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Comment Re:Weird priorities.... (Score 1) 523

by Swifti (#26263743) Attached to: The Best Keyboards For Every Occasion

Also, WTF is a "Gaming keyboard"? Last I checked, most games are built to respond to keystrokes on a normal keyboard. As for macros, why not do it in software? If it's to foil the game's anti-cheat mechanism, wouldn't this then be considered cheating? Is WASD really that hard to use?

A lot of regular use keyboards have trouble with rollover, meaning when multiple keys are pressed, all of the keypresses do not register. Gaming keyboards usually are designed to not do that which is very important when playing games which require a lot of simultaneous keypresses.
Robotics

Submission + - Soliders Bond With Bots, Take Them Fishing

Submitted by HarryCaul
HarryCaul writes: Soldiers are finding themselves becoming more and more attached to their robotic helpers. During one test of a mine clearing robot, "every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield." The man in charge halted the test, though- "He just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg. This test, he charged, was inhumane." Sometimes the soldiers even take their metallic companions fishing. Is there more sympathy for Robot Rights than previously suspected?
Google

Submission + - Google violating "Don't be Evil" motto?

Submitted by
ihuntrocks
ihuntrocks writes: "Search engine giant Google, along with several other large companies purchase their server systems from Dell. The catch: Dell doesn't do the work on them. Instead, it is contracted out to another company, which only hires temporary employees, the majority of which have no technical background whatsoever. This company also largely does not supervise these inexperienced employees, but rather leaves that task to other temporary employees (who may also have no technical knowledge). This often times leads to misconfiguration of things, like Google servers, or sometimes worse: systems leaving the warehouse completely blank. This lack of supervision and technical background allow employees to bypass the quality control checking and additional auditing on these systems and make such errors, often times with impunity when this is discovered by the company. I also believe, as an IS professional, that companies like the one contracted by Dell hurt trained and experienced IT/IS professionals by offering jobs like this to temporary employees only, for near poverty scale wages. These temporary employees are often hired at the end of the quarter, when Dell places things on sale, to meet the volume demand, and are then laid off until needed again. Are companies like Google hurting IT/IS professionals by allowing their work (perhaps unknowingly) to be done by companies like this? What do the members of the Slashdot community think should be done about this by companies like Google, if anything, and what should we, as IT/IS professionals do to preserve quality of work and competitive wages when faced with issues like this?"
Software

Submission + - Why Closed Source Software is good

Submitted by neax
neax writes: I am talking to a group of students regarding the differences between closed and open source software, and the different business models that they use. In particular, I am wanting more information regarding Closed Source software and the business models they use and why they are good, and was wondering it you have any interesting advice or links to assist me in providing the students with all the information....and stuff that is interesting/ funny to use as examples. I am primarily interested in looking for information around why closed source is a good and viable option, rather than from the perspective of why open source is good, because this argument has been rehashed numerous times (go easy on the flamebait please!)
Security

Submission + - Wikipedia admins go on rampage

Submitted by joeszilagyi
joeszilagyi writes: After their passwords got cracked: At least four different Wikipedia administrators have had their weak passwords taken in the past 24 hours. They deleted the home page repeatedly, and one person even put Tubgirl on the "Site notice", which is a global header for all of en.wikipedia.org. How did it happen? Weak logon security measures — there is no CAPTCHA; crappy passwords, and on top of that, while there is an encrypted SSL logon page, it's hard to find. The scariest thing is that people with passwords of "password" are entrusted as sysops and administrators on one of the Top 10 websites on Earth. They even blocked Jimbo Wales repeatedly from his own website!
Windows

Submission + - Vista converts Mac OS X user to the dark side

Submitted by
swissfondue
swissfondue writes: "Nik Cubrilovic of Omniweb and occasional Techcrunch writer switches to Windows Vista after a partition crash on his Mac OS X volume.

He likes it: "I didn't expect it to be like this, I didn't want Vista to be this good" and he gives following main reason: "the interface is much much smoother and neater". Basically he finds Vista to be very much like Mac OS X, but with better performance.

With Vista's tractor beam now fully functional; is there any hope for the Mac Jedi?"
Emulation (Games)

Submission + - Worlds First PSP Emulator for Windows Released

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Over at PSP News the first PSP Emulator for Windows has been released. Potemkin (codenamed DaSH) is an experimental open source HLE PSP Emulator. It is created and released by ector who is one of the most impressive coders in emulation history. This release plays masses of commercial games and at a playable speed.
Media

Submission + - Big Media Ignores JFK Assassination Update

Submitted by
SSDNINJA
SSDNINJA writes: "http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2007/03050 7jfkconspirator.htm E. Howard Hunt of the CIA's deathbed confession of being related to the JFK assassination has been released by his son recently. Hunt was involved in both the Watergate scandal and also with the admitted JFK plot. An audio file attached mentions how Digg buried the article when it was pushed to the front page, sounding all too familiar to some unnamed HDDVD stories earlier this week. Big media has chosen to almost totally ignore this story, choosing instead the usual mess of celebrity wash."
Supercomputing

Submission + - World's first quantum circuit

Submitted by
Anonymous
Anonymous writes: "NEC, JST and RIKEN have together announced the unveiling of the world's first quantum circuit. The unveiling comes as the third step, after first unveiling the first solid-state qubit and the world's first logic gate between two qubits. This is an important step toward actually using quantum computing for something useful. Previously scientists have only been able to control a single qubit, with good results, but NEC's new circuit makes it possible to use pairs of qubits for computing quantum algorithms and logical functions, and then scale these pairs into a whole quantum computer, sometime in the future."
Editorial

Submission + - Open Source Supporter = Copyright Supporter?

Submitted by
gbulmash
gbulmash writes: "This essay claims that without copyright granting an author the right to set licensing terms for his/her work, the GPL could not be enforced. It says that those who support the GPL while calling for the abolishment of copyright are being unintentionally ironic, because they're calling for the abolishment of the exact thing that makes possible the alternative they're supporting. It concludes that if you support the GPL or any open source license (other than public domain), your argument is not whether to abolish copyright, but how to reform copyright."
Communications

Submission + - AT&T Dumps VOIP Customers

Submitted by Proudrooster
Proudrooster writes: In the past two-weeks AT&T sent out disconnect letters to VOIP customers in big rude red letters, stating that VOIP service would be suspended in 30-days and permanently disconnected in 60-days. AT&T cited E911 service as the reason. Many AT&T VOIP customers have found that they are unable to transfer their AT&T VOIP phone numbers to a new provider. Further, AT&T is unwilling to provide a forwarding message directing callers to a new phone number for those that are unable to transfer their old AT&T VOIP phone numbers. In effect, AT&T has told many long-term VOIP subscribers, we are turning off your phone in 30-days, goodbye, and good luck. AT&T does not appear a corporation that values customer loyalty, especially of those who hung on during the experimental days of the AT&T VOIP service

Many longterm subscribers are extremely upset at the AT&T cold shoulder and short notice. It is also interesting AT&T is unable overcome this E911 technical hurdle, since AT&T is also the local landline company (SBC/AT&T) in many areas where VOIP cancellation notices are being received.

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