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Comment Re:How about playing a real MMO ? (Score 1) 103

Indeed, I've often found it beneficial to play available games in other languages, as a way of enhancing my language understanding.

Back around 1994, I had a CD version of "The Secret of Monkey Island" that contained five language versions of the game. I brought it in to my high school French class and my teacher LOVED it. Thanks to that, I can still say, "How appropriate: you fight like a cow!" in French. (Didn't come in so useful at that job where we actually communicated with Francophone schools and businesses, though...)

Similarly, I've played my MMOG of choice -- EQ2 -- on the French servers from time to time. I haven't worked up to having the gall to group with anyone yet but it's still interesting to be in that kind of informal environment in my second language.

That said, even after two years of college Chinese I don't think I'd ever be bold enough to attempt to do that with Mandarin! But I like the idea of an MMO meant for learning. I'll have to give it a try.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Ye Olde Worlde Charm (datamancer.net)

The Solitaire writes: "Despite the rather fast paced, technological world most Slashdotters live in, some of us still yearn for the good old days; the days when clocks still ran on clockwork, cooking didn't mean microwaving last night's pizza, and we started our laptops with a turnkey instead of pushing a button... wait, what?

The folks over at datamancer.net have come up with a rather spiffy little hardware mod; they've converted a HP ZT1000 laptop into something resembling a piece of old-English clockwork — and it still functions. From the site:

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.
"

Businesses

Submission + - The Epic Battle between Microsoft and Google 1

Hugh Pickens writes: "There is a long article in the NYTimes well worth reading called "Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft" about the business strategies both companies are pursuing and about the future of applications and where they will reside — on the web or on the desktop. Google President Eric Schmidt thinks that 90 percent of computing will eventually reside in the Web-based cloud and about 2,000 companies are signing up every day for Google Apps, simpler versions of the pricey programs that make up Microsoft's lucrative Office business. Microsoft faces a business quandary as they to try to link the Web to its desktop business — "software plus Internet services," in its formulation. Microsoft will embrace the Web, while striving to maintain the revenue and profits from its desktop software businesses, the corporate gold mine, a smart strategy for now that may not be sustainable. Google faces competition from Microsoft and from other Web-based productivity software being offered by start-ups but it is "unclear at this point whether Google will be able to capitalize on the trends that it's accelerating." David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School, says the Google model is to try to change all the rules. If Google succeeds, "a lot of the value that Microsoft provides today is potentially obsolete.""
Math

Submission + - Should Wikipedia Allow Mathematical Proofs? (wikipedia.org) 4

Beetle B. writes: "An argument has arisen over whether Wikipedia should allow pages that provide proofs for mathematical theorems (such as this one).

On the one hand, Wikipedia is a useful source of information and people can benefit from these proofs. On the other hand, how does one choose which proofs to include and which not to? Should Wikipedia just become a textbook that teaches mathematics? Should it just state the bare results of theorems and not provide proofs (except as external links)? Or should they take an intermediate approach and formulate a criterion for which proofs to include and which to exclude?"

Sci-Fi

Submission + - Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team 1

Curlsman writes: Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team

Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.
We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.

If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them.

Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2316633.html

Is this site worth a write-in campaign?
Businesses

Submission + - The Transistor's Birthday

Apple Acolyte writes: Tomorrow the transistor turns 60 years old:

Sixty years ago, on Dec. 16, 1947, three physicists at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., built the world's first transistor. William Shockley, John Bardeen and William Brattain had been looking for a semiconductor amplifier to take the place of the vacuum tubes that made radios and other electronics so impossibly bulky, hot and power hungry.
In a related story, the AP looks at the prospect of processor technology nearing the end of potential gains from fab shrinks, indicating that the transistor is showing its age and may need to be replaced in order for the industry to keep pace with Moore's Law.
Security

Submission + - Ticketmaster claims hacking

FlopEJoe writes: Ticketmaster claims that RMG Technologies is providing software to avoid security measures including the Captcha. Even to the point of utilizing bots to get large blocks of tickets. RMG says it just "provides a specialized browser for ticket brokers." Personally, I don't miss the days of camping out for tickets and believe technology should make things easier and fairer. But it seems only the speculators win when tickets sell out in minutes and they can put them up on eBay for 10 times the face value. TFA is a good read for anyone interested in how tickets are allocated. "A hearing on Ticketmaster's suit is scheduled for Oct. 15."
Lord of the Rings

Submission + - New Hope for Jackson Hobbit Film?

DrJimbo writes: Almost just in time for the 70th Anniversary of the Hobbit (published September 21, 1937) Entertainment Weekly has a 5-page article on a possible reconciliation between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema that may pave the way for the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to return and helm the filming of The Hobbit (New Line controls the film rights). It was previously reported here that Jackson would not be making the Hobbit film. The EW article says that Jackson wants to make two films: first the Hobbit in its entirety and then another film that bridges the roughly 60 years between the end of the Hobbit and the start of the Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately Jackson already has a lot on his plate with filming of The Lovely Bones scheduled to start this month and a live action Tintin film in the works.
The Courts

Submission + - Possession of the Anarchist's Cookbook==Terrorist

Anonymous Terrorist writes: Back in the midsts of time, when I was a lad and gopher was the height of information retrieval I read The Anarchist's Cookbook in one huge text file. Now it appears the UK government considers possession of the book an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 and is prosecuting a 17 year old boy, in part, for having a copy of the book.
Mozilla

Submission + - Thunderbird in crisis?

Elektroschock writes: "The two core developers of Thunderbird leave Mozilla. Scott McGregor made a brief statement: "I wanted to let the Thunderbird community know that Friday October 12th will be my last day as an employee of the Mozilla Corporation." and David blogged "Just wanted to let everyone know that my last day at The Mozilla Corporation will be Oct. 12. I intend to stay involved with Thunderbird... I've enjoyed working at Mozilla a lot, and I wish Mozilla Co and the new Mail Co all the best." I am scared. A few month ago Mozilla management considered to abandon their second product and set up a special corporation just for the mail client. Scott was more or less supportive. David joined in. While Sunbird just released a new version no appropriate resources were dedicated to the missing component. And while Thunderbird became the most used Linux mail client it is abandoned by Mozilla for 'popularity reasons'. Both messages from David and Scott do not sound if they as founders will play any role in the Thunderbird Mail Corporation. What happened to Mozilla? Is it a case of pauperization through donations?"
Patents

Submission + - 802.11n May Never Happen Due to Patent Concerns

afabbro writes: The Register is reporting that the 802.11n standard is imperiled because the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization has refused to submit a Letter of Assurance, promising not to sue those who implement the standard. "...the realisation that CSIRO holds essential patents, and has failed to provide a Letter of Assurance as required by the IEEE, could prevent the standard ever being finalised."
Businesses

Submission + - 54% of CEOs dissastisfied with innovation (cio.com)

athloi writes: "Invention is new and clever; innovation is a process that takes knowledge and uses it to get a payback. Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company. Not enough ideas, on the other hand, is an obstacle for only 17 percent. At the end of the day all that creativity and all those ideas have to show on the bottom line. The goal of innovation is to make or save money, and IT should never lose sight of that central fact.

http://www.cio.com/article/134201/"

NASA

Submission + - NASA to digitize its 50 years of photos, films (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: "Putting the images and film online will allow NASA to more easily share and showcase its achievements, including photos from its Mars rover missions and from its manned and unmanned voyages to the Moon and beyond, according to Computerworld's Todd Weiss. Much of NASA's archived photos and film is currently divided up into more than 20 different imagery categories, making it hard to find specific images or archives unless a user knows exactly where it is. "Much of what is in the collection may be surprising when it is released," according to NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs."
Communications

Submission + - Optimizing chip manufacturing at MIT

Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to MIT researchers, computer chips used inside high-speed communication devices have become so small that tiny variations that appear during chip fabrication can make a big difference in performance.' So they've developed a model to predict variation in circuit performance and maximize the number of chips working within the specifications.' This model could be used by the semiconductor industry to optimize chip designs and reduce costs. Read more for additional references."

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