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Submission + - A personal appeal from the fans of Space Quest (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by flyingmonkfish
flyingmonkfish writes: Remember the old-school Sierra On-Line Space Questseries? Yes, back in the day before live Internet pr0n. With the original IP tied up in a giant Activision-Gordian-Knot, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe ("The Two Guys from Andromeda"), the creators of SQ, have set up their own indie studio to invent a whole new hilarious universe, new characters, and puzzles; maybe respecting the style of art and comedy for which they are remembered. They sure aren't telling us what they'll do, so don't sue us if it turns out to be a space themed version of Animal Crossing! SpaceVenture is rumoured to lambaste sci-fi franchises, and the team claims that none are safe, including Doctor Who, Stargate, Avatar, and others. One thing is certain, they'll make fun of YOU. They've lined up an all-star voice-acting cast, including Rob Paulsen (off-camera voice on "Funniest Pets and People"), Ellen McLain (cut-scenes on Godzilla: Unleashed), and radio legend Gary Owens (pre-recorded station ID announcer for CHPQ-FM). They've left promotion entirely up to fans, who have done SQ marathons, comics, fan videos and posts such as these on every corner of the Internet. Sex tape coming soon. Best of all, as funding milestones are reached the team releases Chrome Web Store exclusive prototypes; 5 minute long somewhat playable concept art demonstrating how l33t their HTML5 sk1lzz are! The Kickstarter project targets everything under the sun — PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android, none of them well — for release and includes expensive swag and rewards that can land you in the game itself — for the price of a nice car. So go on and look if you're a diehard fan of adventure games with sci-fi parody — yes, the two of you. Did we mention we're desperate? Funding has bottomed out so we're now spamming every site we know of. Join in the fun and get banned!
Games

Submission + - Sony patent could see games interrupted by compulsory ads (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a patent that could see video games interrupted by compulsory advertising. The patent's abstract describes the suspension of "interactive content" in order to display an advertisement, after which interaction resumes. The patent suggests that a new mode of in-game advertising is under consideration, which to date has seen visual advertising and product placement appearing in games without overtly interfering with play. The development hints that, in future, in-game advertising may adopt a model much closer to commercial television.
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 pricing "to kill netbooks" (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Windows 8 pricing will be the final nail in the coffin of netbooks, a leading PC manufacturer has told PC Pro.

The absence of a Windows 8 Starter edition will add around $100 to the cost of selling netbooks, an executive at an unnamed top-tier manufacturer told PC Pro. The executive added that the company would like to continue making netbooks, but that would no longer be feasible in a declining market that has been savaged by the emergence of tablets.

Netbook manufacturers could stay on Windows 7 or turn to Linux, although high return rates of early Linux netbooks has deterred some manufacturers from installing open-sources OSes."

Submission + - Technicolor sets sites on Apple et al (nzherald.co.nz)

Submitted by Master Moose
Master Moose writes: When Apple's next iPhone hits store shelves, Technicolor's engineers will rush to get the handset — not to make calls or play games, but to rip it apart.

Technicolor, an unprofitable French company that invented the process for colour movies used in The Wizard of Oz and countless other classics, plans to cash in on its 40,000 video, audio and optics patents to turn its fortunes around.

Although Technicolor signed its first licensing deal in the 1950s, de Russe (executive vice-president of intellectual property at Technicolor) said, "it feels like the rest of the world has just woken up to why patents are interesting".

Patent licensing is the most profitable business of the company.
Google

Submission + - Sergey Brin Demos Google Glasses Prototype (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Folks have been clamoring for more on Google's Project Glass and Sergey Brin--one of the co-founders of Google is now burying himself in the R&D department associated with its development. Recently Brin appeared on “The Gavin Newsom Show” on The Current with the prototype glasses perched on his face. The visit was actually a bit awkward as you can see in the video, as it’s a lot of Brin and Newsom describing what they’re seeing via the glasses with no visual for the audience. However, Brin dropped a bomb when he stated that he’d like to have the glasses out as early as next year."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Funding Open Source with Donations. Is it practical? (lunduke.com)

Submitted by TroysBucket
TroysBucket writes: The developer of Linux Tycoon (and host of the Linux Action Show) is trying to gather enough support through donations to release all of his software under the GPL and continue to develop them full time. Is this a pipe dream? Or is this a viable model for funding Open Source development?
Canada

Submission + - Open Source could be half the solution to the Quebec's student protests. (ledevoir.com) 2

Submitted by
HommeDeJava
HommeDeJava writes: "Today, three professionnal associations which are promoting Open Source software join their voices to claim that use of Open Source software could cover half the increase of tuition fees and put and end to the student's crisis in Québec. (http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/351050/logiciels-libres)

Since more than 100 days Québec, about 150,000 students, roughly one-third of Quebec's post-secondary student population, are boycotting their courses and manifesting against increasing tuition fees and political corruption.
( http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Quebec+student+protests+what+keeping+them+motivated/6684697/story.html)

At the same time, the Charest Liberal government's has announced it will upgrade Microsoft licenses for about 1.4 billion dollars. (http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-quebecoise/201203/30/01-4511088-quebec-doit-reduire-sa-dependance-a-microsoft-dit-le-pq.php)"
Transportation

Submission + - How Ford Sync could change the tech industry (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When you think “cutting edge technology,” chances are you don’t think of the automotive industry. Until quite recently, the center stack in most vehicles had scarcely changed in 20 years, but that's not the case any more. Ford is rethinking auto tech and could become a centralizing force in the technology industry. The company has emphasized that shipping with proper device support isn’t just about providing better service, it helps drive the use of hands-free and voice recognition technology that promotes safer driving and less-distracted drivers. Pressure like this could be one reason carriers start to clean up their act when it comes to mobile OS upgrades.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Find a job in China for non-native speaker 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: My fiancée has recently been accepted into a Chinese university into their phd program, and I've been looking at jobs in China (specifically the Beijing area) and not having any success. I'm a developer with 8 years of experience (java), mostly on the server side, so I'm not lacking in the general experience, but the problem is I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. I am a native English speaker from Canada though. The only jobs I've had any responses from were teaching positions for simple English which isn't exactly my first choice. Has anyone had any experience or success as a programmer finding a job in China, without being able to speak the native language? Any websites I should be focusing on?
China

Submission + - Backdoor Found in China-Made US Military Chip 5

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Information Age reports that the Cambridge University researchers have discovered that a microprocessor used by the US military but made in China contains secret remote access capability, a secret "backdoor" that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing. The "bug" is in the actual chip itself, rather than the firmware installed on the devices that use it. This means there is no way to fix it than to replace the chip altogether. "The discovery of a backdoor in a military grade chip raises some serious questions about hardware assurance in the semiconductor industry," writes Cambridge University researcher Sergei Skorobogatov. "It also raises some searching questions about the integrity of manufacturers making claims about [the] security of their products without independent testing." The unnamed chip, which the researchers claim is widely used in military and industrial applications, is "wide open to intellectual property theft, fraud and reverse engineering of the design to allow the introduction of a backdoor or Trojan", Does this mean that the Chinese have control of our military information infrastructure asks Rupert Goodwins? "No: it means that one particular chip has an undocumented feature. An unfortunate feature, to be sure, to find in a secure system — but secret ways in have been built into security systems for as long as such systems have existed.""
Medicine

Submission + - The race to $1,000 human genome sequencing (patexia.com)

Submitted by
ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: "Just one decade ago, sequencing an entire human genome cost upwards of $10 million and took about three years to complete. Now, several companies are racing to provide technology that can sequence a complete human genome in one day for less than $1,000.
A genome sequence for $1,000 was a pipe dream, just a few years ago,” said Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, in a statement provided by Life Technologies Corp., one of the companies developing gene sequencing technology. “A $1,000 genome in less than one day was not even on the radar, but will transform the clinical applications of sequencing."

Submission + - TomTom flames OpenStreetMap (tomtom.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TomTom Navigation has a recently launched article on what they call the 'negative aspects' of open data projects as OpenStreetMap. As there are no hard facts and details to the studies they refer, the OSM community identified this release as classical 'Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt'.
http://www.systemed.net/blog/index.php?post=23

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