Comment: Yahoo Account Go Bye Bye (Score 1) 50
Well, that explains how my Yahoo account got hacked a couple of weeks ago. No more Yahoo for me.
Comment: Best Analogy Yet (Score 1) 197
Playing an RPG is like acting a part in a free-form play where you have a self-developed character appropriate to the environment who acts or reacts to an ever-changing environment controlled by the director (GM). Anyone who has ever caught the drama bug will definitely get it, and it will give non-gamers a more familiar theme to base their views on.
Lots of people don't get it, the same reason why I don't get why organized sports are fun. I understand why others like football or basketball, I just don't have any real feel for it. And you don't have to dump any kind of a relationship just because they don't get it unless they're being antagonistic about it.
Comment: John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy (Score 1) 726
John Christopher's The White Mountains" (1967), "The City of Gold and Lead" (1967), "The Pool of Fire - One of my first, and favorite, children's sci-fi trilogy. The books are a good read for a 3rd grader. It's a bit difficult to find, but well worth it. I believe there was even a mini-series production of it years back called "The Tripods".
Comment: Everything Else (Score 3, Funny) 223
Code is for code monkeys. I'm a JOAT for IT (Jerk of All Trades).
Comment: Re: BP blowout and requirements to prevent it (Score 1) 311
Your description of the process mirrors that of contract companies hired to build nuclear reactor sites. They have to adhere to strict measurements every step of the way when putting together a secure building designed to handle radioactive materials and energy production. It's okay to fudge a few inches on that 2x4 or a few inches on a concrete pour when it comes to building a house, but you CAN'T fudge even half an inch on the framework of a reactor shell or it could easily kill everthing within miles of a leak. Builders are held to very high standards based on that.
Woman Tells State Judiciary Committee, "DoD Implanted A Microchip Inside Me" 222
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the out-of-the-woodwork dept.
from the out-of-the-woodwork dept.
The Georgia House Judiciary Committee took up a bill that would "prohibit requiring a person to be implanted with a microchip," and would make violating the ban a misdemeanor. Things started to get weird at the hearing when a woman who described herself as a resident of DeKalb County told the committee, "I'm also one of the people in Georgia who has a microchip." Not sure of what she was trying to say, she was allowed to continue and added, "Microchips are like little beepers. Just imagine, if you will, having a beeper in your rectum or genital area, the most sensitive area of your body. And your beeper numbers displayed on billboards throughout the city. All done without your permission." Further prodding revealed that the woman's co-workers would torture her by activating the chips with their cell phones and that the chips were implanted by "researchers with the federal government." The committee thanked the woman for her input, and later approved the bill.
New Speed Cameras Catch You From Space 351
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the no-place-to-run-or-speed dept.
from the no-place-to-run-or-speed dept.
A new kind of speed camera that uses satellites to measure average speed over long distances is being tested in Britain. The "Speedspike" system combines plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver to calculate average speed between any two points in the area being monitored. From the article: "Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled 'number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day.' It also referred to the system's 'low cost' and ease of installation." I can't wait to see the episode of MythBusters where they try to avoid getting a speeding ticket from a satellite.
An Early Look At Next-Gen Shooter Bodycount 238
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the piece-by-piece dept.
from the piece-by-piece dept.
If you ask fans of first-person shooters what feature they'd like to see in a new game, their answers — now and for the past 15 years — probably involve destructible environments. Game developers have tried to satisfy this demand with scripted events, breakable objects, and more crates than you can shake a rocket launcher at. However, Bodycount, an upcoming game from Codemasters Guildford, is aiming to deliver what gamers have wanted for so long: the ability to blast apart whatever you please. Quoting the Guardian's games blog from their hands-on with the game:
"... it's not just about effect, it's about access. In Bodycount, you can blow chunks out of thinner interior walls, allowing you to burst through and catch enemies by surprise. You can also brilliantly modify cover objects – if you're hiding behind a crate and want to take out enemies without popping up from behind it, shoot a hole in it. Bingo, you've got a comparatively safe firing vantage. The difference between this and say, Red Faction or Bad Company, is that the destruction isn't limited to pre-set building sections. It's everywhere. This should, of course, grind the processor to a halt, but the team has come up with a simple compromise to facilitate its vision. 'The trick is that we're not running full physics on everything,' explains lead coder, Jon Creighton. ... This is tied in with one of the best cover systems I've ever seen. While in a crouching position (gained by holding the left trigger down), you can use the left analogue stick to subtly look and aim around your cover object, ducking and peeking to gain that perfect view of the war zone. It's natural, it's comfortable and it's adaptive, and it will surely consign the whole 'locking on' mechanic to the graveyard of cover system history."
George Washington Racks Up 220 Years of Late Fees At Library 146
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the at-least-he-read dept.
from the at-least-he-read dept.
Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie. What you probably didn't know is that he couldn't return a library book on time. From the article: "New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned. One of the books was the 'Law of Nations,' which deals with international relations. The other was a volume of debates from Britain's House of Commons. Both books were due on Nov. 2, 1789."
South Korea Announces Daily MMO Blackouts For Youths 148
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the probably-just-making-more-time-for-starcraft dept.
from the probably-just-making-more-time-for-starcraft dept.
eldavojohn writes "GamePolitics reports that South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has announced two new policies that will force underage gamers to pick a six-hour block of time (midnight-6 AM,1-7 AM, or 2-8 AM) where they will not be able to play 19 online role-playing games. While it targets most popular MMORPGs, some popular games like Lineage were left off the list."
China To Tap Combustible Ice As New Energy Source 185
Posted
by
timothy
from the undra-the-tundra dept.
from the undra-the-tundra dept.
lilbridge writes "Huge reserves of "combustible ice" — frozen methane and water — have been discovered in the tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. Estimates show that there is enough combustible ice to provide 90 years worth of energy for China. Burning the combustible ice may be a far better alternative than letting it just melt, releasing tons of methane into the air."
+ - Digg losing control of their site
Submitted
by
Fo0eY
Fo0eY writes "The folks at Digg.com have let the social news genie out of the bottle, and now they can't control it. Since the HD-DVD encryption code was discovered and published, readers at Digg have been repeatedly submitting stories with the 16 digit hex code in the titles and bodies. Just as quickly as these posts crawl up the Digg charts, admins seem to be deleting them."
+ - New Layer of Ancient Greek Writings Detected
Submitted
by
geert2705
geert2705 writes "New Layer of Ancient Greek Writings Detected in Medieval Book
The discovery is the third ancient text to emerge from the layers of writing on the much reused pages. In 2002 researchers had uncovered writings by the mathematician Archimedes and the fourth-century B.C. politician Hyperides.
Last year one of the pages was found to contain a famous work by Archimedes about buoyancy that had previously been known only from an incomplete Latin translation.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/07 0426-aristotle-book.html"
+ - Church reveals 600 year old musical code
Submitted
by
Person99
Person99 writes "A father and son have deciphered a musical code in a Scottish church's arches. It is supposedly a 600-year old musical code.
Quote from the article:
A Scottish church which featured in the bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code" has revealed another mystery hidden in secret code for almost 600 years.
A father and son who became fascinated by symbols carved into the chapel's arches say they have deciphered a musical score encrypted in them.
Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his composer and pianist son Stuart, described the piece as "frozen music."
"The music has been frozen in time by symbolism," Mitchell told European media, which details the 27-year project to crack the chapel's code.
"It was only a matter of time before the symbolism began to thaw out and begin to make sense to scientific and musical perception."
The 15th Century Rosslyn Chapel, about seven miles south of the Scottish capital Edinburgh, featured in the last part of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" — one of the most successful novels of all time which has been turned into a Hollywood film.
Stuart Mitchell said he and his father were intrigued by 13 intricately carved angel musicians on the arches of the chapel and by 213 carved cubes depicting geometric-type patterns.
"They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here."
Years of research led the Mitchells to an ancient musical system called cymatics, or Chladni patterns, which are formed by sound waves at specific pitches.
The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody."
+ - Quad-core computers getting more affordable
Submitted
by
Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "If you have been playing with the idea to buy a quad-core computer, but refused to shell out $5000 or more, you may be surprised to hear that there is suddenly a system that is in your reach. Ok, now we all expected that prices would come down sooner or later, especially, after Intel's latest price round, but I was somewhat baffled about the dramatic price drop: Gateway is offering a decent $2100 retail system with an overclockable Q6600 CPU from Intel, which is, according to TG Daily, at least $700 below the nearest competitor's offering. We are still a bit away from calling these computers mainstream, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel, right?"