Comment Re:The American way ... (Score 1) 427
So where do you live that you produce no garbage?
Comment Re:screw-sorting robot X-43 reminds you: (Score 2) 427
Only ABS or PLA plastic, cleaned and ground into small pieces.
Those clear and crinkly plastic berry boxes are PLA.
Diablo 3 Expansion Announced: Reaper of Souls 137
Today at Gamescom in Germany, Blizzard announced the first expansion to Diablo III, titled Reaper of Souls. The story will follow a fallen archangel called Mathael who has returned as the Angel of Death. The level cap will increase to 70, and the expansion will bring a new playable class to the game called the Crusader, whom they described as a "natural walking tank." Reaper of Souls will also bring vast improvements to the loot system; in addition to having a better chance to find good, useful gear for the character you're playing, the items themselves are getting an overhaul to make for more interesting gameplay. Instead of being simply loaded down with combat stats, legendary items will include unique ways to modify how your character functions. They're also implementing something the community has been asking for since shortly after the game came out: randomized dungeons. Further, the Paragon leveling system, put in place after launch as a way to provide character progression after reaching the level cap, will be made account-wide, rather than on a per-character basis. A new profession NPC has been added as well: the Mystic, which lets players reroll one of the stats on a powerful item. As you might expect, Blizzard did not mention a release date. The Reaper of Souls opening cinematic is available on YouTube, as is a brief gameplay video.
Comment Re:NHTSA pushed a 5 star rating (Score 1) 627
Or you could read the article and see that in the areas considered for the tests, many of the common safety tests wouldn't even work, they couldn't roll the car over with standard techniques, they couldn't crush the passenger compartment with a standard crusher, and they had a HUGE crumple zone.
Also, for the roof crush test the crushing machine broke before the roof did.
The Tesla Model S is an extremely well-engineered machine. It's expensive, yes, but in most respects it's simply superior to equivalently-priced luxury cars. I'm really looking forward to their next generation, which is intended to be priced more mid-market (probably in the 30s).
As the price comes down, I wouldn't expect these testing results to stay the same. The safety far exceeded the ratings by quite a bit and extremely exceeded minimums required. There is a cost to overengineering, which is likely to get trimmed when building down to a price.
Write Windows Phone Apps, No Code Required 210
jfruh writes "One of the biggest challenges Microsoft has faced with its Windows Phone platform is that it's far behind in the apps race against iOS and Android. One way to close the gap is to lower the barrier to entry for new app devs, and Microsoft has done so with Windows Phone App Studio, a hosted service that lets you build applications without actually writing any code. The description of how App Studio works may leave you wondering how useful or exciting the apps created will be, but a surge of developer interest during the current beta program has surprised even Microsoft with its scope."
Comment Re:Who else should comment on your games? (Score 1) 381
Any change will please some fans and anger others, and it's mostly the angry ones who will post. Having a "community relations" person to find the few facts-and-numbers complaints and forwards those on to devs is can be valuable (and sadly is almost never done), but beyond that all the forums really tell you is "27% more angry rants than the last change", which is interesting and useful information - no need to read the actual rants.
Somehow, producers for every other entertainment media figured out that you can't give consumers a direct voice, but the video game makers seem to have missed the memo.
All one has to do is take a step back and suppose the devs actually implemented every idea suggested. Then look towards your favorite fanfiction site or newsgroup and imagine what a horrible world we would live in if all that stuff was actually canon.
Comment Better explanations please (Score 4, Insightful) 251
The article shows why each is preposterous to anyone with even an elementary knowledge of meteorology or an iota of common sense
Actually, it doesn't. The closest I saw was this:
HAARP does not and cannot control the weather. While the frequencies are high powered, it doesn’t have nearly enough energy to do anything over the Lower 48, let alone specifically target communities for destruction like one would see in a science fiction movie. Both common sense and a basic understanding of meteorology debunk the conspiracy theory surrounding HAARP’s alleged ability to control the weather.
So the question is, how do we know how much energy is being pumped into the ionosphere? The whole article seems mostly of ridicule. "Well, of course it doesn't, you'd have to be crazy to believe otherwise, but we're not going to provide any evidence."
Don't get me wrong, I don't think HAARP is part of an evil shadowy conspiracy to create tornados and tsunamis or whatever. But I'm also not a meteorologist... so a breakdown of the physics required to perform such a feat compared to what we know would be pretty useful. I remember a Weekly World News article claiming hackers can turn your computer into a bomb... and as a computer professional, I know exactly why that's impossible and might even giggle at the thought. But I can't expect the general public to explicitly know that there's no real-life equivalent to the HCF instruction.
Kind of like What If at xkcd... putting things to scale such as a hair dryer that just happens to draw 11 petawatts of power can really hit the understanding home.
Comment Re:"letting you play previously purchased games." (Score 1) 158
As opposed to buying a physical disc, where you can just email the developer and they will happily send you a replacement if you lose that disc, right?
Actually, the EULA will state that you didn't purchase the game, you purchased a license to run it. So it should then follow that you're permitted to run it even if you happen to lose the media.
Maybe phone calls about this will get popular instead of "do you have Battletoads?"
Why Weather Control Conspiracy Theories Are Scientifically Ludicrous 251
barlevg writes "The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang breaks down two popular conspiracy theories: that HAARP is responsible for severe weather and that contrails from commercial airliners are actually 'chemtrails' sprayed for nefarious purposes. The article shows why each is preposterous to anyone with even an elementary knowledge of meteorology or an iota of common sense. The author readily acknowledges that his analysis will do nothing to convince the tinfoil-hat-wearing, vinegar-spraying members of the populace."
Biggest Headache For Game Developers: Abusive Fans 381
chicksdaddy writes "Haters keep buyin' — that appears to be the dynamic playing out in the ever-hot video game industry, where game developers say harassment and trolling from their rabid fans is turning them off of development completely, according to a report over at Polygon.com. 'Fans are invested in the stories and worlds that developers create, and certain design decisions can be seen by fans to threaten those stories and worlds,' said Nathan Fisk, lecturer at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-author of the book Bullying in the Age of Social Media. 'Harassment silences and repositions content creators in ways that protect the interests of certain fan groups, which again is no justification for the kinds of abusive behavior and language seen online today.' The problem is widespread enough that it may even pose a threat to the future of the industry. Developers, both named and those who wish to remain anonymous, tell Polygon that harassment by gamers is becoming an alarmingly regular expected element of game development. Some developers say the problem was among the reasons they left the industry, others tell Polygon that the problem is so ubiquitous that it distracts them from making games or that they're considering leaving the industry."
Early Apple Employees Talk Memories of Steve Jobs, Thoughts On New Movie 146
Nerval's Lobster writes "Daniel Kottke and Bill Fernandez had front-row seats to the birth of the personal computing industry, as well as the most valuable technology company in the world. Both served as employees of Apple Computer in its earliest days: Kottke working with the hardware, Fernandez developing the user interfaces. Both have some strong opinions about the new feature film Jobs, which dramatizes the personal and professional escapades of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and his more technically inclined partner, Steve Wozniak. Kottke consulted on early versions of the script, attended the movie's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in February, and is currently planning to see it again shortly after its release on August 16. Fernandez, on the other hand, hasn't seen it and doesn't intend to, because he considers it a work of fiction and thinks it will upset him. In this lengthy interview with Slashdot, both attempted to distinguish the facts and longstanding geek legends from the instances of pure creative license exercised by the filmmakers."
NSA Broke Privacy Rules Thousands of Times Per Year, Audit Finds 312
NettiWelho writes "The Washington Post reports: The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents. Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls."
Bradley Manning Says He's Sorry 496
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Washington Post reports that Pfc. Bradley Manning told a military judge during his sentencing hearing that he is sorry he hurt the United States by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and he asked for leniency as he spoke for less than five minutes, often in a quavering voice "I'm sorry I hurt people. I'm sorry that I hurt the United States," said Manning, who was convicted last month of multiple crimes, including violations of the Espionage Act, for turning over the classified material. "I'm apologizing for the unintended consequences of my actions. I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people." Speaking publicly for only the third time since he was arrested in Iraq in June 2010, Manning said he had been naive. "I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'""
Comment Re:Yet the US media downplay the body count (Score 3, Insightful) 381
Only a few hours ago NBC was reporting only 15-20. The same with Fox. And NBC and ABC.
At least they seem to be correcting their stories.
The problem with the "always on" news cycle is that fact-checking isn't part of it. They all want to be first to report, so if it's wrong, who cares, we'll patch it later.
It's this kind of speculative journalism that gives conspiracy theorists fuel for the shadowy figures in smokey rooms trope.
Comment Re:Source of great Presidents too (Score 1) 308
I recently heard how Reagan started his career....calling baseball games. Back in the era when he would get a small abbreviated summary on a news ticker, and then would make up a story based on the description of the game, pretending like he was actually watching it, even faking the sound of bats hitting balls..... putting on a show as if he was there, when in reality, he was sitting in a dull room getting small bits of information over a ticker.
So, he should have made the summary as boring as the ticket? Boy howdy, better tell all those news organizations to axe the graphics, sounds, on-scene reporting, and all that stuff. Hell, get rid of the anchors, too. Text to speech a newspaper on the nightly news, anything else is just a song and dance.
