Open Sarcasm Fighting Copyrighted Punctuation 155

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 26, 2010 @10:51AM from the free-language dept.

pinkushun writes "SarcMark is a copyrighted punctuation mark, that claims 'It's time that sarcasm is treated equally!' Pretty damn cheeky while they're charging for their software, which only inserts their punctuation through a hotkey. Open Sarcasm is destroying SarcMark by advocating a new punctuation mark (not displaying here properly — alt+U0161) as the new open and free sarcasm symbol. Either way, this will be one interesting turnout. With bad unicode support across the web, displaying the characters properly might be an issue. PS Left out sarcastic end sentence as Slashdot doesn't display the U0161 character."

Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic? 561

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 15, 2010 @12:46PM from the you-ever-see-the-back-of-a-$20-bill-on-sound? dept.

ehrichweiss writes "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is warning parents and teachers of a new threat to our children: sounds. Apparently kids are now discovering binaural beats and using them to get 'physiological effects.' The report goes on with everyone suggesting that such aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage and even has one student claiming there are 'demons' involved. Anyone who has used one of those light/sound machines knows all about the effects that these sounds will give and to state that they will lead kids to do drugs is nonsense at best. It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."

Where Are the Joysticks For Retro Gaming? 262

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 09, 2010 @03:12AM from the ch-flightstick-pro-was-aces-for-x-wing dept.

Doctor O writes "With all those nice emulators for classic gaming around (such as MAME, VICE or Stella) I want to establish monthly retro gaming evenings with some friends. The problem is I can't find any good joysticks for that purpose. There's a new version of the legendary Competition Pro, but judging from the many one-star reviews on Amazon, it's terrible. I found the USB version of the classic Atari Joystick, but it doesn't seem to be available and would have prohibitive shipping costs to Germany anyway. So, Slashdot to the rescue — where are the suitable USB joysticks for retro gaming?"

The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships 207

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday June 29, 2010 @09:41AM from the there's-a-button-for-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The much-anticipated, much-mocked 18-button joystick mouse from WarMouse is now shipping. The press release features an impressive set of user quotes from game designer Chris Taylor, new SFWA president John Scalzi, and a doctor who runs a medical software company. Crazy or not, it's obviously more than just a gaming mouse."

Believing You Are Very Good Or Evil Boosts Your Physical Capabilities 192

Posted by samzenpus on Monday June 28, 2010 @12:03PM from the strength-of-heart dept.

Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."

Porting Lemmings In 36 Hours 154

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday June 27, 2010 @11:26PM from the first-in-line dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Aaron Ardiri challenged himself to port his classic PalmOS version of Lemmings to the iPhone, Palm Pre, Mac, and Windows. The porting was done using his own dev environment, which creates native C versions of the game. He liveblogged the whole thing, and finished after only 36 hours with an iPhone version and a Palm Pre version awaiting submission, and free versions for Windows and Mac available on his site."

Rotten Office Fridge Cleanup Sends 7 To Hospital 410

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 13, 2009 @02:21PM from the step-away-from-the-handle dept.

bokske writes "An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in. Just another day at the office."

Comment Re:Missing option - On a Console! (Score 1) 744

by Tsargon on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @05:07PM (#17925792) Attached to: What was your first programming language?

Yes! That's how I started, too! I remember my dad bringing home the cartridge and the book so he could learn it. I read the whole book and typed in every program (remember Creepy Crawler?) and wrote a few of my own. I remember thinking that assembly was silly and wrote my own programs in hex machine code. It was a neat program, but I remember being really disappointed too that you couldn't save the programs. Someone actually took the time to enter the entire Computer Intro manual: http://www.ozyr.com/o2/o2comput.html.

After that, I had a Timex Sinclair 1000 and learned Basic on it. It was a disappointment. Whenever I hit the space bar on the membrane keyboard a little too hard, it would reboot the machine.

That lead to a Commodore 64 (still have it, still works and I still use it!) where I learned Basic, assembler and then C.

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