Tolaris - Slashdot User

EA Shuts Down Pandemic Studios, Cuts 200 Jobs 161

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 20, 2009 @01:01AM 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."

Comment one-letter domain? (Score 2, Interesting) 128

by Tolaris on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @06:15PM (#29986800) Attached to: PayPal Introduces Open API

Since when are 1-letter second-level domains allowed? I thought it was limited to two letters and up.

Revisiting the Original Reviews of Windows Vista 414

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 12, 2009 @11:17AM from the take-with-a-grain-of-salt dept.

harrymcc writes 'We now know that a remarkable percentage of consumers and businesses decided to spurn Windows Vista and stay with XP. But did the reviews of Vista serve as an early warning that it had major problems? I looked back at the evaluations in nine major publications and found that they expressed some caution--but on the whole, they were far from scathing. Some were downright enthusiastic.'

Comment Re:Works on other platforms too (Score 2) 90

by Tolaris on Monday March 23, 2009 @06:15AM (#27295899) Attached to: <em>Battle For Wesnoth</em> Version 1.6 Released

Not true.

http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/WesnothPhilosophy

Comment Re:Where did it go? (Score 1) 59

by Tolaris on Tuesday March 03, 2009 @02:05PM (#27053741) Attached to: Mars Gullies Show Water Once Flowed

Several reasons:

Size - Mars is just smaller than Earth, and even the Earth's core is cooling down.

No large moon - Earth's moon causes tidal forces in both bodies. This causes heat, although the moon's small size allowed its core to cool like Mars. Mars' small moons don't have the same effect and have not always been there (they are likely captured asteroids).

Farther from the Sun - the same tidal forces that a moon would impart, the Sun does as well. But less of it, as Mars is farther away.

Comment Re:Where did it go? (Score 2, Informative) 59

by Tolaris on Tuesday March 03, 2009 @01:43PM (#27053367) Attached to: Mars Gullies Show Water Once Flowed

This hapenned supposedly when Mars had an active nucleus that generated a magnetic field, protecting the atmosphere from solar winds.

Nowadays liquid water cannot exist on Mars surface, and the bigger mistery is why Mars lost it's magnetic field.

It lost its magnetic field as the core cooled. The fluid movement of a metallic core is what generates Earth's magnetic field.

Comment VSAT and VoIP will work fine (Score 2, Informative) 176

by Tolaris on Saturday February 07, 2009 @07:15PM (#26767623) Attached to: Keeping in Contact With Family, From Afghanistan?

My company provides VSAT service in the Middle East and Africa, including as far east as Afghanistan.

VSAT latency is 600-1000 ms, and many VSAT Internet service providers prioritise voice-over-IP. We certainly do, although to a limited number of providers due to technical limitations.

Given sufficient bandwidth, VoIP will do fine. Be sure to use a service that supports good audio compression, and turn it on. Use G.729 or G.723, and never G.711.

On an iDirect VSAT network with cRTP enabled (RTP header compression), a G.729 call needs about 16 kbit each way. Good VSAT service in that area will have at least 64 kbit upload and 256 kbit download.

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