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First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Posted by Soulskill from the be-careful-they-cheat dept.
Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Medicine

Submission + - High tolerance connected with increased alcoholism (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by
gabrlknght
gabrlknght writes: "Being able to drink your buddies under the table may garner grudging respect around the bar, but it bodes poorly for the long term. A new study finds that young men for whom alcohol has little effect face a greater risk of developing alcoholism later in life than those who readily feel alcohol's effects. Reporting online May 22 and in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, scientists find that the added risk a man carries by being more resistant to alcohol's effects endures even after accounting for other factors such as teenage drinking habits and family history of alcohol abuse."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Stardock CEO Falters on Gamers Bill of Rights (demigodthegame.com) 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, the creator of the self-proclaimed "Gamer Bill of Rights", is faltering with their own community over their new release of the game DemiGod. Plagued with connectivity issues and problems the publisher is offering some refunds but has grown increasingly agitated with their own community. Their 10 principles in the Gamer Bill of Rights seems in direct conflict as back in August they proclaimed: "Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state" and "Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund" now seem neglected and more like a publicity stunt. Their CEO, Brad Wardell aka Frogboy, has told their gaming community when a recent disgruntled user pointed out the problems playing the game or trying to get refunds, "Anyone who feels that what the person wrote above was justified should leave now and vow never to purchase anything from Stardock again. That way, the process becomes self-selective." In addition, the Stardock CEO has taken the harsh measure of punishing any gamer who posts disparaging remarks about the problems with their game by banning them from their forums as well as the game with no recourse.
Java

Sun Slips Firefox Extension Into Java Update 311

Posted by timothy from the we-thought-you-wanted-it dept.
pcardno writes "It seems it's not just Microsoft that have spotted a good opportunity to distribute their software through Firefox Addons. On installing the latest annoying, sysbar bubble based Java update, my Firefox informed me that I had a wonderful new Java addon automatically. Here's the addon screenshot. Yes, I could opt out of it, but why are Sun installing Addons to my Firefox without me making specific choices in the application itself? To be clear — I have never chosen to install this Addon, yet it has been installed without my permission with the latest Java Update."
Power

Avalanche Effect Demonstrated In Solar Cells 234

Posted by kdawson from the when-the-rain-washes-you-clean-you'll-know dept.
esocid writes "Researchers at TU Delft (Netherlands) and the FOM (Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter) have found irrefutable proof that the so-called avalanche effect by electrons occurs in specific semiconducting crystals of nanometer dimensions. This physical effect could pave the way for cheap, high-output solar cells. Solar cells currently have relatively low output, typically 15%, and high manufacturing costs. One possible improvement could derive from a new type of solar cell made of semiconducting nanocrystals and could theoretically lead to a maximum output of 44%, with the added benefit of reducing manufacturing costs. In conventional solar cells, one photon can release precisely one electron. However, in some semiconducting nanocrystals, one photon can release two or three electrons, hence the term 'avalanche effect.' This effect was first measured by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in 2004, and since then the scientific world had raised doubts about the value of these measurements. This current research does in fact demonstrate that the avalanche effect can occur."
Math

4D Analogue of Megaminx Puzzle 80

Posted by timothy from the pretty-puzzling dept.
roice writes "The crazy hypercubists who created the 4D and 5D Rubik's cubes (here are previous Slashdot posts on the 4-D one and the 5-D one) have now developed a free working 4-dimensional software analogue of the Megaminx puzzle. Composed of 120 dodecahedral cells, the underlying structure is arguably the most beautiful of 4D geometrical shapes, with amazing symmetries and no analogue in dimensions higher than 4. Though some have already begun working on solutions for this 'Hyperminx,' it has yet to be solved by anyone. Also, when it comes to number of positions, it dwarfs the previous puzzles by many thousands of orders of magnitude!"
Microsoft

Microsoft Upgrades Vista Kernel in SP1 231

Posted by Zonk from the new-toys-for-your-tech dept.
KrispySausage writes "One of the big features discussed in early speculation of Windows Vista SP1 was the kernel upgrade, which was supposed to bring the operating system into line with the Longhorn kernel used in Windows Server 2008. With Vista SP1 going RTM, there hasn't been so much as a peep from Microsoft about the mooted kernel update. Has it happened? Well the answer is yes it has. Presumably the main reason for Microsoft's silence on the subject is that as they're keen to promote the improvements and enhancements to Vista, rather than placing emphasis on a kernel upgrade, which some people might see as a risk of newly-introduced instability."

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