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Comment Not surprising. (Score 1) 179

by Techguy666 (#48658281) Attached to: Study: Light-Emitting Screens Before Bedtime Disrupt Sleep
Seems like common sense, biologically. More directed lights and more intense lights hitting an eyeball probably tricks the mind into wakefulness; less directed or less intense lights is more conducive to sleep behaviour. Not all that surprising. Also, this study can't be entirely conclusive with only 12 subjects being tested... I'm just going to go "meh" for now.

Submission + - NATO Set to Equate 'Cyberattacks' with Global Warfare (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At the upcoming NATO meeting, according to the New York Times, the 28 member States are expected to ratify "a far-reaching change in the organization’s mission of collective defense: For the first time, a cyberattack on any of the 28 NATO nations could be declared an attack on all of them, much like a ground invasion or an airborne bombing.”

A former NATO ambassador describes NATO's technological capability as "pretty basic" and suggests any counter-cyberattacks would likely be lodged by member states (meaning the US and maybe Britain). He opines, "It's a measure of how far we've come on this issue that there's now a consensus that a cyberattack could be as devastating as any other kind of attack, maybe even more so."

Helpfully, the agreement avoids defining what sort of 'cyberattack' would warrant an armed response. The Times describes the agreement as "deliberately unclear."

Comment Re:fear (Score 2) 152

by Techguy666 (#47718579) Attached to: China Pulls Plug On Genetically Modified Rice and Corn

Public skepticism about GMO's has been growing in China and the government there is extremely concerned with anything that can enrage popular discontent.

Just because it's no longer legal to grow genetically modified foods in China doesn't mean that Chinese corporations won't use them. Making GM seeds illegal cuts out a lot of red tape for both the government and the companies, gives China plausible deniability if things go badly in the future, and also gives the government a way to research China's own GMO crops that will somehow be different from the dangerous Western-created GMO products.

Earth

Submission + - NASA's Hansen Calls Out Obama on Climate Change

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dr James Hansen, director of the Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who first made warnings about climate change in the 1980s, writes in the NY Times that he was troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.” According to Hansen "Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now." Hansen says that instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world’s governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year. "President Obama speaks of a “planet in peril,” but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course. Our leaders must speak candidly to the public — which yearns for open, honest discussion — explaining that our continued technological leadership and economic well-being demand a reasoned change of our energy course.""
IBM

Submission + - IBM celebrating 10 years since Deep Blue beating Kasparov (ibm.com) 2

Submitted by techtech
techtech writes: On May 11, 1997, an IBM computer called IBM ® Deep Blue ® beat the world chess champion after a six-game match: two wins for IBM, one for the champion and three draws. The match lasted several days and received massive media coverage around the world. It was the classic plot line of man vs. machine. Behind the contest, however, was important computer science, pushing forward the ability of computers to handle the kinds of complex calculations needed to help discover new medical drugs; do the broad financial modeling needed to identify trends and do risk analysis; handle large database searches; and perform massive calculations needed in many fields of science.
Businesses

Failed Games That Damaged Or Killed Their Companies 397

Posted by Soulskill from the cause-or-symptom dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Develop has an excellent piece up profiling a bunch of average to awful titles that flopped so hard they harmed or sunk their studio or publisher. The list includes Haze, Enter The Matrix, Hellgate: London, Daikatana, Tabula Rasa, and — of course — Duke Nukem Forever. 'Daikatana was finally released in June 2000, over two and a half years late. Gamers weren't convinced the wait was worth it. A buggy game with sidekicks (touted as an innovation) who more often caused you hindrance than helped ... achieved an average rating of 53. By this time, Eidos is believed to have invested over $25 million in the studio. And they called it a day. Eidos closed the Dallas Ion Storm office in 2001.'"
Businesses

Financial Issues May Force Changes On Games Industry 246

Posted by Soulskill from the go-go-gadget-indies dept.
krou writes "According to comments made at the Edinburgh Interactive conference, operating costs of making games are spiraling upwards, and there has been 'significant disruption' to the games industry's business model. Games are getting much bigger and taking longer to develop, the console market is fragmented, and the cost of licensing intellectual property has gone up. All of this, says Edward Williams from BMO Capital Markets, means that 'For Western publishers, profitability hasn't grown at all in the past few years and that's before we take 2009 into account.' Recent figures suggest game sales have fallen 29% over the last 12 months. While westerners still relied on putting games on DVDs and selling them through retail channels, 'Chinese developers focused primarily on the PC market and used direct download, rather than retail stores, to get games to consumers,' and the lack of console users 'meant developers there did not have to pay royalties to console makers.' Peter Moore of EA Sports said that significant changes will come in the future, particularly in electronic purchasing of games."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft limits number of Hotmail recipients (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg
crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: Apparently, Microsoft has decided that only the first 10 hotmail or msn email recipients will get the mail. The rest will be bounced back with a 552: Too Many Recipients error. From TFA:

Now we're fielding reader tips that Hotmail has placed Draconian limits on the number of Hotmail recipients who can receive an email. The first 10 Hotmail addresses included in a mass email go through just fine, according to these reports. But any additional addresses are returned to sender with a message that reads: "552 Too many recipients." (Microsoft denies it has placed any such restriction on the number of senders.)

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Declares Old File Formats "Less Secu

Submitted by Nail
Nail writes: In the KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810

Microsoft's web site states:

"After you install Office 2003 SP3, some Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, and Corel Draw (.cdr) file formats are blocked. By default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you."

I think they MEAN to say that Microsoft Office 2003 cannot open these old file formats in a secure way, but I don't work for them, so it is difficult for me to say.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - DirectX 10 Gaming Performance Review (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "DirectX 10 has been the big (and only) dangling carrot that Microsoft has been holding over PC gamers' heads with their Vista OS since its debut in January. Even though the hardware to run DX10 was out before that, the games that actually use it are just now starting to trickle onto shelves. Now with both the hardware and software available we can determine whether AMD's or NVIDIA's most recent generation of graphics processors is best suited for DX10 gaming. The results that PC Perspective have compiled on the currently available DX10 games might surprise you, as NVIDIA's cards dominate in both single and multi-GPU benchmarks."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Minister: Games less important than TV and Film (on.net)

Submitted by
UgLyPuNk
UgLyPuNk writes: "It's often been an Australian complaint that while we seem to pride ourselves in supporting "the arts", video games never seem to get the same attention. This has come to the forefront again today, following news that the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, The Hon. Helen Coonan, has dismissed a call from the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) for a 40% rebate to assist game developers and promote the growth of the industry in this country.

The recent budget outlined a Screen Media Support Package, which "has the potential" to support screen content producers of all kinds — seemingly as long as the screen is of the television or movie variety."
Security

Submission + - Journalist Test Drives The Pain Ray Gun (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by Fantastic Lad
Fantastic Lad writes: This machine has the ability to inflict limitless, unbearable pain. When turned on, Raytheon's 'Silent Guardian' emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation — similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker — that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings. It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile. Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury. The demo model looks like a small speaker. (Image) With practical application is just around the corner, I wonder if anybody at that trade show was selling Faraday body suits. . ?
User Journal

Submission + - IT Titles 1

Submitted by
NickGT
NickGT writes: "What happened to just being the IT guy? Now we have more names for IT personnel than jobs for them to do. Undoubtedly you've heard the basic Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, Programmer, and Director of IT but what about the CIO, CITO, CISO, Computer Operator, Data Architect, Enterprise Operations Director, Add your acronym or funny title here... The sad part is that these names actually dictate the likelihood you will or wont get hired at your next job. I'm in a position where I am the "IT guy"(I run the show), I was the "Director of IT" and they decided that sounded too snoody so they changed that to "IT Network Technician". Call it what you want I am the only IT person at a medical billing firm and we have around 125 employees and another 30 in India, we have 7 Physical offices that aren't particularly close together. We work with a client list that's around 70 or so medium and up Dr's offices all with their own special needs. I can't even go on vacation because I'm "on call", although they give me four weeks just to be nice. Yet if you went by my new job title you'd think I was a third or fourth tier network admin running around labeling patch cables. Anybody else run into these Title issue at small or medium business, and if so what did you do?! Also list your funny IT titles!"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Scientists develop non-stick gum... (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by Zephida
Zephida writes: Non-stick chewing gum which cannot glue itself to pavements, seats or shoes — and with the added bonus of being completely bio-degradable — has been invented by a British scientist in what is thought to be a world first
The gum contains a new kind of rubber-like polymer that lacks the stickiness of conventional chewing gums, which have become a costly environmental problem for local councils because of the millions of discarded cuds which remain glued to pavements and buildings for years.

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