Journal Journal: Lacuna Expanse
Play it. Obsess over it. Write some Perl. Save the Universe from the NPC overlords.
Comment Re:Still waiting (Score 2, Interesting) 213
and now there's Postgres-XC, which looks very promising
Submission + - Ultra-Efficient Gas Engine Passes Test (technologyreview.com)
chudnall writes: Technology review has a story on a new gas engine injection system that promises increased efficiency of up to 50%.
The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidizing it to enhance combustion.
Comment Re:Anyone remember Venture Star? (Score 1) 279
According to Wikipedia, this program is not entirely dead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-33#Lockheed_Martin_continues_testing
Recently Lockheed Martin has been testing a new 1/5 scale rocket described to be similar in capabilities and design, known now simply as a "Space Reusable Launch Vehicle". Two tests were conducted secretly at the Spaceport America in New Mexico. The first on December 19, 2007 was billed as a complete success, while the August 12, 2008 launch ended in an irreparable crash after 12.5 seconds of flight. A third test on October 10, 2009, was another success.
Bad Driving May Have Genetic Basis 449
Serenissima writes "Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it — and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. 'These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away,' said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex."
Comment SMIL? (Score 2, Insightful) 541
Isn't this was SMIL was supposed to deliver? Is that dead now?
Comment Re:why? (Score 4, Funny) 346
Yo dawg, I herd u like trucks
Comment Re:Oh sure... (Score 1) 266
This is the cover story, but what *really* happened?
2 words:
Arsenal Gear
iPhone 3.0 Software Announced 619
Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 software just now in Cupertino. Here's MacWorld's live-action blow-by-blow coverage. The announcement included new features for developers and users. For developers, the big items were in-app purchasing (for example for game upgrades, map content, and subscriptions) for paid apps only; peer-to-peer connectivity via Bluetooth; giving apps access to hardware via the dock connector or Bluetooth; maps embeddable in apps; and push notifications. For users, there's finally cut-copy-paste available in all apps; search across everything in the iPhone; landscape keyboard; MMS messaging; and voice memos. Developer beta starts today and 3.0 will be available in the summer — free for all 3G phones, $10 for iPod Touch.
Japanese "Hate" For the iPhone All a Big Mistake 327
MBCook writes "AppleInsider has posted a great article explaining that Wired's story about Japanese iPhone hate was completely false and has been edited at least twice. The comments in the article were recycled and taken out of context, with those interviewed blogging about the mistakes. The piece then goes on to analyze the iPhone's standing in Japan, as well as some of the major factors working for and against it. At last it points out that the Wall Street Journal tried the same myth of failure just after the phone's launch in Japan, recycled from a myth the year before, pushed by a research company with a possible anti-Apple agenda."
ASCII Art Steganography 120
bigearcow writes "ASCII art is nothing new, but this site takes it one step further by allowing you to embed another data file within the image. The resulting ASCII art remains printable (i.e. no special unicode symbols) — this means you can print the image out, hang it on your wall, and have it look like an innocent ASCII art when it's hiding a secret document of your choice." You'll need a small (200x200 pixel max) base image from which the ASCII art will be built.
RIAA Claim of Stopping Suits "Months" Ago Is False 141
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "According to a report on Wired.com, the RIAA spokesman claimed that the RIAA has not filed any new lawsuits 'for months,' and according to the Wall Street Journal report discussed here yesterday, the RIAA stopped filing mass lawsuits 'early this fall.' Knowing that the RIAA has a problem with telling the truth, I did a little investigating, and found out that the RIAA had, in fact, commenced a wave of lawsuits just last week. Why would anyone believe anything their spokesperson says? This is an organization that has a tendency to misspeak a lot, if you know what I mean, even when under oath."
CNet has a copy of the RIAA's new form letter that it will ask ISPs to pass on to alleged copyright-infringing users. It says, in part, "This letter does not constitute a waiver of our members' rights to recover or claim relief for damages incurred by this illegal activity, nor does it waive the right to bring legal action against the user at issue for engaging in music theft."
Comment Re:Christmas? (Score 4, Informative) 123
Interesting omission:
$ grep "/python"
168
$ grep "/ruby"
23
$ grep "/perl"
570
Comment Re:Your nut-guard's wearing thin. (Score 2, Insightful) 263
Selling the most units / making the most profit does indeed make it the best console
And Windows is the best OS and McDonalds is the best hamburger and Titanic is the best movie
Multi Theft Auto - San Andreas Goes Open Source 127
dan writes " Multi Theft Auto is a third-party modification for Rockstar's hit title Grand Theft Auto San Andreas — and it has become open-source after over four years of closed source development. As a (somewhat) regular player of MTA since the early days of GTAIII, this hit me by surprise, somewhat." (The news is on the project's front page, from which dan extracts more details, below.)
