Comment Re:I have ad block in because of facebook (Score 1) 1051
Perhaps you have to run "sudo ls" on the /sbin directory?
Comment Re:first bid! (Score 2, Funny) 131
But look at the shipping and handling costs. That's what gets ya everytime. $1 space shuttle engine, $28.8 million shipping and handling. It's a rip off.
AbleGamers Reviews Games From a Disability Standpoint 125
eldavojohn writes "Early last month a visually impaired gamer sued Sony under the Americans with Disabilities Act (and if you think that people with disabilities don't play games, think again). The AbleGamers Foundation has decided to step forward and provide a rating system for games that blends together a number of factors to determine a score with regard to accessibility. Visual, hearing, motion, closed captioning, speed settings, difficulty settings and even colorblindness options are all taken into account when compiling these scores and reviewing these games."
Why the BSA Is Less Reviled Than the RIAA 371
Hugh Pickens writes "The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group established in 1988 representing a number of the world's largest software makers whose principal activity is trying to stop copyright infringement of software produced by its members, performing roughly the same function for the software industry that the RIAA performs for the music industry. Yet, as Bill Patry, author of a 7-volume treatise on US copyright law and currently Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, notes on his blog the BSA is a 'far less unpopular organization' than the RIAA because there are three key differences between the BSA's campaigns and the RIAA's. First, BSA's members have always offered their products for sale to the public, through any channel that wants to sell them. Second, BSA's members are consumer-oriented; they try to develop products that respond to consumers' needs, and not, the reverse: focusing on what they want to sell to consumers. Third, because consumers can easily purchase BSA's members products, those who copy without paying are simply scofflaws. 'I think the fact that the public does not object to BSA's campaign proves my point [that]... people do not want things for free; they are willing to pay for them,' writes Patry. 'It should not be surprising that when consumers are not treated with respect, they react negatively. That's something the software industry learned long ago, and that's why people don't object to the BSA's enforcement campaign.'"
Paro the Therapeutic Robot Baby Seal 52
Mike writes "Paro is a therapeutic baby seal robot that is exploring new dimensions in animal therapy. Created to act as a companion for hospital patients and the elderly, the adorable baby harp seal bot aims to increase relaxation and decrease stress. Paro can sense and respond to its immediate environment through five integrated sensors that detect touch, light, sound, temperature, and posture, and it is even capable of learning and responding to a name."
Comment Re:Crossing my fingers... (Score 1) 575
No, it just means you get a critical hit. Now, what does it mean to get a critical hit? I don't know.
Comment Re:Well, you need to use the internet the right wa (Score 5, Insightful) 86
Yes, it's quite ridiculous. Their terms of service are like not letting a fat person into a buffet, because they will eat more. Quite frankly I think terms like that are preposterous. I hope their TOS will get challenged at some point.
Comment Unjustifiably expensive (Score 1) 858
Hey, that's why you buy a pystar machine. Cheaper than a real mac, but just as powerful. It is definitely true that Mac could afford to come down on prices.
Comment Sharks (Score 1) 141
Now, if only they can put the lasers on some shark's head.
Comment Re:Wait... (Score 1) 4
Well, I'm not a grad student, but this is a split level class, so I'm not sure what that counts as. I'm not sure exactly what policy he is quoting, though I do believe him when he says that it's an actual policy. If it came down to it, instead of getting a lawyer, I'd simply rewrite the program in a new fashion, thereby creating a completely new program, only conceptually based on the original. This current situation is actually not my biggest concern, it's the hypothetical situation I mentioned, because we will be required to write more programs in the future, and I may want to use something that is open source.
Submission + - Rights of a University vs. Open Source 4
wraithguard01 writes: I am a student at a university in the computer engineering program. I recently wrote a program for my game design class, that was quite fun to write. However, we only had three weeks to write it, and so my final turned in version was not as complete as I would have liked it to be. So, at this point I would like to continue development of it. However, when I asked if I could open source it, I was told by the instructor that I could not, because it was now university property. This raises a question however. Let's say that I had developed it using QT, or something that's licensing terms would have required me to open source it. If the instructor would have accepted it, who would then own the copyrights, the university, or the open source community? Further, if I would have used code from previous personal projects, would that have also become the university's property? What if I would have open sourced it, then licensed it to myself?
Submission + - Man killed when cell phone explodes
wraithguard01 writes: A Chinese man was killed late last month, when his cell phone battery exploded, and severed an important artery.
According to the local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News, the accident happened on January 30 at 7.30pm. An employee at the shop told Chinese media that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood. The employee said the victim had recently changed the battery in his mobile phone.
Also per the article, apparently you shouldn't ever put your cellphone in your pocket.
Comment Re:A Fine Line (Score 1) 13
Oh yes, I enjoy learning just as much as the next guy. But 27 degrees are not cheap. Heck, 1 college degree isn't cheap.
Comment Re:Notes? (Score 1) 931
Why lie? Tell her that you posted the notes on bittorrent, and on several websites, including wikileaks, and there is no way for you to retrieve them at this point. Plus, you should mention that you have made several copies of the notes and burned them to several cds, which, if she wants those back, she'll need to cough up some cash to reimburse you for your time and materials.
On a more serious note, this is the stupidest information control scheme I've ever heard of.
Comment A Fine Line (Score 2, Insightful) 13
I can't decide if he's smart or stupid for doing that. Perhaps both?
