Submission + - Star Trek Technology Is Today (sfgate.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: The gadgets that emerged in Star Trek on TV 40 years ago are not so futuristic anymore, as movie goers to the latest Star Trek movie, clutching their cell phones, demonstrate. While the possibility of warp drive was discussed on Slashdot the other day (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/06/2228251&art_pos=2), there's a lot more technology that became real (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/MNPH17GI1J.DTL&type=printable): a "tricorder" has become a bloodless medical probe, the no-kill phaser is reincarnated as the military's Active Denial System, and the universal translator is in use as the "Phraselator" used by troops in Iraq since 2003.
Submission + - Apple to Buy EA? 1
yerktoader writes: There are rumors abound that Apple might buy EA, but some interesting counterpoints abound. Film at eleven(via Yahoo):
File this one firmly under "unconfirmed," but it's nevertheless a tantalizing rumor.
According to Fast Money's Guy Adami, via TheStreet.com, Apple is "eyeing Electronic Arts as a takeover target." EA's currently the second-largest games publisher in the world and owner of the smash hit NFL-licensed series of football games. Could we be facing the possibility of a Mac-only iMadden?
Well, probably not. Apple has indeed been bolstering its games know-how, hiring a major Xbox strategist away from Microsoft in recent weeks. And EA is no stranger to Apple platforms: in the last year it's brought several of its major franchises to the iPhone, including Sim City, Tiger Woods, and Spore, with considerable success. But it's a far cry from there to a takeover, and that's putting it mildly.
Specialist video games analyst Michael Pachter seems to agree. Speaking to Gamasutra, he pointed out that if Apple was looking to make some entertainment acquisitions, it could buy Warner Music — which controls 20% of the music industry — for roughly half of EA's estimated price. However, the doubt didn't stop EA's stock from bucking the market trend to climb 1.63% at closing.
File this one firmly under "unconfirmed," but it's nevertheless a tantalizing rumor.
According to Fast Money's Guy Adami, via TheStreet.com, Apple is "eyeing Electronic Arts as a takeover target." EA's currently the second-largest games publisher in the world and owner of the smash hit NFL-licensed series of football games. Could we be facing the possibility of a Mac-only iMadden?
Well, probably not. Apple has indeed been bolstering its games know-how, hiring a major Xbox strategist away from Microsoft in recent weeks. And EA is no stranger to Apple platforms: in the last year it's brought several of its major franchises to the iPhone, including Sim City, Tiger Woods, and Spore, with considerable success. But it's a far cry from there to a takeover, and that's putting it mildly.
Specialist video games analyst Michael Pachter seems to agree. Speaking to Gamasutra, he pointed out that if Apple was looking to make some entertainment acquisitions, it could buy Warner Music — which controls 20% of the music industry — for roughly half of EA's estimated price. However, the doubt didn't stop EA's stock from bucking the market trend to climb 1.63% at closing.
Comment Re:Causality (Score 1) 627
No - the moon is not going to crash into us, the tidal forces are robbing the earth of rotational velocity and in fact moving the moon to higher orbits. That's why in about 600 million years we're not going to have any total eclipses of the sun anymore.
Comment Re:I've been patiently waiting for 35 years. (Score 1) 273
And it ended much the same way as Prometheus himself: splattered on a rock with a hungry bird pecking at the poor bastard's liver.
Comment Re:159357 popular with lefties? (Score 1) 299
No left-handed person, myself included, would use the mouse with his left hand for the simple reason that a goodly number of mice are shaped to fit a right hand so it would be ... impractical to get used to the ambidextrous mice and then encounter a right-handed only mouse and try to use it in the left hand.
Much better to just use the right hand and be ready for any situation.
Much better to just use the right hand and be ready for any situation.
Video Game Conditioning Spills Over Into Real Life 232
doug141 writes "Lessons learned in video games may transcend computers, PlayStations and Wiis. New research suggests that virtual worlds sway real-life choices. Twenty-two volunteers who played a cycling game learned to associate one team's jersey with a good flavored drink and another team's jersey with a bad flavored drink. Days later, 3/4 of the subjects avoided the same jersey in a real-world test. Marketers and lawyers will take note."
D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax Has Passed Away 512
Mearlus writes "In the recent past co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax has worked with Troll Lord Games, a small tabletop RPG publisher. Their forums have up a post noting that Mr. Gygax has apparently passed away. Gygax was known, along with Dave Arneson, as the Father of Roleplaying." Saddened reactions from well-known designers have already begun to appear online. Consider this is an in-memoriam Ask Slashdot question: How has D&D (and tabletop roleplaying) touched/improved your life? Update: 03/04 23:16 GMT by Z : With more time, official announcements have had time to appear. Many sites are featuring posts on Gygax's impact on gaming, including touching entries on Salon and CNet.
Survey Finds Few Intend to Upgrade to Vista 429
thefickler writes "A recent Harris Poll has found that while most online computers users are aware of Microsoft's Windows Vista, few are intending to switch over to the new operating system anytime soon. The Harris Poll of 2223 US online adults in early March found that 87% were aware of Vista. Unfortunately for Microsoft, only 12% of Vista-aware respondents were intending to upgrade to Vista in the next 12 months."
Submission + - Breastfeeding Censorship on Myspace
rogue0208 writes: "http://www.petitiononline.com/Brstfeed/petition.ht ml
MySpace allows pictures of scantily clad women across its site. MySpace also allows images of children in barely there clothes to grace its pages. However, they've been deleting images of women breastfeeding their children. Why? Because they consider it be indecent. Breastfeeding is allowed by law in any public place that a woman is allowed to be in. If every state allows a woman to breastfeed in public without a law being broken, then why does Myspace have an issue with it? Please sign the petition to let MySpace know that what they are doing is censorship."
MySpace allows pictures of scantily clad women across its site. MySpace also allows images of children in barely there clothes to grace its pages. However, they've been deleting images of women breastfeeding their children. Why? Because they consider it be indecent. Breastfeeding is allowed by law in any public place that a woman is allowed to be in. If every state allows a woman to breastfeed in public without a law being broken, then why does Myspace have an issue with it? Please sign the petition to let MySpace know that what they are doing is censorship."
Submission + - Microsoft owns up to Xbox Live pretexting
jcatcw writes: "Reports of account theft on Xbox Live have been making the rounds of its member forums since at least December. Microsoft yesterday finally admitted that the service's support staff is at fault — victims of "pretexting." But Microsoft responded only after noted security researcher — Kevin Finisterre of "Month of Apple Bugs" fame — last week went public about how his account was hijacked."
Submission + - Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta Preview
sachi11 writes: "This is very detailed Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta Preview with nice screebshots.This preview includes Easy-to-install codec wizards,Migration assistant,Plug and play network sharing with Avahi,network manager,windows mount tool,artwork,help center,desktop effects,new partition tool,gnome control center.
Full Story"
Submission + - PS3 Folding like crazy
hlimethe3rd writes: We've seen numerous articles about the Playstation 3 being a total flop as a gaming machine. But now, the machine is tearing through Folding@Home. It already accounts for almost 75% of the FLOPS for the whole project . Much in the same way as the GPU client produced amazing results, the PS3's cell architecture is ideally suited for Folding calculations. So don't buy one as a gaming console, buy one to save your grandmother.
Journal Journal: Beryl rocks out with Ubuntu (and a decent graphics card)
If you have been living in the Slashdot equivalent of a cave (which, note, might mean approximately the opposite of what that phrase would mean in the non-tech-obsessed world), you might not know that Beryl and Compiz are a) apparently about to merge back together and b) are compositing window managers that let you do all that wiggly-window, 3-D cube visual effect madness. I've been watching enviously screencasts of the cubes flipping merrily around, and windows wiggling like Jell-O brand gel
Submission + - Stem Cell Signaling Mystery Solved
Anonymous Coward writes: "A newly discovered small molecule called IQ-1 plays a key role in preventing embryonic stem cells from differentiating into one or more specific cell types, allowing them to instead continue growing and dividing indefinitely, according to research performed by a team of scientists who recently have joined the stem cell research efforts at the Keck School of Medicine of USC."
