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Software

Submission + - Things that video games could do without

Submitted by
Mike99TA
Mike99TA writes: "The Penny-Arcade Forums have a current discussion going on about What Video Games Could Do Without. Most of the issues brought up are tactics that have been used by video game companies over and over for years, usually to pad a game with extra playtime, make it look like the game has extra (useless) features, force something to be challenging by making it more frustrating, or a cop-out to make a "convenient" scenario for the protagonist (indestructable boxes in every hallway to provide cover?). From the Thread:

"The bulk of spells in RPG's need to go away as well. Final Fantasy games suffer from this the most. There's a ton of spells to learn, but very few have practical application. The frequent and crucial spells are revive, heal, elemental damage, and that's it. Everything else is not necessary to the game, nor does is give you a 'different' way to overcome challenges in the game.""
Data Storage

Submission + - 27 Billion Gigabytes to be Archived by 2010 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "According to a Computerworld survey of IT managers, data storage projects are the No. 2 project priority for corporations in 2008, up from No. 4 in 2007. IT teams are looking into clustered architectures and centralized storage-area networks as one way to control capacity growth, shifting away from big-iron storage and custom applications. The reason for the data avalanche? Archive data. In the private sector alone electronic archives will take up 27,000 petabytes (27 billion gigabytes) by 2010. E-mail growth accounts for much of that figure."
Biotech

Submission + - 'Green funerals' feature biodegradable coffins (cnn.com)

Submitted by drewmoney
drewmoney writes: CNN reports: Biodegradable coffins are part of a larger trend toward "natural" burials, which require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets. Advocates say such burials are less damaging to the environment. Biodegradable containers cost from around $100 for a basic cardboard box up to more than $3,000 for a handcrafted, hand-painted model.

My only question is, do the cardboard boxes come in more than one color?
The Courts

Submission + - LANCOR v. OLPC Update (groklaw.net)

Submitted by drewmoney
drewmoney writes: According to an article on Groklaw: It's begun in a Nigerian court. LANCOR has actually done it. Guess what the Nigerian keyboard makers want from the One Laptop Per Child charitable organization trying to make the world a better place?

$20 million dollars in "damages", and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria.
The Courts

RIAA Must Divulge Expenses-Per-Download 305

Posted by kdawson from the treble-damages-are-for-wimps dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Court has ordered UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Interscope Records, Motown, and SONY BMG to disclose their expenses-per-download to the defendant's lawyers, in UMG v. Lindor, a case pending in Brooklyn. The Court held that the expense figures are relevant to the issue of whether the RIAA's attempt to recover damages of $750 or more per 99-cent song file, is an unconstitutional violation of due process."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Confirms MacBook Hard Drive Failures (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
Scott Selikoff
Scott Selikoff writes: "Information Week is reporting a hard drive sold with Apple MacBooks has a critical manufacturing flaw that often results in the permanent loss of data. Seagate was not immediately available for comment, but Apple spokesman Cameron Craig said the company was aware that there might be a problem. "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it," he said.

Speaking as someone who went to through 3 hard drives on a 4 month old MacBook before Apple replaced the entire computer, its a slight relief to know that it's not just me. If you have a MacBook, make sure you back up weekly, or in my case with what I went through, hourly."
Businesses

Submission + - eBay and Tiffany lawsuit (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes: "The outcome of this lawsuit can affect a lot of online (and probably offline businesses), it can even change how
online auction houses conduct their business online.

From the article "In a weeklong bench trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan that ended last Tuesday, lawyers for Tiffany & Company argued that the online auction house was far more than that: it is a distribution network that enables the trading of counterfeit Tiffany items."
Printer friendly
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/technology/27ebay.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=ae1fc1ead104343d&ex=1353819600&oref=slogin&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print"
Graphics

Submission + - 360º Military Sim Is Closer Thing Ever to (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Stunning playground for big boys: this 360-degree ultra-high definition military simulator allows you to drive a Humvee and fire real weapons with absolute precision, including machine guns and rocket launchers, anywhere you want. The 10-projector system achieves a perfectly seamless panorama thanks to Mersive's Sol system; a calibration, warping and sub-pixel image blending technology that may jump from military sims to your living room in the near future. Sol can get any number of projectors and project a single huge image over a surface of any shape and size.
The Courts

Submission + - Washington's $50B tech plan derailed by lawsuit

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: A group of technology service providers are claiming that the U.S. government broke its own laws when it selected contractors to participate in a sweeping technology initiative on which Washington plans to spend up to $50 billion. Plans for moving ahead with the program, known as Alliant, are now on hold, according to the General Services Administration. In the lawsuit against the government, one of the service providers, Serco, claims the federal selection process for the program was "arbitrary and capricious," and did not properly account for vendors' past performance, references, and technical capabilities — as required by law.
PHP

Submission + - PHP Web 2.0 Mashup Projects - Review (bitmeta.org)

Submitted by
Akash Mehta
Akash Mehta writes: " PHP Web 2.0 Mashup Projects
By Shu-Wai Chow
Review by Akash Mehta

At the time of writing, a Yahoo search for "web 2.0" estimates 892 million results. In contrast, "Microsoft" only returns an approximate 852 million. That's a lot of interest.

Web 2.0, as we will all have to consider at one time or another, calls for a new approach to development. Applications are not developed for developers, but for the end users, and web 2.0 has drawn our attention to the potential of a user-friendly web application. With the advent of developer-friendly web services, mashups are playing an important part in modern web applications, and as developers, being familiar with methods of exploiting this is clearly of great value, both on resumes for job interviews and in developing our personal projects.

As it's title so evidently suggests, PHP Web 2.0 Mashup Projects is a demonstration of the various techniques available for developing mashups in PHP. Through a highly practical format, Shu-Wai takes the reader through a series of projects utilising different web services and APIs, while carefully exposing the reader to a wide variety of technologies and data formats. With careful selection and shaping of language, the book is an extremely effective introduction to the world of mashup development with PHP.

Per the brief summary on the back cover, a mashup is a web page or application that combines data from multiple external sources. Mashups are becoming increasingly popular among developers, as harnessing the power of information already available is often far more efficient and effective than developing formats and collecting data solely for the purpose of building an application. In PHP Web 2.0 Mashup Projects, Shu-Wai takes the reader through five implemented mashups, ranging from simple samples of the power of APIs to a high-end demonstration of the power of web services in a London Tube photo mashup.Shu-Wai takes the reader through a series of sample mashup projects with PHP. His various examples demonstrate making use of simple REST web services to full-on SOAP APIs, and each technology involved is explained clearly and concisely. By making use of a variety of APIs commonly utilised by web 2.0 startups, Shu-Wai succeeds in introducing the reader to an entirely new approach to developing web applications. Popular web services such as those of Google Maps, Flickr and Yahoo! are demonstrated, and each code sample is practical and functional while not overly complex. Shu-Wai also demonstrates rapid development with the use of PEAR packages in a highly effectual manner, complementing the insight into PHP mashups already offered.

A common barrier of entry to the world of mashups is obtaining an understanding of the use of various web services and different data formats. Shu-Wai covers the common topics such as REST, SOAP, SAX, XML-RPC, WSDLs and PHP's SoapClient and DOM classes. All are explained in a nutshell, with excellent barebones examples demonstrating an easily understood implementation of the technology, and Shu-Wai conveniently refers to further reading that readers can use to extend their understanding.

While the practical format is certainly appropriate, it goes some way to hindering understanding and appreciation of the technologies underlying the sample projects detailed, and while most developers may be after purely the familiarity they need to utilise the technologies in their work, this book is a little light on the highly technical details. For example, Shu-Wai clearly explains the use of the DOMDocument (and related) PHP classes, however does not describe the underlying functionality. This may be appropriate for most readers, however those looking for a more academic comprehension of the technologies will need to do further research.

Finally, each sample project is summarised and explained in a detailed format that assists in developing an understanding of the technologies involved. A collection of fully functional code samples from the book is available online, complementing the content and providing a solid foundation for developers to experiment with their own mashups."
Robotics

Robots Assimilate Into Cockroach Society 107

Posted by Zonk from the good-to-see-the-robots-making-new-friends dept.
sufijazz writes "Scientists have gotten tiny robots to not only integrate into cockroach society but also control it. 'This experiment in bug peer pressure combined entomology, robotics and the study of ways that complex and even intelligent patterns can arise from simple behavior. Animal behavior research shows that swarms working together can prosper where individuals might fail, and robotics researchers have been experimenting with simple robots that, together, act a little like a swarm.' The BBC also has a video story on this."
Microsoft

Submission + - Virtual Iron to join MS virtualization validation (sys-con.com)

Submitted by
willdavid
willdavid writes: "By Virtualization News Desk (Sys-Con): Virtual Iron Software has announced its plans to join Microsoft's Server Virtualization Validation Program when available in June 2008. With this program, Virtual Iron will test and validate the Virtual Iron platform running Windows Server 2008 and prior versions of Microsoft's server operating system. Once the platform is validated, Microsoft will offer support to Virtual Iron customers running Microsoft Windows Server as guest operating systems in Virtual Iron virtual environments. As a result, mutual customers will have greater access to Microsoft's comprehensive support capabilities, improved support hand-offs between the two companies, increasing satisfaction and adoption. http://virtualization.sys-con.com/read/459581.htm"
NASA

NASA Satellites to Predict Disease Outbreaks 67

Posted by samzenpus from the doctor-eye-in-the-sky dept.
coondoggie writes "NASA and its Applied Sciences Program will be using 14 satellites to watch the Earth's environment and help predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks around the world. Through orbiting satellites, data is collected daily to monitor environmental changes. That information is then passed on to agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense who then apply the data to predict and track disease outbreaks and assist in making public health policy decisions. The use of remote sensing technology helps scientists predict the outbreak of some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola, West Nile virus and Rift Valley Fever."

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It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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