Comment: Re:As usual, key points are missing from the story (Score 0) 111
lol - wrong thread, bro
Comment: Re:Kinect - Gathering In Junk Closets Everwhere (Score 2) 155
not to feed the troll, but you apparently haven't bothered opening your windows and looking outside
According to the Guinness book of world records, more people like the kinect than hate it, but in your defense, they were probably too busy having fun to spend any time online responding to flamebait. I'm out, flap your armfat once in a while buddy, use your anger for something healthy.
Comment: Re:Now how does this change the hardware? (Score 1) 155
go look around on google - yes, the article had marketing buzzwords, its how business works, but beyond that - over the last year so many amazing things have come from the kinect - the hacking/modding community was come up with some very innovative ways to use it and the science schools have already done magic with this thing - didn't MIT use a kinect hack to do a real time holographic projection chat? it was crude, but it was a beginning
Comment: Re:Now how does this change the hardware? (Score 5, Interesting) 155
Or you could, you know, read the article. The directly address why the windows version costs $100 more than the Xbox version, and after reading the entire article, I think it is both justified and reasonable. While I have little expectation that you are going to read this reply, given that I use words, like the article, I am going to summarize the important parts with regards to your statement.
The Kinect for Xbox was subsidized by Live subscriptions and game sales, with the PC version they are going to focus on the hardware and allow people to innovate with their hardware for free. Instead of paying for licenses to develop or for support, etc - you pay the entire cost at purchase, and you will get support for the product without expense.
While you can complain and gripe about the extra hundred dollars, I would implore you to maybe stop and think about what you are getting for the price. Why don't we ask around and see how much other companies are charging for a single device that includes video and audio functionality as well as speech to text translation and motion capture. At $250 this device is a steal. Yeah, times are tough, money isn't raining from the skies, but with all the iMorons blowing through apple products like a new york heroin addict in the hills of Afghanistan, well, skip an update on your phone one month.
I believe that the Kinect is going to do more to revolutionize computer interaction, gaming and functionality more than any invention since the second button on a mouse. They could price this at 500 dollars and I'd put down money that every retailer would blow through their inventory. At 250 dollars, not only will they put one on every computer inside of 2 and a half years, but they are laying down a foundation for young engineers, scientists, hackers and hobbyists to create a community with vast potential.
While this site often condemns the 'greed' of corporations such as MS, Sony, Google, etc - I think this is a case where I feel proud to have put my money towards innovation.
Have you been the victim of FIFA hackers on Xbox L->
Submitted
by
Kwirl
Kwirl writes "Just a few weeks ago, my Xbox Live account was 'hacked' similiar to the author of the linked story, and like the author, I have had little support finding answers about why my account, and thousands of players like myself, had our accounts recovered, our bank accounts drained, and our gamerscores increased by FIFA players.
In my case, as a long time EA gamer and Xbox user, they had merged my XBLA ID with my EA account for their various online platforms, trusting them is my fault, I know, but the convenience of managing my games in one location outweighed the likelihood of someone getting my account from either Microsoft or Electronic Arts. Or so I thought then.
My XBL account shared password and email information with only one other source, EA — No one got that information from phishing, and my computer was secured beyond the levels of the average user, as well as regularly swept for trojans/malware/spyware/keyloggers/etc.
How do I go about finding out answers when both EA and MS cut and paste response to everyone of the thousands of victims who ask is 'Sorry, suckers get hacked all the time, change your password.'
When the 'hacker' recovered my gamertag from microsoft, why was my billing and account information provided to that person? If the person who recovered my account from microsoft been forced to re-enter my bank card information, there is a fairly strong chance that this would never have happened.
Why did Microsoft and EA both protect themselves with anti-class action measures in their EULA after being hacked by Lulzsec if, as they claimed, no dangerous information was lost?
A quick google search of any combination of the words 'EA', 'Xbox', 'FIFA', and 'hack' will pretty quickly let me know that I am not alone in dealing with this incident, but none of the corporate parties involved will acknowledge any culpability.
I don't like the MS/EA defense of 'It must be your fault, you got phished' — but since I don't have access to any of the details regarding who/what/when/where/how my account was compromised, I feel like I don't have a choice but to let them keep walking on me, and the number of google responses to issues like this is more than a little worrisome to myself.
Google reveals thousands of victims of these incidents, but how many /. users have gone through this experience, and what questions do you have?"
Link to Original Source
In my case, as a long time EA gamer and Xbox user, they had merged my XBLA ID with my EA account for their various online platforms, trusting them is my fault, I know, but the convenience of managing my games in one location outweighed the likelihood of someone getting my account from either Microsoft or Electronic Arts. Or so I thought then.
My XBL account shared password and email information with only one other source, EA — No one got that information from phishing, and my computer was secured beyond the levels of the average user, as well as regularly swept for trojans/malware/spyware/keyloggers/etc.
How do I go about finding out answers when both EA and MS cut and paste response to everyone of the thousands of victims who ask is 'Sorry, suckers get hacked all the time, change your password.'
When the 'hacker' recovered my gamertag from microsoft, why was my billing and account information provided to that person? If the person who recovered my account from microsoft been forced to re-enter my bank card information, there is a fairly strong chance that this would never have happened.
Why did Microsoft and EA both protect themselves with anti-class action measures in their EULA after being hacked by Lulzsec if, as they claimed, no dangerous information was lost?
A quick google search of any combination of the words 'EA', 'Xbox', 'FIFA', and 'hack' will pretty quickly let me know that I am not alone in dealing with this incident, but none of the corporate parties involved will acknowledge any culpability.
I don't like the MS/EA defense of 'It must be your fault, you got phished' — but since I don't have access to any of the details regarding who/what/when/where/how my account was compromised, I feel like I don't have a choice but to let them keep walking on me, and the number of google responses to issues like this is more than a little worrisome to myself.
Google reveals thousands of victims of these incidents, but how many
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:There are no adjectives available... (Score 1) 69
from what i understand the iwnet was a top-down decision from activision, but i don't know for certain
Comment: There are no adjectives available... (Score 2, Insightful) 69
...to suitably describe how much I loathe that game franchise right now. I spent 60 dollars and bought world at war on the xbox, loved it and spent another 50 bucks to get it on the PC. I bought all of the DLC for both systems. Then I bought MW2 for the xbox and loved it. Then I made the mistake of spending another 50 bucks to get it on the PC without realizing just how horrible of a choice that was.
IWnet is the most ridiculous, horrible thing to ever happen to gaming. And what really 'grinds my gears' (Thanks, Peter!) is that they did it for the sole purpose of forcing customers to buy their DLC. Yes, I am guilty, but meh. I played battlefield 2 on the PC for YEARS, and they provided support, patches, new content and game fixes for the most part at an acceptable rate.
Then MW2 comes out and
Comment: no way! the best way is... (Score 3, Funny) 325
these people are all wrong...just take it to Best Buy! the Geek Squad could save the data for you fo' sure!
Comment: Re:Cue Standard Replies (Score 1) 550
This is where i step in to say
Comment: Re:I'll believe it when I see it. (Score 1) 550
space elevator ftw!
Space elevator: 'global warming cure'?->
Submitted
by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes "Researchers gathered at the Space Elevator Conference at Microsoft's Redmond campus said that an elevator could make transportation to space so much more inexpensive than it is now that companies could build large solar-power farms in space to provide energy for people on Earth. That could eliminate the need to burn fossil fuels and thus reduce global warming."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: muds (Score 1) 238
Medievia, Toril/Sojourn, Duris, and Waterdeep, among many others
Starting a forum/website hosting service, how?-> 1
Submitted
by
Kwirl
Kwirl writes "Lets say that I wanted to start a small business endeavor, namely reselling my server space and offering pre-built websites (for example, clans within any given gaming environment). What resources would I need to start something like this on my own? What hosting service would best suit those needs? What would be the best way to manage a subdomain-level service that provided a basic forum, registration, a web site and some controlled administrative access for my friends so they couldn't easily terrorize each other?
I'm curious to know if I could start something like this on my own, and without much more than just my own server space, time, and creativity. I'm not looking to make a living out of this, its mostly just a way for me to more efficiently manage having several friends each wanting me to built or run a web site for them, and perhaps make some small residual income if a market exists.
The Slashdot community represents such a broad swatch of experience and expertise that I'd like to know how you would approach a project of this nature."
Link to Original Source
I'm curious to know if I could start something like this on my own, and without much more than just my own server space, time, and creativity. I'm not looking to make a living out of this, its mostly just a way for me to more efficiently manage having several friends each wanting me to built or run a web site for them, and perhaps make some small residual income if a market exists.
The Slashdot community represents such a broad swatch of experience and expertise that I'd like to know how you would approach a project of this nature."
Link to Original Source
Musical Success without the *IAA Industry
Submitted
by
Kwirl
Kwirl writes "Some time ago, I found myself using youtube to find a certain musician's music video, and stumbled across a cover artist. Nothing unusual there, except the quality. I showed some friends, and pretty much the talent of these guys was apparent to us all. I started following them, and was impressed at their steady stream of cover releases. However, myself and tens of thousands of other fans began waiting for an official release album.
The really amazing story about these artists is that they have eschewed what the Industry would have us all believe is the only road to stardom. Play a bar, get scouted, sign with X-label, ??, profit. You can see them play on youtube. You can catch them on Myspace, buy their album on iTunes, and as of now they are STILL unsigned by any major label.
What other artists do you know that have succeeded without the help of the *IAA Industry? I want to support of many artists that succeed this way as I can, and we have to know about them to help them."
The really amazing story about these artists is that they have eschewed what the Industry would have us all believe is the only road to stardom. Play a bar, get scouted, sign with X-label, ??, profit. You can see them play on youtube. You can catch them on Myspace, buy their album on iTunes, and as of now they are STILL unsigned by any major label.
What other artists do you know that have succeeded without the help of the *IAA Industry? I want to support of many artists that succeed this way as I can, and we have to know about them to help them."
Photoshop CS4 to only run 64-bit for Vista
Submitted
by
Kwirl
Kwirl writes "Adobe is readying a new version of its Creative Suite, the software bundle that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and other applications for print and Web design. Only this time there's a twist: The new version of Photoshop will support 64-bit memory addressing for the first time — but only if you're running Windows.
Simply put, more bits means you can access more memory, which means you can work with bigger files. By taking advantage of 64-bit CPUs, Adobe is making it possible for designers and photo manipulators to work with really, really big images at high resolutions. Think posters, advertising displays, or even billboards.
So why not on Macs? As it turns out, Photoshop for Mac OS is written using older APIs that don't allow access to all the latest Mac OS X features. To bring the software up to speed will require a total rewrite, a time-consuming process that could leave Mac users in the cold for some time.
Submitter's note, it seems that the article mentioned is somewhat antagonistic, here is a somewhat more placifying story"
Simply put, more bits means you can access more memory, which means you can work with bigger files. By taking advantage of 64-bit CPUs, Adobe is making it possible for designers and photo manipulators to work with really, really big images at high resolutions. Think posters, advertising displays, or even billboards.
So why not on Macs? As it turns out, Photoshop for Mac OS is written using older APIs that don't allow access to all the latest Mac OS X features. To bring the software up to speed will require a total rewrite, a time-consuming process that could leave Mac users in the cold for some time.
Submitter's note, it seems that the article mentioned is somewhat antagonistic, here is a somewhat more placifying story"