Comment All Your Face Are Belong to Us. (Score 1) 205
All Your Face Are Belong to Us.
Sorry, It had to be said.
Submission + - GameSpy's new owners begin disabling multiplayer without warning 1
OldTimeRadio writes: Over the last month, both game publishers and gaming communities alike were surprised to find their GameSpy multiplayer support suddenly disabled by GLU Mobile, who purchased GameSpy from IGN this August. Many games, including Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Swat 4, Sniper Elite, Hidden and Dangerous 2, Wings of War, Star Wars: Battlefront are nolonger able to find and in some cases even host multiplayer games. While games like Neverwinter Nights are still able to directly connect to servers if players know the IP address, less-fortunate gamers expressed outrage on GLU Mobile's "Powered by GameSpy" Facebook page.
In an open letter to their Sniper Elite gaming community today, UK game developer Rebellion explained it was helpless to change the situation:
"A few weeks ago, the online multiplayer servers for Sniper Elite were suddenly switched off by Glu, the third-party service we had been paying to maintain them...This decision by Glu was not taken in consultation with us and was beyond our control. We have been talking to them since to try and get the servers turned back on. We have been informed that in order to do so would cost us tens of thousands of pounds a year — far in excess of how much we were paying previously. We also do not have the option to take the multiplayer to a different provider. Because the game relies on Glu and Gamespy’s middleware, the entire multiplayer aspect of the game would have to be redeveloped by us, again, at the cost of many tens of thousands of pounds."
Submission + - A U.S. Apple factory may be robot city (computerworld.com)
dcblogs writes: Apple's planned investment of $100 million next year in a U.S. manufacturing facility is relatively small, but still important. A 2009 Apple video of its unibody manufacturing process has glimpses of highly automated robotic systems shaping the metal. In it, Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, described it. "Machining enables a level of precision that is just completely unheard of in this industry," he said. Apple has had three years to improve its manufacturing technology, and will likely rely heavily on automation to hold down labor costs, say analysts and manufacturers. Larry Sweet, the CTO of Symbotic, which makes autonomous mobile robots for use in warehouse distribution, described a possible scenario for Apple’s U.S. factory. First, a robot loads the aluminum block into the robo-machine that has a range of tools for cutting and drilling shapes to produce the complex chassis as a single precision part. A robot then unloads the chassis and sends it down a production line where a series of small, high-precision, high-speed robots insert parts, secured either with snap fit, adhesive bonds, solder, and a few fasteners, such as screws. At the end, layers, such as the display and glass, are added on top and sealed in another automated operation. Finally, the product is packaged and packed into cases for shipping, again with robots. "One of the potentially significant things about the Apple announcement is it could send a message to American companies — you can do this — you can make this work here," said Robert Atkinson, president of The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
Submission + - Python creator Guido van Rossum leaving Google for Dropbox (dropbox.com)
mrvan writes: "Guido van Rossum, the proclaimed python Benevolent Dictator For Life, is leaving Google in january to work for Dropbox. He is currently employed by Google, where he spends half his time developing the Python language. In their announcement, DropBox state that they relied heavily on python from the beginning, citing a mix of simplicity, flexibility, and elegance, and are excited to have GvR on the team. While this is without a doubt good news for DropBox, the big question is what this will mean for python (and for google)."
Submission + - Steve Jobs patent on iPhone declared invalid (fosspatents.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Apple's most famous multitouch software patents are increasingly coming under invalidation pressure. First the rubber-banding patent and now a patent that Apple's own lawyers planned to introduce to a Chicago jury as 'the Jobs patent'. U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949 covers a method for distinguishing vertical and horizontal gestures from diagonal movements based on an initial angle of movement. For example, everything up to a slant of 27 degrees would be considered vertical or horizontal, and everything else diagonal. The patent office now seems to think that Apple didn't invent the concept of 'heuristics' after all.
Comment Re:We did an office renovation (Score 1) 402
If you are building your new home, you owe it to yourself to lurk the cocoontech forums and check out their wiring guides (see links below). For you television locations you are going to want, at a minimum, 1 RG6 and 2 Cat6. Preferably 4 Cat6 Jacks. Hit monoprice.com for your cable and get Cat6 550Mhz cable. Because that is what you will want to use with HDMI video baluns. If you still have studs exposed you can put in conduit to add more later.
Wherever you were going to put 1 jack put in two. You can always use the second one for phones, or a network printer, or an access point.
As for your original question, if I was worried about accessing the back, I would use a two post rack and mount it sideways so the rail was to the front. With quality gear, you won't be back there that much. I did get a secondhand 42U rack but once I had it home, it was too big. I sold it and eventually just moved my equipment into an audio rack.
Cocoontech Wiring Guides
Comment Aereo should sue the broadcaster (Score 2) 250
Aereo should sue the broadcaster for spraying their antenna with copyrighted media.
Comment Re:DIY or call a pro? (Score 1) 85
Hobbyboards sells 1-wire Solar Radiation Detector. If you are interested
http://www.hobby-boards.com/store/products/Solar-Radiation-Detector.html
No relationship with the seller, but if they sell it, so do others.
Comment Simple Solution (Score 1) 218
China bans rare earth exports, US places a high tariff on Chinese imports except rare earth metals. As a very large importer of Chinese goods, this problem won't take very long to resolve.
Comment Re:Thanks a bunch (Score 1) 113
"completely lied to them" Lied to them for 6 years! Is probably still lying.
Submission + - Intel WiFi syncs with dial-up modem sounds (extremetech.com)
MrSeb writes: "A new patent from Intel hints that we might not have heard our last bleepchzzztdoingboingboing. The patent, called 'Audible authentication for wireless network enrollment,' outlines a system that uses coded bleeps, clicks, or even music to pair wireless devices. In essence, your TV would output a secret key in audible tones, and your wireless router would pick it up and grant access to the network. The obvious use case for this is keyboardless devices such as media streamers, or screenless smart devices like fridges, thermostats, and so on."
Comment Don't Hate the Player, Hate the game (Score 1) 542
Everyone is suing everyone else to get the cross licensing revenue. Once one company proves you can make money via lawsuit, It becomes the duty of all other companies to exploit this untapped revenue stream to increase shareholder value. A company is duty bound to use every advantage to the benefit of the shareholders. This includes lawsuits, PR campaigns, injunctions, and broken patent systems.
Personally I find the whole lawsuit, Intellectual property business distasteful, but it is the shape of things to come. If we had all this during the industrial revolution, we would be screwed.
Comment Re:Please (Score 1) 334
Thank you for saying this. When I read the headline, that is what I immediately thought.
Comment Free Enhanced Pat Downs For All ! (Score 1) 241
Thats right, officer, feel the resistance.
Genghis Khan, History's Greenest Conqueror 279
New research suggests that in addition to being one of history's cruelest conquerors, Genghis Khan may have been the greenest. It is estimated that the Mongol leader's invasions unintentionally scrubbed almost 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. From the article: "Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests. In other words, one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere." I guess everyone has their good points.
