Amani576 - Slashdot User

Comment: Re:Who cares? (Score 1) 341

by Amani576 on Thursday December 20 2007, @02:30AM (#21761810) Attached to: Duke Nukem Forever Teaser Released

In this case... I can actually see 10 years of development being beneficial to the developers... because well... people have been waiting so long and nearly everyone who's ever seriously played PC games knows about how long this game has taken to come out... some people will buy it for the "HOLY SHIT" factor, some people will buy it because they are legitimately happy that it's out, and some people will buy it because, well, it's Duke Nukem, one of the original gaming badasses and they're happy to see him return. Yes, there will be people who won't buy it because "It'll bring forth the apocalypse" or some bullshit like that, or because they think it'll just be some mediocre shooter.
To me... it doesn't really matter. I don't care if 3D Realms has taken 10, maybe 15 years to release the game when it finally comes out. I'll buy it because I'm proud they atleast did it, regardless of missed dealines and such and so forth. It's a game, people... and as many jokes as there are about it... why not buy it so you can revel in the fact that you're playing an actual joke, and something nearly indelibly tied to geek/nerd culture.
Whatever... that's just what I think.
GR

Giant Dinosaur Bird Discovered 166

Posted by Zonk on Friday June 15 2007, @09:35PM
from the einstein-looks-scared-of-the-big-birdy dept.

Cyclist110 writes "The BBC has the story of the discovery, in Inner Mongolia, of a Dinosaur bird twice the size of a man and weighing in at over 3000 lbs. From the article: 'Chinese researchers uncovered the fossilised remains of the flightless giant in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia. The researchers had originally thought they had found the bones of a tyrannosaur — the group of dinosaurs to which T. rex belongs — due to their large size.'"

How to stop top 100 Google results being sellers?

Submitted by

Architect

on Thursday June 14 2007, @02:42PM

Architect writes "Google use to be about searching for information. Now, google is about searching for organizations selling products.

I can't enter search items and find any informative help anymore, instead the first results are always organizations selling something related to all items in the search box...

Does anyone know a way to tell the Google search that I am not buying? How do you tell Google to stop returning results from people selling products? "-buy -purchase" etc doesn't seem to work.

Thank you"

The Gimp created Starscapes and Space Pictures->

Submitted by

mikeeusa2

on Sunday June 10 2007, @07:45PM

mikeeusa2 writes "Wonder what you can do in the free software world's premier graphics program? Well here is a digital painting gallery featuring various opensource pictures made in The Gimp. This includes impressonist style art aswell as space pictures and abstractions. Comments welcome."
Link to Original Source

Wyzo - The BitTorrent Media Browser->

Submitted by

Jonathan

on Sunday June 10 2007, @07:01PM

Jonathan writes "Dear Slashdot,

I am writing to inform you of our new project in the "peer-to-browser"
space. Although we wanted to wait a little longer before letting you know
what exciting things we have been working on it, we felt that given the fact
there is a lot of interest in this space it was the right time to do so.

Following the release of the FireStorm, BitFox and FoxTorrent projects, we
felt we should let you know about our new project Wyzo ( www.wyzo.com). Wyzo
is a web browser built on the Firefox core, which includes a very advanced
plug-in we have been working on called "FireTorrent". Unlike the other
aforementioned projects, we have been working on a slightly different
approach on the "peer-to-browser" market and hope you will understand
our philosophy by the end of this email.

To understand why we have gone to the trouble to build a new browser and a
new brand for the purpose of this extension, one must understand our
business strategy. Our primary target audience is not people who already use
BitTorrent, its people that don't. Despite the fact that our FireTorrent
extension still contains most of the advanced features that die-hard torrent
users would expect to see, but we don't anticipate they will be swayed
from using near perfect applications such as Azureus and uTorrent; instead,
our focus to reach out to those users that don't even know what a
BitTorrent is, or a Firefox extension for that matter.

In our opinion, the most important thing about browser based torrent
plug-ins is the ability to look like a normal download, and to implement the
BitTorrent downloading protocol seamlessly within the browser environment.
When using our Wyzo Browser, you will see that although far from perfect we
have taken particular efforts to ensure the experience of downloading a
torrent is seamless and no different to a regular download. On the surface
it will look like a basic plug-in omitting what most torrent users would
consider essential technical data, however if you look into the details of
the plug-in, under the hood it contains all the necessary technology to make
our plugin speeds match any top bit torrent client. The module itself is
built upon technology provided by P2P Innovative (www.ip2p.com). iP2P's
engine is relatively unknown but the technology has been used in various P2P
projects in the past. The engine core is very powerful contains essential
features such as uTorrent compatible fast peer exchange, STUNT and uPnP
connection integration. The fact that we saved months by porting an XPI from
an "over-developed" core technology as opposed to grappling with the
basics of the BitTorrent algorithm allowed us to focus primarily on
usability, the most important factor of any software application or plugin.

As we have released a newly branded "clone" of Firefox, we do
understand that this may cause some concern to loyal users of Firefox, not
to mention restrict our target audience. As we want to see this project
succeed to the highest level, we have also released a separate standalone
Firefox copy of the plug-in, especially for Firefox users.

Furthermore, as we continue to develop, you will also see other new media
based features being integrated into the client (such as media
bookmarking).

We hope that you find this project of interest and hope you have time to
write about us on your website, an excellent source of great news I might
add!

Best Regards,
Jon — Wyzo.com"
Link to Original Source

"Apple's New Thing (iPod)"

Submitted by on Sunday June 10 2007, @05:57PM

An anonymous reader writes "The reaction back in 2001 to the iPod among the Macheads to the iPod goes above and beyond CmdrTaco's notorious initial reaction and can provide some insight to the launch of the iPhone now. Some of the gems just on the first page:

"Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!"

"hey — heres an idea Apple — rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up? or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?"

"I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"

"OH NO! Just checked Apple Store — they want $399.00 for this thing...Ouch!!!"

"$400 for an Mp3 Player!

"I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional."

"All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field(TM) is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.""

Israeli scientists create cyborg brains->

Submitted by

Roy van Rijn

on Sunday June 10 2007, @05:25PM

Roy van Rijn writes "Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have demonstrated that neurons cultured outside the brain can be imprinted with multiple rudimentary memories that persist for days without interfering with or wiping out others. The israeli scientists have taken a crucial first step in showing that a network of neurons outside the body can be stimulated to create multiple memories that they sustain for days."
Link to Original Source

Privacy Group Gives Google Lowest Possible Grade 260

Posted by Zonk on Sunday June 10 2007, @05:14PM
from the eff-triple-minus dept.

The Washington Post is reporting on a finding by London-based group Privacy International. In a new report, they find that Google has some of the worst privacy-protection practices anywhere on the web, giving them the lowest possible grade. "While a number of other Internet companies have troubling policies, none comes as close to Google to 'achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy,' Privacy International said in an explanation of its findings. In a statement from one of its lawyers, Google said it aggressively protects its users' privacy and stands behind its track record. In its most conspicuous defense of user privacy, Google last year successfully fought a U.S. Justice Department subpoena demanding to review millions of search requests."