less - Slashdot User

Dutch Court Punishes Theft of Virtual Property 276

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 23, 2008 @05:04PM from the pick-a-fight-your-first-day-with-the-toughest-avatar dept.

tsa writes "Last week, the Dutch court subjected two kids of ages 15 and 14 to 160 hours of unpaid work or 80 days in jail, because they stole virtual property from a 13-year-old boy. The boy was kicked and beaten and threatened with a knife while forced to log into Runescape and giving his assets to the two perpetrators. This ruling is the first of its kind for the Netherlands. Ars Technica has some more background information." In Japan, meanwhile, a woman has been arrested for "illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data" after (virtually) killing her (virtual) husband.

Submission + - No Slashdot April Fools Jokes in 2008 8

Submitted by on Tuesday April 01, 2008 @12:35AM

An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot will not be participating in the April Fools jokes this year due to a lawsuit that was settled out of court with undisclosed terms stemming from the 2007 April 1st stunts. The false stories were determined to be too egregious by a yet to be named individual. Slashdot's parent company SourceForge, Inc. found it wiser to settle out of court then a lengthy battle that was obviously going to span several months.

The ponies will be missed.

Journal SPAM: "Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here" 3

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday March 18, 2008 @02:07PM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

Feed Engadget: The $20 iPod touch upgrade: really for legal reasons or no? (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Monday January 21, 2008 @03:52PM

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

So the rising discontent with Apple's new habit of selective feature enabling got us thinking -- while we're not experts on the subject, the generally accepted reasoning for the $20 iPod touch upgrade fee is the accounting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: iPhone and Apple TV updates are free since revenue from those products is realized as a subscription over a period of time, but iPod touch updates can't be free since Apple just records that revenue directly. That certainly makes sense to us when applied to things like the 802.11n Enabler, which was trivially cheap and turned on unadvertised hardware features, but it strikes us as being a pretty big stretch when applied to a $20 package of new software applications. iPod name or no, the iPod touch is essentially a little computer, and the whole purpose of software is to enable "significant unadvertised new features" on a computer. For Apple (or anyone) to say that a mail app is a "significant new feature" for a computer is pushing the line just a bit far, and it makes us wonder how the company accounts for new versions of iTunes, QuickTime, and Safari, each of which add new features to already-sold Macs -- and how things are going to play out when the iPhone / iPod touch SDK is released next month. We've got a call into Apple to get to the bottom of it all, we'll let you know what (if anything) we find out.

Disclaimer: Although this post was written by an attorney, it is not meant as legal advice or analysis and should not be taken as such.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Submission + - New Star Trek Trailer Online

Submitted by

roelbj

on Monday January 21, 2008 @02:45PM

roelbj writes: "The first teaser trailer for Star Trek XI (titled, simply, Star Trek) is now available on the movie's official website. In the trailer one can catch a glimpse of the "new" old Enterprise as reimagined by the J.J. Abrams team leading the Star Trek universe's reboot."

Submission + - Stalingrad 1942-1943 (funnytogo.com)

Submitted by

milos31

on Monday January 21, 2008 @02:09PM

milos31 writes: "Full multimedia article about battle for Stalingrad : 4 videos, over 150 images, maps, books, links and more"

Submission + - Bizarre self-destructing palm tree found

Submitted by

Smivs

on Thursday January 17, 2008 @02:01PM

Smivs writes: "A giant self-destructing palm tree has been discovered in Madagascar, that is so big it can be seen on Google Earth. The palm is 20m (60ft) high with leaves 5m (16ft) long, the tallest tree of its type in the country, but for most of its life — around 100 years — it appears fairly unremarkable apart from its size. However, when it flowers, it puts so much energy into an impressive flower-spike, that it eventually collapses and dies. Dr John Dransfield, who announced the tree in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, is baffled as to how the it came to be in the country. It bears a resemblance to a species of palm found in regions of Asia; 6,000km away.It is thought that the palm has gone through a remarkable evolution since Madagascar split with India some 80m years ago."

Submission + - Vista under consideration by 48% of IT leaders (news.com)

Submitted by

Technical Writing Geek

on Thursday January 17, 2008 @01:46PM

Technical Writing Geek writes: "Adoption of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system is starting to pick up among businesses in the U.S.

Just under half — 48 percent — of IT decision makers in the U.S. are using or evaluating Vista, according to a poll by IT services firm CDW.

http://www.news.com/Poll-Businesses-in-U.S.-warm-to-Vista/2100-1016_3-6226572.html?tag=nefd.top"

Slashdot CSS Redesign Winner Announced 882

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 30, 2006 @02:00PM from the don't-need-me-any-more dept.

The winner of the contest is Alex Bendiken. He will receive a new laptop as well as bragging rights as the creator of the new look of Slashdot. You can see his winning design in a near complete form now. Feel free to comment on any compatibility issues. We plan to take this live in the next few days. There will undoubtedly be a few minor glitches, but please submit bug reports and we'll sort it out as fast as possible. Also congratulations to Peter Lada, our runner up. He gets $250 credit at ThinkGeek. Thanks to everyone who participated- it was a lot of fun.

Trolltech Going Public 141

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday May 24, 2006 @03:32PM from the make-a-mint-and-get-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After 12 years in business, Trolltech, the company whose founders created KDE, has filed an application for listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE). From the article: 'The OSE reports receiving the application the following day, and says Trolltech is now subject to disclosure of information requirements. IPO rumors sprang up around Trolltech last Fall, when the company hired Juha Christensen and Tod Nielsen in September, and then added Benoit Schillings and Dr. Karsten Homann in October. The company said in January that it doubled its design wins, among other significant 2005 achievements', particularly in the arena of using Linux as OS to power mobile phones."

Atari Selling Studios To Avoid Bankruptcy 46

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 17, 2006 @07:27PM from the all-hands-abandon-ship dept.

hammersuit writes "GameDaily Biz is reporting that Atari has put up five studios for sale in an effort to stave off bankruptcy once again. These include Shiny Studios (thought to be working on next-gen Earthworm Jim games) and Reflections (working on yet another sequel to the Driver series)."

Alzheimer's Progresses Faster in Educated People 226

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 17, 2006 @10:17AM from the dumber-they-are-the-softer-they-fall dept.

Nrbelex writes "Bloomberg news is reporting that 'High levels of education speeds up the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in next month's issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Mental agility dropped every year among Alzheimer's disease patients with each additional year of education, leading to an additional 0.3 percent deterioration, the researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York found. The speed of thought processes and memory were particularly affected.'"

Congressman Quizzes Net Companies on Shame 459

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 17, 2006 @08:56AM from the ethical-dilemmas dept.

mjdroner writes "Cnet has a transcript of the House of Representatives hearing on net censorship with Google, Microsoft, Cisco, and Yahoo reps. At one point, Rep. Tom Lantos asks if Microsoft is ashamed of their actions in China. Microsoft: 'We comply with legally binding orders whether it's here in the U.S. or China.' Lantos: 'Well, IBM complied with legal orders when they cooperated with Nazi Germany. Those were legal orders under the Nazi German system.'"

Comment Battlefield 1942 (Score 1) 804

by less on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @04:43AM (#8246828) Attached to: Good Online FPS Games/Servers For Beginners?

Battlefield 1942 is imo currently the best alternative for a gamer that doesn't want to invest major amounts of time and money but still wants a game that doesn't get boring after a few tries. It allows beginners and hardcore gamers alike to play "peacefully" together. It's easy to begin with, has high activity (servers etc) and a healthy age mix among the players.

The game is extremely versatile with many different player classes, vehicles (tanks, planes, boats, apcs), maps and mods. There's room for a gamer just to explore new stuff for an hour or so, just to check out the landscape or cities.

Given the current pricing of the game it's also a very cheap investment ($25 or so, no monthly fees) and for continuity there are websites like BF Tracks that records all your activity over time wrt to performance, medals, play time etc.

Slashdot Top Deals