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Paradox (13555)

Paradox
  (email not shown publicly)
http://kirindave.tumblr.com/
AOL IM: KirinDave (Add Buddy, Send Message)

Once upon a time, I worked for Lockheed Martin. Government jobs just hurt. They're hopeless affairs with important decsions being made by people hundreds of miles away.

So I went into the private sector and helped raise the barn on some Ruby On Rails-oriented startups, namely Ma.gnolia.com and Mog.com. After 2 years in the social networking circuit, I've been hired by Powerset, a San Francisco based internet search company. It's amazing.

Paradox (13555)

  Developers: Rails Bigwig Rails on Rails Community 2008-01-02 17:34

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday January 02 2008, @05:34PM
from the less-than-elegant-exit-strategies dept.
Zed Shaw, creator of the popular Mongrel HTTP daemon / library, has decided it was high time to tear into the Ruby/Rails community for many different complaints that he has been collecting over the last few years. "Rails is a Ghetto" is Shaw's self-proclaimed exit strategy from the Rails community. "This is that rant. It is part of my grand exit strategy from the Ruby and Rails community. I don't want to be a 'Ruby guy' anymore, and will probably start getting into more Python, Factor, and Lua in the coming months. I've got about three or four more projects in the works that will use all of those and not much Ruby planned. This rant is full of stories about companies and people who've either pissed in my cheerios somehow or screwed over friends. I can back all of them up from emails, IRC chat logs, or with witnesses. Nothing in here is a lie unless it's really obviously a lie through exaggeration, and there's a lot of my opinion as well."
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 [+] story, developers, programming, rails, ruby, it, careersuicide

  Science: Brain Differences In Liberals and Conservatives 2007-09-11 05:25

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 11 2007, @05:25AM
from the thinking-differently dept.
i_like_spam writes "Scientists from NYU and UCLA report in Nature Neuroscience that the brains of Democrats and Republicans process information differently. This new study finds that the differences are apparent even when the brain processes common information, not just political topics. From the study, liberals were more likely to be accurate and showed more brain activity in the region associated with analyzing conflicts. A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals 'could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.' Moreover, 'the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry... as a flip-flopper.'"
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 [+] story, science, democrats, bs, flamebait, republicans, slashdotliberalwhining

  Apple: iPods and Pacemakers Don't Mix 2007-05-10 21:35

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday May 10 2007, @09:35PM
from the listen-to-your-heart dept.
fermion writes "The Register reports a study that indicates that iPods and pacemakers do not get along. While there do not appear to be any long term effects, iPods disrupt the operation of the pacemaker. It is noted that such effects have not previously been observed as iPods do seem to be popular with the pacemaker-wearing population."
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 [+] story, apple, media, ipod, unlikely, bs, music

  IT: How Apple Orchestrated Attack On Researchers 2007-03-20 22:49

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 20 2007, @10:49PM
from the no-way-to-win-friends dept.
An anonymous reader sends us to George Ou's blog on ZDNet for a tale of how Apple's PR director reportedly orchestrated a smear campaign against security researchers David Maynor and Jon Ellch last summer. Ou has been sitting on this story ever since and is only now at liberty to tell it. He posits that the Month of Apple Bugs was a direct result of Apple's bad behavior in the Maynor-Ellch affair. From the blog: "Apple continued to claim that there were no vulnerabilities in Mac OS X but came a month later and patched their Wireless Drivers (presumably for vulnerabilities that didn't actually exist). Apple patched these 'non-existent vulnerabilities' but then refused to give any credit to David Maynor and Jon Ellch. Since Apple was going to take research, not give proper attribution, and smear security researchers, the security research community responded to Apple's behavior with the MoAB (Month of Apple Bugs) and released a flood of zero-day exploits without giving Apple any notification. The end result is that Apple was forced to patch 62 vulnerabilities in just the first three months of 2007 including last week's megapatch of 45 vulnerabilities."
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 [+] story, it, security, apple, haha, fud, beat
Submitted by John on Thursday March 15 2007, @07:41PM
John writes "As reported on Tuesday, GameSpy are assisting Nintendo in implementing Wi-Fi driven features into future Wii games. Rather than provide one friend list applicable for all Wii online games though, as is the case with many of the other formats, Nintendo has decided to stick with the current set up: users still have to make their friends list for every game played.http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id= 106333"
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 [+] submission, games, nintendo
  • Nothing More
Submitted by njkid1 on Thursday March 15 2007, @10:22AM
njkid1 writes "It was announced late last year that the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics remake for the PSP would include new characters, new jobs, the addition of cel-shaded cutscenes, and an overhauled soundtrack. Perhaps most intruigingly, a multiplayer mode was also announced, but details have been sparse until today. http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=106268& AFC-HSUIT&ATTR=DIGG"
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 [+] submission, games, sony
  • Nothing More
Submitted by on Thursday March 15 2007, @09:00AM
An anonymous reader writes "Following statements by Sony about reduced backwards compatibility in the PAL version of the PS3, The Inquirer reports that Cynamite in Germany got their hands on an European PS3 model and tested its backwards compatibility with 12 of the most famous PS2 games. The results were that only one of those games worked properly, Eragon. Those tests were done with a PS3 containing version 1.5 of the PS3's firmware. Other sites are reporting that on launch day, Firmware version 1.6 will be released, which will allow about 1200 PS2 games to be played, accounting for about 50% of all PS2 games launched in Europe. This means that people who want to play older games will most likely have to update their Firmware right after buying their PS3. Sony will only release the definitive list of backwards compatible games on launch day, 23rd of March."
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 [+] submission, games, playstation
  • Nothing More

  Why do film critics trash video games? 2007-03-14 20:50 Ben

Submitted by Ben on Wednesday March 14 2007, @08:50PM
Ben writes "Variety runs an opinion piece that questions why so many film critics who didn't like "300" compared it to a video game... as if that's obviously a bad thing??? "For today's movie critics, videogames are the new MTV musicvideo, a shorthand insult for any movie deemed too heavy on effects and visual panache at the expense of plot and coherence. Anyone who has spent much time playing videogames — a category in which, it seems safe to assume, few established film critics fall — knows the comparison is both artistically demeaning and substantively wrong.""
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 [+] submission, games, media
  • Nothing More

  GameSpy support Wi-Fi on Wii 2007-03-14 10:50 njkid1

Submitted by njkid1 on Wednesday March 14 2007, @10:50AM
njkid1 writes "Nintendo yesterday verified that GameSpy, a branch of IGN Entertainment offering online video game services and software, will power the WiFi multiplayer for Wii. This partnership brings with it the technology to include community attributes into games, such as friends lists, complex matchmaking abilities, and leaderboards. http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=106148& AFC-HSUIT&ATTR=DOTT"
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 [+] submission, games, nintendo
  • Nothing More
Submitted by njkid1 on Wednesday March 14 2007, @10:39AM
njkid1 writes "In a recent interview GamesIndustry.biz today, Sony executive Phil Harrison told the industry based website that he is confident that Sony will lead the market again for this generation of consoles, and that Blu-ray will push the success of the PS3. http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=106128& AFC-HSUIT&ATTR=DOTT"
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 [+] submission, games, sony
  • Nothing More

  New - Free Magic: Gathering Game 2007-03-13 19:37 Forge

Submitted by Forge on Tuesday March 13 2007, @07:37PM
Forge writes "I wrote a new Java implementation of Magic: The Gathering. You can play with the rules against the computer. Currently there are 300+ cards and you can play in constructed, sealed, and draft mode. The program can automatically download all of the card pictures. You can download the main program and more documentation at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge/

Some of the cards that are programmed are Wrath of God, Serra Angel, Juzam Djinn, Flametongue Kavu, Man-o'-War, and newer cards from Planar Chaos like Damnation, Serendib Efreet, Pyrohemia, Gaea's Anthem, Serra Sphinx, Pongify, Brute Force.

The GUI is basic but very usuable. It has been tested on Linux and Windows, and should work anywhere that has Java. The whole project is open source so you see and and fiddle with everything. And feedback is always welcome — Forge, mtgrares at yahoo com"
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 [+] submission, games, java
  • Nothing More

  Games: Nintendo, GameSpy Collaborate on Wii Service 2007-03-13 16:59

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 13 2007, @04:59PM
from the holding-hands-over-the-wiimote dept.
It's with a sigh of relief that 1up is reporting on forward progress in the Wii's online service. GameSpy announced today that it is collaborating with Nintendo, using their middleware to allow players to meet up in online-enabled Wii titles. The first title to utilize the service will be Pokemon Battle Revolution, which releases on June 25th. The news is unfortunately not all good. "The technology will also be placed in the hands of third-party developers, although the announcement gives no indication how long companies have been working with the GameSpy middleware. Either way, it doesn't appear we'll be seeing online-enabled third-party releases until the fall, at the earliest." Here's hoping that this marks the beginning of moving beyond 'friend codes'.
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 [+] story, games, wii, internet
Submitted by mewton on Tuesday March 13 2007, @04:55PM
mewton writes "Why does Newsweek even have a technology section? If your interested in the discussion of evolution and religion in Americal take a look at this poll in Newsweek's technology section online, Beyond Stones & Bones
The story is interesting enough but the discussion about it is infuriating, how can our education system be turning out such idiots? What are these religious idiots doing reading a technology article that they neither understand nor believe?"
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 [+] submission, science, media
  • Nothing More

  Games: Still A Rough Road Ahead for the PlayStation 3 2007-03-13 16:30

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 13 2007, @04:30PM
from the still-working-out-the-kinks dept.
TobyToadstool writes "Despite the good news out of GDC last week, it still seems like Sony's new console has some image management to do. CNET says that the PlayStation 3 is 'the most unwanted console in recent memory' and asks 'why is the PS3 so undesirable?' They specifically question the company's wisdom in emphasizing the power of the console. Their impression is that this invites developers to neglect gameplay, in favour of investing in graphics. Likewise, Gamespot is running a piece suggesting ten ways to make the PS3 worth buying. A lower price is just one of the suggestions with exclusives, and the need for online standardization, following close behind. Looks like Sony still has its work cut out."
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 [+] story, games, playstation, sony, opinion, propaganda, ps3

  Mac OS X Update 10.4.9 Released 2007-03-13 16:29 Parry

Submitted by Parry on Tuesday March 13 2007, @04:29PM
Parry writes "Ok, it's going to be a busy afternoon updating to 10.4.9 — Software update just popped up with the 10.4.9 Update listed. It's a 163Mb download over 10.4.8 and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes or compatibility updates for the following applications and technologies:
— RAW camera support
— Handling of large or malformed images that could cause crashes
— Image capture performance
— Mouse scrolling and keyboard shortcuts
— Font handling
— Playback quality, and bookmarks in DVD Player
— USB video conferencing cameras for use with iChat
— Bluetooth devices
— Browsing AFP servers
— Apple USB Modem
— Windows-created digital certificates
— Open and Print dialogs in applications that use Rosetta on Intel-based Macs
— Time zone and daylight saving for 2006 and 2007
— Security updates
All in all it does sound like a good number of improvements made it to this (perhaps final) update. http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n304821 has more information."
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 [+] submission, apple, macosx
  • Nothing More

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