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PlayStation (Games)

Hands-on With the PSP Go 73

Posted by Soulskill
from the not-suitable-for-feet dept.
ANkleStrong writes "Sony Corp unveiled on Tuesday a smaller, lighter PlayStation handheld game device called the PSP Go, in a race to catch rival Nintendo in an intensely competitive mobile games arena." E3 attendees were able to take the new Sony handheld for a test drive, and more pictures and videos are now available. It's set to be released on October 1st, and will retail for $249. A new Resident Evil game is being designed specifically for the updated hardware, and Metal Gear Peace Walker is coming as well.
XBox (Games)

Gamer Claims Identifying As a Lesbian Led To Xbox Live Ban 1182

Posted by timothy
from the you-have-crossed-the-line-ma'am dept.
Goatbert writes "I just read on the Consumerist about an XBOX Live user being banned for identifying herself as a lesbian. Despite appeals, Microsoft has stood by its position that merely mentioning that you are gay or lesbian is grounds for terminating your XBOX Live membership."

Comment: As a user, OpenID sucks (Score 1) 333

by CanSpice (#26365417) Attached to: OpenID Fan Club Is Shrinking

So I went to sign up for Toodledo the other day. On the suggestion of my boss, I went to sign in via OpenID. Well I didn't have an OpenID, so I signed up for one of those through the OpenID provider that Toodledo linked from their very page - myopenid.com. Fair enough. Went back to sign in with Toodledo and my shiny new OpenID and I get an error message back saying "There was an error connecting to your OpenID server."

Well what the hell. I sign up using the very provider that they link to and I still can't get in. I have an OpenID success rate of 0%. Why would I want to keep using it?

Space

Astronomers Dissect a Supermassive Black Hole 77

Posted by kdawson
from the telescopes-are-where-you-find-them dept.
Matt_dk sends along a piece from the European Southern Observatory, which reports on observations of the so-called "Einstein Cross," a fortuitous conjunction of a nearby galaxy and a distant black hole. A team of researchers from Europe and the US combined the effects of macrolensing (from the intervening galaxy) and microlensing (from stars in that galaxy), captured by an earth-bound telescope. "Combining a double natural 'magnifying glass' with the power of ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have scrutinized the inner parts of the disc around a supermassive black hole 10 billion light-years away. They were able to study the disc with a level of detail a thousand times better than that of the best telescopes in the world, providing the first observational confirmation of the prevalent theoretical models of such discs."
Privacy

Verizon Exposes the Wrong 1,200 Email Addresses 94

Posted by timothy
from the but-this-was-the-before-picture dept.
netbuzz writes "If you're going to market your expertise by inviting 1,200 IT professionals to a seminar about securing data and protecting personal information, it's probably a good idea to protect the personal information of those you invite. On Tuesday, Verizon forgot that advice and blasted each of the 1,200 email addresses to everyone on the list ... and they did it 17 times."

Comment: Re:McCain versus Obama (Score 1) 1104

by CanSpice (#25062373) Attached to: Who do you blame for the US Financial Situation

Actually, that chart is misleading. The "average tax cut" at the bottom assumes that an equal number of people lies in each of the income bands listed. That's wrong. If you look at this redrawn chart you'll see a more accurate representation of the two major candidates' plans.

It doesn't give an average tax cut per taxpayer, though.

The Courts

Minnesota Pays Video Game Industry $65K In Fees 142

Posted by kdawson
from the don't-let-the-door-hit-you dept.
I Said More Ham writes "Minnesota's attorney general will drop the state's efforts to fine underage buyers of violent videogames after a high court struck down a state law as unconstitutional. The Entertainment Software Association, one of the plaintiffs in the case, announced Monday that the state paid $65,000 in attorney's fees and expenses."
Earth

Life-Size Photo of a Blue Whale 84

Posted by kdawson
from the baleen-why-can't-you-be-true dept.
Smivs writes "The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have posted a navigable life-size photo of a blue whale! It will take a while to look at all of it, but it starts at the eye (which is a great idea). The picture is navigable — there is an insert of the whole picture and you can change the view by moving a cursor around — but if you just let it run, the whale will slowly 'swim' past you. It's a bit like being in a submarine with the whale going past a porthole. Definitely worth a look!"
The Military

Israelis Sue Government For Laser Cannons 736

Posted by samzenpus
from the we-all-want-a-laser-cannon dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Residents of a southern Israeli town want a real-life laser cannon to protect them against Palestinian rocket attacks. And they're suing the national government, for failing to provide the ray gun defense. The U.S.-Israeli Tactical High Energy Laser project was widely considered to be the most successful energy weapon ever built. But the toxic chemicals needed to generate THEL's megawatts of power made the thing a logistical nightmare. It was scrapped. Now, the residents of Sderot want it back. And they're taking Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to court to make it happen."
Government

If IP Is Property, Where Is the Property Tax? 691

Posted by kdawson
from the making-the-world-safe-for-mickey dept.
nweaver writes "In a response to the LA Times editorial on copyright which we discussed a week ago, the paper published a response arguing: 'If Intellectual Property is actually property, why isn't it covered by a property tax?' If copyright maintenance involved paying a fee and registration, this would keep Mickey Mouse safely protected by copyright, while ensuring that works that are no longer economically relevant to the copyright holder pass into the public domain, where the residual social value can serve the real purpose of copyright: to enhance the progress of science and useful arts. Disclaimer: the author is my father."
Patents

Canon Files For DSLR Iris Registration Patent 273

Posted by kdawson
from the biological-metadata dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Canon has filed for a patent for using iris watermarking (as in the iris of your eye) to take photographer's copyright protection to the next level. You set up the camera to capture an image of your eye through the viewfinder. Once captured, this biological reference is embedded as metadata into every photo you take. Canon claims this will help with copyright infringement of photos online."
Intel

Intel Sued Over Core 2 Duo Patent Infringement 216

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the patents-are-such-a-mess dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Intel is being sued over a patent infringement alleged to be in the Core 2 Duo microprocessor design. 'The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is charging Intel Corporation with patent infringement of a University of Wisconsin-Madison invention that significantly improves the efficiency and speed of computer processing. The foundation's complaint identifies the Intel CoreTM 2 Duo microarchitecture as infringing WARF's United States Patent No. 5,781,752, entitled "Table Based Data Speculation Circuit for Parallel Processing Computer." WARF contacted Intel in 2001, and made repeated attempts, including meeting face-to-face with company representatives, to offer legal licensing opportunities for the technology.' The text of the complaint [PDF] is also available via WARF's site."
Television

Deal Reportedly Reached In Writers' Strike 333

Posted by kdawson
from the gonna-be-a-backlog dept.
BlueshiftVFX writes to let us know that the writers' strike may be over. CNBC and other media are quoting former Disney CEO Michael Eisner: "It's over. They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general... A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon."
Books

Which eBook Reader is the Best? 469

Posted by Zonk
from the i'm-still-waiting-for-holopaper dept.
Mistress.Erin writes "I cannot decide between Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. I've read some reviews, but their motives can be somewhat suspect. So, I come to the most tech savvy group around to ask: which eBook reader is the best? If not Kindle or Reader, then what?" We've discussed this question before, but things have changed a bit since 2005.

The more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain.