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Comment: Re:software dev? (Score 4, Interesting) 405

by McFadden (#40188683) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What To Do With a Math Degree?
Absolutely. As someone who regularly hires, I've recruited people with a math degree from a decent college over people with computer science degrees before. It's possible the two have changed, but back when I was at university, I did Comp Sci and sat in for a couple of lectures a week with the first year math undergrads. What they were doing was considerably more challenging than anything I encountered in my four years.

Comment: Re:Sci Fi Luminaries? (Score 1) 156

Doesn't matter anyway. They're going to need at least 100 times what they've raised so far to even make it to B-grade standard, so even the "fastest funded" isn't fast enough given their timescale. Never gonna happen. It'll be interesting to see what will happen if a studio steps in and makes up the shortfall then reaps a lion's share of the profits leaving all these small investors looking like a bunch of schmucks.
Hardware Hacking

Wipeout Recreated With an RC Car 90

Posted by Soulskill
from the eagerly-awaiting-his-xwing-project dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If you've owned any of Sony's PlayStation consoles then there's a good chance you've also played one of the Wipeout games. It's a high-speed racing game that helped make the PSOne popular, and it's now been recreated using a remote control car. The project is the idea of Malte Jehmlich. He decided to create a track out of cardboard reminiscent of the Wipeout tracks. He then hooked up a wireless camera to a remote control car, and modified the controller to be an arcade cabinet with a wheel and forward/reverse selector."
Education

Flaw in Android OS will hand market to i-Pad-> 2

Submitted by
Jamie Holyoake
Jamie Holyoake writes "A flaw in Android OS means that the Apple ipad will obtain a vital foothold in the potential domination of the education sector Worldwide. Google have already lost a lot in potential revenue from the corporate sector as a lot of businesses have decided to avoid purchasing android phones for their employees because of the very same flaw:

Android OS has never allowed its users to configure global (or even browser) wi-fi proxy settings (which has been a base feature of Win Mobile, Apple, and even Symbian devices since long before the concept of Android was even released to the public). It has been an issue since the birth of Android and it was officially reported to Google developers (who must all have generous data plans) at code.google.com back on Nov 12 2009 (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1273).

The vast majority of education institutions (and a huge percentage of corporate environments) worldwide have some kind of proxy to get through in order to access the web. The ipad is proving to be a huge hit (as anyone might expect) and a fair amount of interest is being shown by education institutions globally where many are working towards the dream of replacing reference books and even work books with ipads especially at the secondary education level. So as it currently stands, Android tablet devices cannot even be considered as an alternative at these places due to this issue. Google really needs to pull their finger out and address this enormous flaw before Android can expect to be noted as a serious competitor.

However, in spite of the fact that Google have had over 6 months to address it and have more than 1000 very frustrated people jumping up and down (and that's just in the thread mentioned above alone), Google has seen fit to classify the issue as merely an "enhancement" of "medium" priority. Apparently no steps have been taken towards doing something about it in 2.1 Eclair or even 2.2 Froyo and we see cosmetic features like animated "live" wallpaper that apparently take priority over the basic functionality of enabling students and business people to connect to the outside world. Google has not as yet released any form of statement to its frustrated users to explain their reasons for neglecting the issue, or their plans (or lack thereof) to remedy the situation.

Many Android fans and network administrators that I know are in a position where they would like to recommend Android devices to colleagues, clients and friends but find that they are unable to due exclusively to the lack of proxy support for wi-fi connections. Furthermore, it is not a widely known flaw to potential buyers. Being such a standard feature to expect on any new device, many people have been stung by the realization of the fact after they have purchased an android device in good faith that no company in its right mind would allow an OS to be so far past intial beta stages and still not incorporate such a base line feature. This is leaving a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths and they are converting back to windows or apple powered devices with a reluctance to place their trust in Android so readily in the future. Google need to wake up and give the consumer real freedom of choice and a competitive product which isn't biased away from those people, places, and devices which are unable to rely on a sturdy mobile broadband connection or else consumer loyalties will be embedded elsewhere.

Jamie Holyoake
(A network administrator in Australias public education sector)."

Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Hypocrisy (Score 1) 340

by McFadden (#32202822) Attached to: Rockstar Ships <em>Max Payne 2</em> Cracked By Pirates

They flat out stole someone's code

Speaking of hypocrisy, when someone copies (read: pirates) a game, it never takes long before the pedants and whingers jump in to make the tired observation that it's "not theft, it's copyright infringment".

But now, when a games publisher does it, it's suddenly "flat out stealing".

Microsoft

Microsoft Clears MechWarrior4 Free Launch 131

Posted by Soulskill
from the done-and-done dept.
Vamman writes "If you've been following the drama surrounding the free release of MechWarrior4, then you're probably aware that the initial announcement, made last summer, was a bit premature. Now, nearly a year since that announcement was made, MekTek Studios has announced that Microsoft Legal has given clearance for the free release of Mechwarrior4. This move by Microsoft Games couldn't come at a better time for the community, as the owners of MechWarrior are attempting a reboot of the franchise."

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