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Social Networks

Meg Whitman Campaign Shows How Not To Use Twitter 147

tsamsoniw writes "California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's campaign team attempted to share with her Twitter followers an endorsement from a police association. Unfortunately, the campaign press secretary entered an incorrect or incomplete Bit.ly URL in the Tweet, which took clickers to a YouTube video featuring a bespectacled, long-haired Japanese man in a tutu and leggings rocking out on a bass guitar. And for whatever reason, the Tweet, which went out on the 18th, has remained active through today."
Earth

MIT Unveils Portable, Solar-Powered Water Desalination System 117

An anonymous reader writes "A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Field and Space Robotic Laboratory has designed a new solar-powered water desalination system to provide drinking water to disaster zones and disadvantaged parts of the planet. Desalination systems often require a lot of energy and a large infrastructure to support them, but MIT's compact system is able to cope due to its ingenious design. The system's photovoltaic panel is able to generate power for the pump, which in turn pushes undrinkable seawater through a permeable membrane. MIT's prototype can reportedly produce 80 gallons of drinking water per day, depending on weather conditions."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Duke Nukem 3D On Unreal Engine 3 118

Julefrokost writes "While we're waiting patiently on Forever, there's some real news in the Duke Nukem realm. Ars Technica has a story about a fan-made Duke 3D project on Unreal Engine 3. There's an awesome demo video up on YouTube. Created by hardcore fan Frederick 'fresch' Schreiber, we can hopefully expect to see an upgraded Duke 3D in the near future." The article also notes, "Gearbox ultimately decided to support the project, and gave Schreiber a personal, non-commercial license to Duke Nukem 3D. He can't sell the work or profit from it directly, but he can use the characters and design of the game without fear of being shut down."

Comment Why was this even allowed? (Score 4, Insightful) 87

I work in an office environment and even I couldn't get away with playing games on my phone, unless on my lunch break and away from my desk. Even on lunch at my desk a manager would comment if you played a game on your phone (or PC).

How on earth was it allowed that a security guard was allowed to do this in a prison of all places? One would think that there would be basic rules about conduct for the officers, considering how many there are for the inmates.

Comment Re:Too busy (Score 1) 173

I had a similar experience, but no run around. I called and complained about being charged and never getting my product and that I hadn't been able to get someone to call me back for a refund or to get said product (almost three months after original purchase date). My credit card company immediately refunded my cash and said that in 4-6 weeks I should call them back if I don't hear anything for a verdict.

I heard nothing, called and was told that the case was closed and that I keep the money. If it had been challenged, I might have lost the money, but since I received no product and had done much legwork and was polite, it was easy.

The key here is that you need to have as much information as possible and if the first person doesn't help, get their name, call back and get a polite representative that WILL help you and even mention the previous person not willing to help.

Dot your T's and cross your I's and all that gives results.

Comment Re:People who cheat should blame themselves, not F (Score 1) 494

This is entirely true to a point. But is not the only problem.

Some people may do something that seems innocent in their eyes, while to another it seems like cheating or flirting.

I know this from experience, from posting a bunch of random jokes on a few friends walls over photos and a couple of acquaintances pictures. My girlfriend was pissed and said I was flirting (I was not). I see her point of view AFTER the fact and from speaking with other male and female friends. Simply though, she may or may not have over reacted, but that's the way it is, since I know I wasn't flirting, but she did not know.

Interestingly enough, all the guys thought it was innocent and funny, all the girls thought it was a stupid comment.
Different interpretations between females and males will always result in trouble, be it on Facebook or in real life. We men just tend to do stupid things randomly and are wired somewhat differently. Facebook is worse for it though, as sadly the fingers type faster than the brain thinks.

As for those cheaters out there... You deserve what you get.

Comment Re:Again: The IT Uptime Lightweights (Score 2, Informative) 250

It's not a matter of I.T. guys not taking the proper steps.
It's a matter of price versus "what if". YOU try to convince a pointy haired boss to spend thousands and thousands of extra dollars on something that "may" happen.

It's often hard enough to convince higher ups to just upgrade old infrastructures that are maxed out on resources. Even if you have proof of issues or near failures. The ONLY time they will happily spend money on upgrades and making your infrastructure more robust is after there has been a critical failure and they actually see their bottom line being hurt and even then if you don't get the approval and dollars fast enough, you run the risk of "What are the chances THAT will happen again?"

More often than not, infrastructure is patches built on patches, one I.T. guy coming in trying to "correct" mistakes of his/her predecessor (who they then realize was working with an underwhelming budget), THEN realizing that it's such a mish mash of bubblegum and duct tape, that any serious fixes would require serious downtime with a complete overhaul. Otherwise you run the risk of the whole thing imploding like a blackhole.

How many I.T. guys seriously have the guts to walk up to their boss after being on the job for only a week and say, "I need 50k and you're network will be going up and down for two weeks as I rebuild and fix it all."

I tried it. I, however, had the ammunition that my company went from 3 people to 40 people in 18 months with another 20 predicted in the next 6 months and that the two box servers were maxed out AND that we were renovating a newly purchased building so we could plan everything from cabling, to telephony to security and future planning for 250+ people.

It also didn't hurt that my boss knows that I.T. is an investment when done right and NOT an expense. Even then with everything on my side it still took 3 months of planning, proving, mapping, designing and quoting from vendor after vendor before approval went through.

Comment Re:You aren't fighting if you are giving up (Score 1) 309

I agree completely here.
I purchased Mass Effect 1 when it came out, as it was a new generation of RPG/FPS in the science fiction genre I love so much and wanted to support (plus great reviews).

I then spent approximately TWO WEEKS fighting the bugs and DRM in the asinine problems that were happening. At the same time I happened to be having internet issues that occasionally wouldn't even let me load. NOT a good combination for happy gaming. I eventually got fed up with the support saying that "cracked games are why your version isn't working". Bullsh1t. Bigtime.

I promptly went and downloaded said cracked version and ran that FLAWLESSLY on my machine.
Now that Mass Effect 2 is out, I refuse to buy it. EVER. DRM is a black hole of evilness I refuse to get sucked in to. I may download a version of Mass Effect 2 to see how it looks and plays, but I won't play through the whole thing, as I know significant work was put into it. The only time I will buy it, IF I buy it, will be when it's DRM free and patched many times to the damned thing just works THIS time.

Comment So what you're saying is.... (Score 1, Insightful) 291

What they're saying is that the people that use p2p are expected to wait until 3 in the morning to get a decent connection. I don't think so.

If I pay for a 5Mb/s connection with unlimited downloads, I should be able to GET 5Mb/s no matter what I do at what time. If I want to be a leech for 24/7. Hey, that's what I paid for. For example some days you'll open up a p2p connection to download some new video you heard about when you get home from work, as it's unlikely you'll be able to use my machine off peak hours (Sorry! Work, family and sleep get in the way of off peak times). That download SHOULD take 1 hour and without being slowed down to 5-6 hours.

I expect to get what I pay for at all times. Peak hours are called that because it's when MOST people are awake and home and actually have free to to use their connection. Off peak hours are for vampires and grue's.

If I pay for a 10Mb/s connection with a cap of 100GB usage, that's what I should get. If I want more, I pay more. But I should GET what I pay for. Here's another car analogy.

I'm not buying a corvette to find the engine acts like a pinto during certain hours.
I'm paying for a specific speed. It should be my choice if I want 100GB (1/2 tank gas) or 200GB (Full tank). If I want a faster speed with a lower or higher cap, let those that use, pay, but GIVE them what they pay for.

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