worlds and universes. Studios have been licensing IPs left and right, grabbing everything from the Wheel of Time to Star Trek. Originality seemed to be a lost art, and although these worlds were fun to adventure in, many didn't hold the same sort of magical spell that original titles like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot once enjoyed. But change is coming. Blizzard Entertainment revealed that their next MMO would be an original IP, and this year's E3 lineup featured more brand new games than titles derived from existing worlds. So, why the sudden shift? To answer that question, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody 'Micajah' Bye sent a number of questions to original IP development teams across the world."

Comment SAP again? (Score 2, Interesting) 210

by someyob (#28131307) Attached to: Allegedly Rigged Product Demo In SAP Suit Goes Missing
I would hazard the vast majority of us have first hand knowledge of an SAP based enterprise system project gone amok (as I have). Some interesting ideas here http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/sap-watch/what%E2%80%99s-the-real-trend-in-failed-sap-projects/. I wouldn't necessarily blame the users all the time; in our case, it seems a combination of ill defined requirements, crazily feature rich software and consultants not unhappy when things drag out.

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