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PlayStation (Games)

Is Console Gaming Dying? 496

Posted by Soulskill from the who-needs-consoles-when-you-can-play-on-your-phone-right dept.
mr_sifter writes "PC gamers love to obsess over whether PC gaming is dying, but bit-tech thinks it's time to look at the other side and examine if console gaming is really as secure as publishers would have us believe. All three console manufacturers suffered from the recession — this year, Sony announced its first net loss in 14 years; a stunning ¥989.9bn, which includes record losses of ¥58.5bn in its gaming sector. Microsoft also announced its first loss since it went public in 1986 in the second quarter of this financial year, with a $31 million US loss coming straight from the Entertainment and Devices division, which is responsible for the Xbox 360. Not even Nintendo has escaped the financial plague either, with sales of the Wii dropping by 67 percent in the US, 60 percent in Japan and 47 percent in the rest of the world. In addition to reduced profitability, casual games and the rise of the iPhone further suggest the current model is not invulnerable."
Security

Cybersecurity Czar Job Is Useless, Says Spafford 104

Posted by Soulskill from the federal-whipping-czar dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "It's been about seven months since Obama announced his plan to hire a cybersecurity coordinator, and the job is still vacant. Several prominent security experts have turned the position down, and in an interview on Threatpost, Purdue professor Gene Spafford says that the position is pointless. 'It won't have any statutory authority. It won't have any budgetary authority. That does not give it much authority of any kind. So when I hear that there are supposedly people who have been interviewed for this cyber coordinator job and didn't take it, I'm not surprised. It's not a winning position. I'm not at all surprised by the fact that it's empty. That position is a blame-taking position,' Spafford said."
Microsoft

Microsoft Fined In India For Using "Money Power" Against Pirates 204

Posted by Soulskill from the somebody-forward-this-to-the-riaa dept.
bhagwad writes "The Delhi High Court has found Microsoft guilty of using money and influence to make it expensive to defend against piracy cases. According to the judge, 'When the constitution of India provides equality before law, this equality has to be all pervasive and cannot be allowed to be diluted because of money power or lobbying power.' Furthermore, the judge said that Microsoft had to deposit a certain amount of money beforehand, and, if they lost the case, the money would go to the defendants for their legal and travel expenses. For icing on the cake, the court also appointed a commissioner to probe the matter further and ordered Microsoft to pay the costs. In an age where muscled corporations harass the ordinary person through expensive litigation, it's highly pleasurable to see them rapped for it by a judge."
Idle

Hand Written Clock 86

Posted by samzenpus from the up-to-the-minute dept.
a3buster writes "This clock does not actually have a man inside, but a flatscreen that plays a 24-hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute. This video was taken at Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009."

Comment Normal procedure (Score 4, Informative) 315

by pinky99 (#28120547) Attached to: EU Sues Sweden, Demands ISP Data Retention
As an European citizen I just want to point out to all non-EU friends of /. that this is just a completely normal and standard procedure - it doesn't depend on which law or which country, but if a European law directive is not formed into national laws by the governments/parliaments, the EU automatically sues the non-conforming member states. Happens all the times, on all issues, punishment is normally the fine for each more day passing by.
Programming

QT 4.5 Released, Plus New IDE and Analysis Tool 62

Posted by timothy from the cute-train-is-the-q-train dept.
stoolpigeon writes "QT 4.5 has arrived and is now available for download. This new release is quite significant due to licensing changes that now make it simpler to use QT in a wider range of products without cost as well as a number of new features. The latest version of Webkit is now integrated into the product. Qt 4.5 sees the introduction of QtBenchLib, a new component to make measuring the performance of the toolkit and checking for regressions easier. Mac developers who use Qt will note a major reworking of 4.5 on the Mac, now providing 64-bit support. QT Creator is a new IDE that looks to have combined a number of previously separate tools. And there is much more."
Operating Systems

The Economist Suggests Linux For Netbooks 445

Posted by timothy from the and-they're-clever-guys dept.
Trepidity writes "In its roundup of how to choose a netbook, The Economist suggests that users 'avoid the temptation' to go for a Windows-based netbook, and in particular to treat them as mini laptops on which you'll install a range of apps. In their view, by the time you add the specs needed to run Windows and Windows apps effectively, you might as well have just bought a smallish laptop. Instead, they suggest the sweet spot is ultra-lite, Linux-based netbooks, with a focus on pre-installed software that caters to common tasks. They particularly like OpenOffice, which they rate as easier to use than MS Word and having 'no compatibility problems,' as well as various photo-management software." Besides which, does Windows offer spinning cubes for coffee-shop demos?
Image

Inventor Builds Robot Wife 469

Posted by samzenpus from the you-lonely-lonely-man dept.
Inventor Le Trung must really like the book "The Stepford Wives," because he has built the dream of every lonely man without hope, a robot wife. Le's wife, Aiko, starts the day by reading him the newspaper headlines and they go for a drives in the countryside. Le says his relationship with Aiko hasn't strayed into the bedroom, but a few tweaks could turn her into a sexual partner, even redesigning her to have a simulated orgasm. *Shudder*
United States

Submission + - GOP Preparing to Steal the 2008 Election (newyorker.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker reports that Californians vote next year on a radical change to the allotment of their state's electoral college votes. Republican sponsors call themselves Californians for Equal Representation, but if their measure passes, it's more likely than ever that a Republican will win the Presidency without winning the popular vote.
Communications

Submission + - Verizon Cripples 'High Speed Business DSL'

Submitted by mjmccarn
mjmccarn writes: One of my clients ordered "Verizon High Speed Internet for Business and other Internet services" last week.

This week they find that none of their custom applications (Bloomberg, online bank or brokerage accounts, etc) work through the Verizon connection.

On calling Verizon, they were told that their new "Verizon High Speed Internet for Business and other Internet services" connection will only support internet access using Internet Explorer on standard ports.

Has anyone else seen or heard of Verizon crippling internet access in this way?

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