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PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Second Life to be Evangelized

Submitted by Edis Krad
Edis Krad writes: Among the many changes Second Life has been experiencing lately (such as the banning of gambling), it will now undergo a spiritual transformation. Going to distant, uncharted lands to spread the knowledge of Christianity has always been the way of the Jesuits, which have given its missionaries an aura of adventurers. This time, however, instead of going deep into the jungles of Africa or the far lands of China, missionaries will face the 'risqué' lands of Second Life. From the article:

"This virtual Second Life is becoming populated with churches, mosques, temples, cathedrals. synagogues, places of prayer of all kinds. And behind an avatar there is a man or a woman, perhaps searching for God and faith, perhaps with very strong spiritual needs."
Does this mean I will be now able to attend church from my living-room in my underwear?
Security

Submission + - P2P software exposes DoD infrastructure and more

Submitted by curiosity-killed-the
curiosity-killed-the writes: PC Magazine notes that members of Congress Monday lashed out at the chief executive of a popular filesharing service after it was revealed that classified information was easily accessible via his and other P2P systems.

Link for oversight committee report: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/2007072410435 6.pdf
PCMagazine article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2162599,00.as p
Linux Business

Submission + - Open Source replacement to Microsoft Project (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Projity is releasing "OpenProj" a complete open source replacement of Microsoft Project. This will be available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows and is a complete replacement of Project. OpenProj opens existing native Microsoft Project files and will be released with an OSI approved license. A big blow for Microsoft since Project is deployed in 7% of all Office desktops and is part of the Office product family.
United States

Submission + - Gary Kasparov is the Russian Martin Luther King?

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "Like Martin Luther King of an older generation, gutsy Gary Kasparov has again defied authorities and lead a peace demonstration demanding basic civil rights and fair elections. Quoting Vladimir Ryzhkov, Bloomberg reports that the Russian police broke up the demonstration by "beating grandmothers and pensioners with billy clubs, hitting them in the back". Kasparov, a former chess champion, runs the risk of being permanently checkmated by President Vladimir Putin. Will Kasparov share the same untimely end that concluded King's life?"
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - New MoBo has IDE boot disabled - is there a fix?

Submitted by
wattsup
wattsup writes: "I recently purchased an MSI G965M-FI motherboard for a system upgrade. Overall the board is pretty good with lots of features, but it had one "unexpected feature" that I didn't know about when I bought it. The PATA100 IDE port won't allow you to install an operating system from a CD-ROM attached to it.

While its on their website, MSI doesn't tell you this on the retail packaging, until you break the seal on the static wrap and look at the motherboard. There, with a tiny labelplaced over the IDE connector to inform you "This IDE does not support OS installation in hard drive".

This made my out-of-box experience rather maddening, as I had to go get a USB based CD-ROM to install a fresh copy of XP.

This seems like a pretty lame way to save money, disabling functionality on an IDE port that's included. Some research shows me that other manufacturers are doing the same.

My question is; Does anybody know if this is an issue that can be fixed by upgrading the BIOS, or is this hard-wired?"
Java

Submission + - Apache Sends Open Letter To Sun

Submitted by
IIO
IIO writes: "The Java portion of the blogosphere was abuzz in the last several days over an open letter that Geir Magnusson Jr. of Apache Software Foundation sent to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. At issue is the "field of use" restriction in the licensing terms of Sun's Java Compatibility Kit that Sun offers to Apache, which Apache deems "totally unacceptable." Sun's response is here. A unbiassed analysis of the dispute can be found here."
Security

Submission + - Valve customer credit card details hacked

Submitted by appregator
appregator writes: It seems Valve's security is under fire once again, this time a hacker by the name of MaddoXX has gained root access to their servers. After exposing customer information, including several full credit card numbers, and Valve bank account details, the hacker threatened to release more in an apparent attempt to extort Valve. The screenshots posted by the hacker show their total assets to be at around 9.2 million USD. When users began reporting the leak on the steampowered forums their threads were quickly deleted. Why on earth was such personal information being stored on a web server? Screenshot of hackers website at http://i17.tinypic.com/2e0irza.jpg (masking CC numbers), taken by the steampowered forum user.
Editorial

Submission + - Where did the cellphone go?

Submitted by
Jim Adkins
Jim Adkins writes: "MHW has a brief editorial about today's current multi use cellphones. What I use a cellphone for is to make calls. Period. I am not looking for a phone that acts as a bad MP3 player, a second rate digital camera, a tiny screened wannabe PSP, or any myriad of other uses. What I want from a cellphone is good reception, a rugged frame that can stand rough use like being dropped occasionally, a front screen LCD so I can see who is calling before I answer, and last but not least — long battery life."
Google

Submission + - Vendors fudging prices for Froogle, others

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I recently stumbled across a case of an online vendor adjusting it's prices based on url referral; notably, SoftwareMedia.com, but I've noticed similar (though harder to trace) activity from other large vendors such as Dell and Amazon.

Take a look at this page: Exchange Software, then find it again through Froogle. Once you access the SoftwareMedia site through the Froogle link, they update (generally lower) their prices to match those found on Froogle. Accessing the exact same page after going through Froogle results in an entirely different set of prices. (In my case, Exchange 2003 Enterprise was 'discounted' by a whopping $1260)

Is SoftwareMedia trying to make Froogle Fudge? Should this sort of activity be allowed? Should users be presented with two different pages depending on referral? Shouldn't all users be presented with the same set of prices?

Feed Male And Female Brain Patterns Differ During Reaching (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Men's and women's brains "fire" differently when they are planning how to reach for something, so rehabilitation after brain injuries such as strokes may need to be tailored to the sex of the person, says a new study. Researchers found differences in patterns of brain activity in men and women preparing to do visually-guided actions related to tasks such as using a computer mouse or driving a car.
NASA

Submission + - Did NASA Accidentally "Nuke" Jupiter?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Title: Did NASA Accidentally "Nuke" Jupiter? Source: Enterprise URL Source: http://www.enterprisemission.com//NukingJupiter.ht ml Published: Apr 11, 2007 NASA's decision to finally terminate Galileo in September 2003 via a fiery plunge into Jupiter, was designed to prevent any possible biological contamination of Europa from a future random collision with the spacecraft, once its fuel was exhausted. An engineer named Jacco van der Worp claimed that, plunging into Jupiter's deep and increasingly dense atmosphere, the on-board Galileo electrical power supply — a set of 144 plutonium-238 fuel pellets — would ultimately "implode"; that the plutonium Galileo carried would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of Jupiter's overwhelming atmosphere and go critical. Noone listened. One month later ... October 19, 2003 — an amateur astronomer in Belgium, Olivier Meeckers, secured a remarkable image, a dark black "splotch" showing up on the southern edge of Jupiter's well-known "North Equatorial Belt," trailing a fainter "tail" southwest (image center). Richard Hoagland http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=183496 has now calculated that, given the slow fall through a highly pressurised atmosphere, it is possible that the splotch is the result of about 50lb of plutonium going critical 700 miles below. Way to go, NASA!

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