computerdude33 - Slashdot User

New EVE Online Expansion Detailed 96

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 09, 2008 @12:34AM from the excel-in-space dept.

Eurogamer reports on the EVE Online Fanfest, at which developer CCP revealed details on the game's next expansion, due out in March. It will be the biggest expansion yet for EVE, and it will "introduce 'Tech 3' modular ship designs, branching epic mission arcs, further improvements to the new player experience, and exploration of uncharted space through unstable wormholes. ... The focus of the expansion will be 'true exploration,' with players using new skills and modules to travel through wormholes into all-new, unconnected space." CCP also hinted that further graphical upgrades would be coming, and a standalone first-person shooter based on EVE may be in development for a console release.

Comment Quality Concerns and a Suggestion (Score 1) 426

by Valarauk on Friday September 05, 2008 @05:38PM (#24894601) Attached to: Slashdot's Disagree Mail

While I very seldom post to this site I do enjoy following it closely for both the news and the unusually high quality of many posts. That being said, I've found the recent inclusion of idle material into the main page to be disconcerting in the extreme. The fact that slashdot boasts a robust filtering system isn't enough on it's own to justify the repeated posting of material that fails to inform, inspire, or otherwise positively influence anything. I think many of the development staff's goals behind idle's inclusion in the main stream might be better addressed through a slashdot blog or somesuch (i.e. just how much crap the mod staff is regularly subjected too). If the goal was purely to break into the intertube's massive lolcat/political rant market, I think the slashdot team needs to understand that they will be sacrificing what has become a very respected position in the web community. As it stands now, I would be less likely to refer a collegue to check out slashdot as a news source, simply because worrying about their reading "cocsuckers" in the first story they might happen accross isn't something I'm going to subject myself too.

Submission + - NVIDIA doubts ray tracing is the future of games (pcper.com)

Submitted by SizeWise on Thursday March 06, 2008 @06:43PM

SizeWise writes: After Intel's prominent work in ray tracing in the both the desktop and mobile spaces, many gamers might be thinking that the move to ray tracing engines is inevitable. NVIDIA's Chief Scientist, Dr. David Kirk, seems to think otherwise as revealed in an interview on the topic of rasterization and ray tracing. Kirk counters many of Intel's claims of ray tracing's superiority such as the inherent benefit to polygon complexity while pointing out areas where ray tracing engines would falter like basic antialiasing. The interview rounds out discussion on mixing the two rendering technologies and whether NVIDIA hardware can efficiently handle ray tracing calculations as well.

Jodrell Bank May Close Down 53

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 06, 2008 @06:15PM from the not-just-pulsars dept.

Anonymous Astronomer writes "MERLIN, the UK's only radio astronomy facility, is facing closure following the results of a Programmatic Review carried out by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the results of which were announced on Monday. The review placed MERLIN and the upgraded telescope e-MERLIN, due to go online later this year following an investment of £8M, in the low-priority category under serious threat of funding cuts. The upgraded array of telescopes, situated across the UK, will be 30 times more sensitive than the current array and will be a unique facility for observing distant objects and helping us understand the universe. If these cuts go ahead however, not only MERLIN but the entire Observatory including the iconic Lovell telescope, based at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, will be under threat of closure."

First "Observation" of Hawking Radiation 86

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 06, 2008 @10:43AM from the simulation-or-experiment dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Italian physicists are claiming the first observation of Hawking radiation, but not from a black hole. Instead they've spotted it streaming from a sonic horizon in a Bose Einstein Condensate (abstract on the arXiv). That's consistent with previous predictions but they're claiming the 'first' even though the experiment was only a numerical simulation. Does that really count?"

Feed Engadget: AMD delays Barcelona (again), turns attention to Brisbane (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Thursday December 06, 2007 @03:52PM

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Oh AMD, you just can't keep it together, can you? Advanced Micro Devices, a company known for its share of "issues," has once again delayed its much-hyped, energy efficient Barcelona CPU. Apparently, a technical irregularity has caused the company to push back the release date for widespread availability of the chip until sometime early next year. The glitch, which causes the chip to fail, is just another line of setbacks on the product's path to release (originally set for mid-2007). John Taylor, a company spokesman, says, "We're continuing to ship it but only to specific customers." The company is offering a workaround for the chips until the problems are solved, though users will see an impact on performance. In other heart-wrenching (though seemingly unrelated) AMD news, the chipmaker has decided to re-up its older K8 architecture, refocusing on "Brisbane"-based chips, and even adding a few new models to the line. Over the next two quarters, the company will release 11 new 65nm chips based on the older format, while just three new entries will be made in the "Phenom" -- or K10 -- line. Look, Hector, everyone is pulling for you (except maybe Intel) -- just get it together, man!

[Thanks, Gary J]

Read - A.M.D. Delays Energy-Efficient Chip Again
Read - AMD Resurrects K8 Architecture for 2008 Roadmap

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Comment Slay Spyro (Score -1) 275

by computerdude33 on Sunday March 12, 2006 @03:24PM (#14903190) Attached to: Videogames Used to Treat ADHD

"Whether speeding down a virtual street in Sony's Gran Turismo or slaying Spyro the Dragon, researchers hope games such as these will improve the lives of those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD, or cognitive-processing difficulties."

Uh, what?

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