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Comment Doubletwist? (Score 5, Informative) 841

by bitkari (#28709711) Attached to: Apple Update Means Palm Pre Can No Longer Sync With iTunes
You could always use DVD Jon's DoubleTwist to sync the Palm Pre.

It reads iTunes libraries (including those irritatingly hidden away on iPods/Phones) and syncs to lots of devices quite nicely.

It's not exactly full-featured enough yet to use as your main media player, but it's really useful for moving stuff between devices.
Games

Valve Takes Optimistic View of Piracy 509

Posted by Soulskill from the non-customer-is-always-right dept.
GameDaily recently spoke with Jason Holtman, director of business development and legal affairs for Valve, about online sales and piracy. Holtman took a surprising stance on the latter, effectively taking responsibility for at least a portion of pirated games. Quoting: "'There's a big business feeling that there's piracy,' he says. But the truth is: 'Pirates are underserved customers. When you think about it that way, you think, "Oh my gosh, I can do some interesting things and make some interesting money off of it." We take all of our games day-and-date to Russia,' Holtman says of Valve. 'The reason people pirated things in Russia,' he explains, 'is because Russians are reading magazines and watching television — they say "Man, I want to play that game so bad," but the publishers respond "you can play that game in six months...maybe." We found that our piracy rates dropped off significantly,' Holtman says." Attitudes like this seem to be prevalent at Valve; last month we talked about founder Gabe Newell's comments that "most DRM strategies are just dumb."

Comment No Xbox Youtube = Microsoft's decision (Score 1) 87

by bitkari (#26496227) Attached to: YouTube Coming To the PS3 and Wii

Microsoft has a slightly different content policy on their machine.

They keep a very tight hold on what may live on their platform, and generally they try to "monetize" whatever goes on it.

No web browser, no youtube, no BBC iPlayer.

They have started to slowly embrace the concept user-created-content (and eventually free-as-in-beer content) through XNA, but the real ethos of Xbox is the ultimate walled-garden, money-tree entertainment device. Time will tell as to whether this is the best avenue for them to go down.
Media

Submission + - banned word list

Submitted by andrewjj20
andrewjj20 writes: The Lake Superior State University has released a list of banned words. the list includes gitmo, awesome, and pwned that are banned for over or misuse. Sounds like someone got pnwed too many times.
Windows

Submission + - How would you save Windows?

Submitted by Fyre2012
Fyre2012 writes: So, I've been reading /. for a few years now, like most of us. You see the usual 'Linux pwns!!', 'My Mac is the best' and 'M$ Sux!' posts with enough anecdotal evidence to stuff an elephant with, but I've yet to read a good idea of exactly how Windows can be fixed. With the advent of Vista being the end of an era, what does the /. community think Redmond can do to earn our respect and praise again? Comparing the switch from MacOS 9 to OSX, it's clear that Windows needs something more drastic than just a facelift, and needs to move forward in a way that actually resolves peoples grievances with the OS.

So, /., how would you fix Windows?
Space

Submission + - From plane to satellite by laser

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "If you ever used an Internet connection in a plane, you probably think that it's easy to communicate between an aircraft and a satellite. This is true for 'traditional' data relay applications. But recently, a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite relayed optical laser links from an aircraft over a distance of 40,000 km for the first time. It remains to be seen if this kind of optical technology can be used for routine applications. However, it is attractive because it provides interference-free communications. Read more for additional details and illustrations showing satellites communicating via lasers."
The Internet

Submission + - Russia bans online gambling

Submitted by
Online Gambling Paper
Online Gambling Paper writes: "Russia is one step closer to complete ban on online gambling. A bill which outlaws online gambling, and further allows offline gambling in only for zones of the country, was passed this week in the States lower house (the Duma), and it will become a law if passed in its current text by the Federation Council and signed by the president Putin. According to the law — after the beginning of 2009, every gambling business outside the four zones will be banned. The zones are the Altai Territory , Primorye , the Kaliningrad Region , and on the border of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory. These are territories which attract most of the international tourism. From http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-0212.html"
OS X

Mac OS X May Go Embedded? 129

Posted by Zonk from the stranger-things-have-happened dept.
VE3OGG writes "Apple Insider is reporting that Apple may very well be developing an embedded version of OSX. The report details what they believe will be the next step in Apple's future, which is extending its consumer electronics division. The first child of such a marriage between OSX and consumer electronic may be the oft-rumoured, not-yet-materialized iPhone — which it also asserts may well be released next fiscal quarter. It seems to be their opinion that with both the desktop and the phone running operating systems with similar underpinnings, 'expansive opportunities' would emerge."
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Saga of Rysom Purchased by Gameforge

Submitted by
VE3OGG
VE3OGG writes: "It would appear that the Saga of Ryzom, a massive-multiplayer-online-roleplaying-game that has been on the auction block for several weeks has finally found a buyer — Gameforge, a German-based company, a self-described gamesmith company that produces (and evidently buys) massive multiplayer online games.

"These games are adapted to the linguistic and cultural requirements of the respective market, and then cross-media and innovative viral campaigns are used to advertise and promote them to their target audiences", reads its website.

Ryzon saw a surge of interest in the last several weeks as many had hoped that it would be purchased and released as open source software that could be adapted and reused by the open source community. Sadly, it would apppear that this is not to be. The game servers, however, should be back up in time for Christmas so those who really enjoyed it may still do so through a Gameforge account."
Software

Submission + - Software for Starving Students 2007.01 Rreleased

Submitted by
McShazbot
McShazbot writes: "The 2007.01 release of Software for Starving Students is now available for download at http://softwarefor.org/downloads.html

Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). They've gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more.

More info:
* Project homepage: http://softwarefor.org/
* A complete list of included titles: http://softwarefor.org/faq.html#q5

Please help us them by seeding the torrent, spreading the word, and burning copies for your friends and family. (Nothing spreads holiday cheer like good, free software.)"
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Multiplayer Doom 2 Meets OpenGL

Submitted by
Aabra
Aabra writes: "Skulltag (a free multiplayer Doom 1/2 source port) will unveil its incredible version 97B tonight at 6pm CST in IRC. Skulltag which already adds server/client architecture to Doom 2 along with tons of high quality maps and game modes (Including Capture the Flag, Duel, and Last Man Standing) has now added OpenGL support to its source port along with a slew of other great features. You'll need the original doom2.wad to play but that's it! Come relive Doom in a way you never thought possible!"
Input Devices

Brain Wave Videogame Championship 37

Posted by Zonk from the he-can-hear-your-smack-talk-with-his-brains dept.
holy_calamity writes "The Science Museum in London is hosting a Mindball Championship next week. Pairs of opponents wired up to electroencephalogram (EEG) machines use their brain waves to push a ball towards an opponent. The challenge is that to win, the players have to relax — the ball only responds to theta waves (4-8 Hz) associated with drowsiness or alpha waves (8-12 Hz) associated with being relaxed. " The winner gets the title of Britain's Most Relaxed Mind. So ... good luck, lazy people.
Privacy

Neuroscience, Psychology Eroding Idea of Free Will 867

Posted by Zonk from the good-to-know-i've-never-offended-anyone dept.
pragueexpat writes "Do we have free will? Possibly not, according to an article in the new issue of the Economist. Entitled 'Free to choose?', the piece examines new discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and psychology that may be forcing us to re-examine the concept of free will. The specifically cite a man with paedophilic tendencies who was cured when his brain tumor was removed. 'Who then was the child abuser?', they ask. The predictable conclusion of this train of thought, of course, leads us to efforts by Britain: 'At the moment, the criminal law--in the West, at least--is based on the idea that the criminal exercised a choice: no choice, no criminal. The British government, though, is seeking to change the law in order to lock up people with personality disorders that are thought to make them likely to commit crimes, before any crime is committed.'"
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Sues AllofMP3 in US Court

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ars Technica is reporting that the big music labels have filed suit in NY court against Mediaservices, Inc, the parent company of AllofMP3.com. A copy of the lawsuit seen by Ars Technica claims that AllofMP3's business "amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of Plaintiffs' exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law." The suit seeks control of the AllofMP3.com domain as well as monetary damages. As MP3 Newswire astutely asks what is the point of suing a company that US and Russian trade negotiators already agreed to shut down? It's all conjecture, but the RIAA suit suggests AllofMP3 may be in position to delay any such closure. A peek at Alexa shows that, despite the bilateral agreement and a pullout from the major credit card companies, traffic to the site has increased over the last three months.

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