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The Almighty Buck

When DLC Goes Wrong 261

Posted by Soulskill from the horse-armor dept.
kube00 writes "Poorly done downloadable content is one of a gamer's worst nightmares right now. Where a publisher stands to make some money, gamers get screwed. Whether it's the overpriced extra maps/costumes DLC, on-the-disc-at-launch DLC, or DLC that is nothing more than a remake of other content, no game is safe from bad DLC. That includes Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock 2, Uncharted 2 and a host of many other popular games. Is there a chance to fix this system?"

Comment Re:ehh (Score 1) 399

by Genocidicbunny (#33689198) Attached to: Review: <em>Civilization V</em>

I've had Civ 3 games hit the triple-digit hours mark so the 4-5 hours doesnt bother me that much. What does bother me is that the in-between-turns wait gets so long by the time you hit gunpowder that I spend more time waiting than playing.
Education

3rd-Grader Busted For Jolly Rancher Possession 804

Posted by samzenpus from the step-away-from-the-candy dept.
theodp writes "A third-grader in a small Texas school district received a week's detention for merely possessing a Jolly Rancher. Leighann Adair, 10, was eating lunch Monday when a teacher confiscated the candy. Her parents said she was in tears when she arrived home later that afternoon and handed them the detention notice. But school officials are defending the sentence, saying the school was abiding by a state guideline that banned 'minimal nutrition' foods. 'Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules,' said school superintendent Jack Ellis."
Role Playing (Games)

The Gamebook Writers Who Nearly Invented the MMO 72

Posted by Soulskill from the if-wishes-were-epic-mounts dept.
mr_sifter writes "In the 1980s, gamebooks were all the rage, and most geeks have read through a Fighting Fantasy novel or two. You might even have heard of Fabled Lands, arguably the most ambitious gamebooks ever — it was planned as a series of 12 books, each representing a different area of the world, and players could roam freely from book to book. It was completely non-linear, and unless you died, there was no way to finish. In 1996, the authors, Dave Morris and Jamie Thompson, hooked up with game developer Eidos and started work on what would have been a ground-breaking computer game version of their books — an MMO, in other words. Unfortunately, development hell awaited. This article tells the story of the game that could have been WoW before Warcraft."
Image

How To Find Bad Programmers 359

Posted by samzenpus from the how-little-work-can-you-do-in-a-day dept.
AmberShah writes "The job post is your potential programmer's first impression of your company, so make it count with these offputting features. There are plenty of articles about recruiting great developers, but what if you are only interested in the crappy ones?" I think much of the industry is already following these guidelines.
Networking

Ubisoft DRM Causing More Problems 279

Posted by Soulskill from the there's-a-lesson-here-that-nobody-will-learn dept.
Joe Helfrich writes "Ubisoft's Settlers 7 servers have been causing problems for over a week for users worldwide, and Australian gamers are hardly able to connect at all. 'The problem reportedly strikes after the game has already confirmed an active Internet connection, and prevents the user from playing even the single-player campaign, returning the error "server not available." But they are available, because other people are logged into them and merrily playing away.' Wonder how they're going to describe this one as an attack."
Image

College To Save Money By Switching Email Font 306

Posted by samzenpus from the smallest-things dept.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has come up with an unusual way of saving money: changing their email font. The school expects to use 30% less ink by switching from Arial to Century Gothic. From the article: "Diane Blohowiak is the school's director of computing. She says the new font uses about 30 percent less ink than the previous one. That could add up to real savings, since the cost of printer ink works out to about $10,000 per gallon. Blohowiak says the decision is part of the school's five-year plan to go green. She tells Wisconsin Public Radio it's great that a change that's eco-friendly also saves money."
Java

After Learning Java Syntax, What Next? 293

Posted by timothy from the nice-hot-bath dept.
Niris writes "I'm currently taking a course called Advanced Java Programming, which is using the text book Absolute Java, 4th edition, by Walter Savitch. As I work at night as a security guard in the middle of nowhere, I've had enough time to read through the entire course part of the book, finish all eleven chapter quizzes, and do all of the assignments within a month, so all that's left is a group assignment that won't be ready until late April. I'm trying to figure out what else to read that's Java related aside from the usual 'This is how to create a tree. This is recursion. This is how to implement an interface and make an anonymous object,' and wanted to see what Slashdotters have to suggest. So far I'm looking at reading Beginning Algorithms, by Simon Harris and James Ross."

Comment Re:950 video at that price why not ion or a real d (Score 1) 458

by Genocidicbunny (#30830376) Attached to: 100% Free Software Compatible PC Launches

GMA 950 is barely (just barely) usable for regular 2D tasks. As someone above said, the damned thing is so slow you can see windows redraw on X. So you may as well at least get a chip that can handle 2D. A motherboard with a nVidia 9300 embedded should not be too hard to find for a similar price. Like you said -- there are drivers for it as well that are open, even if they can't handle 3D.

Comment Re:950 video at that price why not ion or a real d (Score 1) 458

by Genocidicbunny (#30830356) Attached to: 100% Free Software Compatible PC Launches

Except that this thing is so horribly underpowered that it's a waste of 10 watts. There's a difference between green and usable and just plain green.

If I really wanted to play around with something green and still usable in niche jobs, I'd just get a SheevaPlug. They draw even less power and also cost about a 5th of the price of this.

Comment Re:Mac (Score 1) 458

by Genocidicbunny (#30830316) Attached to: 100% Free Software Compatible PC Launches

He said build. I assume that implies built from parts which means no Norton, no MS tax.

Also, the GMA 950 cannot do HD video, and the Atom would struggle immensely. I wouldn't even try playing 1080p stuff on it as it would choke almost immediately. Good luck with the gaming too, the GMA 950 couldnt display a 20-polygon pile of shit if it tried. The system is severely underpowered for a desktop machine. I've seen better specs on netbooks.
Image

South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein 1297

Posted by samzenpus from the respect-my-authority dept.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, were given a very special gift by US marines: a signed photo of Saddam Hussein. During his captivity, the marines forced Saddam to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as the boyfriend of Satan. Stone said, "We're very proud of our signed Saddam picture and what it means. It's one of our biggest highlights."

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