Eahlmunde - Slashdot User

Apple's Game Center Shares Your Real Name 182

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @04:24AM from the slow-erosion-of-anonymity dept.

dotarray writes "Apple's Game Center has just made itself a few enemies through a simple change to their Terms of Service. Now, whenever you send a friend invitation, your real name will be attached as well as your Apple ID." Apparently they didn't learn from the poor reaction to Blizzard's similar idea.

RuneScape Developer Victorious Over Patent Troll 89

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 19, 2010 @02:35AM from the vanquishing-trolls dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Gamasutra reports that a US District Court judge has dismissed the patent infringement lawsuit brought against RuneScape developer Jagex discussed previously on Slashdot. Judge David Folsom last week dismissed online chat company Paltalk's claims that Jagex infringed on Paltalk patents relating to online network communications. The judge's ruling only resolved Jagex's case. Microsoft settled with Paltalk for an undisclosed sum in 2009 after the online communication technology company sued over the patents in a $90 million claim. That settlement opened the door to Paltalk's claims against other game companies, including Blizzard, Turbine, SOE and NCSoft. Paltalk alleged in the Jagex-related suit that it had suffered 'tens of millions of dollars' in damages. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard said in a statement, 'It is exceedingly unfortunate that the US legal system can force a company with a sole presence in Cambridge, UK to incur a seven-digit expense and waste over a year of management time on a case with absolutely no merit,' and that Jagex 'will not hesitate to vigorously defend our position against any patent trolls who bring lawsuits against us in the future.'"

Heroic Engineer Crashes Own Vehicle To Save a Life 486

Posted by kdawson on Friday October 22, 2010 @11:09AM from the delta-vee dept.

scottbomb sends in this feel-good story of an engineer-hero, calling it "one of the coolest stories I've read in a long time." "A manager of Boeing's F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — 'there was no time to take a vote' — Innes kicked into engineer mode. 'Basic physics: If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together,' Innes explained."

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 04, 2010 @04:00PM from the more-guns-less-crime dept.

cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."

Student Orchestra Performs Music With iPhones 65

Posted by samzenpus on Friday December 04, 2009 @01:51PM from the there's-a-symphonic-app-for-that dept.

A course at the University of Michigan ends with a live concert featuring students using iPhones as instruments. “Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble“ teaches students to code musical instruments for the iPhone, using the Apple-provided software-development kit. Georg Essl, assistant professor of computer science and music, says, "What’s interesting is we blend the whole process. We start from nothing. We teach the programming of iPhones for multimedia stuff, and then we teach students to build their own instruments.”

Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 25, 2009 @01:32PM from the a-jetwing-and-a-prayer dept.

Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."

Comment Fine print nobody bothers to read (Score 1) 688

by Eahlmunde on Monday June 05, 2006 @02:42PM (#15474231) Attached to: ISPs Offer Faster Speeds, Why Don't We Get Them?

I ahve yet to see that anyone has mentioned the real issue regarding the "speed" of a DSL or cable modem broadband connection. If you read the fine print and some of the not so fine print you just might notice that the advertised speeds are considered "Best Effort" speeds. This is directly from BellSouth's web site: Service Description BellSouth FastAccess DSL Service is a best efforts service. The actual speed experienced by customers is based on DSL sync rate and may vary and depends on several factors including customer location, destination on the Internet, traffic on the Internet, interference with high frequency spectrum on the customer's telephone line, etc. Wireless connections are subject to varying speeds based on factors such as: proximity to the wireless gateway, or interference from other devices. No minimum level of speed is guaranteed. Anyhow - that's my $0.02 for this conversation.

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