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E3

Were The "Winners" of E3 Enough To Ensure Survival? 101

Now that the industry is winding down after another E3, it's time to reflect on the relative success of the show. Paul Govan reflects with a GeekDad view of the "winners" of this years show. The question is, after the attempts to scale it back to a much more exclusive event, has E3 managed to escape obscurity and defeat at the hands of up-and-comers like PAX? Highlights of the show included Microsoft's new controller-less interface, a sexier PSP, and a myriad of releases from Nintendo.
Classic Games (Games)

Monkey Island To Return 153

Briareos was one of several readers to write with news that TellTale Games, along with LucasArts, will be bringing new Monkey Island games later this year. Tales of Monkey Island will be a series of episodic games released for PC and WiiWare in the coming months, and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be a remake of the original 1990 game, available on the PC and Xbox Live. A trailer is available for the former, and this is what the press release says about the latter: "The development team at LucasArts is bringing the game into the modern era with all-new HD graphics, a re-mastered musical score, full voiceover, and an in-depth hint system has been added to help players through the game's side-splitting puzzles. Purists will also delight in the ability to seamlessly switch between the updated HD graphics and the original's classic look." Grumpy Gamer has a nostalgic look back at the franchise.
It's funny.  Laugh.

The Biggest Cults In Tech 397

bobby f. writes "Infoworld has published its list of the biggest cults in tech — including Palmists, Newtonians, Commodorians, the Brotherhood of the Ruby, IBM power systems fanboys, Ubuntu-ists, and Lispers. A pretty fun read (unless you really are a cult member)." Although I think it's pretty clear that the Apple camp isn't an opinionated cult, they're just always right. Fire away.
Censorship

UN Attacks Free Speech 842

newsblaze writes "The UN Human Rights Council assaulted free expression today, in a 23-11 vote that urges member states to adopt laws outlawing criticism of religions. The proposal came to the UN from Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for the Islamic Conference. There were 13 abstentions. South Korea, Japan, India, Mexico and Brazil, all strong democracies, allowed this to pass by abrogating their responsibility. While the resolution doesn't mention the online world, where does this subject get mentioned most, if not online?" The coverage is from NewsBlaze, which says its mission is to carry important news that other media are not paying attention to. There does not seem to be any other coverage of this vote.
Update: 03/29 00:48 GMT by KD : Reader kshade wrote in: "Actually this is covered by conventional media, even FOX news (Google News links). The absentees weren't there because they boycotted the proposal."
It's funny.  Laugh.

1,234,567,890 Seconds Since Unix Time Began 187

os2man was one of many readers to let us know that later on today, at 23:31:30 UTC (30 seconds after this story went live), the number of seconds since January 1st 1970 will be exactly 1234567890. January 1st, 1970 marks the start of the clock for the Unix operating system and many other operating systems. Here is a list of celebrations of the moment around the world.
The Courts

Submission + - Jack Thompson Suspended 1

Dr. Eggman writes: GamePolitics.com has the story the Florida Bar has ordered Jack Thompson to undergo psychological testing and have suspended his license for 91 days. According to his 2005 book, he has been asked to undergo such testing by the bar before, but sued and successfully settled with the bar for $20,000.
Biotech

Submission + - Dying of plastic overdose in the Pacific?

Noryungi writes: "This amazing, and scary, article talks about the discovery of a zone of the Pacific Ocean — twice the size of Texas — that is dying because of the plastic brought there by the current. Since this particular area is also a high pressure zone, plastic stays trapped and slowly poison all forms of life. The pictures are scary as heck."
Patents

Submission + - USPTO Calls BS on 1-Click Patent Claims

theodp writes: "Seeking to extend the reach of CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent, Amazon ran into a very unimpressed USPTO examiner who rejected all 75 of the e-tailer's new claims, repeatedly invoking terms like 'obvious' and 'old and well known' to dismiss the purported inventions. Amazon has taken the unusual step of requesting an Oral Appeal to plead its case and also canceled and refiled its 1-Click claims in a continuation application, not unlike a popular stalling tactic employed by skilled lawyers. As it touted the novelty of 1-Click to Congress (PDF) last fall, Amazon didn't mention the examiner's rejection as it insisted that 'still no [1-Click] prior art has surfaced' to a Committee whose members included Rick Boucher (VA) and Howard Berman (CA), recipients of campaign contributions from a PAC funded by Amazon execs and their families."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Are .tmp files necessary or just bad programming?

planckscale writes: After spending another hour deleting .tmp files from a bloated XP machine I started to wonder, is the .tmp file necessary when coding an application on the MS platform? Why do so many apps produce .tmp files and is it just because of bad coding or does the use of them dramatically speed up an app? Don't coders use dev/null to reduce them in linux? I can understand the use of them in case an app crashes for recovery purposes, but why don't more apps have the capacity to delete their own .tmp files once they are done with them? Is it too much to ask to at least have the option when closing an app to delete your temp files?
Businesses

Submission + - Klipsch Speakers going Silent

An anonymous reader writes: Klipsch, one of America's oldest speaker companies, seems to be suffering from a backlash against problems with their promedia ultra 2.0 speakers. First available in late 2005, the Promedia Ultra 2.0 speakers were sold as an up market 2 speaker multimedia solution. After just falling out of warranty, many users are reporting problems with sound cutting out and hiss on the volume control.

For many users, they are just outside of their warranty period, making a premium set of speakers a very short term investment.
The Courts

Submission + - The Best and Worst Intenet Laws

Anonymous Coward writes: "When a U.S. legislator describes the Internet as a "series of tubes" you just know that you're going to end up with some wacky laws on the books. Law professor Eric Goldman takes a look at the best and worst Internet laws in the U.S. Eric offers an analysis of the biggies such as the DMCA, but also shines a light on lesser known laws like the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002."

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