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Comment Re:Sounds to me... (Score 1) 182

From reading the patent, it could pertain to IRC or a BBS. Those would definitely be prior art. Let's hope the judge has some common sense and denies the lawsuit. Although with how technologically savvy judges appear to be, it will be a long drawn out court case with a plethora of experts trying to explain the technologies involved.

Java

Submission + - Browser Exploit Kits Using Built-in Java Feature (krebsonsecurity.com)

tsu doh nimh writes: Security experts from several different organizations are tracking an increase in Windows malware compromises via Java, although not from a vulnerability in the widely installed software: the threat comes from a feature of Java that prompts the user to download and run a Java applet. Kaspersky said it saw a huge uptick in PCs compromised by Java exploits in December, but that the biggest change was the use of this Java feature for social engineering. Brian Krebs writes about this trend, and looks at two new exploit packs that are powered mainly by Java flaws, including one pack that advertises this feature as an exploit that works on all Java versions.

Comment Re:Install before update ok? (Score 1) 739

So I store the data from the other partition off to a flash drive. Now how do I retrieve the 10GB used for the drive back without having to reformat? If I reformat then I lose all my saved game data, downloaded games, demos, themes, etc. If I back up everything and reinstall it then the partition remains. I didn't use the other OS option that often so it's not that big of a deal with me to not have it anymore. However, I should be able to retrieve the 10GB on the other OS partition and join it to the main partition without much hassle. This is beginning to sound as if I'll just lose the 10GB, unless I want to reformat and lose all my saved game data.

Role Playing (Games)

Looking Back At Dungeons & Dragons 189

An anonymous reader sends in a nostalgic piece about Dungeons & Dragons and the influence it's had on games and gamers for the past 36 years. Quoting: "Maybe there was something in the air during the early '70s. Maybe it was historically inevitable. But it seems way more than convenient coincidence that Gygax and Arneson got their first packet of rules for D&D out the door in 1974, the same year Nolan Bushnell managed to cobble together a little arcade machine called Pong. We've never had fun quite the same way since. Looking back, these two events set today's world of gaming into motion — the Romulus and Remus of modern game civilization. For the rest of forever, we would sit around and argue whether games should let us do more or tell us better stories."
Games

Game Endings Going Out of Style? 190

An article in the Guardian asks whether the focus of modern games has shifted away from having a clear-cut ending and toward indefinite entertainment instead. With the rise of achievements, frequent content updates and open-ended worlds, it seems like publishers and developers are doing everything they can to help this trend. Quoting: "Particularly before the advent of 'saving,' the completion of even a simple game could take huge amounts of patience, effort and time. The ending, like those last pages of a book, was a key reason why we started playing in the first place. Sure, multiplayer and arcade style games still had their place, but fond 8, 16 and 32-bit memories consist more of completion and satisfaction than particular levels or tricky moments. Over the past few years, however, the idea of a game as simply something to 'finish' has shifted somewhat. For starters, the availability of downloadable content means no story need ever end, as long as the makers think there's a paying audience. Also, the ubiquity of broadband means multiplayer gaming is now the standard, not the exception it once was. There is no real 'finish' to most MMORPGs."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Duke Nukem Forever Not Dead? (Yes, This Again) 195

kaychoro writes "There may be hope for Duke Nukem Forever (again). 'Jon St. John, better known as the voice of Duke Nukem, said some interesting words during a panel discussion at the Music and Games Festival (MAGFest) that took place January 1 – 4 in Alexandria, Virginia, according to Pixel Enemy. Answering a question from the crowd regarding DNF, St. John said: "... let me go ahead and tell you right now that I'm not allowed to talk about Duke Nukem Forever. No, no, don't be disappointed, read between the lines — why am I not allowed to talk about it?"'"
Space

Big Dipper "Star" Actually a Sextuplet System 88

Theosis sends word that an astronomer at the University of Rochester and his colleagues have made the surprise discovery that Alcor, one of the brightest stars in the Big Dipper, is actually two stars; and it is apparently gravitationally bound to the four-star Mizar system, making the whole group a sextuplet. This would make the Mizar-Alcor sextuplet the second-nearest such system known. The discovery is especially surprising because Alcor is one of the most studied stars in the sky. The Mizar-Alcor system has been involved in many "firsts" in the history of astronomy: "Benedetto Castelli, Galileo's protege and collaborator, first observed with a telescope that Mizar was not a single star in 1617, and Galileo observed it a week after hearing about this from Castelli, and noted it in his notebooks... Those two stars, called Mizar A and Mizar B, together with Alcor, in 1857 became the first binary stars ever photographed through a telescope. In 1890, Mizar A was discovered to itself be a binary, being the first binary to be discovered using spectroscopy. In 1908, spectroscopy revealed that Mizar B was also a pair of stars, making the group the first-known quintuple star system."
Medicine

Method To Repair Damaged Adult Nerves Discovered 128

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have discovered a promising method to regrow damaged nerves in adults. Brain and spinal-cord injuries typically leave people with permanent impairment because the injured nerve fibers (axons) cannot regrow. A study from Harvard and Carleton University, published in the December 10 issue of the journal Neuron, shows that axons can regenerate vigorously in a mouse model when a gene that suppresses natural growth factors is deleted. Here is the journal article (subscription required to view more than the abstract)."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Google

IE Should Use Google's Malware List 109

Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes with an idea that he thinks could help keep browsing on Microsoft's browser more secure for users — and benefit Microsoft as a result. "Tests show that IE's malware filter performs well against other browsers that use the Safe Browsing blacklist from Google. But wouldn't IE's filter be even more effective if it used both filter lists at the same time? And are the political obstacles to that really so insurmountable?" Read on for the rest of a plan that seems a lot more than half-baked.

Comment Re:Good luck ever finding a job now (Score 1) 1251

I feel sorry for those people who share her name. They are going to have this stigma with them whenever they try and find a job. I guess if I shared her name and looking for a new job I would place on my resume that I am not that Trina Thompson. It would be funny if all the other Trina Thompsons could file a class action lawsuit on this one for defamation.

Comment Hospitals and Science (Score 1) 240

Although it would be great to have a home theater or a sport's stadium with all this technology, I see the most benefit going to hospitals and research buildings. It would lead to great detail of the area they are examining, scanning or performing surgery on.

Just don't imagine a doctor performing a colonoscopy and watching it on the this kind of screen.

Comment Matrix Style.. (Score 1) 591

Yeah, I'm sure that's what the two cops who went in to bust Trinity at the beginning of the Matrix thought, and they ended up in a world of hurt..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to compare a 29 year old still living with his parents to Trinity, but ya never know what you're gonna get..

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