DavidH_Mphs - Slashdot User

Study Says Kids Like 'M' Rated Games 102

Posted by Zonk on Monday July 09, 2007 @01:37AM from the toddlers-love-disembowelments-who-knew dept.

Ars Technica's science blog, Nobel Intent, has a post up on a study done by the Journal of Adolescent Health. The report attempted to gauge usage levels of violent videogames among young people in the US. The results are unsurprising to anyone who's ever worked in a second-hand game store: "Most boys, and many girls, played games that the ESRB had rated M, signifying that they were for mature audiences only. Of the games played by the boys, Grand Theft Auto and Halo were both in the top three, and GTA was also the 2nd most played game by girls, according to the data. Over half of all boys agreed with the statement 'I play electronic games because I like guns and weapons.' On the other hand, over 60 percent of boys and girls agreed with the statement 'I play electronic games because there's nothing else to do.'"

Submission + - Counting to 1 million. Live on the Internet (millioncount.com)

Submitted by

Steffen Tengesdal

on Saturday June 30, 2007 @12:12PM

Steffen Tengesdal writes: "Leveraging the power of the internet to raise money for a charity is nothing new, but this is definitely an odd (or unique?) way to do it. Jeremy Harper of Birmingham, Alabama is counting to 1 million, live, on the the web at http://www.millioncount.com/. He started nearly two weeks ago and is up to about 153,000 at the time of this submission. The goal? Raise money for http://www.pushamerica.org/, which helps people with disabilities.

Jeremy's employer has voluntarily let him take 3-4 months off to complete this project. So is it stupid? Depends on who you ask. There are literally many thousands on the site at all times and bandwidth has been an issue. By the end of 1 week he was using up about 50GB of transfer. I rode (bicycled) across the country with Jeremy 10 years ago for the same charity, so I support the effort and where the money is going. Without that history, I'd probably think he was a bit crazy for taking on something like this."

Submission + - Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men (infoshop.org)

Submitted by tom_evil on Saturday June 30, 2007 @11:15AM

tom_evil writes: One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. "Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum's a real Exxon product, not just a parody," said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. "Exxon's policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year," added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. "So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!" [In addition,] the Yes Men are desperately in need of a sysadmin. The position is unpaid at the moment, but it shouldn't take much time for someone who knows Debian Linux very well.

Submission + - An update on the alternative DNS roots movement (divinorum.org.uk)

Submitted by pongo000 on Saturday June 30, 2007 @11:05AM

pongo000 writes: Salvia has written a concise update addressing the alternative DNS movement, where it's been and where it's currently headed. Of note is the demise of many of the altroots such as AlternNIC, the rise of FreeNIC from the ashes, and an attempt to merge both FreeNIC and OpenNIC in a renewed effort to provide the world with an alternative to the ICANN hegemony.

Submission + - Installing Vista: My Personal Hell (msdn.com)

Submitted by daemonical on Saturday June 30, 2007 @10:44AM

daemonical writes: I wanted to install Vista at home, so I picked up my copy of Vista Ultimate at the company store and took it home. I've installed Windows on machines for over a decade, and I have no fear. I did make a full backup of my XP install, and I added a new drive so I could install Vista side-by-side and check it out without blowing away my XP install, just in case. My machine is a Dell Dimension 370 with 1G of RAM, pretty standard except I added a new SATA drive for Vista itself and I have an additional DVD drive (for region 2 discs). Its not a state-of-the-art-2007 machine, but it is reasonable and until very recently I was using an identical machine at work (with more RAM and disc) for all my development. Andy Pennels Blog (Microsoft)

Submission + - ISO document standard battle

Submitted by

Elektroschock

on Saturday June 30, 2007 @10:26AM

Elektroschock writes: "Some activists believe that Microsoft ooxml should not become an ISO standard for technical reasons. But would you prefer a closed Microsoft Office Format that is not approved as a standard? Or will a single ISO 26300:2006 (ODF) standard encourage Microsoft to support it when DIS 26500 (MS-ooxml) gets rejected? What is your opinion on the controversial issue?"

Submission + - Desktop Search and Video - Why I love My computer (msdn.com)

Submitted by

SpectateSwamp

on Saturday June 30, 2007 @09:40AM

SpectateSwamp writes: "Digital video and Desktop Search make it way more fun than work.

The search allows me to keep all my Video, Music, Pics and text
in 1 Folder (and a few sub folders) and that's all I need to be
concerned about. I make a couple DVD copies of that and if I lose
my computer. No problem. All my emails and all my web site url's
and favorites are there (and searchable).

If I get a virus I just reinstall the OS and load my data. My
internet stuff and a few other applications that I uploaded over
the net. I do video of these tricky procedures. So I'm free to
use my computer and not really worry about too much.

Low tech computing is Way way more fun than work.

I have been shooting video for 4 years. Big external disk drives
are cheap now. I could start reloading all my video backups. And
that's lots and lots of video.

This 1 program takes most of the Geekieness out of computing.
You need to know 5% or less, of what others do to feel comfortable
with computers. When you have to learn next to nothing about something.
It's easy to learn a lot.

To be off and running, you just need a couple simple commands.

Cut, copy and share video, pictures and text over and from the net
with ease. Just like I do.

I love my computer because I can be a lazy bas***d about fussing
over my computer. I don't worry about anything other than My data.
Popup blockers, firewalls, virus protection, encryption, I just
couldn't care less.

It seems my opinions on Desktop Search and Digital Video run counter
to "expert knowledge" I get banned and blocked on the video forums
and receive similar treatment on the computer related forums. Anyway
I am staying away from the channel9.msdn.com forums just so they
won't take these posts down.

http://channel9.msdn.com/showuserthreads.aspx?user id=31672

Cheers

Spectate Swamp AKA Doug and his Computer.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan"

Slashdot Top Deals