Comment Re:Flight recorder (Score 1) 491
What kind of detection radius for a 'pinging' object? Tens of miles? Hundreds of miles?
Comment Re:You are not Nintendo's target market (Score 1) 173
That's mostly what I play and I got off the PC treadmill. Yeah, the graphics may not be the OMGWTFBBQ you get with a high end PC rig. On the other hand, I haven't had to modify an INI file, install a driver, tweak the driver, download another driver that might work. Upgrade my video card. Try to get my friends into the game. Get us all on the same audio channel...steam version...whatever.
Instead, I put the game in the machine, add my friends to a party, and invite them to the game. And it just WORKS.
Sorry, I do computer support for a living. Trying to get a new game to work, then getting it to work on my friends systems, and then getting us all together to play? Not worth it.
Comment Re:I'd love something like that. (Score 3, Insightful) 368
At this point friends and family are the only PC's I work on. They at least understand the concept of returning the favor in some way/shape/form. I stopped doing that for anyone else.
Comment Re:Well... for starters... (Score 1) 839
You forgot sometimes the broadcasters will screw with the start and end times of the programs just to piss off the DVR crew. I mean really, starting the show a minute early or ending it at X:31 PM accomplishes what really?
Oh, yeah, I can add additional time to my program when I set up a series to record but then you have three programs recording at the same time (the DVR only does two) and the DVR throws a fit and doesn't record one.
Getting to the point that it's easier to download the episode....
Comment Next time.... (Score 1) 310
I keep seeing that Sony did this to 'send a message' to the hacking community. I'm betting that message will end up being 'post the hack/private key' as anonymously as possible the next time. Once it's out they won't be able to stop it and they won't have a target to go after.
Frankly, I'm surprised the guy that posted the Airplay key didn't go this route. He is just setting himself up for an Apple lawsuit which I'm sure is already on the way.
I realize that there is a certain amount of pride from doing this....but that has gotten rather expensive.
Comment Re:Until.... (Score 1) 568
Simple and easy...the friends I game with are those "people who has some difficulty in maintaining a computer" They all have Xbox 360's which allow them to do social gaming without the PC gaming upgrade cycle and all it's wonderful tweaking and drivers. On Friday nights we all put in Borderlands, or Gears, or L4D2...and play.
Buying a 360 was a bonus for me. I'm off the PC gaming upgrade cycle and there hasn't been a game yet that has motivated me to get back on....
Comment Re:BOFH vs. The Ficus tree (Score 1) 179
Ficus tree? Hell, your whole network could be taken down by the most obvious method....dust.
Who is going to keep the dust off the receivers? The users? The cleaning crew? What happens if they use a little Endust to keep the dust from building up? How well does it work with a layer of uh....crud..... like a mixture of pledge and office dust.
Office remodel? Whole system is offline due to sheetrock dust.....
Sims 3 Expansion Announced 84
EA has announced that The Sims 3 will be getting its first expansion pack on November 16th, titled World Adventures. It will be available at first for the PC and Mac clients, and later for mobile platforms. "Players can take their Sims on new journeys to famous real-world inspired destinations around the globe for the first time ever and seek out new adventures. ... From mastering martial arts in Shang Simla, China, discovering rich culture and famous landmarks on a romantic getaway to Champs Les Sims, France or exploring the depths of ancient tombs in Al Simhara, Egypt, players can take their Sims on a journey that will change their Sims' lives." EA's Lyndsay Pearson spoke further about the expansion in an interview with IGN.
SPORE Released 5 Days Early In Australia 179
knypha writes "Several sites are reporting that the much anticipated SPORE has been released 5 days ahead of the scheduled release date in Australia. I can confirm that SPORE is sitting on shelves in retailers and for the tidy sum of A$95.95 it can be yours. Why the early release exactly seems to be a matter of contention. No news if the game can actually be played yet or if the lucky early punters will still have to wait till the official release when EA allows for any validation process to occur. I guess EA could possibly be using the relatively small population to test the servers...or someone somewhere stuffed up!"
LOTRO Dev Talks About Bringing MMOs To Consoles 129
Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer for Lord of the Rings: Online recently spoke to Eurogamer about the game's upcoming expansion and its future in the MMO market. One thing he mentions is the challenge of designing an MMO for consoles, which have a larger player base than PC games. He admits that UI development would be a huge issue, but also thinks MMOs could benefit from splitting tasks between various devices.
"Long term, for me, the real exciting vision is ... thinking about a game, a franchise, as this centralised content. There's this thing called Lord of the Rings that sits on a bunch of servers ... and whether you're on your PC, your console, your mobile device, those are all just access points, and they're all good at different things. ... The console is great for fast action, immediate activities. Combat, raids, things like that could be a lot of fun sitting on your couch. And some things that are necessary but slightly rote and boring, like managing your inventory or setting up for a raid, or some elements of crafting — those are things that you can do instead of playing Bejeweled when you're sitting on the train or on a break or whatever it happens to be."
Submission + - Successful cold fusion experiment
An anonymous reader writes: The italian economic journal "Il sole 24 ore" published an article about a successful cold fusion experiment performed by Yoshiaki Arata in Japan.
They seems to have pumped high pressure deutherium gas in a nanometric matrix of palladium and zyrcon oxide.
The experiments generates a considerable amount of energy and they found the presence of Elium-4 in the matrix ( as sign of the fusion ).
Here are the articles: first second( in italian ). I was not able to found other articles about this but the journal is very authoritative in Italy.
Google translations: first, second.
Submission + - Two new star systems are the first of their kind (osu.edu)
esocid writes: Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so unusual, it was one of a kind — until its discovery helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to home. In a paper published in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters , Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues suggest that these star systems are the progenitors of a rare type of supernova. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, they found a star system that is unusual, because it's what the astronomers have called a "yellow supergiant eclipsing binary" — it contains two very bright, massive yellow stars that are very closely orbiting each other. In fact, the stars are so close together that a large amount of stellar material is shared between them, so that the shape of the system resembles a peanut.
"We needed the 8.4-meter LBT to spot the first binary, but the second one is so bright that you could see it with binoculars in your back yard. Yet, if we hadn't found the first one, we may never have found the second one. It shows that there are still valuable discoveries hidden in plain sight. You just have to keep your eyes open and connect the dots."
"We needed the 8.4-meter LBT to spot the first binary, but the second one is so bright that you could see it with binoculars in your back yard. Yet, if we hadn't found the first one, we may never have found the second one. It shows that there are still valuable discoveries hidden in plain sight. You just have to keep your eyes open and connect the dots."
Submission + - Large Hadron Collider sparks 'Doomsday' lawsuit 6
smooth wombat writes: In what can only be considered a bizarre court case, a former nuclear safety officer and others are suing the U.S. Department of Energy, Fermilab, the National Science Foundation and CERN to stop the use of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) until its safety is reassessed. The plaintiffs cite three possible 'doomsday' scenarios which might occur if the LHC becomes operational: the creation of microscopic black holes which would grow and swallow matter, the creation of strangelets which, if they touch other matter, would convert that matter into strangelets or the creation of magnetic monopoles which could start a chain reaction and convert atoms to other forms of matter.
CERN will hold a public open house meeting on April 6 with word having been spread to some researchers to be prepared to answer questions on microscopic black holes and strangelets if asked.
CERN will hold a public open house meeting on April 6 with word having been spread to some researchers to be prepared to answer questions on microscopic black holes and strangelets if asked.
Submission + - FBI posts fake hyperlinks to trap porn downloaders (news.com) 1
mytrip writes: "The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.
Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison."
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.
Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison."
Submission + - G-Archiver Harvesting Google Mail Passwords
Thwomp writes: It appears that a popular GMail back up utility, named G-Archiver, has been harvesting users GMail passwords, this was discovered when a Dustin Brooks took a look at the code using a decompiler. He discovered that user's account information was being sent by e-mail to another GMail account. With that account's password embedded in the source code the developer logged in and found over 1700 e-mails all with user's account information! The creator of G-Archiver has pulled the software stating that it was debug code and was unintentionally left in by a developer.
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