Comment Re:GNOME has better (Score 1) 150
Do you mean Dasher?
Steam Cloud Launches This Week 69
Valve announced yesterday that their extension of Steam, called Steam Cloud, will launch later this week with the Left 4 Dead demo. Steam Cloud is "a set of services for Steam that stores application data online and allows user experiences to be consistent from any PC." We discussed an early announcement for it back in May. Valve adds that "Steam Cloud will be available to all publishers and developers using Steam, free of charge, and Valve will add Cloud support to its back catalog of Steam games. Cloud services are compatible with games purchased via Steam, at retail, and other digital outlets."
LittleBigPlanet Creations Raising Copyright Questions 66
Joystiq's Law of the Game column uses the recently released LittleBigPlanet to address the question of intellectual property rights for user-created content within and for games. At this point, Sony's ToS claims a great deal of control over users' work, unlike Second Life's, which is much more permissive. GiantBomb has a related story pointing out creations within LittleBigPlanet that are copies of other games, and how they could lead to legal troubles for Sony if they aren't quick about taking them down.
The State of Game AI 88
Gamasutra has a summary written by Dan Kline of Crystal Dynamics for this year's Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) Conference held at Stanford University. They discussed why AI capabilities have not scaled with CPU speed, balancing MMO economies and game mechanics, procedural dialogue, and many other topics. Kline also wrote in more detail about the conference at his blog.
"... Rabin put forth his own challenge for the future: Despite all this, why is AI still allowed to suck? Because, in his view, sharp AI is just not required for many games, and game designers frequently don't get what AI can do. That was his challenge for this AIIDE — to show others the potential, and necessity, of game AI, to find the problems that designers are trying to tackle, and solve them."
Submission + - Skype caught out over video enhancement 'hack' (zdnet.co.uk)
superglaze writes: "When Skype signed a deal with Logitech to enable "high quality" video calls, what it didn't make clear is that an option already existed within Skype to manually boost video quality. But Skype removed the feature, possibly to protect its new partnership. Guess what? The users of that feature cried foul, and now Skype has been forced to do a U-turn, reintroducing the option to manually increase resolution. Surely a victory for the consumer, albeit of a free product. I wonder how this will affect Skype's ongoing problem with being profitable."
Submission + - Multiformat Listening Test at 64kbps 1
prospective_user writes: "Do you think you have good ears? Think again.
The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.
Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.
The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.
Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"
The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.
Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.
The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.
Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"
Submission + - Minimig: Amiga on FPGA with GPL'd verilog code (hetnet.nl)
akkartik writes: "Minimig stands for Mini Amiga. Minimig is an FPGA-based re-implementation of the original Amiga 500 hardware. In it's current form, Minimig is a single PCB measuring only 12*12cm which makes it the smallest "Amiga" ever made and the first new "Amiga" in almost 14 years!"
Submission + - How to Swap Out and Upgrade a PS3 Hard Drive (gamepro.com)
Jason K writes: Is the stock 20GB or 60GB PS3 hard drive not enough storage for your massive saved game and video archive? Here's the simplest guide on the net on how to upgrade your PS3 hard drive. Included are step by step instructions and pics. http://www.gamepro.com/sony/ps3/games/features/127 009.shtml
Submission + - Man tries to patent "godly powers"
ErikInterlude writes: "I was originally going to select the "Patents" category as the topic, but it's a little too out there. Apparently a gentleman by the name of Christopher Anthony has filed a patent application declaring that he has "godly powers" and that he wants "wants exclusive right to the ethical use and financial gain in the use of godly powers on planet Earth". You can read the patent application here."
Submission + - Electron beam shrinks nanotubes
An anonymous reader writes: You'd think they were small enough already, but researchers at Berkeley have figured out how to shrink carbon nanotubes by zapping them with an electron beam. The new technique could help get around the major block to nanotube-based electronics — they can't be made reliably to a specification.
Submission + - Memorial Website For Freenode Founder Rob Levin
exeme writes: The memorial web site created to honor the passing of Freenode founder Rob Levin (known to many as "lilo") is now up and running. All messages received on the web site will be professionally printed and bound to be presented to Rob's family in the very near future (date yet to be announced). So far almost 500 messages have already been received by the web site and are posted for public viewing.
If you would like to leave your message to be added to both the web site and the book of condolences there is still plenty of time, just visit the memorial website and leave your message.
If you would like to leave your message to be added to both the web site and the book of condolences there is still plenty of time, just visit the memorial website and leave your message.
Feed Picking Sides in the Console War (wired.com)
Submission + - A linux PC for babyboomers
nietsch writes: We all know some people that only use their PC for browsing and emailing, but need reinstalls, cleanups and new computers, just because the thing is running windows. You know they might be so much better off with a linux pc, if only you had a way to convince them it is not harder but easier.
Fujitsu Siemens is picking up that ball and introducing a PC for the babyboomers generation. The keys are bigger to help with slight trembling hands and it runs a restricted program set on a linux OS.
Now you can finally tell your parents: "I told you so!"
Fujitsu Siemens is picking up that ball and introducing a PC for the babyboomers generation. The keys are bigger to help with slight trembling hands and it runs a restricted program set on a linux OS.
Now you can finally tell your parents: "I told you so!"
Submission + - The Music Customer as Store
Manifest writes: "Researchers in the group of Andrew Tanenbaum at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, have released the source code (BSD license) of a prototype implementation of a system, named 'DRM Paradiso', which allows consumers to buy music (or other digital content) along with the right to resell it to their friends a limited number of times without having to contact the online music store. The system allows the content owner to specify the resale rules and the system enforces these rules. They have implemented the system using Neuros OSD developer boards after adding wireless support to it. Eat that, Zune!"
Submission + - Intel launches quad-core processors
Jasen B. Lee writes: Intel today formally launched its first set of quad-core processors, which officials say should give the chipmaker a comfortable headstart on archrival AMD. AMD quad-core offerings will not be due until the release around mid-2007. Intel's quad-core Xeon 5300 and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 chipsets are now available across three platforms: servers, high-end workstations and enthusiast PCs.
Intel's quad-core chips were built by melding two of its duo-core processors into a single package, AMD's quad-core design will put four processing cores on a single piece of silicon. The difference in approach, Intel seems to acknowledge that this less elegant design is an attempt aimed to stay ahead of AMD in the multi-core processor race. AMD however, appears, remains unfazed and has no plans to bring forward its scheduled launch date next year. "The company dishes will out new technologies when it "makes sense" for its customers." — isn't this the similar response Intel made when AMD introduce Opteron 2 years back?
Intel's quad-core chips were built by melding two of its duo-core processors into a single package, AMD's quad-core design will put four processing cores on a single piece of silicon. The difference in approach, Intel seems to acknowledge that this less elegant design is an attempt aimed to stay ahead of AMD in the multi-core processor race. AMD however, appears, remains unfazed and has no plans to bring forward its scheduled launch date next year. "The company dishes will out new technologies when it "makes sense" for its customers." — isn't this the similar response Intel made when AMD introduce Opteron 2 years back?
