iggychaos - Slashdot User

Submission + - Why We'll Never Meet Aliens (blogspot.com)

Submitted by iggychaos on Friday April 26, 2013 @01:10PM

iggychaos writes: The idea that aliens will come visit us is fundamentally flawed. Paul Tyma ponders the technology that would be required for such an event and examines how evolution of that technology would preclude any reason to actually make the trip.

Submission + - Review: Google Compute Engine (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Wednesday August 22, 2012 @01:24PM

snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner takes an in-depth look at Google Compute Engine, the search giant's response to Amazon Web Services and Rackspace. 'If you want to build your own collection of Linux boxes, Google Compute Engine offers a nice, generic way to buy servers at what — depending on the size of compute instance you need — can be a great price. The most attractive feature will probably be the proximity to the other parts of the Google infrastructure,' Wayner writes, adding that Google Compute Engine is just one part of the Google APIs portal, a grand collection of 46 services. 'I suspect many developers will be most interested in using Google Compute Engine when they want to poll these Google databases fairly often. While I don't think you're guaranteed to be in the same zone as the service you want, you're still closer than when traveling across the generic Web.'"

Submission + - The Rebirth of PC Gaming? Bring on the Modders! (techgage.com)

Submitted by

Deathspawner

on Wednesday August 22, 2012 @01:16PM

Deathspawner writes: "The future of PC gaming is oft-debated, but one thing's for certain: modding has always made it better. With that, wouldn't it make sense for developers to focus more on giving the community the modding tools it needs? Further, couldn't publishers look to modding as a way to increase revenue, by allowing modders to sell their sanctioned creations? Valve already offers robust community options in its Steam platform — and already has payment processing in place. Is this the natural next step for PC gaming?"

Submission + - PC has a Piracy Rate of 93-95%, says Ubisoft (gamesindustry.biz) 1

Submitted by silentbrad on Wednesday August 22, 2012 @11:02AM

silentbrad writes: From GamesIndustry International: "Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has told GamesIndustry International that the percentage of paying players is the same for free to play as it is for PC boxed product: around five to seven per cent. ... 'On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.' ... 'We must be careful because the consoles are coming. People are saying that the traditional market is declining and that F2P is everything — I'm not saying that. We're waiting for the new consoles — I think that the new consoles will give a huge boost to the industry, just like they do every time that they come. This time, they took too long so the market is waiting.'

Submission + - What would your first 24 hours of a "I've got to disappear" plan look like? 1

Submitted by

diacritica

on Wednesday August 22, 2012 @10:14AM

diacritica writes: "This Ask Slashdot is inspired by à-la-Bourne movies but taking a more realistic approach to the world we live in. You are native to and live in a big city (> 1M pop) in a G8 country of your choosing. T = 0h, you accidentally witness a strange event. T = 1h, you realize you're being followed AND you get the feeling that the police/government might be involved. Context data: you are able to speak one language apart from good English. You are 25 to 45 years old. You are computer savvy. You are engaged/married, you have family living in the same city. 99% of your money is in a bank account. You prefer to go "rationally" paranoid. What would you do in order to feel safe after those 24h? Remember, you didn't commit a crime, but there are plenty of real-world resources invested in catching you."

Submission + - How Mailinator compresses its email stream by 90% (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 21, 2012 @12:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: Creator of Mailinator, Paul Tyma, writes about a greedy algorithm to analyze the huge amount of email Mailinator receives and finds ways to reduce its memory footprint by 90%.

Submission + - Whitehat Hacker's Laptop, Cellphones Seized (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1 on Friday November 19, 2010 @01:14PM

Orome1 writes: The well-known whitehat hacker and security researcher that goes by the handle Moxie Marlinspike has recently experienced firsthand the electronical device search that travelers are sometimes submitted to by border agents when entering the country. He was returning from the Dominican Republic by plane, and when he landed at JFK airport, he was greeted by two U.S. Customs officials and taken to a detention room where they kept him for almost five hours, took his laptop and two cell phones and asked for the passwords needed to access the encrypted material on them.

Submission + - Why have tablets never taken off in business? (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 19, 2010 @11:33AM

An anonymous reader writes: On PC World's blog, Keir Thomas suggests reasons why tablets have never taken off in business, and explains how Apple's iPad was able to waltz in and steal the entire market. It's all about giving users freedom to figure out how useful tablets can be, he says, rather than forcing them into narrow usage scenarios: "There's a lot to be said for having faith in users to make best use of their computer, without pushing and pulling them in ways you think are best for them." Some of the reader comments provide interesting perspectives too.

Comment This seems simple... (Score 1) 642

by iggychaos on Wednesday May 12, 2004 @11:58AM (#9127425) Attached to: Tocqueville Blames U.S. IT Troubles On Free Software

If you can get something for free (that meets your needs) you take it. If you can't, you make it or buy it. If cars became free, the car companies as we know them would disappear. People getting paid to do something keeps them motivated (much like the reason you complain about work but still go each day). People not getting paid are altruists. I like this view: Why does Open Source Software exist?

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