Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
NASA

NASA Summoned To Fix Prius Problems 380

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tang-is-not-always-the-answer dept.
coondoggie writes "If you want to solve a major engineering mystery, why not bring in some of the world's best engineers? The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today said it was doing just that by bringing in NASA engineers with expertise in areas such as computer controlled electronic systems, electromagnetic interference, and software integrity to help tackle the issue of unintended vehicle acceleration in Toyotas. The NHTSA review of the electronic throttle control systems in Toyotas is to be completed by late summer." We're really in trouble when NASA has no choice but to call Bruce Willis.
Mozilla

Mozilla Rolls Out Firefox 3.6 RC, Nears Final 145

Posted by Soulskill from the onwards-and-upwards dept.
CWmike writes "Mozilla has shipped a release candidate build of Firefox 3.6 that, barring problems, will become the final, finished version of the upgrade. Firefox 3.6 RC1, which followed a run of betas that started in early November, features nearly 100 bug fixes from the fifth beta that Mozilla issued Dec. 17. The fixes resolved numerous crash bugs, including one that brought down the browser when it was steered to Yahoo's front page. Another fix removed a small amount of code owned by Microsoft from Firefox. The code was pointed out by a Mozilla contributor, and after digging, another developer found the original Microsoft license agreement. 'Amusingly enough, it's actually really permissive. Really the only part that's problematic is the agreement to "include the copyright notice ... on your product label and as a part of the sign-on message for your software product,"' wrote Kyle Huey on Mozilla's Bugzilla. Even so, others working on the bug said the code needed to be replaced with Mozilla's own."
NASA

Ex-Astronaut Developing Plasma Rocket To Revitalize NASA 277

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the buy-two-at-twice-the-price dept.
TechReviewAl writes "Former astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz believes that the private sector can revitalize NASA, and his company is developing a plasma rocket to back up that claim. Chang Diaz argues that private industry can be used to develop much of the basic technology needed for space exploration, allowing NASA to focus on more sophisticated and critical components. His company, Ad Astra, is developing a variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR) that will be used to reposition the International Space Station. Last week, the rocket passed an important milestone in testing — reaching 200 kilowatts (enough to move the ISS). A video of the rocket can be seen on Ad Astra's site."

Comment Dead Space Dead Controls (Score 1) 330

by dousk (#29107779) Attached to: The Problems With Porting Games

Well, they seem to mention Dead Space alot in the article and from personal experience I can tell you that this game has one of the shittiest control schemes i've seen in quite a bit. Every time you switch to target(aim) mode, the mouse sensitivity goes to bollocks which makes aiming really really hard and forces you to up the general sensitivity just to properly play the game.

I can see why reducing sensitivity in consoles while targetting makes it easier to chop off limbs from the baddies as intended but there was no reason whatsoever to keep this feature enabled on the mouse+keyboard setup.

The general feel of the controls was more horrifying than the game could ever be, you never felt in control of your character. And it doesn't have to be this way. There are no excuses. Gears of War PC has the same 3rd person view carried over to the PC, but the controls and camera work is near-perfect. My 2c anyway.

Slashdot Top Deals

Brain off-line, please wait.

Close