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Comment Re:Tracking (Score 1) 436

In what situation would pressing the "off" button on a GPS transmitter that is currently on fire achieve anything? I think in general, a GPS transmitter will do a pretty job of turning off all by itself when its components are on fire. The likelihood of an electrical signal to an electrical device that is currently on fire doing anything at all is very slim, including when that signal is "turn off".

There are already plenty of components on an aircraft that cannot be turned off by the pilot while in flight. The black box being the blindingly obvious example. They have transmitters that the pilot cannot turn off too, which is where the information in the article comes from. I have read that Malaysian airlines weren't using the transmitter to transmit more detailed information simply because they had not paid the subscription to use this advanced tracking. It seems like it would be helpful if such tracking systems automatically monitored the location of aircraft even if they don't do advanced performance monitoring purely to assist with emergency search and rescue.

Comment Re:Tracking (Score 1) 436

It's harder because putting satellites into space is harder than building cell towers but since both these things have already been done I'm not sure you're making a terribly relevant distinction. Modern aircraft have tracking systems that use satellite networks, the only real question is why is the pilot apparently able to disable it?

Comment Re:Tracking (Score 2) 436

I'm not sure you need to guarantee it resists all possible sabotage efforts. It just needs to not have an "off" button in the cockpit and be located in an inaccessible area of the aircraft. I assume the answer to this question is simply that the planes involved are probably fairly old, and that new planes do indeed have features like this. If I can buy a car with that sort of feature for anti-theft I'm sure putting it on a plane can't be terribly difficult.

Comment You think that's bad? (Score 1) 384

Oh, don't get distracted by just this one piece of news when there's been so much more revealed!

Max 4 person multiplayer! Region locking for co-op games! No offline single player! No mod support what so ever!

Sure, this RMT auction house is the shitty icing on the shit cake, but lets not lose sight of the complete mess this game is going to be even without this feature.

Source: http://www.destructoid.com/preview-diablo-iii-beta-207543.phtml

Comment Good luck with that! (Score 1) 443

I'm pretty sure nobody walks into a retailer looking to buy a game, finds that it's not stocked then just completely gives up. No, you simply walk into a different retailer and look for it there. And if you can't find it anywhere, you think "well, that was a massive waste of time, I should have just bought it online". Like on Steam for example.
Crime

Court Returns Stolen Stargate MMO To Founder 128

An anonymous reader writes "A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ended a bitter dispute over control of a Mesa video game company's assets, effectively giving the online combat game Stargate Resistance and the long-delayed MMORPG Stargate Worlds back to Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. Fresh Start tried to remove all of Cheyenne Mountain's assets from its offices on Feb. 24, but was prevented from doing so when the police arrived. Networking cords had been cut and left to hang loose, and PC cases were empty shells that had been gutted of components such as hard drives. But time may finally have run out for Worlds, Cheyenne Mountain's signature project: The ruling comes as MGM Studios has apparently terminated the license it granted in 2006 for the Arizona company to produce video games based on the Stargate movies and TV shows."
Crime

Submission + - Court returns stolen Stargate MMO to founder (evtrib.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ended a bitter dispute over control of a Mesa video game company’s assets, effectively giving the online combat game Stargate Resistance and the long-delayed MMORPG Stargate Worlds back to Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. Fresh Start tried to remove all of Cheyenne Mountain’s assets from its offices on Feb. 24, but was prevented from doing so when the police arrived. Networking cords had been cut and left to hang loose, and PC cases were empty shells that had been gutted of components such as hard drives. But time may finally have run out for Worlds, Cheyenne Mountain’s signature project: The ruling comes as MGM Studios has apparently terminated the license it granted in 2006 for the Arizona company to produce video games based on the Stargate movies and TV shows.
PC Games (Games)

Civ 5 Will Let You Import and Convert Civ 4 Maps 142

bbretterson writes "From an interview Bitmob conducted with Civilization 5 Lead Designer Jon Shafer: 'You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it — the conversion process will just do that for you automatically. We're hoping that the first week Civ 5 is out, people will use that function and port all of the Civ 4 stuff over to Civ 5, so everything will be out there already.'"
Games

Submission + - Games Workshop sues Warhammer Online fansite (warhammeralliance.com)

chalkyj writes: WarhammerAlliance.com (run for the last 5 years as one of the leading fansites for the MMORPG Warhammer Online) is being sued by Games Workshop for the use of the "Warhammer" name, "cybersquatting" and "unfair competition". This lawsuit is yet another in Games Workshop's disturbing pattern of suing their fans and hobbyists, this time going after a legitimate fansite for their MMORPG franchise. Read the complaint in full here.

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