Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 417
(ahem) ^^^^this^^^^
John Carmack To Cut Space Tourism Prices 50% 185
An anonymous reader writes "Looks like John Carmack, through Armadillo Aerospace, will be battling Burt Rutan and Richard Branson to make space travel affordable. From the article: 'Space Adventures is going to use an Armadillo Technologies rocket to launch amateur astronauts 62 miles into the sky. Nothing new, except that they will do it at half the price of Virgin Galactic's ticket, and in a real rocket!' Perhaps I'll visit space, after all."
Comment It's not just Bing... (Score 1) 315
It's not just Bing that lit the fire under Google that helped make this happen, Facebook is actually their most potent threat - wrote about it here. They're challenging Google for ad revenue, for search, for email, the list goes on. I saw some pretty compelling discussion on Twitter speculating about how long till Facebook comes out with their own browser.
So the question I have is, will we see a Facebook superbowl ad next year?
Comment Love the story, thought it was a dupe/old but... (Score 1) 149
I read this and thought, haven't I seen this before? But no, apparently The Telegraph published a similar story in 2008 about another gentleman, living in england, who has also taken some amazing space photographs from his "garden shed." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/3526362/Amateur-astronomer-captures-dawn-of-the-universe-from-back-garden-observatory.html - interesting.
Comment Re:Try to give them help and this is what they get (Score 1) 265
Right - communications off island provided by Ericsson? I don't think so. That and hams aren't trying to provide emergency communications forever- fundamentally they really are just there because they have radios and they hear people asking for help- if you had one and you heard someone asking for help would you respond? That's how it goes and that's basically how amateur radio helps out in disasters. Ham radios are everywhere - when disaster strikes the closest working radio is fired up and whoever hears the call from that radio on the other side does whatever they can do to help the person making the call. It's that simple.
Comment Re:Anyone else outgrow Duke Nukem? (Score 1) 195
Great post - something else to note was the Duke scripting engine- it was so much fun to get in there and tweak it - they got that much right in terms of mods, but beyond that I agree Quake excelled (and benefited as you said).
Comment Jon St. John's Duke Nukem outtakes (Score 3, Funny) 195
I just have to share this here - if you are a Duke Nukem fan... or really if you are just a fan of 'the funnay' then be sure to visit 3D Realms' Duke Nukem outtakes collection page: http://www.3drealms.com/duke3d/outtakes.html (note, it says realplayer is required by they also have
Comment Re:BS Rolls downhil (Score 1) 242
Nobody got fired for shipping a buggy product, but people have been fired for not meeting deadlines.
That, right there, explains the entire situation. No need for a 24 page paper.
Comment Alien Swarm: Infested (Score 1) 100
Congrats to The Nameless Mod team, the mod (well, now a full retail game in development) I'm really looking forward to is Alien Swarm: Infested - been in development since 2005 - http://www.blackcatgames.com/swarm/ - I played the UT2004 total conversion mod back in the day and it was AWESOME.
Bring it on! (also DNF)
Submission + - Wii Virtual Console games can be updated later on
Wowzer writes: "According to the Q&A section of Wii Shop Channel, game developers can update already released Virtual Console games free of charge. From the article: "The 'Update' button indicates there are enhancements for the game. If you have already downloaded the game, you may select 'Update' to download." We need to get a message across to Nintendo that as an update we want Virtual Console games (NES, Turbografx-16, Genesis, SNES and N64) that have local multiplayer to allow online multiplayer play with the friends on your Wii buddy list. Picture Bomberman, Mario Kart, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter II, Super Smash Bros."
Submission + - When will the rest of us be able to buy a Wii?
An anonymous reader writes: The Wii and PS3 consoles look pretty neat. However, I'm a grad student so I have neither the time to wait in lines nor the money to eBay a console. Does anyone have any solid strategies to buy one despite these constraints? How long until "the rest of us" will be able to just walk into a store and buy one?
Submission + - Making the wireless Wii sensor bar
Brian Moore writes: "I recently realized through a couple of videos and explanations that the Nintendo Wii's sensor bar actually does no sensing at all. Actually, it does quite the opposite and solely sends an IR signal to be read by the Wii's remote. I realized therein that a wireless "sensor bar" could easily be made with just a couple IR LEDs, a power source (4 AA batteries), and something (albeit ugly) to keep it all together. Thus, the DIY wireless Wii sensor bar was born. This helps those users with their image being far away from the Wii where the normal sensor bar cannot reach, such as the case with projector owners. There's also a short video explaining the process. Enjoy!"
Submission + - Didn't get a Wii? Watch some one who did!
h8s2Loose writes: "Like many people your sitting at home wishing to be playing on one of the new next gen consoles. Well there are kind people like this guy. Who will be playing Wii until the 26th only sleeping four hours out of every day and only taking breaks to go pee or run the random errand for his parents. Credit goes to Shawn Hogan for finding this."
Journal Journal: eBay may be ripping off PS3 and Wii sellers
I was one of the lucky ones able to get a PS3 on launch day. I did what all but one other person my line did, I put it up on eBay.
However when I posted the auction I noticed that it wasn't getting any bids. Every other unit I looked at was getting bids within seconds of getting posted on eBay.
I decided to search for my auction. It wasn't listed. I was able to get to it through My eBay but no search I did turned up any results.
Submission + - eBay may be ripping off PS3 and Wii sellers
PrairieNinja writes: I was one of the lucky ones able to get a PS3 on launch day. I did what all but one other person my line did, I put it up on eBay.
However when I posted the auction I noticed that it wasn't getting any bids. Every other unit I looked at was getting bids within seconds of getting posted on eBay.
I decided to search for my auction. It wasn't listed. I was able to get to it through My eBay but no search I did turned up any results.
I thought it might be because I wasn't paying to have it promoted and it was getting lost on the page. I payed the $20 to promote it to the top and it still wasn't there.
After 4 hours of no bids and no watchers I decided to pull the auction and relist.
The second time it showed up immediately in the listings and I had bidders within seconds and about six watchers in the first hour. My first auction was for sure lost in the depths of eBay.
I dismissed it and submitted a complaint to eBay assuming it was a technical glitch.
Today my Brother came over with a Nintendo Wii and we put it upon eBay, or so we thought. After building the auction and posting it we discovered that the Wii never made it up on the listing. No matter how we post it, it never shows up.
I pulled the auction and relisted it and it still isn't showing up.
I have met all of the special eBay rules for each of these items. Two of the auctions went up immediately (I had a deadbeat bidder the second time I listed the PS3 so now it is in its third attempt).
My eBalance was at zero when I started all of this, now it's at $70+ just in listing fees and I haven't sold a thing yet.
I know how to use eBay and I know that the problem is not on my end. I really feel that eBay is skimming extra fees from users by hiding its auctions.
I have tried to submit complaints to eBay but their policy is to reply within 24-48 hours. Most PS3 and Wii auctions are 24 hours. It seems more than convenient that this problem is occurring on 24 hour auctions.
I hope it is just a technical glitch, but intentional or not, eBay is making extra off of listing feels for items that aren't showing up in the auction listings.
However when I posted the auction I noticed that it wasn't getting any bids. Every other unit I looked at was getting bids within seconds of getting posted on eBay.
I decided to search for my auction. It wasn't listed. I was able to get to it through My eBay but no search I did turned up any results.
I thought it might be because I wasn't paying to have it promoted and it was getting lost on the page. I payed the $20 to promote it to the top and it still wasn't there.
After 4 hours of no bids and no watchers I decided to pull the auction and relist.
The second time it showed up immediately in the listings and I had bidders within seconds and about six watchers in the first hour. My first auction was for sure lost in the depths of eBay.
I dismissed it and submitted a complaint to eBay assuming it was a technical glitch.
Today my Brother came over with a Nintendo Wii and we put it upon eBay, or so we thought. After building the auction and posting it we discovered that the Wii never made it up on the listing. No matter how we post it, it never shows up.
I pulled the auction and relisted it and it still isn't showing up.
I have met all of the special eBay rules for each of these items. Two of the auctions went up immediately (I had a deadbeat bidder the second time I listed the PS3 so now it is in its third attempt).
My eBalance was at zero when I started all of this, now it's at $70+ just in listing fees and I haven't sold a thing yet.
I know how to use eBay and I know that the problem is not on my end. I really feel that eBay is skimming extra fees from users by hiding its auctions.
I have tried to submit complaints to eBay but their policy is to reply within 24-48 hours. Most PS3 and Wii auctions are 24 hours. It seems more than convenient that this problem is occurring on 24 hour auctions.
I hope it is just a technical glitch, but intentional or not, eBay is making extra off of listing feels for items that aren't showing up in the auction listings.
