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Comment Re:What about Trump? (Score 1) 184

He should get credit for Operation Warp Speed which did help accomplish the goal of getting the vaccines developed and through trials very quickly.

He keeps trying to take his justly deserved credit for it but his supporters just boo him when he talks about it.

This is the politicization of excellent science. Leave the orange orangutan out of this and let's think of the science.

Comment Re: Java is already dead. (Score 1) 80

Why does your CIO need a support package for a friggin language? We use gcc at my place. Do you think we get onto the hotline to Gnu HQ everytime we have a core dump??

JRE isn't just something that runs only on the server. When a serious bug comes around that cripples every workstation, your CIO won't give a flying fuck about "open" support at 3AM. They just want to know what the fuck you're ACTUALLY doing about the problem other than waiting on someone to clean the Cheeto dust from their fingers to fix a massive impact to business operations and revenue that will result in your boss being eventually fired.

One would think you're more interested in self-preservation. You wanna waive that unsupported "open" flag around? Do it at home, not at work.

Using tough language without specific cases is hardly "edgy". It sounds like inexperience to me. If Java was that bad, no companies, banks, etc would use it. OpenJDK is a thing with multiple stewards (including IBM, God help us).

Google

Google Releases Street View Images From Fukushima Ghost Town 63

mdsolar writes in with news that Goolge has released Street View pictures from inside the zone that was evacuated after the Fukushima disaster. "Google Inc. (GOOG) today released images taken by its Street View service from the town of Namie, Japan, inside the zone that was evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. Google, operator of the world's biggest Web search engine, entered Namie this month at the invitation of the town's mayor, Tamotsu Baba, and produced the 360-degree imagery for the Google Maps and Google Earth services, it said in an e-mailed statement. All of Namie's 21,000 residents were forced to flee after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the town, causing the world's worst nuclear accident after Chernobyl. Baba asked Mountain View, California-based Google to map the town to create a permanent record of its state two years after the evacuation, he said in a Google blog post."

Comment Re:Does that mean (Score 3, Informative) 141

I have lived in Africa my whole life and that CIA plot thing is old. It's now a "plot by multi-national pharmaceutical companies". At least, it was during Thabo Mbeki's tenure as South African president (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_denialism#In_South_Africa). AIDS awareness is alive and well here.
The Internet

The Age of Steam 159

Ant writes "Edge Online has a six-page article titled "The Age of Steam" about Steam's history that begins: 'The name could hardly be more appropriate. Just as railroads swept the US, leaving in their wake a west that was significantly less wild, so has Valve's Steam client spread across the PC, centralising, simplifying and consolidating. What started as a way of administering updates has become a delivery platform so powerful that it has threatened to render even the big publishers' alternatives obsolete, an online community so well-supported that it sets standards even for those found on consoles, and a no-fiddling environment that allows your games, settings and saves to follow you from one PC to the next every time you log in. Looking back, such success seems inevitable, but in reality Steam was far from an obvious idea. Creator Valve was a developer, not a publisher or distributor, and the service's opening months were marred by bottlenecks and a frustrating online registration experiment. More interesting than the triumph, then, is the journey: what has made Steam such a powerful platform? Which forces shape its evolution? And how can it rewire not just the PC market, but the way that games themselves are developed?'"
The Military

H.A.W.X. Brings New Perspective To Tom Clancy Series 27

This week saw the addition of aerial combat game H.A.W.X. to the Tom Clancy franchise by Ubisoft. Shane Bierwith, brand manager of the project, sat down with Student Life to discuss the game and some of their developmental decisions. "... we have four-person jump-in/jump-out co-op, which is a first for the air combat category. As far as competitive multiplayer is concerned, we have eight-person Team Deathmatch. It's a really fresh take on multiplayer in-air combat. As you level up and get kills in succession, you'll have access to support units, which range from electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) — you'll shock the other planes out of the sky — to altitude limits." Eurogamer's evaluation of the game calls it fun, but also "a victim of the high standards set by the other titles in the Clancy franchise." IGN says it's "very close to being a great game," but criticizes the combat and the mission design.
Technology

New Nanotech Fabric Never Gets Wet 231

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on a simple coating for polyester that renders it unwettable — even after two months underwater it emerges dry to the touch. Water cannot attach to the new fabric thanks to nanostructured filaments and a structure that traps a constant air layer. One potential use is for low-drag swim wear."

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