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The Internet

Submission + - France Bans Amateur Videos of Violent Acts

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "On the 16th anniversary of the Rodney King beating, which was filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday, the French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules."
Programming

Submission + - What's it like for a developer to go into sales?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I've worked for a single, very large technology company since graduating from college in '89. My degree is in Computer Science, and I wrote everything from embedded machine code for big iron to applications with Smalltalk. I'm still in development, but since'99 my programming tasks have been replaced by project management, some customer-facing work (technical-ish presentations, demonstrations, training, etc), helping our marketing people position my team's work, and other things that programmers generally don't like to do.

I find that I enjoy the broad, technical perspective that comes from working in the field, and I'm thinking about moving out of development and into technical sales. Moreover, I've interviewed several techies in my company who are now in sales and all tell them they love it. Several have reported that a techie can make more money in sales. But I have several reservations: I am an introvert and a full day of face-time can really sap my energy, many sales people I've worked with are "sharks" (which I simply cannot be), and I don't like the idea of putting part of my salary at-risk.

Are you a former developer who went into sales? If so, what were your experiences like from a professional and personal perspective? What advise would you give to a developer considering a new career in sales?
Games

Serious, Indie, Mobile Games Highlight GDC Monday 10

Posted by Zonk from the someone's-got-a-case-of-the-gdcs dept.
The first day of GDC is generally devoted to games just a bit off the beaten path. In recent years, serious games have vied with titles from the mobile and indie markets on the first two days of the Game Developer's Conference. Probably the most interesting serious discussion from Monday was word from Square/Enix's new serious games arm. Sessions like innovations in Indie games and how to get your Indie game published rounded out the independent games discussions for the day. The pirates at Three Rings also put on a good show, talking about how to make an indie MMOG. Meanwhile, on the mobile front, EA veteran Trip Hawkins talked about innovations on the smallest screen, while Nokia rolled out some new details on their next generation of N-Gage .
Microsoft

Submission + - DOT bans Vista, Office, IE 7 upgrades for now

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "According to Computerworld, the U.S. Department of Transportation quietly put the kibosh on Microsoft upgrades. The department issued an internal memo (publicly posted) slapping a moratorium on upgrading to Vista, Office 2007 and IE7. From the memo:

This establishes an indefinite moratorium until further notice on desktop/laptop computer software upgrades to Microsoft Vista, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer version 7. ... [they] may be acquired for testing purposes only. ... Based on our initial analysis, there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade.
"
Democrats

Journal Journal: Edwards discovers prayer after his case of vapors

Journal by GMontag

Seems like John Edwards has discovered school prayer, at least prayer time, now that he has recovered from his case of the vapors given to him by Ann Coulter's comments at CPAC.

I finally took the time to hear what Ms. Coulter actually said at CPAC, rather than relying on news reports. Taking my own advice was quite beneficial in this case.

Commodore Returns with New Gaming PCs 281

Posted by Hemos from the everything-old-is-new-again dept.
JamesO writes "Commodore is a name which will bring memories flooding back to many a gamer and it's been announced that the legendary brand is to return with a new range of high specification gaming PCs. The new Commodore PCs optimized for gaming will be launched at the CeBIT show in Germany on March 15 and attendees will be offered the chance to play the latest PC games using the purpose-built PCs."
Businesses

Submission + - Can the free market develop sustainable energies?

Submitted by
Basile Schaeli
Basile Schaeli writes: "Jeff Vail provides an interesting take on why free markets may not solve the world's addiction to energy. From the article:

'Is free-market innovation the best way to develop viable, sustainable energy alternatives?
The free market will ignore solutions that can't turn a profit. Any firm that fails to follow this simple maxim won't be in business for long. The corollary to this maxim is that the free market will ignore any solution that cannot be controlled, either through property interests (enforceable intellectual property, monopoly licenses, etc.) or because economies of scale demand centralized operation. This means that free market innovation is structurally incompatible with a huge portion of the universe of possible energy solutions.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft attack Google over 'fair use'

Submitted by Theendisnigh
Theendisnigh writes: Quoted from the Guardian online: "Microsoft will today launch a blistering attack on Google, accusing the Silicon Valley giant of a "cavalier" attitude to copyright.
In a prepared speech to the American Association of Publishers, senior Microsoft lawyer Tom Rubin is expected to hit out at Google for profiting from other people's work.
"Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and IPOs," he says."

Complete Guardian story available here.
Databases

Submission + - MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Ed. Reviewed

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "Written for MySQL 5.0/5.1 (but still more than adequately covering the popular MySQL 4.1), this book brings the how to's of the first version up to date and adds many more. It also covers using MySQL with Perl, PHP, Python, Java and Ruby! In fact, the variety of languages used in MySQL Cookbook is its strength as well as its weakness. While you're sure to find numerous recipes for working in whatever language you prefer, you will also find that many recipes you want to pursue will be provided in some other language. Even so, the reviewer rates this book as the most useful she's seen so far for solving problems in MySQL."
Spam

Submission + - Scots sherrif gets medieval on spammers

Submitted by
David Off
David Off writes: "A spammer has been ordered to pay £750 compensation and £616.66 in costs to the recipient of unsolicited commercial email. It is a landmark ruling as it is the first time a UK court has set a level of compensation for junk email. The private prosecution was brought by Gordon Dick under under European Union wide antispam law which makes it illegal to send junk electronic mail. Mr Dick told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that his email address had been "harvested" from a group where he was a member in contravention of the Data Protection Act and EU electronic privacy legislation. The spam mail had been sent to 72,000 recipients. Mr Dick is himself electronic marketing specialist has set up his own website ScotchSpam to highlight and help others with the problem of spam email."
Software

Submission + - community of truckers

Submitted by
cmemove.com
cmemove.com writes: "hi; is there a system that allow members of a community of moving company to review request for pricing of moving service in real time FROM potential customers. applying form-software via VOIP or other telephone technology & software. THANK YOU,please respond inkind."
Games

Do Reviews Still Serve a Purpose? 93

Posted by Zonk from the no-porpoise-jokes dept.
Via Voodoo Extreme, a post on the Sony-sponsored ThreeSpeech blog asking if game reviews are a thing of the past. Post author 'Azz Hassan' opines that the proliferation of blogs and easy access to game trailers has made the 'biased views' of reviewers a thing of the past. Responding via the Ars Technica Opposable Thumbs blog, Frank Caron offers a rebuttal to the piece. 'The argument presented in the article seems to come with the very slant that it so viciously protests: one of a negative view towards a medium that the writer feels is inadequate. Yes, there is a ton of available media on the net that can help you get a look at a game as it develops, but the problem with videos and pictures is that often the intangible elements are impossible to understand simply from seeing the game in motion--only the written or verbal communication of a person can adequately capture these details.'
Space

Submission + - ESA to create backup satellites

Submitted by
Matthew Sparkes
Matthew Sparkes writes: "The frequencies allotted to the Galileo satellite navigation system, the European GPS, will be safeguarded with a new backup satellite. Under the rules of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an operator risks losing frequency rights if a break in service lasts longer than two years. Therefore, if their satellites malfunction, ESA could lose the frequency altogether. "From now on, there will always be a European navigation satellite in space," the ESA announcement promised. Of course, China could still blow up and replace the system."

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