Nazmun - Slashdot User

Volcanic Activity May Split Africa In Two 170

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 05, 2009 @05:04AM from the spit-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes 'Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two, creating a new ocean, say experts. This is due to a recent geological crack which has appeared in northeastern Ethiopia.'

Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC 149

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 25, 2009 @02:18PM from the begun-this-price-war-has dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Windows users will be able to use a new Kindle Books application to purchase, download and read e-book titles from Amazon's Kindle Store service. The PC application will be offered as a free download and will support Windows 7, Vista and XP systems. The news comes as Amazon is suddenly finding itself with a fresh crop of competitors in the e-book reader market. Earlier this week hardware vendor Spring Design entered the market with its Alex device, while publisher/retailer Barnes and Noble presented an even more serious challenge to Kindle when it unveiled its Nook reader device." Worth noting, if you're in the market for any such device: the base Kindle's price is now down to $259.

History In Video Games — a Closer Look 139

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 23, 2009 @02:47AM from the begins-and-ends-in-the-1940s dept.

scruffybr writes "Whether it's World War 2, the American Wild West or ancient Greece, history has long provided a rich source of video game narrative. Historical fact has been painstakingly preserved in some games, yet distorted beyond all recognition in others. Whereas one game may be praised for its depiction of history, others have been lambasted for opening fresh wounds or glorifying tragic events of our near past. Games have utilized historical narrative extensively, but to what extent does the platform take liberties with, and perhaps misuse it?"

Avatars To Have Business Dress Codes By 2013 221

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 08, 2009 @01:25AM from the no-flaming-hair-at-pretend-work dept.

nk497 writes "With businesses increasingly using digital tech like virtual worlds and Twitter, their staff will have to be given guidelines on how they 'dress' their avatars, according to analysts. 'As the use of virtual environments for business purposes grows, enterprises need to understand how employees are using avatars in ways that might affect the enterprise or the enterprise's reputation,' said James Lundy, managing vice president at Gartner, in a statement. 'We advise establishing codes of behavior that apply in any circumstance when an employee is acting as a company representative, whether in a real or virtual environment.'"

"Windows 7 Compatible" PCs Must Be 64-bit 440

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 02, 2009 @08:18PM from the set-course-for-debacletown dept.

Barence writes "Microsoft has started certifying PCs as 'compatible with Windows 7' — and is looking to avoid the mistakes that dogged the Vista-Capable scheme. Whereas Microsoft certified PCs that could only run Vista Home Basic last time around, this time PCs will have to work with all versions of Windows 7 to qualify for the sticker, including 64-bit versions of the OS. Microsoft also claims, 'products that receive the logo are checked for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs, and reboots experienced by the user.'"

OnLive CEO Provides Details On Cloud Gaming 136

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 30, 2009 @02:11AM from the attack-of-the-jittering-packets dept.

eldavojohn writes "OnLive is a new cloud gaming service that is in beta testing. While it might sound like nothing more than corporate buzzwords creeping over into the gaming world, a new video reveals how the CEO claims his service will work. Perlman explains OnLive's solution to the video game compression problem and talks about the '80 ms latency budget.' It's pretty interesting to listen to him figure out this budget and where the 'costs' come from. (Video only.) Now, this all hinges on the 'microconsole,' which — as he reveals at the beginning of the video — is so cheap they plan to give it away. We may also see it incorporated with TVs and other electronic devices. He goes on to talk about perceptual science and dealing with packet irregularities on the internet."

Comment Re:Too much of a hassle (Score 1) 251

by Nazmun on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @07:26AM (#29271959) Attached to: Drop in P2P Traffic Attributed to Traffic Shaping

Dunno, where your goin... it typically takes me about a minute to find a good hd rip of any movie that is out on blu-ray, etc. Just look at the stats of a torrent before you download it and look more closely at what your downloading so you don't get a foreign version of it. It's really not that hard at all.

Comment Free Wikipedia access (Score 1) 273

by Nazmun on Thursday August 06, 2009 @09:15PM (#28981427) Attached to: Sony Takes Aim At Amazon's Kindle

Actually the only thing the kindle has going for it (as far as I am concerned) is the free wireless wikipedia access. I think that is pretty damn cool. Without that feature I'd buy it for $150.

Comment Re:just as well (Score 1) 36

by Nazmun on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @04:04PM (#28200281) Attached to: AvantGo Shutting Down, Changing Markets

Meh, I'm using a family plan and chose one with unlimited SMS in it and it only costs about $20 more then the regular plan. Just got to find the right plan to use SMS, usually it's a rip-off if you use it as an add-on or worse pay per use.

Comment Re:Too late in the game (Score 1) 210

by Nazmun on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @03:57PM (#28200173) Attached to: Sony Unveils PS3 Motion Controller

I wouldn't be so sure... The ps3 is what still $300-$400 dollars (traditionally the early adopter price)? It won't even be a true mass market product until it gets to the $200 dollar phase. This round of consoles is really unique because of the disparity between the consoles in terms of processing power and also the massive cost on the higher end units (PS3 cost over $800 to produce at release). There is a good chance that the new nintendo system that may come out in a few years may be just as powerful if not a little less then the 4-5 year old ps3.

Latest World of Warcraft Expansion Blocked In China 165

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday March 12, 2009 @04:59AM from the mourn-the-farmers dept.

The Opposable Thumbs blog reports that World of Warcraft's most recent expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is not being allowed into the Chinese market. The Escapist brings further details, saying, "According to an insider, two specific shortcomings included the presence of skeleton characters and a 'city raid.' Nor did the submitted version contain the starting area for the game's new Death Knight class." The Chinese version of World of Warcraft has been modified in the past to remove skeletons and zombies.

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