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The Almighty Buck

New IMF Head Says US Must Raise Debt Limit, or Face 'Nasty Consequences' 932

fysdt writes with this from an article on ABC News: "The International Monetary Fund's new chief foresees 'real nasty consequences' for the U.S. and global economies if the U.S. fails to raise its borrowing limit. Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the lending institution, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would cause interest rates to rise and stock markets to fall. That would threaten an important IMF goal, which is preserving stability in the world economy, she said. The U.S. borrowing limit is $14.3 trillion. Obama administration officials say the U.S. would begin to default without an agreement by Aug. 2."

Comment Re:Uninformed Rant, or Sony Apologist? (Score 1) 185

For games with a single player component that stops working when the internet/sony is down it sucks, but for MMOs the whole point of game you 'own' is to play on their service. Compare it not to a single player game but more someone who buys say a mobile phone without a service. yes you own a nice shiny toy, but its pointless without the service that goes with it.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia and the History of Gaming 240

Wired is running a story about Wikipedia's tremendous contribution to documenting the history of video games, and why it shouldn't necessarily be relied upon. Quoting: "Wikipedia requires reliable, third-party sources for content to stick, and most of the sites that covered MUDs throughout the ’80s were user-generated, heavily specialized or buried deep within forums, user groups and newsletters. Despite their mammoth influence on the current gaming landscape, their insular communities were rarely explored by a nascent games journalist crowd. ... while cataloging gaming history is a vitally important move for this culture or art form, and Wikipedia makes a very valiant contribution, the site can’t be held accountable as the singular destination for gaming archeology. But as it’s often treated as one, due care must be paid to the site to ensure that its recollection doesn’t become clouded or irresponsible, and to ensure its coalition of editors and administrators are not using its stringent rule set to sweep anything as vitally relevant as MUDS under the rug of history."

Comment Re:Damage Meters built into client (Score 1) 175

This, if you follow Ghostcrawlers posts on the WOW forums its clear that combat data from dungeons/raids is saved and mined for tuning/balance purposes. Especially the really hard stuff that not many groups attempt. Client side damage meters get pretty much the same data from the combat log sent to the game.

Transportation

The Rise and Fall of America's Jet-Powered Car 338

Pickens writes "The WSJ reports that the automobile designs of the 1950s and 1960s were inspired by the space race and the dawn of jet travel. But one car manufacturer, Chrysler, was bold enough to put a jet engine in an automobile that ran at an astounding 60,000 rpm on any flammable fluid including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, peanut oil, alcohol, tequila, or perfume. Visionary Chrysler designer George Huebner believed that there was plenty to recommend the turbine. People loved the car. In a publicity scheme to promote its 'jet' car, Chrysler commissioned Ghia to handcraft 50 identical car bodies and each car would be lent to a family for a few months and then passed on to another. Chrysler received more than 30,000 requests in 1962 to become test drivers and eventually 203 were chosen who logged more than one million miles (mostly trouble free) in the 50 Ghia prototypes. In the end Chrysler killed the turbine car after OPEC's 1973 oil embargo. 'How different would America be now if we all drove turbine-powered cars? It could have happened. But government interference, shortsighted regulators, and indifferent corporate leaders each played a role in the demise of a program that could have lessened US dependence on Middle East oil.'"

Comment Re:Quick Question (Score 1) 161

Very few of the unlockable/craftable/buyable items are universally considered a direct upgrade on what they replace, and of those that are almost all of them are unlockable by achievements (wangler, equaliser, axtinguisher, etc). The achievement milestones are easy to get, and the achievements required are designed to make sure you know how to play the game (While there are some uberskill and grind ones in there, you don't need those to unlock items).

The only item I have seen consistently equipped that's not achievement based is the Sniper's Tribalman's Shiv. It's not a huge upgrade but you will need a couple of random drops to craft it.

Comment Re:Forward thinkers (Score 2, Insightful) 506

I like the self-checkouts and find them quicker, but there are a few rules

1) Nothing age limited or in a security case that requires staff interaction anyway, just queue for the human when buying booze.

2) Unpackaged fruit or anything you have to weigh is a bit hit and miss.

3) Please please please understand the simple concept of showing the scanner the barcode, reverently placing the item in the dead centre of the scanner/scales platform thing and saying a prayer will not make it scan. I have seen far too may people fail to understand this, despite presumably having spent their entire lives watching the human operators do it. Ditto when its moaning at you to put the item in the bagging area, leaving it in your buggy/handbag/in another bag on the floor won't work.

First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - MS claims FPS gaming on the PC is dead (destructoid.com) 2

MaxBooger writes: According to Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda, the success of Halo on the XBox360 has obliterated the PC as a viable platform for FPS'.

"Halo did an awesome job of building a first-person shooter exclusively for the console, and now hardly anyone plays first-person shooters on the PC anymore,” claims the executive. “If you think about the way that first-person shooters evolved, they started on the PC. People for the longest time tried to port shooters from the PC onto the console.

Methinks someone at Microsoft has been drinking too much kool~aid.

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