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Facebook

Sex Drugs and Texting 287

Posted by samzenpus from the busy-hands-are-happy-hands dept.
statesman writes "The Associated Press reports that teens who text frequently are three and a half times more likely to have sex. A survey of 4,200 public high school students in the Cleveland area found that one in five students sent more than 120 text messages a day or spent more than 3 hours a day on Facebook. Students in this group were much more likely to have sex. Alcohol and drug use also correlate with frequent texting and heavy Facebook use."
Games

Too Much Multiplayer In Today's Games? 362

Posted by Soulskill from the nobody-needed-to-frag-each-other-while-stomping-koopas dept.
hornedrat writes "Gamepro discusses the idea that modern games put too much emphasis on multiplayer, and that players aren't as concerned about it as developers think. 'The current environment encourages developers to unnecessarily toss multiplayer into their games without caring about it — or even considering whether anyone will bother playing it. It’s like they're checking an invisible quota box that demands multiplayer's inclusion.' Personally I agree that too much emphasis is placed on competitive multiplayer. I play online, but only with my brother in games that allow co-operative modes, like Rainbow Six: Vegas and ARMA 2. 'My point isn't that developers shouldn't try and conquer Halo or Call of Duty. We'd never have any progress in this industry if developers didn't compete. Game companies, however, should think carefully about what they want their games to be, and more important, gamers should consider what they want. If a developer wants to eclipse Halo, then by all means, pour that effort into a multiplayer mode that's different.' I would be interested to know how many gamers really care about the multiplayer components of the games they buy."
NASA

NASA Revamps Historic 4-Million-kg Mars Antenna 66

Posted by Soulskill from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-bumper dept.
coondoggie writes NASA is working on some difficult renovations to reinvigorate its 70-meter-wide 'Mars antenna.' The antenna, a key cog in NASA's Deep Space Network, needs about $1.25M worth of what NASA calls major, delicate surgery. The revamp calls for lifting the antenna — about 4 million kilograms of finely tuned scientific instruments — to a height of about 5 millimeters so workers can replace the steel runner, walls and supporting grout."
Networking

OnLive Latency Tested 204

Posted by Soulskill from the in-the-case-of-ping-v.-pong dept.
The Digital Foundry blog has done an analysis of recently launched cloud gaming service OnLive, measuring latency across several different games. Quoting: "In a best-case scenario, we counted 10 frames delay between button and response on-screen, giving a 150ms latency once the display's contribution to the measurement was removed. Unreal Tournament III worked pretty well in sustaining that response during gameplay. However, other tests were not so consistent, with DiRT 2 weighing in at 167ms-200ms while Assassin's Creed II operated at a wide range of between 150ms-216ms. ... OnLive says that the system works within 1000 miles of its datacenters on any broadband connection and recommends 5mbps or better. We gave OnLive the best possible ISP service we could find: Verizon FiOS, offering a direct fiber optic connection to the home. Latency was also reduced still further simply due to the masses of bandwidth FiOS offers compared to bog standard ADSL: in our case, 25mbps."
Image

Doctor Slams Hospital's "Please" Policy 572

Posted by samzenpus from the paging-doctor-manners dept.
Administrators at England's Worthing Hospital are insisting that doctors say the magic word when writing orders for blood tests on weekends. If a doctor refuses to write "please" on the order, the test will be refused. From the article: "However, a doctor at the hospital said on condition of anonymity that he sees the policy as a money-saving measure that could prove dangerous for patients. 'I was shocked to come in on Sunday and find none of my bloods had been done from the night before because I'd not written "please,"' the doctor said. 'I had no results to guide treatment of patients. Myself and a senior nurse had to take the bloods ourselves, which added hours to our 12-hour shifts. This system puts patients' lives at risk. Doctors are wasting time doing the job of the technicians.'"
Businesses

Why Netbooks Will Soon Cost $99 221

Posted by Soulskill from the act-now-while-supplies-last dept.
CWmike sends along a ComputerWorld piece which predicts that "netbooks like the Asus Eee PC, the Dell Mini 9 and the HP 2133 Mini-Note will soon cost as little as $99. The catch? You'll need to commit to a two-year mobile broadband contract. The low cost will come courtesy of a subsidy identical to the one you already get with your cell phone. It's likely that HP is working with AT&T (they're reported to be talking), which announced a major strategic shift a couple of weeks ago that should result in AT&T stores selling nonphone gadgets that can take advantage of mobile broadband, including netbooks. What's more interesting is that low income and cheapskate buyers are starting to use iPhones as replacements or substitutes for netbook, notebook and even desktop PCs. The author's take: A very large number of people are increasingly looking to buy a single device — or, at least, subscribe to a single wireless account — for all their computing and communications needs, and at the lowest possible price."

Comment Personal Experience (Score 3, Interesting) 265

by Omega037 (#23499394) Attached to: How Japan's Biggest BBS Keeps Things Simple
I wish searching in Japanese was easier, but this site is an almost godlike source of knowledge about anything. From finding links to torrents to getting instructions on how to change settings on your keitai(cell phone), 2ch kicks ass.

The site is setup well in that clicking a link redirects you to a page displaying the actual offsite link address and letting you know it is going offsite. It puts a level between the site and the linked content which likely reduces liability and adds to overall security of the user.

The text only interface is rather unique for even Web 1.0 forums, but it allows fast loading, quick reading(well, as quick as you can read Japanese), and removes all the annoying clutter like avatars, images, signatures, and emoticons from view.

To say this site is not moderated doesn't cover it. I have seen links to copyrighted content(sometimes the content is posted online), information on making "terrorist weapons", and even child pornography both hidden and posted explicitly without being taken down.

In the interest of full disclosure though, I also visit a lot of other Japanese forums which I prefer over 2ch due to their being organized and on topic.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Football, Gardening, Health, and State of the "Circle" 52

Journal by dexterpexter

Football

I haven't watched hockey in ages, whereas I used to be a huge fan. Given that I don't see many games on television and horse racing season has a few months before it really kicks off, I decided to get back into football (that is not to say that I ever understood the game)...just in time for the last couple of games of the season. It was surreal watching one of my old favourites--Green Bay--play because Brett Favre is still in the game, which was a pleasant surprise.

Java

Journal Journal: Coffee Capitalism 10

Journal by dexterpexter

Even though I don't drink coffee (I grow it, I don't drink it), I read with great interest the article "Don't Fear Starbucks: Why the franchise actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses."

Links

Journal Journal: Addict. 18

Journal by dexterpexter

I made the decision earlier last week to kick the Pepsi habit. I will probably still allow myself the occasional reward of a tall, cold glass of carbonated crack whenever I join my friends at a fast food restaurant--because, let's face it, nothing goes better with a big helping of deepfried, greasy potato-like rectangles and a soggy burger than a refreshing papercup of high fructose corn syrup. But, if you believe everything people tell you, I will eventually find it too sweet to drink any

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