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Comment Flash (Score 2) 290

by Dj Stingray (#41311763) Attached to: Zuckerberg: Betting On HTML5 Was Facebook's Biggest Mistake

Iunno, I found it ironic that when Flash first came out, it was a way to create and inbed animation and sound into a website with very little weight. I actually used to make Flash sites actually smaller than HTML ones with raster graphics.

Then everyone decided to make Flash sites really heavy. Instead of going the route I thought it would go. The computers and the internet back then were too slow to handle those sites.

Now that we have the bandwidth and computing power, everyone seems to be bashing on Flash. When it is the best developer tool for vector based animation around. It's all backwardsy to me. I didn't expect it to be such a big deal that Adobe bought Macromedia.

Comment Percieved value. (Score 1) 637

by Dj Stingray (#37128956) Attached to: Coming Soon, Shorter Video Games

I had a long conversation with my brother about perceived value and video games compared with the value of a blockbuster movie. I am still concerned why games are still $60 where most Bluray movies are around half the price. Big blockbuster movies HAVE to cost more than the biggest game.

How are game publishers getting away with the $60 price tag?

Comment Covers (Score 2) 243

by Dj Stingray (#37098588) Attached to: Music Copyright War Looming

Can an artist make a "Cover Song" of his/her song out of contract of a big record label, I wonder why artists haven't thought of this. Or do record companies own everything an artist does while in contract?
The Courts

Games Workshop Sues Warhammer Online Fansite 182

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-anger-your-base-again dept.
chalkyj writes "WarhammerAlliance.com (run for the last five years as one of the leading fansites for the MMORPG Warhammer Online) is being sued by Games Workshop for the use of the 'Warhammer' name, 'cybersquatting' and 'unfair competition.' This lawsuit is yet another in Games Workshop's disturbing pattern of suing their fans and hobbyists, this time going after a legitimate fansite for their MMORPG franchise. The full complaint (PDF) has been posted online."
Censorship

Church of Scientology On Trial In France 890

Posted by kdawson from the speaking-truth-to-fraud dept.
An anonymous reader sends word that a trial has opened in Paris that could shut down Scientology in France. The organization stands accused of targeting vulnerable people for commercial gain. Scientology does not have the status of a religion there, as it does in the US, and anti-cult groups have pursued it vigorously over more than 30 years. The current case is based on complaints filed by two women in December 1998 and July 1999. Three other former members who had initially joined the complaint have withdrawn after "reaching a financial arrangement with church officials." If convicted, the seven top Scientologists in France face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of €1M. The Church of Scientology-Celebrity Centre and its Scientology Freedom Space bookshop not only face a much larger fine but also run the risk of being shut down completely.
PlayStation (Games)

Fallout 3 DLC Coming To the PS3, New Content Announced 71

Posted by Soulskill from the more-like-latestation dept.
Bethesda has announced that their packs of downloadable content for Fallout 3, previously only available to Xbox 360 and PC owners, will soon be coming to the PS3. "Operation: Anchorage will be released for PS3 in late June, followed by the release of The Pitt and Broken Steel 4-6 weeks apart." They also confirmed the existence of new DLC packs that will arrive on a similar time frame. Point Lockout will allow players to "explore a massive new swampland area filled with new quests and content," while Mothership Zeta lets you "experience an alien abduction first hand and find out if you're tough enough to survive."
Space

Satellites Collide In Orbit 456

Posted by samzenpus from the starpocalypse dept.
DrEnter writes "According to this story on Yahoo, two communications satellites collided in orbit, resulting in two large clouds of debris. The new threat from these debris clouds hasn't been fully determined yet. From the article, 'The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. Each satellite weighed well over 1,000 pounds.' This is the fifth spacecraft/satellite collision to occur in space, but the other four were all fairly minor by comparison."
Media

45% of Dutch Media-Buying Population Are "Pirates" 307

Posted by timothy from the dutch-treat dept.
Anonymous writes "A non-government study in the Netherlands found that 4.7 million Dutch Internet users 15 years and older downloaded hacked and pirated DVDs, games, and music in the last 12 months — or, about 25 percent of the Dutch population. But there may be an upside to this unauthorized sharing/distribution: 'The average [Dutch] downloader buys more DVDs, music, and games than people who never download,' with illegal downloaders representing 45 percent of consumers who purchase content legally, according to the Institute For Information Law, which administered the study."
Government

Chu's Final Breakthrough Before Taking Office 233

Posted by kdawson from the chewing-up-the-scenery dept.
KentuckyFC writes "While preparing for the job of US Secretary of Energy in the incoming Obama administration (and being director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize winner to boot), Steven Chu has somehow found time to make a major breakthrough in the world of atom interferometry. One measure of an interferometer's sensitivity is the area that its arms enclose. Chu and colleagues have found a way to increase this area by a factor of 2,500 by canceling out the noise introduced by lasers, which work as beam splitters sending atoms down different arms (abstract). One thing this makes possible is the use of different types of atoms in the same interferometer, allowing a new generation of tests of the equivalence principle. (This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing). Let's hope he's got equally impressive breakthroughs planned for his encore as US Secretary of Energy."
The Courts

RIAA May Be Violating a Court Order In California 339

Posted by kdawson from the play-nice-now dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In one of its 'ex parte' cases seeking the names and addresses of 'John Does,' this one targeting students at the University of Southern California, the RIAA obtained an order granting discovery — but with a wrinkle. The judge's order (PDF) specified that the information obtained could not be used for any purpose other than obtaining injunctions against the students. Apparently the RIAA lawyers have ignored, or failed to understand, that limitation, as an LA lawyer has reported that the RIAA is busy calling up the USC students and their families and demanding monetary settlements."
Data Storage

Data Recovered From DVD Leads To Conviction, 24-Year Sentence 231

Posted by Soulskill from the put-that-in-a-safe-place dept.
Lucas123 writes "The Santa Cruz, Calif. DA's office had been counting on a DVD with the recorded testimony of a victim in case against a serial rapist, but when they popped the video into the player, nothing came up — the disc was blank. To make matters worse, the cop who performed the original interview with the victim told the DA she never said she was 'forced,' so the judge wasn't going to allow the witness to testify in a case where her original statement to police was in conflict with her current testimony. After two local data recovery firms said there was no way to restore the data, a third was able to recover the police interview from two years earlier, which led the defendant to plead guilty earlier this month. Close call."
PlayStation (Games)

PlayStation Home Beta Opens to the Public 206

Posted by Soulskill from the where-are-the-rocket-launchers dept.
Yesterday Sony launched the open beta for PlayStation Home, the virtual world designed for PlayStation Network community members. Eurogamer has an in-depth look at the features of Home. They point out some glaring weaknesses, such as a poor communication system, a flawed business model, and the inability to form groups without entering games, something the recently revamped Xbox interface does better. "It's not alienating, it's easy to identify with, and the socialising and advertising are entirely in context. But you're left pondering the inevitable question: why would you want to spend any time here?" Home's debut to the public saw a few typical launch-day problems, but Sony was quick to address them and get things back on track. Gizmodo has some screenshots and basic information available.

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