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First Person Shooters (Games)

Wolfenstein Being Recalled In Germany 625

Posted by Soulskill from the ach-mein-leben dept.
D1gital_Prob3 tips news that Activision's recently-released shooter, Wolfenstein, is being recalled in Germany due to the appearance of swastikas in the game. Such symbols are banned in Germany, and the German version of the game went through heavy editing to remove them. Apparently, they missed some. Activision said, "Although it is not a conspicuous element in the normal game ... we have decided to take this game immediately from the German market." Reader eldavojohn points out a review that has screenshot comparisons between the two versions of the game.
The Military

Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It's Still Alive 638

Posted by kdawson from the dead-hand dept.
An anonymous reader points out a story in Wired introducing us to the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s — and that remains active to this day. It was called "Perimeter." The article explains why the device was built, and why the Soviets considered it to be something that kept the peace, even though they never told the US about it. "[Reagan's] strategy worked. Moscow soon believed the new US leadership really was ready to fight a nuclear war. But the Soviets also became convinced that the US was now willing to start a nuclear war. ... A few months later, Reagan... announced that the US was going to develop a shield of lasers and nuclear weapons in space to defend against Soviet warheads. ... To Moscow it was the Death Star — and it confirmed that the US was planning an attack. ... By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, [an informant] says, was 'to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.'"

Comment depends on the college (Score 1) 835

by sharp3 (#29356929) Attached to: Does Your College Or University Support Linux?
At my University, the respective computer labs of each department is handled internally. When I take one of my rare strolls over to the humanities buildings, their workstations are almost completely Windows XP based machines. In my native CS department however, we have over 200 workstations that are running CentOS Linux distro. We do have a windows server that has remote login enabled. We also have an NX server running a linux remote login. We've got full ssh, ftp capabilities. A friend of mine works in psych department, and she has zero access to any linux or remote login capabilities. So, I would say the more technical your daughters particular field is, the more likely her specific college/major provides the resources she would enjoy.
Government

Alan Turing Apology Campaign Grows 653

Posted by CmdrTaco from the he-only-invented-modern-computer-science dept.
chrb writes "Several British news sources have recently reported on the growing campaign that calls for an apology to Alan Turing for his persecution by the British government. The petition to the Prime Minister was started by John Graham-Cumming, who has also written to the Queen requesting a Knighthood for Turing, but admits that a pardon is 'unlikely,' saying, 'The most important thing to me is that people hear about Alan Turing and realize his incredible impact on the modern world, and how terrible the impact of prejudice was on him.'"
The Almighty Buck

Up To 90 Percent of US Money Has Traces of Cocaine 441

Posted by CmdrTaco from the having-more-fun-than-me dept.
mmmscience writes "Scientists have found that up to 90% of US paper money has some cocaine contamination, up from the 67% mark measured two years ago. Looking at bills from 17 cities, it's no surprise that the city with the highest level was Washington DC, where up to 95% of bills gathered there tested positive. From a global standpoint, both Canada and Brazil tested rather high (85% and 80%, respectively), but China and Japan were well behind the curve at 20% and 12%. The researchers hope that studies such as these will be of help to law enforcement agencies that are attempting to understand the growth and flow of drug use in communities."
Education

US Colleges Say Hiring US Students a Bad Deal 490

Posted by CmdrTaco from the talking-to-you-cliff dept.
theodp writes "Many US colleges and universities have notices posted on their websites informing US companies that they're tax chumps if they hire students who are US citizens. 'In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements,' advises the taxpayer-supported University of Pittsburgh (pdf) as it makes the case against hiring its own US students. You'll find identical pitches made by the University of Delaware, the University of Cincinnati, Kansas State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Iowa State University, and other public colleges and universities. The same message is also echoed by private schools, such as John Hopkins University, Brown University, Rollins College and Loyola University Chicago."

Comment Played into his hands (Score 2, Interesting) 543

by sharp3 (#29007337) Attached to: The Outing of Pranknet
Now this Malik guy is an internet celebrity, which is exactly what the article states is his desire. All of his actions have suddenly been validated, because hey, he's an internet star. Visits to prankster.com (or whatever, I don't know) probably just went through the roof, generating some ad revenue for him to pay for another full body massage at the corner-shop. Hundreds of jackass 15 year old imitators are already foaming at the mouth to copy these douchebags. While the article was hilarious in pointing out the creepy people behind prankster, they did them a huge favor by introducing them to the rest of the world.
Education

Blackboard Patent Invalidated By Appellate Court 142

Posted by timothy from the mechanism-for-doing-stuff-described-herein dept.
Arguendo writes "A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Blackboard Inc.'s patent on a learning management system is invalid in light of the inventors' own prior software product. We have previously discussed the patent and Blackboard's trial court victory against Desire2Learn. It's not completely over, but this is almost certainly the death knell for Blackboard's patent. If so inclined, you may read the appellate court's decision here (PDF) or on scribd."

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