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Spider-Man Foils Comic Book Thief 40

Posted by samzenpus from the is-that-the-spidey-sense-or-indegestion dept.
chebucto writes "The BBC reports that 'A comic book shop owner in Australia became a real-life superhero when he caught a robber red-handed. Michael Baulderstone, who was dressed as Spider-Man for a promotional event, spied a customer behaving suspiciously during an International Free Comic Day celebration. CCTV footage shows him "leap" into action and confront the would-be shoplifter who had slipped a AU$160 (£97) X-Men book into his bag. ... He said a group of Jedi knights blocked the door to prevent the thief from escaping, as The Flash looked on.'"
Education

Students Flock To GMU For a Degree In Video Game Design 225

Posted by timothy from the drink-up-my-uncle's-buying dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that officials at George Mason University are quickly finding out that they have vastly underestimated interest in the school's new bachelor's degree in video game design. 'We've been overwhelmed,' says Scott M. Martin, assistant dean for technology, research, and advancement at GMU. 'Our anticipated enrollment for the fall is 500 percent higher than we expected.' George Mason first offered the program last fall, when officials anticipated that it would enroll about 30 full-time students, but currently 200 students are enrolled and that number is increasing. Course titles under the program include 'History of Computer Game Design,' while other courses focus on computer programming, digital arts, and graphics and motion capture. Although many colleges offer courses and degrees in computer gaming in the United States, GMU offers the only four-year program in the DC area, an important market for gaming because serious games — those used to train military and special operations, doctors, and others who use simulators — are becoming a market force in the region because of the proximity to federal government centers."
Iphone

Steve Jobs Publishes Some "Thoughts On Flash" 944

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what's-under-that-turtleneck dept.
teh31337one writes "Steve Jobs just posted an open letter of sorts explaining Apple's position on Flash, going back to his company's long history with Adobe and expounding upon six main points of why he thinks Flash is wrong for mobile devices. HTML5 naturally comes up, along with a few reasons you might not expect. He concludes in saying that 'Flash was created during the PC era — for PCs and mice.'" Tacky that his first point is that Flash is proprietary, when Apple restricts the apps that can be installed on the phone. Pot, meet kettle.
Operating Systems

Sony Sued Over PS3 "Other OS" Removal 546

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-deserve-worse dept.
Stoobalou writes "A Californian Playstation 3 user has filed the first class action lawsuit against Sony over removal of the 'Install Other OS' function from the Playstation 3. The action seeks to redress Sony's 'intentional disablement of the valuable functionalities originally advertised as available with the Sony Playstation 3 video game console.' The suit claims that the disablement breaches the sales contract between Sony and its customers and constitutes 'an unfair and deceptive business practice perpetrated on millions of unsuspecting customers.'"
Idle

Turns Out You Actually Can Be Bored To Death 128

Posted by samzenpus from the at-least-it's-cooler-than-this dept.
A study conducted by researchers at University College London shows that boredom can kill you. The researchers found that people who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study. Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report said, "The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom."
Role Playing (Games)

Fallout: New Vegas Coming This Fall, Trailer Released 100

Posted by Soulskill from the out-is-still-falling dept.
Bethesda announced today that Fallout: New Vegas is scheduled for release sometime this fall, and they released a trailer as well. Details are scant yet on the official site, but they had this to say: "Experience all the sights and sounds of fabulous New Vegas, brought to you by Vault-Tec, America's First Choice in Post Nuclear Simulation. Explore the treacherous wastes of the Great Southwest from the safety and comfort of your very own vault: Meet new people, confront terrifying creatures, and arm yourself with the latest high-tech weaponry as you make a name for yourself on a thrilling new journey across the Mojave wasteland. A word of warning, however — while Vault-Tec engineers have prepared for every contingency,* in Vegas, fortunes can change in an instant. Enjoy your stay. (* Should not be construed as a legally-binding claim.)"

Comment I was at the event (Score 2, Interesting) 165

by the_scoots (#30786712) Attached to: Adding Up the Explanations For ACTA's "Shameful Secret"

There are some points that were brought up in the meeting that I thought were pretty important. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken on any points, IANAL or too politically savvy. Many of the people who had seen pieces of the draft kept coming back to several points:

- Some speculated that this has more to do with future trade agreements with countries NOT involved in ACTA talks than those in it.The idea was that this would be used to strong arm developing countries into agreeing to the terms to enter into future trade agreements with any ACTA countries in the future.

- Patents are also in ACTA, and could potentially impact international trade of pharmaceuticals. Many public health organizations such as Doctors Without Borders are worried about the impact on getting generic drugs to 3rd world countries.

- While this supposedly won't change any US laws, it will impact future court decisions on infringement cases, which will in effect change the law by setting precedence.

Image

2009 Darwin Award Winners Announced 208

Posted by samzenpus from the dumber-and-dumberest dept.
Greg Lindahl writes "From the woman who jumped in a swollen creek to rescue her drowning moped, to the man who hopped over the divider at the edge of the highway to take a leak, and plunged 65 feet to his death, 2009 was a year both exceptional and unexceptional for Darwin Award-worthy behavior!"
Linux

Submission + - SFLC Sues 14 Companies for BusyBox GPL Violations (softwarefreedom.org) 1

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: The Software Freedom Law Center has named fourteen companies including Best Buy, Samsung, and Westinghouse with violating the GPL in nearly 20 separate products. This is similar to earlier BusyBox GPL suits. The commercial uses of BusyBox must be much more prolific than anyone could have imagine. Having dealt with hundreds of compliance problems and finding one violation per day, the SFLC recommends one thing: be responsive to their requests (they try to settle things in private first) lest you find one of these in your inbox.

Submission + - Fake releases claim Canada changed climate stance

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Canadian government is fuming over a series of hoax press releases claiming Canada had committed to drastic greenhouse gas emission cuts.

A first fake announcement claiming to originate from Environment Canada said Canada had drastically changed its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to levels preferred by environmentalists (40% below 1990 levels by 2020), but significantly more than Canada has publicly discussed (only 3%).

It also provided links to a fake website designed to mirror the appearance of the Environment Canada website. However, its address was at www.enviro-canada.ca and not www.ec.gc.ca, the actual address of the ministry.

Two subsequent releases, both also fake, added to the complexity of the hoax. The first included comments attributed to a member of the Ugandan delegation at praising Canada's decision.

A third release claiming to be from the government said the previous two releases were spoofs, but then attributed quotes to Prentice and others that put Canada's environmental policies in a poor light.

Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s press secretary, was quick to discredit the press release and said he understands it may have come out of the Montreal-based environmental NGO Equiterre. A media officer from Equiterre said they had nothing to do with the prank. According to cyberpresse (in french), the authors are the Yes Men. A comic group that aim to "impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them".

A website made to look like the Wall Street Journal also had an article detailing the fabricated news. Note that the release was english only while Canadian government has a bilingual policy.
Government

Submission + - Treasury Dept. Restricts Data with EULA (sunlightfoundation.com)

Submitted by
Andurin
Andurin writes: "The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed restrictions on the way Americans (and others) can use and analyze data developed about the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The "terms of use," which are subject to change at any time, require users to cite FinancialStability.gov when writing about the data, and to state that the government doesn't vouch for the authenticity of the data once it's been downloaded. The Sunlight Foundation's policy counsel writes that the terms are similar to an EULA and are inconsistent with the Administration's recently announced Open Government Directive."
Moon

Submission + - Chandrayaan-1 finds organic matter in the Moon (dnaindia.com)

Submitted by Titoxd
Titoxd writes: DNA India reports that data collected from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 might have found "signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon". Chandrayaan-1's sensors detected organic matter signatures shortly before its Moon Impact Probe crashed into the lunar surface late last year. Interestingly, the article points out that Apollo 11 found similar traces back in 1969.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - 1977 Star Wars computer graphics (toplessrobot.com)

Submitted by Noryungi
Noryungi writes: The interestingly named "Topless Robot" has a real trip down memory lane: how the computer graphics of the original Star Wars movie were made. The article points to thisYouTube video of a short documentary made by Larry Cuba, the original artist, explains how he did it. In 1977. Computer graphics and Star Wars: what could be better?

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