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Comment Gangs of NY (Score 1) 2058

by SpeedyGonz (#33812158) Attached to: Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee
But to just stand there and watch it burn? That should be criminal, what if people died? I think the firefighters should go to jail. What has his world come to when the people sworn to serve and protect decide not to? Sounds like anarchy.

My thoughts exactly.

Kinda reminds me of that scene of the fire in gangs of NY. All that's missing is the firefighters sacking the neighbor's house.

Comment Idle (Score 1) 772

by SpeedyGonz (#33499348) Attached to: Researchers Say Happiness Costs $75K
75k / 12 = 6250 $ per month, I guess that's the figure they're pointing at. Sure, the story title says 75k flat, but the summary clearly says 75k as an annual sum.

As for the picture of the coins with smileys, as i get it, suggests money + happiness, a good match for the story title. I can't see what is wrong with that.

A case of tabloid-like effectism at most, but which media outlet, big or small, isn't guilty of that these days?

Besides, the story is under the idle category. IMHO, it shouldn't be taken that seriously.

Comment Sounds fabricated (Score 1) 620

by SpeedyGonz (#33198888) Attached to: <em>EVE</em> Player Loses $1,200 Worth of Game Time In-Game
Seriously, a kestrel solo in Jita?

That's why i call BS on this. No player I know would risk such a ginormous loot on a T1 frig, no cloak, no backup, no insta-warp, no nada, on possibly the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the entire cluster?.

The cynic in me could say this is a sort of publicity stunt/political smokescreen from CCP to deflect attention from that recent PR bomb.

For those unfamiliar with it: CCP years ago, after *another* PR snafu, designated a group of player-elected players to form a committee, called the "council of stellar management" (CSM) to allow players to elevate grievances and petitions to CCP's top brass, CCP supposedly even bestowing on them "shareholder" power or something of the sort (Pure BS if you ask me). Couple of weeks ago(last week even?), CCP essentially slipped that they didn't give a rat's ass about the CSM...

Comment Kepler (Score 3, Insightful) 206

by SpeedyGonz (#33043052) Attached to: Kepler Investigator Says 'Galaxy Is Rich In Earth-Like Planets'
I agree. Water presence? Temperature within habitable range? At least a primordial atmosphere? Not sure if Kepler is the right tool to collect that kind of data, but to call them "earth like" seems premature. Granted, if the size approaches that of earth chances are they're rocky, solid planets, but that's it.

Comment Dyson Spheres (Score 1) 237

by SpeedyGonz (#30907512) Attached to: Universe Closer To Heat Death Than Once Thought
Considering that red dwarfs are expected to last trillions of years (no red dwarf has ever died. The universe is too young), we just need to move to a planet around one of them, assuming they have habitable planets.

Us having the ability to travel all those light years to a red dwarf and possibly perishing because there are no habitable planets?

If we can travel FTL by then, why not imagining that we're able to send unmanned ships to build a cozy sphere around the geezer star, and then moving in?
AMD

Intel and AMD Settle Antitrust, Patent Lawsuits 165

Posted by Soulskill from the mr.-otellini-tear-down-that-wall dept.
Kohenkatz writes "Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD. In return, AMD will drop its lawsuits about patent and antitrust complaints. The two companies released this joint statement: 'While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.' The press release also says, 'Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement,' and that 'Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement.'"
Patents

US Supreme Court Skeptical of Business Method Patents 160

Posted by kdawson from the feeling-bilski dept.
Trepidity writes "The US Supreme Court held oral argument Monday in Bilski, a business-methods patent case that might also have important implications for software patents (We have previously discussed the case several times). The tone of the argument appears to be good news, as the justices were very skeptical of the broad patentability claims. They even brought up a parade of absurd hypothetical patents quite similar to the ones Slashdotters tend to mention in these kinds of debates. Roberts surmised that 'buy low, sell high' might be a patentable business method, Sotomayor wondered if speed-dating could be patentable, Breyer questioned whether a professor could patent a lesson plan that kept his students from falling asleep, and Scalia brought up the old-time radio soap opera Lorenzo Jones, featuring a hare-brained inventor with delusions of getting rich." Patently O has good blow-by-blow coverage of the day's proceedings. Official argument transcripts will be up soon, they say.
Privacy

In the UK, Big Brother Recedes and Advances 176

Posted by kdawson from the now-get-rid-of-the-damn-cameras dept.
PeterAitch writes "The UK government's Home Office has put a hold on their surveillance project to track details of everybody's email, mobile phone, text, and Web use after being warned of problems with privacy as well as technical feasibility and high costs." Four hours before the above Guardian story was filed, the BBC reported that the same Home Office insisted that it will push ahead with plans "to compel communication service providers to collect and retain records of communications from a wider range of internet sources, from social networks through to chatrooms and unorthodox methods, such as within online games."
Games

Avataritis — On the Abundance of Customizable Game Characters 78

Posted by Soulskill from the forty-nine-precisely-placed-freckles dept.
Martyn Zachary writes "The Slowdown has posted a new critique, 'Avataritis,' that attempts to portray the utilization of character customization as a pandemic, emotional response on behalf of publishers and developers to finding the easiest, most efficient solution to the very unique dilemma presented by the enlarging, widening player base of video games. 'No mechanisms are in place stopping developers from writing and designing heterogeneous yet fully structured, narrative-based computer games with carefully constructed and immutable, unchangeable characters.' The article discusses the emergence and role of gender criticism and research in relation to the recent proliferation of the customizable avatar. The story also dissects the very act of character creation, subsequently aiming to clarify several semantic distortions related to the terminology utilized in character creation, and in turn breaking apart the concepts of relatability and understandability, wholly differentiating the two. The overarching analysis is finally related to examples from the gaming marketplace, where many continue to corroborate apparent falsehoods and misunderstandings in relation to the utilization of the avatar. Ultimately, the writer hopes to dissuade readers, developers and players from believing that written narratives are going away as customization and emergent content are entering video games with full force."

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