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Comment strategic anti-consumerism (Score 1) 134

I will not buy any game from any developer with this restriction. Not just because it is greedy, anti-consumer and shows contempt for customers but for practical reasons. They've devalued the games to the point where I can't play them. I usually don't even play a lot of multi-player but my son does. I have a strategy that has worked for some time. Buy the game on Amazon for $40 - often games that sell at Gamestop for $60 can be had on Amazon for $40. Play the game until we are sick of it (usually not that long) then put it back on Amazon for $20. All told the experience cost me $20 and some of my time. In a lot of ways this reminds me of the tactics employed by Netflix recently. It will have the intended side effect of destroying physical media sales while promoting online distribution. Businesses have decided that all you have to do is piss off the consumer, force them into a position where they won't pay such a crazy price and then give them the alternative you wanted them to choose all along at a better price. Over time you control the distribution and completely end secondary markets.
Image

Genetic Disorder Removes Racial Bias and Social Fear 319

People who suffer from a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome have a complete lack of social fear. They experience no anxiety or concerns about meeting new people or being put into any social situation, and a new study by Andreia Santos suggests that they also don't have any racial bias. From the article: "Typically, children start overtly gravitating towards their own ethnic groups from the tender age of three. Groups of people from all over the globe and all sorts of cultures show these biases. Even autistic children, who can have severe difficulties with social relationships, show signs of racial stereotypes. But Santos says that the Williams syndrome kids are the first group of humans devoid of such racial bias, although, as we’ll see, not everyone agrees."

Comment Not a surprise (Score 1) 146

We've seen this coming for a long time. Ever since MS bought fast. We use an OEM packaged FAST with our Documentum content server. EMC is planning to move away from FAST to Lucene in the next version. Honestly, I say good riddance to FAST. FAST has been nothing but a headache but FAST on Windows, now that is a nightmare.
Science

Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
Google

Google Wave Preview Opens Up On Sept 30th 118

snitch writes with this snippet from InfoQ about the current state of Google Wave: "With the Google Wave Preview scheduled for public availability on September 30th, Wave API Tech Lead Douwe Osinga has posted on the Wave Google Group about what the team has been working on along with some future directions. Up until now, with the limited availability of testing accounts there have been complaints on the Google Group from users that wanted to get their hands on this new technology but didn't have access to the sandbox. As Douwe explains, the team has been busy all this time with stability issues and more."

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