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Comment Guess its good i'm getting old (Score 3, Insightful) 303

by codepigeon (#43030493) Attached to: EA Building Microtransactions Into All of Its Future Games
I was lucky enough to be around for the early days of PC gaming. I remember when the manual actually told you to make a backup of the floppy. (for you young viewers, manuals were small booklets that used to come with games giving you tips, backstory, art..)

I guess it's good that I am nearing 40 and don't get into gaming as nearly as I used to. This stuff is just turning me off completely.

Considering the typical audience here, there are probably not a lot of you that play EA's NHL (yearly susbscription game). They have already been testing the waters for this from at least 2011 when they indroduced a mode of play called "hockey ultimate team". In this mode you build a team by using "cards". The cards actually come in foil packs that you can buy (all virtual of course). They offer a way to pay for the packs with earned in-game points or real-world money. My son plays the NHL13 version of this game and it is obvious that the system is entirely designed to get you to need to buy more packs of cards to continue paying.

As expected the good hockey players are "rares" (and i mean really rare), and you continually need to feed contract cards and injury repair cards to keep playing. The amount of points required to get the medium and larger packs are so high it is difficult if not impossible for a weaker player to ever purchase with earned points. I'm a software engineer, I see the patterns and thresholds and how they are clearly designed to maximize the need for more "cards". it is completely obvious to me; my son however is too naive to see this....as are probably many other people under the age of 20 or 30. And that is why these microtransactions are "popuar". Mom drops $20 into the kids account and he blows it on virtual garbage. (I refuse to allow my son to buy with real money)

F**k EA. F**k the industry for....well...becoming an industry with the corporate greed that comes with it.

\end-rant
Sci-Fi

Submission + - 2001: A Space Odyssey's Dave Returns to Sci-fi in New Film (wired.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Indie Kickster-funded short HENRi stars sci-fi legend in a roll very much like HAL-9000 — with a twist. WIRED writes: "If it sounds a little bit like 2001: The Later Years, then here’s the real twist: HENRi, the ship/body, is voiced Dr. Dave Bowman himself, Keir Dullea." In a making-of video for the film, Dullea says, "I guess you could say the character of HENRi was a sane version of HAL." The film itself utilizes a mixture of the old and the new — combining live-action sequences with puppetry, quarter-scale miniatures, and modern CGI. The official trailer has just been released.

Comment Almost worthless (Score 3, Informative) 156

by codepigeon (#43005161) Attached to: Fingerprint Purchasing Technology Ensures Buyer Has a Pulse
I actually read the article; what a useless waste of a web page.

There is only one paragraph that mentions anything about the technology, and that is the paragraph in the summary here.
The rest reads like filler material and pimping the advantages of investing/working in the upper midwest.

Lame. I was hoping for more details.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - The Patents That Threaten 3-D Printing (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We've watched patents slow down the smartphone and tablet markets. We've seen patent claims thrown against Linux, Android, and countless other software projects. Now, as 3-D printing becomes more capable and more affordable, it seems a number of patents threaten to do the same to the hobbyist and tinkerer crowd. Wired has highlighted some of the most dangerous ones, including: a patent on soluble print materials that support a structure while it's being printed; a ridiculously broad patent on distributed rapid prototyping, which could affect "every 3-D printing service that has launched in the past few years"; and an 18-year-old patent on 3-D printing using a powder and a binding material, held by MIT.

Comment Soylent green (Score 1) 228

by codepigeon (#42886393) Attached to: NASA: Huge Freshwater Loss In the Middle East
I wonder how much water is now being stored in the increased population of humans and domesticated animals.

Using wikipedia articles on average water in a human body and world population growth you get about 40billion liters of water being stored in humans in the year 1800, up to 280billion liters being stored in humans in the year 2012. A more indepth study would be interesting.

Comment Re:Valve Handheld. (Score 1) 191

by codepigeon (#42764723) Attached to: Gabe Newell: Steam Box's Biggest Threat Isn't Consoles, It's Apple

There are some young adults that have their gaming console smacked right in the living room, but by and large this isn't a very useful arrangement...are couch potatoes(sic)...and the adults can watch the football game, or actually have friends over to see something besides empty pizza boxes and smashed beer cans

What decade are you living in? Or is your interpretation of 'young adults' anyone under 50?
Space

Submission + - Hot Planet Cools Off Its Own Sun (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: What do you do if you're a hot Jupiter and want to cool off? Why, you use your gravity to lift up the surface of your sun, cooling it and creating a dark spot on the star. In a forthcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers will report using the Kepler spacecraft to observe the brightness of a star in the constellation Cygnus more than a million times. Named HAT-P-7, this star has a hot Jupiter—a giant planet orbiting close-in —which other scientists found before NASA launched the spacecraft. The world's gravity raises the star's surface away from its hot center, causing part of the surface to cool by just a fraction of a degree Kelvin and produce a dark spot that lags behind the planet's position by a few hours. If confirmed, this discovery is the first time astronomers have ever seen planet-induced "gravity darkening" and demonstrates Kepler's remarkable ability to detect even the subtlest of stellar signals.
Graphics

Submission + - Microsoft Phases Out XNA and DirectX? (i-programmer.info) 2

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: It is reported that Microsoft has sent an email to DirectX/XNA MVPs which informs them that they are no longer needed because XNA and DirectX are no longer evolving. What does this mean? If you don't need MVPs then presumably you anticipate nothing to support in the future.
Apple

Submission + - Gabe Newell: Steam Box's biggest threat isn't consoles, it's Apple (polygon.com)

Submitted by silentbrad
silentbrad writes: The biggest danger facing the success of Steam Box or any other PC ecosystem hoping to find space in the living room is Apple, according to a lecture given by Valve co-founder Gabe Newell to a class at the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs. "The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform," Newell said. "I think that there's a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room? ... We're happy to do it if nobody else will do it, mainly because everybody else will pile on, and people will have a lot of choices, but they'll have those characteristics. They'll say, 'Well, I could buy a console, which assumes I'll re-buy all my content, have a completely different video system, and, oh, I have a completely different group of friends, apparently. Or I can just extend everything I love about the PC and the internet into the living room.' ... I think the biggest challenge is that Apple moves on the living room before the PC industry sort of gets its act together."
Games

Submission + - Valve sued in Germany over game ownership (pcadvisor.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZVB) has sued computer game distributor Valve because it prohibits Steam-gamers from reselling their games.

Steam users own the games they purchase and should be able to resell them when they want to, just like owners of traditional card or board games can, said Carola Elbrecht, project manager for consumer rights in the digital world at the VZVB, on Thursday. But while those traditional game owners can resell their games whenever they like, Steam users often cannot, she said.
China

Submission + - New York Times Targetted By Chinese Hackers (nytimes.com)

Submitted by zbobet2012
zbobet2012 writes: The New York Times is reporting that is was the target of hacking attacks of Chinese origin. The hacking is purportedly in response to printed news regarding the wealth of China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao. The attack was apparently carried out through comprised American university networks. The involved security firm has stated that it is likely the attack was carried out by an arm of the Chinese Military.

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