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PlayStation (Games)

Split Screen Co-op Is Dying 362

Posted by Soulskill from the just-like-lan-parties dept.
kube00 writes "Split-screen co-op and local multiplayer are becoming things of the past. What happened to cramming a bunch of gamers into a room with two TVs and doing a system link match in Halo? Where have the all-night GoldenEye matches gone? Like the arcades of gamers' youth, the local multiplayer and co-op bonding experience has been replaced with individual gamers and a network."
Graphics

The First Photograph of a Human 138

Posted by samzenpus from the fist-cheese dept.
wiredog writes "The Atlantic has a brief piece on what is likely to be the first photograph (a daguerreotype) showing a human. From the article: 'In September, Krulwich posted a set of daguerreotypes taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in Cincinnati 162 years ago, on September 24, 1848. Krulwich was celebrating the work of the George Eastman House in association with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Using visible-light microscopy, the George Eastman House scanned several plates depicting the Cincinnati Waterfront so that scholars could zoom in and study the never-before-seen details.'"

Comment Re:Google TV will kill 3d TV (Score 1) 535

by JoeWalsh (#33894136) Attached to: Huge Shocker — 3D TVs Not Selling

I just finally bought my first HDTV last month (my old TV finally died). After researching a bit, I bought an LED-backlit LCD TV and a Blu-ray player. And you're right, in addition to the image quality being great, having networking built in is awesome. I have access to You-Tube, Netflix, Vudu, and a slew of other services all right from the TV and the Blu-ray player both. I'm looking forward to when Hulu Plus will be available on the TV (or maybe I'll break down a buy a Roku or some other device that offers it). When I get Hulu Plus, I'm cutting the cable and never looking back.

Anyway, I'm very happy I wasn't an early adopter of HDTV. My coworkers who were have sets with a single HDMI jack, no built-in networking, less contrast, and image blurring when things move quickly. And they paid five times as much for theirs!

I'm treating 3D the same way. If it's around in five years, I'll consider upgrading. But for now, forget it. Who knows what the standard will eventually be? Who know whether it's just a fad or if it will stick around? And who knows what improvements are on the horizon?
Image

Whisky Made From Diabetics' Urine 226

Posted by samzenpus from the I've-tasted-this-before dept.
It's doubtful that any other distillery will come up with a whisky that tastes like Gilpin Family Whisky because of its secret ingredient: urine. Researcher and designer James Gilpin uses the sugar rich urine of elderly diabetics to make his high-end single malt whisky. From the article: "The source material is acquired from elderly volunteers, including Gilpin's own grandmother, Patricia. The urine is purified in the same way as mains water is purified, with the sugar molecules removed and added to the mash stock to accelerate the whisky's fermentation process. Traditionally, that sugar would be made from the starches in the mash."
Image

Believing You Are Very Good Or Evil Boosts Your Physical Capabilities 192

Posted by samzenpus from the strength-of-heart dept.
Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."
Cellphones

Porting Lemmings In 36 Hours 154

Posted by Soulskill from the first-in-line dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Aaron Ardiri challenged himself to port his classic PalmOS version of Lemmings to the iPhone, Palm Pre, Mac, and Windows. The porting was done using his own dev environment, which creates native C versions of the game. He liveblogged the whole thing, and finished after only 36 hours with an iPhone version and a Palm Pre version awaiting submission, and free versions for Windows and Mac available on his site."
Image

Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times 106

Posted by samzenpus from the get-your-face-out-there dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star — a Street View star!"
Image

New Speed Cameras Catch You From Space 351

Posted by samzenpus from the no-place-to-run-or-speed dept.
A new kind of speed camera that uses satellites to measure average speed over long distances is being tested in Britain. The "Speedspike" system combines plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver to calculate average speed between any two points in the area being monitored. From the article: "Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled 'number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day.' It also referred to the system's 'low cost' and ease of installation." I can't wait to see the episode of MythBusters where they try to avoid getting a speeding ticket from a satellite.

Comment Re:GNU and Linux, not Sierra (Score 1) 149

by JoeWalsh (#31914614) Attached to: 25th Anniversary of <em>Hackers</em>

That's true. In 1984, though, he could easily have written about the kids in their bedrooms learning how to program using their Commodores, Ataris, TIs, Apples, etc. rather than about Sierra, a commercial enterprise that turns out to be of little historical significance. While it just so happens that those kids in their bedrooms grew up to dominate the world of computing...

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Thus spake the master programmer: "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

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