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Comment Re:DDR, baby! (Score 1) 107

by wolf1oo (#34200616) Attached to: Microsoft Patents Foot Computing

I agree entirely, that was my first thought when reading this. If someone does not have their hands free, clearly they are occupied with something else, in which case they really should not be using a computer... I can see some genius connecting it to a laptop and checking emails while driving.
Real Time Strategy (Games)

Blizzard Unveils Custom StarCraft 2 Game Types, Encourages Map Design 83

Posted by Soulskill from the my-pancakes-for-aiur dept.
StarCraft 2 launched in July, and since most of the developers' efforts since then have gone into tweaking balance issues, fixing bugs and further developing Battle.net integration, the second part of the trilogy is still quite a ways off. So, in lieu of announcements about Heart of the Swarm, the devs are using Blizzcon to showcase the map-editing tools and encourage the community to get more involved with custom maps and game types. Using the map editor, they created internally four custom games for StarCraft 2, which they’ll soon be releasing over Battle.net for free alongside three fan creations that won a recent contest. Read on for more details.
GUI

Take This GUI and Shove It 617

Posted by Soulskill from the i-ain't-clickin'-here-no-more dept.
snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia speaks out against the overemphasis on GUIs in today's admin tools, saying that GUIs are fine and necessary in many cases, but only after a complete CLI is in place, and that they cannot interfere with the use of the CLI, only complement it. Otherwise, the GUI simply makes easy things easy and hard things much harder. He writes, 'If you have to make significant, identical changes to a bunch of Linux servers, is it easier to log into them one-by-one and run through a GUI or text-menu tool, or write a quick shell script that hits each box and either makes the changes or simply pulls down a few new config files and restarts some services? And it's not just about conservation of effort — it's also about accuracy. If you write a script, you're certain that the changes made will be identical on each box. If you're doing them all by hand, you aren't.'"
The Internet

Destroy Entire Websites With Asteroids Bookmarklet 65

Posted by Soulskill from the take-that,-ads-with-sound dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever visited a website and been so frustrated by the content, layout, or adverts that you'd love to destroy it? Well, now you can. If you head on over to the erkie GitHub page there's a JavaScript bookmarklet you can drag and add to your bookmarks toolbar. Then just visit any website and click the bookmarklet. An Asteroids-style ship should appear that you can move around with the arrow keys. Press space and it will start firing bullets which destroy page content."
Programming

Sorting Algorithms — Boring Until You Add Sound 118

Posted by Soulskill from the bloop-bleep-bloop dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Anyone who's ever taken a programming course or tried to learn how to code out of a book will have come across sorting algorithms. Bubble, heap, merge — there's a long list of methods for sorting data. The subject matter is fairly dry. Thankfully, someone has found a way to not only make sorting more interesting, but easier to remember and understand, too."

Comment Re:What I suggest to people (Score 1) 259

by wolf1oo (#33294962) Attached to: Linux X.org Critical Security Flaw Silently Patched

I hope this is flamebait, for god's sake...
Anyways, did some research back in the day:
http://wolf1oo.doesntexist.com/files/Viruses_Per_OS.pdf

Now, don't go saying "OH YOUR LINUX INFORMATION IS WRONG, CLEARLY THERE'S A VIRUS." No. This is a security flaw. As it was known when I did the research, no program or malicious software existed for linux that could do damage, unless of course the user is dumb enough to run everything in root....
Input Devices

Textured Tactile Touchscreens 99

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tremendous-triumph dept.
HizookRobotics writes "A new covering developed by Senseg and Toshiba Information Systems gives touchpads, LCDs, and other curved surfaces (eg. cellphones) programmable texture using a high-resolution electrotactile array — a grid of electrodes that excite nerves in the skin with small pulses of current to trick the body into perceiving texture, pressure, or pin-pricks depending on the current amplitude and electrode resolution. The new covering has many potential applications: interactive gaming, touchscreens with texture, robot interfaces, etc."
Debian

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" Frozen 202

Posted by timothy from the declaring-it-squozen dept.
edesio writes with a snippet from debian-news.net, trumpeting an announcement from the ongoing DebConf10 in NYC: "Debian's release managers have announced a major step in the development cycle of the upcoming stable release Debian 6.0 'Squeeze': Debian 'Squeeze' has now been frozen. In consequence this means that no more new features will be added and all work will now be concentrated on polishing Debian 'Squeeze' to achieve the quality Debian stable releases are known for. The upcoming release will use Linux 2.6.32 as its default kernel in the installer and on all Linux architectures.""
Canada

The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet 199

Posted by Soulskill from the hope-nothing-breaks-during-hockey-season dept.
drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: 'It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."
Security

DefCon Contest Rattles FBI's Nerves 136

Posted by Soulskill from the par-for-the-course dept.
snydeq writes "A DefCon contest that invites contestants to trick employees at 30 US corporations into revealing not-so-sensitive data has rattled nerves at the FBI. Chris Hadnagy, who is organizing the contest, also noted concerns from the financial industry, which fears hackers will target personal information. The contest will run for three days, with participants attempting to unearth data from an undisclosed list of about 30 US companies. The contest will take place in a room in the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas furnished with a soundproof booth and a speaker, so an audience can hear the contestants call companies and try to weasel out what data they can get from unwitting employees." The group organizing the contest has established a strict set of rules to ensure participants don't violate any laws. Update: 07/31 04:45 GMT by S : PCWorld has coverage of one of the day's more successful attacks.
Perl

Perl 6, Early, With Rakudo Star 220

Posted by timothy from the if-you-call-that-early dept.
Perl 6 may have been "finally coming within reach" in 2004, but now it's even closer. Reader rnddim writes "The Perl 6 implementation Rakudo Star has been released today for 'early adopters.' This release of Rakudo is different from the normal monthly compiler releases in that it is bundled with a draft of a Perl 6 book, and several modules. It's not complete, and it's not as fast as it should be, but Rakudo in its current state is proving to be usable and useful. Rakudo Star releases will come monthly or as major features or bugfixes are made. It is available for download at github.com."
Input Devices

The Mouse Vanishes 292

Posted by kdawson from the yesterday-upon-the-stair dept.
countertrolling sends in a clip from Wired that begins "...researchers at MIT have found a method to let users click and scroll exactly the same way they would with a computer mouse, without the device actually being there. Cup your palm, move it around on a table and a cursor on the screen hovers. Tap on the table like you would click a real mouse, and the computer responds. It's one step beyond cordless. It's an invisible mouse. The project, called 'Mouseless,' uses an infrared laser beam and camera to track the movements of the palm and fingers and translate them into computer commands... A working prototype of the Mouseless system costs approximately $20 to build, says Pranav Mistry, who is leading the project."

Comment I've experienced it... (Score 1) 274

by wolf1oo (#32869080) Attached to: The Verizon Wireless HTC Eris 'Silent Call Bug'

I have noted that my HTC Eris was experiencing problems such as this every once in a while, but I thought it was due to some residual moisture that resulted from a previous drop in a pool.... I guess the root of the problem wasn't that at all! Which is certainly a relief, it took long enough just to dry it out properly the first time...
Transportation

Men Cross 5 Mile Wide Lake In Inflatable Castle 17

Posted by samzenpus from the dreams-do-come-true dept.
Jack Watkins, 25, and engineers Chris Hayes, 24, and Dave Sibley, 25, have succeeded in crossing Italy's Lake Garda in a huge, inflated bouncy castle. "Great Britain has such a great tradition as a seafaring nation and we really feel we have played no role at all in adding to this," admitted intrepid waterman Hayes. "That said, it was possibly the most fun we have ever had and we really never believed this most frivolous of dreams would ever be realized."

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