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Comment Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score 1) 241

Remember when games used to come with feelies? Things like cloth maps, gold coins modeled after ones in game, miniature figures, etc? This is kind of the same thing. Buy the game from a certain retailer and you get a "digital feely." Most of the time, these things are insignificant in the game, and are usually available for free after the game's first patch. Now, the $7 add-on DLC on launch day is just greed. All they did was remove content so they can charge more for it. Bioware got EA'ed, and that's just really sad.

Comment Re:I was thinking the same thing (Score 1) 336

You do know that you don't have to log into twitter/facebook/google wave/IM every time you're on the computer, right? If you're feeling social, log in. If you just want to surf or play a game, log off. Not that hard, bro. I hear this argument against social networking all the time, and it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Personally, twitter and facebook have been very useful beyond saying "whats up dude?" I've discovered new restaurants, met up with old friends that I've lost touch with, etc.

Comment National attention (Score 2, Insightful) 260

Facebook had to do some damage control once the national media decided to make a story about it. There was a CNN story yesterday morning warning Facebook users about what the new terms of service meant and what it means to any content they put up on their profiles. I tried searching on youtube but couldn't find a video, unfortunately.

Biotech

Human-Animal Hybrids Fail 554

SailorSpork writes "Fans of furries and anime-style cat girls will be disappointed by the news that attempts to create human animal hybrids have failed. Experiments by British scientists to create embryonic stem cells by putting human DNA into cow or rabbit eggs had raised ethical concerns, but the question of how we would treat sub-humans will have to wait until we actually figure out how to make them."

Comment Re:I want to know... (Score 1) 749

I see your devil's advocate tags, but I need to comment regardless.

The philosophy of this country is that you should be able to make a better life for yourself than your parents. If you work hard enough, you'll be able to live a comfortable life. I see entire families struggling to put a simple meal on the table because they only pull in 20K a year. With the cost of housing, food, college for your children, and occasional entertainment (all work and no play makes a very unproductive and unhappy citizen), I'd like to see all of this come in at under 20k a year. This isn't even taking into account any savings for retirement, etc. You do realize that companies don't offer pensions anymore, right? Unless you want to live in a cardboard box when you're 65, you gotta factor that into your 20K too.

Comment Re:I want to know... (Score 1) 749

If all these companies continue to hire H1-B workers at a cut rate, the American workers who usually purchase products and services that said company produce won't be able to afford it anymore. Hiring foreign workers pay off in short term savings, but putting the American worker out of work is not investing wisely in your company's future, IMNSHO.

Also, how long do you think these H1-B workers are going to stand working for that measly 20k? They have to live somewhere, and 20k is not a living wage in this country.

The problem with "true capitalism" is that decisions are made in terms of personal gain, and not necessarily what benefits society as a whole. Greed will ultimately cause a true capitalistic society to fail, there needs to be compromise and regulation. I'm in favor of large tax hikes for companies who choose to hire more H1-B than American workers, the extra money will help pay for our unemployment checks.....

Games

DRM Shuts Down PC Version of Gears of War 598

carlmenezes writes "It seems that the DRM on the PC version of Gears of War came with a built-in shut-off date; the digital certificate for the game was only good until January 28, 2009. Now, the game fails to work unless you adjust your system's clock. What is Epic's response? 'We're working on it.'"
First Person Shooters (Games)

New Open Source FPS Blood Frontier Shows Promise 242

Softhaus writes "The guys at Blood Frontier have been busy for the last two years working on a new FPS called (surprise) Blood Frontier . This game is an enhanced Cube 2 engine with original artwork and new gameplay (including a kid-mode, which optionally turns off the blood — a nice option for a change). Add the new paintball mode and you have a real 'game community' here. The code is all there (complete for you to play with), the team listens to feedback from the community, and the game is great! It's nice to see these talented guys showing a true free software attitude. They've mentioned that the first actual release is scheduled for next Friday. Does anyone know of other great open source games that are truly 'open?'"
Republicans

Sen. Ted "Tubes" Stevens Is Indicted 553

Many readers are letting us know about the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens on seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms. We discussed the raid on the senator's house a while back. Everyone's favorite technologically challenged senator is the longest-serving Republican in the history of the upper house. An Alaskan paper gives deep background on the probe that has ensnared Stevens and a number of other Alaska political figures.
Moon

Moon May Have Once Had Water 89

Smivs writes "US scientists have found evidence that water was held in the Moon's interior, challenging some elements of the theory of how Earth's satellite formed.The Moon is thought to have been created in a violent collision between Earth and another planet-sized object. Scientists thought the heat from this impact had vaporised all the water. But a new study in Nature magazine shows water was delivered to the lunar surface from the interior in volcanic eruptions three billion years ago. This suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence."

PC Gaming Suggestions for Console-like Fun? 513

jayminer writes "We are a relatively newly married young couple who enjoy spending our spare time at home. We don't own a console but have a gaming laptop with DVI output to play games on our TV. My wife is also a CS major so she's computer literate enough. She does not like strategy games, MMORG or any other role-playing game. Apart from "Find the Sausage" jokes, we need quality gaming advice, preferably games which we can play with a single laptop connected to a single large screen, with two gamepads, a console-like experience. What are your suggestions?"
Software

HD Video Editing with Blender 73

Posthis writes "While the VSE sequence module has been part of Blender for a while, the upcoming version v2.46 comes with some new powerful video editing features, like Proxy editing, optimized FFmpeg support, and more. Not many use Blender strictly as a video editor because it's not very straight-forward, but given the fact that it now deals with HDV and 24p footage much more comfortably compared to other OSS video editors, it makes it a sound contender. This new tutorial shows the basics of how to use it as a video editor and put your masterpiece together."
Sun Microsystems

Sun Turns to Lasers to Speed Up Computer Chips 130

alphadogg writes to mention that Sun is attempting to move from the typical design of multiple small chips back to a unified single-wafer design. "The company is announcing today a $44 million contract from the Pentagon to explore replacing the wires between computer chips with laser beams. The technology, part of a field of computer science known as silicon photonics, would eradicate the most daunting bottleneck facing today's supercomputer designers: moving information rapidly to solve problems that require hundreds or thousands of processors."

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