Comment Re:WTF (Score 5, Funny) 248
Are you kidding? I jumped two whole steps on my way downstairs this morning and found the cease and desist letter already waiting for me on the doormat!
Comment Easy Answer (Score 1) 409
To Lucas's constant raping of the star wars trilogy. Don't buy any of it. I own the trilogy on DVD. Notice I said trilogy? As far as I'm concerned there are three films. I've watched one of the 'prequels' and bits of the others and they suck so I haven't bought any of them. I haven't bought any of the remastered, re-engineered, added a new sound-effect garbage which passes for George Lucas's output these days. I don't even have any plans to buy the blu-ray versions.
I feel sorry for the Star-Wars collectors who feel the need to buy everything every time it comes out. They just get screwed constantly and while their bleating gets a little louder each time, they still hand over their hard-earned with a smile.
Comment Re:Private Info? (Score 5, Insightful) 269
So you think your DNA isn't private? You leave it everywhere you go so it's in the public domain. Is it OK for a company to collect it, store it and profile it for its own purposes?
Australia Gets Its First Female Prime Minister 419
An anonymous reader writes "Julia Gillard has been elected unopposed to the Labor leadership, seizing power in a bloodless Parliament House coup after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd decided not to contest this morning's leadership ballot. Ms. Gillard will now be sworn in as Australia's first female prime minister. Emerging from this morning's meeting, she said she felt 'very honored' and said she would be making a statement shortly. Treasurer Wayne Swan now steps up as deputy prime minister. He was also elected unopposed."
Comment Excuses (Score 1) 418
A lot of comments seem to excuse this as a mistake, as if Google sent out their vehicles, collected the data and simply left most of it to one side because "they didn't know what it was". You don't think they analysed all of this data to death to see what it was, if it was useful to them in any way now or in the future? They kept a huge amount of data in storage for three years even though it was useless to them? I don't believe that for a second.
Comment Enthusiasts will keep Usenet going (Score 2, Insightful) 273
and lets face it, where there's porn, there's no shortage of enthusiasts.
An Early Look At Next-Gen Shooter Bodycount 238
If you ask fans of first-person shooters what feature they'd like to see in a new game, their answers — now and for the past 15 years — probably involve destructible environments. Game developers have tried to satisfy this demand with scripted events, breakable objects, and more crates than you can shake a rocket launcher at. However, Bodycount, an upcoming game from Codemasters Guildford, is aiming to deliver what gamers have wanted for so long: the ability to blast apart whatever you please. Quoting the Guardian's games blog from their hands-on with the game:
"... it's not just about effect, it's about access. In Bodycount, you can blow chunks out of thinner interior walls, allowing you to burst through and catch enemies by surprise. You can also brilliantly modify cover objects – if you're hiding behind a crate and want to take out enemies without popping up from behind it, shoot a hole in it. Bingo, you've got a comparatively safe firing vantage. The difference between this and say, Red Faction or Bad Company, is that the destruction isn't limited to pre-set building sections. It's everywhere. This should, of course, grind the processor to a halt, but the team has come up with a simple compromise to facilitate its vision. 'The trick is that we're not running full physics on everything,' explains lead coder, Jon Creighton. ... This is tied in with one of the best cover systems I've ever seen. While in a crouching position (gained by holding the left trigger down), you can use the left analogue stick to subtly look and aim around your cover object, ducking and peeking to gain that perfect view of the war zone. It's natural, it's comfortable and it's adaptive, and it will surely consign the whole 'locking on' mechanic to the graveyard of cover system history."
Comment Re:A-list? What? (Score 2, Insightful) 471
In the UK, we call it netball and it's played by girls. Basketball here is ranked below dominos in popularity.
China To Tap Combustible Ice As New Energy Source 185
lilbridge writes "Huge reserves of "combustible ice" — frozen methane and water — have been discovered in the tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. Estimates show that there is enough combustible ice to provide 90 years worth of energy for China. Burning the combustible ice may be a far better alternative than letting it just melt, releasing tons of methane into the air."
Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn 819
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."
The Grown-Up Video Game 152
Phaethon360 writes "Now, more than ever, we're seeing many Mature ratings (M+, 17+, 18) being distributed by various national media regulators. But that isn't the only indicator for a game's intended audience. It doesn't take a thousand swear words, scantily clad women or gratuitous violence to differentiate a ten-year-old's game from a twenty-year-old's. The spectrum of human emotions encompasses a wider palette than just revenge, fear, and loss, but the games that shy away from these are frequently mistaken as being for a younger audience. From the article: 'The human experience is one that is made up of great hardship, pain, loss, death, and a multitude of experiences seemingly designed to destroy a person. However, that same experience is also filled with joy, love, laughter, family and friends. ... These so-called “grown-up” games need not be relegated to the category of niche gaming. In fact, at times we find that these video games are capable of reaching mass popularity among the gaming community. It is here that we find one of our generation’s outlets for the expression of conflict.'"
Comment Re:No (Score 2, Funny) 664
Yep, I'm going to Slashdot Hell for this. Windows 3.1 as my OS on a 386, Balmer as my boss, and no stock options to compensate...
Could have been worse, you could have said that Linux isn't ready for the desktop.
Comment Re:Just wow. (Score 1) 179
I have dual 19" monitors but have three desktops setup using Dexpot. One is a finance desktop for excel, banking and other finance apps. Next is a development desktop for IDE, web development and database management. Finally, I have a general desktop for email, web browsing and anything else.
All three desktops use both monitors. It helps to keep common groups of applications in separate workspaces. So, multiple monitors and virtual desktops are not mutually exclusive!
500-in-1 Electronics Kits? 125
Oneamp asks: "I'm interested in a '500-in-one' type electronics kit. Amazon lists a few, but I've seen some user reviews that maybe they are not all they're cracked up to be. Most of the complaints seem to be of the 'Manual sucks' variety. Nevertheless, I'm sold on the idea. Can any of you, who have had actual experience with any of these kits, recommend a good one?"
Submission + - How to build a video wall
alphakappa writes: I am interested in building a video wall as a personal project using recycled old laptops so that I can make use of the display controllers already present. Is there free or cheap software that can extend the display on Windows and still be capable of showing different videos on different zones (like, say run a video in one zone while showing a powerpoint presentation in another one) What tools would slashdotters use?
