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Comment Re:Maybe I got something wrong, but... (Score 1) 107

by Zekasu (#27965731) Attached to: The Best Achievements

I can't help but think you're making a reference to vanilla World of Warcraft.

I agree, however. After going through tiers 1-8.5, the game's more like a second job than a game anymore. Being in a guild for progression, being the first to down Yogg-Saron in a 25-man raid is nice, but it's definitely not worth it. I mean, there's a push to be better and out-damage everyone else, but sometimes... Sometimes, I wish I could have had that lost sleep rather than that new weapon.
Data Storage

Data Centers Expected to Pollute More Than Airlines by 2020 322

Posted by timothy from the it's-all-that-smut-in-the-wires dept.
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes with a link to a New York Times story on a source of pollution that doesn't leave contrails: "The world's data centers are projected to surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co. ... [C]omputer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities as a whole are used at 56 percent of peak performance." Data centers, though, might have more options for going green than airlines do, given present technology.
Businesses

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Takeover Offer 336

Posted by timothy from the brinksmanship-in-the-pac-no-west dept.
mksmac writes "According to the KOMO TV Website, Microsoft has withdrawn its bid for Yahoo after presenting them with an increased offer that was subsequently declined by Yahoo. Frankly, this seems like a smarter decision on Microsoft's part, but I'd like to hear how other people feel about the deal. Should Microsoft have walked away, pressured Yahoo via a hostile takeover or sweetened the pot until Yahoo gave in?" For those who prefer it, the NYT also has coverage, and the story is also at news.com, among many others. I like the Beeb's version as well. And for the Microsoft-centric explanation of why the courtship is over, see Steve Balmer's letter to Jerry Yang.
Businesses

Submission + - MPAA Forced To Take Down University Toolkit (livejournal.com)

Submitted by
bobbocanfly
bobbocanfly writes: "An Ubuntu developer has succeeded in getting the MPAA to remove their "University Toolkit" after claims it violated the GNU GPL. After several attempts to contact the MPAA directly the developer eventually emailed the groups ISP and the violating software was taken down."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - New way to ID invisible intruders on wireless LANs (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Bergkamp10
Bergkamp10 writes: Australia's University of Technology in Queensland (QUT) has created a groundbreaking new system that can detect invisible intruders on wireless LANs. Wireless networks have been almost impossible to thoroughly secure as they possess no clearly defined boundaries, instead they are defined by the quality and strength of the receiving antenna. QUT Information Security Institute researcher Dr Jason Smith has invented a new system to detect eavesdropping on unencrypted networks or active hijackings of computer sessions when a legitimate user who is logged onto the network leaves the connection. Smith has created a series of monitoring techniques that when used together can detect both attackers and configuration mistakes in network devices. According to Smith, ""the strength of the signal travelling in a wireless network and the round trip time of the signal are both monitored because they will change if an intruder enters the network. Separately monitoring the signal and round trip time is unreliable, but correlating them against each other makes the system accurate," he said. Smith goes on to list further features and benefits of the new system and how threats can be responded to.
Biotech

New Nerve Gas Antidotes 110

Posted by Zonk from the i've-never-had-the-nerve dept.
SoyChemist writes "Scientists from Korea and the Czech Republic have discovered new drugs that can counteract the chemical overload caused by nerve gas. All of the experimental medications belong to a family of chemicals called oximes. Those molecules reactivate the enzyme that is damaged by the chemical weapons. Last year, the FDA approved the first combined atropine and oxime auto-injector for use by emergency personnel. Israel has been providing them to their citizens since the first Gulf War."
Intel

Submission + - Intel Demos Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Quad-Core At IDF (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Intel demonstrated a dual socket gaming rig at IDF this week, based on their Skulltrail platform with the X38 chipset. The interesting thing about this machine wasn't just that it had 45nm quad-core CPUs in its sockets, as well as PCI Express 2.0 capable slots, but also that it was running a pair of NVIDIA graphics cards in SLI. That's right, SLI on an Intel chipset. No word whether or not X38 would officially be supported with SLI just yet. In fact, NVIDIA representatives noted Intel was buying NVIDIA nForce 100 SLI Southbridges just for this one Intel motherboard model."
Power

Method for $1/Watt Solar Panels Will Soon See Commercial Use 502

Posted by Zonk from the i'll-take-five dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A method developed at Colorado State University for crafting solar panels has been developed to the point where they are nearly ready for mass production. Professor W.S. Sampath's technique has resulted in a low-cost, high-efficiency process for creating the panels, which will soon be fabricated by a commercial interest. 'Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity and could power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity. Sampath has developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11% to 13%) at a very high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies.'"
Graphics

Submission + - Drawing on Air

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "In a recent article, PhysOrg.com reports that a team of computer scientists at Brown University has developed Drawing on Air, a haptic-aided interface to help artists to create 3D illustrations while wearing a virtual reality mask. 'The technique introduces two new strategies, using one hand or two hands, to give artists the tools they need for drawing different types of curves, and for viewing and editing their work.' The researchers hope that these techniques will improve the precision with which scientists can interact with their 3D data using a computer. This also would help artists to illustrate complicated artistic, scientific, and medical subjects. Read more for additional details and several pictures made with this system, a bat flight, a bearded man and a Swahili bride."
Businesses

$298 Wal-Mart PC Has OO.org, No Crapware 422

Posted by kdawson from the tell-me-again-why-dell-can't-do-this dept.
cristarol writes "Wal-Mart has begun selling a $298 PC (Everex IMPACT GC3502). It comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and OpenOffice.org 2.2, as well as a complete lack of crapware: 'Users accustomed to being bombarded with trialware offers and seeing their would-be pristine Windows desktops littered with shortcuts to AOL and other applications will likely be pleased at their absence from the GC3502.' The machine is targeted at the back-to-school market. The hardware is nothing to write home about: a 1.5GHz Via C7 with 1GB of RAM and integrated graphics, but as Ars points out, it should be more than capable of performing basic tasks." Dell sells a low-end PC through Wal-Mart for $200 more, and one assumes it is loaded with crapware. Anybody know for sure?

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