adampub - Slashdot User

Comment ...WHY? (Score 1) 147

by adampub on Thursday January 06, 2011 @10:18AM (#34775746) Attached to: Microsoft Puts Datacenter In a Barn

If it's a barn-like structure, then, why does it need windows? But, no seriously. Microsoft, keep your future where your future belongs.

Zynga and Blizzard Sued Over Game Patent 179

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday January 06, 2011 @07:06AM from the swinging-for-the-fences dept.

eldavojohn writes "Thinking about developing a game involving a 'database driven online distributed tournament system?' Well, you had better talk to Walker Digital or risk a lawsuit, because Walker Digital claims to have patented that 'invention' back in 2002. The patent in question has resulted in some legal matters for the makers of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War, Blur, Wolfenstein, DJ Hero 2, Golden Eye 007, World of Warcraft and its expansions, Mafia Wars, and many others.' Walker Digital (parent company of Priceline.com) said it's not sure how much damages are going to be, and requested that through discovery in the court. If you think Walker Digital is not a patent troll, check out their lawsuit from two months ago against Facebook for using privacy controls Walker Digital claims to have patented. It would seem that any online competitive game that uses a database to select and reward contestants in a tournament could potentially fall under this patent — of course, those with the deepest coffers will be cherrypicked first."

Comment Really? (Score 1) 58

by adampub on Wednesday January 05, 2011 @09:47AM (#34764256) Attached to: Interactive, Emotion-Detecting Robot Developed

Huh, I am surprised at this. I am only an early engineer, doing a research project for my class, but I know a little more about this stuff than most others, and I don't understand how it is reading the emotions of the other humans interacting with it. Is it a combination of voice and the muscles in the face? Or just one of the two?

Comment huh. (Score 1) 438

by adampub on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @10:04AM (#34753298) Attached to: Police Can Search Cell Phones Without Warrants

Well, I would say thats a very interesting thing to do. Part of me wants to disagree with it, but then I realize that they generally do have a reason anyways. For example, doesn't that deprive them- just a little bit - of the human need for security? Then I contradicted myself with the thoughts of the fact that they don't really deserve security if they are only mistreating it anyways. An interesting read!

Comment well It's about time. (Score 1) 1

by adampub on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @09:37AM (#34753058) Attached to: India Rejects HIV Drug Patent

well; It's about time. I have been hearing about HIV/AIDS being a huge problem since 4 years ago, or so, and I am really glad that with 7,000,000,000 people in the world, it only took us THIS long to find a drug.

Police Can Search Cell Phones Without Warrants 438

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @09:15AM from the just-like-opening-a-wallet dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The California Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 2 to allow police to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody. Under US Supreme Court precedents, 'this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body... but also to open and examine what they find,' the state court said. The dissenting justices said those rulings shouldn't be extended to modern cell phones that can store huge amounts of data and that the decision allows police 'to rummage at leisure through the wealth of personal and business information that can be carried on a mobile phone or handheld computer merely because the device was taken from an arrestee's person.' Interestingly enough, the Ohio Supreme Court reached an opposite conclusion in a December 2009 ruling that police had violated drug defendants' rights by searching their cell phones after their arrests. The Ohio-California split could prompt the US Supreme Court to take up the issue, says California Deputy Attorney General Victoria Wilson, who represented the prosecution in the case."

New Zealand Government Opens UFO Files 100

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 23, 2010 @05:38AM from the the-truth-is-down-there dept.

astroengine writes "Following hot on the heels of a series of international UFO sighting disclosures, the New Zealand government has joined the party and made public 2,000 pages of UFO eyewitness accounts dating back to 1952. Helpfully, the NZ newspaper The Dominion Post has scanned the documents and has made them available online. Among the accounts of alien encounters and strange lights in the sky is one of New Zealand's most famous UFO mystery: the Kaikoura sighting. But was it aliens? Probably not, but it makes for an entertaining read."

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