westlake - Slashdot User

Submission + - Help Wanted, Male

Submitted by westlake on Monday November 17, 2008 @11:34PM

westlake writes: The BBC and many others are reporting Jerry Yang's decision to quit Yahoo. Expect the usual BS from the Chairman about planning for a smooth transition and taking the corporation to the next level. Yang's e-mail to employees ended with the words: "All of you know that I have always and will always bleed purple" — in reference to the predominant color on the company's logo.

Submission + - The Russian Widow-Maker

Submitted by westlake on Sunday November 09, 2008 @01:12AM

westlake writes: Reuters has an early report of an accident aboard an Akula-class nuclear sub, the Nerpa, operating in the Pacific, with more than 20 dead and 21 injured, out of the 208 on board. It appears that something went terribly wrong during a test of the Nerpa's fire extinguishing system during her sea trials. In a depressingly familiar story of the post-Soviet era Russian Navy, the Nerpa has been under construction and redesigned — in fits and starts — since 1991. At least 20 die in accident on Russian nuclear sub

Submission + - Microsoft on Games for Windows Live

Submitted by westlake on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @08:43PM

westlake writes: Microsoft is abandoning the idea of a Gold Level membership for Games for Windows Live. "The baseline expectation is that multiplayer is a service that is just free on Windows." This from Microsoft's Senior Director for Global Gaming. Nothing of substance yet on what be sale in the Windows Live Marketplace. A footnote, DX 11 with GPU programming support is in the works for Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft speaks on Games for Windows Live changes

Submission + - Bioshock Coming To A Theater Near You

Submitted by westlake on Friday May 09, 2008 @09:18PM

westlake writes: The "Pirate of the Caribbean," Gore Verbinski, will direct Universal's "Bioshock" feature. John Logan, "Gladiator" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," will likely do the script. Recruiting talent at this level for the game-to-movie adaptation is very good news. The Bioshock deal is gaining attention in Hollywood as GTA 4 wraps up $500 million in sales in its first week. "Pirates" maker to turn "BioShock" game into film

Submission + - Walter Bender Resigns From OLPC

Submitted by westlake on Monday April 21, 2008 @11:44PM

westlake writes: Walter Bender, the former executive director of MIT's Media Lab, and, in many ways, the tireless workhorse and public face of OLPC, has resigned from OLPC after being reorganized and sidetracked into insignificance. The rumor mill would have it that "constructionism as children learning learning" is being replaced by a much less romantic view of the XO's place in the classroom and XO's tech in the marketplace. Top OLPC Executive Resigns After Restructuring, Walter Bender Resigned from One Laptop Per Child!!

Submission + - Health Database Was Set Up to Ignore 'Abortion'

Submitted by westlake on Saturday April 05, 2008 @08:24AM

westlake writes: In February, managers of the USAID funded POPLINE reproductive health database blocked the use of the word "abortion" in searches after complaints about "abortion advocacy" in two of the 360,000 or so articles and reports available online — suggesting alternatives like "fertility control, postconception" or "pregnancy, unwanted." The Dean of the John Hopkins School of Public Health, which administers the service, ordered the term restored Friday, when the story was beginning to make headlines. Health Database Was Set Up to Ignore 'Abortion'

Submission + - Wife asks court to declare Steve Fossett dead

Submitted by

westlake

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @09:02PM

westlake writes: "The wife of adventurer Steve Fosset has asked a Chicago probate court to declare him legally dead. There is no waiting period under Illinois law. The petition sketches out the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, and attempts to foreclose any argument that he had faked his own death. No one has suggested anything of the sort, but this is still something you need to do. Fosset had no debts, no life insurance, there was no unusual activity in his accounts before his disappearance, and there has been none since. Court is asked to declare Fosset dead"

Submission + - The money machine that is Microsoft

Submitted by

westlake

on Thursday October 25, 2007 @11:54PM

westlake writes: "Microsoft's Q1 financials are enough to drive a Geek into cardiac arrest. Sales up 27%. Earnings per share up 29%. Halo grossing $300 million in its first week. Vista and Office 2007 doing very, very, well and Microsoft's server products not far behind. MSN and Live! losing money as usual, but nothing to lose sleep over. Microsoft Soars 11% After Blowout Q1 On Vista Demand"

Submission + - The right to block text messaging

Submitted by

westlake

on Thursday September 27, 2007 @11:05AM

westlake writes: "Verizon Wireless has denied an abortion rights group access to its text messaging service. on the grounds it has the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages. Verizon isn't taking a negative stand on abortion rights, it simply wants to keep out of the line of fire. Not easy when advocacy groups — mostly liberal — are finding text messaging a cheap and effective way to reach their target audience. Political debate is at the heart of what the First Amendment protects, but the First Amendment is a limitation on governmental action, not private. Interestingly enough, it was Western Union's political censorship of telegrams in the 19th Century that ultimately led to the "Common Carrier" rule in telecommunications."

Submission + - Germs taken into space come back deadlier

Submitted by

westlake

on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @12:00AM

westlake writes: "It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. Except, it really happened. In a medical experiment, salmonella carried about the space ahuttle in the fall of 2006 proved far more lerhal to lab mice than their earth-bound source. 90% dead vs. 40% dead in twenty-six days, with half the mice dying at 1/3 the oral dose. 167 genes in the strain had changed. The likely casue: In microgravity the force of fluids passing over the cells is low, similiar to conditions in the gastrointestinal tract, and the cells adapted quickly to the new environment. Germs taken to space come back deadlier"

Submission + - U.S. Dogs Rabies-Free

Submitted by

westlake

on Sunday September 09, 2007 @01:25PM

westlake writes: "The Center for Disease Control has declared the U.S. free of the canine rabies virus. Rabies remains endemic in the wild, of course, and not all domesticated animals are vaccinated. Rabies kills about 55,000 people a year world-wide, and it is not a pleasent way to go. I haven't forgotten — and will likely never forget — my first uncensored look at the course of the disease."

Submission + - M Rated Manhunt 2 Gets a Halloween Launch Date

Submitted by

westlake

on Friday August 24, 2007 @02:00PM

westlake writes: " Gamespot and others are echoing Rockstar's PR on Manhunt 2. Rockstar has nothing to say about the changes it made to get the M rating essential for U.S. console sales. It is pushing the title as its entry into the horror game genre. The ESRB assigned the following descriptors to Manhunt 2: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs. It should be interesting to see whether the very chilly reception given Captivity and Hostel 2 in theaters this summer carries over to Manhunt 2."

Submission + - Vista at 60,000,000

Submitted by

westlake

on Sunday July 29, 2007 @02:08PM

westlake writes: "Since Vista's Jan. 30 consumer release, Microsoft has shipped 60 million copies to PC makers, retailers and customers. The 60 million figure excludes the 42 million PCs covered under corporate volume licenses agreements for Windows. Corporate deployment has been slow, but when it happens the numbers can be an eye-opener. 70,000 copies for the Banco Bradesco in Brazil. Sales of premium-priced Windows in the consumer market are up about 20%. Microsoft expects dollar sales of XP and Vista to — grow — slightly slower next year, at a rate of between 9% and 10%. Seeing a ten percent growth in sales in a mature market where you hold a 90% share is not an uncomfortable place to be. Microsoft Vista ships 60M"

Submission + - Games That Have Everything Still Lack Something

Submitted by

westlake

on Saturday July 21, 2007 @09:36PM

westlake writes: "Reflecting on Mass Effect and and Fallout 3, Seth Schiesel of the New York Times argues that simply offering the player the opportunity to make significant moral choices does not trigger the deep emotional response of a great work of art. In Fallout 3, you can be a good guy or a bad guy and there will be plenty of heart-rending, suffering people to either assist or exploit. But you can't be surprised, because you did it yourself. The artist in non-interactive media can build to a conclusion you cannot anticipate or escape. The most immediate and vivid example of what Schiesel is driving at is, of course, Harry Potter."

Submission + - Billion Dollar Charge for XBox Dents MS Profits

Submitted by

westlake

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:02PM

westlake writes: "Microsoft had a modestly profitable fourth quarter, despite taking a billion-dollar charge to cover extended warranties for the XBox 360. It sees client-side Vista, server products, development tools like Visual Studio and the XBox 360 all doing well in sales. Revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30th were a record $51 billion dollars, up 15% from fiscal year 2006. Microsoft Q4 profit up despite Xbox charge"

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