phenopticon - Slashdot User

Submission + - Game dev Tommy Refenes: EA's apathy and refunds do more damage than piracy (tumblr.com)

Submitted by

phenopticon

on Monday March 18, 2013 @06:11PM

phenopticon writes: "From game developer Tommy Refenes, a blog post that details from his experience why developer apathy and return refunds are infinitely more damaging than piracy or DRM cracking.

Quote: I think I can safely say that Super Meat Boy has been pirated at least 200,000 times. We are closing in on 2 million sales and assuming a 10% piracy to sales ratio does not seem unreasonable. As a forward thinking developer who exists in the present, I realize and accept that a pirated copy of a digital game does not equate to money being taken out of my pocket. Team Meat shows no loss in our year end totals due to piracy and neither should any other developer."

Submission + - Damsel In Distress: Is Starcraft II Sexist? (Warning: Contains Spoilers) (hothardware.com)

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Sunday March 17, 2013 @07:53PM

MojoKid writes: "The ending of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm has been discussed a fair bit, with the main question being whether or not Sarah Kerrigan — the onetime Queen of Blades, absolute badass, and the focus of the campaign — is treated poorly in the final moments. This sequel in the series is the story of Kerrigan's mission to rebuild the Zerg Swarm, reclaim the power she wielded as the Queen of Blades, and avenge the death of her lover, Jim Raynor. Her goal is nothing less than the total annihilation of the Terran Dominion and the death of its emperor, Arcturus Mengsk. She lands on Korhal, the capital of the Terran Dominion, tears through the city, invades Mengsk's palace, faces off with Mengsk, and is promptly flattened by the same alien artifact that was used to de-Zerg her in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Just as Mengsk is preparing to execute her, Raynor steps through the doorway, crushes the activation device the Emperor is holding, and hurls him across the room. Raynor draws a bead on the Emperor with the pistol he's been saving since Starcraft: Wings of Liberty — and then stops. It's Kerrigan, not Raynor, who seizes Mengsk, slams him up against the wall, and kills him. The question is, is this depiction sexist? Kerrigan, after all, has just spent the entire game gathering vast amounts of psionic power. She vanquished them all enemies but when it came to Mengsk, suddenly, she needs a helping hand. It's a valid question, particularly if you care about how women are portrayed in video games."

Submission + - American Camwhore: the oldest profession with the newest technology (foundrycourier.com)

Submitted by

phenopticon

on Sunday March 17, 2013 @02:48PM

phenopticon writes: "They're working in the world's oldest profession using some of the world's newest technologies, independent camgirls are more populous than ever, and oftentimes they're working from home. In this article the Foundry Courier looks into the surprisingly lucrative world of camgirls, no gory details here, just numbers, facts and surprisingly interesting figures."

Submission + - Sarah Brightman's ISS Trip in Peril

Submitted by

RocketAcademy

on Sunday March 17, 2013 @02:33PM

RocketAcademy writes: "Actress/singer Sarah Brightman's trip to the International Space Station may not happen in 2015 as scheduled.

Space Adventures works with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to fly private citizens like Brightman on Soyuz taxi flights. Those taxi missions normally last eight days, but NASA and Roscosmos are considering a plan to extend the 2015 taxi flight to one month, so it can carry a scientist to perform some additional research aboard ISS. If that happens, Brightman will lose her seat.

This situation points to the need for more flexible transportation options and new orbital facilities which are not subject to the same operational restrictions as ISS. SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada are working on the transportation problem, while Bigelow Aerospace expects to begin launching its Space Station Alpha in 2015. So, the era of citizen astronauts visiting ISS may be drawing to a close."

Submission + - Another gender swapped classic: Zelda starring Zelda (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

phenopticon

on Sunday March 17, 2013 @01:02PM

phenopticon writes: "Quoting:
It feels really good to play as Zelda. I feel like I connect with her character better and it makes me feel like a big damn hero. It's so nice to be swinging around a sword as Zelda. I can't describe it.

My friends have all had very strong emotions to the switch of Zelda and Link — all positive so far. A male friend of mine said he teared up when he saw Zelda holding the sword over her head. (he's a sweetie) A female friend posted a link to my blog with a "Because if Miyamoto won't, we will." Another female friend told me she couldn't wait for her baby daughter to be old enough to play as Zelda. Many friends told me that it made them excited and happy. Not in the cute-ironic way, but really happy."

Submission + - The Pirate Bay's Oldest Torrent is "Revolution OS" (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by

jrepin

on Sunday March 17, 2013 @12:45PM

jrepin writes: "After nearly 9 years of seeding The Pirate Bay’s oldest working torrent is still very much alive. Interestingly, the torrent is not a Hollywood classic nor is it an evergreen music album. The honor goes to a pirated copy of “Revolution OS”, a documentary covering the history of Linux, GNU and the free software movement."

Submission + - Microsoft to abandon Windows Phone? (wmpoweruser.com)

Submitted by symbolset on Sunday March 17, 2013 @05:10AM

symbolset writes: Microsoft has had some trouble as of late getting adoption of their mobile products. Even Bill Gates has said it was inadequate. Despite rave reviews of Windows Phone in the press it has failed to get double digit share of the smartphone market. Now comes reports from WMPoweruser that WP8 will lose mainstream support in July 2014, before even Windows Phone 7.8.

Is this evidence that Microsoft will give up their quest for mobile relevance?

Submission + - USC Launches 3D Printed VR Headset Library (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by

Hesh

on Saturday March 16, 2013 @01:50PM

Hesh writes: "The University of Southern California has launched a website (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/) that contains the blueprints for many of their custom VR headsets as well as new mods to the much anticipated yet unreleased Oculus Rift (http://oculusvr.com). Some are helping push DIY VR forward through custom sensor mounts to support, for example, stereo cameras (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/oculus-sensor-mount/) and others add more functionality like new eye cups (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/eye-cups-for-oculus-rift/) to help increase the already large FOV of the headset. This is truly an exciting time for VR and by GDC developers will already have Rifts in hand and tinkerers can 3D print their own designs now as well!"

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Emergent complexity for a Physician 1

Submitted by Dirac_my_friend on Friday March 15, 2013 @01:58PM

Dirac_my_friend writes: I'm studying as a Theoretical Physician and I'm very close to start working on the thesis. I'm fascinated by emergent complexity, such as: the Conway's game of life, bees organization, neural network, complexity economics . I'm asking you either where to read something interesting about or some cool topics you consider useful for a future job/interesting to work on. Any ideas?

Submission + - Maryland organ recipient dies from rabies infection caused by donor organ (chicagotribune.com)

Submitted by

phenopticon

on Friday March 15, 2013 @01:54PM

phenopticon writes: "Quoting: A person who received a transplanted organ has died of rabies transmitted from the deceased donor, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

The donor’s kidneys, heart and liver went to four recipients in 2011. The other three, including a resident in northeastern Illinois, have no symptoms of rabies but are being given anti-rabies shots as a precaution, health officials said.

Maryland health authorities launched an investigation after one of the recipients died there earlier this month."

Submission + - Saints Row IV Announced (kotaku.com)

Submitted by jones_supa on Friday March 15, 2013 @12:02PM

jones_supa writes: The cartoon heroes are back, with even stronger superpowers. Set to be released this autumn, the next open-world installment of Saints Row, Deep Silver Volition continues the story of the Third Street Saints by elevating their status to the highest level – the leaders of the free world. In Saints Row IV, the head honcho of the Saints has been elected to the Presidency of the United States. Saints Row IV lets players delve into an arsenal of alien weaponry and technology that will turn each Saint into an ultimate entity of destruction. The player utilizes out-of-this-world superpowers to fight all the way to the top. With intensified action and enhanced customization, the protagonists can use their newfound superpowers and leap over buildings, outrun the fastest sports cars, or send enemies flying with telekinesis in the most insane installment of Saints Row yet.

Submission + - Berkely scientists plan to "Jurassic Park" some extinct pigeons back to life (wired.com) 1

Submitted by

phenopticon

on Friday March 15, 2013 @11:02AM

phenopticon writes: "Researchers at Berkeley have decided to attempt to revive the extinct passenger pigeon in order to set up a remote island theme park full of resurrected semi-modern extinct animals. Well, they're doing the first part anyway. Maybe not so much the part about the remote island.

About 1,500 passenger pigeons inhabit museum collections. They are all that’s left of a species once perceived as a limitless resource. The birds were shipped in boxcars by the tons, sold as meat for 31 cents per dozen, and plucked for mattress feathers. But in a mere 25 years, the population shrank from billions to thousands as commercial hunters decimated nesting flocks. Martha, the last living bird, took her place under museum glass in 1914."

Submission + - New Process for Nanoscale Filtration Holds Promise of Cheap, Clean Water (reuters.com)

Submitted by Spinnakker on Friday March 15, 2013 @10:45AM

Spinnakker writes: Lockheed Martin, traditionally known for its development military systems and aircraft, has developed a process for perforating graphene (carbon sheets only one atom thick) that could potentially reduce the energy required for desalination by two orders of magnitude. The process tailors the hole size to the molecules being separated. In the case of desalination, one would create holes in the graphene large enough to allow water to pass but small enough to block the salt molecules. The advantage to using graphene comes from how extremely thin the material is compared to traditional filters. The thinner the filter the less energy is required to facilitate reverse osmosis.

Submission + - Digg reveals its plan for Digg Reader replacement for Google Reader (cosimple.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15, 2013 @10:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: As we know that, Google Reader currently has many millions of fans, but the Reader fans has freaked out their beloved Google Reader after hearing about the announcement that the RSS reader would die in July, Digg the most popular social news site on Thursday bas announced that it has a replacement for Goggle Reader. The new RSS feed reinvention is an big move from the site, Digg has explained in a blog post on Thursday.

The new Digg reader, which is yet to be names, is set to launch after June 2013. The biggest question here is: Will Google Reader fans switch to the Digg Reader. Google has officially said that it’s Google Reader is looking likely to lost its fans, Google is also working to push its remaining Google Reader users over to its social network Google+.

Although, in the year 2013 most of the web users tend to switch their world into Twitter to get instant and easier access to multiple news sources at once, there are a few important niche groups that are currently rely heavily on Google’s Reader service. In the world only journalists and bloggers uses the Google’s Reader service to instantly scan for news and stories that Twitter might not found.

RSS feeds are a useful part of the internet they are useful for the end-run around blocked websites across the web. This is important for the users who have blocked websites at their workplaces and, of the need to those livings under repressive governments, as Quartz reports.

Most of the users in Iran are highly upsets from the news of Google’s Reader service dismiss, as they are highly involved in the Reader to get around the government Internet censorship, Quartz reports.

Submission + - Google, Adidas Create "Talking" Sneaker That Snarks You Into Exercising (ecouterre.com)

Submitted by fangmcgee on Friday March 15, 2013 @10:35AM

fangmcgee writes: Forget Google Glass; the tech giant is in the footwear business now. Or at least it was at the SXSW series of film, interactive, and music festivals in Austin on Monday. Together with Adidas, the technology giant unveiled its concept “Talking Shoe,” a smart sneaker designed to get people off the couch and exercising. But Google didn’t just see fit to give the shoe the usual moving parts (an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a pressure sensor, Bluetooth connectivity). The sneaker also boasts a personality, one that is alternatively cheering and jeering depending on your level of activity.

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