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Comment Ok, I'm just going to come out and say it... (Score 5, Interesting) 341

by SixDimensionalArray (#28788717) Attached to: Windows 7 Hits RTM At Build 7600.16385

IANAMFB (I am not a Microsoft fan-boy), but I have to admit that so far, it looks like it is at least a bit exciting (especially from the rock-solid RC). Pretty much what Vista should have been.

As a true technologist, I try to stay technology-agnostic because good things often come out of the strangest places. Truthfully, many flavors of Linux are great, Mac OS is great, and Windows 7 looks like it should be great. Considering all these various flavors of greatness, I'd say it's still as good a time as any to be a techie! Maybe I'm just tired of all the negative slant the world puts on everything and am being overly optimistic.

Let's enjoy this new tech, welcome it, evaluate it and let it find its place in our toolbox, like every other tool before.

Discuss freely.

6d
The Internet

Making a Game of the News 91

Posted by Soulskill from the does-that-mean-you-can-win dept.
As traditional news media struggles to find a new method and business model for dissemination over the internet, some are suggesting that news-related games could be an avenue worth pursuing. Rather than using such games solely as entertainment, journalists could make some of their reports more educative and interactive, allowing readers to choose which threads of a story they would like to follow. Georgia Tech is currently running a research blog to better understand how games and journalism can interact. "The point to consider here is that the two processes do not have to be mutually exclusive, and may even be complementary. Just a couple of years ago, we were wondering if the blogosphere was trivializing journalism; now, most of us, including traditional journalists, are willing to accept the fact that the two can not only live in harmony but also play off of each other. Similarly, online games could help break down complex topics, and stimulate audience interest in the more mundane ones."

Comment Re:MySQL vs Oracle? What about DB2? (Score 1) 699

by SixDimensionalArray (#27446043) Attached to: IBM About To Buy Sun For $7 Billion

No, I don't think so. I think this is a play to match the other vendors.. for example, Oracle has its huge enterprise version, and its tiny free lite version. Microsoft has SQL Server Standard and Enterprise, and its free SQL Server Express. If you noticed, even SAP is trying to get back into the database game, having rescinded its SAP MaxDB product that it had let MySQL offer via MySQL's website. DB2 as an enterprise database platform, and MySQL as a free/open source "lite" (although I know MySQL can scale to much higher levels) option for IBM could make sense, especially since IBM is also a big open source supporter.

I for one look forward to our new IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, overlords.

-6D

Comment The original M language - what's old is new ? (Score 1) 334

by SixDimensionalArray (#25348081) Attached to: Microsoft's New Programming Language, "M"
It may be an older, somewhat forgotten language (outside of the Veteran's Administration in the US), but lest we forget the ORIGINAL M programming language - MUMPS!?!?!

Sure, they aren't the same - but MUMPS was a very powerful language in it's time and it will be interesting to see if what is old becomes new again!

SixDimensionalArray
The Internet

Former FBI Agent Calls for a Second Internet 486

Posted by samzenpus from the it-became-necessary-to-destroy-the-internet-to-save-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Former FBI Agent Patrick J. Dempsey warns that the Internet has become a sanctuary for cyber criminals and the only way to rectify this is to create a second, more secure Internet. Dempsey explains that, in order to successfully fight cyber crime, law enforcement officials need to move much faster than average investigators and cooperate with international law enforcement officials. The problem is various legal systems are unprepared for the fight, which is why he claims we must change the structure of the Internet."
Data Storage

Seagate Plans 37.5TB HDD Within Matter of Years 395

Posted by Zonk from the lot-of-pr0n dept.
Ralph_19 writes "Wired visited Seagate's R&D labs and learned we can expect 3.5-inch 300-terabit hard drives within a matter of years. Currently Seagate is using perpendicular recording but in the next decade we can expect heat-assisted magnetic recording (HARM), which will boost storage densities to as much as 50 terabits per square inch. The technology allows a smaller number of grains to be used for each bit of data, taking advantage of high-stability magnetic compounds such as iron platinum." In the meantime, Hitachi is shipping a 1 TB HDD sometime this year. It is expected to retail for $399.
United States

Submission + - US Militairy mIRC being replaced by dutch TITAAN

Submitted by
Joep Gommers
Joep Gommers writes: "In April of 2006, The Netherlands scouted the allied troops in Afghanistan to see how TITAAN could improve or replace current networks of communications. What they found was the CENTRIXS system, which stands for Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System and is developed by the US. The applications integrated in the CENTRIXS system are MS Outlook, C2PC (out-dated GIS application), IWS (teleconferencing) and mIRC (a chat program to facilitate Command and Control). The dutch are lobbying to replace this outdated system with there state-of-the-art TITAAN communications concept, which is already in use at central command which is lead by Holland. http://joep.gommers.googlepages.com/"
Sony

Sony Says Nobody Will Ever Use All the Power of a PS3 581

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-never-heard-of-the-robsort-algorithm dept.
Tighthead Prop writes "Sony executive Phil Harrison has made some brash comments about the Cell processor and the PlayStation 3. Harrison says that the current PS3 game lineup is using less than half of the machines power, adding that 'nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capacity.' Is he right? 'The major reason Harrison wants to hype up the "unlimited" potential of the PS3's architecture is to downplay comparisons between games running on Sony's console and Microsoft's Xbox 360. The two systems are not completely dissimilar: they both contain a PowerPC core running at 3.2 GHz, both have similarly-clocked GPUs, and both come with 512 MB of RAM.'"

Being Scared in Games is Needed 266

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the necessary-evil dept.
zombieinthebackofyourcar writes "The Escapist has done an entire issue on why we love and need horror games. Jon Schnaars, an expert in psychology and mental health issues, writes about how we need to be scared to generate pleasure from the game. From the article: 'Perhaps the most important change made in the game mechanics of RE4 was fixing the camera behind Leon, providing a tight third-person shot through which the player could experience the action. Through this move, Leon has become every protagonist from every horror film ever made. He is the lone survivor; steadily trudging into the dark when all our instincts tell us it's a bad idea. And as the player, it is actually us proceeding into the dark, receiving (when we're not getting beheaded) our genre pleasure.'"

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