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Comment Re:In other news, my butt is linked to my nose (Score 5, Insightful) 204

by warewolfe (#18935571) Attached to: Videogames Really Are Linked to Violence

I hate replying to ACs, but...

There is another and more logical reason for the army to have it's soldiers practice shooting at targets and that is to become better at hitting their targets. I'm guessing that is why it is called "target practice" and not "desensitisation drill".

Frankly the idea that violent people like violent things makes a lot more sense than being brain washed by computer games.

Here is my "Asinine comparison". Opening umbrellas causes rain as there is a strong correlation between rain and the people opening their umbrellas. Well, maybe I can not prove it "causes" rain but I think I can get away with saying that it is a contributing factor.

Communications

Submission + - Study: Many government web sites stink

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Seems its ok for some portions of our government to go looking pretty will-nilly for information about us, but we can't get information easily about them. A report issued today by the National Security Archive Knight Open Government survey, found widespread failure among federal agencies to follow the Electronic Freedom of Information Act amendments that took effect in 1997. Here are the top 12 sites worst Web sites for gleaning information according to the group: Air Force (Department of Defense, Department of Defense, Department of Interior.... http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1238 4"

Submission + - What Programming Languages Should You Know?

Submitted by nitsudima
nitsudima writes: David Chisnall posits that the more programming languages you know, the better. The point is not to stuff your head with language rules. Rather, he explains how being able to read multiple languages, even if you never code in them, can help you to select the best possible tool for each coding need — and understand the limitations of the tools you're using.
Microsoft

Submission + - NZ objects to Microsoft Open XML standard

Submitted by kumachan
kumachan writes: According to a Standards New Zealand spokesperson, the objection is that "the ISO [The International Organisation for Standardisation] has already developed a standard for XML open format [that is, Open Document] and the committee does not believe that there is a need for another standard, and that Microsoft's [standard] is in conflict with the existing one." http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/82AF97DEB BAFD057CC2572990006C14C
Robotics

Submission + - Toy Robots vs. Killer Robots

Submitted by
Egadfly
Egadfly writes: "Ok, so I play with toy robots. That's my thing. There is an old saying "If you know where I'm coming from, you know what I mean."
But now a Mideast military firm, Elbit Systems, has unveiled a killer robot, the VIPeR, that can roll through "dark alleys, caves and tunnels" armed to the teeth. Suddenly it's not so funny anymore."
Space

Submission + - 50 ways to kill an asteroid

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "It is almost certain that a big asteroid will one day land on Earth and provoke a huge catastrophe. This is why hundreds of scientists have attended the Planetary Defense Conference 2007, held this week in Washington, D.C., to try to develop plans to protect the Earth from such an asteroid. All these researchers have lots of ideas, some which look feasible, some not. Some of them want to destroy asteroids with nuclear weapons. Other scientists want to use a robotic tugboat to push a dangerous flying object out of the Earth's path. And others want to send unmanned robots to the asteroid, drill into it and send the debris into space to alter the course of the asteroid. And this is just a sample... Read more for additional details and an illustration showing one of the methods which could be used in the future to modify the orbit of an asteroid before it hits the Earth."
Role Playing (Games)

The Quest To Build a Better Warcraft 196

Posted by Zonk from the better-than-a-mousetrap dept.
Red Herring tackles the rush into virtual space, talking about the MMOG goldrush and the business consequences World of Warcraft has had on the games industry as a whole. Though sometimes it doesn't seem to fully understand the difference between a single player game and a Massive one, the article still touches on a number of important points. Lots of folks are looking to cash in on WoW's success, and they're importing or licensing every Massive game they can find to get on the bandwagon. "The problem is that no one knows what the next WoW killer will look like. Creating a hit video game, which combines strong characters, a compelling story, and top-notch production values, is part art and part inexact science. Making a hit game can be much more difficult than producing an Oscar-winning movie. After all, the hit video game must be compelling enough to keep players coming back for more." Even if a lot of their conclusions are odd, and they call Puzzle Pirates silly, it's worth a look. What do you think it's going to take to crack Blizzard's deathlock on the Massive genre?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Amazing Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed.

Submitted by
sporkme
sporkme writes: "A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. From the article:

"I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died," Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. "The co-author on my paper said,' Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?' I said 'Oh', and took a closer look." They ran several tests and found the compound killed "pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen."
Lab test results on hapless mice have resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick. The PPAR-gamma compound is expected to be especially useful in combating treatment-resistant types of cancer."
Graphics

Submission + - Flash: The End of Adobe [Acrobat] Reader?

Submitted by
ThinkComp
ThinkComp writes: "As hatred for Adobe Acrobat continues to grow, the fact remains that the Portable Document Format is a useful and nearly universal file format with few competitors in the same league. Meanwhile, the client software needed to use the format continues to expand in size and slow down, especially as a browser plug-in. In the interest of faster load times, fewer ads, and smaller file sizes, we've created a Flash-based PDF viewer that you can embed in web sites, including blogs. It's bare-bones, but given what YouTube's Flash-based player eventually did for on-line video, could this mean the beginning of the end for clunky software like Adobe [Acrobat] Reader 8.0?"

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