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Comment Re:Preorder now! (Score 2) 279

I bought in to the alpha version and haven't regretted a single penny of it. I've played and enjoyed Minecraft more over the past three months than any other game I've bought in the last decade. It hits the same sweet-spot of freedom, struggle and reward that Elite managed to nail in the '80s. And, coincidentally, Minecraft Alpha cost about the same as Elite did on the Spectrum all those years ago!

I really don't mind paying for alpha software that is this much fun, and 850k other people seem to feel the same

Comment Minecraft (Score 1) 418

My gaming days go back to the Atari console, but for years now I've spent more time reading about games than actually playing them. Minecraft grabbed my attention recently, however, and I've played it more than any other game in the last decade. The appeal lies in its open-ended nature (it's the first game to bring back the feeling I had whilst playing Elite as a teenager) and in the beauty of the landscapes it can create. It also scratches the same itch that Lego does, by giving you a few basic blocks with which to build whatever your imagination can conjure up (castles in the air quite often). It's only in alpha now, but multiplayer support is beginning to take real shape and every update brings new goodies.

Comment PS3 + Keysonic Keyboard (Score 1) 304

I've been using my PS3 and a Keysonic wireless keyboard for TV browsing for a couple of years now. Most of the navigation is done with the dualshock, with the keyboard used only for text entry. Once you get used to the dualshock controls, it's very easy to navigate around pages and quickly zoom in and out to make text readable. Flash video works pretty well, and a big plus is that (as far as I know) there aren't any PS3 viruses, trojans or botnets to worry about.

I bought my parents an Asus eee Box to do the same thing, and that works really well too.

Comment Two Different Solutions (Score 1) 932

I had exactly the same issue with two different family members. Endless viruses and trojans that no commercial package seemed to be able to avoid or remove properly.

For my parents, I bought an eee box. They only surf the net using the Splashtop interface, which runs outside of XP (I presume it uses Linux instead). They haven't suffered a single infection or one bit of slowdown in the past eight months and are absolutely delighted. The eee box fits nicely to the Vesa bracket on the back of their TV too!

For my sister and her family, I replaced XP on their PC with Ubuntu 9.0.4 (now 9.0.10). Again, no infections or slowdowns since. They now have enough confidence in the PC to actually buy stuff online, and like the fact that Open Office is so much better than MS Works.

Comment Serial Universes would be as good as Parallel (Score 1) 683

Parallel or Serial universes, when stretched infinitely, both give the same results.

Our universe could simply be the current incarnation of an endless series of universes that stretch infinitely back in time, each one replacing the last. We are here to marvel at this universe because it's laws make it possible for life to exist, but the next (or previous) universe might not be so life-friendly. To our simple brains this seems amazing and 'special', but even if we're the first lifeforms in the last trillion different serial universes, that trillion would still be an unmeasurable dot on the infinite timeline of previous universes.
Robotics

Submission + - Software for reverse engineering the human brain (colorado.edu)

An anonymous reader writes: In his book, "The Singularity is Near", Ray Kurzweil says the future of artificial intelligence may be in reverse engineering the human brain. Now, scientists at the University of Colorado have released software, dubbed "Emergent," that is aimed at allowing you to do just that. Using the ODE library for realistic physics, you can construct a robot with a simulated brain in a simulated world with a simulated body. I've seen neural network software before, but seeing a robot with his brain hovering over his head in 3D was a bit..shocking to say the least. Especially in light of this recent Oxford paper which asks, "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?." I was even able to "lesion" his brain and see his performance go down. Could this approach possibly bootstrap us into real artificial intelligence? Will these new simulated robotic overlords someday assimilate us?
Censorship

Nuclear Info Kept From Congress and the Public 309

Thermite writes "On March 6, 2006 an accident occurred at Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin, Tennessee. According to reports, almost 9 gallons of highly enriched uranium in solution spilled and nearly went into a chain reaction. Before the accident in 2004, the NRC and The Office of Naval Reactors had changed the terms of the company's license so that any correspondence with Nuclear Fuel Services would be marked 'official use only.' From the article: 'While reviewing the commission's public Web page in 2004, the Department of Energy's Office of Naval Reactors found what it considered protected information about Nuclear Fuel Service's work for the Navy. The commission responded by sealing every document related to Nuclear Fuel Services and BWX Technologies in Lynchburg, Va., the only two companies licensed by the agency to manufacture, possess and store highly enriched uranium.' The result was that the public and Congress were both left in the dark for 13 months regarding this accident and other issues at the facility."

Feed Engadget: Nikon D3 teaser ad leaked? (engadget.com)

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Is this a teaser ad for the Nikon D3, a pro-level DSLR the subject of a swirling whirlwind of rumors? If this isn't fake, this would be the third (fourth?) report we've seen pointing to the existence of such a camera. Just so you know, the text apparently points out the following specs: 3.0-inch LCD, 9 frames per second shooting, and 51 Autofocus Points. Not bad, but what's the price?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!


Music

Submission + - gBox to take on iTunes Music Store (gbox.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Google and Universal Music Group will be partnering with gBox, Inc., an online music retailer, to sell DRM-free music tracks via Google search results. gBox, based in Apple's backyard of Cupertino, California, will begin selling Universal tracks, sans DRM, via their web site on August 21. Universal will purchase text ads on Google's searches to direct searchers to gBox sales pages.

Glance at the gBox site, you get denied if you use Firefox or dare to use a Mac. Predicition? D.O.A.

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