slimgems - Slashdot User

How PC Game Modders Are Evolving 98

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday May 18, 2010 @10:20PM from the longer-beaks-for-breaking-shells dept.

Lanxon writes "Wired has a lengthy investigation into the state of PC game mods, and the amateurs keeping the scene exciting in the wake of draconian DRM placed on many PC titles by major studios. It highlights a number of creative modders, such as Scott Reismanis, founder and editor of Mod DB, and his community-driven alternative to Valve's Steam — Desura — which is 'a distribution system, and, like Steam, will sell games and champion indie titles. But the way it handles mods makes it even more exciting.'"

GUI-Based Asset-Tracking Tools For a Datacenter? 113

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 22, 2010 @04:26PM from the your-gigantic-whiteboard dept.

toruonu writes "How do you keep track of what's in your datacenter, where it is, what it's connected to and what is it doing right now? I mean I have built a datacenter from scratch over the years and I have machines from Sun, IBM, HP, Supermicro. I have machines that are simple workernodes and machines that are heavy grade storage consolidation machines. Then there are tens of switches, some for interconnect, some for management and don't get me started on the UPSs etc. So how does one keep any kind of decent track of such a system as the current form of twiki pages with various tables just doesn't cut it anymore and I'm looking for a freeware solution that could actually show me a visual representation of the various nodes in the racks, their connections and dependencies. Just to give a simple example, if I'm going to disconnect UPS #3 right now and swap switch #5, which machines should I even consider taking offline?" (The best-looking such system I've seen was being used at OSCON at a display booth for the Open Source Lab, and I think it was home-grown. Anyone who can shed light on that system?)

Submission + - "2012" a Miscalculation; actual calendar ends 2220 (natutech.nl) 2

Submitted by

boombaard

on Monday October 26, 2009 @09:02AM

boombaard writes: "News is spreading quickly here that scientists writing in a (Dutch) popular science periodical (google translation linked) have debunked the 2012 date featuring so prominently in doomsday predictions/speculation across the web. On 2012-12-21, the sun will appear where you would normally be able to see the 'galactic equator' of the Milky Way; an occurrence deemed special because it happens 'only' once every 25.800 years, on the winter solstice. However, even if you ignore the fact that there is no actual galactic equator, just an observed one, and that the visual effect is pretty much the same for an entire decade surrounding that date, there are major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets.

Because written records were almost all destroyed by 16th-century Spaniards, quite a lot of guesswork surrounds the translation of their calendar to ours, and it appears something went very wrong with the calculations. The Mayas used 4 different calendars, all of different lengths, with the longest of which counting out ages of roughly 5200 years. Figuring out how these relate to 'our' calendars is a big problem, which scientists had thought they had figured out about a century ago. (That's where the 2012 date, which now turns out to be almost 2 centuries out of date, comes from.) However, A German geologist showed in 2005 (in his dissertation) that the proposed correlation to GMT didn't fit with a lot of Mayan-observed events that we know about, and calculated that a roughly 208 year correction was needed, meaning the soonest the Mayan Calendar can end is in 2220.
The final blow was arguably the thesis that nature scientist Andreas Fuls three years ago doctorate at the Technical University Berlin. Fuls pointed out that the GMT-correlation not consistent with a preserved Mayan table on which the positions of Venus are listed. And so there is more, such as inscriptions and objects in time of Goodman, Martinez and Thompson were not detected or outdated. By adding to it all, comes from a very different Fuls dating: one that 208 years has shifted. The end of the long count by the correlation is only about two centuries, at 21, 22 or December 23, 2220. "It is the only option," says Fuls if you ask him about it. (Google translation)

Until then, it would appear we are quite safe, except from Hollywood."

Submission + - SPAM: Superfast computing with light and sound

Submitted by PBH on Monday October 26, 2009 @06:48AM

PBH writes: Physicists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a nanoscale crystal that traps both light and sound.The interaction of light quanta (photons) and sound quanta (phomons) are so strong that they produce mechanical vibrations of tens of gigahertz frequencies. This level of energy will allow a multitude of light wave communication systems at speeds unheard of at present. Multiple applications are possible with present technology.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Attempts to Count Linux Users Remain Pointless (earthweb.com)

Submitted by anonymous reader on Monday July 09, 2007 @09:32AM

anonymous reader writes: A great deal of attention is paid to numbers, but rarely does one actually ask what these numbers mean. One problem that many people have been trying to tackle is gauging the extent of use of Free software, including Linux. Questionnaires are not a solution here and neither are statistics, which are usually derived from the wrong data. The following article looks at the various challenges at hand and concludes that the growth rate of Linux is likely to remain an enigma.

Yahoo Downgrades MusicMatch Jukebox 217

Posted by kdawson on Monday July 09, 2007 @08:11AM from the nice-while-it-lasted dept.

BanjoBob writes "MusicMatch Jukebox has been a bundle of great MP3 and music management applications in one package. Apparently, it is the end of life for this wonderful MP3 player, ripper, catalog, CD player, Internet radio player, purchase outlet, Auto DJ, Super Tagger, and music database. There was nothing not to like about the product. There is nothing to like about the new downgrade, Yahoo! Music Jukebox. MusicMatch users have been getting notices to 'upgrade'; those who have taken the bait are not pleased. The Yahoo! Music Jukebox feedback forum doesn't have much nice to say about the product. Lots of features have gone away and the 'free upgrade' costs about $20."

Study Says Kids Like 'M' Rated Games 102

Posted by Zonk on Monday July 09, 2007 @01:37AM from the toddlers-love-disembowelments-who-knew dept.

Ars Technica's science blog, Nobel Intent, has a post up on a study done by the Journal of Adolescent Health. The report attempted to gauge usage levels of violent videogames among young people in the US. The results are unsurprising to anyone who's ever worked in a second-hand game store: "Most boys, and many girls, played games that the ESRB had rated M, signifying that they were for mature audiences only. Of the games played by the boys, Grand Theft Auto and Halo were both in the top three, and GTA was also the 2nd most played game by girls, according to the data. Over half of all boys agreed with the statement 'I play electronic games because I like guns and weapons.' On the other hand, over 60 percent of boys and girls agreed with the statement 'I play electronic games because there's nothing else to do.'"

Submission + - Google Maps shows Chinese Nuclear Sub Prototype (fas.org)

Submitted by

mytrip

on Monday July 09, 2007 @12:01AM

mytrip writes: "An image of what could be one of China's new nuclear ballistic missile submarines is available on the Google Maps and Google Earth satellite-image site, a defense blogger claimed Tuesday. The satellite picture was discovered by Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, and announced Tuesday on his blog. Kristensen believes the picture, taken by the Quickbird satellite late last year, reveals China's new Jin-class, or Type 094, nuclear ballistic missile sub. The new sub class is approximately 35 feet longer than its predecessor, the Xia-class, also known as Type 092, according to two images Kristensen compares on the blog. The Jin-class sub has an extended midsection that houses 12 missile tubes and part of the reactor compartment, Kristensen explains."

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