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Games

Was Videogaming Better Back in the Day? 381

Posted by Zonk from the these-new-fangled-gears-and-half-lives dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Sean Sands at Gamers With Jobs looks back at the dawn of videogaming, when we were all kids just typing in our games, one line of BASIC at a time. And he finds the present lacking: 'The dreamers became assets instead of leaders, and the rockstar designers became, well, Rockstar ... or Blizzard, or Valve. Publishers with cash-rich money to spend bought the creative process, and the minds of marketing professionals replaced four guys hopped up on sugar doughnuts and generic cola. So, how dare I be surprised that the price of today's gaming blitz is a little piece of last generation's soul?' Do you agree? Was simple gaming better, or are you a story in games fan?"
Media

Submission + - Enforced ad-watching coming to Flash video players

Submitted by Dominare
Dominare writes: The BBC is reporting that Adobe is releasing new player software which will allow websites that use their Flash video player (such as YouTube) e.g. to force viewers to watch ads before the video they selected will play. From TFA:

But the big seller for Adobe is the ability to include in Flash movies so-called digital rights management (DRM) — allowing copyright holders to require the viewing of adverts, or restrict copying. "Adobe has created the first way for media companies to release video content, secure in the knowledge that advertising goes with it," James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research said.

This seems to have been timed to coincide with Microsoft's release of their own competitor, Silverlight, to Adobe's dominance of online video.
Encryption

Submission + - full disk encryption, xen, windows, linux - ?

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "I'm in an industry that, more or less, requires full disk encryption. We use pointsec on windows currently. For the past 8 years, I've been running linux on my work laptop, and this is the first time I'm running in a windows only environment. I am interested in changing that, because I want to use linux as my main platform, and only drop in to windows if at all necessary (and use crossover if at all possible). I'm also interested in xen. Has anyone used pointsec for linux, with xen? My thought is that as long as pointsec is in dom0, and I use virtual disks for the windows vm, I should be covered, but I'd also like a machine that is usable, as opposed to waiting for months, as the virtual memory, virtual machine, pointsec, xen all thrash around while starting an app, or something."
Apple

6G iPod & Apple's Future 226

Posted by CmdrTaco from the less-talk-more-iphone dept.
belsin_gordon writes "CNET rounds up what we're going to get from the next iPod and where Apple is heading as a company and as a business juggernaut. [They have the] 100GB widescreen video iPods, Wi-Fi-enabled iPods capable of on-the-fly movie downloads over the air, unlimited downloads from iTunes for a flat fee and the UK finally getting its content-hungry hands on movie downloads. Apple has dropped the 'Computer' from its company name, and is making significant advances into the media-distribution business. It's bringing video to everyone everywhere with iTunes movies and now Apple TV, and the rumours and speculation we've discussed promote the theory that Apple is setting itself up as a major player in the media-distribution industry."

$90,000 103in HDTV 180

Posted by CmdrTaco from the just-a-little-excessive dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Found this review of Panasonic's 103in plasma. Not only is the screen itself massive, but the price tag comes close to $100,000! I guess if you can afford a room big enough to house it, you can afford the TV. "
The Courts

NC State Stands Up to RIAA 180

Posted by kdawson from the don't-mess-with-the-wolfpack dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Technician Online at North Carolina State University reports that its Director of Student Legal Services, Pam Gerace, has advised students to remain anonymous, and has indicated her office's willingness to challenge the RIAA's subpoenas. What's more, the newspaper urges students to take Ms. Gerace up on her offer. The fighting spirit of Jimmy Valvano lives on."
Programming

Submission + - How do you select a software license?

Submitted by
indraneil
indraneil writes: "I am a code monkey and have been so for close to 5 years now. I have recently been doing some self-started work that lets me design, implement and test stuff all by myself. A couple of people have liked my prototype and wanted to use it.
I would be happy to let others use it, but I am unsure of what license to release it under. My CS course did not include any awareness of licensing and while I am aware of GPL, LGPL, Apache, BSD and Creative Commons licenses, I never got around to understanding them fully to be able to form an opinion on what suits me best. I notice that sourceforge also expects me to specify my licensing choice, while I am setting up my project.
So my question is:
If a person who does not know licensing, where does (s)he start to begin to be able to get a clearer picture of the same?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Paid to do nothing?

Submitted by djupedal
djupedal writes: Are you paid to do nothing? Were you hired to do nothing?

Are you paid, yet you don't do any work? This is for anyone, except of course those collecting job benefits. I'm talking about those that come into work and hang out and do nothing whatsoever productive, but still receive regular performance reviews, generic corporate emails and a routine weekly/monthly salary. Maybe you don't even have to show up at the office.

I have a friend who is going on six months since he was asked to do any type of work, yet his (not meager) salary keeps being automatically deposited and the only time anyone from the office checks on him is to make sure he is still alive. How long has it been since you had an assignment or participated in an active project, etc.? What do you do with your time? How long do you think this type of ghost position can continue? Is this a dream job or an ethical burden?
Intel

Submission + - Intel to launch Linux-powered mobile Internet devi

Submitted by daria42
daria42 writes: Intel is developing its own take on the mini-tablet, with a new ultra-mobile PC platform to be announced at this week's Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. The big surprise? It's based on Linux. Called a Mobile Internet Device (pic), or MID, the devices will have screen sizes from 4.5 to six inches with a target audience described as "consumers and prosumers" rather than mobile professionals.
Linux Business

Submission + - Intel's Linux-powered mobile Internet device

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel is set to launch an ultra-mobile PC dubbed Mobile Internet Device or MID which will run on Linux. The PDA-sized devices will target "consumers and prosumers" instead of mobile professionals.From the story: MID tablets will run a simplified 'finger-friendly' user interface optimised for the small screens, based on the Gnome desktop but with an Intel-developed 'master user interface' layer to serve as an equivalent to the desktop.
Privacy

Student Financial Aid Database Being Misused 182

Posted by kdawson from the six-solicitations-per-day dept.
pin_gween writes "The Washington Post reports on the probable abuse of the National Student Loan Data System. The database was created in 1993 to help determine which students are eligible for financial aid. Students' Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and loan balances are in the database. It contains 60 million student records and is covered by federal privacy laws. Advocates worry that businesses are trolling for marketing data they can use to bombard students with mass mailings or other solicitations. The department has spent over $650,000 in the past four years protecting the data. However, some senior education officials are advocating a temporary shutdown of access to the database until tighter security measures can be put in place."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Subliminal Rewards breed harder workers

Journal by lpq

From an article in Live Science, researchers have found that subliminal stimulation can be used to stimulate people to work harder. How long before we see this in the workplace masked (or buried) in the background hum in an office?
United States

Submission + - Habeas corpus done away with?

Submitted by Fish The Pirate
Fish The Pirate writes: A bill in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 apparently eliminates habeas corpus.
From the article:'The president has now succeeded where no one has before. Hes managed to kill the writ of habeas corpus. Tonight, a special investigation, how that, in turn, kills nothing less than your Bill of Rights. Because the Mark Foley story began to break on the night of September 28, exploding the following day, many people may not have noticed the bill passed by the Senate that night.'
Now, you'll have to bear with me on this one, but isn't this a good thing? I mean, who needs some old spell for raising the dead anyway?

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