Comment Re:skynet (Score 1) 108
Ant Mills, where the ants do keeps following one another in a circle until they die. (insert joke here about reference counting and circular references).
Comment Those results are from OneBox (ie non algo-search) (Score 1) 257
Um, yes, the first results may come from OneBox, which is not from their "Algorithmic" search, but from a separate service that triggers on certain keywords, like "music", "movie"... and "csco". Adding commas just makes it not trigger the OneBox search. It used to be that the OneBox results are more visually different from the rest of the results, but the recent redesigns makes them very much alike.
OneBox is also used to implement features like "10 km in miles". See also http://searchengineland.com/meet-the-google-onebox-plus-box-direct-answers-the-10-pack-26706 I'm not use if they still use the word "OneBox" to describe this feature though, but it is still used in the Google Search Appliances.
Disclaimer. IANAGoogler, reposting this from my reddit reply.
Comment Re:So many games (Score 1) 325
Not as popular, and not D&D, but Akalabeth should be one of the first first person dungeon hack. Predates the Ultimas, which is influential in their own right.
Ubisoft's Authentication Servers Go Down 634
ZuchinniOne writes "With Ubisoft's fantastically awful new DRM you must be online and logged in to their servers to play the games you buy. Not only was this DRM broken the very first day it was released, but now their authentication servers have failed so absolutely that no-one who legally bought their games can play them. 'At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games.' One can only hope that this utter failure will help to stem the tide of bad DRM."
Comment Re:What, no E75 love? (Score 1) 300
It refuses to install properly on my E71 even after I forced it to install after the not-compatible warning.
The one linked on the European support appeared to be an older version.
LHC Has First Collisions After Years of Waiting 324
An anonymous reader writes "Only four days after the first attempt to send a particle beam around the LHC, we have arrived at the point when all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne, as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a testament to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already, so few days after restarting. The LHC had already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams, and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks, we need only wait for increased intensity and the first attempts at acceleration."
Opera 10.10 Released, Includes New "Unite" Tech 262
Opera 10.10 has been released, and with it their new "Unite" technology, which allows users to share content directly between all of their own devices. Unite wraps both web browser and web server into a single package in an attempt to change the way users think about their browser. "'We promised Opera Unite would reinvent the Web,' said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. 'What we are really doing is reinventing how we as consumers interact with the Web. By giving our devices the ability to serve content, we become equal citizens on the Web. In an age where we have ceded control of our personal data to third-parties, Opera Unite gives us the freedom to choose how we will share the data that belongs to us.'"
Chrome OS Benchmarked Against Moblin, Ubuntu Netbook, More 193
An anonymous reader writes "Using the latest build of Google's Chromium OS source code, Phoronix built it out to run on a Samsung netbook and ran sixteen benchmarks, putting it up against Moblin 2.1, Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10, openSUSE 11.2, and Fedora 12. They ran some of their usual desktop benchmarks (encoding, video, etc..), but more interestingly they ran a number of battery, CPU usage, and memory consumption tests under different settings that show some of the advantages and disadvantages for each of the Linux distributions, and spotted a few bugs along the way."
Sex Advice From Dungeons and Dragons Players 8
Movement rules, combat order, and spells are not the limit to a Dungeon Master's knowledge. How different is keeping track of a hobgoblin village than keeping track of a heart? Here's a collection of questions and answers about love and relationships specifically for role players. "Warn your parents that Charisma is your girlfriend’s dump stat" is a personal favorite.
Adopted Man Discovers Charles Manson Is His Dad 4
Right after "be careful what you wish for" in the idiom dictionary is a picture of 41-year-old Matthew Roberts. 12 years ago, Roberts began to search for the identity of his biological parents. He eventually found his birth mother and was shocked to learn that his father was none other than Charles Manson. Roberts said, "I didn't want to believe it. I was frightened and angry. It's like finding out that Adolf Hitler is your father. I'm a peaceful person — trapped in the face of a monster."
Apple vs. Microsoft Multi-Touch Mouse Comparison 255
blee37 writes "This is a side-by-side comparison of the Apple and Microsoft multi-touch mice. It includes video demonstrations of using the mice in applications, first-person shooters and 3D manipulation. It also has new photos of the internals of all the mice."
Wikipedia Bans Church of Scientology 665
El Reg writes "Showing a new-found resolve to crack down on self-serving edits, Wikipedia has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology. According to Wikipedia administrators, this marks the first time such a high-profile organization has been banished for allegedly pushing its own agenda on the 'free encyclopedia anyone can edit.'"
Comment Re:A bit too heavy IMHO... (Score 2, Informative) 318
0.9 kg vs 1.45 kg. I don't know how many Mars bars that is, but that's over 60% increase in weight.
Submission + - Safest Seat on a Plane: How to Survive a Crash (popularmechanics.com)
Ant writes: "Popular Mechanics shares a short article on an exclusive look at 36 years' worth of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports and seating charts to determine the best way to live through a disaster in the sky. Move to the back of the Airbus (Boeing too?).
Seen on Boing Boing."
Submission + - MacGyver Multi-tool bypass for Medeco Locks
An anonymous reader writes: Over at Engadget and also at in.security.org there an analysis detailing the bypass of Medeco's High Security m3 slider with nothing more than a paper clip. While this is only one of three levels of security in this lock the author claims that with this bypass the lock is susceptible to bumping and picking. (previously Medeco touted the m3 as "bump proof" and "pick proof")
