Comment: Communication medium? (Score 2) 153
Satellites are great, but because of the ionosphere, it would be better to send terrestrial messages through the mantle. Can signals be reliably transmitted and received?
Comment: What do you mean, hemlock? (Score 2, Funny) 234
The sad thing is that my ex-girlfriend looked at my face and made the same recommendation. The sadder thing is that she was a machine too.
Sigh.
Whatever Happened To Second Life? 209
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the i-blame-ralph dept.
from the i-blame-ralph dept.
Barence writes "It's desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. In this article, PC Pro's Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it's raking in more cash than ever before. It's a follow-up to a feature written three years ago, in which Collins spent a week living inside Second Life to see what the huge fuss at the time was all about. The difference three years can make is eye-opening."
IDEs With VIM Text Editing Capability? 193
Posted
by
timothy
from the one-keybinding-to-rule-them-all dept.
from the one-keybinding-to-rule-them-all dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I am currently looking to move from text editing with vim to a full fledged IDE with gdb integration, integrated command line, etc. Extending VIM with these capabilities is a mortal sin, so I am looking for a linux based GUI IDE. I do not want to give up the efficient text editing capabilities of VIM though. How do I have my cake and eat it too?"
Dad Delivers Baby Using Wiki 249
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the 9cm-edited dept.
from the 9cm-edited dept.
sonamchauhan writes "A Londoner helped his wife deliver their baby by Googling 'how to deliver a baby' on his mobile phone. From the article: 'Today proud Mr Smith said: "The midwife had checked Emma earlier in the day but contractions started up again at about 8pm so we called the midwife to come back. But then everything happened so quickly I realized Emma was going to give birth. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I just looked up the instructions on the internet using my BlackBerry."'"
The Struggle For Private Game Servers 125
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the let's-make-onyxia-fight-ragnaros dept.
from the let's-make-onyxia-fight-ragnaros dept.
A story at the BBC takes a look at the use of private game servers for games that tend not to allow them. While most gamers are happy to let companies like Blizzard and NCSoft administer the servers that host their MMORPGs, others want different rules, a cheaper way to play, or the technical challenge of setting up their own. A South African player called Hendrick put up his own WoW server because the game "wasn't available in the country at the time." A 21-year-old Swede created a server called Epilogue, which "had strict codes of conduct and rules, as well as a high degree of customized content (such as new currency, methods of earning experience, the ability to construct buildings and hire non-player characters, plus 'permanent' player death) unavailable in the retail version of the game." The game companies make an effort to quash these servers when they can, though it's frequently more trouble that it's worth. An NCSoft representative referenced the "growing menace" of IP theft, and a Blizzard spokesperson said,"We also have a responsibility to our players to ensure the integrity and reliability of their World of Warcraft gaming experience and that responsibility compels us to protect our rights."
Over 160 Tutorial Videos Created For Unreal Dev Kit 48
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the how-it's-done dept.
from the how-it's-done dept.
As a follow-up to Epic Games' release of a free version of the Unreal Engine last month, the company has now posted over 160 video tutorials which demonstrate the various uses of the Unreal Development Kit. Roughly 20 hours of footage were created by technical education company 3D Buzz, with topics ranging from user interface to game physics to cinematics.
US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the quick-who-knows-a-good-ps3-flight-sim dept.
from the quick-who-knows-a-good-ps3-flight-sim dept.
bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."
EA Shuts Down Pandemic Studios, Cuts 200 Jobs 161
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the say-goodnight-folks dept.
from the say-goodnight-folks dept.
lbalbalba writes "Electronic Arts is shutting down its Westwood-based game developer Pandemic Studios just two years after acquiring it, putting nearly 200 people out of work. 'The struggling video game publisher informed employees Tuesday morning that it was closing the studio as part of a recently announced plan to eliminate 1,500 jobs, or 16% of its global workforce. Pandemic has about 220 employees, but an EA spokesman said that a core team, estimated by two people close to the studio to be about 25, will be integrated into the publisher's other Los Angeles studio, in Playa Vista.' An ex-developer for Pandemic attributed the studio's struggles to poor decisions from the management."
MySpace Trying To Regain Lost Ground With Games and Music 76
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the time-to-face-facts dept.
from the time-to-face-facts dept.
Over the past several years, MySpace has lost a significant amount of the social networking market to competitors like Facebook. Now, MySpace is trying to recapture lost interest by increasing the site's focus on games and music, as well as keeping an eye out for new technologies that would directly benefit their users.
"[News Corp.'s Jonathan Miller] said he is 'obsessed' with real-time technology, such as the one Twitter has exploited in its social networking and microblogging service, and he wants to see MySpace incorporate it. He also said MySpace is lagging by having a platform that has been 'too closed' to external developers, something that he wants to see changed, especially for the sake of MySpace's gaming offerings. In addition, he wants to see MySpace push ahead in mobile."
Comment: Cringely (Score 1) 95
It's not open source, but for $0.01, you can buy Robert X. Cringely's wonderful though dated Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. Not only does Bob give you first-hand accounts of the people who pioneered computer hardware, software, and operating systems, he's also pretty damn funny. You could also point your students to his free sites: the current site or the old site.
He's not always right, but he's usually knows what he's talking about and he's frequently entertaining.
Comment: Re:Bad news for MySQL (Score 1) 906
I liked to use MySQL because, as the name implies, it belongs to ME. But PostgreSQL belongs to Postgre, and I have no idea who the hell that is.
8-)
Comment: Re:The reason is the same as it has always been (Score 1) 425
There are 8 SPUs on the Cell, but the PS3 dedicates one of them to hold the Game OS. Another one is blocked off because IBM was having yield problems.
So the poster is right. Despite the presence of 8 SPUs on a Cell, only 6 are available on the PS3.
And there's actually a book available on programming the Cell (particularly on the PS3). It's here.
Comment: No... (Score 5, Funny) 261
If he was alive today, we'd call him a zombie...
Comment: Prime Obsession (Score 2, Informative) 630
Prime Obsession: A well-written history of the still-unproven Riemann Hypothesis. Maybe one of your students will solve it over summer break!