csavage - Slashdot User

Brain Training Games Don't Train Your Brain 151

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 21, 2010 @03:03PM from the maybe-it-just-takes-more-than-6-weeks dept.

Stoobalou writes with this excerpt from Thinq.co.uk: "A new study has shown that brain training games do little to exercise the grey matter. Millions of people who have been prodding away at their Nintendo DS portable consoles, smug in the knowledge that they are giving their brains a proper work-out, might have to rethink how they are going to stop the contents of their skulls turning into mush."

PS3 Hacked? 296

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 25, 2010 @07:35AM from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

Several readers have sent word that George Hotz (a.k.a. geohot), the hacker best known for unlocking Apple's iPhone, says he has now hacked the PlayStation 3. From his blog post: "I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip. 3 years, 2 months, 11 days...that's a pretty secure system. ... As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG."

Treading the Fuzzy Line Between Game Cloning and Theft 235

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 10, 2009 @07:24AM from the welcome-to-the-world-of-policeactioncraft dept.

eldavojohn writes "Ars analyzes some knockoffs and near-knockoffs in the gaming world that led to problems with the original developers. Jenova Chen, creator of Flower and flOw, discusses how he feels about the clones made of his games. Chen reveals his true feelings about the takedown of Aquatica (a flOw knockoff): 'What bothers me the most is that because of my own overreaction, I might have created a lot of inconvenience to the creator of Aquatica and interrupted his game-making. He is clearly talented, and certainly a fan of flOw. I hope he can continue creating video games, but with his own design.' The article also notes the apparent similarities between Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City (the two most popular Facebook games). Is that cloning or theft? Should clones be welcomed or abhorred?"

Submission + - How To Build A Short Foucalt Pendulum (arxivblog.com)

Submitted by

KentuckyFC

on Friday February 13, 2009 @10:47AM

KentuckyFC writes: "Set a pendulum in motion and you'll inevitably give it an ellipsoidal motion, which naturally tends to precess. That's bad news if you want to build a Foucalt Pendulum, a bob atttached to a long wire swinging in a vertical plane that appears to rotate as the Earth spins beneath it. The natural precession always tends to swamp the rotation due to the Earth's motion. There is a solution, however: the behaviour of the ellipsoidal motion is inversely proportional to the pendulum's length. So the traditional answer has been to use a very long pendulum (Foucalt's orginal in Paris is 67 meters long). Now scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have another solution (abstract). They've created a motor that drives a pendulum in a way that always cancels out the precession. That means the effect of Earth's rotation can be seen on much shorter pendulums such as the 3-meter pendulum they've tested their motor on. That's just the start though. They say there is no limit to how short the new generation of Foucalt Pendulums can be and even talk about the possibility of tabletop devices."

Submission + - SPAM: Bookworm ePub Reader Gets Boost from O'Reilly

Submitted by

stoolpigeon

on Friday February 13, 2009 @10:45AM

stoolpigeon writes: "O'Reilly announced recently that they are now hosting Bookworm, an online ePub reader. ePub is composed of three open standards ( OPS, OPF and OCF ) that allow users a great amount of flexibility without any lock-in. Bookworm allows users to upload ePub files, read them online from a pc or mobile device and also export them to mobile devices that support ePub. Bookworm can also export directly to Stanza. Once a user has uploaded their ePub books to Bookworm, they can track progress through them even across multiple devices."
Link to Original Source

Comment Teachers and Myspace (Score 1) 823

by csavage on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:21AM (#19036321) Attached to: Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues

Having a wife in education, and after reading this article (http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20070502234811315) , I would agree with the discipline of the student teacher. My wife is going through something very similar now, where a student teacher posted very negative comments about a student on her myspace page. It would seem there is more to the issue here than just a picture of a woman drinking. All of you reactionaries who are declaring that puritanism is back, really need to research beyond the submitter's original submission. The aforementioned news story from the town this occurred in says this woman encouraged children to have personal contact with her outside of school. That's a no-no for any school district, and common sense for any teacher because of all the problems that can occur. This wasn't just about myspace, it was about maintaining a proper student-teacher relationship, something that will impact this woman's future in teaching.

Submission + - Wolfpack Stands Up to RIAA; NC State Says "No&

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Sunday April 15, 2007 @05:49PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The Technician Online at North Carolina State Unversity reports that its Director of Student Legal Services, Pam Gerace, has advised students to remain anonymous, and has indicated her office's willingness to challenge the RIAA's subpoenas. What is more, the newspaper urges students to take Ms. Gerace up on her offer. The fighting spirit of Jimmy Valvano lives on."

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