Comment Re:North Pole (Score 4, Informative) 346
How are Soviet Russia jokes even funny anymore?
As a meme it's over used and lacking in hilarity. In reference to this particular story though, it could not have been better played.
Check out the new SourceForge HTML5 internet speed test! No Flash necessary and runs on all devices.
×
Comment What ever happened to... (Score 1) 235
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
There are no new ideas. Only clever repackaging of old ones.
Submission + - Simple, Free Web Remote PC Control? 5
MeatballCB writes: Hey folks. Being the 'technical' guy of the family, I often get calls from friends and family members when they're having PC issues. Most of these folks are not technical, so trying to troubleshoot problems over the phone can often be a challenge. Anyone know of a simple to use, and preferably free, service that would allow for remote viewing/control of their PC's. I know there's WebEx and GoToMyPC, but I hate to pay for something I'd use once every two months. I also know about VNC, but trying to walk someone through opening up ports on their router that thinks their Internet is broken when their homepage gets changed is not realistic.
Anyone know of anything that would be easy to set up and use?
Anyone know of anything that would be easy to set up and use?
The Twitter Book 88
stoolpigeon writes "Microblogging service Twitter has undeniably been a hit, with growth rates that were at times in excess of 1400%. The growth was rapid enough that the site became well known for its periodic, and, at times, extensive downtime. Even with these issues, the service continued to grow rapidly, and with celebrities getting into the mix Twitter was quickly on the radar of mainstream media. The ubiquity of Twitter and ever-increasing coverage of 'tweets' has also brought the inevitable backlash. As with anything that gains high-profile popularity, there are plenty of Twitter haters out there, though the role Twitter has played in the recent Iranian elections seems to have brought more legitimacy to Twitter in the eyes of many. With popularity come books, and quite a few are already out there about and for Twitter, but my favorite so far is The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein." Read below for the rest of JR's review.
Comment The basement I lived in... (Score 1) 487
was way too bright and filled with an overabundance of fresh air. My external sensory depriving bomb shelter suffers from no such problems.
Submission + - Spaceport America Begins Construction (space.com)
eldavojohn writes: "While a lot of people are wondering if commercial spaceflight will ever make it, Spaceport America is holding its groundbreaking ceremony right now. You can watch it live at their site (note: seems to be Flash intensive) at 11am MST. The spaceport is aiming for a diverse clientele including the delivery of small national security purpose satellites into Earth orbit as well as research and development for scientific purposes. After getting their FAA license and securing funding, the 27 square mile development project has officially begun. The target date for completion is the end of 2010, let's all hope for success in the milestone goal!"
EFF Busts Illegitimate Subdomain Patent 96
eldavojohn writes "Unlike a lot of community support protection programs, the EFF's Patent Busting Project is starting to bear real fruit instead of just leveling the finger at offenders. The USPTO is revoking an illegitimate patent granted in 2004 that sounds like automatically assigning subdomains. Sites like Wordpress, LiveJournal, or basically anyone with generated subdomains have been doing this for quite some time. If you have some extra cash, now's the time to pony up a few bucks so the EFF can carry on as one of the few organizations genuinely protecting your interests."
Submission + - Iran's IT security chief killed in car accident
mindas writes: "The Guardian reports that the man who leaked the real election results from the Interior Ministry — the ones showing Ahmadinejad coming third — was killed in a suspicious car accident.
"Mohammad Asgari, who was responsible for the security of the IT network in Iran's interior ministry, was killed yesterday in Tehran. Asgari had reportedly leaked results that showed the elections were rigged by government use of new software to alter the votes from the provinces. Asgari was said to have leaked information that showed Mousavi had won almost 19 million votes, and should therefore be president.
Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society 326
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist summarizes
an important new study on file sharing from economists Felix
Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. The Harvard Business School working paper
finds that given the increase in artistic production along with the
greater public
access conclude that 'weaker copyright protection, it seems, has
benefited society.' The authors point out that file sharing may not
result in
reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for
'complements' such as concerts or author speaking tours increases."
Submission + - Are you really in your parent's basement? (dotblue.nl)
rastakid writes: "One of the typical in-jokes on Slashdot is the 'I am still living in my parents basement' phrase. Based on the comments of any Slashdot story it seems that 90% of the Slashdotters live with their parents. It's time to draw a final score: describe your living situation and share it with the rest of the world :)"
Submission + - One Policy, One System, Universal Service 1
pin0chet writes: "In response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry on 'a national broadband plan for our future,'
telcos and advocacy
groups have submitted thousands of pages of comments.
Unfortunately, it seems many of them have forgotten
the biggest mistake telecom regulators ever made:
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, or "Ma Bell," operated its telephone monopoly for the better part of the 20th century. For sixty years, regulators nurtured Ma Bell's control of the industry, convinced that the telephone market was a natural monopoly...Today, as the FCC invites comments on "a national broadband plan for our future," no one seriously believes that telecom monopolies are a good idea...[yet many of the proposed new rules] are precisely what created the Bell monopoly in the first place."
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, or "Ma Bell," operated its telephone monopoly for the better part of the 20th century. For sixty years, regulators nurtured Ma Bell's control of the industry, convinced that the telephone market was a natural monopoly...Today, as the FCC invites comments on "a national broadband plan for our future," no one seriously believes that telecom monopolies are a good idea...[yet many of the proposed new rules] are precisely what created the Bell monopoly in the first place."
Comment Re:When I buy something (Score 1) 212
Try owning land in the U.S. without paying your property tax. There is no end to the "rent" that you have to pay to maintain so called ownership.
Originality Vs. Established IP In Games 71
Ten Ton Hammer has an article about the differences between developing a game based upon existing intellectual property and the creation of an entirely new story and setting. They make the point that while doing the former may result in an easier time building a fan base, those same fans will often be the hardest to please.
"By creating a game based on a popular IP, the company in question has a huge responsibility to 'do it right.' Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the reality of one little secret — every single fan out there has a different idea of what 'right' is. ... Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time poring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, any deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale."
