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Comment Re:[Apple II? Gaming platform?] What about Amiga? (Score 1) 310

by phillct (#22259740) Attached to: The History of the Apple II as a Gaming Platform
You're correct, this did delve venture into the realm of Commodore. I do have quite a history and thus a not-so-objective point of view on the subject, but What about Amiga?

The Amiga 500 was made by Commodore, but was really quite revolutionary at the time. I would find a comparison of the Apple II (gs) and the Amiga as a gaming platform very interesting, because in many ways the Amiga was pigeonholed by gaming, when in fact it was a platform with extreme promise in a fuller spectrum of applications.

I miss the days when truly proprietary chip sets were available for personal and business computing. The computer industry as a whole suffered from the loss of the ability to really comparison shop between computer hardware. I think people have the illusion of options with the presence of Linux, Apple, and the various Windows OEM machines (like HP, Dell, Sony). In truth, the hardware comparisons are subtleties compared to walking into a computer shop and being able to look at an Atari [ST], an Apple, a Commodore 64 & 128, a Commodore Amiga (500 -- marketed as a gaming machine and the 1000/2000 -- a real full sized desktop), and an Apple Macintosh. There was a day when these were all on the shelves simultaneously.
Mozilla

Feedback Sought for Proposed Mobile Firefox UIs 28

Posted by Soulskill from the firefox-to-go dept.
jangel writes to give us a look at the prototype UIs for Mobile Firefox, which is currently under development. Mozilla project lead Doug Turner has asked for opinions on the design. Quoting: "Comments on the Wiki provide an idea of the choices the developers still have to make. For example, should the chevron at the right of the toolbar open a history page listing the most recently viewed pages, or -- as on desktop Firefox -- merely a list of most frequently typed URLs? And should "full screen" mode hide everything except the page being browsed, or retain the lowermost toolbar? Turner writes that while the user interfaces shown are merely starting points, 'going from the pretty pictures that Photoshop can produce to something that is functional is easy with the Mozilla platform. Building functional prototypes ... using only Javascript, XML, CSS, and images is really awesome.'"
The Internet

Egypt Calls for Bandwidth Rationing 182

Posted by Soulskill from the stay-away-from-youtube dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has called upon its citizens to ration their internet usage. This comes after two of its three undersea fiber optic links were recently severed. The cut cables have caused communication difficulties for millions of people throughout the Middle East. Ministry spokesman Mohammed Taymur was quoted as saying, 'People should know how to use the Internet because people who download music and films are going to affect businesses who have more important things to do.'"
Biotech

Carbon Nanotubes Can Exist Safely Inside the Body, Help Treat Cancer 86

Posted by Soulskill from the series-of-tubes dept.
iandoh writes "A team of scientists at Stanford University has tracked the movement of carbon nanotubes through the digestive systems of mice. They've determined that the nanotubes do not exhibit any toxicity in the mice, and are safely expelled after delivering their payload. As a result, the study paves the way toward future applications of nanotubes in the treatment of illnesses. Previous research by the same team demonstrated that nanotubes can be used to fight cancer. The nanotubes do this in two ways. One method involves shining laser light on the nanotubes, which generates heat to destroy cancer cells. Another method involves attaching medicine to the nanotubes, which are able to accurately 'find' cancerous cells without impacting healthy cells."
The Internet

Drop-Catching Domains Is Big Business 197

Posted by Soulskill from the losing-site-of-your-goals dept.
WebsiteMag brings us news from the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) about a recent study of drop catching —'a process whereby a domain that has expired is released into the pool of available names and is instantly re-registered by another party.' The eleven day study showed that 100% of '.com' and '.net' domain names were immediately registered after they had been released. CADNA has published the results with their own analysis. Quoting: "The results also show that 87% of Dot-COM drop-catchers use the domain names for pay-per-click (PPC) sites. They have no interest in these domain names other than leveraging them to post PPC ads and turn a profit. Interestingly, only 67% of Dot-ORG drop catchers use the domains they catch to post these sites — most likely because Dot-ORG names are harder to monetize due to the lack of type-in traffic and because they tend to be used for more legitimate purposes."
Security

Details of Cyber Storm War Games Released 96

Posted by Soulskill from the defending-against-gravitic-mines dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Apparently, the participants in the U.S. 'Cyber Storm' war games are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, because some of them tried to cheat by hacking the games themselves. They also prepare for some very interesting scenarios. Among other things, the organizers are worried about having too many people on the 'No Fly' list show up at an airport, finding 'mystery liquids' in the subway, and having bloggers reveal the classified location of railcars with hazardous materials. The Department of Homeland Security has already analyzed the results of the games, and plans to hold 'Cyber Storm 2' in March."
Science

A Torrid Tale of Plagiarizing Paleontologists 160

Posted by Zonk from the sexy-tales-of-science dept.
its hard to think of writes "There's an interesting story up at Nature News about scientific ethics. It seems that while one group of scientists is figuring out details about aetosaurs (ancient crocodiles), another group in New Mexico is repeatedly taking credit for their work and naming the new animals they 'discover'. It also looks like the state government, which has been asked to intervene, is trying to sidestep the issue. 'The New Mexico cultural-affairs department, which oversees the museum, conducted a review of two of the instances last October and concluded that the allegations were groundless. But some experts call that review a whitewash, claiming that it failed to follow accepted practices of US academic institutions faced with claims of misconduct. Now all three cases are before the Ethics Education Committee of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a professional organization based in Northbrook, Illinois, which is awaiting responses from the New Mexico team before making a ruling.' How widespread is this kind of thing?"
Communications

How Pervasive is ISP Outbound Email Filtering? 281

Posted by Zonk from the making-me-nervous dept.
Erris writes "A member of the Baton Rouge LUG noticed that Cox checks the text of outgoing email and rejects mail containing key phrases. I was aware of forced inbox filtering that has caused problems and been abused by other ISPs in China and in the US. I've also read about forced use of ISP SMTP and outbound throttling, but did not know they outbound filtered as well. How prevalent and justified is this practice? Wouldn't it be better to cut off people with infected computers than to censor the internet?"
Technology

The Next 25 Years in Tech 166

Posted by Zonk from the technosticating-the-future dept.
PCWMike writes "PCs may disappear from your desk by 2033. But with digital technology showing up everywhere else — including inside your body — computing will only get more personal, reports Dan Tynan for PC World's 25th Anniversary. While convenience will be increased by leaps and bounds, it will come at a profound loss in our sense of what privacy means. 'Technology will become firmly embedded in advanced devices that deliver information and entertainment to our homes and our hip pockets, in sensors that monitor our environment from within the walls and floors of our homes, and in chips that deliver medicine and augment reality inside our bodies. This shiny happy future world will come at a cost, though: Think security and privacy concerns. So let's hope that our jetpacks come with seat belts, because it's going to be a wild ride.'"
The Internet

Fixing US Broadband Would Cost $100 Billion 484

Posted by Zonk from the let's-get-started dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "According to a new report from EDUCASE (pdf), it would cost $100 billion to wire the US with fiber optics and keep our infrastructure from falling behind the rest of the world. Specifically, they recommend what has worked in many other countries — government investment and unbundling — which are often criticized by free market groups, even though those policies have resulted in faster, better connections for smaller total costs. Ars Technica mentions in their analysis of this report that the President will be releasing a report on US broadband today, too."
Networking

LAN Turns 30, May Not See 40? 279

Posted by Zonk from the getting-senile dept.
dratcw writes "The first commercial LAN was based on ARCnet technology and was installed some 30 years ago, according to a ComputerWorld article. Bob Metcalfe, one of the co-inventors of Ethernet, recalls the early battles between the different flavors of LAN and says some claims from the Token Ring backers such as IBM were lies. 'I know that sounds nasty, but for 10 years I had to put up with that crap from the IBM Token Ring people — you bet I'm bitter.' Besides dipping into networking nostalgia, the article also quotes an analyst who says the LAN may be nearing its demise and predicts that all machines will be individually connected to one huge WAN at gigabit speeds. Could the LAN actually be nearing the end of its lifecycle?"
Earth

China Vows to Stop the Rain 214

Posted by samzenpus from the way-ahead-of-the-germ-warfare-division dept.
Since the Olympic stadium doesn't have a roof, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has been given the task of making sure the games remain dry. According to Zhang Qian, head of weather manipulation (best title to have on a business card ever) at the bureau, they've had success with light rain but heavy rain remains tough to control. I see a hurricane cannon in some lucky country's future.
Classic Games (Games)

The History of the Apple II as a Gaming Platform 310

Posted by Zonk from the stage-of-history-for-oregon-trail dept.
Matt Barton writes "Gamasutra is running a feature on the venerable Apple II platform, which practically defined the early home computer industry and was home to many of the greatest games and developers of all time. The authors discuss the platform's lifespan and many iterations, struggles with illegal distribution, and legendary Apple II games such as Prince of Persia, John Madden Football, and Ultima. 'How big of a problem was piracy? Although several software authors claim that they stopped developing games because of rampant piracy and the subsequent loss of revenue, piracy did expose more computer owners to more games than they otherwise would have been -- this was at a time before ubiquitous demos made it easier to "try before you buy." Another benefit of this piracy is that much of the software archived today at online repositories are the cracked versions.'"
Idle

Don't Double Dip That Chip 2

Posted by samzenpus
A study by some Clemson University undergrads has shown that putting a food item in your mouth and then putting that item into a bowl of dip, causes that dip to have more bacteria than normal. Transfering 50-100 bacteria between mouths with every dip to be precise. Amazing. The results of their, "running downstairs with scissors in your mouth" study have been inconclusive.

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