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Comment Re:what about non-digital SLRs? (Score 1) 446

by luncheon (#34331040) Attached to: Kuwait Bans DSLR Cameras Use For Non-Journalists
You get an OPTICAL viewfinder with a SLR, be it film or digital. This means you have no LCD lag when you do the framing so it's more suited to action than LCD viewfinders. The SLR system is the only way to have a viewfinder of the exact framing the picture will have without any lag at all. Also the AF sensors and the photometer are of a better quality and generally a lot faster than the ones on a point-and-shoot. Actually most pocket cameras don't even have optical AF sensors and just focus using the LCD image as a reference. This is much much slower and less accurate. So again, this is more suited for action than a pocket camera. When you actually USE a DSLR for a few days, even a low-end one, you begin to see all the advantages. I finally switched to a DSLR about 6 months ago (after years of pocket digitals and a couple of film SLRs), and besides the bulk I wouldn't trade it for any pocket camera ever again.
United States

Rupert Murdoch Publishes North Korean Flash Games 186

Posted by Soulskill from the wonder-if-they're-paywalled dept.
eldavojohn writes "You might recall back in June when it was noted that North Korea was developing and exporting flash games. Now, the isolated nation state is apparently home to some game developers that are being published by a subsidiary of News Corp. (The games include Big Lebowski Bowling and Men In Black). Nosotek Joint Venture Company is treading on thin ice in the eyes of a few academics and specialists that claim the Fox News owner is 'working against US policy.' Concerns grow over the potential influx of cash, creating better programmers that are then leveraged into cyberwarfare capabilities. Nosotek said that 'training them to do games can't bring any harm.' The company asserts its innocence, though details on how much of the games were developed in North Korea are sparse. While one of the poorest nations in the world could clearly use the money, it remains to be seen if hardliner opponents like the United States will treat Nosotek (and parent company News Corp.) as if they're fostering the development of computer programmers inside the DPRK. The United Nations only stipulates that cash exchanged with companies in the DPRK cannot go to companies and businesses associated with military weaponry or the arms trade. Would you feel differently about Big Lebowski Bowling if you knew it was created in North Korea?"
Open Source

Open Source Developer Knighted 101

Posted by samzenpus from the knights-who-say-free dept.
unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"
Image

4G iPhone Misplacer Invited To Germany For Beer 164

Posted by samzenpus from the beer-makes-things-better dept.
eldavojohn writes "You may recall the hapless engineer who left a fairly sensitive iPhone at a bar recently. Well, in a PR stunt, Lufthansa has invited him to visit Germany on their dime after citing his latest Facebook status, 'I underestimated how good German beer is' as well as his obvious passion for German beer and culture. It's not clear if Gray Powell has decided to 'pick up where he last left off' (as the letter puts it). I know what my decision would be."

Comment Re:Amiga 2000 to surf the web (Score 1) 622

by luncheon (#28139955) Attached to: 45-Year-Old Modem Used To Surf the Web
I still have my Amiga 500, with a 428Mb Seagate IDE HD and 12 Mb of RAM, complete with its external 3.5" Commodore Amiga 1011 floppy drive. It runs AmigaOS quite nicely as well. I DDed the HD into a file in my PC so now I can fully emulate this computer with UAE exactly as I had it back in '94. I've been using my Commodore 1084s PAL RGB 14" monitor with my PS2 with a special RGB adapter I built (very crisp image :). But this monitor died last month. I also have a C64c and C128 lying around, with a Commodore Datasette and Commodore 1571 5.25" drive.

Comment Re:Yes, and yes. (Score 1) 1100

by luncheon (#23109094) Attached to: Hardy Heron Making Linux Ready for the Masses?
1. i've been using ubuntu since 6.06 and that (the grub menu getting bricked) never happened to me), neither by clicking on the orange icon nor by a command-line 'apt-get dist-upgrade' it didn't fail once in any of my three ubuntu boxes or my two debian boxes (the automatic menu.lst update worked flawlessly for me since debian 3.1) 2. the menu.lst file has special commented sections to add all the customizations you want which will be added automatically to all kernel options when you run grub-update (i have set the text mode consoles on my main debian box with framebuffer video this way, and never lost the config. in any kernel upgrade) i think you were a victim of a very broken installation (missing or corrupted files maybe?)...
Programming

Submission + - Open source iPhone simulator for web developers (marketcircle.com)

Submitted by
adam
adam writes: "Marketcircle today released iPhoney 1.1 and made it open source. It's a web simulator for designers and developers who want to test how their creations look on iPhone. The new version supports scaling and other enhancements, along with pixel-accurate browsing and rotation.

Since it's gonna be hard to find an iPhone, this is a good way for developers to check out their stuff and make sure that it looks right. Hopefully since it's open source it'll reach a high level of maturity and be a great development tool.

The source code is on SourceForge."
United States

Submission + - Young Americans Are Leaning Left, New Poll Finds

Submitted by
gollum123
gollum123 writes: "Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27pol l.html?em&ex=1183089600&en=889a109fd4bcce65&ei=508 7%0A ). It found that substantially more Americans ages 17 to 29 than four years ago are paying attention to the presidential race. But they appeared to be really familiar with only two of the candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats. And although they are just as worried as the general population about the outlook for the country and think their generation is likely to be worse off than that of their parents, they retain a belief that their votes can make a difference, the poll found. More than half of Americans ages 17 to 29 — 54 percent — say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. 28 percent described themselves as liberal, compared with 20 percent of the nation at large. And 27 percent called themselves conservative, compared with 32 percent of the general public. In the current poll, 62 percent said they would support a universal, government-sponsored national health care insurance program; 47 percent of the general public holds that view. And 30 percent said that "Americans should always welcome new immigrants," while 24 percent of the general public holds that view. In one potential sign of shifting attitudes, respondents, by overwhelming margins, said they believed that the nation was prepared to elect as president a woman, a black person or someone who admitted to having used marijuana. But they said that they did not believe Americans would elect someone who had used cocaine or someone who was a Mormon."
Games

Submission + - Duke Nukem Forever Release Date: 12/1/07! (bestbuy.com)

Submitted by wiggles
wiggles writes: It's offical. According to this Best Buy page, Duke Nukem Forever is scheduled for release on December 1st of 2007. Talk about a solution to global warming! All we need to do is find hell, and use the sub-zero temperatures to siphon off our excess heat!
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA files against 9 Iowa State network users (iowastatedaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Iowa State University passed on RIAA settlement letters, but the identified network users failed to exercise the settlement option, and now RIAA has subpoenaed nine network users' information, according to the Iowa State Daily. The Recording Industry Association of America filed copyright infringement lawsuits against nine ISU network users June 14th. The network users named will be given 10 days to act against the subpoena before Iowa State will provide the requested information to the RIAA.
Microsoft

Submission + - Anti-Microsoft OOXML petition (noooxml.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: In Microsofts attempt to further extend their stranglehold, their implementation of ODF will put forth yet another document type to be used as a ISO recognized standard, further muddying the waters for businesses and developers to implement an open document format.
Censorship

Submission + - Bruce Schneier and RFE/RL on Internet Censorship (rferl.org)

Submitted by Foehg
Foehg writes: Radio Free Europe writes: A recent report by Freedom House has detailed a "new form of censorship" that has taken hold in CIS states. A particular target of governments' efforts to control what their citizens read is the Internet — and blocking websites has become common practice in some countries. RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher asked Bruce Scheier, chief technical officer of computer-security company BT Counterpane, about how such blocking works and what can be done to counter it.
Wii

Submission + - From the psychic thinker - You can read the future (allinterestbooks.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
robhow2006
robhow2006 writes: "Here we are on a holiday at some seaside resort. We go to the shows and enjoy the rides and try to take in the atmosphere and ambiance of the occasion. We are relaxed, at ease and confident of a good time. We see the sign 'Gypsy Rose Lee — clairvoyant with her crystal ball'. We think for a moment. Shall we go in? No! Why not? It's a good laugh.
We never think logically at that moment that there are hundreds of Rose Lees' all over the country all doing the same thing. Clairvoyants can be very accurate in their delivery and also completely wrong. You can also feel that the reading was useless and then behold, two months later it happens. I know from experience that a future event can happen in a day or up to three years. I do not believe that any clairvoyant or Tarot reader can give an exact time. It is impossible. The sixth sense, alongside the other five in your brain, does not exist in a time scale. It is set in another plane of existence outside time and the physical world. I believe that everyone has the sixth sense but rarely use it. The people who do use it have to be very careful on interpretation.
Many years ago I self taught myself palmistry and did a few readings at parties. It is the same principle; once again the sixth sense takes over. Unfortunately, I do not do it any more. I picked up a sequence which foretold a short life span and I never told the people concerned — but four people had a short life of 30 to 40 years. Whether it was luck or truth I do not know but I do not think any physical being should have that knowledge.
Have you ever tried holding an object in your hand and concentrating on where it has been or come from? It is quite extraordinary. If your sixth sense is tuned a feeling rather than words come into your mind. It could be very cold or hot, love or tiredness, anger or peace. Once again it is the senses rather than a voice or other motivation.
Tarot cards can be very complicated and sometimes difficult to read, I know, I have been there. You see the death card and the hanging man dealt out and you start to shiver. It may only mean the end of one project that you have made a mess of and the beginning of a new one. The cards do tell a story. A new set of cards developed by me tell the story simply and can be used by anyone. They are in cartoon format and easy to read. There are twenty major cards and thirty six minor — fifty six cards in the pack. You look at the pictures — this triggers your sixth sense into the meaning of each card. Then you tell the story without talking to the recipient. When you have finished let the person you have given the reading to comment and discuss.
At times the cards will surprise you and you will become more aware of the sixth sense. Sometimes your senses will not be able to perform at all — then stop, do not carry on until you feel you are ready. As in normal life sometimes you cannot perform properly, it is time to rest. The cards can be downloaded from All Interest Books in a pdf booklet. You print them on your own printer and cut up the cards, which makes them personal to you. The new cards are called 'The psychic Thinker Toon Reading Cards.' Published on 15th June 2007. They are available from www.allinterestbooks.co.uk . There is also a free booklet titled 'The Psychic Thinker' which you can direct download by clicking on the icon."
Businesses

Submission + - Ford pulling plug on Think cars (aftenposten.no) 1

Submitted by ArmedLemming
ArmedLemming writes: Apparently now that Ford doesn't need the Think car to help in its compliance with emissions standards, they're pulling the plug on the car. Due to liability concerns, they're not allowing the cars' leaseholders to buy the cars either. The cars are headed to the scrapyard. From the article: "[Ford] decide to crush the "Think City" cars that had been exported to the US, mostly to California to satisfy air pollution requirements in place at the time. When those requirements were eased, Ford had no more political need for its electric car venture and literally pulled the plug."

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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

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