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Comment Realtime Worlds Points... (Score 3, Insightful) 185

by ceriphim (#33603310) Attached to: <em>APB</em> To Close Mere Months After Launch
From the website:

Realtime Worlds Points are a virtual currency that you can buy, right here, for cash. You can spend these RTW Points on lots of cool stuff, including gametime. It costs 280 Points for a 20 hour chunk (which never expires), and just 400 Points gets you unlimited access for 30 days.

Guess that "never expires" part isn't entirely accurate now. Or, if it is, not useful.

Just for giggles I clicked on "Purchase 400 Points" and got a server error...

Adios APB!
News

Submission + - What if the Gulf oil spill can't be stopped? (scienceblogs.com)

Submitted by 2muchcoffeeman
2muchcoffeeman writes: Sharon Astyk of Scienceblogs.com brings up an ongoing discussion of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill at The Oil Drum, a site for industry professionals. A comment in that discussion brings up a frightening scenario: that the Gulf oil spill is past the point of no return or very close to that point, there's no such thing as a "cap dome" that can be put in place to shut it off, the relief wells can't be brought online soon enough and the structure of the originally-drilled well is degrading and will eventually collapse ... meaning that entire underground oil reserve BP and its subcontractors were trying to extract will leak out into the Gulf of Mexico via the damaged equipment and underwater well site.
Advertising

HP and Yahoo To Spam Your Printer 397

Posted by samzenpus from the this-expense-report-brought-to-you-by... dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As many suspected when HP announced its web-connected printer, it didn't take long for the company to announce it will send 'targeted' advertisements to your new printer. So you'll get spammed, and you'll pay for the ink to print it. On the bright side, the FCC forbids unsolicited fax ads, so this will probably get HP on a collision course with the Feds."
Firefox

Submission + - Does Firefox Have Cooties? (itworld.com)

Submitted by JimLynch
JimLynch writes: Lately, it seems, there's been a small movement amongst key projects in the open source community to move away from stalwart open source browser Firefox to up-and-coming newbie browser Chromium.
Space

Submission + - SpaceX And Iridium Sign $492M Launch Contract (orlandosentinel.com)

Submitted by FleaPlus
FleaPlus writes: Following up on the successful first launch of their Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has signed a $492M deal for launching several dozen satellites for the Iridium NEXT constellation, the biggest commercial launch deal ever (teleconference notes). This is a needed boost for the US launch industry, which has dwindled to a fraction of the international market due to problematic ITAR arms regulations and high costs. SpaceX's next launch is scheduled for later this summer, carrying the first full version of the Dragon reusable capsule, which will run tests in orbit and then splashdown off the California coast.

Submission + - A ballsy way to stop the oil leak (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: A maverick scientist who made a name for himself by directing the capping of the more than 500 hundred burning oil wells in Kuwait after the Gulf War in 1991 is proposing a deceptively simple way to plug the gulf oil leak: drop steel balls into the gushing well. If the steel balls are big enough in diameter, their weight will pull them downward even through the upward-rushing torrent of oil and gas. So they'll settle into the well at some deep level and begin to clog it. Two hundred tons of the things should slow the gusher enough that it can then be stopped with a more conventional injection of mud, he says.
America Online

Submission + - AOL dumps $1.2 billion worth of acquisitions (wsj.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: The social networking site Bebo is being sold for just "a small fraction of the $850 million AOL paid for the site two years ago," according to the Wall Street Journal. Since its acquisition, "the site has been shedding users as fast as Facebook and Twitter have been gaining them," according to one industry observer, quoting an April memo reportedly sent by an AOL executive arguing that Bebo "has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space." Bebo's traffic is already down 44% from last year, according to the Wall Street Journal, attracting just 5 million unique U.S. visitors in May (versus 130.4 million for Facebook). And earlier this month, AOL shed the instant messaging service ICQ for $187.5 — which it had acquired in 1998 for over $408 million.

Submission + - HP and Yahoo will spam your printer (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As many suspected when HP announced their web connected printer, it didn't take long for them to announce they will send "targeted" advertisements to your new printer. So you'll get spammed, and you'll pay for the ink to print it. On the bright side, the FCC forbids unsolicited fax ads, so this will probably get HP on a collision course with the Feds.
Power

Submission + - Horizon Releases Palm-Sized Fuel Cell Power Plant (inhabitat.com) 2

Submitted by rebeccapaul
rebeccapaul writes: Ever dream of owning a palm-sized fuel cell to juice up your electronic devices on the go? Here’s your chance — Horizon just announced that it has started shipping a “disruptive pocket-size fuel cell power plant” — and it only costs $100 for a unit with two refillable fuel cartridges, each containing the same amount of energy as 1,000 disposable AA batteries.
IBM

Submission + - IBM research project looks to reshape mobile email (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Tired of messing with that bulky email on your smartphone? Well IBM researchers say they are working on a technology that will help users more quickly and efficiently zip through mobile email. IBM computer scientists at its Almaden Research Center are working on a new mobile client known as IBM Mail Triage that quickly scans email and identifies what needs immediate action and what can be handled later, whether you have an iPhone, Pre, Android or other smartphone.
Crime

Submission + - Calif. Tracks Parolees with GPS, then Ignores It (bnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Several years ago, California decided to require high-risk parolees, such as gang members and sex offenders, to wear GPS monitoring devices. The idea was to relay location information to law enforcement to ensure that the convicts stay where they’re supposed to. Unfortunately, the state often misses acting on those alerts, making the devices both a lesson in the pitfalls of technology management and a massive exercise in largely useless spending.
Government

Submission + - U.S. Sues Oracle Over Alleged Overcharging (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Oracle is being sued by the U.S. government for allegedly overcharging it by millions of dollars, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)'s Schedules are supposed to provide discounts that are as good as or better than that given to the vendor's most favored customers, the complaint states. However, Oracle employee Paul Frascella, who joins the government's action, learned that Oracle was finding ways around the GSA restrictions in order to give commercial customers even deeper discounts, according to the complaints. In one alleged practice Oracle was said to be "selling to a reseller at a deep discount ... and having the reseller sell the product to the end user at a price below the written maximum allowable discounts,' the complaint states. Overall, Oracle's actions cost U.S. taxpayers 'tens of millions of dollars,' it adds.

Comment Re:Great (Score 1) 332

by ceriphim (#31254626) Attached to: Criminals Hide Payment-Card Skimmers In Gas Pumps

That's why I don't have Credit/Debit Cards and only pay cash. Sure it's a PITA at times but I don't have to worry about this issue at all.

Which is unfortunate if you get pickpocketed, mugged, or just plain old leave your wallet somewhere. POOF! goes the cash. At least with my debit/credit card I can immediately call and cancel to prevent any fraudulent transactions. Cash is nice, but you're SOL if you lose it...

Comment Re:Look at the latency (Score 1) 156

by ceriphim (#30542426) Attached to: AT&amp;T Wins Gizmodo 3G Bandwidth Test

People asked me if I thought the Droid was an iPhone killer. And my honest answer was: the iPhone gets no service where I work, while the Droid gets 4 bars. I'd probably choose the Droid anyway, but that sort of thing makes it a no-brainer.

People ask me all sorts of questions, all the time. Does it mean my opinion matters in every one of those instances? Not so much. Have you some credentials that make your opinion stand out among the rest of the /. crowd?

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All your files have been destroyed (sorry). Paul.

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