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PC Games (Games)

Putting Up With Consolitis 369

Posted by Soulskill from the my-keyboard-doesn't-have-a-trigger dept.
An anonymous reader tips an article about 'consolitis,' the term given to game design decisions made for the console that spill over and negatively impact the PC versions of video games. "Perhaps the most obvious indicator of consolitis, a poor control scheme can single-handedly ruin the PC version of a game and should become apparent after a short time spent playing. Generally this has to do with auto-aim in a shooter or not being able to navigate menus with the mouse. Also, not enough hotkeys in an RPG — that one’s really annoying. ... Possibly the most disastrous outcome of an industry-wide shift to console-oriented development is that technological innovation will be greatly slowed. Though a $500+ video card is considered top of the line, a $250 one will now play pretty much any game at the highest settings with no problem. (Maybe that’s what everyone wanted?) Pretty soon, however, graphics chip makers won’t be able to sustain their rate of growth because the software is so far behind, which will be bad for gamers on consoles as well as PC."
Media

US To Host World Press Freedom Day 614

Posted by samzenpus from the enjoy-the-freedom dept.
rekrowyalp writes "From the press release: 'The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals' right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.' Oh the irony."

Comment Re:Python for Scientific use (Score 1) 119

by markovg (#32185360) Attached to: Matplotlib For Python Developers

I've heard quite a few people here on Slashdot talk about how useful Python is as a substitute for MATLAB. Honestly, I don't get it.

MATLAB is a great product, and what it does it does well. But sooner or later you grow out of it, depending on how far you need to push it, and how much previous experience you have with real programming languages. When that day comes, Python is there waiting, and its can be sooo refreshing.

Comment devil's advocate (Score 1) 840

by markovg (#31996278) Attached to: Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency

Well someone needs to play devil's advocate on this assumption that all transparency is a-priori good.

For all we now, this onslaught of open meetings, financial disclosure statements, freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audits might well lead to "multiple forms of degradation and humiliation", god forbid of fraudsters and the like.

So thanks to the Pope, for playing devil's advocate.
The Internet

Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency 840

Posted by kdawson from the lots-to-be-opaque-about dept.
tcd004 writes "At a conference on digital media at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the idea of transparency in the Internet age, warning that digital transparency exacerbates tensions between nations and within nations themselves and increases the 'dangers of ... intellectual and moral relativism,' which can lead to 'multiple forms of degradation and humiliation' of the essence of a person, and to the 'pollution of the spirit.' All in all, it seemed a pretty grim view of the wide-open communication environment being demanded by the Internet age."

Comment Re:iPhone vs Desire comparison (Score 4, Informative) 544

by markovg (#31983336) Attached to: Review of HTC Desire As Alternative To iPhone

My wife was getting jealous of my iphone 3gs (had it for 6 months), so I decided to give it to her and I picked up an HTC Desire (have it for a few weeks now). It was almost half the price of an iphone in switzerland (580CHF vs 1000 CHF), and while I expected it to play better with Linux, it turns out to be waaay better in all respects (except app store sheer size, most apps I need are there tho). By comparison, the iphone sucks, really. I'm really happy I switched. ... battery life seemed initially a little worse than 3gs, but I found the "power managment widget" and now its still fully charged after a day on my desk, reading slashdot and email sync. Now I would say the 3gs has worse battery life.

I like sooo many things compared to iphone 3gs:
- email client, vip list is great, search of "other" mails on server (iphone just does locally loaded if I recall),
- sync to gmail calendar great for linux users ... iphone I was stuck with an on phone calendar.
    - this alone will make me more productive than iphone.
- plays ogg and make ringtones with a push of button in media player.
- appears as disk for linux users to add music, etc. Not bound to itunes.
- optical trackball seemed superfluous to me at first, but it turns out to be great for text editing
- apps from third-party sites like andriodpit.com, with easy install by barcode scanning QR code on monitor! No unlock necessary.
- contact management compared to iphone is more felxible, for ex: an ActiveSync and Exchange server in parallel with gmail.
    i.e. linking contacts together from different sources into one person. Very smart.
- I like that u can set schedule for push support, so I don't get pushed spam waking my up at 1am
- General htc sense software stack very mature and much more feature rich ... +1 for over iphone.
- processor is easily as fast as iphone 3gs.
- can swap battery on the road to extend battery life.
- I like the extra keys like "search", "menu" but especially "back" ... make for much quicker navigation than iphone "one button" madness.

Waiting SBB (swiss train service) online e-ticket app. Though an app FahrplanCH gets basic schedule functionality I need. The rest I can do in the browser.

Skype seems to be not available yet, but nimmbuzz seems to be workaround, or one of many SIP clients: use case phoning home on wlan when I'm abroad.

So I'm happy to say good riddance to my iphone 3gs. As a Linux user who wants features and options, I'm much happier with my HTC Desire than my iphone 3gs.
Science

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

Posted by Soulskill from the four-out-of-five-ain't-bad dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"
Image

Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140

Posted by samzenpus from the a-jetwing-and-a-prayer dept.
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."
Programming

Ask Sam Ramji About the CodePlex Foundation 77

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the life-after-microsoft dept.
This week the Codeplex Foundation announced its first project, the ASP.NET Ajax Library Project, as part of its first sponsored gallery, the ASP.NET Gallery. The CodePlex Foundation is now two months old, and Foundation President Sam Ramji has agreed to answer questions about the Foundation, its first project, and overall progress to date. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply.
Hardware

ARM Attacks Intel's Netbook Stranglehold 521

Posted by Soulskill from the there-can-be-only-several dept.
Barence writes "British chip designer ARM is launching an outright attack on Intel with the launch of a 2GHz processor aimed at everything from netbooks to servers. ARM claims the 40nm Cortex A9 MPCore processor represents a shift in strategy for the company, which has until now concentrated on low-power processors for mobile devices. In the consumer market, ARM is pitching the Cortex A9 directly against Intel's Atom, claiming the processor offers five times the power while drawing comparable amounts of energy. 'It's head and shoulders above anything Intel can deliver today,' ARM VP of marketing Eric Schom claims. However, it has one major hurdle to overcome: it doesn't support Windows. 'We've had conversations with Microsoft and you can imagine what they entail,' says Schom."
Government

Could Fake Phishing Emails Help Fight Spam? 296

Posted by Soulskill from the hello-sir-madam dept.
Glyn Moody writes "Apparently, the US Department of Justice has been sending out hoax emails to test the security awareness of its staff. How about applying a similar strategy to tackling spam among ordinary users? If fake spam messages offering all the usual benefits, and employing all the usual tricks, were sent out by national security agencies around the world, it would select precisely the people who tend to respond to spam. The agencies could then contact them from a suitably important-looking government address, warning about what could have happened. Some might become more cautious as a result, others will not. But again, it is precisely the latter who are more likely to respond to further fake spam messages in the future, allowing the process to be repeated as often as necessary. The system would be cheap to run — spam is very efficient — and could use the latest spam as templates."
Space

New Universes Will be Born from Ours 440

Posted by Zonk from the crisis-on-infinite-earths dept.
David Shiga writes "What gruesome fate awaits our universe? Some physicists have argued that it is doomed to be ripped apart by runaway dark energy, while others think it is bouncing through an endless series of big bangs and big crunches. Now, scientists have combined these two ideas to create another option, in which our universe ultimately shatters into billions of pieces. Each shard would then subsequently grow into a whole new universe. The model could solve the mystery of why our early universe was surprisingly well ordered."

Comment Re:Not too long... (Score 1) 405

by markovg (#16923584) Attached to: Archiving Digital Data an Unsolved Problem

"as long as there is a continuous line of people that care, they will be willing to transfer at least the more important stuff to new media..."

Enter P2P. The most robust distributed archive on the planet... if the file is worth preserving. But I find it amazing sometimes what these "data collectors" are personally willing to shell out for drive space for files/media of questionable merit.

So let me rephrase that: The most robust distributed archive on the planet... of South Park, the Evil Dead Film Series, and Conspiracy Theory Movies

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