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Submission + - ZDNet proclaims "Windows: It's over" 1

plastick writes: "You can think Windows 8 will evolve into something better, but the numbers show that Windows is coming to a dead end."

ZDNet is known to take the side of Microsoft in the past. ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols explains "The very day the debate came to an end, this headline appeared: IDC: Global PC shipments plunge in worst drop in a generation. Sure, a lot of that was due to the growth of tablets and smartphones and the rise of the cloud, but Windows 8 gets to take a lot of the blame too. After all, the debate wasn't whether or not Windows 8 was any good. It's not. The debate was over whether it could be saved."

Comment Re:Openshot Kickstart Program (Score 2) 105

I love seeing different projects supporting each other on Kickstarter. OpenShot is awesome, and this seems like a great way for it to be improved (in addition to the two new platforms, the OpenShot folks have some pretty cool features planned). I have to say, I'm more excited about enhancements to OpenShot, than I am about Cox's new film :-)

Comment Re:Ignorance (Score 1) 461

No. Genetic material can enter the the bloodstream, despite the digestive process.

http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v22/n1/full/cr2011158a.html

In short, the above study found white rice micro-RNA in observable quantities in the serum/plamsa of a statistically significant sample of human particpants. Here's some mainstream coverage of the study:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamins-minerals-and-microrna
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/09/21/2251238/what-you-eat-affects-your-genes

Do we know what the effect of long-term exposure to this foreign genetic material actually has? It's difficult to, since the vector of introduction was only discovered 18 months ago. Labelling might be a prudent choice until we have a nice 10-20yr study to show some conclusive results over a large and diverse population under test.

Comment Re:Ignorance (Score 1) 461

This is a highly specious argument. You're stating "espousing one untested toxin vs another more effective one, is equivalent to cargo cult plumbing", when in fact what you are calling "natural pesticides" is rarely the specific and heavy application of a specific "traditional" toxin.

Usually, it's more of a policy of IPM/IPC (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_pest_management ) which is more work-intensive, but contributes less to a pollution point-source, amongst other benefits, by utilizing a collection of methods rather than heavy reliance on a particular manufactured substance. Also, these methodologies decrease financial support of the potentially dubious production/manufacturing process of popular artificial pesticides (organophosphates and IGR's like methoprene). Additionally, it's important to recognize that this same argument uses unspecific wording to group all "natural" pesticides/insecticides together (such as neonicotinoids/pyrethroids/ryanoids versus other common mild herbicide/insectides). That alone should raise "straw-man" fallacy red flags.

I hope you're not really trying to equate RoundUp (or similar) with draping a net over your fruit tree.

Comment Re:2m? Not even close (Score 1) 119

Oh, how do you figure? The traditional investment portion was to be some $8M (to bring the budget up to ~$10M), and is supposedly already lined up, modulo the initial funding goal (I believe Chris stated as much during one of the Reddit AMA's).

Moreover, of all the extended goal possibilities in the poll, which do you seriously believe would go toward bringing in new backers? More missions than before? More NPCs? I suspect that the lion's share of backers who would be swayed by those (and the "improved FPS mode"...) have already pledged. Also, are you Seumas on Kickstarter as well? If so, then of all people, you should realize that Linux support has a greatly different level of importance on a crowd-funding campaign (where the Linux community is heavily active) than the wider gaming world.

Politics

Submission + - The Ten Greatest Fictional Statesmen (blogspot.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: Just in time for the U.S. elections, blogger Christopher Knight is so disgusted with real life politics that he has thoughtfully assembled a list of the Top Ten Greatest Fictional Statesmen found across various media. "What is a statesman?" he asks. "Someone, man or woman, who puts the good of those they serve above his or her own desires and ambitions... if sincere and selfless and capable leadership cannot be found in our real world, perhaps a look toward movies, books and television is in order." Knight also elaborates on the qualities that make each man, woman, extraterrestrial and wizard so admirable as leadership material.
Games

Submission + - Will Star Citizen project fund Linux and Mac ports for CryENGINE 3? (robertsspaceindustries.com) 2

Mr. Jaggers writes: "Chris Roberts, game designer of Wing Commander fame, has had great success with his new crowd-funded Star Citizen project — so much that the $2m base goal has been smashed with weeks to go on the kickstarter portion of the campaign. Now Chris is floating a list of stretch goals for fans to vote on, with Linux and Mac support both listed as stretch goal candidates. Since Star Citizen is based on the popular CryENGINE 3 game engine, these stretch goals are equivalent to funding Linux and Mac ports of CryENGINE. Chris couldn't make any absolute promises yet, since he doesn't own the engine, but CryENGINE 3 already supports Android so at least there is existing OpenGL ES support to be leveraged towards adding Linux and Mac OpenGL support. If there is enough outpouring of cross-platform support from fans in this poll, Star Citizen could turn out to be the high-profile game that brings a AAA game engine to the growing Mac and Linux gaming communities — analogous to the role played by Wasteland 2 in bringing official Linux support to the Unity 4 engine popular among so many Indie developers."
XBox (Games)

Submission + - Minecraft Becomes More Popular Than Call of Duty on XBOX LIVE (gamespot.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Well, we all know that Minecraft is becoming one of the most popular games out there nowadays, however according to recent stats; Minecraft was the most played game on XBOX LIVE for the week of October 15. This means that it even beat the most played game on XBOX LIVE, Call of Duty.

The rankings for the most played games in the week of October 15th are as follows:
1. Minecraft
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
3. FIFA 13

It is no surprise that Minecraft on Xbox 360 has seen so much success. When the game first launched it made a profit within its first hour of release, but even so, it takes a lot to beat the ever popular COD series. Currently, Minecraft's console version is exclusive to Xbox 360 and the developers have done a great job of keeping it updated to keep fans happy. It's also important to mention how impressive it is for an Xbox Arcade game to be beating full retail games, especially recent releases such as Borderlands 2 and even Xbox favorite Halo: Reach.

However, it is unclear how long Minecraft's popularity will last. With the release of great upcoming games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, but I bet developer Mojang and Notch will be celebrating while they can, because this is a great accomplishment for them.

Source/s: http://www.gamespot.com/news/minecraft-more-popular-on-xbox-live-than-modern-warfare-3-6398859Close

United Kingdom

Submission + - Apple Hides Samsung Apology So It Can't Be Seen Without Scrolling

An anonymous reader writes: Apple today posted its second Samsung apology to its UK website, complying with requests by the UK Court of Appeal to say its original apology was inaccurate and link to a new statement. As users on Hacker News and Reddit point out, however, Apple modified its website recently to ensure the message is never displayed without visitors having to scroll down to the bottom first.
Android

Submission + - Cinemaware bring Wings to Kickstarter, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows (kickstarter.com) 1

neoteric writes: "Classic Cinemaware game "Wings", a Directors Cut version in HD, is hopefully set to land on Linux and Android, as well as Windows, Mac and iOS should Cinemaware successfully achieve funding via kickstarter.com

Anyone who owned an Amiga should remember this classic game which was a mix of flight-sim/arcade action, a brilliant game, lets help get it released on Linux / Android !!

Come on guys/gals, I'd love to see this title re-released on Linux."

Submission + - The rise and rise of Adventure Gaming through Kickstarter (gameinformer.com) 2

Ohverture writes: An interesting blog entry and summary on GameInformer by user BTenille, which documents the timeline of Adventure Gaming's comeback through crowd-sourcing at Kickstarter, and the developers behind them.

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/btenille_blog/archive/2012/06/18/kickstarting-adventure-gaming.aspx

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