MikePo - Slashdot User

DC Universe Online To Launch January 11th 49

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 22 2010, @06:48AM
from the dust-off-your-cape dept.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that their long-awaited superhero MMO DC Universe Online will be launching on January 11th in the US and January 14th in the UK. The game will be available for Windows and the PlayStation 3. Massively recently wrote up their impressions from the beta test, and a preview at The Escapist said this of the combat: "Based on my early experiences, the action of DCUO is a lot of fun. You can lock onto targets, but there is no auto attack button. To take down enemies, you must click a button to punch or fire a ranged attack. The brawler-style action feels like a wham-bang comic book. Scenery is not just difficult terrain; picking up barrels and tossing them at your foes is sometimes necessary for tough encounters. Leveling up your skills unlocks combos, with varying effects that can interrupt enemies from pulling off that devastating fire breath or stunning punch. ... The only downside with such frenetic combat is that the keyboard and mouse interface isn't really conducive to all this action. It's hard to follow up nine short left clicks with a long right button click. While I was visiting SOE's offices, I was able to play with a PS3 controller, and this control scheme was preferable."

TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old 1135

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 17 2010, @01:09PM
from the security-theater dept.

3-year-old Mandy Simon started crying when her teddy bear had to go through the X-ray machine at airport security in Chattanooga, Tenn. She was so upset that she refused to go calmly through the metal detector, setting it off twice. Agents then informed her parents that she "must be hand-searched." The subsequent TSA employee pat down of the screaming child was captured by her father, who happens to be a reporter, on his cell phone. The video have left some questioning why better procedures for children aren't in place. I, for one, feel much safer knowing the TSA is protecting us from impressionable minds warped by too much Dora the Explorer.

Scientists Use Calvin Klein Cologne to Lure Big Cats 63

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 10 2010, @11:29AM
from the cougar-approved dept.

Biologists can't speak on the effectiveness of Calvin Klein Obsession for Men on the cougars at your local bar, but they do know that jaguars love it. Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program use the cologne to attract jaguars in the jungles of Guatemala. "The method we are using to study the jaguars here in Guatemala is a non-invasive method which is based on photographing the individuals by using camera traps," Moreira says. "It has been very useful using Obsession (for Men) to get the jaguars in front of these camera traps ... and that allows us to estimate with greater confidence the genders and the numbers that live in each studied site."

Sony Joins the Offensive Against Pre-Owned Games 461

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 19 2010, @06:11AM
from the saddle-up dept.

BanjoTed writes "In a move to counter sales of pre-owned games, EA recently revealed DLC perks for those who buy new copies of Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Now, PlayStation platform holder Sony has jumped on the bandwagon with similar plans for the PSP's SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. '[Players] will need to register their game online before they are able to access the multiplayer component of the title. UMD copies will use a redeemable code while the digital version will authenticate automatically in the background. Furthermore ... anyone buying a pre-owned copy of the game will be forced to cough up $20 to obtain a code to play online."

Comment: Possible Answer (Score 1) 1

by MikePo on Tuesday November 17 2009, @02:16PM (#30132832) Attached to: Password protected emails

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) I think would be your best solution, using digital certificates to encrypt your e-mails.

Most mail clients support it so you should not have an issue, just the initial investment of setting it up. If you are unfamiliar with PKI there are tons of web sites and books on the topic.

Comment: Re:This happens all the time.... (Score 2, Insightful) 2

by MikePo on Friday November 06 2009, @10:02AM (#30005712) Attached to: Casino Denies Man $166 Million Jackpot

Agree that he should sue, but he should get back more than what he put into it, without knowing the specifics I can't say he should get 166 million, but if it was posted on the machine that the max jackpot was 166 million he should get it. It is the responsibility of the casino to ensure their machines work. However if the maximum jackpot listed on the machine was 99K then that's what he should get, as that is the max amount that he had a reasonable expectation to win.

Comment: Who didn't see this coming? (Score 1) 1

by MikePo on Friday November 06 2009, @09:55AM (#30005636) Attached to: Blizzard introduces World of Warcraft pet store

I've played WoW since the original release and have seen many changes in the game. I would say most of them have been for the better. I know some would argue that vanilla WoW 40 man Molten Core was the best, but I think Blizzard has done a good job balancing casual/hardcore (I could be jaded by going from hardcore to casual over the years), but I don’t want to get in a debate about casual versus hardcore (It’s a losing battle)

Paid services were first introduced with character moves, I never really got why it was 25 dollars to move a character from one server to the other (It’s automated!!). Then more recently there was Faction changes, then race changes, and now some in game pets. I don’t know if they are losing money recently and they are trying to recuperate some of their loses but it is getting ridicules, I won’t pay for a pet but I’m sure that plenty of people will, they buy them on eBay all the time from the card game.

This is just the next step in a long line of ways to milk money from their customer base and it will continue.

SPAM: Spammer ordered to pay Facebook $711 million 0

Submitted by alphadogg on Friday October 30 2009, @08:09AM

alphadogg writes "Facebook was awarded $711 million in damages from a convicted spammer on Thursday, but the social networking site is hoping a separate criminal action will eventually send him to jail.
Sanford Wallace was sued by Facebook in February along with Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw for allegedly obtaining the login credentials for accounts. The accounts were then used to send spam to those users' friends starting around November 2008. The spam either linked to other phishing sites that sought to collect more Facebook account credentials or linked to other commercial Web sites that paid spammers for referrals.

Facebook "doesn't expect to receive the vast majority of the award," according to a company blog.[spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Why segregate? (Score 2, Insightful) 266

by MikePo on Thursday October 29 2009, @09:52AM (#29910431) Attached to: Los Angeles Goes Google Apps With Microsoft Cash

Without knowing the current Infrastructure that LA uses I can't say with certainty that Google will be less secure. However typical it is always more secure to keep your data in house than outsourcing that storage.

While the LA spokesman says it will be more secure that our current solution. I'm sure he is a PR weenie and if you talk to technicians in LA they would disagree.

Comment: Re:Not government's job (Score 5, Interesting) 681

by MikePo on Thursday October 29 2009, @08:00AM (#29908947) Attached to: Telco Sues City For Plan To Roll Out Own Broadband

The Citizens of Monticello request several times to TDS Telecommunications that they upgrade the cities connection. They kept saying "Soon, we'll get to it" That is when the citizens, not the government, passed a referendum to install a city run fiber network.

It was only after the city started installing that TDS Telecommunications sued the city and tied them up in a prolong court battle, which prevented them from continuing their install. During that time they started laying fiber of their own, by the time the city won the law suit TDS Telecommunications had completed their project and now offer 50mb to every household there for about 50$ a month.

I guess this just shows if you want your ISP to upgrade your connection, pass a law to get the city to do it and force their hand.