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Comment Mood-ring iBook (Score 1) 251

by ricercar (#50680955) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Most Awesome Hardware Hack?

I had one of those old iBook laptops that had the white paint you could remove by soaking in alcohol, which left the case transparent. But the naked electronics were boring to look at. So I lined the case with some of that thermal sheeting that changes color when it gets hot. My iBook became a a mood ring, changing color depending on how hot the internals got.

Comment Intel needs NVIDIA patents usedin Centrino/CoreDuo (Score 1) 135

by ricercar (#34833120) Attached to: Intel To Pay NVIDIA Licensing Fees of $1.5 Billion

Consider: Intel traded NVIDIA a P4 FSB license for access to NVIDIA patents back in 2004. Begin Intel nForce era. What did Intel get? Posit: Intel implemented the NVIDIA patents in their CPUs and Intel now doesn't wish to stop using that patented technology or they'd have to revise the Centrino/Core Duo platform..

It's pretty safe to assume that Intel didn't want GPU-specific patents, since they haven't developed a miraculous high end GPU peerage, and their integrated GPUs are plodding along as ever. Intel wouldn't want something like NVIDIA networking or chipsets; Networking and chipsets are commodity products, not bargaining chips for a P4 FSB license that would eat into Intel's motherboard market share. The only thing left is Occam's Razor slicing patents into the Intel CPU. Intel can't afford to stop using CoreDuo, and return to P4, so Intel needed to placate NVIDIA into continuing licensing patents that are critical for the Intel CPU.
Games

MUDs Turn 30 Years Old 238

Posted by Soulskill from the still-waiting-on-mod-10 dept.
Massively points out that today marks the 30th anniversary of the first Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) going live at Essex University in the UK. The game, referred to as MUD1, was created by Roy Trubshaw. Richard Bartle, a man who also worked on the game as a student at Essex, has a post discussing the milestone and talking about how MUDs relate to modern MMOs. What MUDs did you play?
Games

Former Gamers Want More Social Games 114

Posted by Soulskill from the world-of-facebookcraft dept.
Gamasutra is running a series of studies on what people from certain demographics want from games. Their most recent article takes a look at former gamers, from the age of 25 to 35, and how they view their old hobby. Many seem to have replaced games with social networking during their non-productive time, and they also tend to favor games they can play with friends in the same room, rather than anonymous online interaction. Previous parts of the study focused on family gamers and older gamers. "We had some of our test consoles rigged up to an internet connection to see how these Missing Gamers would respond to online play. But whilst they were initially impressed at the ability to play with other people all over the world, they soon picked up on the fact that many of the people they were playing with were either too good, or too immature to endure for any length of time. It wasn't long before the online games were abandoned in favor of the simpler split-screen local multiplayer offerings. The ability to nudge, rib, and cajole each other on the sofa (not to mention share snacks and drinks) was simply too much fun to resist."

New Solar Cell Sets World Efficiency Record 299

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hot-tech dept.
asoduk writes to tell us that a new world record has been set for the most efficient photovoltaic device. Topping the scale at 40.8% efficiency, the new solar cell differs significantly from the previous record holder. "Instead of using a germanium wafer as the bottom junction of the device, the new design uses compositions of gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide to split the solar spectrum into three equal parts that are absorbed by each of the cell's three junctions for higher potential efficiencies. This is accomplished by growing the solar cell on a gallium arsenide wafer, flipping it over, then removing the wafer. The resulting device is extremely thin and light and represents a new class of solar cells with advantages in performance, design, operation and cost."

Nero Unveils LiquidTV, TiVo For Your Computer 156

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the easier-to-take-your-tv-with-you dept.
bigwophh writes to mention HotHardware is reporting that Nero has decided to try a new step forward for home theater PCs by bringing the TiVo service to your computer. The new LiquidTV / TiVo PC package includes a (USB-based) high definition ATSC digital/analog TV tuner, antenna, remote control, IR blaster, Nero's LiquidTV software, and a 12-month subscription to the TiVo service for around $200. You can cut that in half if you already have a compatible TV tuner. This is the first time that TiVo has licensed their intuitive interface for a PC package. In addition to the TiVo interface, the rest of the LiquidTV software package allows you to burn your TV recordings to DVD or transfer the videos to other computers, iPods, PSP, or "other mobile devices." This service is due to launch next month.
Classic Games (Games)

PC Historian Finds Puzzling Game Diskette Image 232

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the golden-age-of-programming dept.
This past weekend, Trixter — a self-proclaimed IBM PC historian — picked up some old software for his archive. What he didn't count on was a couple of additional Avantage titles that had never been released into the wild. If this weren't enough of a find, one of these titles provided Trixter with an interesting puzzle: the diskette for Mental Blocks is apparently hand-formatted to work on both C64 and IBM (on a single side, not the "flippy disks" of old). Quite an interesting little piece of history.
Programming

Working Effectively with Legacy Code 208

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Merlin42 writes "I recently took a Test-Driven-Development (TDD) training course and the teacher recommended that I read "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" by Michael Feathers. First things first, a note about the title. Feathers defines "Legacy Code" a bit different than you may expect, especially if you are not into the XP/Agile/TDD world. I have heard (and used) a number of definitions for "legacy code" over the years. Most of these definitions have to do with code that is old, inherited, difficult to maintain, or interfaces with other 'legacy' hardware/software. Feathers' definition is 'code without tests.' For those not into TDD this may seem odd, but in the TDD world, tests are what make code easy to maintain. When good unit tests are in place, then code can be changed at will and the tests will tell automatically you if you broke anything." Read on for the rest of Kevin's review.
Security

Council Sells Security Hole On Ebay 147

Posted by CmdrTaco from the only-as-good-as-your-weakest-link dept.
Barence writes "A security expert was stunned to discover a VPN device he'd bought on Ebay automatically connected to a local council's confidential servers. Bought for just 99p for use at work, when plugged in it automatically connected with the login details which had been carelessly left on the device. 'The whole selling point of the device was that it was extremely easy to configure. It's pretty horrific really,' says the intrusion-detection professional. The council says it is 'deeply concerned' by the news, but is confident that 'multiple layers of security have prevented access to systems and data.'"
Patents

IBM Wants Patent On Finding Areas Lacking Patents 151

Posted by CmdrTaco from the all-for-me-none-for-you dept.
theodp writes "It sounds like a goof — especially coming from a company that pledged to raise the bar on patent quality — but the USPTO last week disclosed that IBM is seeking a patent for Methodologies and Analytics Tools for Identifying White Space Opportunities in a Given Industry, which Big Blue explains allows one 'to maximize the value of its IP by investigating and identifying areas of relevant patent 'white space' in an industry, where white space is a term generally used to designate one or more technical fields in which little or no IP may exist,' and filling those voids with the creation of additional IP."
Portables (Games)

New Nintendo DS to Include Camera, Music 261

Posted by CmdrTaco from the and-it-fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand dept.
BobB-nw writes "Watch out Apple, here comes Nintendo. Nintendo plans to launch a new version of its popular DS portable gaming device with a camera and music player function, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily. The new version will have better wireless capability for connecting to the Internet and will cost under $189, the report said. It will be offered first in Japan, it said. The DS first went on sale in 2004, and a second version, called the DS Lite, debuted two years later in 2006. Both have sold extremely well, with worldwide sales of the DS products at 77.5 million units as of the end of June this year."
Entertainment

Achewood Creator on NPR 104

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-listen-to dept.
On my drive in to the office today, I heard an interview with a comic creator. Since I started the car mid-interview, it took me just a few moments to figure out who it was: Chris Onstad from Achewood (NSFW some days. Possibly including today, depending on your W). He's plugging his book The Great Outdoor Fight. Since his comic is one of the favorites here, I thought you all might enjoy hearing the interview. Today's comic is especially amusing given that it will likely be read by a great number of those NPR types unfamiliar with the strip.
Programming

Becoming a Famous Programmer 347

Posted by CmdrTaco from the lemme-tell-you-about-1=1 dept.
An anonymous reader writes "GrokCode analyzes more than 200 famous programmers to determine what types of projects made them famous. Inventing a programming language, game, or OS ranked among the top projects likely to lead to fame. Most programmers became famous through their work on only one project. The article also shows that among famous programmers, the ratio of males to females is much larger than among normal programmers."
Microsoft

Microsoft and Nokia Adopt OSS JQuery Framework 126

Posted by timothy from the ms-could-become-the-largest-open-source-vendor dept.
soliptic writes "The jQuery blog today announced that 'Both Microsoft and Nokia are taking the major step of adopting jQuery as part of their official application development platform.' So the open-source javascript framework will be shipped with Visual Studio and ASP.NET MVC. Microsoft's Scott Hanselman notes: 'It's Open Source, and we'll use it and ship it via its MIT license, unchanged. If there's changes we want, we'll submit a patch just like anyone else.'" There's also a story at eWeek about the decision.
OS X

OS X On the MSI Wind 219

Posted by timothy from the os-x-doesn't-make-it-a-mac dept.
Ruler of Planets writes "PlanetX64 has just published an article on loading OS X on an MSI Wind, effectively creating a machine that is smaller and lighter than a Macbook Air. The exercise was done solely for academic purposes and doing so voids all kinds of warranties, but hey, now you can slip a Mac into a lab coat pocket!"

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