Ferret96 - Slashdot User

Submission + - SPAM: Harvard Medical creates Swine Flu iPhone app

Submitted by alphadogg on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @09:03PM

alphadogg writes: Harvard Medical School is selling an iPhone application for US$1.99 with a variety of information and services related to the flu. The Swine Flu Center application, developed by a new group at Harvard called HMSMobile, includes an interactive section to help users determine if they have the flu and at what point they should call the doctor.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - The Best Medications For Your Genes (forbes.com)

Submitted by blackbearnh on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @07:09PM

blackbearnh writes: Until recently, physicians prescribed drugs to patients with dosages based only on weight, and with no idea if the drug would be effective for that particular person. But as this article over on Forbes.com highlights, the same advances in genomics that are letting people know about their likelihood of getting certain diseases can also let doctors know what drugs, and what dosages, will be likely to do the most good. TFA: Tamoxifen, the much-heralded cancer-fighting drug, has been shown to have little benefit for 7% to 10% of patients taking it. In the past, we would have just said that it works 90% of the time. But now, with our new genomic knowledge under our belt, we can say that it works nearly 100% of the time for people with the "right" version of the CYP2D6 gene, and 0% of the time for people with the "wrong" version, who make up roughly 7% to 10% of the population.

AP Will Sell You a "License" To Words It Doesn't Own 340

Posted by kdawson on Monday August 03, 2009 @07:13PM from the almost-as-ironic-as-disappearing-1984 dept.

James Grimmelmann performed an experiment using the AP's form to request a license to use more than four consecutive words from one of their articles. Except that he didn't paste in words from the (randomly chosen) article, but instead used 26 words written by Thomas Jefferson 196 years ago: If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea. The AP cheerfully charged him $12 to use Jefferson's 26 words. Both Boing Boing and TechDirt have picked up the story so far. Grimmelmann adds an update to his blog: the AP has rescinded his license to Jefferson's words and issued a refund for his $12. They did not exhibit the grace to admit that their software is brain-dead.

Comment Re:Corpo-Speak (Score 1) 82

by Ferret96 on Thursday July 23, 2009 @07:58AM (#28793691) Attached to: Cryptic's Roper Explains Microtransactions For <em>Champions Online</em>

The argument you made with Rock Band you can make with ANY console game. In order to play any Wii game you need several peripherals, in order to play a 360 game you need to buy a controller... The need to buy the equipment up front is something that is given for some console games, hell even Duck Hunt needed the Nintendo Laser Gun (which, if you were like me and broke the one it came with, you needed to buy another one). Also World of Warcraft has only ONE extra cost at this point in the form of Realm Moves, with a second coming along the way in the form of changing you Race/Side. However both of these costs have no actual impact on in game play or cause a ripple effect, where if you are the one WITHOUT that thing then you're SOL. I'm also skeptical that Bill Roper used these two games as examples for micro-transaction games in the US and avoids using the obvious example if Second Life. Second Life is a game that has micro-transactions truly integrated into it's game system and is well known to his target audience. Second Life as a good example of a free to play system where if you really want to get into the bones of the game than you need to shell out some cash.

Submission + - Social Networking Sites Must Improve Security (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @07:32AM

An anonymous reader writes: Sophos has called upon social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook to do more to protect their millions of users, as new research is published examining the first six months of cybercrime in 2009. The report reveals that IT teams are worried that employees share too much personal information via social networking sites, putting their corporate infrastructure — and the sensitive data stored on it — at risk. The findings also indicate that a quarter of organizations have been exposed to spam, phishing or malware attacks via sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

Submission + - Sam Raimi to direct World of Warcraft movie (blizzard.com)

Submitted by Decado on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @05:06AM

Decado writes: Blizzard have just announced that Sam Raimi is to direct the new World of Warcraft movie.

"Raimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi's Stars Road Entertaiment."

While it is still early days does this offer hope that someone might finally make a good movie based on a games IP?

Comment 3-Kingdoms (Score 1) 130

by Ferret96 on Friday July 17, 2009 @08:19AM (#28728043) Attached to: A History of Early Text Adventure Games

Anyone every play the MUD 3-Kingdoms? For it's time it was a great game, had seperate Sci-Fi, Chaos, and Fantasy areas for variety. I used to play a Necromancer.

Submission + - Round-up of upcoming MMORPG. (i4u.com)

Submitted by

i4u

on Sunday July 05, 2009 @06:14AM

i4u writes: "The MMO market is booming, thanks in no small part to the titanic success of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. WoW has spawned a whole new generation of online gamers. As Blizzard's cash-cow begins to age, many of them are looking for a new MMO experience. Developers are lining up to try their hand in massive online games including the following three: Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jumpgate: Evolution and Global Agenda."

Videogame Places You're Not Supposed To Go 261

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday June 11, 2009 @03:44AM from the is-second-life-one-of-them dept.

Ssquared22 writes "The eight far-off realms in this article exist for different reasons. They could be developer test areas, or forgotten pieces of landscape that somehow made their way into the final code. Whatever their reason for being, they all have one thing in common: they weren't meant to be explored by the likes of you and me. But through persistence, hacks or some combination of the two, you can take in these rare delights for yourself. Pack your bags." What odd, interesting, or funny game locations have you wandered into?

City of Heroes Going Rogue With New Expansion 100

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday May 13, 2009 @06:22AM from the sinister-goatees-for-everyone dept.

NCSoft has announced a major expansion to City of Heroes, titled Going Rogue, which they say will "blur the line between heroes and villains." It is set in Praetoria, a parallel universe governed by an evil version of Statesman, the game's lead hero. As part of a new alignment system, "hero characters can become villains and vice versa, enabling hero archetypes to cross over to the Rogue Isles and villain archetypes to experience Paragon City." Brian Clayton of Paragon Studios said, "For years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain. Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions."

British Spy Agency Searches For Real-Life 'Q' 79

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday April 19, 2009 @11:56AM from the grow-up-double-oh-seven dept.

suraj.sun writes with this quote from the Associated Press:"Britain's domestic spy agency — MI5 — is hunting for its very own 'Q,' of sorts. MI6's sister organization, which carries out surveillance on terror suspects inside Britain and gives security advice to the government, is searching for someone to lead its scientific work. Projects could include everything from developing counterterrorism technology to tackling a biological or chemical attack. 'Looking for a chief scientific adviser to lead and coordinate the scientific work of the security service so that the service continues to be supported by excellent science and technology advice,' MI5's Web site ad reads. MI5 has long had a roster of scientific staff tasked with developing high-tech gadgets, but an official said the service now wants a high-profile figure to lead pioneering work in technology and science. The adviser's work will focus chiefly on creating sophisticated new tools to help security service officers carry out surveillance and analysis work, said a government security official, who requested anonymity to discuss the work of MI5."

GTA Chinatown Wars May Pave the Way for M-Rated Content On the DS 54

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday April 19, 2009 @06:06AM from the enough-pokemon dept.

The recently released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is one of only a handful of mature-rated titles for the Nintendo DS, so the industry is watching closely to see if the traditionally family-friendly market can support such titles. While sales have not been stellar, they haven't been terrible either, easily outperforming previous M-rated titles. If they continue to improve, it's possible we'll start seeing a more consistent effort for "serious" games on Nintendo's portable console. "In the end, Singer said Nintendo hopes that the sales story of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be an encouraging one for game publishers. 'I think strategically, this is a very important game because it helps send the message that great M-rated content can come to the platform and will find a home.'"

Comment Ultimate Gamer (Score 2, Interesting) 116

by Ferret96 on Saturday April 11, 2009 @08:06AM (#27541177) Attached to: Does Professional Gaming Have a Future?

The Spike Channel is trying to capitalize on this with the show "Ultimate Gamer". I saw one episode and the show seems more like MTV's Real World than any real gaming competition. While that kind of show doesn't appeal to me, I think I can see what they are trying to do. How do you create a delivery system around a game that makes it interesting to watch? With sports you can go to the field or watch it on TV and in either circumstance you are watching something that is dynamic that engages your attention. However, with video games, all the action is on a screen whose images are usually suited for only viewing one side of what's going on (Blue Team only, or Red Team only). There are way to switch back and forth between the players, but that hardly is smooth. Also I don't know about you but watching my friends play Halo 3 is nowhere near as fun as watching a ball game.

Comment NASA (Score 5, Insightful) 398

by Ferret96 on Wednesday April 01, 2009 @08:07AM (#27414327) Attached to: NASA In Colbert Conundrum Over Space Station

I understand why NASA put a clause into the rules stating that it can do whatever it wants... There needs to be a way out in case some yahoos try to name the station something inappropriate, however there is nothing wrong with Colbert. It's one thing to put the literature into the rules to make sure that the name of the new module isn't "Enola Bay" and another thing to just change the name on a whim because a few people at NASA were hoping on "Serenity". Sounds a little petty to me.

Comment Hard Facts (Score 0) 511

by Ferret96 on Tuesday March 31, 2009 @07:40AM (#27400105) Attached to: Game Companies Face Hard Economic Choices

I believe that the article is being alarmist, as there are many games that have sold more than 150,000 copies. Titles that sold more are Knights of the Old Republic, Sims, COD 4, most of the Final Fantasy games, Mario Kart, Smash Bros Brawl, etc. Halo 3 made $170,000,000 on the first day alone and WoW has sold millions of copies of Wrath of the Lich King. I think that this article is typical of mass media's misunderstanding of the world of technology.

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