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PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Hacked DX10 for Windows appears

Submitted by Oddscurity
Oddscurity writes: According to The Inquirer someone managed to write a wrapper allowing DirectX 10 applications to run on platforms other than Vista. The Alky Project claims to have reverse-engineered Geometry Shader code, allowing Windows games to run on Windows XP, MacOSX and Linux. The Inquirer is understandably cautious about these claims, urging readers to investigate the releases themselves to assertain whether or not it's a hoax.
Programming

Submission + - ZX Spectrum is 25 years old today.

Submitted by JaJ_D
JaJ_D writes: The BBC has got a nice little piece of history.

25 years ago today the ZX Spectrum was released (in the UK), and for £125 (250 USD at todays excahnge rate) you could get a 16 kB of RAM or with 48 kB for £175 (350 USD)

This was my first introduction to computing, and I still have my 16k (almost mint) and my 48k (not so mint) at home in the loft, and I can still remember the first program I wrote!

Looking back it is amazing the performance improvement of computing, in fact the standard size of an empty Word XP document couldn't be loaded into the memory of this little thing.

In the UK at least, this computer, more than anything else kicked off the whole home computing market, and triggered the first geeks sat at home in their bedrooms writing some fantastic code on this little thing.

Jaj
Portables

Submission + - Antec Notebook Cooler S Review @ Tweaknews.net

Submitted by
Nathan
Nathan writes: "Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/antec_notebook_co oler_s/
Article PIC: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/antec_notebook_co oler_s/img/email.jpg

Article Snippet:

"At last, a notebook cooler that is actually practical. If anyone is in the market for a notebook cooling solution, your searching is over. This product is small, simple, ergonomic and actually useful. Finally someone realizes that you don't have to use a huge metal pad to cool a laptop accordingly.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linspire to be based on Kubuntu

Submitted by
FliesLikeABrick
FliesLikeABrick writes: "The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter has unveiled that Linspire announced that they will be switching to base their distribution off Ubuntu. With their polished KDE desktop this makes Linspire the latest in the impressive list of operating systems based off Kubuntu.

It was also announced that Linspire's Click and Run install programme would be added to the Ubuntu archive, giving users of all Ubuntu distributions easy access to a large range of free and proprietary software."
Input Devices

Submission + - Cool interface technology

Submitted by Tom
Tom writes: Defense Tech and SFGate.com have a video demonstrating use of "Perceptive Pixel"'s interface technology. They don't want you to call it "The Minority Report" tech, but that's probably the easiest way to describe it to mainstream users. Either that or "a touchscreen that doesn't suck". Looks like a cool way to organize your photos. (Or it would be, without the 6-figure price tag.)
Censorship

Submission + - Scientists Threatened For "Climate Denial"

Submitted by Forrest Kyle
Forrest Kyle writes: A former professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg has recieved multiple death threats for questioning the extent to which human activities are driving global warming. From the article, "'Western governments have pumped billions of dollars into careers and institutes and they feel threatened,' said the professor. 'I can tolerate being called a sceptic because all scientists should be sceptics, but then they started calling us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It has got really nasty and personal.' Richard Lindzen, the professor of Atmospheric Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology...recently claimed: 'Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves labelled as industry stooges. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science.'"
Intel

Submission + - Intel's Top Dog Ate His Own Homework

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Top Intel execs — including Chairman Craig Barrett, CEO Paul Otellini, and sales chief Sean Maloney — are believed to have deleted e-mails relevant to an antitrust lawsuit filed by AMD. Otellini reportedly was under the impression that IT was responsible for backing up his e-mails, so he didn't need to retain them. Intel has admitted to a series of mistakes in preserving e-mail, including the failure of some employees to comply with a company directive to perform manual document retention procedures."
Google

Submission + - Making Sense out of Census Data with Google Earth

Submitted by
mikemuch
mikemuch writes: "Irman Haque has developed a mashup of Google Earth with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, called gCensus. The app uses the XML format known as KML (Keyhole Markup Language), which can create shapes and colors on the maps displayed by GE. Haque had to build custom code libraries (which he's made available as open source) that could generate KML for the project. He also had to extract the relevant data from the highly counter-intuitive Census Bureau files and store them in a database that could handle geographic data. gCensus lets you do stuff like create colorful overlays on maps showing population ages, race, and family size distributions."
The Internet

Submission + - Rural Idahoans Can't Read This--But Oregonians, Wa

Submitted by
sharon fisher
sharon fisher writes: "http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/print/14749/ Some rural Idahoans are still being told that they can't have access to high-speed, broadband Internet that would give them access to features such as video. Exactly how many don't have it who want it is unclear, but it could be up to 10% of the population. While Jim Schmit, President of Idaho Operations for Qwest, told attendees of the Emerging Directions in Economic Development conference in Boise on Friday that "virtually all" Idahoans had such access, about a quarter of the economic development professionals attending indicated that they represented a community that didn't have it yet, and most of the questions related to how their communities could get the access they'd been told wasn't available. Meanwhile, in rural Oregon and Washington, communities are using high-speed Internet access to attract new business and improve public safety. In Washington, the Legislature passed in 2000 a law that allowed Public Utility Districts to deliver wholesale broadband Internet to retail providers. Grant County, a rural area in the center of the state, invested $40 million in broadband infrastructure, said Thomas Jones, vice president of 180 Connect Inc., a Toronto, Canada, provider of technical support services who spoke at the broadband infrastructure panel. Between broadband access and the cheap power provided by the Grand Coulee Dam, the area has been able to attract installations from vendors such as Microsoft and Google, Jones said. "None of these are in Idaho, and I think there's a reason why," he said. For example, the Gorge amphitheater — in addition to being supplied with breathtaking views and popular music — also has broadband Internet, and the House of Blues, which owns the facility, has considered using the facility as a backup to its Los Angeles offices in the case of a natural disaster. In fact, this year the Washington Legislature is considering a pilot program to enable the public utility districts to provide broadband Internet services on a retail basis as well as wholesale. Similarly, though Tom Pickren of Tropos Networks said during the panel that a technology called WiMAX is not yet available, it is already being used over a 700-mile area in eastern Oregon. WiMAX is similar to the wifi technology that is currently widely used, but is based upon cellular phone communication methods, which means it has a much broader range than wifi — up to 30 miles — and it is being looked at as a means to provide broadband Internet to rural America. Much of the cost of the eastern Oregon WiMAX network was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, to protect chemical weapons located in the area. A lack of broadband Internet not only limits the economic development of rural Idaho, but limits public education as well. During the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hearings on public education, state superintendent of instruction Tom Luna indicated that his department was considering providing students with electronic textbooks, which are both cheaper than published textbooks and can be more easily updated. Consequently, children who live in areas without broadband Internet could end up being limited to published textbooks, Representative Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene and chairman of the House Education Committee, told JFAC. This could raise the spectre of a two-tiered educational system, leaving rural Idahoans even further behind. "A school with dialup is a school that is disconnected from the infrastructure they need to survive," said Senator Eliot Werk, D-Boise, during JFAC hearings. Meanwhile, some rural economic development professionals reported that they had trouble getting cooperation from incumbent telephone and Internet companies — while such a company might not find it financially feasible to supply an area with broadband Internet, at the same time it doesn't want to free the community to find solutions elsewhere. On the other hand, it could be worse. One presenter noted that four states completely prohibited any municipality from participating in a broadband initiative. "Fortunately, Idaho isn't one of them," he noted. At least, not yet."
Google

Submission + - Orkut: You email address can be hacked easily

Submitted by
vikrantsharma1
vikrantsharma1 writes: "Orkut has been in the midst of privacy and security concerns since its launch. There have been many ways through which you can get to know the email address of any person on Orkut even when it is not displayed in the public profile. Although, Google keeps on fixing bugs as and when they are highlighted; however, there seems to be a long way before they can make Orkut a secure social network.

One of the method to know the email address which I came across has been listed below which you can try yourself.

Steps:
1. Open the profile of the person whose email address you wish to know. It can be anyone in the Orkut network.
2. Click on "Ignore User"
3. Open GTalk and sign in with your ID
4. Click on Settings and select "Blocked"
5. You will find the email address of the person whom you blocked on Orkut.

You can see the sceenshots of the same at http://vikrantweb.blogspot.com/2007/03/orkut-your- email-address-can-be-hacked.html"
Announcements

Submission + - International Public Toilets Database

Submitted by
William S.
William S. writes: "Press Release: 10 March 2007

A publicly accessible database has been set up at www.publictoilets.org . You can search for public toilets in 19 countries and find out information that includes the address and detailed information about the facility as well as geographic coordinates. A user can submit comments and enter new locations. There is a wiki, forum and mailing list linked from the main page of the database with information related to public toilets. It is hoped that public exposure to this resource will add to it's content and help expand coverage.

For more information contact:
wstan@publictoilets.org

or go to:

www.publictoilets.org"
Movies

Submission + - 9 Laws of Physics That Don't Apply in Hollywood

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "Neatorama lists nine laws of physics that don't apply in Hollywood (movies and television/TV shows). In general, Hollywood filmmakers follow the laws of physics because they have no other choice. It's just when they cheat with special effects that people seem to forget how the world really works..."

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