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China

Submission + - Is China's Game Business Model Superior? (industrygamers.com)

Submitted by donniebaseball23
donniebaseball23 writes: While the U.S. and Europe continue to talk about a digital gaming future, the fact is that the majority of revenues still come from retail. In China, however, where piracy has run rampant, the industry already is almost 100% online and developers have embraced the digital delivery and free-to-play model. Notable designer American McGee (known for Alice and Grimm) believes the Chinese model represents the future for Western game makers. "Why waste resources on a physical location and unreliable employees when the entire experience can be made sharper, cleaner and more entertaining in the virtual representation? China provides a working model of the store-less retail model — millions of people purchase real-world items online (taobao.com) each day — making Western electronic stores like Best Buy nothing more than places to fondle physical goods you're going to buy online anyway (Best Buy went out of business in China in less than 2 years, by the way)," he remarked.
Science

Submission + - Diamond planets and climate change (theconversation.edu.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently my colleagues and I announced the discovery (http://theconversation.edu.au/diamond-planet-found-if-you-like-it-then-you-should-have-put-a-ring-on-it-3069) of a remarkable planet orbiting a special kind of star known as a pulsar.
Based on the planet’s density, and the likely history of its system, we concluded that it was certain to be crystalline. In other words, we had discovered a planet made of diamond.
Following the publication (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/08/19/science.1208890.abstract) of our finding in the journal Science, our research received amazing attention from the world’s media.
The attention we received was 100% positive, but how different that could have been.
How so? Well, we could have been climate scientists
The Internet

Submission + - $300M to save 6 milliseconds? (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by whoever57
whoever57 writes: A new transatlantic cable (the first in 10 years) is going to be laid at the cost of $300M. The reason? To shave 6ms off the time time to transmit packets from London to New York. The Hibernian Express will reduce the transit time of 65 milliseconds by a mere 6 ms, however the investors believe that the financial community will be lining up to pay premium rates to use the new cable. The article suggests that a a one millisecond advantage could be worth $100M per year to a large hedge fund.
Linux

Submission + - Skein Hash... in Bash (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Matt16060936
Matt16060936 writes: ...Last night (err.. 3am this morning) I finished an implementation of the Skein 512-512 hash algorithm (version 1.3). I'm a fan of Skein and hope it wins the SHA-3 competition next year. One of the nice things about Skein is how quickly it's been adopted by many platforms and implemented in many languages. To that end, I present Skein 512-512 implemented in Bash.
Handhelds

Submission + - GameStop Developing Its Own Android Tablet (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: GameStop has confirmed rumors that it is planning to jump into the tablet market with a device dedicated to gaming. '[GameStop President Tony Bartel said] this week that Android was capable of running what he called a "GameStop-certified gaming platform" and that GameStop would be self-branding existing tablet hardware built by an unspecified third-party manufacturer. ... GameStop will sell its gaming tablet alongside consoles and handheld gaming devices from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and others, he said.' There's no release date yet, but the device is currently being tested by consumers. 'GameStop will ship the tablet with a dedicated controller, though he admitted that "[t]here's not a lot of tablet/android based games for the consumer that are designed to use an external controller."'"
Medicine

Submission + - Fatherhood Decreases Testosterone (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Med-trump
Med-trump writes: A new study shows that becoming a father leads to a sharp decline in testosterone, suggesting that although high levels of the hormone may help men win a mate, testosterone-fueled traits such as aggression and competition are less useful when it comes to raising children. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that testosterone levels were lowest in men who reported spending the greatest amount of time spent caring for their children.
Science

Submission + - US fires up gigabit app dev. for ultrafast nets (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The US government and the National Science Foundation have announced a plan they say will go a long way toward building applications that can take advantage of ultrafast broadband networks. Dubbed US Ignite, the plan is to use existing high-speed fiber optic and wireless networks, such as the NSF's GENI network to link universities and a growing number of communities with networks that are 10-100 times faster than current residential broadband Internet services, according to as post on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy site."
Microsoft

Submission + - Mouse Without Borders: a free software KM (no V) (extremetech.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft‘s Mouse without Borders is a free application that lets people use a single mouse across multiple computers. That means the cursor will go from one computer to the next as if they were simply multiple displays hooked up to the same system. Files can be dragged and dropped from one machine to the next, and up to four computers can be connected at once. What’s more, the software removes the borders from your keyboard as well — so it too can be used on up to four systems — and it allows for copying and pasting across machines.
Cloud

Submission + - Ford Evos cloud-connected concept car unveiled (everythingnew.net) 1

Submitted by
hasanabbas1987
hasanabbas1987 writes: "The sparkling red eye candy or simply Ford Evos revealed itself at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany. The Evos is termed as cloud-connected meaning it can learn your prefrences, save them somewhere on its clever system, download traffic detail from the internet, show points of interests on maps and that is just the standard options. Its a plug-in hybrid to it will run on full batteries for about 500 miles and when the charge run out, use the all green motor to be all gentle on the environment, something which the looks of the cars disagree with. It will even help you select between EV and normal modes, depending upon roads ahead of you. And just to throw in a last minute detail, it also monitors the heartbeat of the driver as he sits in “the hot seat”"
Windows

Submission + - Win8 to support ISOs natively (msdn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Windows 8 is all set to have a really useful feature: the ability to mount and use ISO images without having to install any additional programs.
Power

Submission + - Why Germany Should Not Give Up Nuclear Energy (ezinearticles.com)

Submitted by Rashen
Rashen writes: In May, 2011, following the Fukushima incident Germany announced that by 2020 it is looking to shut down all its nuclear power plants. 8 of its nuclear power plant are already offline and six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022. The news may have gained acceptance from many any nuclear groups, but how effective is this move towards meeting with energy needs of the country. A White Paper published on Nuclear Friends Foundation collates some relevant data about why nuclear energy is a needed in Germany and how the country might actually be hurting the environment and curbing sources to meet energy requirements.

Germany obtains 25% of its electricity from nuclear energy from 17 reactors, while coal provides for about half of the country's electricity in comparison to 12% supplied by gas and 7% by wind. It clearly shows how nuclear energy is the biggest energy provider to Germany and with initial of further enhancing its reach; it would have catered to the larger audience and brought down the dependency on coal. With Germany's high dependency on coal for its energy requirements it is Europe's largest and the world's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 gas, which is alarming and would lead to numerous environment hazards soon.

Germany's policies were adopted to encourage renewable sources of energy with a view of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions. It is planned that by 2020 the renewable energy resource should contribute 20% of electricity supplies, compared with 14% at present (only half of this being hydro, half wind). Furthermore, in 2010 Germany was importing 42000 GWhr (Gigawatt Hour) electricity from France and Czech; which has escalated to 85000 GWhr after closing down of German nuclear power plants.

With so many alarming issues to be addressed by Germany, it makes no sense to give up nuclear energy by shutting down the nuclear power plants. The Fukushima incidence definitely haunts many but instead of focus and strengthens safety on these plants ensuring any no radiation leakage takes place and even the people working inside the nuclear power plants are safe. When the nuclear power plants are faced with any technical difficulties, it is responsibility of the respective governments to ensure that safety standards are enhanced and meet the international standards, so that no lives are at risk.

Germany's decision of shutting down the nuclear plants many have received accolades from environmentalists but one needs to get the facts right and see how beneficial this move would be for Germans in the long run.

Nuclear Friends Foundation recently published the white paper on Germany's current energy situation manifests details about current nuclear energy situation in Germany its electricity imports, power needs, etc. You can follow Nuclear Friends Foundation (NFF)at Facebook @nuclearfriends

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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