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Comment Is this goodwill? (Score 1) 228

by AardvarkCelery (#29364221) Attached to: Microsoft Letting Patents Move To Linux Firms
In any case, this is a good thing. Is it goodwill from Microsoft? I'm not sure. When they made the big internet patent grab several years ago, it seemed about as evil as you can get. But in having done that, one could argue that they kept other more evil companies from grabbing and exploiting them. If Microsoft simply gave them away now, that would be goodwill. If they charged $100B, that would be evil. If they charge essentially what they've spent to acquire and hold them, well, that still seems like a good thing. Twenty-two patents at $50K each would be $1.1M. So if the price was >$5M, I'd call it evil.

Comment Re:Explain this to me (Score 1) 228

by V!NCENT (#29363955) Attached to: Microsoft Letting Patents Move To Linux Firms

I totally disagree with you here. Apple feels 100% different from Microsoft (hell, they even put the minimize, maximize and close icons on the window manager completely on the opposite site) and yet they succeed.

No; you need quality. As Linux user I will be taking a fresh perspective on this from a higher purpose here. First up: Does it even work? The awnser is "NO". Yeah it is comming with Gallium3D bla bla bla but it is comming and it is not here yet. So no-go from graphics (unless you still feel like using a 2D desktop ala 2009) and no-go for OpenCL.

Next stop: "Does it have advantages over the competition?" The awnser is "It's on par". Linux, in an idiot-friendly distro, is not faster and about kind-of as secure as Mac (maybe more, maybe less; only the future will tell us).

Final destination: "Does it out-app the competition?" and the awnser is probably still "No".

So ladies and gentleman: Linux is not ready yet, although I believe it will be kicking serious ass in a year or four.
Space

Strange New Objects Seen In Saturn's Rings 113

Posted by Soulskill from the cue-monolith-jokes dept.
Every 15 Earth years, Saturn has its equinox — the time during which its rotational axis is perpendicular to the rays from the sun, so that the sun is always directly "overhead" of Saturn's equator. This is significant because Saturn's rings orbit over the equator, so during the equinox, light from the sun hits them edge-on. This means that any objects wider than the rings, or orbiting above or below them, cast long shadows and are much easier to see. For the first time, we're able to get detailed images of these objects, thanks to Cassini. A moonlet, perhaps 1,300 feet in diameter, has been discovered in the B-ring, and the Bad Astronomy blog points out another object that seems to be bursting through the F-ring. Quoting: "The upward-angled structure is definitely real, as witnessed by the shadow it's casting on the ring material to the lower left. And what's with the bright patch right where this object seems to have slammed into the rings? Did it shatter millions of icy particles, revealing their shinier interior material, making them brighter? Clearly, something awesome and amazing happened here.

Comment Re:I'm not surprised (Score 1) 326

by CmdrSammo (#28341585) Attached to: Ubisoft CEO Says Next Gen Consoles Closer Than We Think
From what I've read Natal is able to aquire depth information - using this I figure they would be able to distinguish the quite unique shape of a face (ie: nose, chin, eye sockets) from the generally round back of your head. Although things might screw up if you put long hair over your face I guess.

it just seems like it will have a severely limited scope. Much like speech recognition is GREAT in a very small set of circumstances, and a nuisance in most others.

I agree with you here, we've discussed how unimaginative the majority of the Wii games are going with just a 'waggle' to perform actions...I suspect with Natal game designers will end up having to put in a load of crazy gestures because there is no standard controller. Also think about things like golf/baseball/driving - I'm pretty sure all of these would feel much more immersive if you actually had an object in your hands as with the Wii.

Comment Re:I'm not surprised (Score 4, Insightful) 326

by CmdrSammo (#28339781) Attached to: Ubisoft CEO Says Next Gen Consoles Closer Than We Think
3D motion capture is possible from one camera actually (I'm working on it for my PhD). There's only a small number of configurations a body can be put into to fill the same 2D silhouette as seen from a single camera.

Besides that the demo's shown in the GP video really only need 2D motion capture anyway, except maybe the accelerator for the driving game. But seriously, why would I want to stand/sit with my leg in an awkward position when I could just hold "A" instead? For the same reason my Wii is also collecting dust.

Comment Follow this on Twitter (Score 2, Interesting) 838

by CmdrSammo (#28328903) Attached to: Iran Moves To End "Facebook Revolution"
most people on here seem to knock twitter but as has been mentioned it is pretty much the only source for news right now. Follow updates on the #IranElection hashtag here: http://hashtags.org/tag/iranelection/messages For what it's worth I don't even use twitter, but it's times like this that I realise it kicks the ass of TV news for real-time coverage.
Technology

TiVo Announces DVR-SuperAdvance 75

Posted by timothy from the so-next-week dept.
mark0 writes "TiVo has announced the TiVo DVR-SuperAdvance. The PC World review says, 'Familiar TiVo interface; DVR can record not-yet-broadcast programming; potentially useful as a wagering aid,' though, '[it is] expensive; access to programming is limited; footage is displayed in standard definition only.'" Hopefully, TiVo will supply a review unit.
Google

New Security Concerns Raised For Google Docs 92

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-not-a-bug-it's-a-feature dept.
TechCrunch is running a story about three possible security issues with Google Docs recently uncovered by researcher Ade Barkah. It turns out that an image embedded into a protected document is given a URL which is not protected, allowing anyone who knows or guesses it to see the image regardless of permissions or even the existence of the document. Barkah also pointed out that once you've shared a document with another person, that person can see diagram revisions from any point before they gained access, forcing you to create a new document if you need to redact something. The last issue, the mechanics of which he disclosed only to Google, affects the document-sharing invitation forwarding system, which can allow somebody access to your documents after you've removed their permissions. Google made a blog post to respond to these concerns, saying that they "do not pose a significant security risk," but are being investigated. We previously discussed a sharing bug in Google Docs that was fixed earlier this month.

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