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Comment Re:My brain hurts, Steve! (Score 1) 865

It's Apple's OS, they developed it, spend years and millions of $$$ making it - why shouldn't they be allowed to say what machines can and can't run it?

These arguments about "I'd buy a Mac if it had exactly X configuration, but seeing as they don't I'll just pirate it on my own system" have absolutely zero merit. Just because the developers of Windows and Linux have chosen to let you run their OS on any x86 machine, doesn't mean you automatically have the right to run any piece of software you like on your machine.

Role Playing (Games)

Mythic Shutting Down 63 Warhammer Servers 137

Gamasutra reports that Mythic Entertainment is consolidating a number of their Warhammer Online servers to keep population levels within an acceptable range. 43 servers are set to close in North America and Oceania, and 20 more in Europe. Mythic posted details of the character transfers at the game's website. CEO Mark Jacobs also made a "State of the Game" post, highlighting the live expansion that's currently underway, as well as the changes and updates they have planned for the near future.

Comment Re:Stealth is good, detection is poor (Score 2, Informative) 622

What I mean by passive detection systems is anything like an optical camera which does not need to emit anything to see something. I am not sure what technologies could be used, but while hiding is a good thing, being able to 'see' is just as important.

An optical camera relies on light coming from or reflect off an object to see it. Light only travels a matter of a few metres underwater, and to hear another vessel (i.e. SONAR) that vessel needs to be emitting some sound; which these submarines are designed to minimise.

Bug

Microsoft Zunes Committing Mass Suicide 785

jddeluxe writes "There are multiple reports springing up all over the internet of a mass suicide of Microsoft 30GB Zune players globally. Check Zune forums, Gizmodo, or other such sites; the reports are spreading rapidly, except apparently to the Microsoft official Zune site."
Communications

The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast 279

Barence writes "The deplorable speed of British broadband connections has been revealed in the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, which show that 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mb/sec. More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which means that many more British broadband connections are effectively below the 2Mb/sec barrier. Better still, a separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed of their connection anyway."
Games

An Early Look At Prince of Persia 13

Joystiq reports that work on Ubisoft's re-imagined Prince of Persia is complete, and the game has been sent off for certification leading up to its scheduled December 2nd launch. They were able to get some hands-on time with the game, and they have nothing but praise for the controls and the combat system. Quoting: "The game walked us through several fights' worth of control tutorial until we honestly didn't have to give second thought to what button we were pressing to execute a particular move. By the time we wrapped up our play session, we were sliding between enemies' legs, tossing them into the air, calling in Elika to teleport-kick them, and thwacking away until they teetered on the edges of cliffs — just before we delivered a final blow that sending them plummeting. What was doubly impressive about the combat system was the fact that, according to Delbuquet, it continues to evolve steadily throughout the course of the game. We were already stringing together our own combos at this point; nothing felt canned."
Cellphones

Motorola To Hire 300 Android Developers 88

ruphus13 writes "Google's Android is starting to see more industry support. Motorola recently announced plans, despite hardships within the company, to hire 300 Android developers. Quoting: 'A quick search of Motorola's job openings suggests that, indeed, Android is set to become a permanent fixture at Motorola, which has long built Linux-based phones but hitherto used MontaVista's Mobilinux. The goal? Move from an internal development pool of 50 Android-savvy developers to 350. Motorola, recognizing that most developers won't have deep experience with Google Android, is looking for a somewhat general skillset ... Java and Google Android programming experience is listed as 'highly desirable,' but not required.'" T-Mobile has already made plans to use Android as well. Xconomy has a related interview with a member of the MIT team that won a $275,000 prize in the Android Developer Challenge by creating an application to automatically modify a phone's settings depending on its location, which they say "wouldn't even be possible on an iPhone." We've previously discussed the Challenge itself and some of the other winning apps.

Comment Re:x64 ABI slightly fucked-up? (Score 1) 475

My point is that there isn't really *a* x86 ABI. It's an application level interface, and so it is defined by the operating system and associated environment. You are correct that the Mach-O (OS X) ABI is different that the Linux/*BSD or even the Windows one, but that's purely down to the OS design, not the CPU design. Plenty of embedded systems which use x86 chips have their own ABI, with greater or lesser amounts of rules.
Encryption

Submission + - AACS broken for all HD and Blu-ray disks

An anonymous reader writes: Two months after Muslix64 initially publicized his method for getting AACS keys, a user on Doom9 has found the processing key, which is able to decrypt all disks for both formats released thus far. The exploit can even be reused for future keys. This will allow the creation of a one-click backup utility and is a major blow against DRM.

A Nerdcore Hip-Hop Halloween Album 108

High-C writes, "A bunch of us nerdcore hip-hop artists have gotten together and released a Halloween-themed CD. Seventeen creepy, darker-than-they-should-be songs from total nerds, with seven different CD covers. What's not to love? The perfect soundtrack for tonight's Halloween parties. And of course, the track listings are in hex."

Comment Re:XNA & Your Rights (Score 5, Informative) 303

The BBC article about this quotes Microsoft executive Peter Moore as saying:
Microsoft would regulate the content for appropriateness and intellectual property issues, but users would own their work, Mr Moore said.
It definitely looks like 1 is not the case, and given that he also says "I'd love to send a royalty cheque to a kid" 3 could well be it.

Andrew

Continuous Partial Attention 245

ubercombatwombat writes "While answering my softphone and checking my mail simultaneously I ran across the following article by Steven Levy. In it he writes about a speaker named Linda Stone and something she called "Continuous Partial Attention." I finally had a phrase for the reason I turn off wi-fi, asked people to turn off their cell phones and put away their crackberrys when I am speaking to a group. I suffer from this too. Starting today I am going to do something about it, brb."

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