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Bug

Are Complex Games Doomed To Have Buggy Releases? 362

Posted by Soulskill from the where-did-my-face-go dept.
An anonymous reader points out a recent article at Gamesradar discussing the frequency of major bugs and technical issues in freshly-released video games. While such issues are often fixed with updates, questions remain about the legality and ethics of rushing a game to launch. Quoting: "As angry as you may be about getting a buggy title, would you want the law to get involved? Meglena Kuneva, EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, is putting forward legislation that would legally oblige digital game distributors to give refunds for games, putting games in the same category in consumer law as household appliances. ... This call to arms has been praised by tech expert Andy Tanenbaum, author of books like Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. 'I think the idea that commercial software be judged by the same standards as other commercial products is not so crazy,' he says. 'Cars, TVs, and telephones are all expected to work, and they are full of software. Why not standalone software? I think such legislation would put software makers under pressure to first make sure their software works, then worry about more bells and whistles.'"
Image

The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282

Posted by samzenpus from the equal-distribution-of-the-pie dept.
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
Games

NYT's "Games To Avoid" an Ironic, Perfect Gamer Wish List 189

Posted by Soulskill from the more-or-less dept.
MojoKid writes "From October to December, the advertising departments of a thousand companies exhort children to beg, cajole, and guilt-trip their parents for all manner of inappropriate digital entertainment. As supposedly informed gatekeepers, we sadly earthbound Santas are reduced to scouring the back pages of gaming review sites and magazines, trying to evaluate whether the tot at home is ready for Big Bird's Egg Hunt or Bayonetta. Luckily, The New York Times is here to help. In a recent article provokingly titled 'Ten Games to Cross off Your Child's Gift List,' the NYT names its list of big bads — the video games so foul, so gruesome, so perverse that we'd recommend you buy them immediately — for yourself. Alternatively, if you need gift ideas for the surly, pale teenager in your home whose body contains more plastic then your average d20, this is the newspaper clipping to stuff in your pocket. In other words, if you need a list like this to understand what games to not stuff little Johnny's stocking with this holiday season, you've got larger issues you should concern yourself with. We'd suggest picking up an auto-shotty and taking a few rounds against the horde — it's a wonderful stress relief and you're probably going to need it."
Games

Over 160 Tutorial Videos Created For Unreal Dev Kit 48

Posted by Soulskill from the how-it's-done dept.
As a follow-up to Epic Games' release of a free version of the Unreal Engine last month, the company has now posted over 160 video tutorials which demonstrate the various uses of the Unreal Development Kit. Roughly 20 hours of footage were created by technical education company 3D Buzz, with topics ranging from user interface to game physics to cinematics.
Space

Herschel Spectroscopy of Future Supernova 21

Posted by Soulskill from the that's-a-big-star dept.
davecl writes "ESA's Herschel Space Telescope has released its first spectroscopic results. These include observations of VYCMa, a star 50 times as massive as the sun and soon to become a supernova, as well as a nearby galaxy, more distant colliding starburst galaxies and a comet in our own solar system. The spectra show more lines than have ever been seen in these objects in the far-infrared and will allow astronomers to work out the detailed chemistry and physics behind star and planet formation as well as the last stages of stellar evolution before VYCMa's eventual collapse into a supernova. More coverage is available at the Herschel Mission Blog, which I run."

Comment Re:All mine were cheap! (Score 1) 1259

by WagonWheelsRX8 (#29793643) Attached to: Student Loan Interest Rankles College Grads
Mod this guy UP...that is SPOT ON how I feel about the subject of education in this country (the US) as well. Unfortunately our country seems to be headed downhill, global competition is as great as its ever been and those pressures will only increase. College isn't for everyone, but for those people that it IS for they should have easy access to it. In the meantime, our students care less and less about math and sciences and more about who Flava Flav dated last season, and maybe those people that only care about Flava Flav might actually be more interested in education if they actually got a taste of WHY they're learning what they are (instead of just being told 'yeah you'll need this because this syllabus someone made says you will). As an example: It's one thing to read about how an engine works, but an entirely different thing to get in a shop and actually get to use the tools used to troubleshoot one. Who knows, maybe that experience inspires that person who'd otherwise be watching Flava Flav to design a more effective engine troubleshooting tool...all because he had the oppurtunity and ACCESS to experience a form of education that fit him the best.

Comment Re:Intended for abuse (Score 1) 792

by WagonWheelsRX8 (#29432223) Attached to: Congress Mulls Research Into a Vehicle Mileage Tax
Then you are reducing a major incentive to get a hybrid (reduced fuel prices), which seems counterproductive to the 'use less oil' mantra that is quite popular these days (and rightfully so). Also, this won't be an issue for a long, long time, as market penetration of hybrids is very low (less than 5% of new vehicles sold are hybrids each year...and this doesn't count all of the non-hybrid vehicles already on roads...so the total number of hybrid cars in use vs. conventional is quite low). Lets not forget, hybrids still use gas, thus reducing this impact even further. Link to PDF illustrating market penetration of hybrids As far as electric cars go, I won't even bother commenting on them because the average joe can't go buy one right now, and they won't be a serious factor for a considerable amount of time. This proposed idea is horribly wasteful (250 mil...come on seriously? No wonder you need a new tax...you've got to pay for your new tax study!) and terribly intrusive and as several other posters have stated will definitely be used for reasons other than intended (slippery slope/law enforcement/etc.). If fear of reduced revenue due to less gas being consumed is such a big deal, why not spend a bit of money on looking at ways to increase the efficiency of building our current infrastructure (and I wouldn't mind seeing an audit of where the current gas taxes get spent as well)...
Space

Hubble Releases First Post-Upgrade Images 129

Posted by timothy from the new-prescription-much-nicer dept.
Hynee writes "As tweeted, NASA has released 10 new images, all from the new WFC3 instrument and others, including the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Images include NGC 6302, Carina Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, Markarian 817, Abell 370, and a few others. Great looking stuff, the WFC3 has twice the resolution of the WF/PC2, on the CCD at least, if memory serves correctly. Eta Carina is a fascinating object, and there are at least two releases in this 'Early Release Observations' set." Here is a video about the new images at Hubblesite.org, and a full HubbleSite.org release page with 56 images.

Comment Re:Digital divide FTW! (Score 4, Informative) 368

by WagonWheelsRX8 (#29178263) Attached to: Blizzard Answers Your Questions and More
Since Parent didn't provide a link, I will...hopefully it will enlighten people but he is correct...as of June 2009 broadband is in only 60% of households in the U.S. (so yeah...it kinda is a big deal). http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars

Comment Re:Battle.net Fixes and Improvements? (Score 1) 520

by WagonWheelsRX8 (#29149633) Attached to: Ask Blizzard About Starcraft2, Diablo III, WoW, or Battle.net
I am also one of those who feel this way. I will not pirate it, I just won't buy it...and I've bought pretty much every game Blizzard has created since Warcraft I (except WoW...I just didn't have the time to commit to it otherwise I'd have bought it as well). There is apparently a large number of people 'pissing and moaning' about the LAN play issue, even if only half of them stated they wouldn't buy it and bought it anyway, that's still a significant number of people. I think most of the people that say they won't buy it are serious though...this is one of those times when you've got to stand up for yourself and say 'we won't take it anymore'.

Comment Re:what exactly has the activision merger done? (Score 1) 520

by WagonWheelsRX8 (#29148549) Attached to: Ask Blizzard About Starcraft2, Diablo III, WoW, or Battle.net
This is a good question...I'd like to see how large a motivating factor money was in the recent decisions made by Blizzard. Yes, I understand a company's purpose is to make money, and I'm all for a company making money, but the impression I'm getting lately from Blizzards is 'Pay More to Get Less' which as a potential paying customer is probably not the best way to encourage me to part with my $$$ for your product.

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