Synonymous Bosch - Slashdot User

Submission + - Record-setting stellar-mass black hole (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

chyllaxyn

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @07:39AM

chyllaxyn writes: "Astronomers have discovered a new supermassive black hole orbiting a star a mere 1.8 million light-years from Earth. Weighing in with a mass of 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, topping the previous record of 16 times the mass of our sun. I can feel it's pull already, or maybe that's just the candy corn talking..."

Submission + - Volcanoes Killed Dinos, not Meteorite (swissinfo.ch)

Submitted by saisuman on Thursday November 01, 2007 @07:08AM

saisuman writes: Massive volcanic eruptions in India may have spelt the end for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago — not, as previously thought, a meteor smacking into Mexico.

Submission + - Is 2007/2008 another golden age for RPGs? 2

Submitted by

Anthony Boyd

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @05:50AM

Anthony Boyd writes: "First there was the foul-mouthed review, "Mask of the Betrayer — so good even the Codex likes it!" Then those same cynics at the RPG Codex almost immediately began gushing about The Witcher, a RPG based upon the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. Couple that with upcoming role-playing games such as The Broken Hourglass (a throwback to Baldur's Gate style of gameplay) and The Age of Decadence, and we may be in a RPG renaissance. All of these games offer what has been lacking in recent years — choice and consequence. The storyline(s) branch out, and how you play your role actually matters. In addition, the games don't appear to be dumbed-down for mass audiences. They involve difficult battles and engaging intellectual dilemmas. Are these games flukes? Are they less than they seem? Or are they, as one reviewer put it, "a wake-up call for mainstream RPGs?""

Submission + - Microsoft Demands Patent for Saying 'Goodbye' 7

Submitted by

theodp

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @05:16AM

theodp writes: "Demonstrating its commitment to high-quality U.S. patents, Microsoft has submitted a just-published patent application to the USPTO for Automatic Goodbye Messages. By automatically sending messages like 'Have a great afternoon!', 'Sorry, I have got to go!', 'Have a terrific day!', 'Ciao, Harry!', or even a simple 'Bye!' at the end of an IM session, Microsoft explains, one avoids insulting a converser with whom a conversation is ended. Hopefully the USPTO will give this one the quick buh-bye it deserves."

Submission + - New Record Superconductor Discovered

Submitted by

Dean Edmonds

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @02:36AM

Dean Edmonds writes: "Superconductors.org is reporting a new record for high-temperature superconductivity. The new material shows both resistive and Meissner transitions around 175K (-98C), 25 degrees higher than the previous record holder. To put that in perspective, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 184K (-89C) at Vostok Station, so we're getting close to 'room temperature' superconductors, just so long as the room is in Antarctica."

Submission + - Give me back my Mac menu bar in Leopard

Submitted by Kether83 on Wednesday October 17, 2007 @12:39AM

Kether83 writes: Leopard ships soon, and I already have a gripe with it before the DVD I will install from is most likely even in existence. The new Menu bar looks snazzy with its newfound transparency — but the top corners are now square. Gone are the rounded-off corners of Macdom. Okay, they squared off the bottom of the screen years ago, but keep the top! This seems petty, but it's been a staple of MacOS/Apple System Software since the beginning (or close to it) and it's sort of a tradition — a Mac Geek tradition. Have any testers found a way to get them back? Is this a simple setting someplace or am I going to have to live with my desktop looking that much more like Windows?

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