Comment But wait...isn't sugar TOXIC?!? (Score 1) 166
Gee...I don't know WHAT to believe any more!!! </sarcasm>
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/04/18/2317205/Is-Sugar-Toxic
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/04/18/2317205/Is-Sugar-Toxic
Comment Re:won't happen (Score 1) 245
Obviously "White Powdery Substance"
Submission + - Geely McCar Features a Built-in Electric Scooter (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: One of the most imaginative concept cars we've ever seen turned up at Auto Shanghai this week and it didn't come from Japan, Germany, France or America – it was the result of two years work in China by Geely engineers and is the synthesis of over 60 IP-protected ideas. In essence, it's an ultra compact, two-door, four-seater with a built-in, folding three wheeled electric scooter in the rear. When the scooter is docked, the car shares both its battery and electric motor to extend the all-electric range or ensure the scooter is fully charged. The McCar is proposed as having choice of gas-electric hybrid or fully electric powerplants.
Used Game Penalty Escalates With SOCOM 4 325
Technologizer reports on this unwelcome development for used game buyers:
"SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals charts a new course in punishing used game buyers, and it’s at once better and worse than the status quo of $10 online passes. As described on the official Playstation Blog, SOCOM 4 will let all players access the game’s multiplayer portion — as it should, because online play has always been SOCOM’s main attraction — but used game buyers will miss out on special guns, game types, and other perks to be added later. To get these features with a used copy of the game, you’ll have to buy a $15 activation code. Sony’s spinning this bundle of features, dubbed 'SOCOM Pro,' as an enhancement for new game buyers, rather than a drawback for used copies. It’s semantics, sure, but it’s also the direction in which these used game restrictions should be going."
What Monty Python Teaches Us About Computing 102
Esther Schindler writes "Does the computer industry seem just a little too strange? Never fear: Monty Python encapsulated several nuggets of wisdom years ago that summarize exactly what is behind the sometimes-tawdry behavior of vendors, the open source community, and marketing departments."
Submission + - FPS Gaming and the 'Just World Hypothesis' 1
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jamie Madigan writes that when people witness someone subjected to some misfortune, they’re susceptible to suggestions that the person deserved it and thus see the misfortune as evidence of karma or justice –hence the “Just” in “Just World Hypothesis”. Now consider the controversial new first-person shooter Homefront, which has you play as an freedom fighter in an America occupied by a North Korean superpower where the introduction to the game goes to great lengths to relieve you of any moral misgivings you might have about plugging away at the enemies it’s getting ready to throw at you. "You see enemy soldiers not only brutalizing American civilians, but outright murdering a mother in front of her children and callously tossing corpses around," writes Madigan, a gamer with a Ph.D. in psychology, who writes on the psychology of successful games. "The message is clear: Hey, these guys are evil. When we give you a gun, SHOOT THEM and FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT." Madigan says that the interesting thing about Homefront is that it’s not leaving any blanks to be filled in which robs the game of some narrative depth. "Some of my favorite gaming moments over the years have been born of difficult decisions about who to let live and who to gun down. Let me decide, act, and ruminate on those actions once the smoke clears; that will keep the game with me for longer.""
French Hacker Arrested After Bragging On TV 134
Orome1 writes "A French hacker has effectually tied a noose around his own neck when he bragged about hacking into the systems of a big government contractor on national TV. He participated in a television program called Further investigation, and he said — and demonstrated — that he has gained access to computers belonging to the French Army and Thales Group, a French company that provides information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, and security markets. He was arrested 6 days after the program was aired. The police discovered on his computer a great number of compromised credit card and bank account data."
Comment Re:Windows "was" a competitor? (Score 2) 342
That, and I'd like to know where Google went...I didn't know they weren't a search engine any longer...WTF have I been using???
Comment And the point?? (Score 1) 205
"meeting time has gone down from as much as 30 hours per week to as little as 2 hours per week."
And this is written as if it is a BAD thing.
And this is written as if it is a BAD thing.
Comment Re:Lawyer? (Score 1) 554
It's not just VCR's that have analog tuners, though...
I have a MythTV box...I've got an analog tuner in it and if I want to record anything off of the "digital tier" on my cable box, I have to tune it in on the box. Switching channels automatically is the only way to do this if I need to record several things while away.
Offline Book "Lending" Costs US Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion 494
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from a tongue-in-cheek blog post which puts publisher worries about ebook piracy into perspective:
"Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher's Weekly that 'publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online book piracy' comes a sudden realization of a much larger threat to the viability of the book industry. Apparently, over 2 billion books were 'loaned' last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 billion per year, losses which extend back to at least the year 2000. ... From what we've been able to piece together, the book 'lending' takes place in 'libraries.' On entering one of these dens, patrons may view a dazzling array of books, periodicals, even CDs and DVDs, all available to anyone willing to disclose valuable personal information in exchange for a 'card.' But there is an ominous silence pervading these ersatz sanctuaries, enforced by the stern demeanor of staff and the glares of other patrons. Although there's no admission charge and it doesn't cost anything to borrow a book, there's always the threat of an onerous overdue bill for the hapless borrower who forgets to continue the cycle of not paying for copyrighted material."
Comment M.U.L.E. -- Great times (Score 1) 110
Wow...M.U.L.E. is definitely one of my favorite games of all time.
Remember playing it for hours and hours with friends in college.
I remember M.U.L.E. being the place where I first learned about (and heard the word) "Collusion".
Hunting the wumpus, trying to get the mountainous regions to get crystite...
And the only true way to play was the long 90 minute 12 turn game.
Remember playing it for hours and hours with friends in college.
I remember M.U.L.E. being the place where I first learned about (and heard the word) "Collusion".
Hunting the wumpus, trying to get the mountainous regions to get crystite...
And the only true way to play was the long 90 minute 12 turn game.
Comment Re:Uhm...? (Score 1) 268
No no no...everyone knows the word is more of the AVIAN variety!
Comment Re:Move along, nothing to see here (Score 1) 269
Two words: orphaned hardware.
When nVidia decides they no longer wish to support an older piece of hardware, they just "build it out" of the driver. The driver no longer works with your perfectly good video card.
If the driver was open sourced in *ANY WAY* (including the scheme from somewhere above where they license it only for use with nVidia hardware) the code would aready be out there in the open and would always be accessible.
When nVidia decides they no longer wish to support an older piece of hardware, they just "build it out" of the driver. The driver no longer works with your perfectly good video card.
If the driver was open sourced in *ANY WAY* (including the scheme from somewhere above where they license it only for use with nVidia hardware) the code would aready be out there in the open and would always be accessible.
