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Sony

PSP Oculus Rift Emulator Puts Players Inside of Virtual Reality PSP Games (roadtovr.com) 18

Posted by samzenpus from the getting-into-the-game dept.
An anonymous reader writes: PPSSPP VR is an emulator that specifically adapts PSP games for use in the Oculus Rift VR headset. Going beyond merely showing a large screen view of the game in a virtual environment, PPSSPP actually puts you inside of the game with a full field of view, just like made-for-VR titles, including headtracking and true stereoscopic 3D. The emulator comes from the same author as Dolphin VR, the Wii & Gamecube emulator with VR support.
Privacy

Developer Draws Legal Threat For Exposing Indian Telco's Net Neutrality Violation 134

Posted by timothy from the pressure-from-abroad dept.
knightsirius writes: Indian broadband and cellular operator Airtel was discovered to be injecting third-party JavaScript files into web pages delivered over their wireless networks. A developer was viewing the source of his own blog and noticed the additional script when viewed on a Airtel connection. He traced the file back to Flash Networks, an Israel-based company, which specializes in "network monetization" and posted the source on GitHub. Since then, he has received a cease-and-desist from Flash Networks and the code on GitHub has been removed following a DMCA takedown notice.

Readers may remember Airtel from its previous dubious record with network neutrality.

Comment Re:Seconded. (Score 1) 350

by habib23 (#48381647) Attached to: Debunking a Viral Internet Post About Breastfeeding Racism

When I was a student, I took many surveys conducted on Mechanical Turk by any number of Ivy League universities. So in regards to your methodological objections, the one against conducting such surveys in that venue doesn't seem well founded.

  And yes, a completely unscientific facebook article, whose purpose is obviously merely to reinforce a narrative that the author's have already decided is true, is hardly worth debunking. Is this guy's "study" slightly more accurate than that? Well yes...but so what.
Crime

As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal 407

Posted by samzenpus from the looking-for-the-key dept.
HughPickens.com writes After rising rapidly for decades, the number of people behind bars peaked at 1.62 Million in 2009, has been mostly falling ever since down, and many justice experts believe the incarceration rate will continue on a downward trajectory for many years. New York, for example, saw an 8.8% decline in federal and state inmates, and California, saw a 20.6% drop. Now the WSJ reports on an awkward byproduct of the declining U.S. inmate population: empty or under-utilized prisons and jails that must be cared for but can't be easily sold or repurposed. New York state has closed 17 prisons and juvenile-justice facilities since 2011, following the rollback of the 1970s-era Rockefeller drug laws, which mandated lengthy sentences for low-level offenders. So far, the state has found buyers for 10 of them, at prices that range from less than $250,000 to about $8 million for a facility in Staten Island, often a fraction of what they cost to build. "There's a prisoner shortage," says Mike Arismendez, city manager for Littlefield, Texas, home of an empty five-building complex that sleeps 383 inmates and comes with a gym, maintenence shed, armory, and parking lot . "Everybody finds it hard to believe."

The incarceration rate is declining largely because crime has fallen significantly in the past generation. In addition, many states have relaxed harsh sentencing laws passed during the tough-on-crime 1980s and 1990s, and have backed rehabilitation programs, resulting in fewer low-level offenders being locked up. States from Michigan to New Jersey have changed parole processes, leading more prisoners to leave earlier. On a federal level, the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder has pushed to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Before 2010, the U.S. prison population increased every year for 30 years, from 307,276 in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 in 2009. "This is the beginning of the end of mass incarceration," says Natasha Frost. "People don't care so much about crime, and it's less of a political focus."

Comment Retail numbers create false tech diversity (Score 1) 561

by habib23 (#47661727) Attached to: Apple's Diversity Numbers: 70% Male, 55% White

These numbers likely include the retail employees at Apple stores. This is why Apple's diversity numbers are so much less skewed than any of the other tech companies, which are reporting based on a much different employee mixture (i.e. Engineers + Sales and Marketing, vs. Apples Engineers + Sales and Marketing + Retail store employees.. Much easier to pump up the numbers this way.

As to why publish a report saying, look at me, I'm so diverse (at least compared to Twitter, FB, et al.) I would think it's obvious. Risk management from "corrective" action by government, i.e. discrimination lawsuits, regulatory action, etc. Particularly when one's company is so tightly aligned with the democratic party .

Comment Re:Oh, My! (Score 2) 1160

by habib23 (#41658205) Attached to: Shut Up and Play Nice: How the Western World Is Limiting Free Speech

You can hate religion all you want, just not Islam..and that only because muslims are not responsible for their violent actions. It's like shouting fire in a crowded room, apparently muslims have no more control over themselves than a fire does over burning. This logic is f*cking crap, and it passes for PC here. Seriously, they can put crosses in jars of piss and the US Federal government *pays* for it, but some guy posts a video on youtube muslims don't like and suddenly someone needs to go to jail for hate crimes?

In Canada catholic priests are prevented from teaching catholic doctrine relating to homosexuals. But because they are not violent, they are suppressed. It is *only Islam* that gets this treatment. Keep it up and sooner or later things will only get much more violent, since that is what you are rewarding. Islam doesn't have to be a crazy violent religion, but lots of muslims are crazy violent people, from crazy violent places and we are telling them that if they riot and kill they will be rewarded. Think you'll see more of this?

Mod me down all you want, or you can grow a pair and mod me up, though I'm sure our editors in Ann Arbor will take me down regardless.

Comment I'll respect his opinion on this subject when (Score 1) 1223

by habib23 (#41473067) Attached to: Torvalds Uses Profanity To Lambaste Romney Remarks

He grows balls big enough to say that Islam is batsh*t crazy. Just as many good reasons to say this about Islam as there are about Mormonism. But he won't. No one will. Because then muslims will start killing people.

The NEA funded Andres Serrano and 'Piss Christ' (crucifixes in urine jars for those who don't remember) in 1987. Barely a murmur from the christians, and then it was only about why should we have to pay for this blashphemy. Some douche makes a youtube video about Islam and the pundit class (I'm looking at you MSNBC) talks about how he should be crucified.

  Seriously, I actually have no problem with *whatever* someone wants to believe, but hurt feelings do not justify violence. And fear definitely doesn't justify silencing people, however batsh*t crazy they are. Because your beliefs (or lack thereof) look just that way to someone else.

It's easy to talk smack about folks you know won't hit you. Takes some balls to say it about someone you are pretty sure will.

Grow a pair Linus.

Comment Where do I sign up? (Score 1) 370

by habib23 (#39924327) Attached to: Dealing With the Eventual Collapse of Social Networks

I'm sure companies everywhere will be eager to list somewhere where the law dictates that they must give up one third of their representation that should be determined by ownership, in their company, to consumers. And I'm sure shareholders will be oh so eager to buy shares where their representation is likewise diluted, in companies listed in countries with such regulations. But dream on shiny socialists!
Image

College To Save Money By Switching Email Font 306

Posted by samzenpus from the smallest-things dept.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has come up with an unusual way of saving money: changing their email font. The school expects to use 30% less ink by switching from Arial to Century Gothic. From the article: "Diane Blohowiak is the school's director of computing. She says the new font uses about 30 percent less ink than the previous one. That could add up to real savings, since the cost of printer ink works out to about $10,000 per gallon. Blohowiak says the decision is part of the school's five-year plan to go green. She tells Wisconsin Public Radio it's great that a change that's eco-friendly also saves money."
Input Devices

Is the Line-in Jack On the Verge of Extinction? 411

Posted by timothy from the erasing-the-analog-hole dept.
SlashD0tter writes "Many older sound cards were shipped with line-out, microphone-in, and a line-in jacks. For years I've used such a line-in jack on an old Windows 2000 dinosaur desktop that I bought in 2000 (600 Mhz PIII) to capture the stereo audio signal from an old Technics receiver. I've used this arrangement to recover the audio from a slew of old vinyl LPs and even a few cassettes using some simple audio manipulating software from a small shop in Australia. I've noticed only recently, unfortunately, that all of the four laptops I've bought since then have omitted a line-in jack, forcing me to continue keeping this old desktop on life support. I've looked around for USB sound cards that include a line-in jack, but I haven't been too impressed by the selection. Is the line-in jack doomed to extinction, possibly due to lobbying from vested interests, or are there better thinking-outside-the-box alternatives available?"

Comment April Fools (Score 1) 182

by habib23 (#1946578) Attached to: Thought Recognition
It was fair game on 4/1, and I suppose that since this is so obviously fake there is no harm done. My only question is when will they add a user preference for disabling BS articles?

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