Melchett - Slashdot User

Submission + - LSD can treat alcoholism (nature.com) 1

Submitted by ananyo on Friday March 09, 2012 @06:45AM

ananyo writes: LSD has potential as a treatment for alcoholism, according to a comprehensive retrospective analysis of studies published in the late 1960s and early 1970s (http://www.nature.com/news/lsd-helps-to-treat-alcoholism-1.10200).

The researchers sifted through thousands of records to collect data from randomized, double-blind trials that compared one dose of LSD to a placebo. Of 536 participants in six trials, 59% of people receiving LSD reported lower levels of alcohol misuse, compared to 38% of people who received a placebo (full paper (PDF) http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/08/0269881112439253.full.pdf+html). The study adds to the weight of evidence that hallucinogenic drugs may have important medical uses, including, for example, the alleviation of cluster headaches (http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/06/28/0416208/lsd-alleviates-suicide-headaches).

Submission + - Valve Switching Team Fortress 2 to Free-to-play Increased Revenue Twelvefold (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08, 2012 @03:16PM

An anonymous reader writes: We've frequently discussed the growing trend among video game publishers to adopt a business model in which downloading and playing the game is free, but part of the gameplay is supported by microtransactions. There have been a number of success stories, such as Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. During a talk at the Game Developers Conference this week, Valve's Joe Ludwig officially added Team Fortress 2 to that list, revealing that the game has seen a 12-fold increase in revenue since the switch. He said, 'The trouble is, when you're a AAA box game, the only people who can earn you new revenue are the people who haven't bought your game. This drives you to build new content to attract new people. There's a fundamental tension between building the game to satisfy existing players and attract new players.' He also explained how they tried to do right by their existing playerbase: 'We dealt with the pay-to-win concern in a few ways. The first was to make items involve tradeoffs, so there's no clear winner between two items. But by far the biggest thing we did to change this perception was to make all the items that change the game free. You can get them from item drops, or from the crafting system. It might be a little easier to buy them in the store, but you can get them without paying.'

Comment Re:apple tv (Score 1) 194

by Melchett on Friday February 11, 2011 @07:57AM (#35172320) Attached to: Will the Apple TV Become a Gaming Platform?

If Apple was giving up on Apple TV, it would have done it a long time ago. An Apple TV with apps and games makes perfect sense. I'm not convinced it will be successful outside the Apple fanbase, but they'll keep on trying because there's money to be made in selling films and TV programs on-demand.

Comment Re:How would this work? (Score 1) 48

by Melchett on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @09:36AM (#35149468) Attached to: HTC Invests $40 Million In OnLive

Some interesting ideas. I could see a tablet as a docking Onlive system, but would people pay extra for the functionality or be happy to have something dedicated sitting under their TV? The actual OnLive box is hardly obtrusive, is it? Way too many ifs and maybes in this equation for me, but it's interesting nonetheless. I like HTC, so I hope it leads to something fruitful.

Submission + - Are you sure SHA-1+salt is enough for passwords? (f-secure.com)

Submitted by Melchett on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @09:04AM

Melchett writes: It's all too common that Web (and other) applications use MD5, SHA1, or SHA-256 to hash user passwords, and more enlightened developers even salt the password. And over the years I've seen heated discussions on just how salt values should be generated and on how long they should be.

Unfortunately in most cases people overlook the fact that MD and SHA hash families are designed for computational speed, and the quality of your salt values doesn't really matter when an attacker has gained full control, as happened with rootkit.com. When an attacker has root access, they will get your passwords, salt, and the code that you use to verify the passwords.

Comment How would this work? (Score 2) 48

by Melchett on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @08:46AM (#35149112) Attached to: HTC Invests $40 Million In OnLive

Is it really practical to play a PC or console game on a mobile or tablet? Talk about niche within a niche. Games designed specifically for a tablet will offer a far better experience, and it's as if the next-generation of tablets have a shortage of processing power. Maybe HTC fancies making its own OnLive box with some extra home-cooked features - Apple TV with games anyone?

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