darkhitman - Slashdot User

Mechanical AI Made In LittleBigPlanet 65

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday December 20, 2008 @01:45AM from the somebody-make-a-quake-3-LBP-port dept.

Laurens writes "Despite slow sales of LittleBigPlanet in the USA, you might have heard of the calculator made within the game, but now that has been topped. I found a fully-functioning AI machine which plays Tic-Tac-Toe against the player. Considering that you can't actually program in LBP, this feat is impressive; it is a machine which has mechanical AND and OR ports made of pistons and proximity detectors, a physically moving Program Counter, and hundreds of wires. The level is called 'Tic Tac Toe' and is by author Cristel." Another player created a similarly amazing level that is a recreation of John Conway's Game of Life.

Submission + - Jack Thompson: Games Industry Colluding With DoD (wired.com)

Submitted by

NexFlamma

on Friday December 28, 2007 @05:23PM

NexFlamma writes: "In a press release sent out yesterday, controversial Miami lawyer Jack Thompson claims to have found evidence of an "unholy alliance" between the gaming industry and the United States Department of Defense. When contacted for further information on the subject, Wired's Game|Life was sent a link to the supposed "evidence." The page G|L was directed to not only doesn't serve as evidence of his claims, but after reading through the 10-page link, G|L writer Earnest Cavalli demonstrates how the information presented directly contradicts Jack's statement."

Submission + - USPTO looking for prior art on progress bar (edn.com) 2

Submitted by VomitInc on Friday December 28, 2007 @03:34PM

VomitInc writes: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is giving the public 12 more days to comment on a proposed patent from IBM on dynamic readjustment and interpolation of progress method and system, aka, a progress bar.

Submission + - New Jersey Denies Internet from Sex Offenders (nytimes.com) 3

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Friday December 28, 2007 @11:45AM

eldavojohn writes: "New Jersey just passed legislation making it illegal for sex offenders to use the internet. NJ congresswoman Linda D. Greenstein said, "When Megan's Law was enacted, few could envision a day when a sex offender hiding behind a fake screen name would be a mouse-click away from new and unwitting victims. Sex offenders cannot be given an opportunity to abuse the anonymity the Internet can provide as a means of opening a door to countless new potential victims." While they still can search for jobs, this is a major expansion over the prior legislation which barred them from social networking sites like facebook or myspace."

Submission + - The year's top lousy tech products (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Blorgo on Friday November 30, 2007 @01:19AM

Blorgo writes: Yahoo has a story on "Top 10 Tech Train Wrecks of 2007" — missed some of my favorites (Zune anyone?) but does have the Xbox360 problems. What did you have trouble with this year?

Submission + - Demonoid.com Shutdown by the CRIA? (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by megashub on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @12:25AM

megashub writes: It looks as though several major BitTorrent sites out there have begun blacklisting US users from obtaining torrents or using their search functionality. Affected sites include: ISOHunt.com (and their trackers TorrentBox and Podtropolis), Torrentspy.com, and now Demonoid.com. Demonoid.com has been unresponsive for over 24 hours now, but their server continues to respond to pings, leading some to suspect that the CRIA has stepped in and blocked web access to the machine. It is unclear what their exact status is at this time, as the community awaits contact with the site's administrators. Stay tuned.

Submission + - Credit card details posted on eBay forums

Submitted by thefickler on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @10:51PM

thefickler writes: Whatever IT is, you can find IT on eBay... including other members' credit card numbers (with three digit CVV2 number), usernames, and contact information. Has eBay been hacked? Or, is this just a hoax schemed by tricksters? 1,200 eBay users' usernames, home addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, and email addresses were posted in multiple threads on the eBay forum early this morning by an attacker using multiple eBay usernames.

Submission + - Review of Amazon's DRM-less music download store (blorge.com)

Submitted by

fdmendez

on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @09:04PM

fdmendez writes: "Amazon's long awaited DRM-less music download store just hit the web, and, for a moment there, I thought it might have become vaporware. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case, giving me a chance to put the store through its paces. Here's my review of the Amazon MP3 Download Store.

Amazon is going out on a limb here, offering DRM-less MP3 tracks at 256kbps at $0.89 per song. DRM-less music download stores have been done before, but they usually lack in music selection. Amazon is looking to change the music download world by giving users the opportunity to do anything they want with their music while offering a huge selection of both popular and unpopular/underground artists, but does it do this well?

Summary: Amazon one-ups the iTunes store in every way except for popularity. Never once did I find an album to be more expensive on the Amazon store in comparison to the iTunes store. The download experience was pleasant, and the lack of DRM truly makes it YOUR music. I don't know of any other download service that could top the Amazon MP3 store.

To read the in depth review, which discusses the Amazon MP3 store in greater detail, click here."

Submission + - Can Turnitin.com be forced on students? 2

Submitted by

Fleet Admiral

on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @08:34PM

Fleet Admiral writes: "I'm currently in my senior year in High School (public school system), and recently discovered that all my English essays MUST be submitted to Turnitin.com. This has basically turned into the teacher saying "Use the site or you get an F on the assignment". Do I have any rights not to be forced to use this site? Don't I have Intellectual Property Rights on my own creation, *not* to be used in a commercial, for-profit manner? I want to challenge this, but I am not sure if I would get anywhere. Should I talk to the Teacher? The Principal? Do I have any legal ground behind me? I feel like the whole student body is being bullied by the administration, and I want to do something about it!"

Submission + - A&P Sues Video Makers Who Don't Even Mention A

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30, 2007 @06:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: Grocery chain A&P is suing a couple of kids for making a silly video mocking gangsta rap videos, which the store claims is defamation. The video, however, is set in an unnamed grocery store. It turns out that it was in an A&P where the two kids worked, but that's not clear from the video at all. Since the store's name isn't mentioned at all, it's difficult to see how that's defamation. However, by suing the kids, the company has made it sure that many more people associate the store with the video. If anything, it looks like they're defaming themselves.

Submission + - Student and professor build budget supercomputer (calvin.edu)

Submitted by Luke on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:21PM

Luke writes: This past winter Calvin College professor Joel Adams and then Calvin senior Tim Brom built Microwulf, a portable supercomputer with 26.25 gigaflops peak performance, cost less than $2,500 to construct, becoming the most cost-efficient supercomputer anywhere that Adams knows of. "It's small enough to check on an airplane or fit next to a desk," said Brom. Instead of a bunch of researchers having to share a single Beowulf cluster supercomputer, now each researcher can have their own. What would you do with a personal supercomputer?

Submission + - Apple iPhone Now Open for Third-party Applications (ifastnet.com)

Submitted by

a_skripko

on Friday August 17, 2007 @03:08PM

a_skripko writes: "So this easy step-by-step procedure for adding third-party applications to your Apple iPhone, this procedure can be performed by the average user. 1. Download everything you need: These files are all freely available."

Submission + - Journalist attempts to hack, gets caught (valleywag.com)

Submitted by

wawannem

on Friday August 17, 2007 @02:56PM

wawannem writes: "I know that fark is not likely considered the serious news institution that slashdot is... In fact, I've heard of it referred to as slashdot's immature, mentally handicapped, younger stepbrother. Whatever it is, it appears that it drew some attention from a Fox news affiliate. Enough attention that it seems a reporter may have tried to hack into their servers.
FTA — Curtis believes that Phillips, or someone working with Phillips, sent him and several other Fark employees deceptive emails in an attempt to get them to download a trojan, a form of computer virus. The Trojan was designed to capture their passwords and give the author access to Fark's servers. In one case, it succeeded, giving a hacker passwords to a file server and one Fark employee's email account; he tried, but failed, to break into Fark's Web servers and email.
The article goes into some other speculation about the reporter's intentions, but I would imagine that the title of journalist should not exempt him from punishment in this case."

Submission + - RIAA's "Making Available"Theory is Tested

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Friday August 17, 2007 @12:57PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's argument that merely "making files available" is in and of itself a copyright infringement, argued in January in Elektra v. Barker (awaiting decision) is raging again, this time in a White Plains, New York, court in Warner v. Cassin. Ms. Cassin moved to dismiss the complaint; the RIAA countered by arguing that 'making available' on a p2p file sharing network is a violation of the distribution right in 17 USC 106(3); Ms. Cassin responded, pointing out the clear language of the statute, questioning the validity of the RIAA's authorities, and arguing that the Court's acceptance of the RIAA's theory would seriously impact the internet. The case is scheduled for a conference on September 14th, at 10 AM (pdf), at the federal courthouse, 300 Quarropas Street, White Plains, New York, in the courtroom of Judge Stephen C. Robinson. The conference is open to the public."

Submission + - BitTorrent Closes Source Code (slyck.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08, 2007 @01:51PM

An anonymous reader writes: "There are two issues people need to come to grips with," BitTorrent CEO Ashwin Narvin told Slyck.com. "Developers who produce open source products will often have their product repackaged and redistributed by businesses with malicious intent. They repackage the software with spyware or charge for the product. We often receive phone calls from people who complain they have paid for the BitTorrent client." As for the protocol itself, that too is closed, but is available by obtaining an SDK license.

Slashdot Top Deals